First bike, FZ1 too much?

I owned a 2001 FZ1 as my second bike, although I only had my 1st bike 4 months before I sold it (600 Katana). I really enjoyed my FZ1, for the two years I owned it. The bike was comfortable and I fit on it well (6'4"). My wife liked it because of the upright driving position and the comfy seat. I will throw out a counter point to everyone else. If you have self control I say go for it. Buying a small beater bike just to sell it in a year is kind of silly.

If you are concerned about the bike getting away from you drive it around in the wrong gear. A 600 in 1st will accelerate faster then the FZ1 in second etc. Once you get used to the bike and its power drive it in the correct gear. Granted the extra weight will be noticeable and the bike has a higher center of gravity then a smaller bike but depending on your physical size that may not be a bad thing. I am tall and fit well on the bike. If you are shorter it may not be the correct choice.

Good luck, and be careful. Most drivers are inattentive and are your biggest threat not the extra power and torque of a liter bike.

In reply to wheelsmithy:

250's are fun little buggers to bomb around on, but the lack of power is a liability on the highway.

ive always had the mindset that when it comes down to it you are the one in control of the bike, how you use it is up to you. I am a lot heavier on the thottle on my 82 kawi kz750 but it only had 50 hp, when i ride my roommates honda 919 i use much less thottle because it does what the kz750 could do in about half the effort.

some people daily drive 600+ hp cars every day and never get in an accident, but people are still killing themselves when doing dumb stuff in a 100 hp econo box, just a matter of self control. i dont consider a 600cc bike any safer then a liter bike.

In reply to edizzle89:

So when the occasional screw up happens in a panic situation like the car you didn't see and you punch it to get out of the way and the FZ-1 lays you out in the street can be overlooked because you made a mistake in buying a great deal on a bike that is way over your head instead of going with a bike that you know is at your skill level.

Your argument works well against legislation, not against someone asking about their own known personal skill sets and the best course of action.

But what do I know, I have only been a licensed rider for 23 years...

In reply to edizzle89:

I don't consider any type of bike really safer than the other....the plus 40yo crowd accounts for 70-75% of fatalities typically.

my first street bike was an 87gsxr 750 with some aftermarket parts. re geared to be limited to 153 and i did ok. i have barely any self control so it was often doing unsafe things. not sure if it was just dumb luck that im not dead but if you have self control you should be fine on a liter bike.

Self control isn't the problem with super sport bikes. The insanely high limits and the ability to get a new/developing rider in over their head in a split second is the problem.

Say there's a car crowding you and you can't get around the pothole that's in your lane. The accidental throttle blip when you hit the pothole on a smaller, tamer bike sends you from 35 to 40 mph. Same accidental blip on a liter bike takes you from 35 to 60 and lifts the front wheel 6 inches off the ground. Which situation will be easier for a new rider to recover from?

In reply to nervousdog:

Even on the widow maker I ride, it won't pull the front up without either being in 1st gear above 10k RPMS or clutched up. You'd have to have a 60 tooth rear sprocket to have what you described happen.

I rode for 12 years without an accident. All the bikes I rode including my first were over 750cc's. My second bike was a 1200cc Buell. After that was another Buell and then a TL1000S. A widow maker bike if there ever was one and not just from the power.

I wish I had started with a beater 600 or 650cc bike. I don't mean a sport 600 either. I mean something along the lines of an SV650 or other small light Universal Japanese Motorcycle.

I would've worried a lot less about dropping it. I would've felt more secure on the road. I would've had more smiles per mile. Instead I followed the advice of the "You control the bike not the other way around" crowd. That just wasn't my experience.

I remember. A friend bought a Kaw EX500. Great little 500cc twin sportbike. Fast, fun, handled great, and lightweight. We traded bikes. I was riding a Honda Magna 750 at the time. I remember thinking "This thing is sooo easy to ride! I love this!" I reluctantly threw a leg back over my Magna when it was time to trade back.

Later in my riding career I could ride anything and be confident. I had held up 800lb+ bikes in the rain on oil soaked pavement. I had cornered sport bikes aggressively. I had run over various unavoidable objects on the road and remained upright. When I first started to ride I didn't have that confidence or practice at motorcycle control and balance.

You can learn to ride on a larger bike. It just makes it quite a bit harder and more stressful. Why do that for a hobby that is supposed to be fun?

WOW Really Paul? wrote: In reply to nervousdog: Even on the widow maker I ride, it won't pull the front up without either being in 1st gear above 10k RPMS or clutched up. You'd have to have a 60 tooth rear sprocket to have what you described happen.

So all those yoo-toob videos of guys pulling wheelies down the freeway are fake?

Maybe what I wrote was extreme but I still think a super sport will have limits way above what a new rider can handle. In an emergency, a person may forget to brake or accelerate with self control.

Edit: Checked your profile. Kawi Green is my absolute favorite for sport bikes.

One of my favorite bikes of all time was the Suzuki GS550ES, not that fast but man it was fun.

Lease favorite bike I ever rode, GSXR1000R. Vicious and completely unforgiving.

There is something to be said in the motorcycle world too for ride a slow bike fast vs a fast bike slow.

My 1st bike was a 2001 Honda CBR 600 F4i. Bought it for $4k off of craigslist, rode it for a few years, and sold it for $4K on craigslist. I now have a 2013 CBR 600RR. Never once have I felt like I need more power than the 600 can provide.

Looking back to when I started riding, I would have gotten rid of a 250 after about a week and gotten a 600. Still, I can't imagine my first bike being a 1000.

From the bikes I've owned I would definitely look at something lighter weight for a first bike. For me, something that was tall and heavy was nothing to help with confidence on the road. I no way would want to have started on my Speed Triple that I currently own. The power band of the triple is probably more tame than say my GSXR600 that I had before but it can defineltely get you into more trouble without knowing it because it does have such a smooth power delivery.

My first bike was a 2003 Triumph Speed Four, it was a heavy 600, I wish I would've done the SV650 route myself but I made due.