Inquiring about a first bike? Read this...

[Peregrinus]

I would never allow a passenger to ride with me on my motorcycle. I'm sorry, but whenever I see people doing this I cringe, it's just not responsible in my opinion.

The area I intend to ride is in Greenville NC, where the stop and go distances are within a mile and an average speed of 35mph. It's very hard to know who to listen to about the whole "600cc" thing. I've grown up around some of my motorcycle friends who all are telling me a 600, especially an old carburetor one will be absolutely no different in response. Then all the online articles I've researched say I'll be the statistic. Inexperienced + 600cc = casualty.

The biggest argument my one friend said was: "A 600cc is NOT going to throw you off the seat at a blip of a throttle... However something in the 1000+ MAY! You would have no problem at all with a 600."

He also tells me to stay away from the 2000 R6, as he said his first bike was a 99 R6 and it was "Heavy, and unresponsive."

The truth is, I don't care WHAT bike I get. This is something I intend to use in a parking lot for the majority of a season to get the feel for low speed maneuvering. So I'm really using COST as my deciding factor as well as mechanically interesting to work on.

The re-sale value on this bike I'm looking at today is high enough to give me further incentive. After a season or two of low speed practice and braking, I may actually sell it for something different for on street use.

a sport bike isn't exactly the best thing in the world to use for slow speed maneuvering, you'd actually be much bettter off using one of makenzies recommendations for that. I started on an 03 600 for 1 year, and moved to an 07 600 for the last year.

while i did this without any accidents, I KNOW i damn well would have learned much much more in way less time if i hadnt started on the 600.

ONLY reason i even started riding was because i traded an old car for the 03 600, and was going to just flip it, but got hooked, when a friend talked me into taking it around the block.

IF you DO get a 600, do NOT even get on it without FULL gear on, while you MAY not crash, you in all likelyhood may. so better safe than sorry.

all i am trying to say is, listen to makenzie, he knows what hes talking about! money shouldnt be a deciding factor on what you're getting. I know if you're like me though you probably already made up your mind, and theres no way to change it, so whatever way you chose, goodluck, and be safe!