First bike 600cc, Good Idea?

scoobyrichuk · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:44

Personally I wouldn't reccomend it, not a 600 sports anyway. Maybe a cheap 600 bandit to get you going then upgrade in a year when you have more experience. For me a big part of the fun of riding bikes was upgrading though different stages of power - 50cc > 125cc > 350cc > 600cc I'm not saying that you'll stack it straight away but you need to consider how powerful a bike you will be riding if you jump straight on a sports 600. Like many have said the power is high in the rev range but it's very tempting to redline it on an open road with a high revving 600cc engine and the accelaration is likely to be more extreme than anything you've experienced before so just remember to be really careful, you don't want to end up as another statistic!!!

JoeMango · 26 Oct 2010 at 13:52

I went from an RS125 (2 Years) to a Ducati 749.

You'll be fine as long as your not an idiot, otherwise you'll end up dead.

Barry Smalley · 26 Oct 2010 at 14:26

You'll be fine as long as you respect the bike. It will do far more than you are capable of so don't try to show the bike how good you think you are - it will bite you. Hard.
Take it easy, build your confidence and learn how it responds to you, not forgetting watching everything else on the road.

Knubje · 27 Oct 2010 at 12:28

Barry Smalley said:
You'll be fine as long as you respect the bike. It will do far more than you are capable of so don't try to show the bike how good you think you are - it will bite you. Hard.
Take it easy, build your confidence and learn how it responds to you, not forgetting watching everything else on the road.

Good advice.

Essentially don't ride like a **** and you will be fine.

Respect her, for if you try and ride her too hard, she will punish you 10 times harder.

britboy4321 · 27 Oct 2010 at 15:19

I went straight to a 675 street triple after passing.

It's dead easy no problem with too much power just stay calm.

The headline that I'd be more concerned with is actually weight. Seriously, for your first bike, aim for < 190kg if I were you ..

helpimcrap · 30 Oct 2010 at 11:13

you only go as quick as you twist the throttle.

that's why i lasted less than a year before i was banned lol....

MADMAN69UK · 30 Oct 2010 at 15:10

I agree with Britboy.

I went straight from passing my test on a 125 to a Kawasaki ER-6f, 650cc.

Controlling the speed is not an issue, it was getting used to the weight of the thing. That took considerable time. Just respect the machine

acemastr · 31 Oct 2010 at 16:35

Agree'd with the others, I had a CBR600FV which was quite tame, still amazingly quick, scarily so, but now i have my new CBR600RR it's a new ballpark, the difference is like night and day, so much quicker, so much tauter, so much sharper, i WOULDN'T recommend one of these as a first big bike.

Kezmo · 31 Oct 2010 at 20:43

the thing is a modern 600 is so low to the ground(excluding the new shape r6) and weighs nothing and the powers way up, just know your limits when in the higher rev range

Souleh · 1 Nov 2010 at 00:14

Went from a 125 4T to a 636cc ninja...

Couldnt recommend the transition more.

From a lightweight toy to a much safer, more planted feeling "real" bike.

How safe it is really is up to you and how you ride :cool:

isset · 5 Nov 2010 at 21:45

First bike I had was a thumping great 1000cc (ok, 950cc) twin. If you are destined to get into trouble you'll get into trouble - you are the one controlling the thing, and you can get into just as much trouble on a 400 as you can on a 'thou.

You have to ask yourself if you can be trusted with such a machine. Be honest with yourself!

ElvisFan · 5 Nov 2010 at 22:25

bloodiedathame said:
Twins are good bikes to learn on, their power delivery is fairly constant and won't necessarily catch you out (true of my old bike). IL4s have varying amounts of power through the revs, my S4 pulls hard at about 6k revs then again at about 10k. Though there's not much torque at low revs.

That would do my head in.

My rev limit is 4250.

BAcon · 6 Nov 2010 at 17:38

A 600 sports bike as a first bike isnt a bad idea at all imo, just take it easy to begin with instead of going at it full on, most 600 sport bikes make their power up the revs so if you keep them relativily low you shouldnt get yourself into too much trouble.
Your grin will reach from ear to ear when you first ride it after your DAS (which is usually a 500c commuter, gs500, cb500, er5 etc), i did the same thing nearly 2 years ago and have no regrets at all.

Goodluck

GSXRMovistar · 7 Nov 2010 at 01:47

moss said:
Myself and all my friends started off on 600cc sports bikes, none of us had any problems.

Ditto, same here.

thedoc46 · 8 Nov 2010 at 17:21

Scythe said:
such as an SV or Fazer/Diversion.

Problem there is no-one will ever turn around and say NICE BIKE !!

You are only young once.. I've been riding fast bikes since I was 16 and I'm still alive.. Go for it !

Hope you don't die mind!

Scythe · 8 Nov 2010 at 17:45

thedoc46 said:
Problem there is no-one will ever turn around and say NICE BIKE !!

You are only young once.. I've been riding fast bikes since I was 16 and I'm still alive.. Go for it !

Hope you don't die mind!

I've had plenty making good comments about my bike thanks, may not be the fastest but it does the job for me