Hey guys, you may remember me from a year ago when I bought a Kawi Vulcan 900 Custom. I have since put 4,000 miles on it and love it more than a grown man probably should. But since then I’ve gone on a couple of group rides through the twisties, and I’ve found myself longing for a bike a bit more equipped for such travels. While I love my cruiser, I was scraping those foot pegs a bit more than I’d like, and it also can’t accelerate quite as fast as my sport bike riding peers.
But here’s what I wonder: Can I handle it? I tried riding my dad’s Ninja 250 about a year ago (when I was much less experienced), but barely made it more than a foot before chickening out – the riding position was so different from what I was riding at the time (a gz250 cruiser). But on the other hand, I’ve become a lot more competent since then. So how different is riding a sport bike from a cruiser?
Also, what kind of bike would you recommend? My roommate owns a SV650, and it’s a nice looking bike. Plus the new ones seem to come with ABS and are liquid-cooled; both are very nice perks (in fact, I think having it be liquid-cooled is a must). Are there any other bikes with those two options at a similar price ($7k)? And is 650cc a good engine size? I wouldn’t want to outgrow it soon…
Finally, payment options. I paid for my last bike in cash, but I don’t think I want to do that again since I might need money for school. Unfortunately, I’ve never financed anything before, and am incredibly ignorant of such things. Any info or tips you guys can provide would be much appreciated!
The racer’s crouch that many sport bikes put you into works fine at racing speeds. The wind against your chest supports your body, and at lower speeds your strong racer’s back muscles take up the slack. Maybe you don’t drive that fast most of the time, and maybe your non-athletic body lets your weight slump onto your wrists. That could be trouble. If some fingers go numb, if your wrists and elbows hurt long into the night, that’s really serious.
You might not get those things at all, but it happened to my brother. That damage did not heal right away when he went back to a cruiser. It took months.
I ride a VFR 800 Interceptor. It is a nice blend of sport and touring. They are some aftermarket mods you can do to make the seating position more upright (mostly helibars, slightly lower seat). It’s got plenty of sportiness (a lot of guys on the VFR message board use them strictly as sportbikes), but can be decked out for touring (we did 3,000 mi / 7 days last summer). It doesn’t have the thrust to weight ratio of a LitreBike, or even a 600 really, so it’s a little easier to ride, but sporty enough in the twisties. Brand new will run you about $10K. I got mine two years ago, two years old (I bought an '04 in '06), for about $7K, but with a lot of mods. You should be able to find a decent one for about 6K is so, if you go late model used.
I ride a Kawasaki ZZR 1200. Like Fear the Turtle’s, my bike is classified as a sport touring bike. It’s got plenty of engine and all the pep of a sport bike. I’ve put in lower footpegs, but haven’t gotten around to raising the handlebars to make it more tour and less sport. It’s a big bike, and I think you’ll like this styling, but with the more upright riding position. I believe the Concourse is the newest Kawasaki that fits this class, the ZX14 IIRC. I’d recommend something a bit older, though, it’ll help quite a bit with the financing. Should be able to score a new one for the same prices Turtle mentions (mine was an '03 for $5,500).
Be sure to let us know what you decide!
ETA: It’s the Concours. I still think the Zed is cooler. (Zed is slang for the ZZR, Zixer slang for the ZX series (btw, you may want to look into the bigger Ninjas, some of them are borderline sport touring), and Gixer is slang for Suzuki’s GSX-R series. (The R stands for racing, you should probably stay away from the ZX-#R series… too hunched of a riding position, IMHO.
I’ve ridden everything from a full out sportbike (Suzuki GSX-R1000) to a full-out cruiser (Harley Softail Custom) and most of what’s in between. My favorites have been the sport-tourers: the BMW R1100R and the Yamaha FZ-1. The FZ-1 is particularly nice, because it’s got (almost) all the horsepower and acceleration of the more extreme bikes, but with a more upright, real-world-friendly riding position. I couldn’t take the racer crouch on the GSX-R–I tried, and it worked for awhile, but I kept ending rides with a sore back and particularly sore wrists. If you’re doing to be doing any slow-speed riding (in town, commuting where it’s not feasible or legal to lanesplit) then the sportbike riding position is very unpleasant and gets old in a hurry. If you want to race or will be doing a lot of high speed riding or canyon carving, and if you can get used to the position, then you might be okay on more of a sportbike.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the engine size unless you decide to go hardcore–something like the FZ-1 might seem scary because it’s a thousand CC, but it’s a very well mannered thousand CCs that won’t get away from you while still providing the punch and speed of a sportbike. Any of the sporty tourers or “sane sportbikes” will likely give you the same experience.
Scraping the pegs, good for you.
I loved my CBR1000. I’m a tall guy at 6’4" and it could be hard on the wrists in stop and go traffic or after a two or three hour ride. This was one of the first bikes called a sport tourer. I’ve been on some friends bikes that were really radical in the seating. Most notably a Ducati 996. Stupid fun for short burst and thankfully out of my price range or I might be tempted to have a cripling mid life crisis early 
You need to sit on a lot of bikes and beg borrow or steal a ride on a few to decide what’s comfortable for you.
Realibality is so close, my group of friends has had all sorts of makes and modle from the big Japanesse four and nobody ever had any major mechanical problems that I can think of. Keep an eye on the oil, tires brakes and cahin and that’s it.
Getting anything a few years old so you can affort it should be worry free.
Now here’s my plug; look at a Triumph This is the brandy new one, but the older ones are just as good. I love my Triumph Tiger and have converted three friends into Triumphs because of the great engines and comfort.
