Sounds more like an anti-bike forum now. If the kid wants to ride on the street he's going to ride on the street. Starting out,get a smaller used bike and get some experience. Then step up when you can afford to crash a new FZ6R. I don't disagree with getting a car first instead. Get a clunker to start out with and then when you can afford it step up to a new Camaro or Mustang GT. I'm 60 and on my bike the brain never fully works. I enjoy it so much. Happy motoring!
Should I get a FZ6R as my first bike?
- Thread starter Extrnoa
- Start date
Don't do it! A car is much more useful and a cheap one probably isn't that much more expensive. Get the car, drive it around, get used to the road and save the riding until you're 21.
You also need to consider your local area. Places with a lot of traffic are really never good candidates for riding a motorcycle.
You also need to consider your local area. Places with a lot of traffic are really never good candidates for riding a motorcycle.
Brock Kickass
New Member
I respectfully disagree with this sounding like an anti-bike forum. We all want to see people have long and healthy motorcyling experiences, and are genuinely concerned for the safety of other riders.
Learning to ride a motorcycle is not like learning to sew buttons on a shirt. When things go wrong, they go way wrong, and in a hurry. When you're a new driver on the street your brain is already occupied to learing that skill-set. The point people here are trying to make is to simply get the skills of being on the road down pat so that they're second nature and then tackle learning to ride a bike on the street.
Of every forum I've been on, this seems to be the most logical, sensible, and helpful group I've come across. There is a mountain of good advice on this forum. It's really hard being 16. You just want to go, and you certainly never want to hear someone older tell you that you're not ready to do something. Fact is, though, you're almost there when you're 16, but there's more learning to be done.
I, for one, don't want to discourage any young person from getting in to motorcycling. It is good, clean fun. It is something that will reward you for years and years to come. But it's dangerous. It's not for everyone. It takes tremendous driving competency to be a good street motorcyclist, and competency is more than handling the vehicle. Competency is handling the situation.
Motorcycles are WAY more dangerous than airplanes, and look at the training required to be allowed to fly a plane. Don't be a victim of the fact that it is way too easy to get a license in North America. Practice makes perfect, so get in a car and practice driving on the street. Practice practice practice. And then, in a few years, get a bike. The first time you have a close call and you are able to avoid it because you saw it coming without even having to think about it, you'll know what I mean.
Good luck and safe riding to you! I hope you get a bike. I hope you love it! I hope you ride for years and years. Just don't rush it. Enjoy the process.
If you are firmly set on a motorcycle as your first road vehicle, the fz6r is a great bike for an entry level street bike especially if you do indeed have a few years of wheel time from a dirt bike. If you do in fact decide on one, i would go with a used '09 because you will prolly drop/go down with it at some point. Does anyone in your family ride a motorcycle that would be willing to take you around and teach you the do's and dont's? This really needs to be done just like learning to drive a car.
Also please do a few things:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET! (DID I SAY ALWAYS)
Take the BRC, BRC2, and ARC classes
Ride with a family member most of the time for awhile
Buy proper riding gear
Never lose respect for the bike or the road
You must be EVEN MORE CAUTIOUS than driving a car
i dont understand why anyone would tell you you need to learn to drive a car first. Statisticly you are less likely to have an accident, however you are more likely to become a fatality on a bike (always remember that). Most people are bad drivers and it doesnt matter what they are driving, they simply dont care enough. Be careful, be overly cautious and obey all learned safety procedures and you should be fine. I also encourage everyone to look at the statistics on the link, some will be surprised. i think is something like almost 50% of all fatalities on motorcycles are from people over 40 years old with some level of BAC.
"2% of all MC riders will experience an accident, and .0007% of MC riders will suffer a fatal accident, versus 4.3% and .0001% with cars, respectively."
III - Motorcycle Crashes
https://online.dds.ga.gov/motorcycle/index.aspx
Also please do a few things:
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET! (DID I SAY ALWAYS)
Take the BRC, BRC2, and ARC classes
Ride with a family member most of the time for awhile
Buy proper riding gear
Never lose respect for the bike or the road
You must be EVEN MORE CAUTIOUS than driving a car
i dont understand why anyone would tell you you need to learn to drive a car first. Statisticly you are less likely to have an accident, however you are more likely to become a fatality on a bike (always remember that). Most people are bad drivers and it doesnt matter what they are driving, they simply dont care enough. Be careful, be overly cautious and obey all learned safety procedures and you should be fine. I also encourage everyone to look at the statistics on the link, some will be surprised. i think is something like almost 50% of all fatalities on motorcycles are from people over 40 years old with some level of BAC.
"2% of all MC riders will experience an accident, and .0007% of MC riders will suffer a fatal accident, versus 4.3% and .0001% with cars, respectively."
III - Motorcycle Crashes
https://online.dds.ga.gov/motorcycle/index.aspx
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If you have enough money for a FZ6R, which is a great bike, buy a car and a older used bike. Now is the time. Friend's son just bought a 1982 650 SECA in great shape, low miles, $700. Riding dirt is a great way to start. My friend and I were very up front with his son, "if you do something stupid and get yourself killed like that kid down the street with candles and teddy bears by the side of the road, we're not going to do that for you. We'll just say you did a stupid ass stunt and got yourself killed."
Good luck,
Anson
Good luck,
Anson
To the OP. My first car was a '74 Ford Capri. Awesome little car. I spent a year or so driving around the house, and then the local backroads before I got my license. I'm not saying do that now, things were different in the early eighties.
I eventually got my license. First time I took the car downtown, I was making a left turn through an intersection and had to stop for some pedestrians. I got T-Boned and it totaled my ride. My girlfriend and I were miraculously OK.
Why share that story here? I should not have made that left turn, regardless of what the light was doing. That knowledge came with experience. The driver that hit me was drinking, or he probably would have stopped. He didn't.
If I had been on a bike, I'd a been in world of hurt. Looking back to the circumstances of making that turn, I should have just sat and waited, but I didn't know that then. I was a new, inexperienced driver. I'm glad I was not on a motorcycle at the time.
The moral of the story? I won't say your first vehicle shouldn't be a motorcycle. That's up to you to decide. I'm saying that from personal experience, and lots of other people's experience, bad stuff is extremely likely to happen when you are first learning to drive. A motorcycle may not be the most intelligent choice of vehicle when those lessons happen.
It's just my 2c, bro. But when nearly everyone you ask is saying get a car first, maybe there's some truth there.
I eventually got my license. First time I took the car downtown, I was making a left turn through an intersection and had to stop for some pedestrians. I got T-Boned and it totaled my ride. My girlfriend and I were miraculously OK.
Why share that story here? I should not have made that left turn, regardless of what the light was doing. That knowledge came with experience. The driver that hit me was drinking, or he probably would have stopped. He didn't.
If I had been on a bike, I'd a been in world of hurt. Looking back to the circumstances of making that turn, I should have just sat and waited, but I didn't know that then. I was a new, inexperienced driver. I'm glad I was not on a motorcycle at the time.
The moral of the story? I won't say your first vehicle shouldn't be a motorcycle. That's up to you to decide. I'm saying that from personal experience, and lots of other people's experience, bad stuff is extremely likely to happen when you are first learning to drive. A motorcycle may not be the most intelligent choice of vehicle when those lessons happen.
It's just my 2c, bro. But when nearly everyone you ask is saying get a car first, maybe there's some truth there.
I'll quote myself here and say that reading it back this morning I may have been a little harsh. I do agree with jacobdahl on all of his points but one and that is that motorcycles are dangerous. It has been my experience in 45 plus years of riding on the street that they are only as dangerous as the person riding them. I think a responsible 16 year old could learn to be safe on a bike, just as he could learn to be safe in a car. Education is the key element. Experience is vital and the only way to get it is by doing. Ride safe!
Brock Kickass
New Member
I only meant that motorcycles are dangerous in that, when something happens, there are no crumple zones, seatbelts, airbags, etc... to protect you. I made the airplane analogy because, similar to an airplane, when trouble happens on a bike it's big trouble. The safety net is non-existent.
Statistically, you are much more likely to be injured on a bike than in a plane, so it's worth noticing the lengthy process involved before someone is considered compentent to operate an airplane. As inconvenient as it would be, I would not be disappointed if the motorcycling licensing process was modelled after the aircraft process. For that matter, a regular license for a cage is way too easy to get, and directly results in bad drivers on our roads.
Getting a license in Europe is a way more complicated and expensive process and their roads are way safer, even though they tolerate higher speeds (in some cases) and have more population density when you average it out over the amount of space they have.
All of these points are moot, however. The auto industry is bending toward accomodating lousy drivers with blind-spot warnings, rearview cameras and parking sensors, traction and stability control, and a multitude of other driver aids that are designed to account for the gaps in driver competency. The skilled driver is a dying breed.
Motorcycling is one of the last pure forms of driving, unless you are lucky enough to drive a vintage Cobra (Marthy, I'm looking at you!) now and then. It's one of the last disciplines where the driver is solely responsible for the performance of the vehicle, and for their own safety. For those reasons, I recommend to any young person looking to get involved to get the public road environment down pat and get the mechanics of riding a motorcycle down pat separately before you merge them. You don't learn if you don't make mistakes, and mistakes can be tragic on a bike. Lots of people have learned on the roads at an early age, and it's not impossible, but it is difficult and dangerous. It takes a certain natural aptitude that not everyone has.
The old expression I was taught was "there's no use being dead right." You can do everything right and just not have that sixth sense to anticipate the person doing everything wrong. When that person hits you, it's you with the problem. Right or wrong, you lose.
Anyway, I'm not trying to incite an argument, discredit anyone, or discourage a young person from riding. There is all kinds of good advice in this thread from many different people with many different experiences. In the end, I hope the OP carefully considers every opinion here and uses it to combine with their own experience and self-awareness to make the best choice for themself.
55x12 = 660. That's a lot of dough for motorcycle insurance. PLUS...if your bike is financed... you will have to get full coverage. It may not seem like much if you don't have a lot of financial responsibilities (rent, utilities, college, etc) but if you plan on being independent in the near future.. it may not be a great move.
If you wait you'll pay at least half that much when you are 25...and that's at full coverage... where you live makes a big difference in what you pay too insurance wise. My brother insures his bike for $72/year. I went full coverage for about 330/year.
If you are 16, you probably still live at home. If you have a car to borrow anytime you need one then you probably would be alright using all your money to pay off a bike and cover the insurance costs at your age.
I am sure you feel confident in your abilities to handle a motorcycle due to your offroad experience, but IMO you are better off learning the rules of the road in something with a roll cage and seatbelts. Best of luck to you either way and be safe!
Chevyfazer
New Member
As far as insurance on financed bikes it depends on where you live. In Georgia the state does no require full coverage on financed bikes although most finance companies do there are some that don't.
I live in california and mine is 83 dollars a month
55 for full coverage which is not too bad. I got mine financed through Yamaha themselves, brand new. I believe there are two options for financing, one through GE and one through Yamaha. Yamaha does NOT require you to have insurance at all. And here in florida you don't have to have insurance. I didn't get insurance until I moved to Gainesville for college, mainly to cover it if it gets stolen. Yes, being in college and paying for rent (which is all inclusive at my apartment so no utilities) and my bike payment does mean that I get pretty tight on money. My dad pays for my insurance though which helps, and it was his idea to get it since he new it would be a little harder to afford. Back when I lived at home my only expense was my $173/month bike payment, now my monthly expenses are around $600. Luckily my job pays pretty well for being only 18, and I get decent hours.
Here in florida insurance is not required unless required by the loan company. If you don't have a lien on the title or your financier doesn't require it, then you do not need insurance at all.
No way! You said that??!! "Motorcycles are only as dangerous as the person riding them?" Most everyone here knows I ride ATGATT. I don't ride ATGATT because I suck. I ride ATGATT because of all the crazy stuff that can happen when one is on a bike.
It has absolutely nothing to do with my personal skill and experience. If that's all it was, I feel pretty confident I could ride in whatever clothing I wished to, and go anywhere and do anything I wished, so long as my skills allowed.
I'm in the gear because that patch of gravel doesn't give a darn how long I've been riding. I'm in the gear because cagers do really stupid shit. I'm in the gear because every time we ride, really bad stuff is very likely to happen.
Heck, I hit a cat, a few weeks back. It nearly wrecked me. Being perched upon a 400lb machine, at speed, relying upon just a few inches of rubber for traction, in a world that is completely unforgiving, unrelenting and absolutely lethal, and you say the bike is only as dangerous as the rider?
Do you really think that some experience driving a car, learning how things happen on the road, would not be of benefit to a new motorcycle rider?
I've run out of words to describe my horror at your statement. I'm honestly surprised you said what you did. What the heck?
A car acts as a cage around you while you drive, keeping you safe.Maybe I'm still a noobie, but why do you call them cagers?
As far as the FZ6R as your first bike, its not so much THE bike that's the problem, but the fact that being 16 you have close to no driving experience (relatively speaking). The FZ6R is my first bike but I've been driving in general for over 15-16 years in one way or another. No matter how responsible you are on your bike, you need to build up your fundamental driving/traffic experience first, bike or no bike. You cant just skip that part. my .02c
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I still have to resist that urge at 49!
Well said. Nuff said.