Hi!
My name is Andrey Bodrov, I’m instructor for Russian motorcycle school moto-control.ru.
One of the most common questions that I get – Hey, I’m new rider, which bike should
I buy?
And usually there are 2 types of people asking: one genuinely wants my opinion on what motorcycle
should they choose, second secretly hope that I just confirm their choice.
Let’s begin with second group – usually if you are already absolutely determined to
get a specific bike, a specific model, no matter what - you should just go for it.
At the end of a day motorcycling is about having fun, and if you Have to get a specific
bike to have fun – go ahead.
But if you prefer to play it smart – I have a few extremely subjective, but good tips
for you, so stay tuned!
Let’s talk about what you probably shouldn’t choose as your first bike.
As a new rider what’s your main objective?
If you are guessed that to stop being a beginner and gain some experience – you are 100%
correct!
Your first bike is merely a way to get your experience.
A lot of beginner riders unfortunately want to get some heavy powerful machine right away,
to look cool, to prove their manhood or wealth, or something of that nature.
It’s usually not the best way.
Let me give you some example.
Let’s say you want to learn pistol shooting.
Which gun you should get?
With a 44 Magnum you’ll definitely look cool, but from practical standpoint – you’ll
have to manage a powerful recoil, and you’ll have to pay a dollar for each round shot,
which you are gonna need at least a few thousands to become a straight shooter.
Maybe you’ll learn faster and less expensive with 9mil glock 17 or something similar.
Yeah, you probably won’t feel like Dirty Harry, but I can bet you would have much better
shooting score at the end of the day.
The same thing is with motorcycles.
Make no mistake – to become proficient rider you will have to put some work in, you’ll
have to ride thousands of miles and you’ll have to go through some training.
And you’ll drop your bike a few times as well, there is no way around it.
So it makes much more sense to start on lighter, smaller bike.
It will have manageable power output, so you won’t end up like this guy, crashing right
out of dealer’s gate.
Small bike will not eat through tires and fuel like big powerful motorcycle will.
It may not seem much difference at first, but when you multiply it by thousands of miles
– trust me, your wallet will feel the difference.
Dropping light bike also costs less both in money and in back pain.
So please, don’t rush to buy a some frickin liter sportbike or a Harley tourer as your
first bike just because they look cool.
Speaking of sportbikes and Harleys.
Regardless of weight and engine size sportbikes are not usually a best option for a beginner
due to the specific body position.
Sportbikes force you to sit in shrimp-like aerodynamic body position, which is perfectly
fit for 15-minute track session, but not-so-much for a daily rider.
A very common beginner sportbike rider mistake is this body position, when rider wants to
straight his back and straights and locks his elbows.
This way you can’t make any good steering inputs because you are not essentially pushin
or pulling the handlebars, you are pushing them from the top, which is pretty much useless.
Besides, on a sportbike front wheel has very little travel from lock to lock, which makes
very difficult to manuver it in tight spots.
Cruisers, on the other hand, are more fit as a daily riders, but they are not the perfect
choice either.
With the cruisers low ground clearance you can’t really learn speed cornering techniques
to a full extent.
And cruisers are also tend to force you in one particular seating position.
You can move your body marginally, but really not very much.
So if you buy a cruiser as your first bike – well, you can make it work, but you’ll
just miss a lot of useful stuff you can learn.
Ok, but what bike will help you learn, what you should get as a beginner?
In my opinion the best types of motorcycles for a new rider are standard naked bikes or
dual-sports.
And here’s why.
On an upright standard and on dualsport you have both very good available lean angle and
very good steering angle.
That means you can learn both high speed cornering and confined space manuvering.
Also these bikes give you plenty space to move around – you can play with your body
position and learn the effects of loading front and rear tire, counterbalancing and
leaning into the turn.
On top of that these bikes put you in very natural position, so you can ride them for
hours with no fatigue – this is exactly what you need as a new rider – put some
extra miles under your belt.
Another very valuable feature of these bikes is that there is usually very little damage
when you crash them.
For example, this is my training bike, which I dropped and lowsided, probably, a hundred
times – but it suffers very little damage.
You may bend a brake lever or shifter pedal, and that’s pretty much it.
With naked bikes or with dual sports you may install some crash bars or a cage and you
can drop it as much as you want with literally no damage at all.
You definitely can’t drop sportbike or a luxury tourer that easily – you’ll end
up with couple of hundred dollar damage each time you drop a bike.
And as a beginner – you’ll do it a lot, if you are planning to actually learn to ride.
Another very important thing for a beginner rider is an ABS system.
Here I’ll just say that it’s statistically proven fact that ABS on a bike reduces the
chance of serious accident by 50%.
Proper braking technique is a big topic, and you can’t master it very fast, so ABS system
is especially good for a new rider.
It’s very well worth every buck you’ll spend on it, every bike intended for public
roads should have this system, it’s literally lifesaving feature, so you really want it.
With all being said let’s have a look at N models which I think worthy to be considered
as a good motorcycle for a beginner rider.
I’m sure there are much more of them, but these I have actually rode and found very
interesting.
First and foremost – THE best beginner bike in my opinion for most people – KTM 390
Duke, or 250 Duke.
I put them together because it’s essentially the same motorcycle.
Same chassis, same frame, same suspension etc.
Even the engine is the same, the only difference is a cylinder bore.
I sincerely think that in most cases 250-390 Dukes are THE best motorcycle for a beginner
for a number of reasons.
First – they handle really, really well.
The steering is very precise and predictable, bike flips from side to side on a dime.
On Duke you can learn slow speed riding, gymkhana style riding, knee down, high speed cornering,
wheelies, stoppies, tire slides – it will do anything you want.
It’s a perfect bike for a heavy city traffic, it’s insanely manuverable.
And it’s not a slow bike either, it easily keeps up on a speedway.
Duke is very light, so if you drop it – you can pick it up alone quite easily.
If you put some basic engine protection and lever protection on it – you can drop it
almost with no damage – maybe scratch a tank panel, nothing major.
If you install crash cage – bike becomes bombproof, you can drop it as much as you
want with no damage at all.
You know how it is – low mileage, never dropped.
All in all – 390 Duke is awesome bike, and you’ll benefit greatly if you get it as
your first bike.
Now a few drawbacks.
If you are smaller person and you like to put both feet on the ground you may not like
a seat height.
I usually teach to put only one foot at a stop so it’s not an issue for my students,
but it’s worth mentioning anyway.
Next one is brakes.
Bybre brakes have acceptable stopping power, but the feel is very spongy.
When you apply brakes it’s very hard to feel precise braking amount.
You’ll get used to it, but it’s a bummer anyway.
Suspension is very basic also.
Yes, it does it’s job, but barely, to be honest.
It doesn’t have any dumping adjustments so you are stuck with it.
I weigh 85 kilos, and I think it’s slightly above what this suspension is intended for.
Even on maximum preload sag is barely acceptable.
Consider your height too.
I’m 186cm – it’s 6ft1 and it’s as tall as I would go on this bike.
Probably even a bit less.
The riding position itself at this height is good enough, but my legs are a bit crampled.
Not too much, but if you are higher than me you better look at 390 Adventure version.
And the last issue with 390 for me is a cooling system.
It’s good for 250, never had a problem with it, but 390 tends to overheat if you are doing
slow speed manuvering in warm weather.
So if you live in hot climate you may consider 250 instead of 390.
Second good beginner bike in my opinion is BMW G310R.
Like 390 Duke it’s very nice light nimble bike with upright position.
Personally I think Duke is overall a better option because it handles better.
But you may still look at BMW if you prefer low seat height.
In other aspects g310r is very close to 390 duke.
It has the same basic brakes, slightly different, but the same level basic suspension.
It also handles very very well, and unlike 390 doesn’t tend to overheat.
Overall g310r is very good choice for a new rider, especially for a shorter and lighter
one.
If you are a taller person you may consider KTM 390 Adventure.
Don’t let the marketing tricks fool you, it’s still street bike, maybe with a little
off-road flare, but essentially it’s a street bike.
It’s built on a duke platform, so it is very nimble, handles awesome, has the same
engine with same fun character and overheating issues.
Suspension is a little better, now it has some adjustment, but to be honest I wouldn’t
call it state of the art suspension.
Personally, considering the price difference I would prefer duke version over Adventure,
but Adventure is still very good option, especially if you are taller rider.
So, that was my 3 go-to beginner bike options, pick the one you like better and I’m sure
you won’t be disappointed.
All these bikes are fairly priced, sturdy built and don’t suffer much from a falls.
They are rather popular, so you won’t have any problem selling them when you feel ready
to move on.
All in all - great bikes, very, very good for a new rider.
Ok, time to move to my “bonus” motorcycle.
If you just don’t settle for previous three bikes and despite all reasons still want to
begin on a heavy powerful machine to prove your mettle – there is still somewhat decent
option for you.
It’s not a GOOD beginner bike by any means, it’s more like less bad one.
Aaaaaaaaand our winner is BMW f900xr.
Why is that so?
As I mentioned in the beginning of this video – it’s very beneficial for your first
bike to have a good upright body position, good lean angle and good front wheel turning
angle.
These crossover type of bikes such as f900xr or Yamaha tracer have all these things.
They are better for a beginner than typical nakeds like, for example Ducati Monsters,
because these crossovers have much more handlebar travel and more upright position.
On the other hand they still have sticky road tires, firm road suspension and big powerful
brakes which traditional Adventure bikes kind of lacking.
And out of all crossover type bikes in my opinion f900xr is the better option.
The engine has very predictable power delivery, bike has all sorts of fool-proof electronic
systems which you are not really supposed to rely on, but for a new rider it’s kinda
necessary with this much power.
In stock form there is a lot of vulnerable parts, but you can fortify this bike with
aftermarket crash protection and then drop it with almost no damage.
Brembo brakes are just phenomenal, very powerful and give very clear feedback.
And steering feels very good, bike tips very fast from side to side.
I noticed that this steering behavior really helps students to understand countersteering
earlier.
By the way – that’s partially why I think 250-390 Dukes are the best bikes for motorcycle
schools – they also have this very clear, almost effortless steering.
In this regard f900xr is better than Tracer, which is too stable, it wants stand up a bit
too much.
On slow speeds front wheel tends to fold into the turn a little bit.
It is perfectly normal, but usually it intimidates new riders and it’s very hard to them practice
full lock exercises.
On BMW steering is almost neutral, which feels much friendlier, so to speak.
Considering all this, though f900xr is not my go-to choice for a new rider it is one
of the least bad choices available if you want to start with big powerful bike right
out of the gate.
Now I think it’s good time to wrap it up!
If you like motorcycle related videos – subscribe and don’t forget to like and share this
video if you want more people to watch it.
Bye!