"But lots of things are fun right up until the costs (and effort) are figured out." That's a true statement . A couple friends of mine have hit the point in life where they can afford what they want. What they wanted was a new Corvette. They spent over 100k for a two seater car. Now they were nice cars and fast. But you know that wasn't enough for them. The wheels and tires they bought cost almost $5000. Then fast wasn't fast enough. So off to get the motors tweaked. another 5-10 k just to be faster then either of them felt comfortable driving at. And in the end they both have really nice Sunday drivers that spend their lifes sitting in a garage, and getting wiped down with micro-fibre clothes. So spending less then $5000 for a bike with all the gear and associated expenses, seems like a real bargain.,,,
First time motorcycle buyer
- Thread starter ram_man
- Start date
To the contrary, for me, Motorcycles have saved money. I am a gearhead, I need a machine I can feel proud of. It was either a motorcycle or a sports/muscle car. I think we know what's more efficient performance/cost value. It may be a humble little Honda 250R, but it's so flickable and light, that it provides all the fun I could ever need responsibly. I won't be getting another bike for a while. Meanwhile my other cars are 20 and 30 years old. The motorcycle makes it ok for me to own nothing but beater cars. Long live my Honda!
^^ That says it best.^^
Or the mattress on the back of that trailer is going to be caught by the wind and do a series of end-over-end flips right at you. True story. Proper distancing and constant surveying the scene made it a story to tell about vs everyone else reading about it the next day in the paper.
I’ve done some reading and i kind of like the size and ability a sportster 883 offers. I have already sold the moped it was a good in town little toy. What else is comparable to a sportster that may be a better choice? I like smaller less stretched out bikes. I remember sitting on my dads fat boy it was way to big!! I just want a comfortable bike that can do about 90mph or so. That way it can do the highway when necessary without feeling like I’m revving it to the moon!
If you like the 883, then get it. It's not a bad bike, IMO, although 90 mph is going to be pretty rough on most bikes for any extended period of time.
As far as something comparable, maybe Triumph Bonneville/Bobber?
I started out on cruisers, but then moved to an adventure bike. I prefer the seating position and better maneuverability. But for high speed cruising, you want a touring bike, IMO.
My 1100 Shadow would do 90 all day long. My Goldwing will also.
Anything smaller than 1000cc will not be as fun a that speed. Not saying it can't do it, but you will be revving the engine to keep that speed.
My brother has a '95 883, and is a great around the town bike and can do highway speeds (which is 75mph legally), but anything more than 1 hour straight (about a tankful) starts to get very uncomfortable.
Anything smaller than 1000cc will not be as fun a that speed. Not saying it can't do it, but you will be revving the engine to keep that speed.
My brother has a '95 883, and is a great around the town bike and can do highway speeds (which is 75mph legally), but anything more than 1 hour straight (about a tankful) starts to get very uncomfortable.
Once again, I think your goals and your preferences are not aligning, unless you are saying you want a bike capable of going 90 and not a bike that you will continuously do 90 on.
The ultimate choice of a particular bike is going to depend on your size and an honest appraisal of what you want to do with it. Do you want to be able to flat foot it with both feet at a stop light, do you want to lean into high speed turns without scraping the foot boards or pegs, do you want boards or pegs. Any bike over 500 cc will keep up with highway traffic but generally the smaller the bike the more numbing the vibration. Longer stretched out bikes tend to smooth out the road and track nicer on the highway but the penalty is they are slower to turn on the twisty roads and scrape sooner in tight turns. Taller bikes seem to lean and maneuver eaisier at speed but get real heavy and tippy at slow speeds.
The 883 is an acquired taste, read some comparison reviews, The Suzuki 800, Kawasaki 900, Yamaha 950 are all better choices IMHO in the mid size cruiser market. I know you are looking used but go to a few dealers and sit on the bikes you are considering. All the above have been around since 2006 or 2007 and they have not changed.
The 883 is an acquired taste, read some comparison reviews, The Suzuki 800, Kawasaki 900, Yamaha 950 are all better choices IMHO in the mid size cruiser market. I know you are looking used but go to a few dealers and sit on the bikes you are considering. All the above have been around since 2006 or 2007 and they have not changed.
If you want a Harley and it needs to be a little bigger than a sporty then a Dyna model, Wideglide, Superglide, Lowrider, etc would be the most logical choice. The Dynas were discontinued in 2017 but nice low mileage examples are plentiful at good prices plus Dynas are the smallest and least expensive Harley’s that came with the big twin, the same engine that was standard from the Dynas to the Electraglide. They’re also light and nimble. I’m 6’4” tall and with my forward controls I’m not a bit cramped like I would be with the stock mid controls. My 2009 Superglide just rolled over 46,000 miles and has been practically trouble free. BTW, a Dyna will do 90.
I’m in MO and it just so happens my 71 year old father in law wants to get rid of his 1998 HD Dyna Wide Glide 95th anniversary model that is in my garage. It’s got under 5,000 miles, no that’s not a typo. I think he’d let it go for $5500-$6k. PM me if you want pics or want to look at it. Has a removable windshield and I think the framed commemorative painting to go with it.
A co-worker just got one of those and really likes it. It is his first bike with no prior experience except for a small dirt bike when he was younger and taking the MSF course a few weeks ago.
I sat on one and seemed comfortable for an around town bike, not sure how it would do on longer highway trips, but then I am a big guy and am getting spoiled by my Goldwing.
The Sportster is an adult mini bike lots of fun for what it is.
The first motorcycle I bought was a old Yamaha 175 cc that was basically a street and trail bike. It had knobby tires and was a 2 cycle. It needed some work including fixing a problem with the return spring on the shifter position system. The bolt that the springs rested against was broken off, and that was inside the engine transmission case. I took it apart and taped the case in that area to a much larger thread because the mount for the original was messed up. For the next part of the work I would have been much better off if I had a lathe or at least had access to one, but back then I did not. So I then took a bolt that matched the threads I had just installed, and mounted that bolt it in a big drill with it offset on purpose so the center of the shaft of the bolt was not aligned with the center of rotation of the big drill chuck. Then I held the drill while on and put the bolt against a grinding wheel to grind the diameter of the bolt down to the size the return springs needed to rest on, not messing up the threads of the bolt so the threads still matched the new threads in the case. I put a nut on the bolt to tighten when the bolt was in the proper position to provide the center return for the shift return springs.
Unfortunately, I could not get all the gears in place to put the case back together so I had to take the whole thing to the local motorcycle shop and pay them to put it back together. It worked, and I did not have to buy a new half of the case.
I also had to fix the ignition system of that bike. I got new points from the local Yamaha dealer, but the coil was way too weak, so I used an old can type auto-transformer coil from an old Chevy. Also the tail light was broken so I used the red plastic from an old Chevy for that. I got it to pass inspection and drove it on the road for one year. But my brother, and cousins and I often took it to some abandoned strip mines and took turns riding it. We did that all months of the year including winter. Sometimes we strung a bull rope down a huge mountain with some holding the rope at the top of the hill and would take turns trying to ride up the hill. If you did not make it up the hill you could grab the rope so you did not have to fall all the way back down the hill. That bike took many tumbles and many parts got broken. We had a blast and all of us learned to ride, and how to get off a bike if things were going wrong.
Years later I bought a new 1980 Honda 750 K 4 cylinder. It turned out knowing how to get off when things went bad was a good background to have. One hot July day I was coming home from work and coming up 18th street. The car in-front of me stopped for a light, and when it turned green we started to move. I gave it the gas but it had not rained for many days and there was a lot of oil built up on the road. There was water on the oil from the air-conditioning condensate from cars sitting at the light and if I had been on glare ice I would have had more traction. The back tire spun and the bike went sideways and was facing a huge brick wall. The back tire was still spinning even though I had got off the throttle and the back tire caught and launched the bike towards the brick wall. I figured if this bike is going into that wall, I am not going to be on it. So I rolled off of it onto the asphalt. I was then on my back sliding on the asphalt and the bike started to fall sideways towards me, and I kicked it just behind the engine as hard as I could and it fell the other way. I kicked that bike so hard that I thought I broke my foot. I could not walk on it for several days, but it was not broken. And I had a lot of road rash that had to heal up.
Anyhow, the moral to all of this is " it is a very good idea to start off with an off road motorcycle and learn to handle a motorcycle, and how to get off one if you have to, before you ever get a street bike." There are no cars to hit you when you ride off road. Get a couple of years experience riding off road, and then if you still want to ride on roads go for it.
Unfortunately, I could not get all the gears in place to put the case back together so I had to take the whole thing to the local motorcycle shop and pay them to put it back together. It worked, and I did not have to buy a new half of the case.
I also had to fix the ignition system of that bike. I got new points from the local Yamaha dealer, but the coil was way too weak, so I used an old can type auto-transformer coil from an old Chevy. Also the tail light was broken so I used the red plastic from an old Chevy for that. I got it to pass inspection and drove it on the road for one year. But my brother, and cousins and I often took it to some abandoned strip mines and took turns riding it. We did that all months of the year including winter. Sometimes we strung a bull rope down a huge mountain with some holding the rope at the top of the hill and would take turns trying to ride up the hill. If you did not make it up the hill you could grab the rope so you did not have to fall all the way back down the hill. That bike took many tumbles and many parts got broken. We had a blast and all of us learned to ride, and how to get off a bike if things were going wrong.
Years later I bought a new 1980 Honda 750 K 4 cylinder. It turned out knowing how to get off when things went bad was a good background to have. One hot July day I was coming home from work and coming up 18th street. The car in-front of me stopped for a light, and when it turned green we started to move. I gave it the gas but it had not rained for many days and there was a lot of oil built up on the road. There was water on the oil from the air-conditioning condensate from cars sitting at the light and if I had been on glare ice I would have had more traction. The back tire spun and the bike went sideways and was facing a huge brick wall. The back tire was still spinning even though I had got off the throttle and the back tire caught and launched the bike towards the brick wall. I figured if this bike is going into that wall, I am not going to be on it. So I rolled off of it onto the asphalt. I was then on my back sliding on the asphalt and the bike started to fall sideways towards me, and I kicked it just behind the engine as hard as I could and it fell the other way. I kicked that bike so hard that I thought I broke my foot. I could not walk on it for several days, but it was not broken. And I had a lot of road rash that had to heal up.
Anyhow, the moral to all of this is " it is a very good idea to start off with an off road motorcycle and learn to handle a motorcycle, and how to get off one if you have to, before you ever get a street bike." There are no cars to hit you when you ride off road. Get a couple of years experience riding off road, and then if you still want to ride on roads go for it.
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There were several other things I did to get that first motorcycle usable, and to keep it running while we used it. I made a new seat for it out of a new never used sofa cushion, and some dark brown naugahyde. Some people who rode that bike said it was one of the most comfortable seats they ever sat on. And the Yamaha dealer told me that the oiling system on those engines often fails so because it was old, I removed it and we ran mixed gas. The travel distance on the front and rear wheels was much less than trail bikes have now days, and it had a much rougher ride on the trails than trail bikes have now days, and that bike was much heavier than bikes with similar power now days.
If you can work on your motorcycle yourself it cost a lot less than taking it to a dealer every time something needs attention.
If you can work on your motorcycle yourself it cost a lot less than taking it to a dealer every time something needs attention.
Side note - try to never ride in the middle of your lane. Always try to ride in the left or right area where car tires are always traveling because that is the cleanest part of the road.
Earlier you mentioned the Sportster 883. The Honda Rebel 500 is probably a better choice for a first bike primarily because it weighs 150 pounds less. It's a new model though, so you won't get one for $3k.
My 2015 Triumph Tiger Explorer outweighs my 2008 Kawasaki KLR650 by about 150 pounds. It's a significant difference.
Highway and long trips?
VSTAR 1300 Tourer would be perfect for you, there isnt much replacement for displacement and the 1300 is a great starter bike and more, once that you wont feel the need to upgrade in the near future, I say this because you mention long trips and highways. I know both very well and the Vstar 1300 is the least bike that you want to do a lot of highway. Add to that terrific saddle bags ect.
The next step up from there would be a HD Road King but you wont do it for $3000 so search for a good low milage 1300.
The Suzuki C50 is a GREAT BIKE. I loved it, it was my first bike, bought brand new, but within 2 years I needed to upgrade to a larger engine, we travel fast moving interstates here and to me traveling at a true GPS speed (do not rely on the speedo for proper speed, goes for any metric bike) of up to 80 MPH and the C50 does get buzzy, also you will feel crosswinds more, as it is a lighter bike. I suspect at those speeds once the C50 is around 30 to 40,000 miles you will also start adding engine oil between oil changes.
I dont have experience with a Honda Shadow but maybe would choose that above the C50.
Again, I would search hard for a Vstar 1300 tourer, you wont be disappointed, its going to be the best cruiser anywhere near your price range.
Ps. the OP never asked about costs and maintenance, why all the comments on it?
He is looking for a $3000 cruiser. The 1300 is a great bike that he will get much enjoyment from. Also he does not want a light weight bike for long distance highway trips, that is insane.
VSTAR 1300 Tourer would be perfect for you, there isnt much replacement for displacement and the 1300 is a great starter bike and more, once that you wont feel the need to upgrade in the near future, I say this because you mention long trips and highways. I know both very well and the Vstar 1300 is the least bike that you want to do a lot of highway. Add to that terrific saddle bags ect.
The next step up from there would be a HD Road King but you wont do it for $3000 so search for a good low milage 1300.
The Suzuki C50 is a GREAT BIKE. I loved it, it was my first bike, bought brand new, but within 2 years I needed to upgrade to a larger engine, we travel fast moving interstates here and to me traveling at a true GPS speed (do not rely on the speedo for proper speed, goes for any metric bike) of up to 80 MPH and the C50 does get buzzy, also you will feel crosswinds more, as it is a lighter bike. I suspect at those speeds once the C50 is around 30 to 40,000 miles you will also start adding engine oil between oil changes.
I dont have experience with a Honda Shadow but maybe would choose that above the C50.
Again, I would search hard for a Vstar 1300 tourer, you wont be disappointed, its going to be the best cruiser anywhere near your price range.
Ps. the OP never asked about costs and maintenance, why all the comments on it?
He is looking for a $3000 cruiser. The 1300 is a great bike that he will get much enjoyment from. Also he does not want a light weight bike for long distance highway trips, that is insane.
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