[soulpatch]

My wife Lauri (rican_katgrl) is on the Katana and learned on it. She is maybe 5 foot and I know better to to try to guess her weight. Nonetheless she has handled the bike very well. Just take your time with it.

[steves]

Omg now I am even more nervous then before after reading these three pages of what not to buy and why;-( now lol she may never make it out the garage! These guys are saying how heavy this bike is and I'm 5'2" 130 and petrified of getting back on to learn clutch control!!"cry"
Very good information thanks for sharing
Maybe. Should get those training wheels after all "grin"!!

The key for the vertically challenged beginner is to make sure the bike is set up for you.

In Lauri's case it has 2" lower links on the rear, and the front forks were dropped, she also has adjustable brake and clutch levers.

[NoGutsNoGlory]

Omg now I am even more nervous then before after reading these three pages of what not to buy and why;-( now lol she may never make it out the garage!

I'd say take it all with a big grain of salt. I don't find the arguments particularly compelling.

[Nanakat]

Thanks for the chins up !!

[tomallama]

This article actually helped my friend from buying a CBR600 for his first bike

[connharrisfamily]

Great article. I learned how to ride on a 1996 suzuki katana 600 and I'll admit it was scary as **** the first couple times. IMO I wouldn't recommend learning to ride on one either. Still got that bike. Never going to sell it.

[jfwhitt]

Great article. My first bike, which I still have, is a 97 Kat 600. I'd agree 100% with what you wrote. I've ridden a lot before on a quad, so the operation of basic controls were already mastered. What I wasn't ready for was the response and handling differences. I ended up dumping mine the day after I bought it. Got on the throttle pulling into a parking lot with a little gravel at the entrance. Instead of the smooth slow power I was used to, I spun the rear tire in gravel and laid it down. I bought mine not because it was the ideal first bike, but because I got a great deal. If I'd done my research first, I would definitely have gone with a smaller naked bike to learn on. There would be a lot less power to get myself into trouble with, and if I did dropped it like I did, it would have been much cheaper to fix.

[STULER]

Great article. I learned how to ride on a 1996 suzuki katana 600 and I'll admit it was scary as **** the first couple times. IMO I wouldn't recommend learning to ride on one either. Still got that bike. Never going to sell it.

NEver going to sell it until you buy something nicer. i told myself over and over id never even consider selling my kat until i bought my ninja zx14. now im toying with the idea of selling the katana and putting the money toward a new condo

[Nero]

I faced that same decision years ago, Stuler. I owned a 2006 Kat and the 06 '14. I thought I'd enjoy riding them alternatingly, but I found no compelling reason to ride the Kat. The ZX had a similar riding position and was of comparable weight despite having 600CCs more. The steering was more responsive too, so it just didn't make sense to have two bikes. Ultimately, my Kat had to find a new home.

[ColorfulDan]

nice write up

[zach5045]

I was one of those idiot kids that bought a 600 sportbike as soon as they could. I, however, bought it out of convenience than vanity. My katana had been owned by my uncle then given to my aunt who learned to ride on it then sold it to me for less than 1000. Honestly it was the cheapest bike I could find that ran. I had grew up on dirtbikes and rode my dads 78 bmw gs1000 a bit. That first year was brutal on the wallet. I probably spent 200 on mirrors alone let alone jackets and spray paint. I was lucky and never got hurt but I would have been better of starting on something a bit smaller.

I do love the bike. It has loved me back and continues to do so even though it knows I am saving up for a street triple. I am not going to sell the bike being that I have so many memories and modifications (replacing broken stuff not customization). In fact when I die I would like the bike to be used as the fuel for my funeral pyre.

[Dj snsiqq]

Wow this is good.

[JWRusk]

nice

[blackice44]

I read most of this thread...not all, but most.

I'm not sure if I saw anything in there about age.

I think that age plays a HUGE role, if not the BIGGEST, in this decision making process. Does that mean that a 40 year old who has never been on any motorbike, much less a sport bike, should run out and grab up a ZX-14 or a Busa? Probably not, but they are MUCH less likely to get themselves killed than an inexperienced teenager or somebody in their early twenties without experience on a 600cc SS bike...don't you agree? The "I'm invincible factor" didn't leave me until I was about 27 years old and had my first boy to come home to every day (minus deployments)...something that most younger folks don't have in their lives to help settle them down. Many people in the younger age brackets (18-25) have certain aspects of life that they have to prove to their peers, too, in order to be "cool" and a liter SS, racing your group of friends in twisties going double the speed limit is usually how sport bike owners that age act. The simply lack maturity.

I'm part of the "I have years of dirt bike experience under my belt" crowd. Does that make me a seasoned street bike owner? Not at all. But it definitely puts me leaps and bounds ahead of somebody that has never ridden. Why? Because I have already mastered the hand-to-eye coordination required to ride a motorcycle (i.e. clutching with your left hand rather than your foot, accelerating by twisting with your right hand, rather than mashing a pedal with your foot, breaking with both your foot and your hand, shifting gears with your left foot rather than your right hand, etc., etc., etc.)

When I was in my MSF class to get my license, there were two guys in there that had never even sat on a motorcycle of any kind. They BOTH ended up failing out of the course on dog crap Hyosung Comet 250s because they just couldn't get the hand-to-eye down. They were throttling while breaking, they were killing the engine repeatetly...while counterbalancing, they dropped the bike multiple times, etc. One guy during the "slow, look, press and roll" was halfway through the turn, freaked out, stood the bike up and ran off the course and into the woods...we had to recover he and his bike. Luckily he was ok.

I got on my 750 for the first time (first street bike) with two feelings running through my brain. Confidence, to a certain degree, and most importantly respect.

I'm not afraid of the bike because I know that I am still learning and haven't even come close to mastering it and putting it to it's limits...heck, with my riding style, I likely never will. Because of that, I respect it. Yes, I hammer down on it every so often and have put her through some twisties at well over the speed limit, but I know that it is capable of FAR more than I am, especially as an inexperienced rider.

Most younger people who buy a bike because saying "Gixxer 1000" sounds much "cooler" than their bike being referenced as a "CanOTuna" don't/can't grasp that concept.

[Mmillerdroidx]

Lmfao, great info. I suppose that I lack vanity. My first bike was a 125cc Vento Rebellion. I bought it at age 30 to learn on, paid 300$ for it. Lmfao, I was constantly made fun of. It was small. I weigh 280#. It would take me 60 mph max. Anyways, I put 7k miles on it last year. Rode to and from work on it daily, rain or shine. Learned a bunch. 3 weeks ago, I bought my 750 kat. The power difference is not 5x as I would have expected, but 10 -15 times the power I had. Needless to say, I have a healthy respect now for the difference between sport bikes and cruisers. I am also thankful that I got a starter bike to learn the basics on before getting a sport bike.