btw woody you got mail…

Gravitysucks… The SV isn’t brilliant for big lads. I’ve known a few proper giants who ride them and do seem to get on OK though. Bear off of SV650.org is a bloody monolith of a man and used to ride a pointy SV650S, he looked a bit odd mind Go and have a sit on as many bikes as you can. Sporty-ish bikes don’t cater all that well to big folk though.

I passed my test many years ago and bought a gsxr 750 as my first bike.I was stationed in Germany with the military police at the time.Within 3-4 months I would patrol our area on a police bike.I travelled all over europe on my 750 following Carl foggerty at super bike events.On moving back to the uk I had a raced tuned ducati superlite and a bimota db2,in all my time on these bikes I was never out of my depth or control.Buying what ever bike is a personal choice because an arsehole on a small powered bike is still an arsehole.You can learn on a big bike just use your common sense .something lacking here maybe.As for experiance many miles or years dont always make a good rider

What a childish bunch of tags.

Northwind – I have seen the difficulties and dangers of people attempting to learn to ride on big sports bikes many times. This is why I am so against it – as are all the bikers I know.

go and learn on the track mate.

safer, faster, with motorcycle comprehension in a non-diluted environment.

then you’ll not want to ride the over-crowded, badly surfaced, over populated, cage driving idiot queens highway.

Did I see a request for piccies amongst the *advice*? Here’s mine:

MOD: Link removed due to malware

My route to biking; I did a CBT which my wife gave me for a birthday present. I then rode a Suzuki RG125 for a year, this gave me a foundation in road sense. I then did a 3 day DAS (the rules I think just changed so I did this so as not to be restricted) and passed my test on an unrestricted 600cc. Looking back I think my most sensible decision was to ride for a year as a learner…

My advice, if you want to do it then do it, I haven’t regretted it for a second

TJ- you’re entitled to your opinion of course but you don’t get to claim it’s everyone else’s, that’s all. Speak for yourself, don’t speak for me or others.

My pair…

I think this debate is focusing too much on power. The handling difference is a key issue for what bike is going to be a better choice for a new rider. A sports bike requires much more technique to ride well than a ‘soft’ bike like a Hornet, ER6 or SV650. A friends Ducati S4R is far softer and more forgiving to ride over my Aprilia despite having similar power. Bikes like a fazer or hornet 1000 have nearly the same usable power as their sports bike equivalent using the same engine but are going to be alot easier to handle as a novice.