Swampy1970

It's not always a question of whether you believe that you're in control of your actions and your ability to keep the bike shiny side up. Quite often its the car drivers that don't see you and either change lanes into you or just pull out of a junction and before you can say "oh f**k" you're over then hood of their car and hoping the bike doesn't follow you. I've done the latter at low speed and even at 30 mph with full dainese leathers, boots, gloves and helmet it still fecking hurts. You can do the whole nine yards, ride with headlights on, ride wide toward the middle of the road, wear light colored leathers and try to form a zen like mind bond with other car drivers and you can still end up in trouble

Consider safety gear as your best friend and something that must be worn at all times. I've had a few "offs" and a couple were caused by cars within a few miles of home. 5 miles to suit up before throwing your leg over is way quick compared to skin grafts and a life of having body parts that look like they should belong to the Elephant Man.

I'd take a look at slightly smaller bikes before going for the 1+ liter beasts. The only Duke I'd recommend is the smaller Monster. Sure it might not look fast but the Monster was derived from the amazing 888 frame and it'll corner as well as most Japanese race reps. Get some experience with something lighter and more maneuverable. Honestly, if you want a bit of fun and something that can ride fast and be easy to handle the cbr600 is hard to beat. Very easy to ride, extremely forgiving when ridden hard even in stock trim and as reliable as your expect from a Honda. It'll also leave a turbo S2000 on street tires looking like a Yugo in a quick blast down the road.

Have a good chat with your insurance company first as they might just hang up on you if you tell them that you want a Ducati Pinagale S or similar as a first bike. There's something about vehicles in the hands of novices that will do 60mph sub 3 seconds and still have another 10 to 15mph before you change into 2nd or launch you to 150 before you think you're doing 90. They'd be more likely be ready to had you a free invite to be on the list for this years Darwin Awards than give you insurance.

If you do get a Duke, check the wiring. Having the engine "hiccup" whilst your knee slider is wearing ever thinner gets expensive about 0.05 of a second after the back wheel wiggles. Been there, done that. Ohlins forks and Marvic wheels are pretty bombproof but the same can't be said about fairings and fluff like indicators, brake/clutch/gear levers and the like. Maybe Paulo doesn't knock back 10 bottles of vino a day anymore before hand soldering the wiring

Remember SQUID - stupidly quick, imminently dead. Sometimes it's the stupid that's get you, sometimes its the speed - combine one with causal clothing on a hot summers day and it might be that an organ donor card would be useless for anything other than scraping your kidneys off the road with.

If you do go for a 1 liter missile as a new rider, consider looking a the new Dainese suit that has airbags in. $4000 might seem spendy but that's only a few hours of bills in the ER and that same suit saved Guy Martins ass in the Isle of Man TT a year or two ago when he decked it a speed and his bike erupted into a spectacular fireball.

mikey3165

definitely not looking at liter bikes although i did state the 999 as option definitely want to stick to the 749/748 and the buell although 1200cc is a Harley motor and 600s are faster than that thing, i want these specific bikes over the others because i love the way they look and don't like buying what everyone else has...aka CBR600 or any other Japanese 600. Good advice though

@ Bahula03, buying, maintenance sides out of the picture, you cant say the 748/749 aren't much much cheaper than rsv4s lol maintenance for the both of them are expensive this i know but he duc is definitely a cheaper, easier find and much more friends for first time rider than the RSV4 i believe. So referring to the 748s/749s how many miles is too much, and is there anywhere online that shows the proper maintenance schedule like the 6000 mile maintenance mark and what should be done and the such. I just want a bike that is good to go and up to date with maintenance but I don't mind taking stuff apart i am definitely mechanically inclined and am looking forward to that stuff.

Swampy1970

If you're mechanically inclined and fancy a challenge, get the Duke and learn all about desmodromic valves and how to adjust them. Got valve springs? Nope...

thonda

Have you ridden a buell that bike is so unrefined it is not even funny. Vibrates like a hedge trimmer when I rode it back in the day... Go Ducati, the 749s is a good bike as it doesn't have so much power that it scares the crap out of you.

Swampy1970

So the Buell is also the equivalent of a two wheeled 1920's John Deere tractor like a Harley then? I've never ridden a Buell but did ride a Harley for about 10 miles once. A gutless heavyweight two wheeled POS that wallowed like a supertanker in a hurricane and had the performance of a broke down Yugo running with one good cylinder. A hateful piece of machinery.

homersapiens

If you are a practical person you might want to consider an SV650.

They are very popular for racing and there are lots of parts on the market for them. Properly set up, you get a bike with Ducati-like properties with Japanese reliability and maintenance.

Keep in mind that, sooner or later, you will "drop" your bike, if not crash it. All bikes are "money pits" when it comes to repairing body parts, but some are much deeper than others.

I recommend you check out SVRider.com for more info on them.

http://www.svrider.com/forum/forums.php

Fair disclosure: I have a 2000 (1st gen.) SV I need to sell.

mikey3165

really not a fan of those naked japanese bikes, and i honestly dont know why...if i was going to get a japanese bike it would be a 600 full fairing bike like the cbr, gsxr and r6

Arro

A full fairing can be had for the SV650's. Many are used as track bikes and there are plenty of them out there. A bike you're not likely to grow out of very soon. I think I also read somewhere that a GSXR600 front end (forks, bars, brakes, wheel) can be bolted onto the SV, I forget which year models those were.

mikey3165

and its not just that i want a vtwin, i like everything about these bikes, really not feeling the sv650 and if i were going to want the gsxr fairings on the sv650 i would just get a gsxr then

ZDan

This is a Duke:


This is a Duck: