tshelfer
0
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2009
- Messages
- 13,467
- Reaction score
- 2,822
- Location
- Centennial, CO
- First Name
- Tim
- Last Name
- Shelfer
For the time being, I'd recommend staying put on your current bike. You've survived your first few weeks of riding - you didn't kill yourself, maim yourself, or scare yourself into parking it and walking away. That's more of a milestone than you probably realize at this point. Now spend the next year building skills & confidence, & at the same time finding out what kind of riding you're really going to want to invest yourself into, long term. Whether you find your passion in touring, two-wheel camping, dirt riding, or just enjoying a two-wheel commute daily will ultimately determine what bike you need, or whether you need multiple bikes to cover that ground.
I'm not averse to big bikes; big displacements do certain things that smaller displacements can't - like pull 300 lbs of trailer or carry a very hefty passenger, if that's your thing. But don't be fooled by the leather-chaps crowd into believing that anything smaller than a liter is "a beginner's bike." That's like saying that a 4-cyl, 2-liter Honda or Miata is "a beginner's car."
Me, I've never owned anything bigger than a 650cc bike in my life. I've ridden some, but never owned one. My DL650 will take me anywhere in the United States, and at well over legal speed limits. It'll climb an 11,000 foot pass much more quickly than many cruisers of more than twice the displacement. And it'll carry 50 or 60 pounds of camping gear with no more notice than a slight drop in the usual 50mpg mileage. The only reason I would personally need to buy a large displacement bike would be if I started carrying a passenger on long trips.
Take a year or so to figure out what you really need before you make any other large investments. Just my $.02.
I'm not averse to big bikes; big displacements do certain things that smaller displacements can't - like pull 300 lbs of trailer or carry a very hefty passenger, if that's your thing. But don't be fooled by the leather-chaps crowd into believing that anything smaller than a liter is "a beginner's bike." That's like saying that a 4-cyl, 2-liter Honda or Miata is "a beginner's car."
Me, I've never owned anything bigger than a 650cc bike in my life. I've ridden some, but never owned one. My DL650 will take me anywhere in the United States, and at well over legal speed limits. It'll climb an 11,000 foot pass much more quickly than many cruisers of more than twice the displacement. And it'll carry 50 or 60 pounds of camping gear with no more notice than a slight drop in the usual 50mpg mileage. The only reason I would personally need to buy a large displacement bike would be if I started carrying a passenger on long trips.
Take a year or so to figure out what you really need before you make any other large investments. Just my $.02.