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Old 04-28-2004, 06:13 PM   #18 (permalink)
BooRadley
Insane
 
Location: Kentucky
Quote:
Originally posted by MrSelfDestruct
Any reccomendations for someone who's looking for a first bike to buy in about a year or so, and is 6'8" and 295lbs? Or am I going to be stuck driving cars intended for the elderly for my whole life?
Sure.
Mr. Self Destruct, I am 6'4" , so I understand the need for leg room. I can recommend two paths in motorcycling : Dual sport, and cruiser.

Sportbikes are ill fitting for tall people. They bend your legs up, and everyone knows us tall people hate being twisted into a ball in a vehicle .

Scooters... well, that's a whole different story, but you feel like a gorilla sitting on a football. And it's not only for aesthetic reasons, things just feel so much better when you are matched to your bike, weight & heightwise. A little riding and you'll see. I had to switch bikes in my safety course, because I kept sitting on the passenger seat on a bike and couldn't throw it around at low speed as well....

For dual sport, I'd say the Kawasaki KLR650. It was the tallest street motorcycle made, I think the honda XR650L is an inch or so taller now, but it is an inferior motorcycle in many other aspects.
If you want to sit upright, take corners at speed, and not worry about banging into a pothole, the dual sport route is the way to go.

However, many people believe dual-sports lead to hooliganism. This is true. Read some of their exploits, at advrider.net... the dual sporters generally are crazy ( riding 60 miles to a mountain and then trying to ford creeks that practically cover the bike ) and then wreck their $14,000 BMWs while trying to race a motocross bike in an enduro race.

The bikes have good (if not great) handling, great suspensions, and bullet-proof easy to maintain engines. The down side is, they don't have "Holy shit I'm on a rocket" speed. They have more than enough speed for average people, but can be blown away by even the weakest sportbikes in the straights ( like the ninja 500 ). There are some fast dual sports, the KTM Duke 2 being a notable example, but you are talking serious $$$.

For cruiser, you can get almost any one ( I'd go with the Kawasaki Vulcan Drifter or similar, as it has a LONG wheelbase and the controls are stretched out pretty far in stock form) and install forward pegs to accomodate your legs. I don't know much about cruisers.

I'm not here to advertise Kawasaki, it just turns out they have the best bikes for tall people.

Of course, you could go buy a $25,000 chopper and think you are cool, but I won't get into that.

Bikes to stay away from (poor fitting for big/tall people)
Suzuki GSX- ( any versions, either katana or GSXR or hayabusa... long legs = knees up too high for comfort )
Buells ( These are absolutely tiny, skinny bikes )
Ninja 250 ( No way in hell. Not only power wise, the bike is physically TINY )
Yamaha R1/R6, Kawasaki Ninja 6/7/9/10/11 series, same reasons as the GSX's
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