Quote Originally Posted by Slomaro Z28 View Post
Some will probably flame me for this, but I am really considering a 250r now. I have been looking at the cbr250r and the ninja 250r. Comments, good or bad welcome. Biggest reason is price and very wide availability.
Well for the reasons Bacon and David88 mentioned - you may want to start with a more powerful bike.

However, on the other hand this is exactly as you are saying - your FIRST bike! You should take time to learn and become familiar with how it handles - street is NOT dirt.
What you should do is read the sticky in this forum - http://www.importatlanta.com/forums/...ke-quot-Thread
I wanted to copy paste the whole thing for you as it addresses every concern you will have and carefully explains why.

IMO - You'd be fine with a Ninja 250 (Although I'm partial to Honda CBR ) I believe they can do a verified 100 mph (indicated 110-115?) and what is the fastest speed limit on roads you drive? I'm thinking no more than 70-75 mph. Obviously it will take some time to get there, and no, it will not have the passing power of a more powerful engine. But when your learning, I think you may owe it to yourself to start small.

It's funner to drive a slow bike fast, than a fast bike slow!

That being said I personally believe any one of these bikes are moderate powered easy to learn on beginner bikes:

- CRF230 L / M
- Ninja 250 / 500
- Suzuki GS 500 and GSF 500 (cheap and look good)
- WR 250X
- KLX 250 SF
- Rebel 250
- Shadow 750
- Honda NX 250
- VTR 250
- Vulcan 500
- Boulevard S40
- V Star 650
- DR-Z 400 (s or sm)
- XL 650
- DR 650

Borderline - (read: more powerful, but beginner-ish)
- Hawk GT - mine lol
- SV 650
- Ninja 650 / ER - 6N
- Suzuki Gladius
- Monster m600
- BMW F800 / FS 650?

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