Advice needed regarding 16 year old's first bike.

[mr self destruct]

My niece turns 16 in a couple of months, and after falling in love with mine and my brother-in-law's bikes has been making noises about getting one herself.


Looking on ebay at 50cc bikes, the geared ones tend to be more expensive than the mopeds. A roadworthy Derbi Senda or TS50 etc. seems to be around £1k, yet something like a City Express can be had for half that. Plus, geared bikes seem more expensive to insure (probably because they're mostly scramblers and very nickable!), which makes me lean towards her getting an auto.
My question is, would she be better off on a geared bike from day 1, or would an auto be ok while she gets used to being out on the road?


If anyone here used to ride a moped, was it hard to get used to manual gears or am I worrying over nothing?

[Robbie8666]

I started off on Honda cub which was semi auto 3 gears. got good road experience!!
 
personally I would wait til she is 17 then get something that actually goes more than 29mph as I think it is dangerous,,, but depends on where you live!!
 
only my opinion.

[midden]

Suffer the insurance from day one and go geared all the way with proper sized wheels.  At the same time get a good disk lock listed by insurance companies for peace of mind and a little insurance discount. IMO

[BBROWN1664]

I couldn't find a half decent geared bike when my eldest was coming up to 16. Ended up getting a twist and go which helped him learn about the road rather than struggling with gears for the first few days. Probably kept him safer as there was nowhere for him to practice off-road before he became 16.
At 17 he was on a Yamaha YBR125 then passed his test and moved up to a 33bhp restricted Kwaka ER-5. As soon as his restricted licence became unrestricted he moved to a slow blue FZS600.

Whatever you do, avoid the Chinese bikes. Probably worth giving the Italian ones a wide berth too if she wants to use it every day

[mustardbufc]

When we were looking for a 50cc for my son 4 years ago I found that not many of them were still restricted and so 40mph+ was more the norm rather than the stock and legal 29mph. Not saying it's right or wrong, just what we found.
Having said that I was much happier him riding around on something that was more than capable of keeping up with town type traffic.
Personally, I thought the auto was the best bet to start on. More time spent concentrating on the road rather than the gears. Anyway, why would you want to go through 5 gears to get to 40mph! He then progressed onto a geared 125 with no problems with the transition from auto to geared.
If you've got somewhere reasonably quiet to practice clutch and gear changes when she first starts it shouldn't take much getting used to. Everyone if different though and some pick these things up quicker than others.
Also, don't underestimate the desirability factor based on the look of a machine to a 16 year old (or in my experience 17,18,19,20 year old) kid!

[unfazed]

A geared model I believe is the way to go, but I would be inclined to wait until she is 17 to go on the road and get a real 125.
I started off my kids on a Yamaha TW125, but then I had farmers fields near where I live (biking farmers) where they could practice their skills before venturing on the road. Stopping on grass especially when wet certainly teaches them how to brake smoothly 
Youngest took a lot of tumbles in the fields until he discovered, speed does not always get you to the end quicker when they used to race around the fields on a Serow and the TW125.
I believe it was the best way to go as when they took to the roads they were then able to concentrate on the building up of their road craft without have to figure out how to ride at the same time.

[mickvp]

I started out at 16 on one of these:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=151732106683&globalID=EBAY-GB

Fully geared, and capable of about 40mph (mines was a 1977 model, so was never restricted from new). I liked it plus it was nice riding something a bit older I could work on, and I sold it on for a profit after I turned 17 and moved up to a Yamaha RXS100.

I would say if possible go geared from the get go.

[Oldgit]

Raleigh Palm Beach, with 3 speed Sturmey Archer gear--brilliant for 16 year olds.

[Frosties]

How about a Hybrid like this....although it's sold. These do about 45mph.
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOLD-2004-GILERA-DNA-50-13-000-MILES-PX-CLEARANCE-PROJECT-/361338093259?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item54216dbecb

[tomjimtom]

I had a twist and go, my brother had a geared thing.
I prefered my way, it's not hard to move up from an auto to a gearbox and it made the first year easier not having to change gear every 2 seconds.

Also when it came time to learn gears, I knew that much more about the roadcraft etc that the gears were made easier, only the one new thing to deal with.

Might be good to ask her? if she's planning to start driving at 17, the idea of gears and clutch might be more useful to learn early on but for me in terms of learning, I don't see any difference between learning them at 16 or learning them at 17.
Let me know if you want any more info, it was 10 years ago now though

[Grayo]

I started out on one of these but they are selling for silly money these days. Mine cost a quarter of that brand new in 1978.    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-FS1E-DX-FIZZY-1980-new-mot-/151755589397?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2355568715
But in answer to your question, I would go for geared right from the start.

[Val]

I had a twist and go, my brother had a geared thing.
I prefered my way, it's not hard to move up from an auto to a gearbox and it made the first year easier not having to change gear every 2 seconds.

Also when it came time to learn gears, I knew that much more about the roadcraft etc that the gears were made easier, only the one new thing to deal with.

 

The most sensible thing is let her start easy with twist and go.

[mr self destruct]

Thanks for the replies all, given me a few things to think about.

I was leaning towards a geared bike due to my experiences when I was 16 (back in 1988 before the CBT was brought in). I was given a Honda City Express by my stepdad and practiced in a car park. The first day I twisted the throttle too much, the bike leapt forward, I slid back hanging onto the throttle, which made the bike speed up even more until I fell off. Knocked my confidence bigtime. 
Obviously if you do that on a geared bike you grip the clutch and cut the drive, much safer, which I did during my CBT 3 years ago.

Having said that, during my CBT, once I'd learned to make the machine work the roadcraft aspect wasn't a problem as I've been driving for years.
This makes me think riding an easier twist & go would give her less to deal with during her CBT, and give her a year's head start for when she upgrades to a 125 at 17.

A couple of you have recommended waiting until she's 17, but she's the youngest of all her classmates (all already 16), and they'll be riding 125's while she's still on a 50 so she's desperate to get out on the road ASAP.

And we are avoiding Chinese shite like the plague, but have to admit the Gilera DNA does interest me now, to get her used to riding a proper shaped bike.

Off to trawl eBay now!