First bike suggestions please

[bludclot]

A friend of mine is turning 50 next month and has been talking about riding since I have known him. His wife has bought him a direct access booking for his birthday. He's been driving for years so already has road sense and traffic patterns knowledge and experience. He's around 6' 4" and well built and has asked me what I would recommend for a first bike. When I ask what lines he's thinking along he wants more of a 'tourer' style, nothing too new so that's it's not precious (up to around £6k perhaps) and definitely something that's not too small given his body size. He's very comfortable sitting on my Fazer thousand but doesn't like the idea of that much bhp for a first bike. I came up with: CB1000 (SC30), CB1300SA, tiger 800, R1150R but none of them seemed to appeal to him. He suggested a Versys 650, but I know that the ER-6n it's based on is bordering on the tiny. Any other suggestions?

[Gnasher]

Your friends size is going to be a major factor in any choice, he makes.


Power in it's self shouldn't as a mature adult be a limiting factor as, it's how and when the power is used, although I can see it being an intimidating factor to any choice.  That said you need to consider how the power is delivered rather than how much is produced, also the weight and size of the machine even being a large bloke doesn't stop a heavy bike being heavy and until experienced is gained intimidating.


I would suggest he looks and softer turned twins, so he's choice of a Versys 650 would be a good one or any large trail/off road bike XT660 Tenere, Triumph Tiger's, Honda Africa Twin, Suzuki later V Strom etc.       

[BBROWN1664]

Varadero
Pan European
Tiger

All heavy bikes though.

[smellyone]

Something low and cheap to drop for the first year or so. Maybe Diversion600 as they are cheap to fix.

[Dudeofrude]

Think Gnasher hit the nail in the head there with the V-strom. Cheap, big and with enough power to play but not enough to scare.
Really any of that style bike should suit
At 6ft 4 I wouldnt recommend anything with flat bars or clip-ons unless he likes pretending to be a pretzel haha

[Trebus]

+1 on V-Strom. I had Mk1 1000 but the 650s also go well enough. Nice tall and relaxed riding position.

[Trebus]

Something low and cheap to drop for the first year or so. Maybe Diversion600 as they are cheap to fix.

Personally I wouldn’t wish one of these on anybody. Had one for a while and it’s one of the only bikes I’ve owned that I really disliked!

[Fazian]

What about the versys 1000? I'm looking at getting one of these and selling the fazer.

[Dudeofrude]

What about the versys 1000? I'm looking at getting one of these and selling the fazer.

Fantastic bike but not cheap and to be honest quite powerful, especially as a first bike. I think I may well end up with one in the future once my knees and hips start to hurt too much for a sporty positioned bike

To be honest the 650 is a good bike too. My brother in law has one and he's 6ft2 so its a decently enough size. He commutes 60 miles a day on it and says its great. Powerful enough and extremely good on fuel. He can keep up with me on the Fz1 as long as I'm being sensible and not trying to lose him.
We did stick an open exhaust on it and it sounded insane but he asked me to take it off after 2 trips to work as it was giving him headache on the dual carriageway haha

[Billy Balthorpe]

Ok so we seem to be erring on the side of the Versys 1000, the 2012 model is about 118 bhp, but delivers it power quite low down. But as someone mentioned, new rider, new to bikes, he will probably drop it at some point, paying £6K for a bike then dropping it and doing some damage makes my skin crawl, and its not even my bike! How about a Varadero 1000, they are very cheap, big enough so he wont look like a monkey on a mangle, 90 odd bhp, easy to ride if a bit boring for the more seasoned riders, but as a starter bike which you would only lose a couple of hundred quid on if you dropped it, instead of trying to put a nice versys back to standard after a drop, it sounds like a better bet. Fit a couple of manual cam chain tensioners (about £100) and ride around with no worries. Keep it for a year, make all the mistakes, flog it and then buy something nice for £6K.

[vinnyb]

Something low and cheap to drop for the first year or so. Maybe Diversion600 as they are cheap to fix.

Personally I wouldn’t wish one of these on anybody. Had one for a while and it’s one of the only bikes I’ve owned that I really disliked!

    I'm glad it's not just me. I never had the misfortune to own one but i had one forced upon me as a 'courtesy' bike when my Thunderbird Sport was in for it's first service. the engine felt like it was trying to rev through treacle and then when it did eventually get up to any sort of speed, the brakes refused to slow it down again. It wobbled and wallowed over cat's eyes and road imperfections and generally handled like a pig on roller skates.
  If you really want to put a newbie off bikes before they get into them, I would suggest this is probably one of the best bikes to do it with.

[coffee]

Something low and cheap to drop for the first year or so. Maybe Diversion600 as they are cheap to fix.

Personally I wouldn’t wish one of these on anybody. Had one for a while and it’s one of the only bikes I’ve owned that I really disliked!

    I'm glad it's not just me. I never had the misfortune to own one but i had one forced upon me as a 'courtesy' bike when my Thunderbird Sport was in for it's first service. the engine felt like it was trying to rev through treacle and then when it did eventually get up to any sort of speed, the brakes refused to slow it down again. It wobbled and wallowed over cat's eyes and road imperfections and generally handled like a pig on roller skates.
  If you really want to put a newbie off bikes before they get into them, I would suggest this is probably one of the best bikes to do it with.

  yeah,or a Deauville,with which he could really rip up the road.

[coffee]

Saying that,what a comfy old bike a Deauville I had years ago was,just heavy and underpowered.

[bludclot]

Excellent points well made there, thank you. I have relayed what was said and he is going to look at a v-strom 650 this weekend. I gave him a run down of what to look for and how to check - tyres, chain and sprockets, wheel / head bearings, signs of damage etc. He's taking another biker friend with him too so hopefully some knowledge and experience can be applied to the consideration process. When I went to see him last night he was clearing a space in his garage...

[Gnasher]

From memory the DL650 (V Storm) had a few of recalls depending on year, one for a stator wiring issue, the others premature cam wear and a fuel tap leak I think it was.   

You should be able to search if the work has been done by going to Suzuki's website, owners tab and put it the reg.   

[Oldgit]

Raleigh Palm Beach.

[robbo]

Raleigh Palm Beach.

  3 or 4 speed Sturmey Archer

[Oldgit]

3 speed Sturmey Archer and Blue plastic mudguards, and straight handle bars with white handgrips--the bees knees.