People routinely ask me, “What motorcycle should I get?” I hear it from both new riders and experienced riders looking for their next bike. The answer is going to vary for each rider.
You have to decide how you’re going to ride, what you want out of a bike, your price range, your experience level, the overall quality of the motorcycles out there that you’re interested in, and the style or aesthetics you want to go for.
Weighing all the factors that go into answering this question isn’t an easy task, but I’m going to show you how to do it.
How Are You Going to Ride?
The first question I usually ask people to help them find out what motorcycle they should get is, “How are you going to ride?”
It’s a simple question, but can be a little tough to answer, especially if you’re a new rider.
For new riders, I usually tell them to go small and go with your gut. A smaller motorcycle in terms of overall size and displacement is going to be a new riders best bet. Usually, your first bike won’t be your last, so just get something good for general purpose and learn how to really ride it well. Odds are, you’ll learn how you like to ride within a riding season or two.
For more experienced riders, I push a little harder on this. Are you doing long highway rides? Do you ever go off-road? Are you just commuting? Do you need room for a passenger? All of these questions need to be answered before you can go any further.
What’s Your Price Range?
This is always my second question. As much as we’d all like to have an infinite amount of money to work with, we don’t.
Decide what you can budget for. Decide that for the total price of the motorcycle not the monthly payment. You need to be able to easily afford your motorcycle.
Also, I’ll always suggest you pay cash instead of financing. Having a monthly payment sucks. If you can’t save up for a motorcycle, you probably shouldn’t be buying one.
Decide on what you can easily afford and then search for a bike that fits how you’re going to ride. There are plenty of used motorcycles out there for very fair prices. They range from a few thousand bucks to tens of thousands of dollars.
I’ve owned several motorcycles and I’ve never paid over $6,000. Frankly, I don’t think you really need to spend much more than this ever, but you certainly can. If you have the funds to do so, I highly recommend doing it.
Don’t Buy a Project
If you’re after a motorcycle you can ride, don’t buy a project. This is especially true for new riders.
When I first started riding, I had a romanticized idea of what it would be like to restore a motorcycle and then go riding off, but the simple fact of the matter is that restoring a motorcycle is hard, tedious, and it take a long time.
If you want to ride a motorcycle buy a motorcycle that already runs well and is in good mechanical and electrical condition.
If you’re an experienced rider and you specifically want a project bike to work on, then by all means go for it. But I’d say to only buy a project bike after you already have a motorcycle in good condition that you can ride regularly.
What’s Your Motorcycling Experience Level?
After touching on all of the things I have so far, I’ll say this. New riders should buy a smaller bike. This means both in size and weight and in displacement.
That’s because their motorcycling experience level is not high enough for them to easily and safely ride a large, heavy, and powerful motorcycle.
Buy a 250cc bike. There are plenty of great used ones out there. If you really, really don’t want a 250cc motorcycle or will be doing a lot of highway riding, get a 300cc to 650cc motorcycle. These will do highway duties reasonably well, but not give you something too fast or crazy.
600cc to 650cc is really pushing it for a new rider. It’s just too much bike. You might think you’ll outgrow a 250cc or 300cc bike really quickly, but there’s always more to learn without going up in displacement.
I ride a Rebel 300. I’ve been riding since high school. I could certainly handle a bigger heavier motorcycle with a lot more power. I’ve ridden bigger heavier bikes, but I still find the light weight of the Rebel to be enjoyable and I keep finding new roads and riding situations to challenge myself.
If you’re an experienced rider, then I’ll say to match the motorcycle you buy to your skill level and the other things I’ve discussed so far. I’m still a big fan of leveling up slowly.
If you have a Versys 650 and you want something more adventurous, check out the Versys 1000 or the Suzuki V-Strom 1050, or the Honda Africa Twin.
I’d advise against going from a small bike like a Honda Trail 125 all the way to a Honda Africa Twin. Even if the Africa Twin is what you want in the long run, go with something in between first.
What Style or Aesthetic are You Going For?
Finally, think about the way the bike looks. Do you love retro styling or are you after modern styling?
Some style concerns will be decided by the type of bike you want, but there are more styles out there now than ever.
For example, if you’re after a true adventure machine, you can buy a Honda Africa Twin or you could think about a Triumph Scrambler XE. While the Africa Twin is obviously the more advanced motorcycle, the Triumph comes with serious off-road chops and the retro styling you might be interested in.
There are plenty of examples like this. My advice is always to find the type of motorcycle you want and answer the other questions I’ve discussed above and then look at the styling you want.
Too many riders do this in reverse. They let the styling dictate their choice and then realize they bought the wrong bike later on.
Hopefully, the info I’ve put together below helps you answer the question of “What motorcycle should I get.” It’s a question I’ve asked plenty of times, and tend to ask myself multiple times a year.
Sometimes the answer is already waiting for you in your shed or garage, so if you have asked yourself this in the past, and you have a bike waiting to be ridden in your garage, don’t sit around thinking about the next bike. Just go ride the one you have.
