Two-wheeler for wife

hardluk1 · Mar 11, 2008

I ride hd's and jap and have fjr now. If your wife wants a hd look at some of the dyna glide models. Do go back and look at some of the early evo models ,say from 85 up to 98. If you pick a Fxd or Fxr model it is a good haneling bike and can have center controls or front controls.. DON'T go to the company store. You can probably rent a new one to try out, they will ride the same and damd sure worth while and try not to make it a low rider model. These can be abit rough on the back. Wide glide model has a bit of flop in the streering, not the best starter model. Most soft tails are short enough and are about the same feel except there is more motor vibration in the pre 99's at speed. The dynas have vibration at idle and then it smooths out. Cost on the older bikes can be very well priced and if you need some thing that you can't do there is some in every town that can help. And evo motors can go well over 100,000 miles with with just top end work. Go to delphi and rumage around ,there are some good sites there. I'm look'n for a late shovel or early evo myself.

Larry33319 · Mar 11, 2008

My wife is 5'4" and started on a Magna 750. A year later she went to a Ducati 900 Monster with a big bore kit. I picked it up for myself, she rode it, end of story. A year later she went to an 06 Honda VFR-800 Interceptor. You can lower it 3/4" by yourself for a few minutes time. She stands flat footed on the bike and has no desires for another bike in the near future. We picked it up Sept.06 and she has 25,000 miles on it. Nice fun bike to ride.

brianm767 · Mar 12, 2008

My wife started on an 883 Sporster, bad choice, too tall for most, not my wife though, way too top heavy, then she went to a CBR600 F4I, still not the best bike for a semi newbie.

My daughter who is 5'3" started on a Ninja500, great bike, no problems with the height or weight, then moved to a SV650S,

Actually a SV650 standard is a great bike for some of our smaller riders, drop it an inch and your set to go. but it can be a bit torquey , but nice upright riding position is a plus.

Ninja 250, Ninja 500 SV650 standard, all three great bikes for newbies, buy and ride a Ninja 250 for a year or two, and then sell it for pretty much what you put into it.

rfulcher · Mar 12, 2008

My wife started with a Suzuki Bandit 600 with lowering links and lowered seat. The height was fine but it was too top heavy. She then moved to a naked Suzuki SV650 with lowering links and a lower Corbin seat. She is 5'5" and can flat foot it. It is narrow without being top heavy. She loves this bike. It has good power but is very predictable. Even with a mellow predictable power curve the top speed is around 120 and it has power equal to much bigger cruisers. We will never sell this bike because it will be mine :yahoo: if she wants to move to another bike. We have upgraded the suspension with a new shock and springs and it is now equal to much more expensive bikes. The SV is very popular as a track bike.

She also has Daytona Superbike bars and a National Cycle Fairing so it is comfortable for long trips. This is a mellow light bike that I would take anywhere solo.

You might want to start with a used Ninja 250. This is a good bike to learn on and then resale. They seem to really hold their value. My wife and I frequently wonder if starting out on a Ninja 250 would have been much less stressful. She never had trouble with too much power. However she tended to get hung up with basic skills, such as low speed, stops, starts, right turns from a stand still, etc.. A much lighter bike probably would have made the learning curve much easier. the MSF course helped but was no substitute for actual time on the road.

Good luck.

sl_1300 · Mar 13, 2008

my wife has a VTX 1300 Retro with a Ultimate low rider seat. She says she likes it but it now has 530 miles on it and it's over 2 years old and I put 400 of those miles on it myself.