[sirmaxwell]

Originally Posted by ChopperCharles

It's not bad. It's far better than say a CBR600RR, which is what so many dealers sell as a "beginner" bike. But I hear you. I think a TW200 is the perfect beginner bike, from a purely "teach someone how to ride" standpoint. Hard to stall, nice and low, not too heavy, easy to pick up, dirt cheap, and not destroyable. BUT... the ninja is a better all-around motorcycle. It won't be outgrown quickly. Hell, even after owning 20 motorcycles, I could live with a 250 ninja as my only bike. It's just extremely versatile.

I'm also actually not a superfan of my Buccaneer 250 as a beginner bike. I'm a huge fan of it as a motorcycle, but it's got a pretty tall seat height (31"), the levers are made out of cheese, and replacement levers take a week to 10 days to get from SSR. Between me riding off-road and teaching people to ride on the bike, it had probably been crashed 15 times. Smashed up the headlight trim a bit, bent the handlebars, even bent a lever or two. But never did all that crashing that made the bike unrideable.

My friend Carly bought a buccaneer, and has dropped it three times already. At a standstill. Each time resulting in not being able to ride for a week because she broke a lever.

Charles.

I just ordered these adjustable levers that LOOK nice, at least look nice to me as a motorcycle newcomer. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My bike fell over just once due to the kickstand on my Vader that shifts everytime you put it on the kickstand on flat ground and it will fall everytime if you don't wiggle/push it a little to make the kickstand shift to its final resting place while you are still holding it steady. Luckily I havent crashed yet, hopefully I did all my crashing (twice) for learning on my scooter last year. I broke the Clutch hand lever off at about the halfway point and I have rode at least 50 miles or so since that happened---I just recently have had a little funny business happening with my shifting/gearbox and I am really hoping I didn't mess anything up in the gears because I think it is harder to pull my clutch all the way in with half a lever, which means I probably havent been pulling it in all the way every time since it broke. These bikes will shift without using the clutch just like a semi-auto or "slipper-clutch" or whatever, but I have heard it puts excessive wear on some of the gearbox, make it fail sooner

Im glad your bike still works after all the crashing!

I don't feel like 31" is a high seat height since 26" is the bare minimum height to be street legal--in Connecticut anyhow. I'm probably 6' to 6'1" tops in a new pair of cross trainer sneakers, but without shoes I'm like 5'10" to 5'11" which is about average for an American male last time I checked--and I think m y Vader is 30" seat height, which is fine for me to get on and off, the lower the easier to mount it I suppose. It actually feels maybe a tad small for my legs as I ride, but it might partly feel small because the pegs/foot pedal and lever aren't placed forward and may be are even slightly sporty in their placement--I just make sure to bend my knee on the leg i throw over the seat when I get on and off to kind of get more clearance between my shoe and parts of the bke such as the rear turn signals, which look very easy to break with an unintentional slow "kick".