My Wife Learned to Ride!!!

Yes it's true: she did it. She took the MSC and passed with flying colors. :thumb: Learned on a Rebel 250 and just fell in love with riding, doesn't want to be a passenger any more. And she's got the bug real bad.... Dreams about riding, first thing she says in the morning is about bikes and what to do or not to do. Now she's into all the motorcycle websites I'm into, and she's trying to pick out her first ride! I think it's great: I can get rid of that brand new car in the garage that's tying up all my $$$, buy something less expensive and get her a decent machine, plus build a deck on my house! ray:

Just two problems: she day-dreams a bit when she rides and I've warned her to be on guard for that. Secondly, she looking at MY VFR like she thinks she can just get on and go. Luckily, she can't reach the ground sitting on the VFR!

You guys got spouses that learned to ride: how'd you handle it? What bike did you get the girl?

 

Congrat's, I thought I had my wife talked into it but she chickened out on me. Looks like I'll be shopping for a cruiser next spring unless she decides to give it a go next year.

 

My wife started on a Rebel 250 and now has a Vstar 650 Classic. She's into chrome and leather.
We ride at a very relaxed (read slow) pace when we ride. Point is...we ride together.
Very cool!

 

Congrats Cobra, after I bought my VFR my wife decided she wanted to learn. Has her appointment with the MSF in May. A one point I asked her if she was serious and whether she wanted a bike to practice on, she said no, she could just use mine, so I bought her an '86 VF 500. I'm hoping, if it works out, this bike will last her until she decides how far she wants to go with it and whether she gets a newer bike. She will at minimum take the course though, $110 non refundable.

 

My wife rides a 1989 Honda Hawk NT650GT (I ride it too for that matter) & she loves it. While both of us love the bike, good, un F'd with examples are becoming increasing difficult to find. If you can find one that hasn't been turned into a race bike for less than $3500, I would absolutely recommend buying it. Good ones hold their value at right around 80% ($4000 new in 1988-91) of original. Mine is a 1989 & I could easily get $3500 if I ever sold it.

Unless she REALLY wants one, steer your wife away from cruisers, trust me on this one.

For a new bike, here are some good choices for vertically challenged types:

Suzuki SV650(S) & GS500F
Ducati Monster 695
BMW FS800S & ST
Kawasaki Ninja's 650, 500 & 250
Moto Guzzi Breva 750

All of these are narrow, lighweight machines that handle well & have enough power to keep a rider interested. All use common size tires. Except for the Kawa most have minimal fairing to fix/replace in the event of departure from controlled flight & impacting the terrain. Probably the "best" one on that list would be the SV650. There are plenty of Suzuki dealers & the bikes have a remarkable following both from riders and the aftermarket. 2nd I would say is the Duc simply because they don't sell very well so most Duc dealers are willing to wheel & deal. The BMW is new for 2007 so they are flying off the showroom floors. The Moto Guzzi is a great bike but they don't have many dealers. The Ninja 650 is butt ugly. The 500 & 250 are great little bikes. I've ridden a 250 & it's like riding a moped with a serious attitude problem.

One thing I can't stress enough is to completely ignore the Buell Blast. They market it as a beginners bike & basically it is. So what's the problem with it? It cost $5000 & makes 25HP. You can buy a Craftsman Lawn Tractor that makes more power than that.

KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

Yeah I rode a Buell Blast when I took the MSF class... I thought it was nice for learning to ride on, but I definitely would have grown out of it real fast.

It was a fun little thing to ride, but it's pretty underpowered like you said... you could do much better for the money!

 

All very good answers and worthy of consideration. Have any of our women-folk tried the Yamaha FZ-6?

"You can buy a Craftsman Lawn Tractor that makes more power than that." :rofl:

 

One more note; the Duc monster 600 also has the lowest seat of the ones mentioned. I'm with you KC on the Hawk, that is one of the smartest coolest bikes out in the market today, plain and simple.

 

The reason I didn't mention any inline 4 bikes:

Almost every woman I talked to likes a "narrow" bike. My wife likes naked bikes, meaning no fairing and a round headlight. She thinks the Duc S2R is rolling beauty. She sat on the Honda 599 & she said she didn't like the way it felt. Same with the FZ6 & CBR's & YZF600. Every single inline 4 she tried, she did not like. Armed with this info, I asked every woman rider I could find and only 1 has a inline 4. That individual has a GSXR750 & races it. Her street bike is a SV1000S.

I can almost guarantee that my wife's new bike will be the New BMW FS800S.

I can't believe I didn't notice this, you're from Comox. Did you attend the 4Wing Air Show in 2003? If so did you stop by the KC-10 on static display?

KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

My wife also liked the cruiser look/style... She had no interest in sportbikes.. My attempt to get her to ride a sportbike ended up with us trying different models like the SV650, FZ6, 599, Monster, even a VFR before I even owned one...
We ended up getting a Ninja 650R last year.... She didn't care for the looks, but liked everything else about the bike... I can say it was a very easy ride for a beginner... It has a low seat height and an upright seating position that places no stress on the wrists...and is very light and flickable, plus the full fairing makes it comfortable on the highway...
My opinion is that it may not be as performance oriented as the other new bikes, but it is more practical...

 

I see a lot of guys who want their wives to ride, but what they want is for their wives to be the same kind of riders they are. That doesn't always work out so hot. My theory is that everyone, even non-riders, is predisposed to become a certain type of rider, it's in their basic nature, and if you push them against their nature they will never like motorcycling. Therefore, it's important for them to choose their own bikes, even if they make what you might think are really dumb choices.

And it's even more important to avoid saying anything bad about the bike they choose, even if you think it's terrible. If it's really truly the wrong bike for them, they'll figure it out. Better to trade it in and lose money on the deal, than for you to push them onto a bike they will never be happy with, and which they don't feel they can reject without it somehow reflecting on you. Because from there, it is a very small step to just never feeling like going riding, and the more they don't ride, the more likely they'll never ride again.