She's 5'8 with a 32" inseam so fits most standard bikes.
BMW F series, SV650 and that Yamaha FZ-07 check all the boxes so far. Don't think the CB500 is available with ABS.
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She's 5'8 with a 32" inseam so fits most standard bikes.
BMW F series, SV650 and that Yamaha FZ-07 check all the boxes so far. Don't think the CB500 is available with ABS.
BMW R nineT - Wikipedia
Just saying
Seat height 780 mm (30.9 in)
Manufacturer BMW Motorrad
Parent company BMW
Production 2014–
Class Standard
Engine 1,170 cc (71 cu in) air-cooled flat-twin
Bore / stroke 101 mm × 73 mm (4.0 in × 2.9 in)
Power 96.5 hp (72.0 kW) @ 7,610 rpm
(rear wheel)[1]
Torque 74.3 lb·ft (100.7 N·m) @ 6,090 rpm(rear wheel)[1]
Transmission Dry clutch, 6-speed, shaft drive
Suspension Front: telescopic fork, Rear: Paralever
Brakes Disc
Tires Front: 120/70 ZR 17
Rear: 180/55 ZR 17
Rake, trail 25.5°, 102.5 mm (4.04 in)
Wheelbase 1,476 mm (58.1 in)
Dimensions L: 2,220 mm (87 in)
W: 890 mm (35 in)
H: 1,266 mm (49.8 in) (w/o mirrors)
Seat height 780 mm (30.9 in)
Fuel capacity 18 l; 4.0 imp gal (4.8 US gal)
Fuel consumption 5.9 L/100 km; 48 mpg‑imp (40 mpg‑US)
The CB500X you can get with or without ABS.
I also saw this. I don't know if it's ABS though.
2007 Suzuki SV650S with 2 Miles
The ABS bikes have a sensor ring (array of radial cutouts) inside the brake rotors. Although available in 07 that bike is not ABS.
ABS on bikes sucks anyway. Would not let it be a factor.
Cool bike, as it should be for $15,000+. But I've got the boxer twin category already covered. The R65 remains a popular bike for shorter riders (and I owned one for 15 years) but a new middleweight is a better motorcycle in just about every way. Care and feeding of Bing carbs can become a full-time job.
https://photos.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...4BB5_tmp-M.jpg
I know in my wife's case, as a newer rider, she likes having an inexpensive older used bike, partly because she's had a few "tip overs" with it (including in the garage, etc) and she doesn't have to be all bummed about every scratch she puts on it. I'd actually prefer she upgrade to something more modern, but it's her bike and she likes the vintage and cheap aspect of it so my opinion is pretty much irrelevant. (Dohc 80s cb750c off craigslist, was supposed to be a test run to see if she liked having a bike at all, now it's her one and only forever)
All that stuff doesn't even factor in the theft appeal of a brand new bike in Boston, cuz we live in the sticks
ABS is the biggest safety advance in motorcycling since the tubeless tire.
It's a very good thing to have, especially for a new, casual, or occasional rider.
Or a regular transportation rider. Or a touring rider. Or pretty much anybody on the road in real life.
PhilB
I haven't had good results with abs. As soon as it kicks in you no longer have a predictable motorcycle.
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Admittedly in high performance riding situations, but if you over cook a corner isn't even a newb suddenly in a high performance situation?
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Agree. ABS has saved my bacon.
We aren't all super-star experts at bike control 100% of the time. Sometimes we get lazy, tired, distracted, or just plain unlucky. Some of us were just fortunate enough to be born stupid.
The rider aids do work and do help. I completely understand why one would desire ABS.
Panic stops are a sad reality to urban riding.
Maybe, but most "newbs" lack the ability to handle that situation well regardless of how they got there.
In my case, it was a max effort panic brake to scrub speed before I became embedded into a grill of an F350.
Sure, an "expert" can stop a bike faster with out ABS in a perfect world, but when you're tired, on a long trip and did something questionable to put yourself in the situation in the first place you're not exactly thinking at the top of your game.
ABS definitely has it's place for those "oh shit" moments.
I'll take ABS for the street and non for the track all day, every day. It doesn't even bother me that you can't disable the ABS on many bikes these days. The way I ride the street I just don't care.
Street and track are different environments. I have different requirements and expectations from a bike.
Didn't want this thread to devolve into an ABS debate, but since we're already there, I'll explain why, with 28 years street riding experience at the time, (or more accurately, one year, 28 times) I consider it a prerequisite for a new urban rider.
In 2008 I was riding a VStrom on a coastal road in Stonington, ME when I locked the front brake on a sandy turn and landed on my ribs. Hurt like hell and I was going maybe 10mph. One of the locals explained that a pond overflowed every time it rained, depositing a layer of silt across the road. "Bikes crash here all the time." I'd never tucked a front like that before and wouldn't have thought it possible at such low speed. Riding the 90 minutes to the hotel was memorable.
Started wondering if ABS would have helped, and found this article, which convinced me that for all but the very most skilled and attentive rider (and I am neither) ABS is of immense safety benefit.
Internet BMW Riders - No Fault Braking, A Real-World Comparison of ABS Systems
Summary:
- on wet roads, the most experienced riders of six riders stopped 80-100' shorter with ABS than their best non ABS stops from 60mph. The new rider stopped 140' shorter.
- On dry roads over a manhole cover, only one of the six riders was able to stop shorter without ABS, and the difference was 2'.
- On a dry road full panic stop by an expert rider, the difference between his best non ABS stop and full ABS control was 4-9', depending on the bike.
Now imagine this scenario. You are riding home to Boston on a nice summer afternoon when it starts raining by the time you hit Medford. Traffic is heavy, it hasn't rained for a week, the Macadem is starting to get saturated and all the oil and antifreeze is floating to the surface. You go over the Zakim bridge and are on the downslope into the tunnel, where four lanes of traffic merge, and a lot of the left lane traffic wants to get to the airport exit, and a lot of the traffic entering from the Tobin wants to get left. Throw in the visitors who don't know their way, and commuters who would eat their young to save two minutes.
You're riding 40-50 mph with traffic. You have no idea how much traction you will have if you have to slow down or stop, so you leave a safe following distance: which is immediately filled by cars changing lanes. If traffic suddenly slows and you have to get hard on the brakes, you could very easily find yourself going down, in the middle of four lanes of downhill traffic going 40mph, whose attention is focused on trying to cross lanes. (I'm leaving out the texters) That's my life.
For my wife and mother of three, with a grand total of maybe 40 miles of riding experience, if I can do anything to make riding safer, I'm going to do it: gear, training classes, and bike. Even if I have to buy her a new bike and she scratches it up, worth it to me, as if anything ever happens to her that I could have prevented, I'd never get over it.
A little surprised no one's mentioned the Triumph Street Twin.
Why buy new?
2015 Honda CBR300R ABS great condition, ready to sell
And this is even better
2013 CBR 500R
There are starting to be more used choices. But along with ABS we want an upright riding position that she feels comfortable with.
There's a Monster 696 ABS just listed, for example.
I had a monster 696 for 4 years and 10k miles. It is a terrific bike. I am not so sure as a first bike. The brembo brakes are very strong, the gearing tall and it is not very smooth under 4K rpm. The seat height and ergonomics are good. It is lightweight, but my wife was too scared on it.
Yes, torquey bikes, whether powerful or not, tend to put off female riders. I think a parallel twin would be a good balance between torqeuy and smooth/revvy.
If I were buying a new bike for my wife, I would be looking at the Honda 500's, or the new Kawasaki 300 Versys-X, or maybe an AJP PR-3/4 (for a more off-road focus). The 2 most important considerations would be seat height, and weight, as I would probably be keeping her off of the highways for a couple of years.