What cheap first-time bike for big bloke?

[NNH]

I passed my UK licence in 2018 (29 years after my car licence), and then almost immediately moved to Los Angeles. I've put about 4000 miles on a few different rental bikes while I work out what I like. I'm 6'5" and 16 stone, so I need a bit of room and I'm pretty comfortable with 225kg+ bikes. I ride slower than I drive, and I'm perfectly happy to pootle along and enjoy the scenery, so long as the bike can handle an hour or two at 80mph+ on the freeway to get out of LA.

I enjoyed a V-Strom 650 and BMW R1200RT for 750ish mile roadtrips around Ireland and California respectively, while a Harley ElectraGlide felt very clumsy on a 1200 mile trip down the West Coast. Yamaha's FZ8 and FZ6 were both fun for a weekend, while the FZ07 (MT07 over there) felt oddly sluggish on the freeway under my weight. I tried a new Kawasaki Z400 at a dealer day and it was lovely on back roads, but there's no way I'll ever get my wife (5'10", 11 stone) to spend more than 15 minutes on the back of it.

I'm finally in a place to spend a little bit of money on a toy, and mostly I'll use it for daytrips to the beach/mountains, and occasional weekends away with my wife to go camping in the desert. $2000-2500 over here will stretch to 1100 and 1150cc BMW Boxers, older V-Stroms (650s and 1000s seem to cost the same), 955i Tigers/Sprints, and a very few FJR1300s.

Honda ST1300s, BMW 1200 Boxers with sub-100k mileage, BMW parallel twins and Ducati ST4s are essentially out of budget at this time.

Any thoughts or advice on buying and owning a 10-20 year old bike, and have I missed any good optionsfor a big lump like me?

Edited by NNH on Wednesday 19th February 17:43

[NNH]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!
VFR1200 - very interesting, but they don't seem to be in my price range yet
FZ1 / ZX10R - there do seem to be a few around, so I've added them to my shopping list
Caponord - very tempting, but not many around here. There do seem to be some Futuras, but the very short build run makes me wonder about getting parts.
V-Strom - I did like the 650. Is the 1000 much heavier to ride?

Oddly, there are far more big bikes in the classifieds in San Diego and San Francisco than here in LA. There may be a short road trip involved...

[NNH]

Speed addicted said:

Can you stretch to a 1050 Tiger?, great all rounder (I traded mine for the VFR).
Blackbirds are still great bikes, and are mechanically tough. They may have a bit more go than you'd like though, depending on how you view speeding tickets.

I don't know if they did a Suzuki 1200 Bandit over there. Cheaply built but a good mix of power and comfort.
Early speed triples or sprints would also fit the bill, but again I don't think they were popular in the states.

1050 Tigers are pretty rare in this price range, but when they are available they tend to have all the goodies. I gather that 75k+ mileage isn't a major worry for the Triumph triple?

[NNH]

Speed addicted said:

Umm.. to be honest that sort of mileage is pretty rare here.

I'm noticing that US bikes often have big mileages on them (except Harleys, which often seem to be virtually unused). Used prices here also seem to stay higher for longer - there's virtually nothing under $2k that runs.

[NNH]

hman said:

C90

[NNH]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm thinking of stretching the budget to $3k to let me include more of these options in my search. (We've set up a new business, so every dollar spent is a dollar less to invest in the business)

[NNH]

Felters said:

Did they sell the Honda ST1100 in the US? Worth a look... 1150GS is also a good call. I'm a similar size to you and wandered all over Europe on one some years ago.

This is the only one I've found on the market (sort of) but there are some tempting prices from time to time: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/mcy/d/corte-mader...

[NNH]

airsafari87 said:

I havent seen this suggested on here yet, but from your OP I gather you intend to use the bike quite a lot with your Mrs on the back?

If she is going to be riding pillion with you and you intend to do half decent mileage I would suggest getting her involved with the buying process too. Even if it means that riding newer and out of budget models of the same model of bike you are considering.
Ultimately you are going to want her to feel comfortable and safe on the back of the bike, if she doesn't feel comfortable on there she isnt going to enjoy the ride and as it's a shared experience neither will you.

Riding alone is amazing, but riding with your partner on the back and you both sharing that same level of e enjoyment is something else altogether and makes for a great experience.

You're absolutely right. On the rental bikes so far, she's liked the R1200RT and the Electra Glide, and thought the V-Strom was OK. The three Yamahas didn't appeal to her. A backrest or topbox is an absolute requirement for her to feel comfortable, and at 5'10", she isn't going to fit on the back of anything too sporty.
There's an opportunity to rent a Tiger 1050 through Riders Share, so I'll try to set that up

[NNH]

NITO said:

Aprilia Caponord ETV 1000...



Plenty of Rotax V-Twin grunt, excellent handling and stability, loads of space and can be loaded up like a mule and would also ferry the missus in comfort!

Edited by NITO on Tuesday 18th February 08:28

Well this is certainly good value at $1500! Whether I'm brave enough to ride 425 miles home on a $1500 bike is still open to question.

[NNH]

Pat H said:

Do you like older stuff?

I am 6"2 and over 16 stone and have quite comfortably toured two up with luggage on a 1981 R100. The monolever bikes from the late 1980s are cheaper and even more comfortable.

Most of them seem to come with hard luggage and they are absurdly simple and dependable old things if you aren't in too much of a hurry. Going up in value these days, as most have been cocked about with and turned into café racers.

A while back I was given this scruffy R80. It was a fantastic old thing and I should never have sold it.

I love your garage! The older R-bikes have a certain appeal. For no rational reason, I'm also attracted to the K75, mainly for its intriguing engineering.

[NNH]

NITO said:

This is the documented approach taken on my own one;
https://nitosport.com/blog/category/aprilia-capono...

Great site!

[NNH]

Thanks for all the good advice. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to San Francisco before the $1500 Aprilia sold, but someone has just drastically reduced their asking price for a Tiger 1050.

When it comes to the Tiger 1050, speed addicted has already made some good points about checking brakes, chain and suspension, but if anybody has any other advice, I'd appreciate it.