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My younger son started riding in June of 2015. He wanted to use a bike for school since parking is awful on campus. We got him a 2012 KLX250S. He dumped it several times. Once wearing shorts - third degree burns on his leg. Always wears long pants now. Made some dumb mistakes but was lucky to avoid serious injury.
For the 2016 - 2017 we upgraded him to a 2014 CB500X so he would have some highway ability, better brakes, better tires, etc. He has been riding that bike for about a year and a half.
He is home for Thanksgiving and we went for a ride. He has really good close quarter slow speed skills. Not a surprise since he was on his old KLX and he has spent 2 and a half years dodging idiots on campus, popping over curbs, slipping through short cuts, etc.
What was a surprise was when he got on the Harley and twirled that around like it was a trials bike. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. But he has better skills on the Harley than I do with only having ridden it around the block a couple time. I have been riding it for a year and a half. But I did not spend a year on a 250 dual sport and another year on a CB500X.
Of course, he is young, strong, confident, athletic, fearless like a lot of 21 year olds. So he has that advantage. I was just shocked at how easily he transferred the smaller bike skills to a bigger bike. I think I will go back to the KLX and work on my skills.
So all the experienced riders here who advocate starting on a 250 have a good argument in my opinion. And the small dual sport is very resilient to getting dumped a few times. All we have repaired on it is a clutch handle.
For the 2016 - 2017 we upgraded him to a 2014 CB500X so he would have some highway ability, better brakes, better tires, etc. He has been riding that bike for about a year and a half.
He is home for Thanksgiving and we went for a ride. He has really good close quarter slow speed skills. Not a surprise since he was on his old KLX and he has spent 2 and a half years dodging idiots on campus, popping over curbs, slipping through short cuts, etc.
What was a surprise was when he got on the Harley and twirled that around like it was a trials bike. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration. But he has better skills on the Harley than I do with only having ridden it around the block a couple time. I have been riding it for a year and a half. But I did not spend a year on a 250 dual sport and another year on a CB500X.
Of course, he is young, strong, confident, athletic, fearless like a lot of 21 year olds. So he has that advantage. I was just shocked at how easily he transferred the smaller bike skills to a bigger bike. I think I will go back to the KLX and work on my skills.
So all the experienced riders here who advocate starting on a 250 have a good argument in my opinion. And the small dual sport is very resilient to getting dumped a few times. All we have repaired on it is a clutch handle.
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