First Bike - Buying off Craigslist
 

Hello, I'm looking at buying my first bike, a cbr600 (link below). I read some forums that mentioned it's a good beginners bike that you can grow into. I took the MSF and have had my license for a few years just never had the proper funds to buy a bike. I'm 25, 6'2", and minor (at best 😂) mechanically inclined.
The person selling says they are the original owner, clean title, 22k on the bike but he just put a new motor in because he wanted to freshen it up (did the work himself). The seller is very open to me coming to see it and testing it out. My question, would you buy this bike or shy away because of the fresh motor with no service records?

Thank you for advice!
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/mcy/d/honda-motorcycle/6448439058.html

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/cbrforu...710c2843e.jpeg

Hello Henry and welcome to the forum, don't want to rain on your parade but if it was me ,and getting my first bike ,I would go to a more reputable firm , at least you should get a warranty and you don't want to spoil your first bike experience , you would probably get a test ride too(if you ask nicely:icon_wink:)

Thanks CaBaRet! I'll look into some dealer options

Yeah, the new motor 'just because' would worry me. A lie or the truth on that matter each has drawbacks that I won't get into here. Still, if the seller were willing to let you take the bike to a good shop for a once-over and get his opinion, that might persuade me.

Here's the thing: this is a buyers market, and ever more so in the winter. Take your time and be picky.

I still find it odd that people consider a 600cc legalized race bike as a beginners ride. Way back in the day, I had a Kawasaki 900 Z1. That was a bike I worked my way up to over a period of over a decade, starting off with a little Honda CB100 (I always thought the old Honda CB350 or CB450 was the near perfect beginners bike for a street rider, but the CB100 was more my speed when I was 12 years old :icon_lol:). Consider that any of the 600's made from the mid-80's to today would run circles around that old Z1, and maybe you can understand my consternation at calling a 150mph motorcycle a 'beginners bike', knowing that few beginners understand that a 100hp street bike combines the acceleration of a Super Stock dragster with the braking abilities that are about the same as the average grocery-getter. It takes a while to appreciate just how fast you can get going in such a short span of time and space, and yet how difficult it is to scrub that speed when the situation suddenly requires it. And I guarantee that such a situation will arise a lot sooner than you will suppose. (I'm reminded of the phrase a reviewer used when the old Kawi ZX-11 was first introduced, stating that 'when you twist the throttle on this bike, you better have someplace to go, 'cause you'll be there in a damned hurry').

My dad (who had been riding since the 40's) taught me to ride. He put it like this: say you have $1 to 'spend' on your attention while riding. As a beginner, you will have to spend a lot more of that dollar (say, $0.70) to the operation of the bike itself, leaving you with $0.30 to 'spend' on the road and traffic around you, what you ate for lunch and whether you'd eat it again, your job and your jerk boss, your wife or girlfriend, your taxes, whether or not Donald Trump is insane or not (hint: he is) and so on and so forth. Point is, it takes practice to learn the muscle memory so that, say, in a panic you don't grab a giant handful of brakes and stand the bike on its nose or lock the rear wheel. It takes lots of practice to get to where you are spending $0.05 to $0.10 on the operation of the bike itself, which frees you to focus your attention on the road and traffic conditions (and all the other things that clutter all our minds at any given instant).

I do know that the MSF teaches some version of what I just described (or at least used to). What I'm not sure that they cover well is just how badly you can screw yourself with the throttle control on a modern sportbike. Learning to re-judge closing speeds from a new perspective, learning to watch for brake lights from the car(s) ahead of you with much greater care, realizing the 100's of ways that you can get fooked over by a cager who's paying more attention to their phone than the road around them...all this takes practice and time.

Anyway, sorry for the lecture, I guess it's something I'd been wanting to post for a while. Lots of guys (and gals) have started off with a 100hp 600cc sportbike and gotten along just fine. But a lot of others found themselves way over their head, with tragic consequences. The phrase 'know your limits' comes to mind...there's no shame in that.

Ride safe. Ride smart.

Some great advice there and I love your Dad's analogy.

To the O.P.

A motor with 22k miles is still fresh, in fact it's only just 'run in'. So changing out the motor to 'freshen it up' is pointless and doesn't make sense.

If something doesn't make sense, then it's not true.

If he's not telling the truth about that, what else is he hiding?

Your Dad was spot on. I like you started at the bottom and worked up over a decade or so. I train kids and adults Compulsory Basic Training and try and advise against the direct access option for the muscle memory point you make, that and some of them are just idiots wanting to race on the street and you just know they are going to get hurt.

And as for the engine swap because he thought it needed freshening up ...... walk away there is more to it. Also if you decide to sell later it will hinder you. Go to a dealer pay a little more for the service history and a warranty. I would buy it possibly as a parts bucket but that is all.

Plenty others out there keep looking.