happy with F4i as first bike
 

On the advice of friends with experience, 6 months ago I bought as my first bike a 2002 F4i. Now putting over 300 miles on it each week getting to/from work and couldn't be more pleased with how it's worked out. Amazing how fun, efficient and reliable these wonderful machines seem to be!

Yup!

My '06 is my second bike; my first being the '04 Ninja 250. Had I been more knowledgeable (mechanics, techniques, and whatnot), I would have chosen the F4i.

You have wise friends, sounds like time to reward them with an appropriate adult beverage.

Yes, it's great to be able to lean on wiser and more experience friends on occasion; some tasty adult beverages would certainly be well justified!

One friend is now hammering me to go to Reg Pridmore's CLASS school. Just need to carve out a little time to do that, as it seems like the skills they teach could be life saving in a pinch.

Congrats! Sounds like you have already found out what the rest of us know about the F4i.....a supremely easy to ride sportbike.

I have been riding motorcycles for nearly 2 decades, still keep a Ninja 250 in my garage. If you know how to ride fast on a Ninja 250, you don't really need another sport bike, besides it only cost $35/yr to insure and gets well over 70 mpg.

F4i is probably the most forgiving sport bike, when you make a mistake likelyhood of recovery is better than most other 600 class supersports.
Keep the rubber down..

They're very nice starter bikes so long as you have your head screwed in correctly. I'm somewhat borderline in that department, lol.
My 2003 F4i is still my first & only motorcycle. It has lived up to Honda's reputation of dependability and quality since it was purchased in 2008.

Just curious: I've heard various people say that the F4i is a good first bike. I'm wondering, what makes some of the other bikes less good as choices of a first bike? I haven't ridden any others so I have no idea, although I can imagine that, for example, if a bike had a less smooth throttle response than the F4i, that would probably be something that could make it a less forgiving bike than the F4i.

You're dead-on. A more aggressive power curve + more hp isn't going to help a new rider. Also, most of the newer sport bikes have less trail, which is also less forgiving. And you don't want overly powerful brakes as a new rider.

Thanks! One more dumb question: what does "less trail" mean?