Im a new rider with only atv experince under my belt, I jumped right on and put over 6,000mi on it before puting it away for the winter, I went right to the 600rr the thought of geting anything less just seemed stupid to me, because now i have a good bike to grow with and im happy with its power.

 

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LOL no way my buddy let me ride his ninja1000 and its just crazy fast

 

when my friend 1st started riding he bought a ninja 250 . it was a great bike to learn on and he swore it was plenty enough for him.. 1 month later he was on a 900 RR ! my brother started learning on a gsxr 750 then had a R6 then another gsxr 750 .. as for me i rode everyones bikes lol so i had a very brode learning curve but my 1st was a 97 F3! it was a great bike. i think it all depends on the person who is learning some ppl like to dive right in on what they want others try to carefully up the level. my idea is if you give someone something small and under powered they are gonan get crazy with it and max it out all the time. now on the flip if you give them somethign over powered they might kil themselves. so you have to find that common ground wher ethey learn respect for the bike and stay within their limits. now later if they want to upgrade after riding a while then i believe they should.

 

Many of the veteran riders will recomend a 250 as it allows one to really learn good skills before you worry about going terribly fast. It would almost act as a motorcycle "primer". My wife and I are picking up a 250 for her tommorow and it is very reassuring knowing there is some kind of limit on the power she will be starting with. I myself started on a 600 and I'm glad I did, but smaller bikes definitely have their place.

 

unfortunately the first time I ever jump on a bike was on my brother GSXR 1000. I practice on that bike for about a month then I bought my CBR 1000. It just depends on person preference. Since I learned on a 1000.......the 600 didn't feel strong enough for me.....

 

Think of it this way... I am a teen with a 600... bad idea? nope... it all has to do with the comfort level of the rider... I think. If you have the will power then you can control your emotions and not do anything stupid.

 

i started with a mini bike when i was younger and have had and rode the hell out of everything in between mope, dirtbikes, motorcycle's all progressivly faster bikes now ive got the 600. i dont see the problem with starting small and working your way up. if i had never gotten on anything and jumped on the 600 im almost positive i would have killed myself. but thats just me.

 

I can see all aspects on these replies. My experience...a good buddy who was known to be an axceptional rider, was over at my place with his brand new R1, he said it's all in the wrist ....right there...if you need the power, it's there, if not, don't twist the throttle so much........Kinda the attitude, when in doubt don't go without. I went shopping for a bike and the 1K's were outta my price for what I wanted but came across a super nice F2, so I got it. Great bike, loved it, but got in the market for a new bike. Had a few bikes here and there, but never had a new bike so I wanted a brand new ride. Got my 06 1KRR and like it. I'm a VERY conservative rider, to a point of almost being a bluehair, but when the roads and weather are right and I'm feelin good, I rip that thing for all it's worth and then some. I think folks start off small from the stereotypes and lack of education, hell, be a dumbass on a 250 with 30hp and it'll kill ya just as fast as a litre bike. I mean, if I had a ferrari, don't mean I gotta punch it at every chance, but being a responsible safety orriented guy, would respect the ride and what it could do to me....

 

the starting small thing originated from racers, the theory being on a small bike you CAN'T depend on power to go fast, its all about getting the carrying maximum cornespeed, finding the perfect lines through the corners and finding the perfect braking points, esentially learning to walk before you run
even at the highest level of motorcycle racing you can see the differenece between the superbike styles and the former 125 and 250 riders, the latter can carry the absolute maximum cornerspeed and get the most out of the bikes handling capabilites, while the superbike riders are being forced to adapt because they're used to sliding into corners and forcing the bikes around rather than riding smoothly, which was fine on the brutal 500 2strokes but next year on the 800s its gonna start biting nicky in the ***

that same concept carries over to street riders now because 600s and 1000s are so crazy fast, if you learn on a 1000 all your learning is power management it gets almost impossible to learn a lot of important aspects of proficient motorcycle riding that can only be learned by having to run a bike ragged to get it to do what you want
unfortunately though, at this point most riders no matter what bike they ride don't bother to learn those skills and instead just try to keep up with their friends doing whatever it takes (including crashing) in an attempt to keep up, so most of them are to proud or whatever to start on a small bike and actually learn what they're doing before trying that crap on public roads. Sure the MSF course is great but they aren't exactly teaching you how to deal with carrying speed through the corners and picking up the throttle smoothly, etc they're teaching you how to approach intersections and all that
The whole "600s are slow" thing is completely BS, most riders that say that have never actually hit the rev limiter or spun the rear tire coming out of a corner cause you gave it gas just a little early, try that on a 1000 and I promise you'll have a superman experience then of course a landing worthy of youtube greatness
small bikes rock
I'm 19 right now, my first bike was a Kawi KE-100 dual purpose that i put about 200 miles on over 5+ years and sold when I was 15 to buy an F4i @ 16. The F4i became a trackbike @ 17, I bought a 600RR for street riding @18, and a GS500 @ 19 (lol), now I'm going to sell the RR and buy an SV650 to race next season along with the F4i and use the 500 on the street.