{"id":4678,"date":"2014-01-09T17:59:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T00:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=4678"},"modified":"2014-01-09T17:59:55","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T00:59:55","slug":"size-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/size-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Size Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Honda<\/a>

This was the bike I craved as a kid.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

When I was a kid I occasionally had the opportunity to ride motorcycles and they were all pretty small. First you have to understand that what constituted a “big” motorcycle back then was not at all what it is today. Years later, when I got my first bike, my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom, it was a bike that, in its day, had been a big bike. Nobody would call a 750 a big bike today.<\/p>\n

But when I was just starting to ride, generally on bikes owned by friends, we were talking small. What I coveted was what we called simply the Honda 50, the step-through bike that I guess was officially the “Cub.” My mother never let me buy that bike but when I rode on friends’ bikes<\/a> they were bigger than that, generally in the 90cc to 305cc range.<\/p>\n

When I rode that 305 Scrambler it seemed like a plenty big bike. Then in college I had a roommate who had a CB350 and that definitely seemed like a big bike. Around that same time the sister of a friend bought a 250cc Suzuki and she let me ride that. That seemed like a big enough bike.<\/p>\n

Years later, now living in Denver, my friend Christopher came over one night on the used BMW bike he has just bought. I don’t remember how big it was but it was way bigger than any bike I had ever been on before. He offered to let me take it for a spin and I declined. I was scared of that thing. I was scared if I took off on it I might not live to get back. And the truth is, that was probably a good decision.<\/p>\n

A couple years after that, though, my friend John showed up on the 750 Virago he had just bought and I was thrilled to climb on behind. It just took a few rides on behind John to convince me that I had to have my own. There was a used bike shop just a few blocks from my house and John and I paid them a visit.<\/p>\n

I immediately started looking at what they had in the 400cc-450cc. John told me no, I really didn’t want to get a bike that small because if I did I’d be looking to trade it in on something bigger in just a few months. Words of wisdom.<\/p>\n

He steered me to a group of 750s. They looked huge to me but John was the experienced one and I trusted his judgment. I ended up buying the CB and John rode it home for me because I didn’t have even a learner’s permit. I got one right away and started riding every chance I got, learning how to handle this big thing.<\/p>\n

I must have learned because I took my motorcycle license test on the 750 and passed, albeit on my second attempt. I learned later that most people borrow a smaller bike to take the test on. I passed it on my 750. I still think that was quite an accomplishment, especially considering that I was self-taught.<\/p>\n

Of course after awhile the 750 didn’t seem too big at all. It was just right. So right, in fact, that it was what I rode for a long, long time afterward. While all my friends were moving up to bigger bikes I stayed with the Honda. I was in love with that bike.<\/p>\n

The time did come, though, when I was looking for something more. Not size necessarily, but comfort. We had taken a trip to California and my butt was really hurting by the time we got home. I went out and bought this 1000cc Kawasaki Concours I’d had my eye on and once again it was a big bike. <\/p>\n

It took me a year or more of riding until that thing started feeling not huge. But again, I did get used to it. At first I wouldn’t ride without wearing boots with tall heels; now I hop on with just sneakers on and don’t think a thing about it.<\/p>\n

I think I will finally draw the line right about here, though. We rented a big Harley while up in Canada a couple years ago and that thing was just too much. Not the height, but the weight. I got in some gravel at one point that was deeper than I thought and it was all in the world I could do to keep it up. Stuck in heavy traffic in Vancouver, inching forward, it was not fun.<\/p>\n

No, you know, what I really like these days is my 650cc Suzuki V-Strom. I don’t want to go traveling on it–that’s for the Concours–but for just about anything else, this light, agile bike is a blast. Size really does matter.<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

Watch out for everything bigger than you, they have the “right of weight” — Bib<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a kid I occasionally had the opportunity to ride motorcycles and they were all pretty small. First you have to understand that what constituted a “big” motorcycle back then was not at all what it is today. Years later, when I got my first bike, my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[460,13],"tags":[579],"class_list":["post-4678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-honda-motorcycles","category-bikes","tag-learning-to-ride-a-motorcycle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4683,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4678\/revisions\/4683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}