08-14-2017, 11:55 AM
My cousin and I started riding together recently. He was coming back to riding after an absence and I was new. I bought a 500 lbs 50 hp 2014 ctx700 brand new on clearance. He bought a 1982 450 t-hawk with 45 hp and much lighter.
I paid $5000 and he paid $500. His bike spent a week in a local shop getting safeties and having all the gremlins removed. I sold my bike in February for $4500 and put that money down on a cb1100, he sold his bike for $400. I really like vintage bikes, but I also like to travel far. I don't know if I would have trusted the old t-hawk for some of the adventures I've done.
I'm a big guy so I handled the weight of the ctx and cb pretty well and the only reason I found the ctx easier to move was the seat height gave me more leverage. I am able to drive both bikes at any speed required, 5, 10, 50, 60, 100 km/hr is a breeze. If someone tells you a bike is too powerful they are saying you lack the judgement and control to properly operate it. After having my licence for a month I went to a Honda demo day to try a few other bikes as I'd only ridden a grom and a ctx700 and wanted to experience other bikes. They wouldn't let me ride an RR because of my m2 licence but were perfectly happy to put me on a VFR800. The vfr is around 115 hp, which is inline with many 600cc RR bikes. I followed the group no problem. I guess the big question is what do you trust yourself with? I like to accelerate and corner hard, but I don't like to break the speed limit by too much, so I doubt my riding would change that much if I was on a more powerful bike.
I paid $5000 and he paid $500. His bike spent a week in a local shop getting safeties and having all the gremlins removed. I sold my bike in February for $4500 and put that money down on a cb1100, he sold his bike for $400. I really like vintage bikes, but I also like to travel far. I don't know if I would have trusted the old t-hawk for some of the adventures I've done.
I'm a big guy so I handled the weight of the ctx and cb pretty well and the only reason I found the ctx easier to move was the seat height gave me more leverage. I am able to drive both bikes at any speed required, 5, 10, 50, 60, 100 km/hr is a breeze. If someone tells you a bike is too powerful they are saying you lack the judgement and control to properly operate it. After having my licence for a month I went to a Honda demo day to try a few other bikes as I'd only ridden a grom and a ctx700 and wanted to experience other bikes. They wouldn't let me ride an RR because of my m2 licence but were perfectly happy to put me on a VFR800. The vfr is around 115 hp, which is inline with many 600cc RR bikes. I followed the group no problem. I guess the big question is what do you trust yourself with? I like to accelerate and corner hard, but I don't like to break the speed limit by too much, so I doubt my riding would change that much if I was on a more powerful bike.