Happy trails.

If you happen to also be a novice at this magnificent game, you should read this post. It's a point of view that I would have found pretty helpful when I was fretting about my choice of first bikes. To wit:

Let's start with the picture above. That's William, or rather was. He died last spring, part of my annus horribilis. This blog is secretly dedicated to him. I loved that horse. He was my second, but he should have been my first. Where his predecessor was flighty and nervous and tended to amplify my own anxiety, old Bill was always calm and circumspect. He never freaked out or overreacted to an input, yet it took very little to get him to do what you wanted. He could run like the wind, but he needed to be sure that's what you had in mind before he put the hammer down. And when he did, his canter unfolded in easy, joyful waves that made you feel like a real cowboy. Had I been even a little talented as an equestrian, I might have eventually looked for a more challenging mount. But I wasn't. William just made me feel that way, and that kept me riding.

And that is the Suzuki S40.

You may recall that I recently bought a Honda CBR250R to toot around the city. Every review of this bike characterizes it as willing and capable, but easygoing and difficult to get into trouble with. The state of the art for starter bikes. Which is fair enough; it kind of is those things. But compared to the larger displacement S40, it has an almost twitchy throttle (at least at first), tends to lurch when you roll off, and it lets you know if your downshifts are less than perfect. That's great for learning (I do really like the CBR), but you don't get quite as many 'hey, look at me!' moments out of the gate as the old Zook gives you. The latter's lazy throttle and broad, flat torque curve mean that you just have to have a grasp of the general principles and you can get down the road in dignity almost from the first try. I can see wanting more, soon, but it's hard to imagine a bike more encouraging to start on. The fact that it's a 650cc only makes it all the more so. As with William (who stood well north of 16 hands), the bigger engine may make for bragging rights, but it doesn't make the ride one bit more challenging.

Just my .02, but if you see a nice one in the classifieds, I wouldn't dismiss it. The right first horse can make all the difference.