Got my 599 about two months ago. Didn't know anything about riding, took the class, and then bought the bike. I was advised by everybody not to get a 250. They thought I would be bored in a matter of weeks. I have to say that I have yet to really figure out what my bike can do. But I love that there is more for me to learn and be able to push the limits. And it was so much fun the first time I took it to 1200 in second gear. I was laughing so hard, because of the speed I just got - in 2nd gear. Michigan's crappy roads limit what I can do. I am terrified of going fast around a corner just to find a series of potholes that could wipe me out.

Welcome and be sure to check out all the threads on n00b experiences, decisions, etc. And as C says, just take it easy and go at your own pace. The 599 is my first bike and I am humbled by the power most times and it keeps me from getting out of control and riding past my ability.

A very famous road racer once said: "The throttle works both ways" Kenny Roberts.

New here, new to riding. I just bought a rather clean '06 599 off a member here (saw and picked it up this morning), and it's been a blast so far! Definitely a fun bike for the little I've ridden and seems very manageable for a noobie such as myself. Looking forward to putting on the miles!

I purchased my bike (04 599) then took the class before even attempting to ride the 599. The MSF class was amazing and I learned a lot, I feel that any new rider should take it. I did feel that the getting on the 599 after the Nighthawk in the MSF class was a whole different ball game but after a few rides it all makes sense now. I would have been disappointed if I purchased anything less.

My first bike was a 750 Nighthawk when I was 18. I was told it could be borderline too big to start on, which is exactly what I wanted, so that I wouldn't grow out of it right away. I had limited experiance on a dirtbike, but knew enough about throttle control to manage probabably any bike. 6 years later, I'm still fairly happy with the bike, but I use ALL of it's power consistantly, and wish I had more. So comes the 599!! Very excited for the extra speed this bike has, but knowing the difference between my two bikes, I had to vote "NO" for a beginner bike. Obviously it's not "no" for every new rider, but the majority of newbies I believe would have too much power at their fingertips to learn safely.

I think it just depends on what type of person you are. If you are mature enough to respect the power the bike has and know your limitations, than one new to riding could do well with this bike. Thats what my uncle told me before i bought my 04 599. i had no previous experience what so ever with bikes and i do great with the 599. i would however recommend a drivers course because it helped out a lot. Again i just think it depends on what type of person you are.

No, I dont think it is a good first bike. I had a Ninja 250 for my first bike at 20 years old and learned how to ride on it and experience its limitations (highway). After one season though I needed something stronger and this year got an 04 599. I love it but at first I spent a lot of time at less than 6000 RPM.

I started off with the VTR250 and it is extremely underrated as the perfect newbie bike, looks cool, sounds cool and handles well also!

I started off with the VTR250 and it is extremely underrated as the perfect newbie bike, looks cool, sounds cool and handles well also!

Which version, the newer one with the trellis frame?

If you want to ride street and have no experiance, why not start in the dirt? Cheap dirt bike $700, cheap helmit, boots, pants $100, experiance with clutch and 2 wheels in genral, priceless! The 599 is my first street bike, rode dirt bikes for a few years knowing some day i would own a motorcycle. Had a blast doing it, learned alot, and made some great memories. Just so happened a 599 fell in my lap and i was ready! It's the only street bike i've ever owned. It's going on 4 years and we've been insinc sence day one. Comfort, style, power, and handleing. Fun times!!!!

I wanted to contribute to this thread ever since I joined the forum but preferred to wait a bit till I get enough hours added to my belt for a chance to come up with a half decent answer to the question. I bought my 599 last month. And I am a total beginner. Never rode a bike, didn’t even know how to operate the clutch or even what all these buttons did on the handle bar till I took the safety course.
I describe myself as a head on the shoulder guy (late thirties) not too excited or “throttle happy” but I do like to go fast when I can and I only do it once I have a good idea of what the risks are (ok not all the times ;)). I joined the forum two weeks before I bought the bike and I started reading this thread. To be honest I got scared sh#@less thinking I made a big mistake when I got the bike home (trailered). I didn’t even dare to start the thing even less get on it. Friend riders I knew, tried to convince me that I was gonna be fine. I was convinced the opposite.
So I took baby steps. First with the engine off I’d play with the throttle, see how it reacts, then I would start the engine and gently let the clutch work with no throttle at all. I did this repeatedly until I had enough courage to start riding only in straight line to the end of the street, walk it around and ride it back by only using the clutch.
This went on for few tries until I was confident enough to ride it to the school parking lot the next day and only few hundred feet away where I practiced emergency stops, gear shifting and clutch control.
Without dwelling on too many details, my learning curve was very steep. Very quickly I blew the 5000rpm limitation that the wife had me at J. I started riding it to work within few days (40 miles round trip including interstate and hwys).
I knew enough of the handling just to keep me upright at normal speeds paying attention to everything around me. But where I learned the most was during a 500 miles trip I took last weekend through one of the most twisted hwy here in the Washington state, Hwy 20. I must say that I watched lots of videos before the trip - I would sit on the bike in my garage and practice the turns virtually by shifting weight and whatnot.
Today I have totally different view of the bike and what it can do (other than killing me of course :shock: - it is so much fun! On open roads it’s very fast (way too fast – the fourth gear for overtaking is a jet engine output). But you have to be in the right mind set every time you want to ride it, fast or slow, every time you want to take a corner. Those horses are always ON, always ready for you, all warmed up Sir. So I ask myself the question am I ready? I simply had to work every corner I took on this hwy trip. It only take a fraction of a second and you’re in incoming traffic lane. And this is what happened to me on hwy 20. Luckily there was no incoming traffic but I was scared to death with adrenaline levels through the roof. Next I was riding more alert and breaking hard before the corners. One more thing, feeling cold and stiff with frozen hands is only a recipe for disaster. Trying to keep up with a faster buddy is another one.
After the weekend I’m riding the bike much better and at slower speeds. Now I am finally enjoying it and having lots of fun. My answer would be yes it is a newbie bike as long as speed is dealt with in moderation like everything else except sex. A famous racer once said “throttle works both ways”. Even if sometimes it feels so right to go fast, we can be so wrong to be pushing the envelope and I have been there as I’m sure I’m not alone in this forum even if it is so damn exciting and thrilling :mrgreen:.

Yeah, it's an exciting bike! If my memory serves, it's the period of time 6 months after you start to 1 year after you start that'll be the highest risk for crashes. Why? You start to think you know what you're doing when you don't. So my warning for you is to keep taking it easy long after you think you don't need to anymore. :) Ride safe, and ride for many years!

Yeah, it's an exciting bike! If my memory serves, it's the period of time 6 months after you start to 1 year after you start that'll be the highest risk for crashes. Why? You start to think you know what you're doing when you don't. So my warning for you is to keep taking it easy long after you think you don't need to anymore. :) Ride safe, and ride for many years!

Thanks Polonius and well said. I will keep this in mind. :thumbsup

McGowan's long journey back almost complete
Dustin McGowan The 29-year-old hasn't pitched in the Major Leagues two years ago, he was forced to undergo a series of major surgeries that at least temporarily derailed a once-promising career.
Dustin McGowan has gone through a long time and hard painful road to get well, but there finally appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel in a rehab that has been more than three years in the making.
McGowan now appears to be on the verge of fighting the odds and nearing a return. The native of Savannah, Ga., is on the path back to Toronto and is optimistic that when September rolls around, he'll be ready to complete the comeback.
McGowan told MLB (http://www.wealthmass.com/Sports-outdoors/Mlb-jerseys-Mlb-jersey-Beseball-Jerseys-Baseball-jersey/Milwaukee-Brewers/).com during an interview at the club's Minor League complex in Dunedin, Fla., "I do, I see the end a little bit,"late last week. "But you still have to take it day by day and just get better.
McGowan said "That has been my goal from the start of this year. September, get back to the big leagues, and get back to pitching up there."
McGowan came to the Toronto Blue Jays (http://www.wealthmass.com/Sports-outdoors/Mlb-jerseys-Mlb-jersey-Beseball-Jerseys-Baseball-jersey/Toronto-Blue-Jays/)' organization with lofty expectations when he was selected in the first round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft.
It appeared McGowan had finally arrived and would be a mainstay in the Blue Jays' rotation for years to come.
The hard luck continued the following season, though, as McGowan took himself out of a game on July 8, 2008, with soreness in his right shoulder, and he later underwent surgery to repair a frayed labrum.
In 2009, the health problems continued as McGowan had surgery to repair cartilage in his right knee. The biggest blow came the following year, when it was revealed that he had a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder and then underwent a procedure that usually requires at least six months of rehab.
McGowan has been slowly working his way back into form since. He took up residency just outside of Dunedin and has spent countless hours working out at the Bobby Mattick Training Center. By McGowan's side for the entire journey has been his wife, Jilly, and daughter, McKensy.
"If I didn't have them, I would be crazy right now, The one good thing about all of this is that right when I got hurt the first time, my daughter was born, so I've gotten to watch her grow up. ?McGowan said.

And to this I say, go fuck yourself. Tootles!!:mrgreen:

I think the 599 is a great second bike, but not a first bike.

My first was a 200cc Honda Twinstar (anybody remember these?). It was a good bike to get started with -- it was light (easy to maneuver) and there was not much power there to abuse. We crawl before we walk, and a reliable slowpoke bike is a good place to start. While riding the Twinstar, I had to concentrate on the machine. Not the scenery, not how I thought I looked, nothing but the task at hand. Doing so, I think, gives a newbie rider a good chance to make a proper relationship with the fact that he's on two wheels and much more vulnerable to other infuences (cars, weather, pedestrians, distractions, obstructions, etc) than in a car.

I kept the Twinstar for a couple of months and sold it to another first-timer. Then I picked up a 600cc Yamaha Radian and started learning again. Having spent some time with an underpowered bike made me better respect the power and handling abilities of a much newer, more technologically advanced bike. Again, crawling before walking.

Having kept the Radian for a while and then riding my brother-in-law's Yamaha R1 for a bit, I got a new batch of learning done with an even more powerful bike. That ride also gave me a good lesson in "I don't need a thousand-cc engine." So I'm back to the 600-class, and as happy as a pig in slop.

Opinion time: Every new rider should start with a small underpowered cycle. Every new driver should start with a VW Bug (or something similarly durable, forgiving, and underpowered. Once the newbie gets hold of the basics of acceleration/deceleration, handling, emergency maneuvers, etc, then he can step forward to a more powerful (more comfortable, more exciting, better equipped, etc) vehicle.

As Dennis Miller said, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong.

I completely agree with what you said about an underpowered bike. I did a pretty, um, insane thing and went out and got a top-heavy Triumph Thruxton 900 with clip-ons and rear set pegs for my first bike. Heck, my first motor vehicle! I never learned to drive a car or anything else. Not even a golf cart. Did I mention I'm a small-framed 5'4" girl? Anyway, I realized pretty quickly that I was going to die if I kept riding that thing so I went out and got a 1981 Twinstar CM200 and it became my best friend. I'm now rebuilding it (getting rid of those ridiculous ape hanger stock bars) and keeping the Thruxton at work where I can venture out slowly in the suburbs and get acquainted with traffic laws etc. That bike still kicks my ass on a pretty regular basis and my initial rationale of getting a badass bike and taking the lumps was a HORRIBLE idea. Being a mediocre rider on a hard bike doesn't make you a really good rider on easier bikes, necessarily, so being a type A shooting high and ending up hurt (or dead) isn't doing anyone any favors. I've noticed a really huge chunk of competent riding is confidence in one's own abilities to handle situations and if you're riding around scared of what your bike can do it's a recipe for disaster, not matter now cool you look when you manage to keep it upright. Nobody looks cool in a rainbow of bruisey colors, as my legs will tell you.

I got on a Honda 599 and am seriously considering getting one, the Twinstar is my buddy but it almost kills itself trying to keep up behind my friends' Bonnevilles and the Thruxton is too much bike for me, still. The 599 felt beautifully balanced, the right height and a friendly riding position. Thanks for sharing about this bike, I really think it might be the way to go. Plenty of power and confidence-inspiring :D

Yes, Of course honda 599 is really a friendly and great bike. You will definitely like this bike and will be in love with it.