Basically I'm just looking for a sportbike akin to a 600 but a touch tamer without lacking the power of a 400. Unless oc there are 400 or 500s that I don't know about thst are awesome.
Just ideally not a 600 super because insurance around here is... insane.
Looking for a new sportbike. Preferably not a full 600 supersport though, just for insurance purposes (under 25 here pay like 3k for a half year of insurance in a supersport).
So naturally we have options like the Ninja 650, CBR650R, etc... but what's the best bike for the best value? I'm generally not sure. Heard mixed things on the CFMoto 675SS. Ideally I'm not paying Italian money for an RS660 from Aprilia.
I want something that's basically a 600 super sport but tamer, if that makes sense. What are my options?
Thank you, two wheels on the road!
So, for some context I'm 17 years old. I bought my bike a few months ago. A 1983 Honda Shadow 500 (VT500C). Exactly the kind of bike I wanted to learn on. Of course, it wasn't running. I knew that going in. He gave it to me for $600 (CAD, so less USD). We towed it with a $15 UHaul trailer and my grandpa's Silverado. Before the purchase, we made sure to check for engine compression. Sure enough, we got the sound of pistons turning. We tried turning it over. It sounded like it wanted to, but it never sparked.
So for the next month nearly I spent time trying to diagnose the problem. I learned that it could be almost anything. Kill switch, start switch, battery (despite having just bought a new one myself), pulse generator, ground, coils, caps, whatever. Because of school and the fact this is my first repair project, it took me a month to determine everything was OK except for the spark plug wire and caps. Somehow they all failed at the same time due to corrosion and the breakdown of the carbon impregnated wires.
I spent the next month trying to source the gosh darn caps. One cap is simple enough to find. The LB05F cap. $13 for one. But the other cap is rather hard to find around here. I found one for $60 shipping. It has a special dust boot on it too. So eventually I did some electrical research and determined I could buy some old aftermarket VT600C coils and they should work the same.
So while waiting for the coils to arrive I installed new bars, new levers, new mirrors, bought new grips and lights, the works. Finally, when the coils came, I installed them, put the plug against the engine casing... and saw nothing. My heart dropped. How, after all this?? Thankfully, I am an idiot, and didn't have the threaded part of the spark plug on the engine cover. As soon as I put the thread there... magic. A brilliant blue spark. It's alive.
Now just to rebuild carbs, new front brake fluid and pad, lights, and some cleaning. Then it's registration time.
(First picture is the bike when purchased, second is bike now. Apologies for the potato phone)
TLDR: I am the self proclaimed greatest motorcycle mechanic of all time