I am intrigued that people are now allowed to ride a 650cc motorcycle for the first bike... forget that they are restricted... they are still a heavy bike and heavy bikes are more difficult to ride... take the 650cc GSX Suzuki... a damn heavy bike... I know... I got one...

I started on a 250cc Suzuki... a very light bike and easy to ride and push around... the lightness of the bike got me out of trouble many times and its top speed of around 90 kms an hour gave me many years of riding a bike safely before i got onto the bigger ones...

A heavy fairing motorcycle has tested my riding skills many times and I cannot imagine how someone can get one of these type of bikes for their first bike,... anyway what do others think? ... I come from the 250cc first bike time so I have been riding for some time... I progressed over time up the ladder to more powerful machines and heavier bikes as I became more and more experienced with motorcycles. 

There is a lot of big fat people around. Big (like really big) and fat people riding a 250 is a bit like an elephant getting a piggy back from a mouse. Maybe that's why they upped the ante.

Not a big bike lol.

Funny!, but they aint fat either.

My Young blokes both got theirs on a 535cc Yammy Viagra and the older boy couldn't wait to get something bigger. Which is why my project sporty is no longer a project as its never bloody here.

At 6'3" in the old terms the eldest had an issue with all the 250's we looked at. With a simple mod of fitting different risers an some renthal wider bars he found the Yammy quite easy to ride and cruised at 90kph no drama's. Quick riser change and suited my younger son at 5'10" and he is currently riding it on his L's.

I suppose I am saying, as long as has a reasonable power to weight ratio (not a 16,000 rpm two stroke road registered racer) Engine size is less of an issue and reckon new riders should try a few and get the one that fits and suits their riding style.

In the 70's had a z900 while on L plates no points on L plates back then.I survived

My youngest is on his "L"s and rides a "Bobber" Honda 400.
Its what he wanted and what he bought.
Its as heavy as my 1340 Softy.

I live in the country and a LOT of young guys have been riding dirt bikes for years before they get their L plates, does it really make sense to make a young guy who's been riding a 400 or 600 trail bike go back to a 250?

As for those that don't have that experience there's nothing saying they can't buy a 250 or a 300, they're still available, it just gives more options.

Watched a middle aged bloge about 120kg+ the other morning about to jump on a big Victory Tourer. Brand new bike, brand new leathers. He looked nervous but was strutting his stuff. Mounted bike, looked both ways twice...............then paddled, bunny hopping straight out into the path of a car then wobbled down the road with the car blasting its horn. Obviously new and inexperieced on a huge powerfull bike.  This happened in the Adelaide hills about 1km from where a bloke hit a gaurd rail a few days ago. Straight of a 250 or 650 even?????????????????

I think it's a much better system now.

Riders have a choice on the physical size of bike, and as long as they don't go stupid, they'll get something comfortable to them, and so safer....

It was a joke as it was, a 250cc restriction, because some of those things go like stink. Now it's about power to weight ratio I believe, which is much more sensible. Government had one of those rare occurrences where a new law concerning motorcycles actually made things better for the rider.

Bogie,

I think you raise a fair question, one that I have argued myself. When I started riding we were all restricted to max 250cc and that served as the apprenticeship. If you were dumb enough to get caught riding anything bigger, off to court for you ... Cough cough.

But I started to think having newbies on bigger bikes, even if they are restricted (power to weight typically in the ACT) isn't really a bad thing. Hell there are now more capable bikes being offered on the market that qualify in that category as a result. That is a good thing, even if the prices are artificially increased as a result. Saying that, Ol mate getting on a full bagger as a newbie is dumb, and I'm sure there are plenty of other similar examples floating about.

One thing I can't get my head around is having someone completely new to bikes do a two day course, qualify to ride alone on their 'L's' and it's all happy days. As much as I hate to say it, getting a motorcycle licence should be harder and more intensive than that. As you would know, you can't buy experience riding a bike, you gotta do it, preferably with blokes that will give you a kick up the ass when you do something stupid (worked for me). 

Dunno, perhaps the official stats might say that there is nothing to worry about? But each time a rider gets killed or puts it in a tree we all get tarred with same brush. 

Horses for courses.
My wife just got her L's after doing a course at Calder Park.
She wanted the Harley 500 as she thought it was the most comfortable for her so she got it - before she done the course.
After getting her L's she went for one ride on it & realised it was too powerful for someone who has never ridden at all apart from a 6 hour course and being my pillion.
Luckily I was able to pick up a cheap bike the same as they use at Calder Park & am happy for her to actually "learn" on that one first. 
 

The power to weight thing might make sense if you are on a restricted 650cc cruiser, but when it comes to a full fairing bike its a completely different thing.... the full faring jap bike bike I have is easy to drop because the front wants to come down unlike a cruiser where you sit more upright and there is plenty of movement available at the front to turn and manoeuver the bike, especially at slow speed.

Heavy bikes, like my unrestricted 650cc GSX Suzuki (comes as a LAMS also) is the same size as the 1250cc and nearly as heavy... I learnt to control the bike and love it because I spent years on less heavy and forgiving bikes and learnt some valuable lessons without getting hurt ... but it would have been a disaster as my first bike... not because it is overly powerful but because it is so heavy... maybe some people have some stories of how they have handled such a heavy machine as their first bike as its very easy to drop it.

With a quarter of all road toll deaths in Queensland last year attributed to motorcycles there will be a rethinking in that state in putting learner riders on bigger bikes or some other form of making first time riders stay longer on less powerful machines.

Personally, I thinks its nuts to let a newby have a 650cc full fairing bike for the first bike... keeping a motorcycle upright takes expereince and if you have a bloody heavy full fairing one at the beginning... god help you.

I see P platers on bikes all the time up here, there's a lot of them. The one thing I have noticed is the ones who ride the 650cc cruiser style bikes just go with the traffic most of the time. The ones on the little rice rockets though tend to ride like idiots, weaving through traffic, splitting lanes at 100kph and generally living up to the name of temporary Australians. I'd sooner see them on heavier slower bikes riding sensibly rather than being on something that is light and fast.

Interesting to hear everyone's differing opinions. All valid. Totally agree with the above post from G T.
As Geoff pointed out, in the country, young blokes ride anything they can get their hands on. I went from an GT80 to a DR500 at 12years old. That thing did 140- no helmet, but that's how we learnt to ride. Ive got my almost 2 year old riding a 50cc 4stroke quad- he's learning balance, braking and speed control- never to early!
I still spins me out when I hear people say that people drop bikes doing their L's and P's tests.
I believe you should know how to ride well before even going for your L's.

At the end of the day its all about someone's brain and their attitude towards safe riding. The bike wont do 200kmp/h if ya don't twist that throttle! I know its a simplistic view but one a lot of these crutch rocket racers should think about.
My 2 bobs worth.

Just add my thoughts. I have recently bought (4 months ago) a Fatboy after over 20 years of not owning or riding a bike. Held my bike licence since 1978. Being in my mid 50's, I was rather nervous buying a bike, and had intentions of doing a course etc. I told the dealer I hadn't ridden in years and he offered to deliver the bike instead of me riding it home. More so to protect himself I feel. I live in a quiet suburb so did did a bit of riding around here to gain confidence. I can say, with maturity, comes forethought. As a young sprout, I wouldn't have thought twice about fanging it around the streets, but being older, I lacked a degree of confidence. I was told that you never forget to ride and that it will all come back with riding. Well, in the first couple of months I did over a thousands k's and now feel very comfortable riding but find I watch the other cars alot closer than I did when I was a younger rider.
I know this isn't what the thread was about, but feel it is related because getting back onto a bike after not riding for so long would have to be alot like getting your first bike, only difference is I wasn't restricted to what I could ride. But being older, I have I hope, maturity and responsibility.

Oh, also, when I got my bike licence, you went straight from "L's" to a black (full) licence if you held a black car licence. How you went about getting your bike licence was you went in and did a verbal knowledge test, and if you passed, you were given your "L's". You then sat on them for 3 months and after this time, you could go in to do your driving test, or apply for another 3 month learner licence. There was a limit to bike size though while on learners. If going for a test, the tester came out, watched you put your helmet on, start your bike, indictate your movement and watched you go around the corner. You went around the block and came back and he watched you park the bike. That's all, and this wasn't at some country town registry, but at Sydney's, Rosebury Motor Registry, the main one for NSW. How times have changed. 

Soft...

i thought at the start it was weird when this law was bought in.
i actually rode a 250 for like 5 years before i moved onto a 400 cc bike!

it made riding a big twin that much easier

but after thinking and seeing these new laws and the bikes you can ride i defiantly think its for the better as whats said up here a 110 kilo man would look and feel stupid on a 250 and a 50 kilo skinny teenager would and does look stupid on a big 650 cc bike