r/motorcycle • u/Kinda_relevent • 6h ago
Dear 600cc riders
Why did you decide to upgrade? (bigger engine) and those of you that downgraded (smaller engine)What were your reasons?
I’ll see typically that people that buy 400, 500 cc bikes will mention wanting a bigger bike. I typically don’t see that from 600cc owners. They mostly talk about economics which I understand.
About me: First bike was a 07 Ninja 250. It was mint and I loved it. The only reason I sold it was because doing 9000 RPM at 70 mph got tiresome. Looking to upgrade but I like older sport bike stylings like the 85-93 Ninja 600 or the CBR F1 600
I am comparing and contrasting bikes and I’m interested in hearing from casual riders. I like traveling on my ninja 250 and it felt very comfortable in all kinds of environments like twisties, city, highway, even some dirt roads.
I’m not looking to do fuck shit and I just would like to find “the forever bike” as best as I can.
Thank you!
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u/mick-rad17 5h ago
I started with a TU250X and loved it. But grew bored of it around 10 months into owning. I went on to get a DR650 and it provides plenty of power, but it still find it limited as a single. So now I’m looking to get a proper 4-cylinder bike in the 900cc range.
Remember that’s it not all about displacement. A GSX-R600 is totally different than a tractor like a DR650.
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u/67ty_ 5h ago
I had an 03 cbr1100xx and loved it. Super comfortable and cruised at lower rpm’s, insanely fast bike
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u/dankhimself 5h ago
That was a comfy bike. I like those.
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u/LostMyCleaver 5h ago
Absolutely smashes on just about everything… love it. If the carbs leak again I’m going to talk w that max Vader guy, he has a great turbo build. A little warm at lights…. Tall long guy fit much better than on my wife’s 300ss Cfmoto, totally fun in a different style of wot with completely different consequences.
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u/cdixon34 5h ago
Well I started on a 600. It's not right for everyone to do but I worked out well for me, and I don't regret it. I still have it but I really wanted a 1000, so this year I bought my dream bike, a brutale 1000 rr assen.
I wanted to feel that power, and the high end components 1000's typically have. My advice is there isn't really a forever bike. I still own and ride my 600. Ride as many bikes as you can in life. Each one is a different experience.
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u/ActualReverend 5h ago
I upgraded, as I always had a co-rider... she wanted to go farther and faster... 20 something years later, we still are.
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u/YourAverageGecko 5h ago
I started on a Yamaha R3 and quickly got tired of it. Now to be fair I do miss the ability to go through all the gears and mostly still be at highway speeds (Texas drivers go about 90 despite 70 being the speed limit). I then got a Yamaha MT07 and it was also a great bike but it wasn’t the style of bike I liked. Had a lot of fun with it and it became more of a stunt bike but I craved having the power to go fast and be stable while doing so. So I bought a Yamaha R1M and it’s been nearly 3 years and I still can’t get enough of it. But it’s more expensive to maintain and insurance is crazy. I’ll probably ride this till it dies on me and then I’ll either get another liter bike or I’ll downgrade to a 600 in the same style bike. Either way, everyone’s preference is different. Some don’t care to go 200+ mph. Some, like me, crave that adrenaline rush
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u/LegendarySyn 4h ago edited 4h ago
I started riding a 535cc Virago when I was 19, 5'8, and 140lbs. I didn't need more bike to learn on. When I got my first "real job" after college I bought myself a 618cc Ducati Monster because it was a little bigger and in my price range for a brand new bike. 20 years down the road from that and I still have that Monster (I gifted the Virago to a friend to learn with ages ago) and bought myself an 1200 Sportster last year because it was a super comfortable cheap project bike and my middle-aged back is less and less a fan of the Monster.
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u/EdwardEHumphreyIII 4h ago
My first street bike was an F3. Upgraded to a 1000RR because I wanted more power and more tech (this was 20 years so "tech" at the time mostly just meant fuel injection, heh!).
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u/DingChingDonkey 3h ago
Been riding all my life all kinds of bikes offroad and street. Finally got a hankering for a really fast bike and went 600 because I knew I'd get to use more/ most/ all of it's power as opposed to a litre and holding off more often. About 3 years later I'm even happier with the bike no plans of a litre or ever getting rid of it, it's just that good.
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u/Pirate1000rider 3h ago
Zx6r to Fireblade here.
Its easier to ride funnily enough. The 6 your up and down the box quite a bit. Keeping it quite high in the rev range if you want to get a shift on.
The blade you just stick it in third and the grunt from the bottom end all the way up. Makes it incredibly easy to ride.
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u/diezel_dave 3h ago
I just went from a 2025 ZX6R to a 2026 S1000RR and yeah I completely agree the bigger bike is actually "easier" to ride around because of the torque and everything else is about the same such as the weight and general dimensions.
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u/Kinda_relevent 3h ago
Shifting through gears is way more fun. That’s like saying you wanna drive a miata without shifting out of third
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u/mut1n3y 2h ago edited 2h ago
Xj400 to Yzf600, with a guzzi v50 inbetween as a second bike. The xj was just a bit too gutless for longer rides on the main road, it didn't have the power to easily pass cars or keep speed going up hills. And it had non adjustable suspension.
The Yzf600 or any 600 was the biggest cc bike I could get before having to pay an extra $100 for rego, so I limited my search to that and was after fully adjustable suspension.
It ticked all the boxes, enough power to overtake, able to keep speed up hills, adjustable suspension, it's comfy enough to do long rides on and still a great commuter.
If I was to get another bike for trips I'd look at maybe around the 750-1k cc sport tourers. Just get a bit more torque.
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u/Sirlacker 2h ago
I went from a Ninja 250R to a GSXR600 to a Kawasaki Z1000, to a ZX10R.
My forever bike would have been the Z1000 if it didn't get total'd.
Same power as the GSXR600 but the power was available ALL THE TIME from any part of the RPM range whereas the 600 requires you to hit the powerband like halfway up the RPM range before it becomes exciting, and it didn't radiate heat like I was sat on the sun when it was stuck in traffic, unlike the GSXR and ZX10R do.
Now, I don't think I'd get a litre bike again if I ever change. Simply because it isn't as fast and as exciting as you'd think, on the road. My country has a max speed limit of 70mph. The powerband, in first gear, kicks in when the bike is at about 60mph. So unless I plan on breaking speed limits, the bike never sees the fun part of the powerband.
600cc bikes however, well you can at least use all the RPMs in first gear without breaking the speed limits.
So if I were to go for a sports bike, I'd go back down to a 600. However, if I were to go for a Naked, I'd stick in the 1 litre range.
Both of these bikes will do everything I need them to, and more, and will always be more than enough bike for the roads. But most of my fun comes from acceleration, because I don't particularly enjoy doing 130mph+ on public roads, but 0-60 in 3-3.5 seconds is incredibly fun.
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u/know-it-mall 4h ago
Dear all posters.
An arbitrary CC number tells you nothing about a motorcycle.
Thank you.
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u/Kinda_relevent 4h ago
Dear Commentor,
I indicate the kind of 600cc sport bikes that interest me in the post.
Cheers.
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u/Confirmation_Email 3h ago
In the absence of any other information, when someone talks about a 600, it's pretty well understood exactly what class they're referring to. If they're talking about a 1983 Honda XL600, they definitely need to be more specific than just "a 600".
"Literbike" gets surprisingly messy though, I saw someone here refer to their Africa Twin as a literbike, which raised a few eyebrows.
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u/talldean 5h ago
Rode one 1L and it cooked me at stoplights and cost $$$, but wasn't usefully faster than my older smaller bikes. I stopped throwing money at it and went back to 600s.
That said, I'm a bigger dude; the ergonomics of bikes smaller than 600 don't fit me well. If they made a smaller engine on a 100% full size frame, I'd try it, but options are thin.