street cruiser bike
What is safer, a street bike or cruiser?
I am thinking of getting a cruiser like the Honda Shadow. I’m going to buy it and take the license test and then safety lessons. I’m just curious to know if street bike are overall safer for a beginner or if a cruiser is? Like stability wise, could I handle a cruiser better than a street bike, or are they the same?
I’m buying one because I don’t want to drive a car to school anymore because of the high gas prices.
I figure I will drive really safe, on the far right lanes when I’m on the freeways, I’m not one of those guys who looks for thrills from driving really fast. I really just want one for the low mpg.
A long time ago (maybe 5-7 years), a motorcycle magazine did a braking comparison of a sport bike and a cruiser (both models I can’t remember or the mag for that matter). But what was surprising was the fact that the tester was able to get the cruiser to stop shorter than the sport bike. (At the time, this sport bike was near the top of their ’shortest braking distance’ list).
The test revealed that the geometry of a cruiser (long wheelbase/low center of gravity) compared to a sport bike (short wheelbase/high center of gravity) allowed the tester to get on the brakes harder on the cruiser because there was no fear of pulling a ’stoppie’ (rear wheel comes up under hard braking for the uninformed). Now keep in mind that this test was done on a race track under controlled conditions.
While a sport bike is light, quick, and nimble compared to a cruiser, the cruiser because of it’s low C.O.G. is very stable and easy to manuever at low speeds (while learning to ride you’ll love that fact), more forgiving if you drop it — I’ll take a dented tank over broken plastic ANY day (expensive!!!), cheaper to insure than a sportbike (I mentioned the broken plastic, right?). Keep in mind that sport bikes and “standard” bikes typically have comparable seat heights from +29″ to maybe 31-32″. Anything lower kinda falls into the cruiser category unless it’s just a smaller bike.
I’m not biased one way or the other… if it has two/three wheels, it’s ok in my book. There are folks out there that can talk up reasons to get the sport bike, and they would probably be right. But in the end, it’ll be your butt on the seat. Make the decision based on what best fits your situation. Good luck and good riding.
Southbay Cruisers – Street Performance Ride with Fossil Fool ‘The Bike Rapper’ on 11/21/08
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