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Motorcycles: A Practical Overview For The Curious

Motorcycles are not one thing. The category covers everything from a 110cc scooter that tops out at forty miles per hour to a 1000cc superbike that does sixty in second gear. Walking into a dealership without a sense of which kind of riding you want to do is a fast way to end up with the wrong bike.

The main categories

Cruisers. Low seat, feet forward, relaxed posture. The Harley-Davidson archetype. Good for long highway miles, less good for twisty roads or aggressive riding.
Sport bikes. Aggressive forward lean, clip-on bars, high foot pegs. Built for cornering on smooth pavement. Comfortable for an hour, painful for four.
Standards (sometimes called "naked" bikes). Upright seating, no fairing. The middle ground that fits most riders for most uses. The best general first bike for an adult.
Adventure (ADV) bikes. Tall, upright, long-travel suspension, capable on pavement and graded dirt. Big seller in the last decade.
Dual-sports. Smaller, lighter dirt-capable bikes that are also street legal. Great for exploring back roads.
Cafe racers and modern classics. Retro styling, mid-size engines, relaxed but committed riding position.
Scooters. Step-through, automatic, often underestimated. A 150cc scooter is the most practical urban vehicle most cities have.

The honest case for riding

A motorcycle is more fun than a car at any speed. It returns sixty to eighty miles per gallon in most cases. It parks anywhere. It connects you to the road and the weather in a way no enclosed vehicle does. For some people that experience is worth the rest of the tradeoffs.

The honest case against

Per mile traveled, motorcyclists are about twenty-five times more likely to die in a crash than people in cars, according to NHTSA data. Most fatal crashes involve a rider who was either inexperienced, drunk, speeding, not wearing a helmet, or some combination. None of those are inherent to motorcycling — but the consequences of mistakes that a car forgives are not forgiven on a bike.

If you decide to learn

Take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course before you buy anything. It costs $250 to $400 in most states, includes the use of a small bike, and either satisfies or makes much easier the state motorcycle endorsement test. Buy a full helmet, real gloves, an armored jacket, and over-the-ankle boots before you ride. You can find a fuller training breakdown there.