Today I was sorting out some old photographs and came across a photo of my first big bike. I jumped from a 250 super-dream to a gpz1100 . Wow I felt Awesome, I was fully legal but felt like I was doing something naughty. Some people say that the biggest moments in your life are marriage , buying a house, your first baby ect. To me this was one of the big moments and I don't know if anybody else had that feeling. Gave me goose bumps seeing that old photo again.
This is an interesting topic and cjninja should be congratulated for introducing it. The definition of a “Big Bike” is, however, nebulous.
Looking through the archives, in the 1950s a 600/650cc machine was regarded as a BB, although on rare occasions a 500 could be described as such.
By the mid-1970s the lower limit for a BB was 650cc; bikes between 350 and 550 were regarded as “middleweights”. BMW was the only major manufacturer producing a model in the awkward-to-describe 600cc category. (The Soviets, for reasons best known to themselves, advertised their 650cc Ural and Dnieper combos as “commuters”.)
More recently, I’ve seen a 900cc bike described as a “middleweight” and an 800 as a “commuter”. Of course, this varies from model to model; a 600cc sports bike, for example, wouldn’t be described as a “commuter”, but the Kawasaki ER-6 is frequently portrayed as one.
When I was a kid, I remember the Suzuki GT 380 looked huge, although I later learned it was indeed a big-sized bike for its capacity.
The only bike I've owned that could be described as "Big" was an ex-police BMW R80RT, which I picked up for £600 in 1990 - an incredible bargain even then.
I'll tell you what - I've been less comfortable in limousines. That fairing was amazing for a 1980s bike. I remember a ride in convoy in the dark from Wirral to Hull to the Cods'n'Sods Rally and it bucketed down all the way along the M62. Everyone else was cold and miserable - I didn't want the ride to end, because I was enjoying it so much.
![Do you remember your first big bike? or ride out on one? - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8mobileLQ.jpg)
![Do you remember your first big bike? or ride out on one? - Forums [Biker Match]](/images/backgrounds/strips/8desktopLQ.jpg)
