Is a 1981 Yamaha XS400 a good beginner bike?

[Whiskerando]

I've been looking at bikes for a while but I've been struggling to find something small enough for me. I'm a 5'3" female. My local dealer has this bike for sale for $1000. Would this be a good first bike? I'm set to take my MSF course this weekend so I was hoping to find something soon.

 

[DNAPrototypeX]

I would say yes. They are tame bikes, you aren't going to have trouble controlling the power.

They are also easy to work on (in my experience), so a great platform to learn how to work on, or maintain a motorcycle. On thing to note is that some bike shops don't like to work on vintage bikes (learning to work on it may not be optional). But since this dealer is selling it, I assume they don't mind and would do the work if you choose bring it in for maintenance.

Since you are concerned about the size, definitely see if you can take it for a test ride to make sure it fits you.

Good luck on your MSF course!

 

[JPaganel]

I'm just going to repeat what I told the last person to ask that:

In terms of power and handling it's a great beginner bike. It isn't a fire-breathing tire-eating beast, which makes it pretty forgiving of noob mistakes. At the same time, it is fairly capable.

These are very reliable bikes when they are in good repair and not fueled with donkey piss. What you need to keep in mind is that the newest one is going to be 42-44 years old. That means a lot of previous owners, and a lot of variability in how they treated the bike. Did they keep up on maintenance? Did they replace the bits affected by age? How was the bike stored? Who knows... The fact that it is at a dealer is a plus, but still not a total guarantee. You can be certain that it runs and that they cleaned it, but no one can promise you with 100% certainty that something won't go wrong. Old bikes are old bikes.

If you get a 40+ year old machine you need to expect to have to do some work on it. That said, wrenching on it will teach you a few things about maintenance and repair and how bikes work. These bikes are pretty easy to work on and only require fairly basic tools. The only special tool I would call out is a good quality screwdriver set that includes JIS cross-head drivers. The parts are fairly inexpensive, and a surprising amount of them is still available.