Beginner rider on a Honda CB650R 2024

Hello there,
I'm a complete beginner rider. I just got my driving license a couple of weeks ago.
I decided to get myself a new Honda CB650R 2024. Unfortunately, at the time of purchase, the E-Clutch version wasn't available, and I would need to wait one or two months if I decided to order one.
However, there are more benefits to riding a normal clutch version. One of these is getting properly used to handling the bike with a manual clutch correctly.
Please leave your thoughts below and, of course, don't forget to like and subscribe.
Many thanks for viewing, and I'll see you in the next one.
This video was shot with a GoPro Hero 12 camera with ND16 filter.

[@lost-again]

Very nice looking bike. Congratulations on getting your licence. I only got mine 6 months ago. It's a great feeling once you get it.

[@motospidey]

Definitely a great feeling. Was a little bit unsure at first but with time got used to driving.

[@ashrafc7794]

My first bike was only $1200 instead of $12000 becuz I was worried I’d drop it. Thank God I did that lol. Dropped it on the first week and had a small accident in the rain on my 2nd month. It’s a VStrom 650, that things a tank, got 70,000 miles and still purrs down the highway

[@motospidey]

I am also still worried about dropping my bike. At some point everyone drops their bike, especially beginners. I’m trying to be as careful as possible, but if it happens, then so be it. Your bike is a beast. Take care out there.

[@feelmyknife]

Tbh i think it also depends hardly where you live .. im scared if i see how Bad People Drive in the US for example and also how fast they can get a permission for a 100hp bike in General without any experience 🤦🏻‍♂️ in Most countrys you only get your license if you can handle the bike , also in low Speed (Where the Most bikes get dropped) but ofc it can also Happens anytime to an experienced Rider.

[@olaokolaok]

​@@motospidey I started riding a Honda Elite 125 when I was younger and never dropped it-I rode it for about six years and learned so much. Back then, I took a lot of risks-riding while high, drunk, and in the rain, often just in a T-shirt. It’s funny how fearless youth can be; I wouldn’t dream of doing that now. After that, I moved on to a CB250, which I also never dropped. Now I ride a CB650R, and I feel really comfortable with it. I’ve added some sliders, and luckily, I haven’t had any accidents. People often say, "I bet you’ll want to upgrade to a bigger bike," but honestly, I don’t. There are significant reasons: higher insurance, worse gas mileage, and I think this bike looks perfect as is. I’ve found my sweet spot, and after a year, I’m still just as addicted as when I bought it. This bike is a dream! I mostly use it for commuting, and it’s great for parking in tight spots when I need to meet clients. Traffic doesn’t exist for me, and when it does, filtering is still fun. To close, I just want to say that you won't necessarily drop your bike. I trust my instincts, and the bike feels perfect to me. Traction control has saved me once when the rear wheel slipped, and the bike stabilized beautifully. I never disable it. Always respect your bike, stay aware of road conditions, and keep an eye on your mirrors. Passing other vehicles quickly can help avoid surprises when they change lanes without signaling, and it’s essential to stay vigilant.

[@santinoshariffe2720]

I just picked mine up today. Its a gorgeous bike and I didn't realize how powerful this bike is. Congratz on an amazing machine sir, ride safe and have fun!

[@motospidey]

Thanks. I'm happy for you. Enjoy the bike and ride safe.

[@trevor2830]

This is the best looking naked bike. Very classy and yet agressive. If you wanted to, you could have bought the new suzuki gsx8r which has fairings but still has that upright position you mentioned. Only thing it has more torque but you could have that limited until you're more comfortable. The inline4 that you're on without the eclutch will make you a better rider instead of depending on the eclutch. The other thing is most of your bike's power is at the top of the rev range so low speed in traffic for example you should be pretty ok to maneuver as well. Stay safe and enjoy the bike man i love it and would personally start on this or a mt07

[@motospidey]

The MT07 is also a very good looking bike. Most of other bikes with 2 cylinders have more torque than the Honda one. However for a beginner like me, the 65Nm is also kinda of enough for everyday occasions. Will definitely enjoy the bike, thanks.

[@lmmorris12345]

@@motospidey this bike has very predictable power delivery, feels more grounded and stable cornering than mt07 and overall nice to start on, after your first oil change you will get to see other side of rpm range and stay there on open roads, i have previous 2019 model and i like new improved screen, I considered xsr 700 before buying honda but could not find good deal at the time so next one will be xsr900, stay safe😀

[@motospidey]

@@lmmorris12345The XSR900 is a beast. The older Honda CB‘s look really nice as well. I was considering buying a used one but the screen design wasn’t all that great..

[@theslowdeathoftheuniverse]

nice I started this year on CB 125R and in may I did my full license and now going for XSR700, hopefully will get it in garage in week or so

[@motospidey]

The XSR700 looks very nice. Wish you lots of fun with it.

[@calipo1995]

Ich habe letztes Jahr angefangen mit Motorrad fahren und mit jeder Fahrt lerne ich immer dazu. Habe mir die Honda cb 750 Hornet gekauft und bin auch sehr glücklich damit. Wünsche dir gute Fahrt und viel Spass✌🏻

[@motospidey]

Danke. Übung mach den Meister. CB750 sieht sehr krass aus.

[@signorahornet]

Dream bike! 🥰 I started on a hornet 600 and still learning the bike, like you.😅 Sometimes, it's difficult to handle a 600 on tricky roads as a beginner. Hopefully in the late future I am going to upgrade in this beautiful bike. Hope you enjoy it 😆

[@motospidey]

Yea 600 cc isn’t quite a beginner bike. The more you ride the better you get. I enjoy every second on the bike. I still have some doubts in the corners but I’ll get there.

[@nameless798]

I would have loved to record my learning process, it makes me nostalgic just remembering it.

[@YukiFastlife]

your clutch is thankful and will last even longer if you shift like that haha keep it up man and stay safe out there!!

[@motospidey]

Yea I shift like a grandpa. I’ve installed a quick shifter now. The changes are so faster now.

[@masomi-lb8qt]

good job bro, good quality content, keep it up

[@GT.Bugger]

This is the bike im looking to get for my first bike. I think you're right when you talk about a naked style being better for a first bike. I was looking at the cbr650r, but I'll be doing lessons and tests here in the UK on a cb650r, so it'll be a good bike to start on imo.

[@motospidey]

The CB650R is a nice choice for a beginner. The only downside I found so far are the loud injectors. I mean you could really hear them especially when a car passes nearby and you get that crazy echo from your bike back. I would suggest you test drive some bikes out there and not just buy one because you want one. Quality wise the bike is very well build apart from that Honda cheaped out on the air vent ducts. They offer Aluminium covers for 150€ on top…

[@GT.Bugger]

@motospidey yeah the air vents look better on the older model, I think. I will definitely test ride a few bikes, but I can't think of what else actually competes with the CB650R. For built quality, style and price I don't know of anything else?

[@motospidey]

@@GT.Buggerwould definitely check the Triumph Trident 660. Guess Honda is the way to go.

[@sini81rs]

You will only get better with every ride💪 Viel Spaß!

[@motospidey]

Already starting to feel natural. Just need more time. The actual weather doesn’t let me enjoy the bike that much :/

[@victorsmuga7560]

lovely bike, and your doing great for a beginner congrants on passing your test, its a shame you didnt get the E-clutch system though!! its better and comes out cheaper than a quickshifter!!! theres more info on yt and google as of why its better

[@motospidey]

I agree. The E-Clutch would have been a better option. Unfortunately it was not in stock as I bought my bike.

[@miketheeagle6470]

Lovely to see newbie on cb650r cause well ima be newbie myself and i wanna buy it as well. :D Also lovely video! 💪

[@motospidey]

Thanks. Would definitely suggest that bike. Hope you’ll get one as well.

[@miketheeagle6470]

@@motospidey Oh you bet i will get that bike. 😁

[@RA-lh9uh]

@@miketheeagle6470 did you buy it?? i'm thinking about this bike and kawasaki z650 or z900 for the first bike. z900 might be too much. also this honda costs about 1500€ more in slovenia. kawasaki is a bit cheaper

[@miketheeagle6470]

@@RA-lh9uh Yea and i love it. and as power goes. As some people say. Just dont be dumb on the bike and you good to go. :D But z900 is a solid choice as well!

[@silver_surfer88]

Congrats on your license and that pocket rocket machine! Quick shifter i recomend you to install, is a must if you want to do some hard accelerations, that way you can be secured on the handlebar and not worry about touching the clutch, also its so fast transitioning trough the gears its amazing, worth it. Ho i forgot to mention, this motorcycle really likes to be rev matched when downshifting, so in time learn how to do it, you will feel much smoother around town

[@motospidey]

Thanks. Already installed the quick shifter, huge difference. I'm learning to downshift atm.

[@aaff3846]

Beautiful street side👍

[@ioannisgiannispetrov1872]

Very good content , very good editing keep up bro

[@brunophoferro]

omg the lady and the dog on the bike, so cute

[@hoodlumgamer]

Thats gonna be my next bike but with the e clutch as that's ment to be some crazy tech

[@motospidey]

It’s definitely a game changer. Would also like to try the E-Clutch one.

[@dougmaverick3287]

Just curious why you didn't opt for the e-clutch? From all the reviews I've seen, everyone says the e-clutch is a brilliant system, and a game changer. I definitely plan on going with the E-clutch on my 2025 cb650r. I would have bought a 2024 but Canada didn't get that year. Enjoy and ride safe.

[@motospidey]

E-clutch was on back order and I would have to wait a couple of months. Now that I think, I would definitely go with the e-clutch version.

[@dougmaverick3287]

@@motospidey Either way you got an amazing bike my friend, enjoy and ride safe.

[@danimerol]

Im looking forward to get it. Does anyone knows if the eclutch could be adapted latter ? …I mean, just for the latest models. Nice ride! Regards.

[@peterpataki4094]

I think the display in dark mode is more beautiful than the standars setting. But it is up to the owner of course! 🙂

[@motospidey]

I have set it to auto so when I drive in the dark or in a tunnel the screen changes to dark mode. Might try it the other way around.

[@peterpataki4094]

​@@motospidey I have a friend of mine who - as an absolute beginner - strated with a new GS1250R Adventure. So it is not impossible to learn riding bikes on big ones. Learning to fly normally starts with gliders not jet fighters. We all are dreaming about jet fighters .. and nobody stop us when we buy bigger bikes first than ideally would be. Please please be very smart. You are riding a jet! You know about 5-15 % what this beast knows. Take care mate! Keep allways safe space away from cars. Safe space means 10 meters. Build up your confidence on long and patient experience, not on "ego". Leave time for your sensors and body to learn riding. Your conscious brain will not be fast enough in emergency situation to react. These happens in 0.5 sec - so leave time for your body to learn, then your muscles will react in case of need without knowing what happen. Sorry, I am a "teacher type"! 🙂

[@Roeper437]

Why you went for non eclutch? From what I was seeing about this bike, it seems its no brainer to not get it as the price difference isn't that big and you still can ride as normal without it if you want. How is that bike on a longer rides? I can see you are probably from central Europe, Germany, Poland or something similiar right? I am from Slovakia so this type of ride is day to day thing, no big cities or wast highways. Very smooth ride, enjoyed it as if i was there, bike sounds nice even as a stock and I love that "retro ish" style :)

[@motospidey]

I went for the non e-Clutch because it wasn’t available at the moment when I bought my bike. After 2 hours you start to feel that pain at the back. Overall with small breaks it’s pretty fine to drive.

[@Roeper437]

@@motospidey uhm yeah, i have a slight pain problem with lower back. Thanks for info.

[@Soeks77]

Def gotta slap an exhaust onto this bike, it sounds so good 👌 one of the last 600 style street fighter bikes

[@motospidey]

Full exhaust system for this bike costs 1500€

[@Soeks77]

@@motospidey dang, what manufacture?

[@motospidey]

@@Soeks77 akrapovic

[@Soeks77]

@@motospidey alr alr, def gonna sound awesome if u go for it

[@uhbif19]

I am new rider as well, but I do not get what the point to do so many upshifts. This bike should do such speeds at 3-4 gear, I believe. I ride in them at 70-80 kmh on my 300cc bike, which is like twice less powerful.

[@motospidey]

To break the motor in. If you ride at 3rd gear 70 km/h you will get over 6000 rpm. Fuel economy at lower RPM’s.

[@Morgan1367]

Just passed my test and have the same bike. Still quick enough to lose you licence again 😂

[@motospidey]

Congrats. Would be a shame to loose it the next day you got it. 😂 Good that in Germany we have Autobahn, full throttle without limits.

[@Morgan1367]

@@motospidey yeah no Autobahn in the uk just plenty of speed cameras and terrible weather, so fun 😩. Enjoy riding buddy and stay safe 👊🏼

[@motospidey]

@@Morgan1367 the last few months the weather in Germany is also kind of tricky. One time it’s sunny the next raining. Wish you lots of fun with the bike and stay safe, don’t get too many speeding tickets 😃

[@Tonyx.yt.]

better release the clutch much sooner and quicker, not only reduce clutch wear but also riding is smoother because revs dont drop too much

[@motospidey]

Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind

[@Tonyx.yt.]

@@motospidey also since the motorcycle has the slipper clutch, even is the clutch is released too fast, it automaticaly engage smootly on its own, so even on abrupt downshit there's no need to release so slowly, just try to downshift between 3 and 2nd, no throttle and leave the clutch lever as fast as you can, rear wheel wont lock and clutch would engage automaticaly at slower pace because that's what slipper clutches are designed to

[@simisanoo5382]

Already blipping the throttle? Nice

[@motospidey]

Trying to but it doesn’t work as well as I want it to

[@Ian-qy5vc]

The bike is in mph or kmh? because you use the fifth gear with 50km/h, the bikes normally revs higher i think when i have my license i use the same bike, Saludos!

[@motospidey]

The bike is in km/h. The motor was not broke in properly so I did drive at lower RPM. The bike is great. Did already 3500km.

[@Filipino.galaboy]

2024 has a lot of problems. I can hear the engine is scram and the shifting is so noisy. That’s not normal for Honda. After 20 years of experience riding a big bike and I'm a Honda lover I can say easily the bike's electrical box has problems and low power.

[@motospidey]

Unfortunately I've had no other bikes to compare the honda with. I find the injectors to be too noisy and the chain is trash.

[@Filipino.galaboy]

@@motospidey 2024 models are like that. Mine! Is crazy! Sometimes faction well sometimes not lol 😆

[@xXN3weaRXx]

Is the bike stable and smooth at high speed like more than 100km/h?? I have this bike on my mind as a first bike.

[@motospidey]

The bike is very stable at high speeds. As my first bike I can definitely recommend it to a beginner. It has a lot of power - you can drive casually below 6k rpm or you can drive it aggressively above 6k rpm. It also sounds amazing.

[@VIDEOMOTIONDESIGN]

it s not an 2024eclutch from CB 2024? it would have been helpful for gear

[@motospidey]

It's not an E-Clutch version, it wasn't available yet when I purchased my bike.

[@peterpataki4094]

May I ask you what is her average consumpition in your style? My CB500X - using her in moderate style - eats about 3.2 liter/100 km. I am thinking of to buy this last representative of 4-cylinders, but I am affraid that she eats more than 4 liters. I do not want chase her, just to enjoy the feeling. Thank you in advance mate!

[@motospidey]

Always depends on the riding. Sometimes I get 300+ kilometer on full tank and sometimes when I push the bike and drive on high rpm’s I end up doing around 250. I would say 4lt/100km when riding normally and 5+ when pushing the bike.

[@cocuqtatl256]

when did you buy it and what was the price? Really cool bike but here taxes make it so expensive

[@motospidey]

I bought the bike on 12 June this year. The price was 9.390€. How much does it cost there?

[@cocuqtatl256]

@@motospidey 10.600 $

[@ReySChasey]

Damn, Honda just went and slapped an Ipad on the front huh? TFT screen may be better on paper but, aesthetically, the previous gen looks better no competition.

[@motospidey]

The new TFT screen makes the bike look more modern. There ain’t that many changes overall. I think both gen’s look nice.

[@Deuxiit]

new tft is good in sunny day. The old one was not good at all. There is alot of features in the tft like navigation, spotify contol etc, maintenance info, driving info

[@cyborgscanner]

Are you getting false neutrals? Or are there times it is hard to put it into neutral? This was the issue with previous version.

[@motospidey]

Till now I only get sometimes false neutral wenn I shift from first to second gear and that’s because I don’t slam enough on the shifter. I found out that preloading the shifter makes the gear changes somehow faster and smoother.

[@cyborgscanner]

@@motospidey I see… so the new model still has this “issue”.. Anyways I saw in youtube some owners will install the shift stabilizer and they no longer get the false neutrals after.

[@motospidey]

I want to install a quickshifter in the future. A shifter stabilizer might be a thing I’ll look into.

[@deus2645]

can you set rpm limit where the gear changes or it just do its own?

[@motospidey]

You can only set RPM limit to show you the ride line. Doesn’t change through the gears itself.

[@theslowdeathoftheuniverse]

What is examination bike for license? In Poland we use MT-07 or MT-03 for lower category

[@motospidey]

In Germany every driving school uses different bikes. I learned driving on a Kawasaki Z650 and did my exam on it.

[@michadudek2806]

Actually it depends on the city, here in Gdańsk we also have CB650R as an examination bike

[@theslowdeathoftheuniverse]

@@michadudek2806 really... with e-clutch :D ?? that would be awesome

[@konstantinp.8405]

Ich komme übrigens auch aus der Ecke, könntest du mir deinen Honda Händler netten?

[@motospidey]

Natürlich. Das ist der Limbächer in Filderstadt. Grüß

[@peterenis4752]

What gmoles are those you use?

[@motospidey]

I use the SMX-Z Drystar gloves from Alpinestars.

[@peterenis4752]

@@motospidey I did ask about gmols LOL. The crash bars.

[@motospidey]

@@peterenis4752I see. Did read gloves at first 😆 I have the SW-Motech Crashbar SBL.01.529.10001/B.

[@peterenis4752]

@@motospidey I guess you did drive quite a lot by now. What is the fuel consumption in L/100km ?

[@RevolutionRoad]

If you want to learn how to ride that bike properly, TURN OFF ALL the rider aids!

[@motospidey]

That would be too dangerous.

[@RevolutionRoad]

@@motospidey It's not. It was not that long ago those rider aids did not exist. Its more of a crutch than an "aid" for the rider.

[@LazyLeftEye1]

​@@RevolutionRoad Man what are you talking about. It is what it is now. Bikes evolve so does the aid. Before there was no automatic in cars, now there are. 90% of the people want to commute with their vehicle not doing laps in a race. ABS is helping a lot of drivers around the world, to tell a newbie to turn off all aids is simply retarded..

[@paulcrocker7347]

​@@motospideyon bikes now since the early 80s as a young kid, don't listen to the nah say'ers. Any safety feature on a bike is another layer of protection, it reduces the extra load on your concentration on the road, giving you more energy to enjoy riding.. keep up the journey mate..