For those that may not know (from //www.sport-touring.net)...

The Death of the Beginnerbikes.com Forum

QuoteThe Beginnerbikes.com forums have shut down.  It's a huge loss to the online beginning motorcycling community.  The forum had 7000+ members and has surely saved the lives of hundreds of new riders, sharing experienced riders' knowledge with those hungry for it.  It's a sad fact.  The future of the non-forum pages of the site is uncertain, but one of its strongest elements is gone for good.

Follow the above link to read the rest of the story.

Thanks for the info.  The site didn't have any info on it for the last week or two.  Definitely a shame, that sight was invaluable to me when I got started, and has continued to be a great place to give & recieve info, meet other new riders, the whole bit.  The single best message board/resource I've seen on the 'net, no shaZam!.

jeff

Yeah, it's sad that the board has been shut down.  I too learned a lot from that place.  Heck, when I found it several years ago I didn't even know that there was an MSF course.   :lol:

Lots of those folks are heading over to the about.com motorcycle forums, where I can also be found from time to time.

Motorcycles.about.com beginners forum.
http://forums.about.com/ab-motorcycles4/start

The majority have moved to the delphi forums to regroup and reestablish themselves.  Basically some of the mods got a little heavy handed, a majority of members rebelled, and the site owner took his ball and went home to play by himself.  Very sad situation.

that sounds pretty excessive...too bad. it was a good site.  had one of the best write-ups on why not to buy a sportbike as a first bike. I used to post it to lots of people not seeing the value of a smaller first bike.


btw everyone, Delphi=about.com in regard my and JCH's comments...

   
thats a shame...heck if it werent for that site who knows if i would have even found this forum!  though i havent been to that for awhile, hence not knowing about its demise, it was freaking invaluable when i first had notions about getting a bike...


- alex

I have Matthew Takens and the BeginnerBikes.com site to thank for getting me into the sport.  I was completely ignorant of how to start and what bike to pick until a thread dialog with ShadowShack (a.k.a. Richard Rose) convinced me the GS500 was the right bike.  

It's clear that this site filled a void and did it well.  During the three years I participated the site supported some 300-500 active members.  A lot of the same questions came up, but the fringe topics like "What gear do I get?", "How to prep a bike for Winter?", "What do I watch for out there?", and the always enjoyable, "What bike should I get that I won't get bored with?"

This BB refugee is sad that it takes just 1-2% of a group to ruin it.  The problems seem to start in the General Discussions forum with a flare-up that got personal and stayed public.  Too bad some people can't just walk away -- neither person are likely to meet in person; what difference would it make to simply not reply to someone who attacks something you wrote?

No sense lamenting the past.  I'll be riding my GS500 for many years to come and appreciate that this GStwin community exists to help me understand how my machine works, keep it working and keep me out of trouble.  (As with Alex, BB.com led me here.)

There's lots to learn and enjoy about this sport.  Ride safe and be thankful for what you've got.

Roy V...

I also got started in BeginnerBikes.com, months before I even had a bike.  It also got me pointed in the direction of MSF and a GS500.  

Unfortunately, BeginnerBikes seemed to have more than its share of conflict spilling-out into its forums.  Most motorcycle forums have a "live and let live" philosophy: we have some members here who tour, race, stunt, or just commute; and we don't beat each other up too badly.  BB.com had an actual agenda: to push new riders into smaller, easier-to-ride first bikes, and MSF training before they started riding.  Having an agenda means conflict.

For one thing, there was always the difficult line between the ideal and the practical.  If BB.com were based in (say) India, I'm sure the site would have promoted starting on 80cc motorcycles.  To maintain credibility with new riders, the best they could do here in the US was advocate starting with 250cc bikes.  But they were fighting against US culture and "conventional wisdom".

Sometimes, the flame wars would start with visitors who posted "I just inherited my brother's Nighthawk, and it's the only bike I can afford, but now I read here that it's too big?"  The site was caught between it's party-line that beginners should "start small"; and the experiences of its many supportive members who did, in fact, start riding on a CB750 or other UJM, and lived to tell about it.

Other times, divisive arguments began when some members objected to "loud pipes".  The agenda of BB.com pushed many BBers to recommend against illegal modifications (e.g. aftermarket pipes), even though a huge number of its members had chosen to install loud pipes.

Such arguments sometimes turned long-time members against each other.  Perhaps the "mission" of BB.com caused the tone of its postings to be a bit more "preachy" than posts at other sites, which caused the arguments to run harder and longer whenever two "preachers" disagreed.  Anytime two groups of people care about something alot, it's much easier for them to get into entrenched disagreements over the details, even when the two groups otherwise share the same general position.  BB.com sometimes reminded me of a church which has an internal spat, and ends-up splitting into two churches over the division.

Anyways, it's a shame it didn't work out, but I can understand what made it difficult.

Rema, you may have something with this thought of conflict due to type of bike.

I've rarely seen any flaming on this GS500 board probably because the bike brings a sense of community.  A GS500's pipes are as loud as they are unless you replace them.  Performance -- Heck, carbureted 500cc's is all you get man; tweek away.  Sell your GS500 for something else -- Why hand around this board.

By it's nature, GStwin.com is a community of like minded folks.  We've already bought in to the performance characteristics.  Questions now are much more focused and because of that there isn't the fodder for divisive discussions.

But BB.com had a honorable premise, and that's what I'll miss.  If someone just wanted to get general help to decide how to enter the sport safely, that was the place to visit.  Once you buy in, perhaps the right move was to exit and hang with the crowd of similar technology.

I'll be doing a lot more of that from now on.  

Roy...

It really is sad. They were the voice of reason in a squidly world.

Quote from: RedShiftA lot of the same questions came up...

Oh, like another small-bike forum we all know???

I used to frequent BB a lot.  Almost more than here.  Getting into motorcycling, I typed 'beginner motorcycles' into google and came up with BB.  BB led me here.  

Once I got a GS500, it seemed like such a perfect first bike, that I dug the idea of hopefully helping people to come to that same decision (at least in spirit:  Small to medium displacement first bike--ie GS500, EX500, EX250, etc...)

There was a lot of the preaching going on, but someone it went to someone whose first post was "Just bought a GSX-R750...this motorcycling this is easy.  Why get a small bike?"  That person is never going to get it.

Then there was the fact that there wasn't a week that went by that there'd be 3-5 posts "What's a good first bike?"  Um, we have a motorcycle choices forum, look in there.  It would be followed immediately by the same post in the other forum.  The board noobs wouldn't bother to search, so it torqued a lot of 'old-timers' off, seeing the same new posts constantly.

And to say that the mods got a little heavy handed towards the end is so far in the running for 'Understatement of the Year:  2005'.

Well see beginner bikes sent many of the GS regulars here ... seems to me that they acted as the perfect stepping stone ... also ... beginner will be begineer only as long as they learn enough to be amateur ... and there is no common glue ... GS500, EX500, rebel 250, savage, vulcan 500 etc etc slowly pull people away from beginner and into the specific brand and model realm ...
Cool.
Srinath.

BB sent me here  or rather a member here on BB sent me here

Quote from: Pam G

Quote from: RedShiftA lot of the same questions came up...

Oh, like another small-bike forum we all know???

Point taken.  

Quote from: gobstopper... it went to someone whose first post was "Just bought a GSX-R750...this motorcycling this is easy.  Why get a small bike?"  That person is never going to get it. ...

I remember that one.  I also wanted to give that guy's head a shake.     He'll either get lucky and learn what not to do, or do what he shouldn't and have to live with the consequences.

Quote from: gobstopper... Then there was the fact that there wasn't a week that went by that there'd be 3-5 posts "What's a good first bike?"  Um, we have a motorcycle choices forum, look in there.  It would be followed immediately by the same post in the other forum.  The board noobs wouldn't bother to search, so it torqued a lot of 'old-timers' off, seeing the same new posts constantly. ...

I also tried to share what little I knew about finding the right bike, how to care & feed it and what not to do, and grew weary of answering the same question.  Although all well-designed Forum packages now have a  Search feature, it seems everyone wants their personal case to be examined, no matter how similar they may be.  Thankfully, someone always seemed to step in and address all questions.

To me one failure of the BB.com site was not saving valuable discussion content into a special location.  There were several threads that produced great input about Winter Gear, Bike Accessories, Riding Techniques, etc.  GStwin.com has done a better job with this, especially in the Maintenance area.  Bravo GStwin web masters...

Quote from: seshadri_srinathWell see beginner bikes sent many of the GS regulars here ... seems to me that they acted as the perfect stepping stone ...

Right on.

Roy V...

PS.  Nice Avatar GobStopper.  A personal favorite.  

That is a sad fact. I found BB sometime in 2002 looking for info on how to buy a bike and what I should look for.  I had several hundred posts there and met Matthew and Ken.  Great people, that's for sure.

They did have an agenda, but it was a noble agenda.  Too many people buy a sportbike expecting to just hop on and do power wheelies and stoppies right off the bat.  They get hurt, and all of their friends and family then protest that motorcycles are evil, which hurts all of us.  BB tried to inform people that it's ok to start small and work you way up.  Not everyone should be riding a 'Busa as their first bike.

I didn't hang around there as much as I used to, but its presence will be missed.

For the curious, an alternate web forum has been published as Beginnerbikers.org.

Looks like the core community is re-forming, with forum areas similar to that of the BB.com site had.

A new beginning, new owner, and hopefully better cooperation from the users.  

Roy...