Anyone else find themselves grinning at red lights on a small single?

That petrol station guy told me the same thing about my old CB250 back in 2014 and I still ride it to work most days. Thirteen years on a small bike and I have zero interest in anything bigger. My commute is about the same length as yours, fifteen minutes or so, and I honestly think small bikes make you a better rider. You learn to keep momentum up, plan overtakes, use every bit of the gearbox. On my mate's big road going bike I just twist a wrist and nothing happens in my head. No thinking involved. What kept me happy was riding for the ride, not the speed. I did a two week trip through the hills on that CB with a bag strapped on the back seat, done about 90km/h flat out downhill with a tailwind, and it was the best holiday of my life. Small bikes force you into the back roads where the fun actually is.

The itch for more, when it is real, feels like this. You start doing longer trips and the motorway legs wear you out because you are flogging the bike at full throttle just to keep up with traffic. If that never happens to you, you never need to move up. Some people buy bigger and discover they only ever ride it to the shops anyway. Give it a year before you even think about it, then decide.

I took the other path so I can speak to how the itch actually looks. Started on a Yamaha SR400, rode it three years, then bought a Triumph Speed Twin because a friend was flogging his touring route through the mountains and I wanted to keep up on long days. Was it necessity? Not really. I was riding fine within the SR400's limits and enjoying it. It was wanting, plain and simple, and wanting is a perfectly fine reason.

Here is the thing though. I still own the single. It lives in the garage next to the Triumph and gets more miles per week now, because the fun was never in the speed. It was in the whole ritual, the throttle hand, the weather on your arms, the small engine working hard and sounding happy about it.

So when the bloke at the servo told you three months, he was probly describing himself. Some people get bored of anything that does not accelerate harder than the car beside them. Others never do. You will find out which one you are, and if the answer is the second one, the GB350 will still be rewarding you in a decade. If it is the first, there is no shame in it either, you will have learned what you actually want from a bike, and that knowledge is worth more than any cc figure.

I've only got a push bike and a car licence so far, so I can't say anything about the itch yet. But that sound you mentioned is exactly what got me looking at bikes like this one in the first place. My neighbour has one and you can hear it coming from two streets away, this slow thudding noise. It makes the big fast bikes nearby sound boring, like a fridge hum. Question for you, does that engine shake thru your hands at all when you're sitting at the lights, or is it pretty smooth? I sat on one at the shop last week and the motor wasn't running so I have no idea.

Enjoy it while the chain is still tight, because that thump gets into your blood. I put 40,000km on a single back in the 80s and the best part was working on it. Used to gap the plugs with a coin and time the points by eye on the roadside, no fancy testers needed. You'll learn that machine like a mate. One tip from the old days, keep a small toolkit under the seat from day one, you'll use it more than you think.

Ran a little single as my only transport for about six years and the money side kept me happy too. Oil change takes twenty minutes in the driveway, valves are easy to get at, tyres cost half what my mate pays for his inline four. I reckon I saved enugh on servicing alone to cover the fuel. Also, when you can rev a small bike to the redline on an on-ramp without losing your licence, you actually use the thing you bought. Big bikes never get opened up, this one does every ride. Only mod I did was a taller screen for the cold mornings, everything else stayed stock.

Update: two weeks in and still grinning. The fella who said he kept his little commuter for thirteen years settled it for me, that's the plan. Also took the old-timer's advice and checked the chain over the weekend, first bit of maintanence I've ever done on anything with an engine. Got it to spec and now I want to learn everthing else about this bike too.