Motorcycles

[ardillacid]

Who owns one? I'm looking to buy and have questions for you :)

[Era Might]

I have a hog. His name's Wilbur.

[Nihil Obstat]

J_Lo does. I have not seen him around for a little bit though.

[Groo the Wanderer]

harley or indian.   anything else and yer a girly-man.  ride in the...back...seat

[PadrePioOfPietrelcino]

I've always wanted an Indian powder coat black everything except a white gas tank....

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

i wan't a postie bike. Very cheap on fuel except i'm told that i'm to heavy for such a bike. They do like 90km per hour top speed, with me on there 80km, lol.

and i have owned a postie bike before when i was a teenager, i used to drive on the footpaths with it. The cops caught me and told me to not ride it anymore and let me off with a warning because i was good and had a helmet on lol. So i didn't ride the bike ever again.

[Egidio]

I've had hondas, kwazakis, and Suzukis...but my favorite by far were my two Ducatis....beautiful bikes, if not always very reliable. (they were quite old)

 

Of course given all that up now, bit difficult to ride in a habit!

[Papist]

I had one for 10+ years.  

 

No. They do not come with training wheels.

[Jesus_lol]

here are the ones I have(or had)!

 

first bike! a 1984 Yamaha Virago XV500 shaft drive. Cool bike once i put the standard handle bars on it, wish i still had it even though it was physically too small for me.Great sort of bike to start out on, very practical and fun

 

Second bike, I was actually given this one. a 1984 Honda XL600r, twin carburetor, kick start only road legal dirt bike, geared lower for increased acceleration. Holy... this was a fun bike. It didnt run when I was given it, did a good bit of work on it, to the point you could easily start it with your hand(no mean feat for a 600cc kickstart). I really wish i hadnt sold this, though i had fractured my elbow the day before from a  mtn bike accident. Man was this thing quick, i would often find myself doing small wheelies on start up or after a corner(which i would notice when the wheel touched down a second or two later)

 

third, a 1979 suzuki ts185 two stroke. Got this not running, flat tires, with both wheels seized for 50 bucks, had it running the next day, fixed back brake, disabled the front(it was screwed). First time i twisted the throttle, it wheelied so high i had to run my feet along the ground for a second before hopping back on, in the mean time the gas cap fell off and splashed gas on me. SO loud, awesome bike to tool around the farm on. 

 

had a few others that i never got running

[spoiler] like this late 70s Kawasaki KZ750 2 cylinder i was given

 

or this super weird 1983 Yamaha xz550 Vision, liquid cooled V. Brimming with all sorts of space age 80s technology, the carburetor system(pseudo downdraft carbs) had so many additional things required to make it run at all, i never got this one to go. 

[/spoiler]

 

then a long dry spell, before buying this one on a whim(the one i wanted had been claimed and I wanted a bike to take home dammit!), a Streetfighter'ed(fairings removed) 1990s Honda VFR750 (liquid cooled V4 engine, gear driven cams, extensive engine modifications and geared for accelleration). Also had a single sided swingarm.

 

Oh lord this thing was loud, and other guys on bikes were constantly asking what it was and saying how incredible it sounded (v4's sound rad, like a small V8 that can do 12,000 RPM), but that made it pretty hard to ride discreetly in quieter areas. Wasnt quite what I wanted, so when the one i had originally wanted became available i traded it back like a week later. So fun though and my first truly fast bike.

 

And then that comes to my current baby :D

a 1994 Suzuki RF900r, a 937cc liquid cooled inline 4 cylinder sport bike. has about 125 hp, and will do high way speed in first gear(though thats pretty scary, I dont like pushing the rpm's that high). It was made back in the days where the main full sized sportbikes were actually pretty comfortable, so its not bad for the longer rides. Lot heavier than a modern bike though, which handicaps its acceleration and turning a bit(but it will still beat any ferrari to 60mph easily, in just under 3 seconds(though i dont think mine runs that well). It would be a pretty close match with an Enzo). I love being able to hide behind the fairing for the highway riding and bad weather, i ride in the rain all the time on it.

 

Not sure what my next bike will be, the Suzuki needs some tuning up and work(its been dropped before) that it will be getting soon.

 

Ok, now that Ive finished showing off lol, what questions do you have Ardill? Im pretty confident in saying I can tell you a lot about most anything bike related(months or years spent bikeless made me go nuts looking up EVERYTHING)

 

Edited January 17, 2013 by Jesus_lol

[Jesus_lol]

Typical ardill, makes a thread asking questions and then disappears.

[ardillacid]

Typical ardill, makes a thread asking questions and then disappears.

 

Yeah, that guy is a real copper posser <_<

[Jesus_lol]

totally. So you had some questions? probably relating to what a good first bike would be?

[ardillacid]

New or Used?

I don't really know what kind of bike, other than I am thinking sport or super sport. It looks like there are four major brands: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha. All of them seem to have bikes that roughly correspond to each other. Is there really a difference between them? 

[Jesus_lol]

Firstly, i would say probably used, unless you are going for a much smaller bike.

 

secondly, and I cant stress this enough, you should not be buying anything with an inline 4cylinder engine for your first bike. So none of the 600cc or 1000cc(especially!) sport bikes.

 

Look into the twin cylinder 250's, 300's, 400s, 500s and maybe the 650 twins. Most bikes these days in that range are the 250's a couple 500s and 650s.

 

There is just WAY too much power in the modern 4 cylinder bikes to be learning on, and any good rider would tell you the same. More importantly, it isnt easily controllable power.

 

Displacement alone(engine size, like 250cc vs 600cc) isnt enough to tell you the power of the bike. For instance a 650 twin sportbike(like an SV650 or Ninja 650) makes about 70 hp at peak. this is still a ton, and a lot for a new rider, but doable if you are careful. A 600cc 4 cylinder revs up higher and might put out a top horsepower of about 110-115hp to the rear wheel. This is an absolute assload of power for a bike. 

 

For instance, the fastest sportbike(well, fastest around a track, not a straight line) in its day, the CBR900r Honda in 1992 made about the same top end horsepower and weighed another 50 pounds, and it was considered a demon even for experienced racers.

 

as a visual aid

the steeper line is horsepower as it goes up through the RPM(its comparing two model years). notice how around 9 thousand rpm, it gets steeper? in about the space of 1k rpm, that bike gains about 25hp, which is the same as a good beginner motorbike like the Ninja 250 has in total. If you are cruising around as a new rider and hit a pothole, you might twist the throttle a bit and hit that, all of a sudden either you are going way faster than you want, or your front wheel goes up, and you might poop yourself. Going around a corner and you pull the throttle a bit? burst of power to the rear wheel and you loose traction and find yourself sliding on the hopefully empty road.

 

The true sport bikes have way too much power and in a deceptive way. twin cylinders spread the power out more evenly across the RPM band, making it more predictable, even if a bit more powerful at the low end(as a twin cyl 650 would be torquier than a 600 four). they also dont rev nearly as high and dont get insane top end horsepower boosts.

 

Honestly, your best bet is to get a 250 ninja(or the brand new 300 is really nice), or the 500 ninja. If you can practice a bit, or have ridden a dirtbike before, you might want to look into the 650 twins. They make them with the proper sportbike looks nowadays, but with more comfortable seating, ergonomics, etc.

 

What is your sorta price limit you were looking at? You will find diminishing returns if you go too cheap, as all the bikes will start being non running 30 year old junkers. but the brand new 250/300 class bikes are pretty cheap, like 2-3 grand. for about the same price you can often find used larger bikes, which might help.

 

But really, as your first bike, it will absolutely not be your last one. People go through new bikes every few years on average, so dont worry about being locked into a single bike forever. You do have a lot to learn, like proper throttle control, leaning through corners with confidence, braking correctly and situational awareness of other traffic. You are much better off with a cheaper, slower bike that weighs a few hundred pounds less, so you dont have to worry about the bikes power, or accidentally tipping it over at a stop.

 

Even the slow bikes are fast. On a ninja 250, you may not have super high top speeds, but very few cars on the road will out accellerate you. Any other bike at all and you will be one of the fastest things on the road.

 

Important to remember, small beginner bikes are sold all the time and retain their value. you can easily buy a used beginner bike, and sell it a year later without losing any money on it. play your cards right, you might make money on the deal.

 

Then spend the money you save on the gear. You will want very nice leather/synthetic jacket and a good full face helmet, and gloves at the very least. Also need solid boots that cover your ankles, and leather pants might save you a lot of skin if you fall. You can get all this stuff for about 500-1000 bucks.

 

You will drop your first bike. Probably in the parking lot, or you hit some gravel pulling up to a light, or n the driveway. Dont get something too nice and shiny, or it will make picking it up and carrying on hurt more.

[ardillacid]

There's a lot to digest in your posts. I will chew on it for a bit.