Any Motörbike riders here?

underdog

midiglitch;466906" said:

I'm glad to hear the lad was alright.

Its a very interesting topic, smidsy.  When i did the bike safe course earlier in the year i had the honour of being placed with the police bikers instructor for dorset, ie the big dog.  I asked him if we should be wearing hi-viz and his answer was that while it obviously won't do any harm, the only way to survive long term on the bike is to expect people not to see you, and ride accordingly.  He was not therefore actually an advocate of hi-viz.

He said that even riding a big police bike with yellow and blue flourescence, and even flashing lights and sirens, people will still pull out in front of him from time to time.  To survive you have to ensure that your road position and speed allows you to take avoiding action if the other driver does make a mistake and have your attention in the right place to spot the early signs of that mistake (i.e looking at a cars wheels on a junction, or forward observation on normal roads etc).

Essentially, with the exception of freak accidents (eg a crane randomly breaking free and swinging out from a tracker as you pass it on the opposite side of the road) all incidents are avoidable.  

There is no doubt at all that the driver of the car that hit him was driving without due care and attention, that is self evident.  Thing is, that is no consolation at all when they are scraping the motorcyclist off the tarmac into a body bag.

The boy was on the right track by being aware of the car, and beeping or flashing to warn of his presence.  However a lesson for the future is to extend that thought process to "what will i do next if this idiot continues to pull out into my path?". 

I really don't want this to come across as me saying that its his fault, or he deserved to be knocked off or something like that.  Its not that at all.  On the contrary, i just hope he learns that as bikers we have to compensate for other peoples mistakes in order to survive and gets back on the bike and enjoys many years of safe riding to come.  The bikesafe course is a weekend well spent too, so might be worth him looking into that if he hasn't already.

When it became obvious the car wasn't stopping he put on the brakes (he was only doing 25mph) which should have been safe but from what I could see on the road the collision took place shortly after a huge white arrow road marking, so not sure if he slid it there or the simply didn't stop soon enough due to the lack of traction.

He is fine, so happy ending, and he was having a few niggles with his bike which should now be sorted by insurance paying him for a new bike.

MtB

IMO there's not a lot that beats a big v-twin. I've had an 1198 Multistrada for the past 4 years, and it's just great fun to ride - better (from memory) than the race reps I've had (ZXR9, Triumph 955i, GSXR1000 and GXSR750 - from 1999 to 2005).

The power is delivered in a different way - a lot more torque - which makes the V feel quicker. You just have to give an in-line four a bigger handful (make it rev more).

I found the v-twin easier to ride. Though with blades, RC8r's and 1098's all having in excess of 150bhp it's splitting hairs...  

Spider

midiglitch said:

Spider said:

midiglitch said:

Lovely! That looks like a shedload of fun. Enjoy!

Cheers, it is. I've only been out on it a couple of times but it's great fun to ride, I got it to slow me down a bit (too many speed vans round here) it's great round the twisty bits and barks like a bulldog on acid with the race cans on it. Looking forward to some dry roads an a bit of warm weather, hopefully soon !

Might even sell the VTR in the spring if I get on with this in the long term.

Is the VTR the same thing as the rc51? If so I'd be very interested to know your thoughts on how it compares to a fireblade (or similar), and compare and contrast to a duke or other big v-twin.  So much talk about v-twin torque, but then how much of it is just design purpose and engine tune?  

I'm loosely looking for an 08 or 09 blade at the moment, but can't help checking for rc8r's and 1098's although i know they won't be as good for what I want to do.  They just look so damn good!

Hi @midiglitch the rc51 is the SP or sports version, the VTR more of a sports / tour version. I've had Ducati's and the Honda is just a more reliable bike (I kept breaking the Ducati). VTR v Fireblade v R1 - I've done a few track days and yes these sports bikes do come past (on the straight bits) as the VTR is flat out at about 150mph but they are not much faster on the twisty bits.

I like the surge from a V twin engine, no need to rev the nuts of it to make progress and less need to change gears as much, as they pull strongly from almost no revs. As for looking good, I had a ride on an MV 1000 SP an I've lusted after one of these for years (still think they look the dogs) absolutely no good on the road, might be great on a track, it went like stink, sounded really nice but the ride was horrible, put an end to me wanting an MV.

Fusionista

It's amazing how cars and bikes (and guitars) are so individual.  Bane as well as a boon really, inasmuch as I have wasted - if that is the appropriate term - so much money on models which looked good but were actually pretty ordinary - or worse -  but then again been surprised and pleased with others unexpectedly. 

Some examples (I could write a book):

BMW 335i - hard ride, not that quick below the ton, stupid expensive to run; Golf Bluemotion 1.6 TDi - well-balanced, comfortable and nippy (legal speeds) @ half the cost.

BMW K1200RS, K1200RR (back in the day) both fails IMO compared to the Blackbird or GSXR1300;  BMW R100 30 years old - a complete blast (if ponderous compared to modern kit). Honda Fireblade (as many bikes these days) two different things: a docile, even boring ride below 3000 rpm, a wild beast above that (though not as ludicrous as the R1 or GSXR1000 which are IMO licence-losers). 800XC-clinical; Tiger 1250-a tad rough around the edges; 1200GS-vibrates, but torquey, easy to ride, versatile and surprisingly quick. Ducati Panigale - well, I didn't say I'd learned my lesson, did I ?

Guitars - even more individual - couldn't get a good sound out of a new Lucille, can't get a bad one out of my used 335; Custom Shop telecaster nothing special; Stratobitsa with Fender CS 57/62's in = my go-to instrument.

Try before you buy.

boogieman

Off to get my Honda MOT'd this morning and I've just noticed that somehow I've only managed to put 400 miles on it since the last one. 2014 was a busy year for me but I'm determined to get out on the bike more this year.

boogieman

Bike sailed through the MOT, happy to say. I took it for a run afterwards and got cut up by a wanker in an Openreach van on the way home. Weirdly enough I spotted the same guy working on a house round the corner about an hour later. He got a piece of my mind on his driving "skills" and a threat to report him. I won't, but I hope it puts the shits up him enough to stop him driving like an idiot. :x

Fusionista

Damn right, but you should report him, although I never do either

IanSavage

MtB said:

The power is delivered in a different way - a lot more torque - which makes the V feel quicker. You just have to give an in-line four a bigger handful (make it rev more).

I found the v-twin easier to ride. Though with blades, RC8r's and 1098's all having in excess of 150bhp it's splitting hairs...  

I'm a fan of twins as well, for that reason; bags of torque and that engine braking that takes some getting used to but which you can use to throw the bike around a bit more once you've got the hang of it. They also sound better - this is a scientific fact.

midiglitch

I completely agree its all about personal preference and try before you buy.

Going back to my sv from my cbr, the sv feels like a tractor.  Lumpy and rough and slow.  Yes there is torque but you run out of revs (limiter at *only* 10,000 rpm ish) so quickly.  The sv doesn't feel any less gutless either.  At the 650cc mark its a win for the inline four in my book.  I'm interested to know if that will change at the litre mark.

sinbaadi

midiglitch said:

I completely agree its all about personal preference and try before you buy.

Going back to my sv from my cbr, the sv feels like a tractor.  Lumpy and rough and slow.  Yes there is torque but you run out of revs (limiter at *only* 10,000 rpm ish) so quickly.  The sv doesn't feel any less gutless either.  At the 650cc mark its a win for the inline four in my book.  I'm interested to know if that will change at the litre mark.

Compare the SV with a Bandit and it's a little fairer, imo.  The CBR engine, even if it's not an RR, is a performance engine, and the SV is by any measure a budget motorcycle (I have one, I should know).  Not that 70bhp from 650cc is a low specific output, but IL4 engines are just easily capable of more.  The SV650 is geared (relatively) quite short too.  I often tell people who say the IL4s at this CC level are gutless low down, that this is largely because of the gearing, rather than the torque curve, and all bikes have shift-levers anyway.

In an equivalent gear at the same speed, a modern SS600 like the CBR600 will just disappear in a smooth, fluid fashion.  Power is power, having 2 big cylinders doesn't somehow make the power worth more.  Power is simply a figure you come up with when you multiply torque by the rpm.  I love my SV, I can use all of its potential a lot of the time without it getting ridiculous.  The ZX10r I had for a short time, was daring you to use it, and one day I realised that my enjoyment hadn't increased in conjunction with the numbers on the dash board that I was regularly seeing (compared with the SV650).  It's all relative....0-60 in 4, quarter mile in 11.  An SV650 is not a slow machine.

At the 1000cc level it's more about engine noise/character than performance.  There's a reason why IL4 thousand cc sports bikes are geared to reach around 100mph in first gear, and it's not because they lack torque! 

As a slight change of topic.  I'm waiting for the motorcycle industry to join in the turbo craze.  If a 1litre 3 cylinder turbo engine making 125bhp can drag a lard-arse Focus around with a combined mpg of 60+, then why on earth can't we get motorcycles with genuine motorcycle performance and easy 100+mpg?

boogieman

I remember the old turbo Honda bike...CX was it? The plastic slug one anyway. Awful things that were universally hated...maybe bike manufacturers are reluctant to go down that route again? Although, agreed it does make sense when compared to what the car industry are doing with small capacity, decent performance, fuel efficient engines.

midiglitch

It is a cbr600rr, and i have gone -1, +2 on the gearing as that is much more useful at the tracks i have been riding (brands indy, lydden, etc).  

I absolutely agree with you that in absolute terms the performance of even the SV is in a different league to a car.  When I say gutless what i am really referring to is that there is a reasonable spread of the rpm range where you can wind the throttle to the stop, and the actual response from the engine does not match it - it is equivalent to just cracking the throttle a few degrees.  This is the case everywhere on the Sv, and anywhere under about 8k on the cbr with the low gearing.  My own personal preference is just for more torque on tap over a wider range of revs and as the yanks like to say, in that respect 'there's no replacement for displacement'!

I completely agree with you about the sv being a budget bike vs the cbr being a race rep so not the best comparison.  I definitely cannot use all of my SVs potential most of the time: having tracked it, i know what can be done and there is no public road where it would be safe or responsible to ride it at that level imho.  Ymmv.

Not sure about turbo's on bikes... 2-stroke esq power bands...can be tricky!

sinbaadi

I guess that statement was open to interpretation.  Am I backing it in all the time, or scraping pegs at every corner, when I'm riding "spiritedly"?  No.  The comparison was purely about the engine, really.  I've done track days too, and have 8 years and 50k on the roads, on all sorts of bikes, behind me.  

The throttle response thing is as much to do with the gear you're in as anything else.  Obviously the closer you get to the machine's top speed, the less the response will be, no matter what.  5th gear on an SV650 never feels fast, no matter what rpm you're at, but that doesn't mean the engine isn't responsive, it all comes down to what speeds you're cracking the throttle open at.

I reckon turbo technology, wastegate technology, has come a long way since the old turbo bikes of the eighties.  It wouldn't have to be abrupt violent power delivery, or massively laggy.

Jaden

it was a great long summer eh! I rode at least twice a week off road and think ive one ridden about once a month since temperatures dropped, oh and I dropped the bike onto my leg, that didnt help either..
anyway, this is me having a little bimble along a well known trail in Wales.. had to move house for my mum the next day so was taking it very, very easy

Fusionista

That looked like fun. Except...

one of my' problems' with biking is I like to be 'going somewhere'. That is, I just don't get any satisfaction out of  bimbling around to no purpose (which as we all know is one of the joys of biking  )

Only mention it because it appears to be a fairly rare psychological quirk in the biking community and I would dearly like to talk myself out of it!

xmrchi

I did 40k on a Honda vtr, the only thing to ever go wrong was the after market alarm, it did the nurbergring twice, commuted daily and never missed a beat, one bike I would happily live with again, I have an r6 at the mo which is my daily ride and again just keeps on going

Nomad

Any suggestions for good places for bike insurance for a middle aged bloke with a few decades of car experience?

Been thinking of getting a bike, but currently only have a car licence. Not sure yet whether to get a 125 and ride on L plates until the test, or do a Direct Access and get the full licence right away.

sinbaadi

Your insurance will be peanuts on anything less than a BMW s1000rrrrrrr anyway unless you don't at least use comparison websites.  

That's the main question facing most wannabe-bikers.  I'd always say, get tuition.  If that means as a part of DAS, then fine.  CBT and straight on the roads is the worst way of doing it imo.

Tone71

As above.

I always use the comparison sites, bike insurance is cheap.

Would also recommend DAS it is fairly easy and as a car driver you have the road savvy already, plus you don't have to ride around on a 125 with plates possibly practicing bad habits. Then it is straight to decent engine sizes with heavier, more stable bikes.

Either way, enjoy it, riding is excellent, but in the Winter is pretty grim and I can`t wait until Spring.

Jaden

used a comparison site for the insurance on my KTM300...
not ridden for more than 13 years..
68 quid a year..


Muahahahahahahahahahahahah

thats what ya get for being old