Motorbikes

[VR46]

TDR125, 250 happy two stroke days. Give it a good check it's bound to have had a "exciting" life.
My first bike many moons ago was a 1988 Red NSR125R, it was de-restricted and did about 85mph, nice, but drum brakes, then some fooker stole it.

[Alastair]

I was originally looking for an NSR actually but they are pretty scarce for the budget I have as they have all been thrashed or stolen like you say. The TDR may be a little 'boring' but it seems sound and has had a lot of love and attention recently so will hopefully stay reliable for a while. I'm staying well clear of Aprilla RS's and the likes as it's no coincidence I'm sure that you never see one older than 5 years. I swear they all give up and die at that age.

[VR46]

Italian Manufacturing & Motorbikes aren't a great long-term combination, sure look nice and you do see some older Monsters about but if your not handy with a spanner can be very expensive.

I wasn't saying TDR 125 was boring, by "exciting" I meant there was a good chance one of the owners had thrashed/wheelied it everywhere, prehaps normal people don't do that and it's just that MCN has blurred my vision...

[Alastair]

I knew what you meant mate, don't worry. That's part of the reason I'm going for the TDR, hopefully it's less likley to have been abused as it's not so appealing to young kids. Also it's pretty big and heavy for a 125 so may not be all that adept at the wheelies!

[MJ]

I finally got to ride a K5/K6 GSX-R1000!

While owning my 04 R1, which I've had for over a year now, I've wanted to see if the K5/K6 1000 lived up to the reviews. I like my R1 though and how mean it looks, so it will be hard to part with it. That said I've mentioned to my Dad a few times that when the time comes I can see the K5/K6 1000 being my next bike.

George Whites have got an open weekend on this weekend and one of the things they are doing are 2006 model test rides throughout the day, basically mini ride outs with two of the staff accompanying, so I booked myself in on the R6 and then thought I would ask if the Suzuki was available and it was, so I swapped. We went round town (Swindon) and then onto some country roads with some twisties and open straights, one of the GW staff was at the front for the quick bits and one at the back for the own pace riders, I'm not a fast rider so went in between.

The moment I put the GSX-R in gear and let the clutch out, it felt great! Very smooth and instant throttle response; the stock clutch lever is closer to the clip-on than my R1's, which felt more comfortable; the gearbox felt nice, precise and positive in every gear; and the power was immense in every gear, it even pulls well in 6th. I thought the stock can sounded alright too.

The dash was easy to read and the gear indicator was a nice touch.

It stuck to the road like glue and cornered like it was on rails!

I've got a Yamaha race screen on my R1 and the stock screen on the Suzuki felt really low, I was getting hit with a lot of wind.

The seating position felt quite comfortable, considering how small the bike is, but the side fairings felt wide; everytime I put my leg out when stopped it touched the inside of my knee, but I soon adjusted.

It's amazing how different a bike can feel with two years of advancement, considering how good the 04+ R1s are, and it put a big smile on my face. I think it has sealed the deal as my next bike once/if I can let go of the R1's looks.

[charlesr]

Heheh. 50-90mph in 1 second. 50-200mph in 14 seconds. Would have been ever quicker if he wasn't flipping over backwards.

http://rabidz.vidiac.com/category/MOTORCYCLES/0/0ae8c7b9-f166-4898-8383-98540106f5ef.htm

[Alastair]

A mate of mine that gets through a lot of bikes used to have a turbo 'busa, imported it from Japan to here in the UK.

Had an elongated swingarm to limited the crazy wheelie action, he's an ex racer so knows his stuff but said it was pretty much unusable on our roads with our law enforcement.

Sold it on about 3 months after bringing it in to the UK and made £3k on it in the process, alright for some! Now he's content with his Repsol 'blade with some fancy engine work to make it a bit more like superbike spec, he has too much money!

[charlesr]

Nice. I've avoided doing any mods to my bike apart from a colour coded hugger and some goodridge hoses. Not that I don't get urges, but I'd rather save up and buy a better bike

[Eps]

Ninja 250 all the way -- I don't need more displacement. It has just about enough power for the motorway and wicked fuel economy to boot. Plus it's a dream when lane-splitting.

[Alastair]

After passing my DAS 2 weeks ago (first time) I'm picking up my new ride tomorrow. Can't wait. Been on a half knackered old Yam 125 for the last year and a half so am really looking forward to a 'real' bike now.

Have gone for an '03 Suzuki SV650S. Didn't want to jump straight onto an IL4 ~100bhp beast straight off for fear of doing something silly while I'm still learning so have gone for the sensible option while still getting the styling and riding position I like.

I'm pretty sure it'll be more than enough for me power and smile wise for the first year or so.

[MartyG]

Tis a decent bike for a first proper bike, but it'll still spit you off if you act like a clown, afterall, it'll still hit 60 in little over 3 seconds. With it being a v-twin you'll find the bike locks the rear up if you change down gears without matching the revs when you're down shifting hard, more so than fours - so learn to blip.

You might find this site useful: http://www.sv650.org/

Oh, and the SVs are favoured in the Mini-twin race series - so you'd be wise to check if it's been raced ( the plastics will look under miled, it's an easy thing to look for as is a shiney brand new sump plug ) or go take it racing yourself

[Alastair]

Have been reading all that goes on on that site for the last 4 weeks while I've been deciding and choosing the right bike.

Knew about the locking up the rear thing too, think it may need a different exhaust to make the most of those blips on the downshift

Rest assured I will be taking it very easy for the first few weeks while I get used to it.

[charlesr]

Congrats!

Heard some **** on the radio yesterday that "a group of MPs" are wanting speed limiters put on motorbikes to stop motorbike accidents.... LOL. Presumably they'll have to make the limit 70mph? Otherwise it would be like endorsing a speed above that. I've just bought a 150mph car for £4k. You don't see MPs being up in arms about that, even though the number of car drivers having accidents is far greater. Besides, the amount of accidents happening above 70mph is tiny. Absolutely tiny. So spending billions on speed limiters isn't going to help. Useless jobsworths with nothing better to do?

Friend of mine fell off a couple of days ago. Fazer 600. Bystanders backed up his claim that he was going very sedately. Diesel-dump mid corner on a damp road, so he just slid off.... You see all these muppets at filling stations trying to squeeze in a few more drops by pulling the nozzle out a bit after it's already gone Click, not realising that the first corner they get to, it all just flings out of the overflow and on to the road. Wasting their money and endangering lives. There should be warnings on the pumps. I've had a few interesting moments on diesel, but never lost it.

[charlesr]

Rest assured I will be taking it very easy for the first few weeks while I get used to it.

Rubbish. You'll cane the tits off it on the way home. You're kidding yourself if you think anything else.

I got air over a humpback on my way home on my first bike. \o/
I then almost hit a porsche not realising how fast the bike was going to accelerate. Soon slowed down after that. Racing cars is a ****e idea cos they can cane it round corners and survive if there's a tractor sitting there.

They need to get you to cane the 500s in the DA training so that you know what to expect. All this pootling around sensibly doesn't help you. They should teach you to lock up the back and front on purpose to see what it's like. Whenever I go out and it's a bit cold or damp, I lock up the back to see easy it is so I can figure out how much grip I'm going to have at the first corner. Locking up the front takes balls, but it grips again as soon as you let go of the brake.

[Alastair]

Oh, and the SVs are favoured in the Mini-twin race series - so you'd be wise to check if it's been raced ( the plastics will look under miled, it's an easy thing to look for as is a shiney brand new sump plug ) or go take it racing yourself

Def not been raced Marty. Is from a dealer, one lady owner, bit high mileage but has the service history to back it up. Never been down the road like all the others I looked at so am feeling fairly confident about it.

A mate of mine has done some mini-twin racing before so warned me of everything to look out for. Gave up on private sales in the end as they were all looking too dodgy.

Charles, diesel scares me massively, nothing like having a big moment when you know nothing about it is there!

EDIT - I was caning the CB-5 on the DAS too, got a small wheelie going and managed to top it out through the gears too, my instructor was a spirited rider as it were!!

I will take it easy though, I have a fear of damaging my own cars/bikes so tend not to cane them too much, plus I don't want to end up under a lorry. There's a difference between accelerating hard down a straight/level well sighted road and being silly though isn't there. That's what I mean by taking it easy