Someting Different

My life was ruined yesterday. I was asked to ride my mates bike to Launceston and back, a round trip of 300k. He has two H.D.s in his possession. I RODE THIS ONE and he rode another that belongs to a son-in-law who is overseas. By the way this thing is a 1340 and worked, with after-market cams and a bigger carb.

I have never ridden a bike over 250 and this thing is a monster at 320kg, twice the weight of the FZR. I could barely get it off the sidestand.

With some encouraging words like "you will be ok" we left his home and went to the servo a few km away. BP ultimate please. The other bike is also not standard, Mick reckons that it will get up on the back wheel in 1st and 2nd, frightening stuff for a HARLEY.

Well, my first impression was that I was riding a 300kg vibrator, earplugs mandatory. This thing has platforms not footpegs, changing gears requires lifting foot off the platform and treading on the gear paddles.

After the initial nerves wore off, I found it not unpleasant to ride and remarkably stable once moving, not like the FZR which tends to get wobbly at slow speed. The only thing I found was that I needed to ride the clutch a fair bit taking off as idle in low gear is about 10kph.

On the highway I found it not flickable like the FZR but seemed ok and stable. At half way to Launceston we stopped for a break. Mick said "you're not reving out much, it will do 110 in 2nd, 140 in 3rd and 160 in 4th at the revlimiter, with 5th still to go."

Keeping that in mind when we pulled back on the highway I opened it up and found I my arms being ripped out of their sockets. This thing had some serious grunt once it got some revs up. A bit further up the road we overtook a few trucks and dropped back to 4th for the manouver and with a big handfull it got to 140k very quickly.

In Launceston we stopped at the harley service center to get the work done (purpose of trip) and then into the city centre to find a BP and get some fuel. Lots of traffic, many lanes and many traffic lights, and felt reasonably at ease, at least the drivers knew you were beside them. $24 to fill both bikes total. Thats about $12 each and what I would expect from the FZR for the same distance.

The trip home was similar and at the end of it, all I can say is, dont let anyone tell you they are comfortable. My arms and hip joints were and are still sore, perhaps it's just old age. I can also confirm H.D.s get blown about in the wind too.

The transition to the FZR to get to my place was an eye opener, where had the power gone??? This thing feels like a push bike.. At least the brakes work well. But now I will never be the same again. Once the dog gets a taste of blood, there is no letting go. The power lust has set in...

I am about to upgrade to a newer bike and looking for someting suitable. It wont be a H.D. and it wont be an out and out sports bike. It will be in between somewhere, a tourer perhaps. Primary candidates at this stage are FZ6, SV650 or GSX750F. These are all good handling bikes with a bit of grunt.

I hope this is an eye opener for other riders and instills a bit of confidence in your own abilities. I have done about 8000k in 18 months and while still not be in the "experiened rider" class, I feel a lot better now. Don't be scared to try other bikes.

 

Superglide - the interesting thing is that it has a rev limiter that cuts in at about 5500RPM. At 110kph in 5th it struggled a bit on some of the steeper hills, I think it was a bit below in its power band at that speed. But generally speaking it was ok for overtaking at highway speeds in 5th

At 80kph it definitely had to go down to 4th. In the city it was 1st and 2nd only and around the suburbs sometimes 3rd. The gears seem to have a big jump compared to the FZR.

I certainly enjoyed riding it around the town and it seems well suited to that, but on the highway I seemed to be holding my legs on the paddles to stop them being blown off. That was probably more so on the way home as we had a stiff head wind.

Another thing is that I could not stand up and stretch my legs like I do on the FZR.

Tim - I hadn't considered the ZZR. I might have a look at those too.

 

Ok Ciarin - A mate of mine has just bought one of those as well. And he reckons its great. But I can't hear my bike if we take off together. I have been for one ride with him and afterwards he did mention about the pegs scraping. I thought we had been on a leasurely ride!!

I guess the point is that the skills that you have picked up on the FZR and the GS are transferable to other machines. The extra experience is all good.

 

HMMM, 100hp and 66NM sounds interesting - it wasn't on my shopping list but if I see one around I will have a look.

By the way Spook, is that your photo in the avatar??? <!-- s:Help: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_question.gif" alt=":Help:" title="Help" /><!-- s:Help: --> It has puzzled me for while. I can recommend a certain brand of razors.
Just kidding mate <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s -->

P.S. YZF600 are scarce around here but I will look around. Can you tell me if the sitting position is a bit more upright than the FZR250??

 

That sounds about me..

Just looked up the specs and the current R6 weighs 25KG less and has 130hp vs 100 for the Thundercat.

But compared to the other 600-650's I was looking at they all rate at around 80HP. Still power is not everthing, but it sure helps. <!-- s:army: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":army:" title="Army" /><!-- s:army: -->

I saw an R6 for sale at the bike shop and the back tyre was shredded (burnout), I have to ask, if you were looking for an R6, would you buy it ???

 

Must have been a great gig....

 

Just heard of a $UZUK! Bandit 1200 - for $5500 locally - a workmate has one for sale. Don't know what year it is. Does anybody know anyone who has ridden one and how they go/handle, any problems, etc???

 

Thanks FZR DUDE, I will keep that in mind.

HERE IS SOMETHING REALLY DIFFERENT

It was a public holiday here yesterday so went out in the bush

12.7mb download at good quality
http://my-x15.net/6oct2006Buggy2.wmv

Or the low quality Photobucket web view version