- This topic has 33 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 11 months ago by MadCow.
600 Is Too Much!…No It Isn’t!…Yes It Is!…No It Isn’t!
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March 5, 2009 at 6:30 pm #16938Clay DowlingParticipant
I’m riding a 750 V4. Smooth power delivery, at no point does it try to launch me off into space. And while I ride a bigger bike, I wouldn’t think of getting on a CBR600. They’re beautiful bikes, but just watching video of them I can see that they’re more than I can handle. Maybe someday, if I can get some training specific to sport bikes, but not this year, and not next.
March 5, 2009 at 8:58 pm #16913MattParticipantVibration is a product of the engine design (single cylinder 500cc sans counter-balancers), but is really only an issue at idle. Plenty of Buell owners like it, gives the bike an attitude. Kinda like a petrol powered rottweiler… If you don’t like it, chance are you don’t own a Buell
Reliability issues were cleared up with the 2003 model. Previous to that there was an issue with the head gasket. Every Buell post 2003 has a stellar reliability record.
March 9, 2009 at 6:23 pm #16959RidleytheRedParticipantI haven’t read most of the posts, but I started with an ’82 Yamaha XJ650 Maxim, it’s an older bike but has an inline 4 650cc engine. It was an easy bike to start with, doesn’t weigh a lot, and power is good and easy to handle if you don’t ride like a monkey. It’s a cruiser style so there’s slightly more weight than the sport styled bikes, but I get the feeling they would handle similarly. I feel on personal experiance that 650 isn’t a bad size to start with, but the thing I think makes the big difference is how you feel on the bike before you even start the engine.
March 9, 2009 at 10:46 pm #16962MattParticipantMaxim and a Ninja 650 should ride pretty differently.
The Ninja has a stiffer frame, makes more power, has wider sticker tires (more effort to turn in, way more grip, and higher confidence factor), and will out brake the Maxim by a big factor (double disc up front, and better tires allowing more of that force to be used).
The maxim is better compared to other cruisers (though it is much more upright than most modern cruisers).
Performance wise both the Ninja and SV650 are pretty close to the 600 super sports of the late eighties (although with considerably more mid range and less top end power).
Indeed, they’d eat the lunch of many litre bikes from the late 70s early 80s in everything but outright acceleration.March 10, 2009 at 12:24 am #16964SantaCruzRiderParticipantI think you’ll find that an old Maxim and a modern sport bike handle fairly differently. Performance aside, the frame geometry is pretty different, with the Maxim having a fork rake that makes it ride and handle more like a cruiser. And a sport bike handles more like a, uh…..
March 10, 2009 at 2:02 pm #16970Clay DowlingParticipantLast week I found myself with a few miles of open road in front of me on a nice day, so I decided to see what happens on a Honda Magna when you do twist the throttle all the way around in 5th gear. The answer was very surprising.
First, it didn’t lurch and try to launch me into space. Now, being a paranoid bugger I didn’t make it a sudden twitch. But what I got was a very smooth acceleration up to 90. At no point did it feel uncontrollable. There wasn’t any sudden spike in the power and it was actually extremely unexciting.
The bike is supposed to go over 100 without any troubles, but I would have needed another mile of clear visibility before I was willing to go there, and I didn’t have it, so I backed it down to legal speeds.
March 10, 2009 at 6:25 pm #16972Clay DowlingParticipantMan, that stuff is little. This morning it was a deer (fortunately with my cage), and yesterday I had the option on a buffalo. When you live in Michigan, you just don’t expect to see buffalo roaming around on the back roads. Somebody took out a bear on I-75 a couple of years back, where it passes through Flint.
March 11, 2009 at 7:15 am #16975smokeizfireParticipant… and you only more than likely. This is what ruins the forum. That didn’t sound rude to me at all. It sounded like he had an “a ha!!!” moment from the information received which was very informative to individuals who are not as mechanically inclined. I personally learned a lot from reading this entire thread about different engine types, etc. Geez, lighten up and adjust your perception sensors.
March 11, 2009 at 5:56 pm #16987eonParticipantMarch 11, 2009 at 7:06 pm #16990Clay DowlingParticipantThat’s gonna make me go out and practice my u-turn. I want to be able to whip one of those out very quickly and head off in the other direction in the event that local buffalo feel as strongly about motorcycles as those do.
March 12, 2009 at 12:03 am #16999SantaCruzRiderParticipantNo matter what you ride, you don’t want to scare the baby when mama is around (and that goes for species other than buffalo). Guy is lucky she just gave him a warning butt.
Funny thing is that the car driver took that as his signal to stop filming and move on. Maybe he decided it was time to clear the road.
March 12, 2009 at 7:35 pm #17012Clay DowlingParticipantwere starting to give the people some pretty serious looks. That one he passed when leaving didn’t look very happy.
March 12, 2009 at 7:57 pm #17013SantaCruzRiderParticipantHey Clay — kind of makes you wonder if red is the best bike color for riding in buffalo country!!!
You don’t see matadors waving silver or black capes. )
March 13, 2009 at 3:22 pm #17022Clay DowlingParticipantThey did a cool mythbuster’s episode testing the whole red thing. Bull didn’t gave a rat’s posterior about red. Move in his territory though, and he cared a lot. But the bull was indifferent to a person standing still completely covered in red.
Although the whole “buffalo country” thing might be in dispute too. Yeah, we have them, but only because they wandered off a farm.
March 13, 2009 at 3:40 pm #17024SantaCruzRiderParticipantI love that show — it’s always interesting to see urban myths put to scientific testing. And that’s great to know that red isn’t an issue with bulls. It will help ease my mind should I ever end up riding through unfenced-buffalo-farm country.
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