[Gary856]

well, if the OP asked, “what does a Ninja 250R manual recommend”, then I’d reply, “check your manual” and be done with that. But I thought he wanted more opinions…

He specifically said that his tires are listed as having maximum pressures of 32/36 psi front/rear, but I’ll bet you those are recommended pressures (from somewhere), NOT the max pressure molded on the sidewall of the tires.

I’ve searched model specific forums on different bikes on the subject of tire pressure. For the same bike, people vary their tire pressures from what the manual recommends quite a bit, for whatever their presonal reasons/preferences. The great majority seem to settle on 33/36 (close enough to the 32/36 in the OP, that was the point), so I said it was a middle ground, give or take a few psi. I didn’t say that was the law. The point of all this is to explain that up/down a few psi is within the margin of what people do to suit their own needs, so it’s not a one-size fit all answer some people seem to be thinking.

By the way, my Yamaha does not have stock size fron or rear (now it’s 120/180), and my GS500 has 110/130 tires, my SV650 has 120/160, but I still run 33/36 on them all, and it’s just fine. Could I run 30/33, or 36/39? I could, if I have a specific reason to.

[Gary856]

Munch, did you misunderstand my question? I wasn’t talking about tire tread pattern. I was responding to your note that two cruisers could have the same weight but very different tire selections (width, diameter), presumably to get the classic look, chopper look, low-rider look, or whatever type of look they try to achieve for that cruiser.

[Gary856]

The manuals for my GS500, SV650, YZF600R all say something like 33/36 for normal rider and normal riding, and something like up to 34/42 for over 195lb and/or higher speed. I figured a Ninja 250R the OP has is pretty close to my “type” of bikes. I’ve read people say they run lower pressure than 33/36 on tracks (higher speed) for better traction. So 33/36 is pretty safe, all purpose middle-ground, give or take a few psi up to the individuals’ preference. Anytime I’m on the freeway it’s always 75 mph + (indicated) to stay a little ahead of average traffic.

I don’t know jack about cruisers, so they may well be very different from the standard bikes and sport bikes I’m more familiar with. Lots of times their tire seletions are more for the “looks”, right?

[Gary856]

You guys are making this more complicated than necessary. The OP’s going for a ride in fair weather, not racing. Lighter bikes have narrower tires; heavier bikes have wider tires, some people weight more, some weigh less, etc. Some run several psi lower for better traction, some run several psi higher for better mileage. General recommendation I’ve seen – 33 front / 36 rear. Works well enough for the 3 bikes I have, and seems to work with most people most of the time.

[Gary856]

Looks likes it’s mainly meant for off road use. Would be great to have this when I go for my night rides in the hills to pierce the darkness around corners. They use helmet lights like these for mountain biking at night to supplement handlebar-mounted lights.

[Gary856]

I get what IBA270 (Allen) is saying about risk management. I’ll give an example of how I look at this.

I enjoy riding in the rain (haven’t done it a lot ‘cause it doesn’t rain much here), in the dark, and on steep/twisty roads deep in the hills. Some times it can get stressful and fatiguing – steep and apparently slippery pavement in darkness does that to me – but I still enjoy it. On those dark and lonely roads, I often have the road all to myself, and I can ride at my own pace. The conditions may be bad and the risk may be high, but it’s up to me to stay in control.

Yesterday we had a pretty severe storm. Pouring rain, sustained wind at 40mph or so, gusting even higher. Looked like a gnarly, challenging day to ride, and I like that kind of stuff. However, I found the nearly white out condition (from the spray) on the freeway unacceptable to commute on a bike. I couldn’t be sure to see road hazards far and early enough. Drivers would have a hard time seeing me, especially if I went down for whatever reason. I’m talking down to 20-30 ft visibility at times, and at freeway speed that wasn’t much reaction time. I couldn’t control that, so I would choose not to ride on the freeway in that condition.

[Gary856]

ummm, new bikes w/ 2 strokes haven’t been street legal for a while (except mopeds) due to emission issues, right?

[Gary856]

The crampbuster does what it does well – in extended cruising situation it lets you relax your grip and maintain the throttle position by just pressing down on it with the heel of your right hand. It’s comfortable and relaxing. I had it on my YZF-600R for a few months. The problem with it on my YZF-600R is that with the handlebar at full lock to the right, the crampbuster would hit the tank if I had it angled down properly for a natural, wrist-down riding position. I had to angle the crampbuster higher than it should to clear the tank at full lock. As a result, if I wanted to fully close the throttle, I had to either be more wrist-up than normal, or shift my grip slightly and cock my right hand to the left more, to clear the crampbuster. It can be managed, but it wasn’t ideal. Another factor is I ride 3 different bikes on a rotating basis, each one with somewhat different ergonomics, and only the YZF had the crampbuster on it. Throw in stop-n-go traffic, darkness, impatience, and they added up to a small throttle mistake at the worst time.

[Gary856]

You’ve got to read the entire post as a whole, and not pick up one particular point on its own. “Patience” was my primary point; “cramp buster” and “sportbike” were sort of additional notes, so I listed them in that order, and said that they were contributing factors in my case. For a given rider, the skill at a given moment is a constant, while the bike choice is a variable. For the same rider (me, as an example), a standard bike is easier to ride at walking speed than a sportbike. When I really should be paying attention to the cars and traffic conditions around me, I should be paying as little attention to the bike I’m riding, right?

By the way, a week after that close call, I got into the same kind of heavy traffic. With the lesson learned, I was a lot more patient, and the SV650 I rode that day was much easier to ride at walking speed, all together resulted in a much more controlled ride.

[Gary856]

Hey Elwood’s writing is getting better and better. Awesome write up. This last one’s the best.

[Gary856]

I wrote the Crash Analysis bit today, and cut-and-paste the Close Call bit from something I wrote earlier, without editing to make the content/style mesh fully…

Let me think… Did I contradict myself here?

Cramp buster – I could improved my skill on this piece of hardware by remember to lift the wrist, but by removing it altogether, I’ve permanently removed this piece of hardware as a potential cause of problem for me. This covered the “what I would do differently” part.

Balancing a sportbike at low speed – Fundamentally, If I choose to ride this type of bike, I need to be able to ride it well enough for all expected conditions. If I ride it in heavy traffic, I need to be able to handle it. If I can’t handle it, then I should choose another type that I can handle better. This part in my “close call” post was meant to be a side note. Even though you cannot change the fundamental hardware in this case, just a mental note here to be more alert next time is “what I would do differently”.

[Gary856]

Good point on close calls being cheap lessons from mistakes. Here’s one:

I ride mostly in light traffic and in the hills (not much stopping), so my heavy traffic experience is relatively limited, not a daily exposure. About a month ago, on a Friday evening, I left work earlier than usual, so I got into heavy commute traffic even before getting onto the freeway (680). I was riding my YZF600R, and did the 1 mph crawl on the on ramp for a while. When I finally got onto the freeway, I wanted to merge to the number 1 lane quickly so I could lane split. Traffic was stop and go. As I cut across the number 2 lane diagonally toward the number 1 lane, the car in number 2 lane (in front of me) stopped a little short suddenly. No problem – I would just close the throttle, slow down a bit without braking, and steer around the stopped car. Except I had a cramp-buster on this bike’s throttle, and I didn’t lift my right wrist all the way. So all of a sudden I felt I wasn’t slowing down as expected, and was carrying more speed (by just a few mph) than I wanted. I froze at the control, and thought I was going to clip the left rear bumper of that car. All I could muster was a tiny wiggle of my body to the left (not a decent swerve of the bike, since I was kind of frozen), and only by luck I cleared the car’s rear bumper. The whole thing happened in 1-2 seconds. I was probably going no more than 10 mph, but my heart was pounding after that.

Lessons learned:
– Patience is a big part of dealing with stop-n-go traffic. I was in too big of a hurry to get into number 1 lane to split. The margin of error is very small when you’re that close to that many cars.

– Cramp buster is bad news in heavy traffic. I feel it makes you lazy with throttle control in general. I removed it from my bike, and really like the improved feel of the throttle without the cramp buster.

– Sport bikes aren’t ideal in heavy traffic. I was a little more pre-occupied with balancing the bike at the crawling speed, and I feel that contributed to my throttle control error. If I was on a standard bike, I would have used up less mental focus on balancing the bike, and had better situational awareness.

[Gary856]

deleted due to repost

[Gary856]

The whole point of this thread is that self control (i.e., the mis-notion of “respecting the bike”) alone is useless for a brand new rider. Lots of people have good self control but can’t ride. Self control does not ensure that you can comfortably make a turn at the speed limit, in traffic, with a good safety margin to handle the unexpected. Adequate skills do. You need skills + self control.

[Gary856]

If you’re used to the power of an SV650, the more street oriented I4s like my YZF-600R or a Honda F4i don’t really have any evil tendencies in their power delivery. Still, overall my naked SV is simply much easier to ride than my YZF-600R at street pace, due to the SV’s better ergonomics (more upright) for street riding. Easier to ride = bigger margin of safety.

Put aside the ergonomics and the power characteristics (some like I4, some like twins), one big draw of I4 supersports over something like the SV or the Ninja 650R is their sophicated, fully adjustable suspension.

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