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The dual-sport? I’m considering picking up a basic dual-sport, and I liked the look of it.

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…once used on a bunch of bikes, some of them pretty powerful?

It kills me that such a cool name is now only available on an entry-level bike. No offense to it, of course…it’s cool for what it is, but a name like that surely belongs on some look-at-it-wrong-and-it’ll-kill-ya monster.

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In Washington, D.C. were I live, we have traffic circles *with* stop signs and lights. Yeah, it combines the worst of both worlds…

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Great little bike, you’ll like it. Easy to ride, and as it’s an old design, all the bugs have been worked out by now.

And like Munch says, if there is a problem, just talk to the place were you got it…Suzukis have a 1 year warranty, so they’ll fix it.

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….does a CE mark in this case mean that it meets 14th-century European standards for protection?

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A mesh jacket?

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Only thing I can think of is that jacket vents are wider, and so let more air in more easily than tiny little perf holes that require speed to really ram the air through.

I’d been considering a perforated leather jacket myself, so this is good to know.

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I’ve got a Blast, and it’s worth picking up if you can. Great beginner bike that’ll let you get used to riding w/o killing yourself. Also, they’re durable as hell, so you won’t need to put much money into it to keep it going for the time you have it. All it really needs it oil, since as a single, it does burn it. Insurance is way cheap too.

And it sounds to me like you’ll be probably fine with riding the Suzuki pretty quickly. The fact that you’re still here after being told the truth about your bike shows you’ve probably got the maturity to handle it fairly soon, once you get the skills and the experience.

A squid woulda gotten angry that he wasn’t being told what he wanted to hear, and taken off in an angry huff.

So stick around, get a decent used beginner bike, and keep us up to speed on your progression to the Gixxer (I’d love to hear how the transition goes, as I’d like to eventually move to something high end like that myself)!

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…a combination of engine technology improvements combined with increased traffic congestion has given rise to the increasingly common situation of the base engine being just as good as the optional one in like 75% of situations.

As a ponycar guy myself, it’s insane what’s going on with the base V6 engines. The ’11 Mustang base engine puts out about 40 more HP and 20 more TQ than my ’02 V8, and gets better mileage…Ford hard to do this as the current ’10 base Camaro already does the same thing. The V8s are truly monsterous, breaking the 400 HP barrier (and these are just the run-of-the-mill cars, not the Shelby special editions).

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is my favorite…there were doubts early on, but it really does turn out to provide V8 power in a V6 (though I still prefer those old dinosaur 8s myself).

The new Taurus Interceptor police car has this engine, and I think that’ll be the real test of durability…if it can handle cop duty without lots of problems, expect it to become Ford’s everday hi-po engine.

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…a more accurate description is probably “violent revolutionary”. You’ll get very different views of him from different people.

To some, he was an idealistic, committed visionary who sought to end corrupt governments that oppressed people. To others, he was a heartless killer who presided over some of the worst authoritarian atrocities of the early Casto regime. As with many revolutionaries, there’s truth in both views.

Movie looks pretty good though…have to put it on my queue.

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Totally…I really like the Nighthawk, and would love to own a new one, if it were available in something beyond the 250cc version. Styling is beautiful….manages to look both retro and futuristic at the same time.

With nearly every other manufacturer moving to add competent middle weights, I just don’t get Honda’s strategy.

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I noticed that too. I guess they don’t get many of them down there (“.za” is the suffix for South Africa).

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…features a great scene where Trinity (Cary-Ann Moss in skintight black leather!) pilots a Ducati 996 the wrong way on a busy expressway to escape from the matrix’s agents.

Some very fancy riding, and since the matrix isn’t real and the characters are aware of it/can bend the rules of nature, no helmet or gear needed.

Her character seems to like the bikes, as she briefly rides a Triumph Speed Triple in the original movie.

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I hated Sideways…too much baby boomer melodrama.

Best parts of Indian are when Munro races on the beach against a local motorcycle gang, and of course his record attempts at the end of movie. That movie alone makes me want to have a go at Speed Week one day, just to do it.

It’s hard to do good motorcycle movies…Easy Rider is of course the gold standard, ElectraGlide in Blue is decent, but there’s not too many more that are really any good. Capitalizing on the “Fast N Furious” phenomenon in the early part of this decade, there are a couple of sportbike flicks, but they’re pretty uniformly bad.

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