[Matt]

Tiger is a BIG bike, Sit on one, you’ll see what I mean. It is a huge difference from the nighthawk.

What do you plan on doing “off road”? The Tiger can handle light fire road duty, but not a serious off roading, not like a BMW GS can. If you want to go “classy” I’d go with a BMW F650GS or Triumph Bonnie. Both are great bikes, obviously the bonnie is more meant for road, but she’ll handle occasional dirt roads.

Otherwise look into the Versys and V-Strom 650. In particular if the Tiger strikes your intrest look into these two bikes. Much cheaper to own and easier to handle – and both make excellent long distance bikes.

You’ve got some miles under your seat now, and you’ve tried some other bikes. Realistically, only you are in a position to say what will make a good second bike for you. Personally, I think staying away from the big bikes is probably still a good idea. You’ve got your first few steps up the ladder, you don’t need to do each rung individually, but jumping a bunch isn’t a good idea either. And really, we are spoiled for choices of good bikes in the 500cc – 800cc range.

Oh, and as for your bit on brakes – watch out for beemers. They are “two finger” brakes. If you grab with all four fingers you’re in for a rough and very quick stop.

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

when I ride in near freezing temps (only done it once or twice… well, once it was below freezing, but hey) I wear full gear, plus layered shirts and long underwear – just like if I was going skiing but didn’t have a nice “ski jacket” handy.
—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Well, MOST of the GSX-650F has been on the market. It is the Bandit 650 with fairings and minor tweaks. The Bandit 650 is considered a pretty solid bike.

And I will argue that the GSX650F can out ride most supersports. I’m just gonna tweak the term “out ride” to fit my needs

A supersport is way lighter, and so much faster in both a straight line and through a corner. If you have limited sight lines and are riding on a public road, I’m willing to bet the 650 can keep up just fine. But the GSX-F rider will be able to do it longer and more comfrtably. So they’ll “out ride” by simply being able to stay on the bike longer.

Suzuki is selling the GSX-F, not as a “Sport Touring” bike, but as an “all day sport bike”. It’s all PR talk, but it shows the difference between a GSX-F and Katana, versus a GSX-R. One lets you ride very fast, one lets you ride fast, but for a long period of time.

British bike magazine TWO did a review of the GSX-F last fall (I have a copy of it, not sure if it is online). They thought highly of the bike calling it “all-round-competent”, which they admit doesn’t sound like a great selling feature, but when it comes to the bike you want to live with, it is a huge asset.

They also pointed out that the frame is very similar to the 1988 GSX-R (same weight, similar geometery) and so is the engine (both water cooled, rouhgly 85bhp). It wasn’t a slow bike then, and while it isn’t uper fast by today’s standards, it is comfortable, reliable, and inexpensive. Pretty good things for a bike.

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Ahh the mosiac that is the motorcycling community. We all love two wheels, and yet no two of us can agree on how and why.
—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

No hate for super sports from me, I just know I’m not their target market.

But I have such a hard time getting excited over the annual release of supersports. Every year it is an evolution of a faster, lighter, more powerful machine. I mean, it would be really cool if we had this sort of rapid development in cars (as opposed to a new generation every half decade). But just like the horsepower race between all the super cars, ultimately none of this will matter to me. Even if I owned one of these bikes, I’d never be able to touch its limits. I bet if I took a track school, went on five track days a year, I’d still never push the limits of a carb’d supersport. These machines are just so incredibly competant already -it is hard to get excited by them for me.

What I want to see are more game changing bikes. The Piaggio MP3, the Versys, the new Ninja 250R, heck even the GSX-F 650. The bikes that change people’s perceptions of motorcycling, or what you can do on a motorcycle – and for how much money, or WHO can do what on a motorcycle . Those are the really amazing bikes to me.

Of course, I’m guilty of “sexy new bike lust” too… just not from the track-day bikes.
—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Gorgeous.

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Very similar bike to the GSX-F 650. My guess is that’ll make a great second bike.
—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Has nothing to do with EPA. Small four stroke bikes are easy to pass EPA with (burn less fuel in the first place). There are even clean 2 strokes that pass Euro-3 emissions. Euro-3 is very similar to the latest American standard.

It has everything to do with buying public. Aroudn here, Bigger is better. Even on this board there are plenty of people who will say that a 250 simply isn’t enough power to be safe (I disagree). In Canada we have the CBR125, and it works pretty well so long as you aren’t planning a freeway trip (though people use them on the freeways).

Due to the distances between cities in north america (as opposed to europe) bigger bikes meant for sustained 70mph speeds are a much easier sell.

Personally, I REALLY want some of the japanese 400cc bikes over here. Honda makes some 400cc bikes that are pure sex imo. The old Bandit 400 made more power than a Ninja 500

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Honda unveils their line up October 7th this year…

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

You can drop me a line at: matthew (period) krull (at) gmail (you know the rest).
I know that’ll stop the spam bots… now I just hope none of you sign me up for more news letters

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

The tank protector protects the tank paint from being scratched up by your jacket zipper. My 20 year old VF500 didn’t have a tank protector and it had small chunks taken out of the tank right there from decades of wear. If you like your bike looking and feeling new, the $20 a tank protector costs is probably worth it. I keep meaning to put one on my bike and never do.

At 4000km, I wouldn’t be hugely worried about the bike. It is just about ready for its second trip to the shop. If it didn’t get the first trip, it may still be okay. IF you decide to buy it, have them include (for free) the full 5000km inspection plus a valve-check (if it isn’t part of the inspection already).

When looking at the scratch, also look at the bar ends and lever ends, do they look ground/scratched? Do you think this bike went down, was dropped at a stop, or just rubbed a curb?

If you think it went down at speed have them include a frame-alignment check as part of the condition of sale – if it whent down hard enough to damage the frame, there’ll be plety of other banged up bits…

If it frame is straight, nothing appears busted, and you can get the service done all for a good price. Sounds like a good deal. The other thing is ask about a 30 day warranty. Most shops seem to include them for any non-“as is” bike. As long as you pick up the bike soon and can get a fair amount of riding in, 30 days will be long enough for you to know if something is messed up.

We may only have 30 days worth of good riding left in Ontario this season

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

In corners in particular, avoid it. You really don’t want ot be on the brake or on the clutch in a corner. Set your speed early, then turn at a constant speed.

I had a lot of problems with mid-speed corners. Things like making a left at lights when I wasn’t starting from a stop, but rather coming into it at road speed (40-50km/h, so 25-30mph). The best advice I was given (by an instructor) was slow down to the speed you want to take the corner at (start at 20 or 25km/h and progress up from there as you feel comfortable) making a very concerted effort to stay off the clutch, brake, and keep the throttle constant.
The big thing here is to look all the way through the corner. I thought I was, but when making an effort I found I was simply spotting my exit of the corner, not looking through corner and looking far enough down the path I wanted.
Apparently it is a really common mistake – or maybe he was just saying that to make me feel better. Either way, I manage those corners much better now than I did before.

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Look into aluminum side cans on something like a KLR or DRZ. They can hold a fair bit. The KLR might not have the sex-appeal of the ninja, but is definitely a work horse, and people have mounted loads of stuff on the back of them.
—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

I’m with Elwood on this.

There is a big difference between a smooth fast release of the clutch, and just letting it out fast (popping it). If you “pop” the clutch in the rain, you’ll really regret it. Even on my 250, in the wet, just letting go of the clutch makes for a messy moment and a mouthful of soap (or it would, if people around me could hear the words coming out of my mouth – yet another good reason for full-faced helmets )

What they don’t want you doing is controlling yor speed with the clutch once you are underway at a speed that bike can do without the clutch. So, if the bike can go 10mph (random number) in first with the clutch out, that is what you want to do. You don’t want to be in second gear and slipping the clutch the way you do in first gear when going 1mph.

When up shifting the motion needs to be smooth (“easing it out”), but it can’t be drawn out. You need to allow the engine to engage smoothly from one gear to the next, without riding down the road mid clutch.

Hope this helps.

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Matt]

Some 600 pound bikes are actually remarkably easy to move about. The trick is the very low centre of gravity.

Of course, they are only easy until that crucial moment when they pass their magic angle, and suddenly all 600 pounds would rather rest on the engine case than the wheels… once that happens, as my friend says “Ain’t nuthin doin’.”

So far the only cruiser I’ve had to pick up off its side was my Mom’s VLX. Which I *think* is just over 500lbs wet. It was actually surprisingly easy to get back upright – that isn’t to say it wasn’t a pain in the legs, but I was expecting harder. I’m guessing, based on that one incident alone, that at 6 foot and 185 pounds I’m strong enough to right a bike just shy of 600 pounds wet.

Man, if an electra-glide owner ever drops his bike, I feel for him. His chiropractor is gonna make a mint!

—
“The two seconds between ‘Oh S**!’ and the crash isn’t a lot of practice time.”

[Author]

Posts