Motorcycles

[Viper007]

Ali Baba was able to annoy people via pictures?

[Vaigra]

Ali Baba was able to annoy people via pictures?

Read this post and tell me it's not Ali Baba-esque.

I put a V-ROD for you American Muscle which bike is made in Scotland??V-Rubbish Don"t like pictures buy a book!Be a contributor not a basher!Have a nice holiday!Tread is about motorcycles do you want a picture of a boat instead

[Ferrer]

Haha should I wave bye bye now, or later?

Maybe we should be nicer to him.

[Pando]

Maybe we should be nicer to him.

Good call. My levels are always at 100% though.

[Vaigra]

I'm upping mine to 110%

[Pando]

I'm upping mine to 110%

That's very nice of you.

[ANDREW G]

CZ Jawa Motorcycles I had this model as a kid 175 CC

[2ndclasscitizen]

Anybody have experience with bikes? I'm half-serious about getting a motorcycle, so I thought I'd explore my options.

I've decided on a cruiser bike. Sportbikes are cool and all and surprisingly afordable, but I'd like to take some trips, too, and Cruisers are the most comfortable way to go short of getting a full-bore tourer. Insurance is a bit cheaper for cruisers too. Cruisers are a little heavy for a smaller guy like me (5'8", 125lbs), but I'm hoping their low seat height and center of gravity will help out in this regard.

As Matra said, don't limit yourself to cruisers just because you want to go on trips. Plenty of people do long trips on proper sports bikes, and then you've got sports tourers (like Matra's Bandit.) Sports bikes are getting better and better these days in terms of riding position. How you feel on a bike is so subjective, you've just gotta go sit on as many as you can. As for seat height, you can get a seat made lower, and you can also lower the suspension to a certain extent.

But in terms of actual bikes, the Ducati Monster is pretty to sit on and not too bad for touring with the little screen, Honda Hornet (CB600-F and CB900-F) Yamaha FZ6 and 1, in both naked and half-faired, Honda VFR, Suzuki Bandit and GSR, Kawasaki ZZR. All good sports tourers.

Anyway, here's my options as I see them:

1. Yamaha Star-series motorcycles
2. Honda VTX
3. Honda Shadow
4. Kawasaki Warrior-series

I'd love a Harley but they're too expensive. So what can you guys tell me about these bikes in terms of good and bad points, etc.?

I've not heard anything bad about any of them, you'd struggle to get a bad bike these days. Again, just go sit on them, take a test ride, and get the one that suits you best.

[jcp123]

j, what types of roads will you ride on ?
Cruisers can be a pain on twisties and nasty to control on loose stuff.

What bikes and age of bike are you looking at ?
eg a Honda VFR750 is a fantastic touring bike and can stay with the racers when it needs to

I've ridden Scotland to Le Mans non-stop ( well fuel, food and piss excepted ) and no problems on a Suzuki Bandit. Ride to Isle of Man and hoon around the island for a week racking up thousand miles a time

Lightweight with low seat I'd recommend as the problem with all heavy bikes is maneouvering ... how well will you be able to push it in reverse up an incline ?

Friends wife rode a Moto-Guzzi and she is 5'4" and keeps up with the best of us

Ridign position is a very personal thing. You really need to find mates and time to sit on as many as possible and hopefully ride them too. I like the Bandit because I can put my weight forward and ride like I stole it or sit upright and enjoy the scenery. Same with the VFR. You can't ever ride a cruiser like a sports bike

My trips would be up to 300 miles (~500 km) several times per year (maybe even once a month or more), with maybe one or two trips approaching 1000 miles/1600km each way. As far as trips go, I'd just ride it on the state highways here, we don't have many twisties in Texas to bring out the best of the more sporty numbers, and there's no loose stuff to speak of, the roads here are exceptionally well-maintained. Most of my miles will be racked up just going to and from school. I don't really want a perfect bike, since at some point or another, being a beginner, I'd drop it, and just don't want to have to whine over scratching my finish Age, really, is a non-issue, although I vastly prefer carb'd engines over the newer fuel-injected ones, so that roughly limits me to bikes made before the early 00's. I'd also have to be able to buy, insure, and maintain it on a pretty slim budget. The more I look into it, the more I come to the conclusion that cruisers make the most sense because they're in an endless supply here, are cheap, and we don't really have twisties that make the most of sportbikes anyway.

I'd forgotten about the VFR750; if memory serves, that's the one with the V4, sold here for years as the Magna, correct? The Bandit and Magna bring up a genre I'd forgotten about, the muscle bikes; always liked them, always will, but they're not popular and VERY hard to find around here, unfortunately.

I might try on a pure sportbike for size, but I'm still a little leery about them between insurance and...well they still look uncomfortable. Not to mention I like a burbly engine . I've heard good things about Ducatis, just a little pricey for me, and the Guzzis look good but I've heard (rightly or wrongly, I don't know) that their quality isn't all that and a bag of chips. There's no dealers for either within two hours of here for the Duc or the Guzzi, and again aren't popular and are virtually impossible to find here.

[dydzi]

CZ Jawa Motorcycles I had this model as a kid 175 CC

frankly i was riding it couple of times and i have to say it's a good bike

[Matra et Alpine]

Don't go Ducati unless you've deep pockets.
The desmo valve system is an expensive maintenance item

Susprised the VFR isn't popular over there, it was a great all round bike.
Shame.

Based on what you've said about your rides then I see why the cruiser is top of your list.

[magracer]

The VFR has nothing to do with the Magna. VFR is a sport tourer and the Magna is a hog (Harley Davidson) type.

I'll say try the SV650 for fit. Many people seem to think think it's a good "first" bike. I say "first" because it's a little too big to really be a safe first bike, but at least much better than a 600cc or larger superbike.

Last time I thought about buying a Bike I was thinking of making a Supermoto bike out of an enduro. They look sooo much fun.

Easy to see the diference:

[jcp123]

Ah, gotcha...I looked it up, and realized I got confused because Magnas used to carry the VF designation. The VFR's an interesting looking piece, a little more upright than normal sportbikes, but it seems to still pack a punch. Is it legal to run without fairings? I don't like the look of fairings and don't really go fast enough to take advantage of the aerodynamics of them...besides which it would ditch some weight.

Matra...VFR's are more popular in certain (more urbanized) parts of the country, but out here in East Texas, it's a cruiser or bust. Even sport bikes are seen as "ghetto" bikes (most of the hustlers here choose Gixxers and Hayabusas as their rides of choice), so for every crotch rocket you see in the paper for sale, you'll see 10 cruisers at least, probably closer to 15 or 20.

Anyway, thanks for the input guys!

[ANDREW G]

Remake of AMF red white & blue super glide Harley Davidson

[Pando]

Remake of AMF red white & blue super glide Harley Davidson

So incredibly on-topic.