First Motorbike...

Bah! It had 120,000 on it when I blew the original motor up over-reving
it coming into turn 9 at the creek... It had about 190,000 on it when
the HiAce mowed it down while it was parked outside Kuletos... Vale
Spada :-(

The advice I got very early on which clearly worked well for me was to
use good oil and change it regularly. Spadas only take 2.2L when you
change the oil, so the difference in cost between $4/litre oil and
$14/litre oil isn't exactly gonna break the bank...

Cam chains and tensioners are the most often talked about weakness on a
Spada (mainly because their predecessor the VT250 had problems with
them, they changed them and got them noticably better though not perfect
on the Spada). They last about 70-80,000km and cost $250-ish to get
changed (or $100-ish in parts if you've got the skill/mates to do it
yourself).

Ummm, _all_ Spadas are actually '91 models - that was the only year
Honda made them.

For a private sale, a $5000 Spada would have to be in immaculate
condition. Andrew Short Motorcycles in Redfern had one on the floor a
while back for $3500 - not in perfect condition (a small dent in the
tank was the biggest obvious problem). I believe spammer bitch's ACT
agent had one for sale for around $3500 still...

big

 

Bloody top fellow - always willing to help us lads out - pity about
the Guzzi fettish he has.

Johno

 

must be painful then?

JO

 

<mumble> <grumble>.... how dare you post from KL after you have been
with wingy in the Ducati suite... we hate you moike... well, dislike a
little.
anyways, smee rides a bmw? - since when to they make tractors?

Johno

Beer on the Saturday at Mirboo North mate?

 

Sheese Jules, who gave you the OK to come in here and be sensible? -
you are going to stuff up Harsh week right up!

Johno
Beer?

 

Hey! There's nothing wrong with Guzzis!

TB
soon my dear Centauro... you and I will be one

 

It's like a knife in the gut

TB

 

Not only Mirboo

 

But compared to some "performance cars"..........

Moike

 

Not necessarily

True, but so are bicycles...

Define efficient. A late 80s Corolla is pretty 'efficient'.

That's the one. Once you experience the level of involvement that is
associated with riding a bike, you will discover that *any* bike is more
fun that *any* car. (OK, some would prefer a prsche to a postie
bike...) IMHO this one stands alone as the only compelling argument.

Not in absolute terms, but power to weight ratios are pretty good. even
for 250s

er.. define "traffic proof"

Yeah, there is that, but you can exploit that with a pushbike.

No argument

You think so? I know that I ride more carefully and with more
situational awareness than I drive. Ever hear of someone being trapped
in the wreck of a motorcycle?

Moike

 

Yep, tires servicing and insurance are costs that non-bike people don't
seem to understand most of the time.

I've got a Ducati Monster 750 - not a super powerful sportsbike, not a
super expensive to insure bike, and I dont run super sticky tires on it
(but it is an expensive bike service-wise). It averages round 18.5km/L.
For every dollar worth of fuel I put in it I need to budget about 60
cents for tires, $1.60 for servicing, and $1.30 for rego/insurance (the
rego/insurance is obviously a fixed cost, that figure is based on $850
for full comp insurance and $350 for rego, pro-rata-ed against riding
20,000km a year).[1]

Realistically, a 10 year old japanese hatchback would come close to
matching it for fuel economy (45mpg-ish), and would beat it hands down
on tire, service, and rego/insurance costs. (And a 2nd hand hatchback
would cost less to buy and depreciate a lot slower than my bought-new
Ducati.)

My Spada, on the other hand, gets up around 25km/L, and for every dollar
worth of fuel it needed about 45 cents worth of tires (though I'd
usually spend about 3 times that) and about 45 cents for servicing - it
was cheap enough that I only 3rd party insured it which only cost
$125/year or so, so insurance and rego came to something like $300/year,
so that too was down around 45 cents per dollar of fuel based on
20,000km/year.

Bikes like the ones you are aspiring to (R1, CBR1000RR, GSXR1000) will
likely cost you 3 or 4 times as much to insure as my Monster ($2500/year
would be considered cheap for an inexperienced rider on one of them, if
you live in a high theft risk area and/or don't have an unblemished
driving record that price could conceivably double or even triple
again). They will probably use tires 50% more expensive than the Monster
and wear them out considerably quicker. You _probably_ won't pay quite
as much to service them as the Ducati though.

You _can_ justify a bike as "cheap transport", and many do, but the ones
who are serious about it don't ride late model sportsbikes and mostly
don't tend to hang out in this newsgroup. My girlfriend for example
rides a 20 year old Suzuki GN650 commuter bike, she only needs to go 3
or 4 km to work and rarely rides it out of the inner city. She runs rock
hard Shinko tires, gets it serviced about every second or third rego
check (whether its due for it or not), and its only worth $1500 or so so
its only 3rd party insured. _Thats_ "cheap commuting". It mostly fails
on the "more fun" and "more powerful" categories though...

cheers,

big



[1] for more detailed cost breakdowns, see my old post at:
http://www.google.com.au/groups?selm=bigiain-7C88AA.19195124102002@nasa
l.pacific.net.au
(waych for line wrapping on that url)

 

I might not wait that long......

but Yes, Thanks for offering. Mine's a Gippsland gold.

Moike

 

...

Yeah, this is for learning to ride... once I feel I'm confident enough I'll
move on to sports bikes. Fow now I just want something safe and practical.

 

...

Shit... good point.

 

...

It's still a while away, but when it does come time to collect my second
bike, I think I'll probably go with a 600 instead of a litre... mainly
because, although I've never ridden a sports bike, I don't think I'll need
*that much* power.

Plus, it's a hell of a gift, that I probably don't deserve. So I'd like to
reduce the costs for the person buying it.

So, is there any reason who I would want to choose a litre bike over a 600?
And any reasons why I wouldn't?

Like, is a one litre bike *that much* more fun than a 600?

Thanks,
KS.

 

Here here! Finally you're making some sense. I went to a 600 (mainly 'cause
of money) and owned three of them before I decided to go up to a litre bike,
now I wonder whether I should have bothered. Then again, perhaps I was just
unhappy with my bike (CBR954RR). The 600s are awesome fun, super quick in
the corners, with more than enough power to do just about anything you like.
Honestly, the first time you sit on even a 600 and take it for a ride you'll
probably scare the shit out of yourself. There's nothing really wrong with
going straight to a litre bike, but you'll learn to ride much better going
onto a 600 first, and you'll have fun carving up litre bikes through the
twisties as well, trust me!

It's personal preference really. I'm still yet to give another good ride to
the ZX10R, but if I can't feel confident on the thing, I'll give it the
flick and perhaps go a GSXR750, perhaps one of the sweetest and most
balanced bikes around at the moment. Seems like a good thing. 600s are a bit
cheaper to insure and maintain (mainly the back tyre cost), and you'll still
have a shiteload of fun on it. For high speed touring (180km/h plus) is when
you're likely to want a litre bike more, but it's rare you can stretch the
legs and let a bike do those kind of speeds anyway (for considerable time)
..... plus ... it makes your neck sore.

The other thing is, if you buy well, and look around for the righ 600 at the
right price, you'll lose very little when you come to sell if if you decide
to go up to a bigger bike. When you can ring it's neck and you think you've
gotten over it, move up on the scale, it'l take you a while though, and alot
of people come back down to a 600 after going up, just 'cause there's little
point.

Cam

 

Heh - I_'m_ the wrong person to ask that... I had as much fun on my
30odd hp 250cc Spada as I do on my 750cc Monster... I'm still yet to
feel comfortable riding a litrebike (mainly 'cause all the ones I've
ridden have been someone elses pride and joy...)

big

 

More fun than carving up litre bikes through the twisties
on a 250?

G

 

oooh oooh ! Pick me Mr Kotter !

I've had a nice shiny new R1 (2weeks old) run off the road trying to
keep up with the KR1 through the Wollombi Rd last year.

JL
(and as per the discussion about cars vs bikes the other day, that
doesn't prove 15 yr old 2strokes are quicker than 2 week old R1s, it
just proves that some people buy litre bikes who shouldn't be allowed
near one)

 

It's not quite as nice as Ad Land, but it has its moments. ;-)


BTH