GTR1000...

....discuss.

My requirements:

More legroom than the CBR.
More grunt than the CBR.

Must be able to do reasonably high mileages without much hassle and in
comfort, and no 4k or whatever it is valve clearance adjustment
requirements, a la a lot of Suzuki stuff.

Preferably a shaftie, with a barn door stylee front end, and must be
reasonably reliable and resilient to being ridden and left outside in all
weathers... and not terminally boring to ride.

I don't want much really, I know... ;-)

Others have suggested, in the absence of enough funds as of yet, for a Pan,
a Divvie 900, or maybe a BMW K100RT.

So would a GTR be a worthy cause, and any other (bike related)
recommendations gratefully received.

 

My opinions based on my experience with mine. YMMV.

CBR600?, check. CBR1000?, nope.

I did 690 miles in 9 hours on mine. About half motorway and half A road.
Total comfort. No aches, no pains. No need to stop other than for fuel and
a piss.

Wide open A roads such as those found in the Rhinns of Galloway suit a GTR
perfectly. Nadgery stuff is a different matter. They handle in an odd
manner when ridden in a way much different from that which they were
designed for. They are -not- sports tourers like a CBR1000, but a tourer
that just happens to have a detuned GPZ1000rx engine in it.

They can accelerate in a manner most unbecoming to a tourer. Almost indecent
in fact

Just don't try to keep up with well ridden sports bikes on narrow, twisty
roads. You can try, but it may turn a bit nasty.

Oil+filter every 3,000 miles. Rear bevel oil change every 6,000. Valves +
carb balance every 12,000.

Check, and very good it is at keeping the wind/weather off you.

Rarely boring. Reasonably resilient to being left outside if you like rust.
The finish is not good and the fairing is prone to breaking around the
mounting lugs. Oh, and the fairing subframe sometimes cracks.

I really like mine. It gets a bit much sometimes due to its weight and the
fact it really doesn't like bimbling in town.

Handling wise, if you set the bike up well in advance of a corner, it isn't
too bad. Never shut the throttle mid corner though. They can weave like a
weavy thing with added warp and weft if the tyres are worn and the rear
suspension unit is crying out for an oil replacement ( simple enough job ).

If (when )they fall over, it always -always- smashes a mirror when it
contacts the ground. The foot peg mounting plates tend to go too.

Mine was vandalised. If it was on fully comp, it would have been written
off. I removed the fairing, fitted some adaptors to take tubular bars,
fitted a mini speedo and tacho then tweaked it a bit. They are amenable to
tweaking.

The brakes are adequate until you put a passenger and luggage on, then they
are a bit of a brake'n'pray. Again, plan well in advance.

They vibrate. Some people find the level of vibration disconcerting. It is
easy to minimise it though. Check www.gtr1000.com

They are heavy on fuel when upjetted and fitted with gutted N-eta silencers.
This may be why mine runs a bit rough below 3,000rpm, but I will trade that
for the way the thing accelerates from 6,000rpm anyday. Guaranteed to bring
a smile to my face in the dry. Gets a bit lairy in the wet.

They can eat rear tyres if used in a hoolie type of way ;-)

Mine is mechanically noisy. It sounds for all the world as if the exhaust
cam and the camchain are conspiring to break free, yet no excessive wear is
manifest. I was advised in this NG before I bought mine to use decent oil
to avoid top end problems. Given the racket it makes when it isn't fucked,
I'd go along with that.

If you can get an earlyish one, then you can have a hell of a bike for not
much money. Insurance was approx £150 TPFT for me, so thats not too bad
considering my ER-5 was £240, albeit with class one business.

A cheap way to cover vast distances, but be aware of their shortfalls.

I'd have another if thats any help.

 

<big snip coz I forgot this bit >


Wind.

They do -not- like strong crosswinds.

They like them not a lot in fact.

Leeds to Manchester on the M62 in a howling gale one day found me unable to
correct the bikes line as I was carried from lane one to lane three near
the reservoir section. Hanging off the inside, hauling on the bars, not
just gentle countersteering but 'TURN YOU FUCKER' type hauling had no
effect. I was a passenger, not a rider. I would swear the front wheel had
been lifted off the deck such was the effect my steering was having.
Shutting the throttle may have helped, but they do have very good engine
braking and a bike slowing from 85 to 60 as it drifted across the lanes
makes a good target.

Got similar on the way back too. This time lane three to lane one.

Carb icing. Make sure it has had the mod. Look for a small takeoff pipe from
the upper pipe on the water pump leading to some plumbing on the carbs.

Check the translucent plastic bulb on the nearside to ensure it has coolant
in it. There is a small filter in that pipe somewhere that blocks.

Filtering on winter mornings is not the time for the engine to cut out, and
cut out it will if the carbs are iced. When it cuts out, such is the engine
braking the rear wheel can lock. Not nice.

The way round it is to allow the bike to tick over until the cooling fan
cuts in before riding off.

Right, enough rambling. Time for more beer.

 

<sidecar flashback>

 

message

Ok, cheers for all the info - sounds like I could tolerate one until I can
afford a Pan, anyway.

There's one on ebay at the mo - appears it should go for somewhere in the
same ballpark as what the CBR should fetch if I sold it, so I'll continue to
watch it with interest.

 

We all *know* about countersteering. We all countersteer, whether we realise
it or not, at least at any speed over 5-8mph. However, it's in these sort
of situations that panic takes over and we try and "steer" away from where
we are being pushed. This has the effect of exaggerating the wind's effect.
I'm not saying this was the case for you at the time but it's very common.

The other thing that can significantly affect a bikes reaction to crosswinds
is the shape of the front mudguard. On many modern bikes there is more
mudguard in front of the forks than behind. This causes the wheel to
"weathercock" away from the wind. Older bikes, with more mudguard behind
would weathercock into the wind, which was self-correcting the disturbance.

My VFR got (slightly) better in crosswinds after I fitted a fender-extender,
though all I was trying to do was keep some of the road-crap off the engine
and front pipes.

Alternatively try the additive sold on VW tuning stores for air-cooled
Beetles.

The additive fixes this problem without the loss of power on hot summer
days, as you get with the mod.

 

Dave Emerson says...

Are you sure you've got that the right way round. If there's more
mudguard in front of the forks then the wind is going to push the wheel
in the same direction causing the bike to countersteer back on course.

TBH unless you've got a BMW K1 I can't see it making much difference
myself.