Next bike?

I think we may have a winner here. 78cm seat height, 182kg and most
importantly it's a Kawasaki.

Oh gods yes, W reg 2000 one on MCN for £1500.

"Very good condition,Service History, Red, nearly 7 months Mot, 10
months Tax ,very economical,fast and very reliable, tyres like new,
datataged, rear hugger crash bungs, ridden in dry weather only,
garaged, stainless steel downpipes, braided front brake hoses, service
book, handbook, toolkit and 2 keys . excellent first big bike ,only
selling because i'm buying a zzr1100. "

Of course I want a black one.

 

And if they're not I'll soon sort that out.

 

They're cracking bikes.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2293298&l=baf4fab9ef&id=613998892

 

<proud>

 

IIRC you didn't go over any of the passes with the *really* tight and steep
hairpins like the Stelvio, Furka or Susten passes

 

Why not expand the search to include non sportsbikes?
You don't seem the knee down at every opportunity type so there's
a lot of choice out there if one includes 'customs'.
Overall weight doesn't matter , its how the weight is distributed
that does - there's video on youtube of stumpy ladies picking
up Goldwings....

Steve

 

So buy up a stock of them while prices are low at the moment and you will
have a spare ready next time you bin it.

Problem solved.
Or you could by my very nice gs500 complete with engine bars, a headlamp
fairing, and only 3500 miles. But it would be a shame to abuse a nice
tidy bike.

 

How does that compare with the 400? I'm thinking of Pete's point about
the need to be able to put your foot down when the camber means the
road is falling away from you quite steeply. You can't always choose
the other side, IYSWIM.

 

The Splugen was the worst we did, as far as tight and steep hairpins was
concerned. I was using the whole width of both sides of the road to get
round, and if I'd gone over sideways there's no way I'd have stopped it.

 

Seat height OK but too heavy - I tried a sit on some one's divvy [1]
and couldn't even lift it off the stand.

What's your inside leg? I think mine is 28 or 29 inches.

TBC has the unfaired one as a loan bike atm, I had a sit on that and
didn't like it, though I could reach the floor.

[1] Whose? I can't remember.

 

I'm OK when it is moving!

Have they changed significantly from the older models? Because they
are one of the long list of bikes that I've sat on but have been
unable to lift them off the side stand to vertical due to the weight.

But on a steep camber (the drop when turning on that hill on that run
out with you, Statto and MattG for example) would it make any
difference?

The broken leg was because I was too close to the pumps to get any
leverage - it still would have happened whatever bike I was on.

These are good points.

I might pop down next week, I've a deadline Friday, hence why I'm
procrastinating on here. When you know you're going to be working
until at least 11pm half an hour extra makes no odds.

Rock beats scissors.

 

5 foot three. Just, if I stand tall.

But there's no way I'm getting one.

Why ever not?

 

I got nicked on one, when they first came out. The last thing I'd
seen, before I spotted the police car way up ahead, had been the
speedo needle going past 145mph. Panic braking.

Plod observed, deadpan, that I'd been timed over one-eighth of a mile
at 92mph, braking all the way, with the headlight firmly pressed down
as far as the suspension would let it.

Equally deadpan: "Do you know, Sir, we've timed people at over 100
miles an hour on this piece of road....?" (A303 somewhere). He knew
the score all right, but he had a sporting sense, so it was a fixed
penalty ticket and three points.

 

2cm taller.

I do. My leg does.

 

You didn't go over that either. You came from Meiringen, over the
Grimsel pass, west along the 19 and over the Simplon pass to Lake
Maggiore.

I guess you are thinking of the hairpins on the approach to St Moritz.
Not on the Splugen, though, as we all turned off before getting to it,
at Chiavenna on the SS37. I think that's where I passed you, as you had
stopped for coffee. Then you all came past me after the hairpins, by the
St Moritz lakes. Then I got by you again a few km down the road...

There were only 12 hairpins in that section, none of which were especially
challenging. Admittedly, the first one was a bit of a surprise as I did not
have the satnav on as I knew where I was heading. Quite a long uphill
approach through a nice valley then bang, rise several 100m in a short
space.

 

Because they are ugly and smell of wee.

Seriously, I just don't like them. They're boring to ride, slow to
accelerate and are only suitable fro communting - hence the Benly when
I was doing the Nottingham run.

No, never. The chrome would be rusty in seconds.

Weight does matter when you can't lift them off the stand to vertical.

 

thought you might be.

 

Normative gender roles are so last century. Anyway I have mellowed
remarkably over the last couple of years.

 

Personal choice is important. Buy something that you like.

Call me old fashioned if you like, but I dont consider a heavy and
rather quick sports bike to be "sensible" for a small and lightly
built girl to buy with zero experience before starting her DAS.
In the end she failed her first test, lost interest, and left daddy
with the problem of selling an absolutely mint Y reg CBR600F with
full main dealer service history etc etc for which she paid far
too much to a main dealer in Cheltenham.

When I were a lad we earned our spurs on something "easy" before
buying something with lots of expensive plastics to damage the
first time it gets dropped. Chosing a bike because it is black
and looks sexy is probably not the best way of chosing.
But wimmin and fashion are a mystery to menfolk so mumblemumble...

OTOH I might just keep it if it does not sell.

 

Only a 74cm seat height on a 1500, too.