Why is it....

They aren't, you know: 145 km/h - 150 km/h in first is more like like it
(yeah, I know that's close, I'm being pedantic). Race bikes are faster,
but I don't think you were talking about those. And you don't *have* to
ride on the rev limiter, it's OK to upshift at 10,000 in a built-up
area

 

And again you've hit the whackee with the whacker, CC!
I've never caught a 2300cc bike on an 80cc bike [boggle] but I once hounded
and eventually passed a GSXR1000R through Victoria's Black Spur when I was
riding a 20yo K75 BMW complete with panniers and campgear on the way home
from the GP so I know the sheer joy of David besting Goliath!
Sure he was inept and sure he wasn't trying too hard ('though he was
accelerating on the straights like he was late for a headjob!) but I betcha'
I had a better time that ride than he did!!
Same goes for the time I got an 1100 Katana down Mt Glorious on my 500
Pantah, the time I did a VF750 while two-up on the XJ down Mt Mee or the
time I so-very-nearly got the Z1 through Maleny on my Mach 111 (my chain
broke as I pulled out to overtake him!)....

What's to gain from riding the latest-greatest road-rocket; [shrug] you can
only ever lose or break-even.....

 

You're preaching to the choir here Fraser. ('eh CrazyCam?)
It is horses for courses though; I had a hoot on BT's GPX and Hammo's
VTR 250s but gNatalie's TU250 was pretty frightening to ride in
traffic.
My old 500 Ducati Pantah was a scream to ride anywhere except straight
roads and it had about the same HP as a modern 250.
Even big bikes like my 80hp R1100 was a real joy to blast around on.
In fact; now that I think about it I've never actually owned an
over-100hp bike.... (and never really wanted one either!)
Clem

==================================================

My old Boxers are a lot of fun to ride, the 1974 R75/6 is a real joy and
about 45 HP.

Boxer

 

A few years back I had the joy of nailing a guy down through twisties
around the Huon (south of Hobart). I had borrowed a mate's VTX1800.
The other guy was on a brand new GSXR750. I had never ridden the VTX
before and had to haul the bastard around and scrape it through the
corners, but it was fun to watch the Gixxer rider getting quite
annoyed that I was on his tail the whole time through a tight and
twisty road. Just one of those memorable rides

 

Only recently. Most of the time I've known her (5 years now) she's had
black hair. Which I think suits her better but I'm not going to even
attempt to tell her that.

If you look through that album you'll see pics of her with black her
which I think suits her better, but you try telling a highly hormonal
24 year old girl that and you are a braver man than me.

 

I'd check your figures there, my busa would indicate 155 km/h in first
gear and I am sure the late model GXSR1000s are able to pull 165 in
first. I will stand corrected on the second one, but my busa would
definitely do 155 in first.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:19:06 GMT

The Old Girl (Guzzi 850GT 1974) is lots of fun on twisty roads and
yeah... about 45HP.

If the 4LS 10" drums are set up properly she'll even haul up quite
respectably from 150kmh (else it would have been sheep for dinner....)
but most of the time it's all about corner speed.

Zebee

 

I happened to be reading an American review of the '08 ZX-10R just before
I posted that, which is where I got the figures from, assuming all of the
litre-class sports bikes would be much the same (Cam was talking about
litre-class). Your Busa wasn't a litre-class sports bike and even it
wouldn't do the imperial ton in first (161 km/h).

OTOH Suzuki speedos are famously accurate, unlike many other m/c speedos,
so your 155 was probably very close to reality

 

Remembering Kev, that it is much easier chasing than being chased

 

Oh fer sure, but the thing that was putting me off at the time was the
feet-forward riding position. Not used to that. A mate of mine used to
say that the only time your feet should be forward of the gearbox is
just as you are about to crash

Disconcerting to have my boot heels hit the road and kick up on just
about every corner. Not my sort of ride. Said mate has a Triumph
Rocket III now. I've been riding with him but haven't ridden that
bike. Thing certainly has some grunt off the line but the busa made a
mess of it above about 70ks.

Going back to the VTX1800, a few years back 5 of us were doing a tour
around the state for 4 days. On one of the days my wife was driving
the support vehicle and Roger's (the VTX owner) wife wanted to come
for a ride with me on the Blackbird. No problem. We are heading up the
East Tamar and speed started to pick up to hot. The VTX would not
corner well but would certainly grunt out of the corner. Lee (his
wife) is slapping me on the back and yelling "pass him, come on!"
Considering we were already over 200 km/h (this is a lie officer) I
was game for that. Once those speeds come into it the VTX didn't have
a hope, even if I was two up and Roger was solo. Especially on fairly
twisty roads. I get a yell of "YESSSSS!" from Lee as we went past
Roger

 

Nice pussy:

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/kevgl/?action=view&current=Timberlan04.jpg

--
TimC
[T]he best that an optimist gets is "working as expected",
which is the _worst_ that the pessimist gets.
[...] [T]he pessimistic attitude is the more reasonable, Q.E.D.
-- Mike Andrews in ASR

 

So you can remove the gearbox, use a ratio that is equivalent to first
gear, and make a (slightly) lighter bike for tootling around on the
twisty highways?

 

There it is in a nutshell; riding a fast bike slowly is dull (and
generally uncomfortable), while riding a slow bike fast is fun.
--

Perfect summary mate. It's not like I've had a shortage of fast bikes in the
last 2 years with 4 fireblades, an R1, 2 gixxer thous and a daytona 675.

Fraser

 

160 in first from my K7 Gixxer thou with a Yoshi Slip on.

Fraser

 

Yes, she's blonde

 

Actually, to be super pedantic, is suspect you are technically right,
and they don't actually do over the ton, or 161kph, in first gear, but I
think most of the current ones tell their riders that they do.

As in exaggerating speedos.

Frankly a lot of the super sports bikes now, IMHO, are just race bikes
that have somehow gotten registered.

Who told you that? Bet it wasn't one of this lot!

regards,
CrazyCam

 

TimC wrote:

Dunno about the "boy racer" bikes, but when I first heard about the
Triumph Rocket III, and its 2.3 litre motor, I was seriously asking folk
if Triumph had bothered to fit a gearbox.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

One of the loony Yank V8 bikes doesn't. Boss Hog I think it is.

 

And you've learned so little throttle control in all that time across
all those sportsbikes that you're still too "busy watching you don't 12
o'clock it" to enjoy the ride?

 

What would it have pulled in first with the stock system?