WTB: CBR/ZX6R or similar

I thought Goldwings would have a motor to do that


Maybe you can fish it out with the radio aerial?

 

I tried an R65, but was WFO during an overtaking manoeuvre...and I

So I got a K100 instead

The beginning of my slide into...well, can I slide any more? or is this
the pinnacle of slide?

After all those bikes that roared and banged and buzzed and had ch....
chirf...chsduy...sorry, rivetted metal link drives

I was quite happy to whirr and whoosh along

 

It's all sidecars and trailers and Gold Wings from here ...

-----sharks

 

*looks in shed*

Hmmm ... you could be right there.

-----sharks ['93 R100GS]

 

Are you being Sharkashtic,Blofeld?

Pat...Poshtman Pat

 

Honda copied the large-capacity inline 6 cylinder engine from Benelli...

(I never heard of a CB500 either)

Postman Pat

 

The Japanese factories *have* copied BMW---look at all the single-cylinder
trailbikes they're pumping out...

Postman Pat

 

Both of us owned 849s,Al (mine had BMW panniers).

Postman Pat

 

I suppose the fish-oil *could* act as a lubricant...

Postman Pat (Glad he never asked for dessert at Clem's place...)

 

Not to mention the XJ900, quite clearly a copy of the new K1200S.

http://motorcyclistonline.com/k1200s1st/

-----sharks

 

I must be getting old ... all the new ones give me the shits.
(either that or too much fish ice-cream ...)

-----sharks

 

Only if you're sliding UP hill!
Clem

 

My bad... neglected to delete these incomplete bits.

The point was going to be the following:

Once upon a time, when blokes like you were still paying attention, the
engineers were still learning. They'd improve two things but, as a side
effect, muck up something else without realising it. The bikes would,
thus, be better in one area, but worse in another, and, overall, no
great leap ahead of a bike carried over unchanged by a manufacturer who
was in too much financial or organisational trouble to do any development.

This had the effect of making the changes seem like they were chasing
their own tail.

What's changed, and what you're finding easier to refuse to acknowledge,
is that the engineers have moved on from that.

You're not making an effort to understand.

The niche manufacturers can more readily rely on their captive market
segment replacing their bike, for whatever reason that may become
necessary, with something very close to what came before it.

Me drawing a complete blank when trying to think of a single sportsbike
rider who's updated out of nothing but fashion, but having plenty who,
when they do update, going for the one which has improved the furthest
relative to the last time they were in the market.

Clem, I know_hundreds_of such people. They buy a new bike when their old
one gets trowelled, or stolen, when they've racked up some kays on it,
or after a hiatus enforced by their finances or what will you. Even the
ones with silly amounts of money under them don't swap bikes on a whim.

What's making you more comfortable to disbelieve is that the
attention-deficient, spotty-chinned yoofs go through bikes at a lower
rate than established, more sedate people with some money on them.

Why didn't I buy another '00-model R1 when mine got crushed out from
under me? Because I'd put 25,500km on it. Whatever I was going to do
with that bike, I'd done by then. It was time for something completely
different.

Or would you care to tell me what you can do with a bike in 250,000km
that you can't do in 25,000km?

And if 10-15 years of effort by, literally, thousands of engineers,
technicians and scientists boils down to "It still looks just as bland
as before", then I respectfully suggest you're the one with the problem.

Frankly, the whole damn thing.

Once again, get up out of that comfortable niche you've settled in for
yourself and do some research.

I've ridden "your" bikes and acknowledge the contribution they have to
make. If you're going to comment, bring something more substantial than
dismissive prejudice to the table.

See, now you're being your typical pot-bellied yobbo of a bike salesman
who gives you the same answer when you ask him that same question; "Oh,
you have to really be pushing it to notice any difference."

Bullshit. If a bike's different, it's going to ride different, from idle
to redline. If you can't register that, the problem's in your lazy,
irreceptive nerve endings and synapses, not in the engineers refusing to
paint in strokes sufficiently broad for you to perceive.

Is a BMW seat really such a plank that it needs a sheepskin?

Once again, it's called "progress". Just because something's all right
doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make it fantastic.

The Russians have proverb to the contrary, and look at what they're riding?

Or it could just be that their hierarchy of how to have swell time rates
pissing up in a damp paddock next to people who make a sport out of
guffawing at their prejudices about them some ways down the list.

I don't drink and I'm exceedingly useless at just hanging out (that's
why I marshall at PI). What's the point of me going to Karuah?

Well, to be completely honest, no, they don't. It really does tend to be
more of a thrum.

You give yourself enough clues in the opening sentence of the above
passage. You can't see because you're not trying to look, and because
you're consciously being prejudicial.

What's the point of me going along to a rally if it's going to be full
of people who'll ridicule my ride because they're too thick to
acknowledge that they might not have discovered the ultimate in
motorcycling 20 years ago?

 

And you don't count "bolt and seal interchangable with Harley parts" as
"Harley(derived)" eh Geoff?
Clem

 

I would've thought the XJ was an almost exact copy of the MV America
shaftey!
http://evilurl.com/POOPpeckerjism
Clem

 

You're gonna' have to give me some examples here (and then p'raps explain
what the point is!)
The only thing I can think of is Honda's '84 and '88 NSR500 GP bikes which
fit your description but don't really count as UJMs....
~

Because the Customers like the product, trust the product and trust the
company to not devalue their purchase....
....and that's bad for what reason again?
~

Ride it 225,000km presumably.
I'm 100% sure that the reason you didn't replace your '00 R1 with like is
that the R1 was old hat when you were shopping.
Is there really anything you (or I or any road rider) could extract from an
'02 GPZXRW that they couldn't extract from an '00 (or a '90)?
I'm sure the '02 has the new stripes, LED whatsit, carbon-fibre franger and
host of internal changes that you can talk about with your mates while you
watch the unexciting bikes ride past though....
~

And the "problem" is that I seem to be unaffected by "fashion" and
"advertising"?
I bet McDonalds has literally thousands of people working feverishly to try
and sell me things too, as has Nike, Coca Cola, Channel 10 and the Liberal
Party..... but all to no avail.
Poor me; I have so many problems eh?

And the answer to "What part of the "experience" has changed for you?"
is......?
~

And "different" is a good thing... right?
~

At last a question I understand enough to answer:
Yes.
~

What if the difference between "all right" and "fantastic" is so
infinitessimal and so far outside it's normal usage parameters that the
changes can't be detected by ordinary people?
~

Is that a question?
Dunno; whatever they can get their hands on I suppose. Do they still make
Dnieprs?
~

Actually there's very little actual bike chat at Karuah (and I don't
remember much prejudicial guffawing... except at Pat's shoes) but there's
lots of talk about bike travelling and trips.
~

Is that like saying "Well if you don't know then I'M NOT GOING TO TELL
YOU!"
~

~
Hmm.. 20 years ago was exactly when I bought my first XJ900!
Clem

 

Ummm, what did I succede it with, again? You've seen it, remember?

Truth be told, next on the list is just going to have to be a ZX-10R.
You know, the one_without_the underseat exhaust. One factor affecting
that is the way it tingles through the frame rails at idle and pitches
me forward over the instruments the way the R1 used to... must be
getting old and arthritic, or something...

And there's that sense of deja vu again... just because a lot of the
advertising features the bikes bimbling along a dead straight stretch of
road through some desolation or other, I don't do a double take when I
see a Harley up a twisty road. Why, then, are sportbikes thought of
as_having_to be ridden at ten-tenths everywhere?

Haven't seen any photos of the GS on top of Ayers Rock yet, Clem.
Wotareya? Isn't that what they're supposed to be for?

"Get up off your dismissive arse and test your preconceptions, so you
have some actual frame of reference when you start talking about this".

You're being a fundamentalist Christian mockingly demanding that I
convince him of the incontrovertibility of evolution, but who rolls his
eyes when I utter the word "protein".

Isn't it being a bit too demanding to ask for these changes to be able
to grab you and explode in your face with their obviousness even though
you have not only not ridden the bike in question, but none of its
competitors or predecessors, both immediate and remote, either?

No. More like "If you can't be arsed trying to find out for yourself
whether your preconceptions have any basis in fact, and would much
rather just dig your heels in and repeat them ad nauseum than take the
infinitessimally easy steps of testing them by blagging a testride off
someone or other, then I'm not going to break a sweat where you're not
willing to."

For the fourth time, I've got information from both sides of the
"debate" (I call it that even though it always ends up being the
esoteric brigade who make it an issue). It's up to you to level this
playing field.

You might want to start by opening your mind.

 

Well if someone who works with you hasn't worked that out yet, what hope
is there for the rest of us ?

JL
(besides the standard offer never was specific about WHOSE nuts gut the
kicking....)

 

Modern red UJM from memory (but I assumed it was something newer and more
engineered from your posts).
And R1s haven't been top-of-the-tree since about 2000 have they?
~

[Dumbfounded look]
But isn't that what the whiz-bang technology is FOR?!!?
It's only in the tenth part of the tenth tenth where any of this wonderous
stuff has any application at all, so why are you wasting money on it (and
saying it's important) if you're never using it?
Is it just 'cause the marketing says it's better?
~

Riding long distances over crappy roads was the description I was working
on (but I really only bought it because it was the right price at the right
time; poor me is immune to all that "image" marketing, remember?)
~

Wow good answer. Doesn't in any way fit the question but it's a stunningly
good answer!
~

At least I'm sheilded from the dissapointment of finding out next year that
the bike I thought was tops last year is now old hat....
~

~
Fark Marko; I find UJMs dull; it's not like that's gonna' affect the word
as we know it you know.

I've been licenced and on the road for more than a quarter of a century and
I'm just not particularly impressed anymore by this year's "big thing".
I don't hang out at bike shops, I rarely read road tests, never go to
motor-shows (except to poke my head in and annoy Woose at PI) and hardly
ever ride other people's bikes.
I can't tell the difference between a 10yo Harley and a new one, and 10yo
Ducati and a new one, a 10yo BMW, Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Aprilla
or Piaggio scooter.
Some bikes I find interesting no matter their "oldness" and some bikes I
walk straight past despite their "newness".
The bikes I find LEAST interesting are the common-as-dog's-balls 4cyl
beam-framed, fully faired, sportsters.
I think the 600/650 is the least interesting of the current Triumph range
(and the 1200 from the previous series).
The MV F750/1000 is the least interesting of the Italian exotica (although
it's sooo exotic that it's still a bit interesting), and the K-series the
least interesting of the BMW range.
I preferred the TRX to the R6, the VTR to the CBR, the mach iv to the Z1
(sorry, couldn't think of a more modern Kwak that's interested me), and
yes; even the SV650 to the GSXR600.

I'll endeavour to have a wobble around the block on someone's new UJM if
that'll make you happy but I suspect that only I'll be back here in 12
months having you say "but you don't know because you've never ridden an
'06 model!" anyway....
Clem

 

What's stopping all your bolts from falling out then?
Clem