Quote from Racer Y :

Anyhow, you had these graphs of various models from various makes. a couple of posts back.
LOL you're the bike guru. you're a genius with this stuff. With your knowlege you should consider a career writing for motorcycle magazines, if you don't contribute already.

A solid grasp on how bikes function, decent riding ability, and google-fu do not a writer make. At least not an interesting one.

Well it's certainly not a Harley sound.

Parallel twin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6PjKUxoPxY

V-twin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKGFau2Wzic

Quote from Racer Y :

But, why would he lie about it?

Probably not so much a lie as too much faith placed in the accuracy of the speedometer. IIRC, law requires the speedo to be somewhere between 100% and 110% relative to actual speed (i.e. 10% optimistic). 172 / 110% = ~156.

Last edited by Forbin, Fri, 17 Jan 2014 04:56.

Quote from Racer Y :

Speaking of Triumphs, there's this guy I run into every once in a while on the way to work. He has this big ass monster Triumph. I love the thing!
Nah, it ain't all high performance, but it looks cool and it has that 3 cylinder sound you've mentioned. It'a not like a thump sound, more like a I dunno, a rumbling growl.
I don't know what it is... A thunderbird? It's not a Rocket. I like the way the exhausts look.
kind of like fins on an old cadillac.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Thunderbird_900

Newer Thunderbirds are parallel twins like the Bonneville.

Quote from Racer Y :

What really tripped me out was what she got.
She got a BMW GT800 (?) It's a sports tourer. It looks like a nice bike... just not really the sort of bike I'd expect her to be into.

<shrug> What would you expect her to be on?

Quote from Racer Y :

I dunno isn't it usually the other way around? The person gets a sportbike, then gets old and gets a Harley?

I know a trackday coach who will be turning 61 this year. He rides a 2004 Kawasaki ZX-6R. Same guy owned a Harley K model back in the day and has ridden all over the country, albeit on a different bike I think, probably a 1990 Honda CBR1000F.

Last edited by Forbin, Thu, 16 Jan 2014 04:03.

Quote from Racer Y :

Bandits are good all around motorcycles.
Triumphs.....?
Is a Street Triple the same as a Speed triple? I've always liked Triumphs - from a distance. They had a naked sport bike that looked cool (is that the triple?), but I really don't know much about them. A guy I did some graphics work for has an old school bonneville bobber chopper. It really looks good. This dude collects motorcycles and has all kinds of bikes. Single guys get all the neat toys, don't they?

No, they're totally different bikes. Different frame, engine, swingarm, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Speed_Triple

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Street_Triple

Quote from skstibi :

The SV650 is a good bike but it does not have the power that I expected. The throttle did nothing at all. You really had to grab a handful to get anywhere. When I finally hit full throttle, I was waiting for power that never came. For all the people that praise them, I definitely expected more out of the engine. The bike rode very well and it sounded great but that's it.

The stock SV650 throttle tube (the part you twist with your hand that has a pulley on it) is meant to be very newbie friendly, such that you need to turn it a lot to get to full throttle. It's much nicer with an aftermarket throttle tube that lets you go from off to full throttle without needing to re-grip.

Last edited by Forbin, Wed, 15 Jan 2014 16:00.

Quote from Gills4life :

@Forbin

The old 600 Bandit does a quarter mile time over a second quicker than an SV and the 650 Bandit is quicker than the old 600. The Fazer 600 is quicker than both the Bandit and the SV!

MCN's website says the SV650 does 13.5 on the 1/4 mile but that seems awfully slow for that bike.
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ ... ki-gsf600-bandit-1996-05/
http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ ... zuki-sv650s-1999-current/

Other sources put the SV650 a few tenths ahead of the Bandit 600, notably the 2002 numbers from MCN quoted here:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=4533.10;wap2

And the SV wiki page seems to agree with the ~12s mark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_SV650

Last edited by Forbin, Tue, 14 Jan 2014 23:24.

You should have just gone over it, crashed, and sued the town.

Quote from Chrisuu01 :

Wait what happened to the mighty 95hp fazer?

FZ6R (blue) and FZ6 (red) are very different in terms of engine tune.

Quote from Gills4life :

The Bandit is far superior if you're commuting. It has way more top end to give. The SV is decent to 60 because of the torque from the V twin but the power fizzles out much quicker than the Bandit. The Bandit is also much more comfortable and is more economical, and due to it's extra weight is much more stable.

If you could afford it I'd say go for the Bandit 650 like mine, it has more torque lower down than the old 600 and it comes with ABS.

Consider the SV650 makes about 10% more power than the Ninja 650, putting the SV at about 66HP on the first graph and on par or slightly ahead of the FZ6R up top.

And again this is ignoring how much lighter the SV650 is compared to the Bandit/Katana and FZ6R.

Last edited by Forbin, Mon, 13 Jan 2014 22:09.

Try this? It lets you change height and inseam separately.

http://cycle-ergo.com/

SV650 (aka SV650N, for naked) is less so, but it has no windscreen.

FWIW, I commuted on an SV1000S for a couple years and it wasn't bad, but then I was only on the bike for ~25 minutes at a time. That said, I have heard the SVS's seating position compared to a Ducati superbike.

At one point I had plain aftermarket no-rise clipons on my SV650S race bike. I found I had trouble with my body position, not being able to get my upper body off the bike as much as I wanted. I eventually got aftermarket clipons with a 1.5" rise, the same as stock. It felt a lot better. I'm only 170cm (5'7"), though.

Last edited by Forbin, Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:26.

Quote from Chrisuu01 :

I'm leaning strongly towards a Fazer600 or a Bandit 600. It will be one of those or a ZZR600 with a super-bike handlebar kit.

What about an SV650/SV650S? All 2003+ models are fuel injected and can be had for fairly cheap, at least here in the US. Power-wise, they're on par with a Bandit 600 and weigh a whole lot less. Fazer 600 has a fair bit more power but is still fairly heavy compared to the SV650.

SV650S
650cc V-twin
52kw (70HP)
170kg dry

Bandit 600 (GSF600)
600cc I4
57kw (78HP)
208kg dry

Fazer 600 (FZS600)
600cc I4
70kw (95HP)
189kg dry

Last edited by Forbin, Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:04.

Quote from sinbad :

Are you really having that argument? I thought Racer Y's original post was a joke, but now I don't know.

Oh I'm fairly certain he's trolling, I just don't care.

Quote from Racer Y :

Yeah I imagine the wear factor goes up quite a bit when racing and running the same line over and over again would do that pretty quick.
How fast do you go through tires?

I don't run street tires on the track, so the comparison is moot. That said, I have heard reports of trackday riders experiencing good tread life with Pirelli's Diablo Rosso Corsa, Pirelli's stickiest street tire, even at advanced-level pace. I think at least 20 trackdays on one set was common (100+ miles per day).

Motorbikes ridden on the street, especially when used for commuting, are very prone to a phenomenon known as "flat spotting". This refers to a change in the tire's curved profile such that the center is worn much more than the edges, producing a visible ridge on either side of the center of the tread. This affects handling negatively in that the bike may be hard to steer near 0 lean angle (i.e. high bar effort), then suddenly very easy after a certain point.



On the track, you're using both edges of the tire much more than you would on the street, producing more even wear on the tire. Clockwise tracks wear the right side more than the left, but visiting an anticlockwise track will address that asymmetrical wear.

Last edited by Forbin, Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:40.

Quote from Racer Y :

You shouldn't ride leaning over like that. It'll wear out your tires funny....

Actually that's the best way to ride to not get an odd wear pattern on the tires, using the whole tread and not just the center.

US prices obv, but might help.

http://anandtech.com/show/7557 ... -video-cards-holiday-2013

Almost everyone is slow on their first day.

Quote from Ingolf :

Did anyone mention Automation?

I'm disappointed in the way they implement cam timing, lift, and valve spring rate all with just a simple 0-100 slider from street to race.

This one has a garage mechanic element too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Legal_Racing:_Redline

If you're so sure, why don't you code something up?

It is the only solution to your problem.

Do you have a job? If not, get one. Save up. Then buy S2.

Yelp is a corrupt site that extorts money from businesses by removing good reviews until the business owner pays up by buying advertising with Yelp.

I recommend urbanspoon instead.

Last edited by Forbin, Wed, 8 Jan 2014 00:47.