I am thinking of buying the below bike. Legally its a bit of a no no as im only allowed on a 250 but the price is good and i have always wanted the big brother to my GPX 250. Tough decision as the money could be put to other things such as another trip off to China
Don't do it. Really. If you somehow manage to crash or hit others, you'll be broke for the rest of your life.
Imagine if you'd hit somebody, disabling him or her for life. It would cost over nine thousand dollars in treatment, because your insurance won't cover you.
Medical insurance is free over here. Well it comes out of our wages.
I am currently riding my 250 uninsured. I do plan on getting 3rd party sometime soon.
The biggest issue with riding a bike outside my license conditions is if i crash into someones rather expensive car and it is my fault then i will be broke for the rest of my life. If the police pull me over its a $400 fine and probably a walk home (depending on the cop). Thats why you don't give them a reason to pull you over.
Good chance i wont get the bike but ya never know!
I don't really see the need for an R1 either In everyday use you'll probably only ever use about 25% of its potential. If you're planning on going to trackdays on a regular basis, then it's a different story
Throttle response and general eagerness are what I find enjoyable about an engine, rather than how quickly the numbers can rise, but there's not much fun to have out of an engine that is not able to accelerate you briskly.
Some smaller capacity bikes have great engines, I rode a firecracker of a CBR400 not so long ago, and it's a lot of fun to be able to try and use everything a bike has on the road without being in insta-ban territory all the time, and let's face it, if you're geared to near 100mph in 1st gear then to use your engine to the fullest you're going to be speeding big time.
Little 2 strokes can also be a lot of fun without having to be travelling mega-quick, I like the motor in my SV650 too, and that certainly isn't going to break a dynometer
I loved my 125 (Sachs XTC125 2 stroke model. Basically had a DT125 engine), wasn't the quickest (topped out at 90mph) by any means but it was great fun round the twisties.
Ridden a friends Suzuki RGV250 and that was brilliant fun. Quick enough to give you a grin from ear to ear and again loads of fun round the twisties.
Like others said, if you're going to be doing trackdays then you might consider a litre bike, all depends how much experience you have. That said, near enough any bike could be fun on a track.
I had one of those when I was 16, same paintjob too. Brilliant little bike.
As for trackdays on it, it'd be alright round a kart track. Most bike magazines test 50cc bikes on kart tracks, or atleast all the ones i've seen have.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all 1 litre bikes are "useless" on the road. Not in the slightest. Just the hypersports like the R1, gixxxer 1000, Fireblade etc... And even then they're not useless, but I just think it's a waste of power and technology on normal roads. I do think they're awesome bikes, though, and I'd love to ride one one day
Exactly, the feeling of being thrust forward with a great amount of torque between your legs is fantastic. In that regard big engines are great, but not the high revving kind you find in hypersports. You want to be looking at big V-twins. The torque they have at low rpm's makes for very very enjoyable and thrilling riding in everyday circumstances, and they'll leave hypersports in the dust coming out of corners on trackdays every time. Sure they'll come flying past you on the straights but like Forbin said there's not much fun in going fast in a straight line At least not for very long anyway, it can be fun to do a short high speed sprint starting from stand still like, say, from one traffic light to the next
Yeah, I find myself riding a lot sportier on my girlfriend's 650cc than I do on my 1000. It's fun going hard through the gears without immediately going way too fast (obviously you're still going at illegal speeds once you're into 3rd gear on pretty much any bike from 400cc upwards). And the fact that my girlfriend's bike is a naked one also gives me a greater sensation of speed whilst actually not going that fast.