Where we talk about two wheeled vehicles. Motorbikes!

[NoLeftHere]

Hello guys, i'm glad to see some 2 wheel love here!

here's my 06 Speedy

[Trashed675]

There seems to be a bit of hidden Triumph love going on here. Heres my 07 Daytona 675 in various stages of modification.

[Supermassive]

I sold my '12 Aprilia RSV4-R just last month due to not really getting a lot of seat time in because I live in the middle of the valley in Phoenix, and the nearest decent riding roads are hours of stop and go traffic to get to. I will miss the V4 rumble and wail but will eventually get another to replace her.

[wheelhaus]

I can't believe I've only just now found this thread...

[zoomzoomers]

Back in '86, when I bought my first ever bike (a Honda Hurricane 600) my best bud bought a FZR400. I loved that bike. If my 6'3" 220 frame could fit that bike better I would have bough that. If I could have I would have made love to that bike. I hated the fact that they never imported those awesome 400's from Japan. Haven't rode in many years now, but I would still love to find a clean FZR400 and restore it. That or a FZR750/RC45 or something like one. :happy0180:

Originally Posted by Dimman

I asked earlier about a VFR800 as a starter, but have decided to move down a bit.

Currently am looking at a VFR400R NC24 (not sure if JDM grey market, says speed limiter is removed???) and a Canadian market Yamaha FZR400. Both under 35000 km, and ~$3k.

Anyone have experience or thoughts on these older 400's? I will be signing up for a course reasonably soon.

Thanks.

[jschendel]

I've practically grown up on motorcycles and have been riding them since before I could ride a bicycle.

Started out on a dirtbike and racing pocket bikes when we were stationed in Okinawa





When tall enough not to fall over when moving on YSR 50 I moved up





After reaching the riding limit on those I moved to 125's

TZ-125


RS-125 (sponsors bike)


and I have had the joy of being able to ride others:

SV-650



GSXR-600



My dad's awesome VFR 400



and I currently have 2 bikes I use as commuters:

07 ZX-6





and my newest bike 07 GSXR 750 (excuse all the junk, I have been traveling lately and haven't been riding much)




My bikes are my dailies, have over 45k on the 07 zx-6 and around 20k on the gsxr 750 which I've owned for about a year.

[roddy]

I love bikes and have a real soft spot for 2-strokes and small displacement four stroke bikes.

Here's a pic of my Canadian spec '89 RZ350. I rebuilt it myself from the frame up. Some of the mods include bored/ported cylinders, Lomas pipes, V-Force reeds, "swiss cheesed" airbox, lowered gearing, weight reduction (bike weighed ~300lbs) , and a lot of jetting. The stock main jets on this bike were 185s. With all the airflow mods, I was up to 330s by the time I was done. What a little rocket! This bike has no problem keeping up to/beating modern 600s up to about 100MPH. 2-strokes rock!

Edit: sorry for the huge pic.

[roddy]

Sorry for the Huge pic above.

@ jschendel... Lots of love for that little VFR. Would love to own one some day.

@ civicdrivr... Also love the Hawk GT... really cool bike that for some reason never took off in sales. Unfortunate. It was a good bike. Same thing with my '04 599... A good bike that never moved off the sales floor. People on this side of the ocean don't seem to like naked bikes.

I had the first one in North America:

[serialk11r]

So for the past month, I've been transfixed on bikes...they are just so cool! Can't get the sound of that screaming CBR250 hitting 20krpm out of my head.
But what scares me is that it seems like so many people die :/ How bad is it? In the earlier pages of this thread I kept getting the feel that a lot of people knew someone who died riding. I look up random threads on bike forums, and there seems to be an alarming number of "went for a group ride, another biker lost control and crashed, he didn't make it "...whereas you rarely hear about people dying in cars.

So how bad is it really?

[00NissanNinja]

Oh man you triumph guys are really making me want that street triple r that much more. I was shooting for a daytona, but its cheaper to insure a striple and still just as fun. Surprisingly to my eye I actually really like the look of the striple (I never thought I would remotely like a naked bike).

[Innova]

My sportster 1200cc

[roddy]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

So for the past month, I've been transfixed on bikes...they are just so cool! Can't get the sound of that screaming CBR250 hitting 20krpm out of my head.
But what scares me is that it seems like so many people die :/ How bad is it? In the earlier pages of this thread I kept getting the feel that a lot of people knew someone who died riding. I look up random threads on bike forums, and there seems to be an alarming number of "went for a group ride, another biker lost control and crashed, he didn't make it "...whereas you rarely hear about people dying in cars.

So how bad is it really?

As I stated above, I love bikes, and the feeling of riding them. However, I have not been able to ride for a couple of years now due to being badly shaken by a couple of incidents that happened here a while ago. In one, my friend's son was making a left hand turn, and got t-boned from behind by another bike. He survived, but is messed up for life...totally not his fault.
In the other incident, a guy that I used to ride with was on his way home one night, when a horse (!) ran out in front of him...he didn't make it.

Bikes are a lot of fun, but you have to ride with eyes in the back of your head. You never know what is going to happen, and cagers (car drivers) are often oblivious to your presence. I had a few close calls of my own. Maybe some day I'll get back on a bike, but for now, I'm happy cruising in my Mustang or FR-S. The FR-S is fun on the twisty roads I used to take the bike to, but nothing can compare to a bike on roads like that.

If you do get a bike, be careful, keep your eyes open, and ride defensively. The rewards are worth it.

[roddy]

Originally Posted by 00NissanNinja

Oh man you triumph guys are really making me want that street triple r that much more. I was shooting for a daytona, but its cheaper to insure a striple and still just as fun. Surprisingly to my eye I actually really like the look of the striple (I never thought I would remotely like a naked bike).

A friend of mine felt the same way. He rode a ZX-6 and couldn't understand why I got the 599 instead of the CBR600. Then he took a street triple for a test ride... He wasn't long trading the Ninja in, lol. He got the higher spec model and loves it. Nice looking bike, and far more comfortable to ride.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by roddy

Sorry for the Huge pic above.

@ jschendel... Lots of love for that little VFR. Would love to own one some day.

@ civicdrivr... Also love the Hawk GT... really cool bike that for some reason never took off in sales. Unfortunate. It was a good bike. Same thing with my '04 599... A good bike that never moved off the sales floor. People on this side of the ocean don't seem to like naked bikes.

I had the first one in North America:

Love the '04 599. I had it's bigger brother the '05 919/Hornet. Sold it to help with the funds for the FR-S. I bought it used in 2010 with 400 miles on it, and sold it this year in May for what I paid for it. I do miss it, but will probably replace it with a Goldwing in the Spring as MamaHawk wants something she can ride with me.

Only problem I had with the 919 was it needed more pullback. it was a little long a reach for my short frame.