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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Also I thought “mate” was a really aggressive thing to call someone, oval office. It can be, depends on context. Nothing's as bad as calling someone Australian though.
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Dec 14, 2019 18:16
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But I thought Elector_Nerdlingen is Australian?
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Dec 14, 2019 21:01
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Reading back I realise you were referring to him and not calling me Australian  I will now go gently caress a sheep as penance.
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Dec 14, 2019 21:43
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Looking like I’ll be at about 4000 total miles by the time spring hits, most of which is in city traffic. Would that be too early to consider upgrading from my first bike to an MT07 or SV650?
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Dec 24, 2019 17:42
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I’m literally the last person to give any advice but I’m curious what you’re looking to improve on from the R3? Mainly want to see how it lines up with my thoughts 
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Dec 24, 2019 18:11
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Better luggage options, mostly. The duffel bag cargo net thing is fine for the time being but I’m going to want to go on longer distance moto-backpacking trips next year where a real luggage setup would be really nice. I also may keep the R3 because it’s fun on a bun.
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Dec 24, 2019 18:19
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Ah yeah. For me “upgrade” drive is very much the dislike of being on a bike that sits at 10-12k at highway speeds.
some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Dec 24, 2019 |
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Dec 24, 2019 18:27
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Short gears and high revs own.
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Dec 29, 2019 00:42
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Very much disagree. Hate high revs for sustained periods 
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Dec 29, 2019 02:17
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The R3 actually holds 75 at 8k in 6th. It’s a surprising all rounder for being a 321cc.
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Dec 29, 2019 05:48
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Yeah the 250 screams at highway and doesn’t have that sixth gear to slide into. I suppose next year I can try to play with its’ gearing. A lot of it I think is psychological from when I threw a rod in my car ten years ago. I had my Volvo up at high RPMs and the next thing I know the lower half of my engine block is missing. Ever since then I’ve tended to be very easy on my vehicles. Definitely not saying that people don’t enjoy hearing their bikes scream, I’m just not one of them. Combine that with not knowing how the five POs have maintained the engine, I’m extra paranoid. I did sign up for a small engine repair course in January and my goal is to be able to do my own valve clearances, carb cleaning, etc. Maybe that will help me worry less about what’s whirring between my legs
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Dec 29, 2019 06:22
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When the bike revs to 18k, 10k is hardly screaming. Unless you put an aftermarket exhaust on, which is probably miserable.
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Dec 29, 2019 11:33
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2011 250r red zone is 13-15k, and PO did indeed put on an aftermarket can :[
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Dec 29, 2019 13:57
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Martytoof posted:2011 250r red zone is 13-15k, and PO did indeed put on an aftermarket can :[ Change the oil regularly, return to stock can or get it tuned appropriately and it'll be fine.
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Dec 29, 2019 23:36
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I’m definitely doing both of these in the new year. It won’t make me enjoy it any more than I do now but at least It’ll give me something to do.
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Dec 30, 2019 03:36
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It's the same engine as the pregen, right? They just keep lowering the redline? Really, even though 3000 RPM seems low and comfy, because we are used to cars, it's really an INSANE rate of speed. Think about it. At 3k that's 50 times *per second*. Mind boggling. But that's just ho hum what the engine was made for. 11'000 RPM would murder my hawk GT, but on the ninja that's just a Tuesday. In short, stay calm and throttle on.
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Dec 30, 2019 03:51
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I gun it until my motor becomes a radioactive potato then I gun it more.
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Dec 30, 2019 03:53
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The way I think of it is in terms of how fast the rings themselves are moving at the given rpm, and how much force is being transmitted at either end of the conrods. These are the usual limiting factors of concern, cause most bikes made in the last thirty years have cylinder heads that will do hilarious revs reliably. The first depends purely on the engine stroke, the second on the torque the motor produces at a given rpm + the physical size of the pistons, as well as the bore:stroke. It's easy to see the results of this: a bike with a very small cc per cylinder, 125cc in this case, and very oversquare (62 x 41.2mm) dimensions, will have very light pistons moving a very short distance. The rings experience very little surface speed and the bores are amply cooled by the frankly too-big cooling system (helpful for neglectful learners rolling half blocked radiators), heat is absolutely sucked away by that delicious green cool-juice. The petite pistons making like 15hp each (125cc + 15hp = L plates in some countries!) are exerting bugger all force on the bottom end bearings, it's easily absorbed by the oil film from that sweet sweet 10w40 you're putting in right? Service like a surgeon and it'll do what it says on the tacho all day. Worry about your tires going square from all that time you're wasting on the motorway, not your engine.
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Dec 30, 2019 09:31
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I didn’t really intend to get into a whole derail on my bike sensibilities and I appreciate everyone trying to tell me how the bike isn’t going to explode under me. I really do, so I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea when I say that despite knowing full well that it’ll be fine ... I still don’t like it. It’s just a gut feeling and personal preference. I know I can open my bike up to redline and not cause any damage and having said that I still prefer to do my touring on a bike that isn’t going to sit at the higher end of the RPM range and I honestly don’t think that’s a terrible position to have. I’m not at all saying that being of the opposite opinion is wrong and I get that people love hearing their machine work. I feel like I’m coming off like I’m digging in and getting defensive though which definitely isn’t my intent It’s a moot point though, full disclosure I bought a 650 which I’ve been riding for the last bit of the season. I didn’t really talk about it because there was a bit of negative feedback when I posted it a while back, which I understand. I like to think I understand the risks associated with moving from a 40HP to 70HP machine at an early stage and how to ease into it, but I suspect everyone who moved from a 250 to an R1 says the same thing so in the end the only proof will be that I keep posting about learning and riding responsibly. I will tell you this though: My first ride home from the dealer on the 650, riding at 110kph in 6th gear at like 5k or something abouts — was a dream. It felt effortless. I didn’t feel the bike was ticking under me, just felt like a well oiled machine, was so much more comfortable, and what I had always imagined touring would be. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Dec 30, 2019 |
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Dec 30, 2019 11:00
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Here’s my opinion, not that it’s worth anything. Moving from a 250 to a 650 in under a year probably isn’t that big of a deal, especially if you’re mostly just cruising/commuting. I think the idea to not start on one is because you have no basic controls or sense of what the bike is doing or wants. If you’re doing mostly “spirited riding” on twisty roads then it’s probably not the best idea, but hopefully you know your limits. I am personally not planning to upgrade anytime soon and instead spend my money on better gear and track time/lessons. I can reach some of my bike’s limits, but its combined ability still far exceeds my own, especially once I’m on a public road with all sorts of variables, hazards, and distractions. I may get a second, completely different bike, like a dual sport.
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Dec 30, 2019 16:00
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This is funny because I have a friend who started riding about 2 years ago and he did exactly this. Literally exactly. He is a very intelligent, risk averse dude who came from modified cars. Started on an old gpx250, decided it was too slow because he's an idiot. Got himself an er6n after about six months, continued bumbling around hopelessly, me berating him for being useless the entire time. It was all the same bullshit about high revs and motorway and 'comfort' and whatever else. Just as he was starting to get his head around riding the 650 not completely uselessly, he decides he needs another upgrade, because it turns out er6's have decent power but rubbish suspension and that makes it really hard to learn to ride not-poo poo without crashing. At this point he's grown enough awareness to aim for something qualitatively better with similar performance instead of chasing numbers, so he gets a tidy monster 800. He's been riding the monster about a year now, no crashes, and his skills have improved considerably with training and practice; he can just about keep up with me if I'm on a royal enfield or 250 cruiser of some kind, but my cb125t still leaves him for dust. I think the humiliating insults are getting through though, because our last ride kicked him into starting a search for a quality sub-250cc bike or small motard to 'learn wtf I'm doing' which means he's finally successfully penetrated the dunning-kruger barrier and reached full awareness of how useless he is at riding. Not really sure what the point of this story was, but I hope you will one day attain this knowledge and not have to crash repeatedly to get there like me and a bunch of other people.
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Dec 30, 2019 19:17
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I will do my best
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Dec 30, 2019 20:33
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Dec 30, 2019 20:56
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Philosophical question regarding that anecdote though: was the suspension on the GPX250 actually better than the ER6N? Or is the story more that it took him two years to reach the point where he could outride cheap suspension, and it was equally bad on the GPX and the ER6N?
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Dec 31, 2019 02:51
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Nah it's more complex than that, suspension isn't a gadget with simple poo - not-poo continuum, it's a complex interrelationship between a bunch of different parts and phenomena. But very broadly: suspension on any bike is a compromise, the better you make it at doing one type of riding, the worse it gets in other areas. A good analogy is a blanket that's always too short so you have to choose between having cold shoulders or cold feet. Your height is the weight of the bike, the blanket is the overall capability and state of tune of the complex holistic thing we call suspension. A gpx250 and his particular er6n have equally poo suspension on paper - basic damping rod forks, basic single chamber shock with a preload ring on the 650, all functionally identical; the blanket is the same size for both bikes. The smaller and lighter the bike, the less work the suspension has to do. This is not only because there's less mass to arrest the motion of in general, but also because the overall lesser speed of the bike means the suspension has to cope with less violent pitching under braking and gassing. So the blanket is the same size, but your legs are shorter so more of you is covered. The 650 has equal suspension, but an extra ~70kmh of speed, double the power and double the brakes, so a lot more energy to contain - long legs. But the blanket's no bigger, so when you start to go faster, it turns wobbly and scary sooner. Upgrading the suspension by replacing the rear shock or fitting fork emulators on both bikes would be making the blanket bigger but, again, lighter bike has an intrinsic advantage. My mate effectively went from short legs short blanket, to long legs short blanket, to long legs medium blanket and now he's finally realised he's best off with midget legs and medium blanket - mmm cozy and warm! Now throw in pants-making GBS threads lack of confidence and raw panic at the slightest twitch, the fact that fatter tyres need more lean angle for a given speed, and the fact that big bikes with crap suspension get a good wobble on when you start going fast, and you can see why it cripples your learning. That's not even getting into the meta aspects of not having big power to stroke your ego and make you feel like you're going fast when you're still green; a slow bike makes it really clear if you're slow in the turns and forces you to ride correctly. Tl;Dr they are both equally mediocre, the gpx250 just does more with what it's got because it's both lighter AND slower, so the suspension's limited talents can be better focused. Er6 has to spread the butter thinner.
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Dec 31, 2019 04:27
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Slavvy posted:Tl;Dr they are both equally mediocre, the gpx250 just does more with what it's got because it's both lighter AND slower, so the suspension's limited talents can be better focused. Er6 has to spread the butter thinner. Makes sense, thanks!
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Dec 31, 2019 04:36
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One week until I go for the test that means I don't have to display learner plates and get my 3 year probationary license. Still have to have a LAMS bike for that time. Looking around at bikes for sale, I see an alarming number of 3-4 year old LAMS bikes with about 5000kms on them for sale, implying that people bought them new and rode them for that period. I've done nearly that in the 4 months between getting my learner permit and now. Do people really ride that little?
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Jan 3, 2020 02:08
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I am currently in possession of a lams z650 it is 2-3 years old and has 6,000km, the tyres are square and flat, chain rusty. Idgi either. It is also lams by virtue of a screw that stops the throttle opening past halfway and takes 15 minutes to remove, the bike is otherwise identical to a full power model. Just saying.
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Jan 3, 2020 03:01
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:One week until I go for the test that means I don't have to display learner plates and get my 3 year probationary license. Still have to have a LAMS bike for that time. Looking around at bikes for sale, I see an alarming number of 3-4 year old LAMS bikes with about 5000kms on them for sale, implying that people bought them new and rode them for that period. The average American motorcycle owner rides slightly less than 1000 miles (1600 km) per year.
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Jan 3, 2020 03:55
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30kms a week? Less than an hour? In a week? That isn't enough to improve a skill. It probably isn't enough to even maintain a skill. I don't ride every day but I've ridden about 6 years worth of that in 4 months and I'm still completely poo poo. No wonder people fucken die. Jesus. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 04:39
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Many of those people ride maybe 2 weekends/days when it's warm and sunny in the middle of summer. There is a fun/depressing game related to this you can do on your local motorbike for sale listings platform of choice. Try to find the oldest but most kitted up bike with least km/miles ridden. Hard mode is exclude any harleys.
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Jan 3, 2020 15:57
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:30kms a week? Less than an hour? In a week? That isn't enough to improve a skill. It probably isn't enough to even maintain a skill. EDIT: What if you skydived and serious skydiving commuters were all up in your poo poo about how few vertical feet you were getting in in a year.
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Jan 3, 2020 18:56
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Yes. it's perfectly doable to improve your riding by riding once a week No, I don't need to push the limits of my or my bikes ability in order to enjoy riding.
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Jan 3, 2020 19:07
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I also want to point out that America is also the home of the Iron Butt Association, Easy Rider, and tens (hundreds?) of thousands of riders that ride a thousand miles to Sturgis from all over the country. So don't paint with too broad of a brush. In summary, America is a land of contrasts. Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Looking around at bikes for sale, I see an alarming number of 3-4 year old LAMS bikes with about 5000kms on them for sale, implying that people bought them new and rode them for that period. Ulf fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 19:14
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:30kms a week? Less than an hour? In a week? That isn't enough to improve a skill. It probably isn't enough to even maintain a skill. Yeah, you can improve a whole lot of skills in a few intense sessions a year, and certainly maintain some with that. Some people only ride track days a few times a year and are better than most riders on the street. I picked up a longbow for the first time in several years the other day and within a half hour was grouping arrows close to what I was when I shot weekly. If you’re a poo poo rider, it’s on you. It's also a little early for you to be jumping into the mileage dickwaving contest in a new rider thread. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 21:00
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Not trying to put anyone down, I was just seriously surprised. Not by the mileage, but by the time. I was thinking in terms of progressing a directly competitive skill like BJJ (E: starting from "never done it before") , and that's clearly the wrong way to look at this. I definitely sounded like an rear end in a top hat and I'm sorry.
Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 21:19
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Not trying to put anyone down, I was just seriously surprised. Not by the mileage, but by the time. I was thinking in terms of progressing a directly competitive skill like BJJ (E: starting from "never done it before") , and that's clearly the wrong way to look at this. I definitely sounded like an rear end in a top hat and I'm sorry. You were right. People should ride more.
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Jan 3, 2020 21:33
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Nah I was definitely being a dickhead. I'm a newbie. Given the time I've spent on the bike, It's not possible that I've cemented muscle memory yet. If I started riding 30 minutes/week or tried to do 2 hours once a month or something, my freshly learned skills would quickly atrophy. Of course someone who's already built and cemented their skills is gonna be able to maintain them with minimal practice or even start up again after months or years off and be back to where they were pretty quickly. Same as driving a car. My perspective was skewed because I don't have enough experience in this so I feel it every time I miss 4 or 5 days in a row, and also because I was comparing it to something that's a direct physical competition where if you start equally skilled and take a month off while your opponent doesn't, you lose. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Jan 3, 2020 |
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Jan 3, 2020 21:53
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Not trying to put anyone down, I was just seriously surprised. Not by the mileage, but by the time. I was thinking in terms of progressing a directly competitive skill like BJJ (E: starting from "never done it before") , and that's clearly the wrong way to look at this. I definitely sounded like an rear end in a top hat and I'm sorry. Nah you're right. I think most people learn too slowly and don't push themselves enough, eventually their luck runs out and they get in a situation they aren't yet ready to deal with and crash. My take on learning to ride: it isn't really about 'skills' that you learn, it's about understanding and personal attainment. It's more like a martial art; you accumulate skill gradually over countless hours while also broadening your understanding of your own ability and bike dynamics in general. This never stops, even at the highest levels of racing people are still experimenting with their technique and finding new wrinkles in the system to exploit and part of the joy of bikes is the fact that there's always more to learn, like a staircase to infinity. I've never done any formal training and I've crashed a fair few times (never seriously), I still consider myself a neophyte, yet I'm objectively better than a bunch of people I've ridden with who have done all the courses, classes etc. I put this down to the fact that most people perceive training as an instructional thing, where riding is explained to you, and now you know everything you need to, which is like reading the dictionary and deciding you know everything you need to about English. I strongly disagree with the idea that a few sessions and occasional rides are enough, because training and knowledge can't replace gradual attainment, they can only speed it up. The right approach is to be like a sponge, absorb every bit of riding information you can (even if it's about bikes nothing like your own) and constantly focus on improvement. Ride literally every corner with maximum concentration, trying to do everything to perfection, then think about what you could've done better. As long as you stay focused on improving, always try to ride better and pay attention to how you could do things better, you will improve. I think it's important to reject the idea that you know enough to get by, or you just ride 'for fun' or that you never go fast so why would you need to be able to ride fast? I can trail brake into a corner pretty effectively. Do I need to in every corner? gently caress no. Am I glad I know how when I come around a bend and something stupid is happening ahead and I need to brake in a hurry while leaned over? gently caress yes. Doesn't matter if I'm thrashing a superbike or massaging my scrotum on a Harley, I still need to stop while leaned over. I can do this because I treat every corner as a learning opportunity and constantly experiment with how I blend the brakes, engine and lean, and have been doing so for years. Loads of maneuvers on bikes seem pointless until they suddenly aren't. Also riding as many different bikes as possible is really helpful, because it makes it easier to understand what behaviors are common across all bikes and what is specific to the one you're on. Ditto riding with people better than you, do it at every opportunity, absorb everything they tell you and incorporate it into your own understanding.
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Jan 3, 2020 22:09
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Challenging yourself on a bike in safe conditions is really really rewarding and skill building. I had built up experience over 5 years on gravel and road riding with a transalp 600. I knew nothing. Getting a small nx250 and then getting studded tires for winter tires is something else. When you've danced in 3 inches of fresh snow with random iced slush underneath you praise the awesome amount of grip a gravel road gives you. Then you realize grip and traction. In short . Smallest bike, all the mud/sand/snow you can. It's so rewarding. And so Fun!
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Jan 3, 2020 23:34
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