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Geekboy posted:I got to do a test ride on a Bonneville T120 today and I'm absolutely in love. My buddy bought one of those Harley 48's or something (I think a blacked out hipster bobber sportster) a few years ago and when he bought it, they did this whole hooters-style birthday song and dance. It was so dumb that my buddy who was with him recorded it. They blasted motley Crue kickstart my heart over the entire store and were like "oh yeah, Matt just bought his first new Harley Davidson motorcycle everybody, welcome him to the club!" In a radio dj type of way. I would refuse the bike if someone pulled that poo poo on me. Then again I would never buy a Harley so ...
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Oct 28, 2022 19:21
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Oibignose posted:I had a chance to briefly ride a KTM duke 790. Pretty impressive. They seem to be much cheaper than an equivalent mt09 or Street triple on the UK used market. Is this just because orange bike equals bad or are they just a bargain? Dubious of owning a KTM mainly from what I’ve read here. Get a 1290. those are well ironed out lc8s.
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Oct 28, 2022 19:33
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Slavvy posted:Get a 300 I will never have dad’s approval.  Verman posted:Harley “experience” I had a good sales lady and made my purchase as they were closing up for the night, so I “missed” all this nonsense. I assume when I get a Bonneville, their version of this will involve NPR and mustache wax.
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Oct 28, 2022 20:42
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Geekboy posted:I will never have dad’s approval. If it doesn't involve a paper cup of tea and a bacon buttie from a food truck in the parking lot they aren't even trying to do it right.
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Oct 28, 2022 20:52
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The place I bought my VStrom from insisted on taking a picture of me with the bike. They also gave me a dumb badge with a pic of the bike I was buying. And I got to beat a gong, indicating a sale. I hit it as hard as I could and left. It's been two weeks and now they sent me a card in the mail, including the photo mentioned above and two $50 coupons which can be redeemed when you refer someone who ends up buying something with a title. It wasn't a bad experience, just weird
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Oct 28, 2022 20:59
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Finger Prince posted:If it doesn't involve a paper cup of tea and a bacon buttie from a food truck in the parking lot they aren't even trying to do it right. I’ll ask them if they can heat up the tea in the microwave and they’ll murder me and set the bike on fire.
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Oct 28, 2022 21:07
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I have to bet money they have a photo where someone dumped the bike trying to sit on it in the show room. I want to see that photo.
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Oct 28, 2022 22:06
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TotalLossBrain posted:The place I bought my VStrom from insisted on taking a picture of me with the bike. They also gave me a dumb badge with a pic of the bike I was buying. I can't believe this and the Harley poo poo are invented by actual humans. Maybe ones with a weird fungal brain infection or something?
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Oct 28, 2022 22:42
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I would immediately cancel the sale if someone pulled this poo poo with me: https://www.facebook.com/farrowhd/videos/when-someone-buys-a-bike-at-farrow-harleydavidson-there-is-a-wild-celebration-to/10159115604629780/ lmao at a number of them celebrating their purchase to "Another One Bites the Dust": https://www.facebook.com/oldschoolH...68243796771017/
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Oct 28, 2022 22:50
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cursedshitbox posted:Get a 1290. those are well ironed out lc8s. 
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Oct 28, 2022 23:22
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bizwank posted:I would immediately cancel the sale if someone pulled this poo poo with me: Someone somewhere decided that the way that guy at the start says "LAAAAADIES AND GENTLEMEN  " is the way radio ads for anything motorcycle-related should sound, and I curse the name of whatever dipshit ad exec signed off on that tomfuckeryE: the only bike I ever bought new was my KLR and they just kind of hustled me around the side of the building to take it away like they were afraid either it or I were contagious
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Oct 29, 2022 01:08
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Geekboy posted:I got to do a test ride on a Bonneville T120 today and I'm absolutely in love. What's your use case, are you after a standard position chill cruising bike with some power that gets grandpas and boomers hot and gross? Or do you enjoy/want to do more technical curvy routes or long rides? I love my T120 but it's a bit of a lumbering beast, 2k miles in on it and still don't really trust myself with it in turns. I would love to compare it to like an sv650 or FJR or something now that I've put some time in on it and got my sea legs back, though at this point in my life the Bonnie's exactly what I want and need (no recs for me).
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Oct 29, 2022 03:18
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His use case is trying to square the circle of learning to ride proper while not not having a small uncool bike
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Oct 29, 2022 03:36
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Honda really needs to bring over the new CB350 they sell in India. Perfect size and weight, fuel-injected, ABS, retro look and thumper sound, Honda quality. It would sell like hotcakes to the hipster newbie rider market that is currently underserved by having to decide between the Triumphs (too big), Kawasaki W (impossible to find), SR400 (ancient technology), Royal Enfields (lol) or actual vintage bikes (double lol). It's what I'd buy if I were starting out again and had the choice.
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Oct 29, 2022 03:52
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Sagebrush posted:Honda really needs to bring over the new CB350 they sell in India. Honda is allegedly releasing the CL300 in next year or two which will be a scrambler model based on the rebel. I assume there will be a 500 too.
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Oct 29, 2022 04:08
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Slavvy posted:His use case is trying to square the circle of learning to ride proper while not not having a small uncool bike I think about all the squirrely things I did practicing or screwing up on the GS500e that have contributed to my modest understanding of motorcycles and not dying. I would not have experienced half of them on the T120, not if I owned it 2000 years. It's too pretty to drop and heavy when mishandled, therefore I still can't ride a tight figure 8 on it and occasionally dip in u-turns.
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Oct 29, 2022 04:21
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Sagebrush posted:
I really hope that this element doesn't start to become debatable (as per the 450 in the other thread and any other possible outsourcing shortcomings), because drat, that's a fine machine.
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Oct 29, 2022 05:33
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If I could sit on a 300 without my leg going numb as the shocks bottom out, I'd be more likely to buy one. I steered a friend's kid into getting a KLX300 for his first bike, though. We're talking about getting a smaller, off-road biased bike to share between the two tall guys here in the house because there's already 2 motorcycles, 2 scooters, another motorcycle paid for and awaiting delivery for my partner, and 10 or so bicycles in our garage. We can't each have a bike for each use case unless we have way more money for real estate. My use case is primarily light touring while not thinking the bike is gently caress-ugly. I went and stared at every ADV and dual sport of appropriate size I could and god drat do I not want an ADV or dual sport as "my" bike. We'll get a small, cheap one to play around on, but as much as I try to just pick a main bike based entirely on logic, I am not a Vulcan. And yes, at one point I did consider a Vulcan. Russian Bear posted:Honda is allegedly releasing the CL300 in next year or two which will be a scrambler model based on the rebel. I assume there will be a 500 too. I think bikes like this is how they get more people on bikes as their every day vehicles. Until my favorite scooter shop started selling Royal Enfields a month or so ago, the only new motorcycle brand you could buy in Portland was Ducati. You've got to have more bikes that make sense riding to the coffee shop that also look nice. And there are some great used dealers in city limits, but they seem too high end or low end. It's either used BMW's in showroom condition or rat bikes. You've gotta give liberal arts majors an option to get started that's sensible and appealing.
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Oct 29, 2022 05:52
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Geekboy posted:I think bikes like this is how they get more people on bikes as their every day vehicles. Until my favorite scooter shop started selling Royal Enfields a month or so ago, the only new motorcycle brand you could buy in Portland was Ducati. You've got to have more bikes that make sense riding to the coffee shop that also look nice. And there are some great used dealers in city limits, but they seem too high end or low end. Are you saying literally within city limits there isn’t a japanese dealership? Or are you saying that the entire portland metro has zero dealerships? Like surely there is something in beaverton or tigard or one if the other random peripheral cities?
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Oct 29, 2022 06:11
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There are in the suburbs, but not in Portland city limits. They’re all in Tigard, Beaverton, Oregon City, and further out. We were talking about it and my family who has lived out here their whole lives think they all went to the burbs in the 90’s and 00’s as all the smaller dealerships got gobbled up.
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Oct 29, 2022 06:33
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Geekboy posted:I think bikes like this is how they get more people on bikes as their every day vehicles. Until my favorite scooter shop started selling Royal Enfields a month or so ago, the only new motorcycle brand you could buy in Portland was Ducati. You've got to have more bikes that make sense riding to the coffee shop that also look nice. And there are some great used dealers in city limits, but they seem too high end or low end. It's either used BMW's in showroom condition or rat bikes. You've gotta give liberal arts majors an option to get started that's sensible and appealing. RIP to see see ktm
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Oct 29, 2022 13:42
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Geekboy posted:There are in the suburbs, but not in Portland city limits. They’re all in Tigard, Beaverton, Oregon City, and further out. We were talking about it and my family who has lived out here their whole lives think they all went to the burbs in the 90’s and 00’s as all the smaller dealerships got gobbled up. One of the reasons I got a 690 Duke was there was literally not much else on the market, it was the same price people were selling used 390 Dukes for and I was able to just pay cash and not worry about a loan. It also weighs the same as the 400cc bike class which makes it fun to throw around.
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Oct 29, 2022 15:40
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The suburbs dealers aren't much better, fwiw. I spent some time looking around when I was buying my VStrom.
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Oct 29, 2022 15:42
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Geekboy posted:There are in the suburbs, but not in Portland city limits. They’re all in Tigard, Beaverton, Oregon City, and further out. We were talking about it and my family who has lived out here their whole lives think they all went to the burbs in the 90’s and 00’s as all the smaller dealerships got gobbled up. Gotcha, is there an issue getting out there? Whenever I drive around the portland area it seems pretty small to me, but I guess I am comparing to the Bay Area.
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Oct 30, 2022 02:36
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It makes it so public transit is going to take a couple hours, if it gets there at all. Since they’re mostly in the west suburbs, everyone who isn’t making 6 figures is going to have to drive at least 30-40 minutes or more. A lot of Portland’s population is on the far east side, too. It also means the culture of them always sucks at least a little. The Harley dealership in Tigard at least has some women on staff (I bought my bike from one of them), but the one in Oregon City was country boys making jokes about Portland and looking at my partner funny because she keeps her hair mostly shaved on one side, is on a kick where she’s dressing a lot like April O’Neil in the classic TMNT cartoon, and worst of all, she isn’t white. Not that being in the city limits would magically fix that, but suburbs were created for lovely reasons and tend to attract lovely people (though at this point, people are just being priced out of the city so they have no choice).
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Oct 30, 2022 06:44
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knox_harrington posted:I can't believe this and the Harley poo poo are invented by actual humans. Maybe ones with a weird fungal brain infection or something? Re: ringing a gong, at my first job (phone monkey for an ISP) I was seated next to the sales department with just a thin glass wall separating us. Sales had a bell on the wall that they'd ring any time someone made a sale. So not very often, lol. It was still annoying when it happened, so one day me and my coworker stayed late and after all the salespeople had left we filled their bell with expanding foam.
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Oct 30, 2022 13:54
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Stopped by the local KTM/Kawi/Triumph dealer. No KLX300 of any kind in stock… but I sat on a KLX230SM it was soooo skinny between my legs. Allegedly one should arrive in a couple weeks. Tried to tell me about a 890R that someone backed out of. Scrambler 1200 looked really cool.
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Nov 2, 2022 00:45
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Russian Bear posted:Stopped by the local KTM/Kawi/Triumph dealer. No KLX300 of any kind in stock… but I sat on a KLX230SM it was soooo skinny between my legs. Allegedly one should arrive in a couple weeks. Lmao did not know this existed, hilarious
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Nov 2, 2022 04:41
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Slavvy posted:Lmao did not know this existed, hilarious I think it’s new for this year, at least here in the US. Not really sure what they are thinking as far as target customer though. Maybe they just ordered too many SM parts for the 300s and stuck em on.
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Nov 2, 2022 07:41
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Sagebrush posted:Honda really needs to bring over the new CB350 they sell in India. I'd roll down to the Honda shop and buy one of these today if I could. Like, I'll find room in the garage. On the Harley dealer nonsense above, the one surefire way to make sure that you don't put up with that is to ride the Harley models that they refuse to acknowledge exist. And the Porsche guys who do care are too classy to play butt-rock.
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Nov 4, 2022 04:07
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For a track bike, should I buy an R3/Ninja 400, an "inexpensive" (~5k USD) but good condition 600, or an SV650/R7/something else entirely? I know I always suggest an R3/Ninja 400 when this question comes up, but I've done ~1000 miles on track on my CB300R, so I feel like I have followed my advice in that regard. A good rider (eg club racer or very fast track day rider) could probably knock 10% off my times, but I assume that is because they have the experience of going much faster on a less forgiving bike, so they have the skill and/or feel, plus bravery, to push it that extra amount, and without that experience myself, I'm going to start plateauing. I'm sure I'm giving up time at the entry, but that is probably the hardest place to make up time? I feel my apex speed is largely where it should be, and I can't really do much about the drive out. I'm not sure how much faster this bike can go without putting a lot of money and effort into it. No one races them, and the CBR version is always a BBK (plus everything else that goes with a race bike), so don't have a good yardstick to judge myself against. Primarily, I want something with more power so I can avoid getting stuck behind slow(er) riders. With only 28hp, I can only pass in long, sweeping corners, or in heavy braking zones (assuming I can stay close enough on the straight). Anywhere else ends up too risky or aggressive for a track day, IMO. Of the 38 full laps I did at the last track day, only 5 of them were actually at my own pace. The rest was stuck behind someone somewhere, so kind of annoying. I tried to just focus on my technique when stuck behind, but it wasn't always possible given how some of the slower people were riding (the first session after lunch was dicey as gently caress, so I actually just left early). The spread between those 5 laps was 2 seconds (with my "first" lap being 2 seconds slower than my "last"), and 3 of the laps were within 0.4s of each other, so I feel like I was being fairly consistent while also improving. I like the idea of being fast on a slow bike, and smaller bikes are cheaper to run, but I also want something with decent power and options for suspension and tires, so I can learn about bike setup as well, plus be forced to actually be good and smooth on the brakes and throttle, whereas my CB300R can just basically YOLO it everywhere. An R7 is my first choice, but it's going to be like double the price of a 600, with an R3 being the same or slightly more. I think I'm going to do one of those arrive-and-ride Ninja 400 things since I probably won't really get a chance to ride one otherwise. Right now I'm thinking to keep the CB300R as my street bike and have whatever I buy as a dedicated track bike, but if I end up going to just one bike, then I'd probably think about something like a Street Triple or MT-09 instead. I'm probably not going to buy anything for a few months but I guess just want some feedback on options!
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Nov 19, 2022 01:59
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If you want to buy my MT-09 from me I am open to offers heh. Has a really hard to get termi exhaust and proper tune even! Hard meaning annoying and a hassle, especially in CA.
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Nov 19, 2022 02:27
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Sv650 or mt07, no contest Anything other than an actual sport bike will require you to fix the suspension (yes this includes 'fancy' naked bikes like a triumph). You will learn a great deal doing this as opposed to just jumping on a bike with already good suspension that you don't know how to set up or even understand.
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Nov 19, 2022 03:52
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Russian Bear posted:Honda is allegedly releasing the CL300 in next year or two which will be a scrambler model based on the rebel. I assume there will be a 500 too. CL500 is already here (well kinda, orders being taken but not in showrooms now) 
Lungboy fucked around with this message at 11:45 on Nov 19, 2022 |
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Nov 19, 2022 11:38
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Lungboy posted:CL500 is already here (well kinda, orders being taken but not in showrooms now) one thing that I like about motorcycle vs car world is that you see a new bike at eicma and then a few months later you can potentially be already getting the bike
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Nov 19, 2022 19:43
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Slavvy posted:Sv650 or mt07, no contest  Yeah decent SV650s used to be reliably available for 3k, not sure about nowadays. Generally speaking, what needs to be fixed with suspension, and specifically with the SV? I get for track you generally needs to increase the spring rate, and the SV would benefit from emulators. Emulators aren't easily adjustable, though, right? You have to take it out of the fork, or is that not really a big deal? I like the idea of external adjusters so when you have the bike in the right window you can make small changes and see/feel what they do.
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Nov 20, 2022 19:31
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The sv has a terrible fork and a massively under sprung, cheap shock. Emulators give you no external adjustment yeah. If you want that you can get a gsxr600 front end which bolts on and fixes basically everything, you'll just need an alternative solution for the speedo. For the rear shock the cheapest and easiest solution is a zx6r shock which bolts in. If you aren't too heavy you can make do with just the modified fork to start with as that's the biggest weakness of the bike by far.
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Nov 20, 2022 20:09
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Anyone have any thoughts on the 2023 Tenere 700 vs the new Transalp? The Tenere seems like more or less last year's model but with USB charging + improved electronics, and I can actually get one now which makes it tempting The Transalp gets 20 more hp, slightly worse suspension/ground clearance for off-roading, and not officially announced for a US release. But with how hard it was to find a T700 last year they'd be FOOLS to not bring it here
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Jan 17, 2023 23:10
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Honda hasn't said a thing about bringing the NT1100 over here and that got announced back in October '21. I wouldn't count on any of the new Hondas being available in the US until Honda itself says otherwise.
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Jan 18, 2023 00:22
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It will also weigh a hundred tons and ride like a bowl of mashed potato. Yes, I have fully given up on Honda.
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Jan 18, 2023 00:27
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