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epalm posted:What's so It's a 250cc 2-stroke Suzuki GP bike replica.
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Jul 19, 2012 05:39
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XYLOPAGUS posted:Clutchpuck knows what's up. That layer of insulation actually helps you cool off, contrary to squid-beliefs. It's not all that uncomfortable if you have a well-ventilated helmet (with earplugs) and you're going at speed. Unless you're wearing black. My next bits of summer gear are going to be silver or white.
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Jul 19, 2012 23:14
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Slim Pickens posted:I knew Harley made small displacement bikes in the Aermacchi era, but I just found out today that they made scooters between '60 and '65. poo poo, man, how many motorcycle manufacturers HAVEN'T sold a scooter over the years? KTM did it. Here's a Mirabel.  Triumph did it. Here's a Tina.  BSA did it. Here's a Sunbeam (also sold as a Triumph Tigress).  Ducati did it - a couple times. Here's a Brio, from the '60s.  They also made the Cruiser in the '50s. BMW did it, also a few times. Here's a C1. They have a whole new range of maxiscooters coming out, actually.  Everyone's wanted a piece of that sweet Vespa action.
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Jul 31, 2012 01:37
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Perhaps bike insurance is so cheap (compared to cars) because most motorcyclists don't ride everywhere all year.
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Aug 16, 2012 17:49
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I like Fritz Repair in the U District. It's a small shop (just one dude) so he's probably booked out pretty far, but he knows his stuff and is honest. Full disclosure: he's a pal
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Aug 16, 2012 18:54
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From what I read elsewhere the 300 will probably replace the 250 in the USA, and we won't get the 400. The 400 (which is a smaller 650, rather than a bigger 250) apparently was on the EPA list for last year, too, and nothing came of it (for the US)
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Aug 29, 2012 23:44
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Start carrying around pictures of horrific car accident scenes and ask them how they got to work that day (but mostly just get used to it). Thankfully at this point I get to avoid 99% of that bullshit, which I can pin to 3 reasons: 1. I've been riding for about 8 years now, so anyone that was going to speak their part already has. 2. Most of the new people I've met in the last ~20 months (since I moved to Seattle) I've met through the scooter scene, so they also ride. 3. I ride a scooter, which, for silly reasons, people don't seem to consider dangerous at all.
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Sep 6, 2012 05:30
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kenny powerzzz posted:For 5-6 thousand I would have no excuse to not own a new one. The naked anyway. Seriously. I'd be very interested at that price range. We'll see if it ever comes Stateside, though (it won't)
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Sep 14, 2012 01:50
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Odette posted:Is Harley one of the only big manufacturers that doesn't play a single part in international races like the MotoGP? They don't make sportbikes. Why would they race in sportbike events? There is the AMA XR1200 spec racing series, which I think is probably the biggest road course racing Harley's involved in. They are still involved in AMA flat track racing, and there seems to be all sorts of Harley goings-on in drag racing.
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Oct 10, 2012 05:39
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Spiffness posted:I'm waiting on the rumored US bound KTM Duke 390. If that comes state side I might buy one for every member of the family. Speaking of new KTMs, have you heard this excellent bit of Austrian noise?
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Nov 8, 2012 23:16
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hayden. posted:I gotta say, after moving to the Pacific Northwest, there are a LOT fewer motorcycles here than Texas. I've kind of reconsidered buying one myself because it's wet more often than not and I never felt very safe on slick roads. Is that why they're unpopular, or is it just a cultural thing? I ride year-round (in Seattle, and before this Bellingham) and go through a re-adjustment period at each end of the rainy season. When it first hits it's a bit of nerves and timidity while the roads get cleaned and I re-learn traction limits, and when summer comes around I have to turn it around and remember what a lean angle is. As has been said it's still fun year-round with good tires and good rain gear. Which reminds me I need to order some new tires. I'm from eastern Washington (Tri-Cities) where it's sunny 300+ days a year and I think it's easier to ride year-round on the wet side. In the TC it gets too loving cold (below freezing for quite a while, black ice becomes a major threat) and too loving hot (100F with no shade anywhere). Gay Nudist Dad fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Nov 28, 2012 |
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Nov 28, 2012 22:25
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Autoblog, of all places, says Buell is working on establishing a dealer network to sell "more affordable" bikes!Autoblog posted:Erik Buell Racing has secured financing from GE Capital to build a dealership network to sell its wares, according to the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. Last we heard, EBR had rustled up $20 million from foreign investors in order to begin manufacturing a new line of affordable motorcycles. That's a change of tack from from the company's $40,000 EBR 1190RS. So far, the manufacturer has lined up around 30 dealers, some of which were formerly Buell Motorcycle Company outlets. Right now, EBR says the company isn't large enough to support stand alone dealers, so we can expect to see the manufacturer's hardware sold alongside competitive, high-end machinery for the time being. According to this link in the article "more affordable" means $20k.
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Dec 12, 2012 20:37
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I've spoken to a local ABATE member a couple times (friend of a scooter friend) and she says they've lobbied for use of bicycle lanes here in WA/Seattle. As an occasional cyclist that scares the hell out of me. Bike lanes are generally terrifying enough already in this city. ABATE is dumb.
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Jan 20, 2013 08:40
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I like riding at night because it's riding.
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Feb 1, 2013 08:55
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SaNChEzZ posted:You guys have never seen the Honda Morphous then.. It's a Yamaha and they are rad  
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Feb 27, 2013 19:20
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Wootcannon posted:It's like a Lambo collector had a divorce and got spiteful about the estate. e: Wait. Is that aftermarket hydraulics, or does it have that as standard? *buys one, performs ultimate drafting under a trailer* Definitely aftermarket. It was called the Maxam in Japan and there are hosts of loving insane customs over there. Japan loves crazy lowered stretched painted maxi-scooters. 
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Feb 27, 2013 20:46
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SaNChEzZ posted:Yamaha makes one too? I thought the morphous was the only dildo scooter. The Morphous is a Yamaha. You might be thinking of the similarly-shaped Honda Helix:  
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Feb 27, 2013 22:46
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clutchpuck posted:You guys are really making GBS threads yourselves over this Indian thing, huh? Oh no, someone is designing a bike for people other than me! It's dumb and bad!
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Mar 11, 2013 23:48
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FileNotFound posted:It was a neat video. Admittedly neat enough for me to bother to go to the Indian website to see what they got and then proceed to break my laptop with my rapidly dropping jaw as the MSRP flashed on my screen. It's worth pointing out that the bikes on the website are all pre-Polaris takeover. I'm sure Polaris won't be introducing any budget bikes but it isn't fair to judge the bikes this new motor will be in by the products of the previous owners. And comparing it to a Concours even as a cost-ridiculousness-example is silly, the two bikes have nothing to do with each other except that they both have two wheels. People aren't cross-shopping $20k+ American heritage cruisers with modern Japanese sport-tourers. The $27k or so of the currently-listed Indians is very expensive, though, even compared to comparable Harleys. I suspect the Polaris bikes will be more competitive. Gay Nudist Dad fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 01:19
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I understand this point of view and I won't even get on my bike if I drank the night before. But I really wasnt even close to drunk or impaired at all. The beer is more water than any other and I specifically chose to drink it as it is a lovely low alcohol beer because I was driving. DUI checkpoints sound like a pain in the rear end, even to the sober. I am glad they are illegal in Washington. We do have an implied consent law (where by driving you imply that you consent to a breath/blood test for DUI) but I do not believe it is roadside - that is, you are taken back to the station to be tested on a presumably more accurate breathalyzer than what the cop has in his trunk.
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Mar 19, 2013 04:49
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JP Money posted:That being said it's shocking how little gear motorcycle cops in general wear over here. Some long leather slip-on boots, their short sleeve uniform with fabric pants and a 3/4 helmet. Maybe a coat if it rains but it's just a raincoat. I think I usually see moto cops with gloves here, but, as you said, never more than slip-on boots and a 3/4 helmet. From what I hear their uniforms stem from the tradition of mounted police, and continue to be influenced by how they appear to the public. I can understand maybe not putting cops in full leather suits or whathaveyou, but surely a modular helmet and some textile or Kevlar gear could strike an appropriate balance?
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Apr 3, 2013 20:23
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An interesting article on those worthless "novelty" helmets: http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/04/booming-sales-of-novelty-helmets-boost-toll-of-motorcycle-deaths/ NHTSA estimates over 750 deaths per year in helmet-requiring states because the riders were wearing novelty helmets. The article's got some interesting little tidbits in it too! quote:A fight to have California’s helmet law struck down in court was for years led by a man who was repeatedly arrested for violating the helmet law by wearing a baseball cap with a bogus “DOT,” or U.S. Department of Transportation, safety label on the back. quote:In Vermont, Jeff Miller, a truck driver who taught helmet safety for a local Harley dealer, crashed his bike into the back of an SUV last September, suffering multiple skull fractures; he was wearing a novelty helmet. “It is not like he didn’t know that the helmet he was wearing was not safe,” said his wife, Dawn. “He thought it was cool.” His medical bills already total more than $500,000 with more surgery and therapy to come. The family is looking to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program for the poor, to help cover some of the costs. And it discusses some of the ongoing bureaucratic and budget-cut-related failures of the NHTSA to do even so much as get a harder-to-counterfeit DOT sticker out there. Talking about this with the non-riding friends that brought this article to my attention I realized how much of a loving mess the American helmet system is. You have fake helmets; fake helmets pretending to be real helmets; half, 3/4, and full-face helmets; mostly unenforced (and poorly when enforced) DOT testing; and at least 3 safety standards (DOT, Snell, ECE) to keep up with, each with varying levels of enforcement and testing.
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Apr 23, 2013 00:21
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Sagebrush posted:You know, I was just wondering this morning when we'd start to see other manufacturers start to catch up to (and eventually overtake) the Japanese big four, like is happening right now with Hyundai. How are SYMs these days? In the scooter world SYM is very well-regarded. They made Hondas for Honda for 40 or 50 years, so either they already understood good QC or they learned it. The Taiwanese makes (SYM, Kymco, and PGO, which is sold in the US by Genuine) are all making great scooters. The mainland Chinese bikes all still tend to be of the race-to-the-bottom variety, though, and I don't think we have much of a Korean presence here in the States.
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May 2, 2013 01:22
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CheeseSpawn posted:I just changed jobs recently and I just met coworker here who commutes in on a 2008ish Kawasaki concourse 14. I strike up a conversation about riding and turns out he says he's been riding for like twenty years. He apparently still rides at the track and invited me to come along if I'm up for it. I havent ridden since October last year due to the really hot weather and boring straight commute. I always wanted to just go exploring on the back roads but I would need a GPS. My phone can do GPS but it eats the battery like crazy. So I would need to do like a charger mob but I got tired of modding my bike. I bought my bike back in 2010. Safety Dance posted:Get a local map and a compass. Go ride in a direction. When you're about halfway done riding for the day, check the map and compass and figure out how to get back (for me, it usually something simple along the lines of "Okay, I'm going to take this road into the next town, then turn on to SR 123 and take that until I start recognizing things again."). Reserve the GPS for when you're 3/4 done riding for the day and you still don't know where you are. Turn it on, memorize the next few turns, then turn it off. Real easy. Even better: live somewhere with distinct geography (mountains, major bodies of water) and find your way back that way!
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May 4, 2013 01:10
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goddamnedtwisto posted:I found myself at a Honda dealer again today and noticed a couple of scooters had a little metal trigger thing an inch or so in front of the Parking brake, basically. Pull the lever, flip that trigger/switch thing, and it holds the lever pulled.
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May 8, 2013 01:40
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The Grom will definitely appeal to the Zuma 125/Honda Ruckus crowd. In fact a Zuma guy I know has already vowed to buy one. Basically any person for whom a scooter would be perfect but who isn't comfortable enough with their masculinity to ride a scooter. Really once some more info/reviews about it come out I may be interested. I like 125-150cc bikes and have been considering a Zuma 125 as a reliable compliment to my Stella, this could work too.
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May 14, 2013 22:34
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Deeters posted:Anyone know what percent of motorcycles in the US are in that cc range? I feel like that should be biggest group. I haven't tried wading through the official NHTSA document but most of what he pulled out for that article are definitely raw numbers and only sorta informative. Florida, Texas, and California had the highest numbers of deaths... but they also have very long riding seasons, leading to more people riding more often. That 40+ year olds are the biggest fatality group is also no surprise, as that age group is almost definitely the biggest group of riders. The 501-1000cc group is, also as we know, huge in the US, if not the biggest group, so of course those bikes are heavily represented. I'd be more interested in rates than raw numbers... 40+ year olds were 75% of deaths but what percent of riders? How many fatalities in CA vs. how many bikes registered in CA (or riders licensed in CA)? And so on.
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May 30, 2013 01:58
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Angryboot posted:Having a sticky with educational stuff is probably not a bad idea. There's a place near Seattle that claims to teach the first week of the King County Sheriff's motorcycle training course. 40 hours on a KZ1000P. When I get a big bike it's the first place I want to go.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:58
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quote:Man Buys Motorcycle Over Wife's Objections, Dies After Three-Mile Ride Can you guess what kind of bike it was?? Can you?!
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Jul 17, 2013 02:55
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Bruiser posted:Haven't read it... Guessing HONDAHA GIXXXXEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 1000 Nope! Clues: -He was 59 years old -He visited the dealership weekly for 38 years, lusting -His wife kept saying no.
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Jul 17, 2013 03:10
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:While out riding my Ducati He was just impressed to see a Ducati being ridden, not photographed.
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Jul 22, 2013 17:49
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today, a scooter rider tricked me into waving at him. I thought I saw an FZ1 or some other Japanese looking large thing coming at me and a dude waving, so I put a hand out, and only as he passed me did I see the step-through. Some awful maxi-scooter got me. A scooter. I can't believe the nerve of that guy. I have to wash my left hand now.
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velocross posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYFzz6G5wbw There's already a ton out for it in Asia, as the MSX125 has been out for a bit and it shares a motor with some other bikes. The guys who are already importing Ruckus and PCX150 and Zuma 125 parts from Taiwan and Japan will be all over it.
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Sep 1, 2013 20:47
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Snowdens Secret posted:The Grom videos look fun but the motorcycle form factor combined with the size just seems to be hanging a 'SQUASH ME' sign on it that scooters don't seem to have. I'd fully expect SUVs to pull the sort of aggressive tailgating / merging they do with regular bikes thinking you've got the power to get away, but you don't. That's in addition to the normal problems of scooter helmet height and visibility. "Scooter helmet height and visibility" is actually really good. Scooters - at least those bigger than 50cc - all tend to have 30" or higher seat heights and very upright seating positions. I sit well higher than car drivers and comparable to many truck and SUV drivers on both of my scooters. And I'm a pretty short dude.
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Sep 2, 2013 08:04
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jujube posted:http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-new-bikes/rcv-road-bike-at-milan-show/23613.html If it's really MotoGP-based/inspired then the only recent thing comparable is the Ducati Desmosedici RR, which was about 40,000 GBP/$73,000 USD. It's a halo bike, not meant to be high in value or practicality. I wonder how far from the GP bike it would be.
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Oct 1, 2013 04:01
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Z3n posted:Faster. And Fastest and The Doctor, The Tornado, and the Kentucky Kid. I'd watch them in chronological (Faster, The Doctor, Fastest) just because.
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Oct 9, 2013 07:15
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Tamir Lenk posted:Unless it's less than $2,000, it's way too expensive as a cafe platform compared to various UJM bikes still out there from the 70's/80's. It's not weird that people would want a vintage look with modern reliability.
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Nov 7, 2013 07:47
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Slim Pickens posted:Taught my buddy how to ride a motorcycle today. The TS400 is the lowest-powered and cheapest bike I have, so he got to putt around the local parking lot on that. He didn't drop it, which was great, just rode in circles and practiced shifting. He'll be taking the MSF in two weeks and he's looking at CB350s and cafe racers as a first bike. I recommended something that at least has a disc brake, but at least he's not looking for a Gixxer as a first bike. Anyways, glad I could help someone get into riding the right way. Sounds like he is the rider for which the TU250x exists.
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Nov 18, 2013 02:51
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Deeters posted:There's also a review of the Grom, where he says "It's the right size and I don't know why anyone would buy a scooter anymore." captainOrbital posted:Because they like to sit primly and not shift gears? When the Vespa came out it was a 125cc manually-shifted 3-speed, which put it (on those measures) in the same vein as many contemporary motorcycles, and people bought it. And then scooters competed for another couple decades against similar-displacement, also-manually-shifted motorcycles, and people continued to buy them. Also I'm pretty sure my seating position would be the same on the Grom as on my scooters. It looks very upright. At least that author recognizes that the Grom is more competing against scooters than it is against motorcycles, and isn't another "but it's so small/slow/sub-600cc, it's a lovely motorcycle!" idiot.
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Nov 20, 2013 06:39
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Rime posted:God I wish someone other than Enfield would release a 400-500cc bike in North America again. It's just such a perfect displacement. The KTM Duke 390 is supposed to be coming here, last I knew.
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Jan 10, 2014 04:10
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goddamnedtwisto posted:I know a dude who went from Milan to London non-stop on a 50cc moped which ended up being just over a thousand miles for an article he was writing for a bike magazine. Took him basically two days and a nights, he could have shaved 300 or so kms off the distance if mopeds were allowed through the transalpine tunnels or were physically capable of getting over the Alps, but he had to go via the South of France instead. Here in the US we've got the Scooter Cannonball, which is a cross-country time/distance/regularity event. 3500mi in from 6/3 to 6/12 set for the speed of a 1979 Vespa P200 (handicaps given/subtracted depending on age/displacement). It ain't freeway.
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Jan 15, 2014 07:50
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