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Snowdens Secret posted:It is cool that it's coming back, but kickstart only and a drum brake (and the rest of the bike) for six grand USD is a hard pill to swallow. $6k USD gets you a bike from the new Honda 500 range - take your pick of naked CB400F, faired CBR500R, and pseudo-adventure CB500X - for the same money or less than the SR400 plus ABS plus more than double the horsepower. The SR400, with a $5,990 expected USD MSRP lists 23-24hp in the Euro market, while Honda's 500 range makes 47hp. And of course there's KTM's Duke 390 which is still supposed to be coming stateside, which has KTM craze plus 43hp from like 370cc. The Yamaha definitely only appeals to vintage fetishists, people who would buy a TU250X if they could deal with only 16hp.
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Mar 8, 2014 10:12
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Barnsy posted:Can someone please explain this vintage bike craze to me? You've pretty much got it nailed. In the scooter world there's a caveat in that the vintage bikes are so vastly different than the modern ones (2-stroke manual-shift vs. 4-stroke CVT) - to an extent I don't think is present in most motorcycles. The comparatively poo poo brakes, suspension, and unreliability are all there, though. But they sure are pretty.
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Mar 11, 2014 03:53
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Backov posted:Why would you drive a 67 GTO when you could have a 2014 Camry? More power, better internals, better brakes. It's a no brainer really. Not a good comparison, because CB350s and such would not have been equivalent to a GTO - maybe a Tempest or something. They were everyday bikes.
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Mar 11, 2014 05:51
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Here's an interesting article I saw linked on ADVRider: the first study I've been aware of that covers the reduction of injury for street riders by wearing gear. They cover wearing motorcycle riding jackets, pants, gloves, boots, and helmets, and what affect body armor has. It even covers shoes vs. regular boots vs. motorcycle boots. The study is here (warning: PDF). It's from Australia. Here's the summary on gear fitted with armor: (emphasis mine) quote:Motorcyclists wearing motorcycle protective clothing fitted with body armour, were significantly less likely to sustain injuries to the protected areas compared to those wearing non-motorcycle clothing. Specifically, when body armour was fitted, there was a 23% lower risk of injury associated with motorcycle jackets (RR=0.77, 95% CI: 0.68-0.86), 45% for motorcycle gloves (RR=55, 95% CI: 0.37-0.81), 39% for motorcycle pants for leg injuries only (RR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.41-0.91) and 45% by motorcycle boots (RR=0.55, 95% CI: 0.35-0.85). The risk of any foot or ankle injuries was reduced 53% by non-motorcycle boots (RR=0.47, 95% CI: 0.28-0.77) when compared to shoes or joggers, a risk reduction similar to motorcycle boots. Obviously for most CA types it'll reaffirm what we already believe, but it's still interesting to see numbers.
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Mar 24, 2014 02:16
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M. Night Skymall posted:The bottom of table 4 says "BA – Garment had impact protection incorporated". Seems to be specific to the particular item of clothing they're talking about. After looking at it some more I think it's hard to say anything besides "don't wear flip flops or running shoes" because their sample size for foot injures is pretty small. I'll keep wearing motorcycle boots with impact resistance incorporated regardless though, I swap shoes when I get to work or wherever I'm going anyway. The back protector thing does carry a (NS) footnote, meaning not significant. It's not a perfect or particularly large study, and I think they cover some of the faults in their explanations (words, ugh). But I feel like we as riders are always scrambling for hard data on accidents and safety that any real study, even faulted, is valuable.
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Mar 25, 2014 02:20
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Snowdens Secret posted:There's really no way to do an effective controlled study purely from data collection, because of all the variables involved. Really, if the goal is to prove ATGATT works, someone big like Dainese or Arai should fling some test dummies off a simulated motorcycle and show the results. Still won't convince the "I'll never crash cuz I'm invincible" crowd, but nothing ever will, so Tests exist for each individual component, but not as a whole. IIRC, the CE standards for motorcycle boots, for example, rate in 3 categories: impact, abrasion, and cut/tear resistance, and include design requirements for them, and similar standards exist for jackets, boots, gloves, etc. All those things are pretty straightforward to test but how they actually affect chance of injury would be really hard to control for. It would require something like an automotive crash test, where everything is controlled, but I'd bet auto crashes are more predictable than motorcycle crashes (no tumbling, for one). Barring the NHTSA taking an interest in motorcycle gear I think the best we've got is these surveys, and if they're big enough and managed well enough they can be perfectly useful. Sagebrush posted:I remember reading of an actual test a while ago where some motorcycle magazine took a bunch of sand bags, sewed panels made of different materials to each one, and then dragged them behind a car at 40 miles an hour until the material wore through and started dumping sand everywhere. The results were something like I've seen what you're talking about, or similar, I think it also had Kevlar-type materials included. Certainly useful for comparing the abrasion resistance of different types of materials but doesn't really inform chance to reduce injury.
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Mar 25, 2014 05:45
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:My local Honda dealer has said that they cant even keep Groms on the floor. They are backordered on them, and Honda cant/wont even send them enough to fill the orders this year. I was surprised when Honda said it was coming to the US and I bet it's only coming in very, very low numbers. And I wouldn't be surprised if it only runs 2-3 model years. I've seen a handful of them on the streets, so I know they're out there. I suspect that this summer I'll see a bunch at scooter rides and events, and probably even see a few that are lowered and stretched: they caught the eye of the Ruckus crowd.
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Apr 28, 2014 07:16
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Slavvy posted:I'd love for an actual woman to say something on the subject instead of a whole lot of wink-wink nudge-nudge poo poo-talking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMKyKS2LGyI
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May 5, 2014 01:33
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Hey: Washington has a bill in the legislature that would legalize lane splitting, "at speeds not more than 10mph faster than traffic and less than 35mph." which sounds reasonable to me. You can write your reps to support it here: http://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1515&year=2015
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Jan 22, 2015 04:49
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SquadronROE posted:Do people do rides across the US? It seems to me that that much riding wouldn't be enjoyable... Something like 36 hours over 2500 miles. Some ballsy motherfuckers do it once every two years in the Scooter Cannonball: http://www.scootercannonball.com/ All scooters under 250cc.
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Feb 12, 2015 05:02
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Slavvy posted:Sounds more like a deliberate exercise in masochism. A friend rebuilt an Vespa P200 from the ground up for the '14 run, only to have it put a hole in the piston 20 miles in... apparently he didn't have enough time to do any real shakedown rides. And I just found out 3 friends are now planning on the '16 run, but they all ride modern Japanese bikes - mostly Zuma 125s. So they shouldn't have any reliability issues. I'm awfully tempted, even just to offer driving a support vehicle for them. The 2016 route hasn't been settled on yet, though. Not even start and end points.
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Feb 13, 2015 06:45
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Slavvy posted:I assume if someone shows up on a burgman everyone just rolls their eyes and avoids that person? They're not allowed to even register, the ride is capped at 250cc. For '14 they used a handicap system to balance points, where you were penalized for running a bike newer or larger than a 1979 P200E, so you'd have a harder time winning on your Burgman even if you could show up. I don't know what the social stigma would be though. e: oh I guess there's the Burgman 200 now.
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Feb 14, 2015 07:40
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Slim Pickens posted:If anyone in the Seattle area has nothing better going on today, hipsters are showing off their expensive old bikes at the Fremont foundry today until midnight. Oh hey I just got back from there. I know the owner of that scooter (and the owners of most of the other scooters) and of the Yamaha with the ridiculously drilled-out rotor (he is also a scooter rider). I left that show wondering what the hell the point was. I've seen a lot of the bikes there at Backfire. I guess I was expecting more stuff from vendors. But I work in the Foundry building so I had to go. More fun to see it full of motorcycles than another tech company sales conference.
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Aug 23, 2015 03:28
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I went on the Mods vs. Rockers ride today and this bike was there. Those lights are literally (literally) impossible to see during daylight. I have a feeling they're very narrow-beam. Also there's an incandescent light on the right side of the bike that is the actual brake light. Cretins MC and Los Gatos Gordos SC were both heavily involved in the Rider's Show and they co-run MvR, so a few bikes on display were out riding today.
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Aug 24, 2015 04:00
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CSi-NA-EJ7 posted:A highway-able grom would be awesome. Wot going 60ish max? From what I've seen stock Groms wind out to about 65.
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Oct 20, 2015 06:56
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Chichevache posted:Do we even have anyone here whose bike is slower than those cars? *stares daggers at all the scooterbros before they can raise their hand* I put a new variator in my Zuma 125, so it's noticeably less slow now! Of course a Metro would still leave me staring at their shapely hatch rear end, but now I beat a few more cars that don't know I'm racing them. HotCanadianChick posted:You mean too many headlights and mirrors: You know what my 8 horsepower, 250 pound bikes need? 40 more pounds of bullshit!
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Aug 4, 2016 05:46
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Slim Pickens posted:If traffic goes slow enough that clutching out at idle is too quick and I'm annoyed enough, I'll start splitting. Sometimes I get a honk, or an attempt to block. Worth it, though. A nice thing about doing this in Seattle is that SPD don’t seem to enforce any traffic laws. I do it pretty often.
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Aug 30, 2018 21:05
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Jazzzzz posted:I was at the local Honda shop a couple of weeks ago and they had a Super Cub on the floor that was already sold. They look great in person. My dad (a dude in his 60s) bought 1 of 2 the dealer got, preordered. The guy that bought the second one was insisting they not take it out of the crate.
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Apr 15, 2019 06:04
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Discount Dracula posted:The PNW thread is locked, so I’ll post here instead. Yeah I'm not surprised this come around, it's pretty reasonable to require it for motos as well as cars. I've always carried it anyway. But I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that Rep. Jenkins took contributions from an insurance PAC, USAA, and Pemco last cycle. We'll also probably see moto insurance rates go up once it's required. Captive market and all that. Gay Nudist Dad fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Apr 27, 2019 |
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Apr 27, 2019 19:35
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Sagebrush posted:Yep. The Super Cub hasn't been sold in the USA since 1974, and the CT110 as noted only lasted until 1986. But the Super Cub is back for 2019! But this time as more of a retro-fetish object. Still cool. We’ve also gotten a number of Cub or Trail knockoffs over the years, like the Symba.
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May 15, 2019 16:02
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Maybe this is a PNW thing but I’ve been riding scooters with 8hp or less for 15 years and power would never have saved me. If you’re in a situation where power is your only way out you already hosed up. Read ahead. I think if you’re used to having power, going to a bike without could be hard because you’re used to having that tool, but it absolutely isn’t necessary.
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May 15, 2019 20:45
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Harley's in town doing demo rides of the Livewire. (For Seattle goons, they're at The Wick today and tomorrow.) Typical demo ride setup with a group (5 bikes + leader and follower) on a couple mile route around town, mostly residential with one stretch onto a faster arterial, which they looped twice. So here are my impressions after maybe 15-20 minutes on the bike. It's not comfortable. I'm 5' 8" and the bars felt far from the seat while the pegs felt too close to it. The seat is tiny. The tank was not nice to squeeze. The bars were also very wide, which helped toss the weight around - though it's "only" about 550 lbs which is on part for a Sportster. It seemed to turn and stop okay. It felt pretty well put together. The digital gauge's graphics seemed dated and plain. One of the bikes had to get pulled aside because it was glitching out when my ride was about to start, so they swapped it with the one they were using for HD official ride-by commercial shots. It is spooky fast. All the jokes about electric bikes sounding like podracers and feeling like hitting FTL drives or whatever are totally valid. It just goes vrrrrvrvrvrvrRRRR and then you're doing 75 and you forget there aren't gears because the power never falls off and the rate of acceleration never changes. It just keeps going. They say 0-60 in 3 seconds and I believe it. It's an experience. I highly recommend it if you get a chance, even (maybe especially) if you don't like electric bikes. It may not change your mind about what the ideal of motorcycling is and whether you need internal combustion and gears and vibration to reach it but surely you can still appreciate being pulled along like a rollercoaster you get to control.  I also think the way they handled the rear lights/fender/plate situation is clever:  I am definitely not going to spend $30,000 USD on one but it does make me excited to have an electric bike someday.
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Aug 10, 2019 23:08
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tjones posted:Is there another brake light at the back of the seat? Karen won't be able to see that light on the swingarm in her 4runner. There is not but that one is bright and pointed up. Karen’s not gonna see anything she’s looking at her phone anyway.
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Aug 11, 2019 02:00
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Skyarb posted:I'm a giant loving idiot. Should I get a Grom or a Monkey? Kymco K Pipe
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Sep 5, 2019 19:45
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:It’s a scooter, just say scooter Is not 
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Oct 3, 2019 16:54
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:You guys made me do this According to this, underbones are just motorcycles! Renaissance Robot posted:The bike from Akira is a scooter, discuss
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Oct 3, 2019 23:42
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my turn in the barrel posted:That video had some good points but it's not like harley has ignored the youth market. I think the dealer attitude towards non-"traditional" (Dyna/Softail/Touring) played a big part in the death of those bikes and turning away the customers that go with them. My dad's a Harley rider so I've been in a fair few HD dealerships, and the non-core bikes always got the shaft. I remember when Buell still existed going into a dealer and in this huge, new showroom, they had one Buell and it was under the stairs and the only bike covered in dust. The same shop, though several owners/corporate parents later, did the same thing to the Street. V-Rods got treated only slight better. The Livewire and Pan-America will suffer the same fate, I'm sure. And that's something that I find frustrating about Harley-Davidson corporate. They obviously see the need for new types of bikes that appeal to new-to-Harley riders/new riders generally, but they don't get their dealers to sell them with as much enthusiasm and respect as they do the old bikes. Corporate can't control their customer base, sure, but they can directly control dealer behavior. Incentivize that poo poo! Probably relatedly, I see the Street 500 is now absent from HD's USA website. I'm sure it was a tough sell over the Street 750 but I thought it was intended to be a key part of Harley's strategy to bring in new riders - a bike for their training programs, if nothing else.
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May 19, 2020 04:41
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