Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

Fair point. The Kawasaki Ninja 400 or any of the Honda CB500 series bikes would probably be ideal for a starter track situation. Wasn't there a Ninja 300 at one point? I'm not sure, and as somebody who doesn't have access to (or interest in) track riding I am just kind of tossing out my thoughts. Take them with a grain of salt.

I honestly agree with Motojitsu and think that, if skill improvement is the goal, slow speed parking lot stuff is going to be the most beneficial out on the street. Bikes are easier to control at speed, so mastering stuff at the more challenging low speeds would hone the skills to make them shine in the easier conditions of typical street speeds. That's not to say that tracking the bike won't improve riding skills, I just think that the slower stuff will be more applicable and beneficial.

 

Funny you say that, I'm going to a little parking lot "track day" for bikes under 150cc with my Grom on Monday.

 

Nice! Take some pics to share here if they'll let you.

 

That sounds like a freaking hoot!

 

Correct, 2016 on up have all LED lighting. I added Clearwater auxiliary lights to my 07 and 14 bikes. With my extra lighting mine is brighter than the stock 2016 lighting.

 

I know a few FJR owners who do track days on their bikes. Ride to the track, take the bags off and tape off all the glass then go scrape some pegs. They're a little heavy but they can dance.

 

Why not look for a 250 Ninja? They made them for a lot of years, still a lot around and most have relatively low miles as they were often a starter bike. Maintained they can be reliable AF. At least one has finished the IBR and one that did has over 100k on it.Easy to upgrade and good aftermarket support

 

It's still not optimal for a new track rider, and definitely not something I'm comfortable with pushing on the track and losing.

I'm hoping for a 600 because the 250/300s are so slow on the bigger track straightaways. I'd be OK with a Ninja 400 or RC390 (if the RC390 didn't have so many issues).

 

Makes sense. If money were no object, I’d like a CBR or Ninja 600 or 1000.

 

Started reassembly on the good ninja. Dumped out the old fork oil, it looked absolutely awful. Didn't smell any better.

 

No ride today as it was raining for half the day. But did go across town and had the Kawi. Dealer order me a service manual for my bike. While there, I did look at a few others as well.

Z650



Eliminator. New for the year and only a 450. But looks good.

 

Got it back together, it feels sooooo much better to ride. Also found an engine mount bolt in the lower area by the swing arm that was missing the nut and had backed halfway out. We went through and nut and bolt checked everything, didn't find anything else yet...

Tossed the gutted forks back in the parts bike just to move it around, looks kinda funny like a drag bike.

 

Went to the Honda dealer this morning to get my Ducati registration inspection done and got a chance to check out the new Honda SCL500 scrambler. It's a pretty sweet looking bike with a great riding position, but they missed the mark on power. It really needs a 650cc or higher option for folks that want something more than a backroad commuter. They could easily take the 750cc from the European Hornet and plop it in the SCL and it would be perfect.

 

Honda, like Toyota, is so global that some markets are not given a specialized or targeted product. In the US bikes are a luxury item; a toy. In many other parts of the world they are just the commonplace affordable transportation that people need. They are also more heavily regulated with license tiers and such in other markets. The Honda 500 line is the perfect example of this. The Scrambler, Rebel, and CB bikes (all 3 of them) are directly targeted at the A2 license group of Europe. In the US every single one gets the same complaint about needing more power, and Honda never listens because they have other bikes with more power that sell better in The States, but they are the biggest bikes allowed for the A2 group and are a steady flow of income because of it. They just aren't going to mess with it when it is so perfectly targeted, to the point of being at the absolute limit of the license, but also sells everywhere else in the world too.

 

True, Honda is definitely focused on smaller displacement bikes that sell well in international markets. However, both the Rebel and CB have 1000cc+ options available in the US, so there's hope for the SCL down the line.

 

I wish they'd make a 450 Rally with longer service intervals than what's in the 450RL bike. That's "my" unicorn bike.

 

See the problem is, oil capacity and how high strung they are.

You can get a DRZ400 for the last 2 decades that holds 2 quarts of oil, spins lower, makes lower horsepower that will do the 2-3k OCI if putted around town.... but when you try and make a motor that spins to the moon, has limited oil capacity, and makes a bunch of HP ... yeah OCIs are going to be quite often.

Its no different than my ole 04 CRF250X (great bike had 700+hrs on the original motor unopened - 1x valve adjustment, 250R ignition mapping, 06 250R cam) ... That thing from day one would chew through a half a dipstick of oil a day of riding, by nature of a small skirt and 12krpm + 3/4 of a quart of oil to service the engine (engine and trans were separate). The ONLY reason why that thing lasted as long as it did was me being VERY aware of oil level and doing an oil change every track day or every trail riding event (100-200mi).

Things have gotten better since then, but even my 2014 WR450 only has just over 1 US quart (1L) to lube engine AND trans. By nature of the 450 it spins slower and is slightly easier on oil but even then i only do a MAX of 20hrs of ride time (usually around the 10hr mark given technical riding) which equivalates to ~ 200mi. The CRF450L is in the same category, high revving, high hp per cc, and very small oil capacity.


On the other hand you have something like my super tenere that holds 4 quarts of oil and can do all of 4k rpms for 70mph barely even thinking about working.


Needless to say, small/light/powerful comes with a price!

 

Hence the "unicorn" part

 

I didn't know about the BMW stop sale these guys reported a couple weeks ago. Anyone know it it's still active?

https://youtu.be/RQCFY70hFsU



Interesting bit in the video; they talk about the new 1300 GS that is coming and have one teaser photo of it.


The first pic is a screen grab from the video showing the 1300 teaser image. The beak looks to be really high up, and pretty flat, and just above that I think I can see some pretty angular DRL of the headlight. It looks like the design language might be shifting more toward what the new F900 GS design showed off.






Now, that doesn't mean there won't be a GS Adventure version with the more traditional style, because they did that with the 2024 F 900 GS Adventure below.

 

Well now I feel silly for making that post. I went to BMW to see if there was more info and the first image on the site is this.



Looks like it definitely went with a streamlined design language, and they are doing the X around the headlight. I kinda like it.