Briski Bikers Come Forward!

[JB-)]

Great video that, although what stood out for me was how ridiculous the guy at 1.53 (with the flowers) looked with a gopro sticking about a foot out of his helmet.

 

In other news, just discovered the Yam Xj6 - the fazer's successor 

 

Faired or naked I don't care just WANT.

 

Still a toss up between that and the ER-6 though.

 

I'd rather get a FZ6 and have the extra 20 horses. They're gutless enough as it is!

[Ben90]

I noticed that, but they say that's down to the power being delivered further down the rev range which is more usable in day to day riding. In which case I'm far more likely to use 100% of 77bhp than 80% of 97. I'm trying to suppress my inner hooligan at least until I've learned to ride  :p

[JB-)]

That's fair enough. In reality it will feel plenty fast enough, until you try to play with bigger bikes. Then you realise how little power you've got. I bought a FZ6 as a no claims builder after a break from riding for a few years. It's so frustrating when lads on bigger stuff pull 6 bike lengths on you out of every corner!

[Ben90]

Yeah I imagine it would feel plenty fast until someone faster came along. For all other purposes it should suit me perfectly though. Have you still got the Fz6 or traded up?

[JB-)]

Still got it and just about to go to Spain on it. After that I'll have had it a year in August, so then I'll look at swapping. I do like it a lot, it's just under powered compared to what I'm used to.

 

Insurance companies either wanted 4 figures or wouldn't touch me at all with anything big, just because I didn't have any no claims and hadn't had a bike for a few years. The fact that one of last bikes was a ZZR1400 didn't make any difference. What a joke. Anyway after only only ever having had sports or sports tourers, that prompted me to try something different. I actually quite like being more sat up so I might just go for the same sort of thing but bigger next time. Still very tempted by another ZZR1400 though. Best bike I've had by far.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

I've been amazed at insurance, GSXR600/750's all coming up at less than a grand for me to insure, I'm 25 and passed 3 weeks ago.

 

I've gone down the sensible route however and got a CB500 which only having 57bhp (when it left the factory) isnt ever going to set the world on fire but does has enough power to scare me a bit if I'm being a tit. I'm happy to ply my trade on it for a while before going up to a bigger bike, I rode for a bit at 16/17 years old so it's all new to me really. As a bonus it's costing me pennies to fuel and just over £200 to insure (no security, abandoned on driveway), plus I can ride places and not worry about it being touched, played with or nicked. 

 

I've been on one ride with my brother (he rides a gsxr 600) and about 120 miles to London and back and a ride with a mate (he rides a 07 Fireblade). Both times I said to them I'd ride at my own pace and they could go off and do what they wanted, we all still had a laugh, they enjoyed taking it a little easier than when they go out for a balls out ride and I enjoyed myself, didnt ever consider trying to keep up with them though. A couple of times I launched off some lights flat out, felt like Rossi until I get passed like I'm sat still by the fireblade Was very impressive. We're going to London tonight for a bit of sight seeing after work so they might both just **** off and meet me there We'll see. 

 

I can understand wanting something quicker for a experienced rider but for a first bike anything with a reasonable amount of power will get you on your way. 

[fluffmeister]

There's a lot to be said for chasing down bigger bikes on smaller machinery I had a Z750 for a while along with my VOR 530 SME, it never felt out of it on track days, and it was great knowing that I was wringing every single ponie out of it on track and on the odd road. The VOR was only 60bhp and had the reliability of a WW2 grenade sans pin, but it was amazing fun, and what I lost in the straights, it made back on the brakes and in the corners. One of my German mates in the Harz has a vstrom 650, last year a good mate of mine came over with us on his S1000RR and he is bloody quick, but struggled to stay with the vstrom until the roads straightened. My W800 has a pathetic amount of power, but every time I go out on it, grinding bits of metal off, it brings a huge grin to my kipper

Sent using random stabs with bratwurst like fingers...

[JB-)]

...didnt ever consider trying to keep up with them though. 

 

That's one of my golden rules for new riders, don't try and keep up with anyone else if you're not comfortable at their pace. That's when big accidents happen. Well actually it applies to any rider.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

Yeah, a few years back in my late teens/early 20s I'd have done just that, which was why I waited until I felt I was sensible enough to get out on two wheels The first half of the ride with my mate on his bike I felt like I was holding him up, so stopped and said to him if he wants to go ahead or overtake then go for it. He sat back a bit more after that and aside from a few little blasts was happy to chug along behind me. A huge amount of riding a bike is down to experience I think, my brother went out on his gsxr a short while after he'd passed thinking he was billy big balls and struggled to keep up with my dad on his old bandit I think it really opened his eyes, he said my old man doesnt ride like a nutter but he just seems to look so far ahead and can plan in advance for things coming up. 

[JB-)]

I think it really opened his eyes, he said my old man doesnt ride like a nutter but he just seems to look so far ahead and can plan in advance for things coming up. 

 

Yeah that's a big key to not only riding quicker but smoother too, good observation and looking ahead, not just right in front of your front wheel. Staring just in front of you can also lead to target fixation, where you make a hash of a corner or see an obstacle and end up staring right where you don't want to go, which results in you heading straight to it. I've done exactly that a time or two in my earlier biking days.

[grr666]

That's 1333 songs put onto my new sat nav then, What a great feature for a bike 

sat nav, thats about 80 albums. I upgraded the internal memory card to 8gb

rather than the 4gb it comes with but can't go any bigger. 

I'll be road testing it next week on my roadtrip to Scotland.

Sadly though it will be on 4 wheels not 2. 

I'm bluetooth headset shopping when I get home to get full functionality from the 

Zumo 660. I'm going to see if it will pair with the Hands free in the car but I suspect not.

Also when I return I'll be hard wiring in the cradle for it to the bike but it also comes with

a car mount and cigar lighter charger so it will be my spare when my RNSE in the car

doesn't know where we are with its 2008 mapping.  

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

Right, bike is outside all ready for our little trip to London. Piccadilly circus, big ben, the eye, tower bridge, shard/gherkin & some super car spotting round kensington/hyde park to finish. Cross your fingers we dont get too wet! 

 

[FUBAR]

I am still like a kid on Christmas morning with the new bike :D I missed having some volume from the exhaust with the Z1000SX (moped sounding), no where near as deep and wall penetrating as the ZZR1400 was, but hell it's still making me smile constantly  

 

Need a better mic and place to demonstrate the note of the exhaust, you can sort of hear the echo if you turn volume way up. 

[JB-)]

Fubar you need to look up an old Performance Bike wright up on the ZX6R from 2000/2001 which had a good suspension setup. I had the J1 model of your 636 and I tried the setup from PB an it made the bike much better. I bought mine new at the time and did 20000 miles in 2 years, with a trip to the Nurburgring /multiple trackdays/south of France trips,ham fisted attempts at wheelies and rolling stoppies,  all on the original chain too. Brilliant bike and better than the CBR600 I had before it, plus the best headlights I've had on any bike.

Enjoy it 

 

I've still got the settings from when I had a J1, although the later bikes had different forks. The ride height lift made the most difference, making the bike turn much faster. I raised mine 6mm at the time not 8.

 

Stock Settings Rear

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[FUBAR]

I've still got the settings from when I had a J1, although the later bikes had different forks. The ride height lift made the most difference, making the bike turn much faster. I raised mine 6mm at the time not 8.

 

Stock Settings Rear

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spring length set at 180mm

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ten clicks out from full in

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ten clicks out from full in

Ride Height

zero

 

Front

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Kawasaki quote 14mm showing

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7 clicks out from full in

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9 clicks out from full in

 

Performance Bikes Settings Rear

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one full turn back if weighing less than 14 stone

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7 clicks out from full in

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8 clicks out from full in

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+8mm

 

Front

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4 lines showing

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You are a legend cheers. I will get a good feel of her as is first, then start to play a little. With the roads here being so patchy and of mixed forms inc a substantial amount of loose randomly scattered all over, it's a real deal with the devil getting it right but not too firm, like I would want to run it if still living in Lincolnshire etc. :( Looking back over some of the footage, I am being thrown all over the place on the roads on the good sections just due to how lumpy it all is :( 

[JB-)]

Just had another thought, on later bikes you need spacers to raise the rear ride height. The J1 had a nut above and below the mount so you could wind it up, but later bikes did away with the nut below for some reason. A few big washers or similar would do the job though, you don't need to buy spacers.

 

I loved my J1. It was the first brand new bike I bought, and the first one I crashed      Only problem I ever had was carb icing on very cold days, but I think that problem was addressed later too. Oh and the paint on the red wheels was way too thin and wore off, but luckily my dad paints fire engines for a living    

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

We'll I've had a busy weekend riding. Friday night me, my mate Chris and brother Tom went to London for a late night ride. The plan was, leave nice and late, enjoy London with quiet(ish) roads and come home early hours of the morning. It all went a bit Pete Tong though. We left earlier than we originally planed, rain was predicted for later in the evening so I thought if we left a bit earlier we'd get more done before it arrived, instead of leaving at 10ish we left 8ish.

 

We had a nice steady ride down, everything was going ok until we hit Camden. My brothers bike has been going flat recently, regulator has been checked, battery replaced so thursday he replaced the stator. Thought it was fixed but just as we got to Camden and it died! Queue the VERY embarrassing bump start of the worlds loudest bike in the middle of Camden town on a friday night   Luckily we got some family in London so we got him back to my uncles and got his battery on charge, meanwhile in 'top gear' style me and Chris cracked on without him. 

 

By this point it was spitting slightly, so we decided to go for a ride into the city then, if it was still a bit naff go back and ride home with my brother. So we rode straight down towards the river, now I dont know what was going on, but traffic was mental! I didnt expect it to be dead by any means but it was really crazy, I dont know if there were events on, seemed to be lots of guys and girls in suits and prom dresses. At this point you'd expect me to have the upper hand on my little 500 vs my mate on his Fireblade filtering but he was a courier in London for a while. It's very dog eat dog, you have to make room for yourself and get the elbows out to make progress, was certainly a challenge for sure. 

 

Eventually we made it to the eye, had a rest then returned to collect my brother. Lucky his bike started after a charge, brisk ride back, we got the majority of the rain just before home but it wasnt too bad. My first experience riding in the wet, I was nervous at first but soon relaxed. 

 

Got up early this morning and went for a slightly less busy ride, heard about a bike cafe south of Oxford so went to find it with Chris again. About 1h and 30min of nice quiet country roads, really enjoyed it. I did managed to find a road being covered with that awful chippings, horrible to ride on, feet out and 20mph for a good mile or two, felt like forever. We did make it there in one piece, had a chat with one of the blokes there, they reckon they get 700 bikes on their monday night 'bike night'! Might be worth a trip. We had a quick bite to eat then come home, avoided the newly resurfaced road but took a bit longer. 

 

When we got back I had a chat with my mate, there were points when I could have done with a little more power, not to keep up with him just getting up to speed a little quicker. At this point he suggested I took his fireblade out, I'm not a tit and can control myself so bit his hand off Went down the bypass and back again, first of all the riding position is bloody awful, I mean I know I dont have the physique for a sports bike but it was the top of my back that was aching. Went through town, it's very focused, brakes, throttle etc is all very sharp and a little snatchy, but I guess that could be partly down to it being new to me. Anyway, went down the main road, I didnt open the throttle more than half way at the most but oh my good god, arse was pushed back against the rear seat cover, hung on for dear life it was mental. Big grin and loved it but I said I'll have another go when I've been riding for a while and can enjoy it a little more.  :sun:

 

A few pictures of the weekend.....

 

 

[FUBAR]

Hadn't looked in some time, but don't think I have shared on here before. My fav Aladdins cave of awesomeness in biking world all done from someones house more or less. 

 

Fancy a Busa with over 650BHP or a S1000RR that can make 380bhp? The stock is there  

 

http://www.holeshot-racing.co.uk/index.php/for-sale/bikes-for-sale

[fabiamk2SE]

Well. After 2 years with the sv650s, iv just taken a deposit on it.

Ill be sad to see it go but i think its time to try something new, and i really fancy a vfr800.

The guy should be comin to pick it up in the next few days.

Then bike shopping. Woo!

[essexocty]

Please get a nice exhaust v 4s sound lovely with a good exhaust

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

Yes! Nice high rise exhaust to show the swing arm off too!

[Harvey1978]

Please get a nice exhaust v 4s sound lovely with a good exhaust

 

^^This^^  a fella at work has an older VFR750 with a decent can on it and it sounds awesome, IMHO it sounds better than the R1 and R6 I also get to letch over at work.

[fabiamk2SE]

I will do guys, dont you worry .

I had a beowulf can on my sv. So i like a decent sound .

Yes! Nice high rise exhaust to show the swing arm off too!

You mean, lack of? .

The one im lookin at atm is completely standard apart from a double bubble screen and a remus high rise can. I plan to go amd have a look/hear at thst as soon as this guy pays up! Aha.

[XLBaconDoubleCheese]

yeah that's what I mean lol, they look so cool, why they ever covered them over with a exhaust I don't know. My dad had a 750 when I was a kid, loved it, maybe one day I'll get myself one (more likely a 800)

[fabiamk2SE]

Single sides swing arms are mega cool arent they .

I'll let you know when i get one, n post a few pics up.

Im stupidly fussy, things have to be just right, so it can take a while haha.

Just need this guy to come back with a wod of cash n take the sv away, n I'll start searchin