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FReeper Motorcycle Hooligans |
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Owning motorcycle, including sportbikes, I have to say speed is not the danger. Sportbikes tend to attract young innexperienced idiots.
“the Hayabusa features a six-speed transmission powering a 4 stroke, four-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine.”
Hmmmm.
Hooligan ping.
Speed does not kill.
Those sudden stops on the other hand.......
Around this neck of the woods, there are two or perhaps three speed demons on motorcycles. I cringe every-time hear one of them begin their run because before this summer is over expect at a minimum of one death from the antics I hear and witness once or twice a week.
By any other name, these are crotch-rockets.
“Dangerous” Superbikes
Bulls#it
A Honda Dream will kill you just as dead, maybe more easily.
In any case, none of the bikes listed should be ridden by anyone who isn’t relatively familiar with motorcycles, just like the Dodge Viper or Bugatti Veyron shouldn’t be driven by just any schmoe.
Even at my age I still ride the old ‘86 4 speed chain drive Sportster. it will “walk the dog” if I need it to. If you realize there are plenty of idiots out there despite dealing with a lawyer who will hurt you given the opportunity you will be a lot safer. You have to ride like you mean it, every time.
Gonna take another swing at this idiot:
Apart from making blatant mistakes like having the Hayabusa’s transmission powering its engine, he’s also managed to confuse kilometers per hour and miles per hour. The Hayabusa will go 298 *kph*, because that’s just under the voluntary 300kph limit the hyperbike makers agreed to, to end the horsepower wars. Even a heavily modified Hayabusa won’t do much more than 220 *mph*, as proven by numerous Bonneville runs.
Ditto the ZX11, which can barely do 180 *mph*, and even heavily modified barely touched 220mph.
This blogger is likely a lib, because he falls prey to the same superficial nonsense the anti-gun crowd does, by focusing on aspects of their target that only *seem* scary. The author provides no justification for labeling bikes like the R1 and the BMW 1000RR “deadly” other than their apparent high speeds, and utterly unrelated aspects of the bike like single-sided swingarms and multi-outlet exhaust. He includes nothing to define the relative deadliness of each bike, i.e. the number of riders that have died on each bike. By that measure, the R1 is probably the deadliest on his list, closely followed by the Hayabusa and ZX11, by dint of those bikes being among the most popular in the “squid” culture, with way too many inexperienced riders buying them because they’re “cool”. The GSXR would also deserve mention by being in that same category.
Oddly enough, he includes several bikes that simply aren’t available to the ordinary rider. The Tomahawk was only ridden a couple of times. Leno has one, and he rode it a very short distance. Based on his comments, it’s way too heavy to be useful, and handles like a pig.
The Y2K is a novelty bike. Actual rider tests of it showed that it too suffered from poor handling due to the long wheelbase. It’s also heavy, and the turbine motor takes a while to get spun up compared to a normal piston-engine bike, so acceleration is only modest.
Funnily enough, the author had to reach all the way back to the old Blackbird to fill out his roster, despite that bike never really grabbing the headlines the way its competitors the ZX11 and the Hayabusa did. The Blackbird really ended up being a slightly sharper brother to the sport-touring ST1100, rather than a balls-to-the-wall hyperbike. And he completely ignores the new Kawasaki ZX-14 (unless that was on the broken “10 of 11” page in his slideshow), which just edges the Hayabusa in brutality.
And I just dug into the page source since “10 of 11” doesn’t show up, and it looks like he’s picked the Buell 1190 for his final “deadly” bike. Which is laughable, because the 1190 is first of all a race bike, and second of all hardly in the same class as even the R1. If you’re going to include race bikes, why not include the last iteration of the old Suzuki RG500 with carbon-carbon brakes? The Suzuki factory riders’ instructions for braking into corners was “wait until you see God, then hit the brake”.
What I see in those bikes is not danger, but jail time for speeding. I used to push 130 mph from time to time on my Triumph Rocket 3 until I decided it was not worth the risk of going to jail. I have not done over 100 mph since and usually just stay at 80 on the freeway.
A 20 hp scooter can kill you just as easily as a superbike. The left turners do not discriminate.
8.3 liter V10 putting out 500 hp - in a motorbike. Good grief. Dodge Tomahawk - is that thing a Viper engine?
The whole package is supposed to work, and all the rest of the bikes do work well. If inexperienced dorks buy them and waste themselves, well, they do that when daddy buys them a Porsche Turbo too.
Never owned faster than a Yamaha FZR1000, but all those bikes are by all reports, very safe and well balanced machines, but not for fools.
“...are fondly remembered by those who knew and drove them.”
Strictly speaking, does one drive a motorcycle or ride a motorcycle?
Uh... sorry.
I just remembered, probably the “deadliest” bike out there was the Suzuki TL1000 (naked version, not the “race” bike). The early iterations of that bike were notoriously unstable (or at least rumored to be) due to the very steep head angle. Suzuki just about killed the bike trying to “correct” the twitchy handling, and the bike model never really recovered from its reputation.
Another “deadly” bike was the 1st-generation Honda CBR900RR, which had absolutely brutal throttle response, and was so small and light, with such a steep rake angle, that it nearly rivaled the TL1000 in twitchy handling.
Given the way most Freepers say such heartless non empathetic sarcastic things about anyone killed doing anything more risky than couch surfing I doubt many here have rode much beyond their Schwinn with training wheels
My first bike was an H2.(75?)... an unwieldy beast in her age...1977....kunis....two sets of pipes....3 into 3 hookers and 3 to 1 dencos....man those hookers uncapped were loud....like a grand Prix car burning alcohol..... very difficult to keep front wheel on pavement
Next around 1980 bought a brand new Suzuki 1100 GSR(S)...the drag bike version..factory tuned I did not one aftermarket add on...came with hand blown yoshi..fastest bike of its day....and remove wheelie bar and it was a cafe bike
Next in 83 I had a Kow GPZ bored triple oversized....nitrous....kunis...yoshi...high 9s bike....180 or so top speed
Handled great.......incredible bike
Bikes are dangerous...I got metal in me proof enough
Today’s bikes are super top end and some so light and nimble and super power from lower displacement....hell even a girl can ride em like a pro
I was 6’5” back in my time and weighed 175...strap on my white Shoei FC and I looked like a praying mantis draped on my bike dragging so low in those turns dragging a duct taped knee
Man I could sure ride then....I scare myself thinking about it now
King Kenny was my hero...still is
An acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. My youngest son, 25, in Navy, unloaded his Ducati Dark 800 and got a Yamaha R1 - I pray for his safety ....and sanity.......
but his dad was riding the fastest bike made in the mid-60’s - Triumph Bonneville - and still does....a ‘72 I restored myself. And I have the fastest bike made in ‘69 as well, Triumph T150V Trident (mine’s a
73). By today’s standards, they are in the slow lane......
7 of our 9 kids ride, we have our own gang.....watch out......if we catch you, we just might share the gospel with you.......
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There’s an old adage. When someone is driving his car he thinks that everyone slower then him is an idiot and everyone faster than him is a fool.
I extend it to the typical middleclass drone sitting in his rut and his worthless life. He thinks that anyone who engages in any activity that seems more dangerous than his activities is a fool. Anyone who wants more freedom that he does is “irresponsible”. Anyone who takes less chances than he does is a “coward”. Typically he has absolutely no experience in the activity he thinks is so dangerous. The way some people around here freak out about bikes makes me glad that they never knew anyone who was killed in a car.
Fact is, most motorcycles are not dangerous at all. Some people who ride them are. The half-awake fools who barge around the streets in their cars, cell phone in one hand, coffee cup in their lap, bloodstream full of Prozac and post terms like “murdercycle” on the FreeRepublic.... Now THOSE guys are dangerous.
Maybe we should change the website from FreeRepublic to “NannyRepublic”.