Posted on 09/13/2007 12:29:27 PM PDT by BraveMan
Well, ya see, it’s like this...
Hubby wanted the LE, but he hated the bumblebee look. So he made a deal with our dealer who is also a good friend. He brought the LE home and completely dismantled the tupperware. He did the same to the 04 R1 and switched them out. So we have ‘04 dark red with LE insides, and someone out there has LE outsides on an ‘04 engine. It was fully disclosed in the sale, but some squid out there looks hotter than he is. LOL!
We also have a Duc ST4s for riding 2-up.
Didn't that get debunked, and Yamaha had to admit that their tachometers were more than a bit "optimistic?"
Oops. I just checked here and found you're pretty much right. Yamaha had advertised a redline of 17,500, while it was approximately (according to this story) 16,000, which is still quite stunning. BTW, Yamaha offered to buy back any R6 for people who were unhappy with a redline of only 16,000 RPM!
Mark
Wow! Zig-zagging through heavy traffic on the freeway doing wheelies at 80 mph is dangerous? Who knew.
Ok - I’ll take your word for that - I’ll ammend it to say that every sportbike I’ve ever been on has outhandled every cruiser I’ve ever been on. :-)
You didn’t mention how fast you were going between lanes.
I ride my Magna daily,I don’t have a car,and I split lanes.
I anticipate that every vehicle ahead of me is going to change lanes,suddenly.I’ve had to lock em up a few times but I haven’t hit anyone, unless you count the dent my knee put in a woman’s right rear panel.
If I’m going 10 mph the sport bikes pass me at 30.
If I’m going 30 they pass me at 60.
Sometimes I see them again, up ahead.
I wish. To bad that’s not true. I’d like to have Ducati’s GP bike for the street......not the $70,000.00 “copy” of one.
Actually, it depends on the manufacturer... For instance, this is EXACTLY what Ducati did. Take a look at the Monster 900 some time. That frame is right off the the 888 Superbike. And the 916 frame is no different from the homologated Superbike racer as well. Every manufacturer utilizes technology found on their racers on their "repli-racers" within a few years, sometime the exact parts. Of course, Moto-GP racers are exempted, as it's against the rules to use and "production" parts on them. But when you look at AMA Superbike, Supersport, and Formula X-treme, or World Superbike or Supersport, then you're looking at an awful lot of shared parts.
But regarding putting a "real" racer on the street, trust me, that's something that you don NOT want to do. I've heard nightmare stories about people who have built up one of my "dream bikes," a HD XR750 dirt tracker for the street. Race bikes are designed to go the distance of the race, and you shouldn't be too surprised if it self destructs on the cooldown lap! Now Ducati IS going to release a replica Desmosedici RR for the street, and I have no doubt that it will be more than an E-Ticket ride. So what if it's not exactly the same as the 800cc 200MPH bike that Casey Stoner's riding. I guess for the street bike, they're going to keep it at 1000cc, like last years Moto-GP bike. It should put out about 200HP with the race kit. Besides, $70,000 isn't anywhere near enough to buy a "real" Moto-GP bike, although it will get you close to an AMA Superbike. Almost...
Mark
I wasn't splitting when the accident happened. I was in heavy but fast moving traffic, fast lane, left-hand tire groove, doing about 80-85, as was everyone else. Large SUV in front of me panic stopped. (To this day I don't know for what) I hit my brakes hard and could hear and sense the vehicle behind me skidding towards me in a full brake lockup. I didn't want to get run over from behind, or worse yet to be pancaked between two vehicles, so I drifted from lane 1 to lane 2 and eased my braking to come up along side of the person who was in front of me. My main concern at that point was to avoid being run over from behind because of the awful out of control skidding sounds coming from behind me. As soon as I got even with the rear quarterpanel of the SUV who had been in front of me they swerved into lane 2 and smacked me.
I don't think they'd have gotten me even then except that so much of my attention had been diverted to trying to figure out if I was about to be hit from behind. :(
Initially I wanted to go left, but the lefthand emergency "lane" was only about 1/4 of a lane and it was gravel. It just didn't seem like the thing to do.
Had I just stayed in my lane and out-braked the SUV that was in front of me (not hard to do on a GSXR) I can't say whether or not the guy who was skidding behind me would have hit me or not. But at the time I wasn't interested in finding out.
After it was all over, I ran off the freeway and everyone else just kept on going. The whole thing put a dent in my trust in human nature. As far as splitting goes, I based my speed on the speed of the vehicles I was passing, how wide the lanes were, how much room everyone was giving me, what sort of protusions were on any of the vehicles ahead, how well maintained the upcoming cars appeared to be, if they had license plates, were washed and waxed, etc. There's a thousand parts to the equation. I was not particularly agressive. I can tell you that over a 20 year period I had split cars on many occasions either behind of or in front of a CHP motor officer and never was cited. And I didn't change my technique because of their presence.
Nothing wrong with organ donors riding their donor cycles.
I ran off the freeway and everyone else just kept on going.”
I’ve had that experience.
I learned about gravel and stopping a motorcycle the hard way when I was 12.
I shityou not I saw a chopper parked that had a small block chevy wedged inside it. Had some sort of name I don’t remember but that would be a pretty good power to weight ratio even if it weighed 900lbs.
I got a 888 sittin’ in my office now...just picked it up last fall and I still have to go through it.
re: making a race bike. Been there, done that....to my 1991 Ducati 900SS BCM heads, Pankle titanium rods, Falicon crank, Gi-co-moto B cams, one downdraft and one side draft carbs, Spaghetti exhaust....$6000.00 in parts....killed mid range horsepower but went like shit through a goose on top end.
360 lbs
ahhhhhhh “the older I get the faster I wuz”
I’m sorry...
I’m one of those who firmly believe that before you take a Supersport on the street, you need to learn how the Supersport handles in the dirt.
(that’s a joke, by the way)
You hit the nail on the head.. more motorcycles, more deaths. That’s just common sense.
I also like the helmet sentence in the middle of the article which relates to nothing else in the article. It’s just a statement.
The majority if motorcycle accidents are the result of another vehicle being the contributing factor.
I took the Bagger dirtbiking last year, at a nearby recreational area with some single-track trails.
Were it not for the limited suspension travel and limited ground clearance; it’d make a passable dirt ride. Can’t say the same for my buddy’s Softail Springer! I had to tow him out . . .
I vote newbies....... there are tons of them on the road.
They love our mountains and on a weekend there are all over. They are curteous and numerous.
The fact that the average cc has gone up can be explained by the fact that the size of engines has steadily gone up. This year’s top bikes have an engine with the same displacement as a Mazda Miata.
The agenda in the article appears to be using facts that back up the agenda but ignoring obvious reasons for the facts. THings like, most younger, less experienced riders buy the sport bikes. Sport bikes offer the best horsepower/price ratio. Cruisers have more shielding to protect the riders. Sport bikes, like fighter planes, are more unstable than cruisers and tour bikes, to enhance performance.
(that’s a joke, by the way)
I found out at Pocono International Raceway. Coming off the high bank turn, shortly there-after was a flat, 90 degree left turn. I managed to miss 2 downshifts, and went into that turn WAY TOO FAST! I wound up cutting through the infield, and missed the entire "road" portion of the course, then back out onto the part of the tri-oval and back to the high bank. Even though I was black-flagged, I did manage to beat the track record by over 1 minute! :-0 .
Mark
It looks like the UK has it figured out:
How do they haul their behemoth wife on those things? Between the wife, the luggage and the beer-gut it's gotta be pushing 1300lbs!!
No wonder they putt along half on the shoulder here in New Mexico....
My 1983 Honda XL500S had more hp than that.
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