question for motorcycle riders

[fire1811]

All great points so far.
Wear all you gear all the time.
I have a 05 CBR600RR and love it.

The only thing I have seen so far I don't agree with is the leaning/dragging pegs. There is no reason to lean that far on roadways. If you want to do it on the track knock yourself out. Roads are not designed or cleaned up properly to do this. You WILL crash eventually I guarantee it. Its fun but not worth it.

[Spartan X]

With the manuver I just described your not supposed to lean over enough to do that either, granded I have dragged my foot pegs before on a tighter slow turn, but that was me being dumb and going to fast turning into a drive way.

[RRfireblade]

Actually, in my Motorcycle safty course they told us to brake just before we enter the turn, purposly Lean the Bike while trying to keep out body strait, while counter stearing then excelerate into the turn. I've used this on my Katana 750 in turns and it seams to work very well as it did in the course. I could not imaging keeping the bike upright and leaning over the bike, just does not feel right. But hey if it works for you.

Kinda the same thing , kinda. If your riding casual it's not critical regardless but generally , you don't want to brake while turning. Brake first , turn and then at or near the apex... excellerate to exit.

Many people purposely try and lay the bike over in the turn , all your doing then is putting more lateral deflection into the tires and lessing an already tiny contact patch. You want to keep the bike on the center of the tire as much as possible , as often as possible. That's pretty much what matters. Counter steering is also only needed when you want to quicky change the balance of the bike. Again , not necessary during casual riding.

Oh , and it works for me and every other person whos ever competitively raced a bike.

You need to do what feels most comfortable for you. The rest will come with seat time.

[fire1811]

The rest will come with seat time.

Will it help if I just sit on the seat in the garage or does it have to be moving?

[slade]

i just rode a 1994 GSXR 750 yesterday, someone is selling it practically down the street from me for $2000. if i get it its going to take me a little while to get used to it, the riding position is different and its so much faster and jumpier than any other bike ive been on. the steering feels different and it was hard to control the throttle well. the brakes respond very quickly, which is nice... just as long as it doesn't lock

its been down before and it was repainted (unprofessionally...) it has a new chain and sprocket and some other parts, although it needs new tires ASAP and it may need a tune up (it was running rich). I think ill be able to get used to it and my dad thinks I should buy it. what do people think about the price? should I buy it at asking price or try to get him to lower the price? besides the tires/paint job it appears to be in good condition, and blue book price for trade-in is $2450.

its a good thing i test drove this bike, the other bike i was going to test drive is a honda CBR 929RR... i think im going to need to get used to a smaller bike before id even consider getting on that.

[Spartan X]

eek, this post is getting old but I'll reply any way. I'd try and talk him down. I paid $2200 for my katana and my 2001 katana actually has the same engine as the GSXR 750 your talking about (older type that is) Plenty of speed. But my bike was working just fine and was laid down as well.

(although a month after I bought it it will not go into gear now and I suspect expensive transmission problems )

[slade]

eek, this post is getting old but I'll reply any way. I'd try and talk him down. I paid $2200 for my katana and my 2001 katana actually has the same engine as the GSXR 750 your talking about (older type that is) Plenty of speed. But my bike was working just fine and was laid down as well.

(although a month after I bought it it will not go into gear now and I suspect expensive transmission problems )

i was actually going to buy it, but he sold it while i was at school. i called him up when i got home and he said "someone just left a deposit on it 5 minutes ago"... i hate it when that happens. it just happened to my parents yesterday too, they were at a toyota dealer waiting for the salesman to buy a prius they just got in, and someone bought it out from under them.

sorry about the katana, thats the bad part about buying a used vehicles. it can be hit or miss, you never know how someone treated it, like buying paintball markers. there was a guy on the ducati forums who bought a supersport 750, then got about 25 MPG with it. it turned out the guy who had it before him used it for wheelies. he overreved the engine, burnt up the oil, and the heat warped the rocker arms. he had to pay $2-3000 in repairs.

now im wondering what i should do as far as getting a bike. are prices likely to go back up in the spring? the riding season is coming to the close. i may want to wait until the spring to see where im at as far as funding for college is concerned. and should i get something like that 1994 GSXR, or shell out the extra money for a 2001 ducati supersport? (i like the 50 MPG idea)

theres someone in my town who rides a red ducati superbike, i passed him once a few weeks ago and again just last night... im so jealous. is it bad that i can tell what the bike is by the headlight?

[gimp]

I was looking at the Ducati monsters for a while (I still want one). I heard from lots of different people about Ducati bikes having really high maintenance costs. Ducatis are meant for people with money.

Bikes are going to be most expensive in the spring. That's when everyone wants one. Once riding season is over (pretty soon), and into the winter is the time to buy a bike. Plus your not gonna be in a rush to buy when there is snow on the ground and you can't ride it anyway. Makes it easier to haggle on the price.

Gas mileage on bikes is pretty iffy. It really depends on how you ride the bike. In reality, most bikes get relatively good gas mileage. The Gixxer has the advantage of being cheaper, and it will be significantly easier to work on and get cheap parts for. Just look at the accessories catalog from Ducati to get an idea what things will cost.

*edit - You should be able to tell if a duc is around just from the sound. They sound awesome.