Do you ever envy those rocket ships with 1WD?

[DoubleD]

DrDoofenshmirtz said:

Oh - I must be doing something very wrong then!!
Cos I've been riding bikes for 27 years, and I have yet to hit any trees...or hit anything for that matter.

Please advise?

Ha ha chill out. I was going along with the computer game analogy of the post above mine

[anonymous-user]

RoverP6B said:

I never said 180 degrees for a start, 90 more like. Bikes can get blown over by a sufficiently strong wind. Hell, even a car can be vulnerable to crosswinds - my old Mk2 Capri was terrifying on motorways for that reason, it would drift sideways, which had to be countered, and might not have taken much to blow over. Taking it to absurd extremes, Top Gear proved the point by running a 2CV and a Mondeo behind a 747 and flipping them over many times in the jumbo's jet blast.

Good info, I'll keep an eye out for jet wake on the commute.

[DrDoofenshmirtz]

yonex said:

RoverP6B said:

I never said 180 degrees for a start, 90 more like. Bikes can get blown over by a sufficiently strong wind. Hell, even a car can be vulnerable to crosswinds - my old Mk2 Capri was terrifying on motorways for that reason, it would drift sideways, which had to be countered, and might not have taken much to blow over. Taking it to absurd extremes, Top Gear proved the point by running a 2CV and a Mondeo behind a 747 and flipping them over many times in the jumbo's jet blast.

Good info, I'll keep an eye out for jet wake on the commute.

[anonymous-user]

Is that a Capri fishtailing wildly in the distance

[darkyoung1000]

yonex said:

darkyoung1000 said:

Exactly the reason I have this for fun on roads and track



£1300 buys you 400cc of 14.5k free revving V4. A grand total of 60hp and heavier than a modern sports 600! Every time I ride it though it's a hoot, and the sensation of speed and fun comes without the added worry of getting your collar felt...well....at least the book thrown at you.

Cheers,
Tom

£1300, really? I thought the values of these were heading past £2500-£3000?
[/quo te]
Admittedly that was July last year, but you can still find Japanese Import models that are not perfect cosmetically (like this one) for that sort of money. If I was being picky, this one needed a new fuel tank and fairings to be beautiful, but it rode, handled and stopped well, so I bagged it.
UK market ones are much more expensive!
Cheers,
Tom

[ZX10R NIN]

yonex said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

On stalled and dropped it in a car park, or jumped on and forgotten the steering lock is on

You missed pulling off with the disc lock on, & the not properly putting the stand down (anyone who's had a 916/996/998 will know what I mean) at the bike meet or petrol garage

[CorvetteConvert]

I had a Ducati 999R and the first day i got it, it stalled every time i engaged first gear in front of a load of bikers at Matlock Bath.
5 minutes later i realised the side stand had to be up to select a gear.

[CorvetteConvert]

£16,000 new. What's the sportiest car that amount of money will buy you i wonder, right now?
Fiesta ST might be around that mark?
It buys my bike, a Ducati 1299 Panigale (actually 1285cc, go figure!) and the best quality everything, from the no-frame design, through the top notch suspension, to the classy lightweight wheels and bodywork. You get an absolute gem of an engine, a huge 205 bhp v-twin that nevertheless revs way into 5 figures, plus looks to die for and a soundtrack made in heaven.
Bikes are so cheap compared to cars, bearing in mind the performance and the quality.
This bike will make 60 in under 3 seconds, pass 100 in 5.5 seconds and top 190 mph up top. A better rider than i would post some seriously good times at the Nurburgring or Brands Hatch.
The previous 1199 Panigale is around from £9,000 now and an absolute steal.

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The shock, of sitting on the tarmac next to an idling bike with the rear wheel spinning, after being ejected over the side on my driveway almost made me forget the pain in my shoulder. Luckily no damage, more importantntly no witnesses

Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 7th October 10:43

[gsxr renegade]

coppice said:

Main problem with bikers is their happily accepting drivers' co-operation in letting them by - easy enough to move a little left and single flash on LH indicator - but then being in complete and utter denial when the boot is on the other foot . On a number of occasions I have caught bikers on bendy roads in my Caterham - but any chance of letting me by ? None whatsoever- obviously they out accelerate me but then it's back on the brakes and so slow through the bends . Worst experiences - 50 plus Harleys blundering along at 45mph through Glencoe 2 and 3 abreast; 8 idiots crawling up Bealach Na ba at no more than 25 mph . In both cases I had to be quite ..err..assertive in making my intentions clear.

You also get a fair few car drivers who take some sort of offence at bikes filtering and intentionally block you from doing so.

The point being that some car drivers are aholes towards motorcyclists (the vast majority aren't), and as you've found, some bikers are aholes towards car drivers.

You can't tar either group with the same brush based on your very limited experience of a small percentage of said group.

What I really don’t understand is the vitrol and spite that there seems to be towards motorcyclists in this thread. If you don’t want one, fine. If you don’t like them, fine. But calling us morons and hooligans who are only moments away from having fatal crashes on every journey is incredibly narrow minded IMO.

It won’t impact your life in any way whatsoever, so why are you bothered?

Also, if you have never experienced riding a bike before, it is a bit rich to suggest what the negatives are when you’ve no experience at all. (I’m on about people saying you have to spend 10 minutes taking sweaty leathers off all the time etc. etc. It just simply isn’t true.)

[bladerrw]

CorvetteConvert said:

£16,000 new. What's the sportiest car that amount of money will buy you i wonder, right now?
Fiesta ST might be around that mark?
It buys my bike, a Ducati 1299 Panigale (actually 1285cc, go figure!) and the best quality everything, from the no-frame design, through the top notch suspension, to the classy lightweight wheels and bodywork. You get an absolute gem of an engine, a huge 205 bhp v-twin that nevertheless revs way into 5 figures, plus looks to die for and a soundtrack made in heaven.
Bikes are so cheap compared to cars, bearing in mind the performance and the quality.
This bike will make 60 in under 3 seconds, pass 100 in 5.5 seconds and top 190 mph up top. A better rider than i would post some seriously good times at the Nurburgring or Brands Hatch.
The previous 1199 Panigale is around from £9,000 now and an absolute steal.

Bikes are obviously great value for the performance you get but as a package? With that Fiesta, you get a lot more steel, heaters, carpets, ICE, seats, storage, twice as many lights, brakes, etc etc. It will require much less servicing, have lower running costs and probably be more reliable over 100k.

I love bikes but can't describe doing a decent mileage on a sporty Ducati as cheap.