The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

not realy queer, but here it's more "the misses bike"

but it's more like an mx5. every guy would love to buy one for his girlfriend so he can take it out occasionally as well..
 
Whens the last woman you seen riding a zrx1200?
I see enough woman riding gsxr600's... I dont want one.

I did see a guy riding a cagiva dual sport bike a day or two ago. Sounded like a monster.. Hell It was a ducati monster with DS tires.

They have an early cbr1000 i want BADDD at the shop i go too.
 
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not realy queer, but here it's more "the misses bike"

but it's more like an mx5. every guy would love to buy one for his girlfriend so he can take it out occasionally as well..

:bangin: I've NEVER heard of that stereotype. And even if it's true for Belgium (which we hardly know to be a bastion of manliness, outside of JCVD's pecs) it's not like my riding a fast Italian motorcycle is going to dispel the notion that hey guess what, girls ride motorcycles too!
 
Blaro, you're such a homoface.
 
not realy queer, but here it's more "the misses bike"

but it's more like an mx5. every guy would love to buy one for his girlfriend so he can take it out occasionally as well..

The 600/620/695 Monsters are chick bikes, not because of how they look, but because they are so damn underpowered.

The 900 and up are manly beasts, specially the S4 and those who came after it with superbike derived engines.

I had a 2001 S4, probably the most fun bike I've ever had!

:love:

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not realy queer, but here it's more "the misses bike"

but it's more like an mx5. every guy would love to buy one for his girlfriend so he can take it out occasionally as well..

Maybe; engine size is important too. I know among the Honda guys, the 919/Hornet 900 is considered a manly or at least neutral bike, and the 599/Hornet 600 is usually the wife's/girlfriend's.
 
It probably comes down to weight, too. With the CBF, the litre bike is 30 kg heavier than the 600 cc version because of the heavier engine and therefore also a heavier frame... relatively speaking, 10% more weight to handle.
 
So 600s are girly, and liter bikes are Chuck Norris testosterone-dripping manly? Good to know. :roll:
 
There's also the matter of physical size - larger engined bikes tend to be physically larger and therefore more comfortable for (the generally physically larger) men to ride and potentially too large for many women to operate without major modification.

In the US there isn't anything like the level of Miata = gay/girly thing going on with 600s, though. There are too few female riders for that.
 
Well call me a limp-wristed faggot then, because I'm looking for a 600 for my next bike. I'm 5'5" so the size thing doesn't matter one bit to me?in fact, there are some liter bikes I can't even sit on comfortably. And you know what? Even with my Yamaha Seca II and its agricultural, antiquated piddling 600, I've never found myself wanting more power. I haven't done as much sport riding as I'd like, so I want to get more practice with balancing instead of raw power before I move up to a 900 or so. That's why I'm looking at Monsters and Triumph Daytona 675s...well-balanced bikes that are good for commuting.

Apologies if I sound too defensive, but hey, I like 600s. And if I'm going to be called out on my girly vehicular choice, well...I drive a Miata. ;)
 
So 600s are girly, and liter bikes are Chuck Norris testosterone-dripping manly? Good to know.
I didn't mean that. Just what Spectre said, too - you need to be larger and stronger to handle a bigger and heavier bike. My pretty much only rider friend here is a tiny woman and has a 600 Monster for that reason (she even got her license on her own bike).
I don't think of 600 cc bikes (or even 250 cc) as girly. Well, the 250 cc ones out you as a pussy if your license is unlimited* </joke>. :D

I like 600s. And if I'm going to be called out on my girly vehicular choice, well...I drive a Miata. ;)
Nothing bad about that - they have power enough...
My plan was to go for a 600 initially, and before I got the Focus, my plan was to get an MX-5. In both cases, the decisions against them had nothing to do with lack of sexual self-confidence. Well, I only know of the "Miata = gay" clich? from this forums anyway... it is an awesome car.

* In Germany, riders under age 25 are not allowed to ride bikes with more than 34 hp in their first two years.
 
Yeah, you could paint a Hornet 250 pink, have a very obviously female rider on it wearing pink leathers and helmet, pulling a pink banner and a speaker system blasting "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and it would still not be considered nearly as girly as a stock Miata or New Beetle. :p

Anyway, certain bikes are often considered 'more for women' due to size, and not due to image issues here in the US. Mostly due to the (voluntary) system of starting off with smaller, less powerful, more forgiving mounts when you're new to riding, I think. Plus I don't think anyone outside of Harley has tried aiming a bike (or at least the majority of the marketing of one) directly and specifically at women, which is what Mazda did with the Miata. Scooters are another story.

Keep in mind that I have a 700 as well as the 919, and I actually like the 700 better. Part of the issue is that the concept of large-framed small-displacement bikes is pretty much dead in the US, so for many average sized men you have to go to a larger-engined motorcycle in order to be comfortable for longer runs instead of scrunched up.
 
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Both riders in the follow two accidents were, AFAIK, fatal. This definitely teaches you to always ride as defensively as possible on the street!

Two aggressive motor vehicle operators (driver, rider) trying to occupy same space at same time. Initially it looks like driver was trying to intentionally run the rider off the road, but it could've also been that he was quite careless.


Starts at around 4:35.
 
Both riders in the follow two accidents were, AFAIK, fatal. This definitely teaches you to always ride as defensively as possible on the street!

Two aggressive motor vehicle operators (driver, rider) trying to occupy same space at same time. Initially it looks like driver was trying to intentionally run the rider off the road, but it could've also been that he was quite careless.

Intentional or not, that happens all the damn time. This was the last significant one of mine I caught on video:

Entirely aside from that, that traffic speed is far beyond what I'd consider safe lanesplitting velocities.

Starts at around 4:35.
{second video}

That was just someone being stupid.
 
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The most powerful motorcycles I have looked at buying have 10bhp. :p

If the UK laws limited bike ownership based on bhp rather than the 125cc engine capacity (AKA: using logic) I would be more tempted to get a bike. Very few 125cc motorcycle to choose from if you want something old/classic but loads of them with less than 10-20bhp.

I'd be very tempted to get a Triumph Tiger Cub or a (far cheaper) BSA Bantam, actually knew a guy my age who had a 175cc Bantam and couldn't ride it despite it only making something like 7bhp! :rolleyes:
I don't need anything that goes faster than 60/70mph and I'm far from a heavy person so power doesn't really bother me, I'll only be going 30 miles or so around the local area.

As for the accident videos I can't tell what would be the bigger issue, not seeing a bike at all or completely underestimating its speed/ability to accelerate. I knew a motorcyclist who is distinctly in the "Bikes are better than cars" camp and as thus I have been told many times how many bikes can get to 60mph in 3 seconds and cruise at well over 100mph. I don't think this is taught very well to the average motorist though, I hardly ever seen traffic safety ads on TV now-a-days, like "THINK BIKE" and the like and it didn't really crop up in my driving theory test either.
 
The most powerful motorcycles I have looked at buying have 10bhp. :p

If the UK laws limited bike ownership based on bhp rather than the 125cc engine capacity (AKA: using logic) I would be more tempted to get a bike. Very few 125cc motorcycle to choose from if you want something old/classic but loads of them with less than 10-20bhp.

I'd be very tempted to get a Triumph Tiger Cub or a (far cheaper) BSA Bantam, actually knew a guy my age who had a 175cc Bantam and couldn't ride it despite it only making something like 7bhp! :rolleyes:
I don't need anything that goes faster than 60/70mph and I'm far from a heavy person so power doesn't really bother me, I'll only be going 30 miles or so around the local area.

One issue with the native UK small displacement bikes was that they were surprisingly heavy for their displacements and didn't actually handle, brake or turn all that well; this is why the small displacement Hondas and the like ate their lunch the world over.

Seriously, if you want to eventually ride something classic, start off with something like the Honda CG125 and once you get through the newbie period go get something else. Don't just say "because I can't buy a classic, I don't want to ride." You don't have to like your learner bike, just learn what it has to teach you. I did like my learner bike, but most people don't and can't get away from theirs fast enough.

As for the accident videos I can't tell what would be the bigger issue, not seeing a bike at all or completely underestimating its speed/ability to accelerate. I knew a motorcyclist who is distinctly in the "Bikes are better than cars" camp and as thus I have been told many times how many bikes can get to 60mph in 3 seconds and cruise at well over 100mph. I don't think this is taught very well to the average motorist though, I hardly ever seen traffic safety ads on TV now-a-days, like "THINK BIKE" and the like and it didn't really crop up in my driving theory test either.

Bikes are better than cars. Thought you knew this by now. :D :mrgreen:

They've had various motorcycle awareness programs of late in the US, but even with those, many people just don't have 'motorcycle' register on their brains when they look around. I've had more than one person try merging into me look straight at me and then pull in anyway - or at least try to. You can tell when they finally figured out there was a bike there because they blanch with shock - and if you ask them, they say that they didn't see you. If you enquire further, you'll find that almost invariably they never rode a street bike themselves or if they did it was 30+ years ago.
 
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