That's the big controversy .
That looks amazing! What a ride! How times have changed...
There's no word to describe what "response" means unless you ride something like that.
MotoGP riders start racing as children on minibikes.
Totally agree (nowMotoGP riders start racing as children on minibikes.
P.S. The 200 hp and 300 km/h of the V4 S are a lot but if you are on the roads and not on the track you have to respect the speed limits (unless you are on the German autobahns).
)
Speaking of the oil on the rear tire. I was test riding a Suzuki street bike with ~12,000 km on it to see if it was suitable for me to buy it. I was like a son with the motorcycle shop owners and even lived with them for 6 months when younger so they told me make sure this bike fits and take it over the mountain pass and around the loop and back to the shop. So there I was cruising in bear country up on the mountain pass arcing through a corner at ~140 kmh and I felt the bike get very slippery. Before I rode street bikes I rode dirt bikes, was a very aggressive rider and rode big mountains on enduro 2 stroke rides in some very treacherous terrain and was very accustomed to hanging out the back end and sliding sideways and all that jazz after ~35,000 km dirt riding as was indicated on the speedos. So when the street bike was sliding off the road at ~140 kmh up on that mountain pass I never was scared and I just did what I did in the dirt and got it back in the middle of the lane and gently used the brake and realized the back brake was not good so I only used the front and got it down to walking speed and then came to a stop. I got off the bike and looked back and there was a big dark stain on the road. LoL. So I walked the bike back up the highway to a rest stop about 150 meters away and sat there listening for cars and flagged down a guy in a pickup truck and asked him to telephone the bike shop when he got into town and he said he will do that. So ~1 hour and 30 minutes drive into town, then time to process and then time to drive back to me. I knew I was going to be waiting for hours for the bike shop to get organized and drive up to me in their truck.~ 4 hours I sat there on the concrete barrier at the edge of the very high embankment overlooking a forest and a couple of bears wandered across the highway, cars honking their horns at them and me sitting there watching the cars and the bears a jog distance away. I grew up in black bear country. Grizzly are said by the game and wildlife officers to only exist when in your region when they travel between 2 different regions where they are common. So I only saw one grizzly in 20 years there but I saw many many black bears including one day a pack of ~14 of them. I hate black bears. When they attack they instinctively tear off the scalp and the face and leave the person with horrific injuries. They are awkward and unpredictable and maybe a person goes 200 bear encounters and no attack but that single attack can be horrific. So for ~4 hours I sat there on a beautiful sunny day way up that mountain pass expecting a bear to come walking up over the edge right to me. LoL. The bike shop owners arrived in the truck, expected to see a bike with an entire side bent and scratched from sliding down the road and expected me to be banged up and bloody but where amazed after seeing the stain down the road and then seeing the bike in perfect condition other than a very oily rear end. The father of the family was very obviously angry that the oil drain plug fell out and apologized profusely. The oil drain plug had been stripped by the previous owner that traded the bike in and the threads where good enough to get the bolt tightened but it vibrated loose and fell out. So they Heli coiled the threads and fixed it and I bought the bike and it was a wonderful bike and sustained redline for hours at a time as I put on ~40,000 km over 2 summers.
The control unit is obviously a computer. He tells me that if you set it to "wet" mode, for example, the bike cuts power by half, modifies the rear suspension, and modifies the ABS, which, on a motorcycle, also interprets and reads lateral lean.
Wow. Kudos. Doubt many folks could save a slide like that. Dropping a sump plug is one of those nightmare scenarios for sure. And the reason I always check thread condition on the sump plug on any bike I buy secondhand at first oil change. It's amazing how many get wrecked due to having alloy sumps and ham fisted owners. Had a Katana 11 which had it drilled and lock wired, due to being raced previously. Not a bad idea on roadbikes too.
It was a very awkward and weird feeling to have oil on the rear tire. Not as extreme as a full on dirt bike slide but a subtle weirdness and gradual tendency to want to slowly move towards the outside of the corner where a huge embankment was and that alerted me to a danger I knew was impending. I again attempted using the rear brake when I was down to ~50 kmh and that was a obvious bad move so I instantly stopped even trying that and went all in on the front brake. For some reason when I was down really slow and was very unsure of myself and what the heck was occurring the rear tire slipped sideways without me even touching the rear brake. I broke a frame on a 2 stroke enduro ride when I was jumping off huge grass sod balls down by the Columbia River where these huge grass growths occur and they are great fun to wheely off and jump high vertically into the air. I came down hard and broke the frame. The feeling after the frame was broken right in front of the engine below the frame engine bolt mount was the same feeling I had when the oil drain plug fell out. Felt like frame flex. Wandering steering, soft mushy steering, awkward response and a extra cushy'ness to the ride.
Like @Count Arthur , I was a biker in my late 20’s and went back to motorcycling recently. I bought 5 new bikes, because I’m close to retirement and …you know… I can!
).110 kilos more than the Ducati
Our generation of teens had this:
I was downtown yesterday and @ a traffic light I saw a perfect example of a Kawasaki triple 750 2 stroke. Sounded great and was not smoking at all. Nice bike but I ow the peril that awaits. LoL.Our generation of teens had this:
H2 Mach IV 750
Kawasaki had "done little" to address chassis problems, and so the bike was still prone to speed wobble: To help address the speed wobble issue, the H2 came with a friction-type steering damper, as well as a built-in frame lug to attach a hydraulic steering damper (you know that many did not put the hydraulic steering damper on it [because of the "I'm young, have quick reflexes and can handle it"] attitude. There were many negative consequences as a result.
The H-2 was comparison tested by Cycle magazine in 1973 against the Ducati 750, the Honda CB750, the Harley-Davidson Sportster 1000, the Kawasaki Z1, the Meriden Trident, and the Norton Commando 750. The competition consisted of acceleration, braking distance, and road race course lap-times. Each test was run several times including 10 attempts at a fastest road course time. The H2 was the fastest accelerating machine, posting the fastest 1/4 mile run on a drag strip. Cycle's testers were surprised that despite an uncomfortable feel and slight front wheel hop under hard braking and not giving the sensation of stopping particularly fast, it had the shortest stopping distance and highest braking G load of all the bikes, winning best in class measured by stopping power from 60 mph. On the road course, despite what had been heard and written about its ill handling, frame flexing and the supposed tendency to speed wobble exiting high speed turns, the H2 was tied for the fastest lap time with the Kawasaki Z-1 to the tenth of a second. Overall the Kawasaki H-2 750 had the lowest ET, second-highest quarter-mile speed, the fastest lap time, the strongest braking force, the highest torque and horsepower readings on the dynamometer, the highest power-to-weight ratio, the lowest price and scored by points for performance was by far the least expensive per unit displacement. Brown's assessment was that the front disc brake performed adequately, though some riders added a second front disc for more braking performance.
By 18, most of us where drag racing various highly modified bikes (but we also had been riding various motorized things since we were 8, at least where I lived).
The street ride 2 strokes are vastly different than say a 2 stroke MX dirt bike or a pure professional enduro 2 stroke ride. The dirt bikes are much louder and peakier and make glorious noises. If you ever get the chance to try out a dirt bike 2 stroke ride go for it. It's a totally different experience and it is all about the visceral thrill and the excitement.
Love the smell, love the sound. ;-) A friend of mine with his Hawk GT (4T) and my SDR200 (2T) at a recent ride:
This is mainly because the dirtbikes have much shorter gearing and feels scary because of that, combined with the typical explosive 2T power delivery. BTW the last iteration of the street RD350 have more HP than any stock 2T dirtbike, racing or casual, maybe a CR500 or KX500 is close enough.
As I wrote a few posts back, I never feared a dirt 2-stroke. I ride them since I was a teen, started with small YZ90 all the way to YZ490 which I still got.
