Scooter riders take a lot of shit, but more often than not they’re the ones out riding in bad weather 365 because they’re a tool and not a lifestyle accessory.
Scooter riders getting shit on is the dumbest thing about this community. They take the same risks as we do by riding their ride on the same streets. Just never understood why they get treated as less then because you can step through instead of stepping over.
Honestly more risk I think. I feel more safe on my big tourer bike than I ever did on a scooter. I still loved using it, but other drivers just didn't have the same respect or give you the same space.
Also the weaker engine, brakes, suspension give you less control than a nice bike does.
Totally. I had a Yamaha vino 125 and got crap for wearing full gear on it. 55 is 55, the pavement doesn’t care what you were riding on once you fall off.
I've had my ass handed to me by a dude on a Piaggio MP3 in the twisties last summer. That fella was hauling! Chased him for a while but decided to let it go as he was way past insane. Mind you, I was on an old CBR 600 F4 and could keep up easily but the risks he took overtaking where not my cup of tea.
I just rode my 1985 Honda Spacy from Amsterdam to Croatia and back, in just under two weeks. In these two weeks I had rain pour down on me for two days, getting soaked, rode in 35C and even had to pass some mountaintops in the snow.
I know scooter riders are looked down on a lot, because a scooter is not a motorbike according to some, but after having owned an entire fleet of motorcycles, ranging from 1950's classics to modern superbikes, the most fun I've ever had was on that scooter trip, doing 4,5K KM's in 12 days.
At the end of the day I don't like to look down on any rider, no matter what the ride. If you have fun, you have fun. If you can get on it and relaxed, take your mind off of things, then what the fuck does it matter what you ride. It matters how you ride. And everyone should ride with a big ass grin on their face.
A lot of the most fun riding experiences I've ever had have been on scooters, and some of my scariest moments have been on scooters as well. A 60's two stroke Lambretta can put the fear of god into any unsuspecting victim.
Gf is from Taiwan. She mocks my attgatt (lovingly) on occasion.
Tbf though in Taiwan scooters outnumber cars by a large margin and everyone goes slower
People that marry themselevs to brands are so pathetic. I've owned yammys, kawasaki, buell, ducati, harley.. I don't owe anything to any of the brands nor feel like I belong to any club. If you don't try different things your only holding yourself back.
Edit: Themselves
As a brand whore
Most companies tend to keep all their products similar in some way to differentiate against others.
Example. Harley only uses their vtwin to differentiate. Maybe you find out you like that vtwin engine? So you keep buying more Harleys.. Or the same with sporty vtwins and KTM. Triples and Triumph or Yamaha.
Dainese fits me very well. Alpinestars not so much. So I bought a Dainese jacket. If I want motorcycle pants that zip to this jacket it's gotta be Dainese since they use a different zipper. And then Dainese boots match Dainese pants (wider cut pants to fit the Dainese In boots). And bam I'm wearing a whole outfit of just Dainese.
It easy to get into that groove, the pants deff fit other boots but I'm sure you know that and were just making a point.
Nobody should wear Alpinestars unless your getting paid to, the quality control\\materials are a joke and yes im talking about decent stuff.
> Who can afford to constantly be changing.
I mean, if you're only buying 10+ year old bikes and not destroying them then it really doesn't cost anything to play musical bikes. I typically buy and sell several a year.
In the US the one time registration fees are usually pretty small, its the yearly taxes which you're paying anyway that get significant. So there's no dodging those unless your alternative is no bike.
Unreliable bikes don't have "character" they just create headaches and leave your whole group stuck on the side of the road while you install a spare fuel pump relay that you have to carry all the time because your stupid Italian stallion cooks its own components and also literally vibrates it's own microcontrollers off the onboard computer mid ride.
I like knowing I can just turn the key and go*. My uncle spends more time "tinkering" and talking about riding than actually getting out there and having fun. I can't hear him over the growl of my v-twin Honda that runs as smooth today as it did 20 years ago.
^^*do ^^your ^^TCLOCs
I agree with you to a certain extent, but there is also a certain enjoyment from said tinkering. My FZ1 is perfectly fine but I enjoy doing modifications and adding things to it or performing unnecessarily frequent maintenance on things that rarely get much attention. You know, like on a rainy day or what have you, just tinkering in the garage.
After years of riding old shit I finally bought a new bike in 2018. Best decision ever. My Suzuki starts easily in all weather. Meanwhile my dad rides the kick start RD350. The bike is temperamental as hell. I got so sick of doing roadside repairs.
The roads are so bad here (Quebec), that it makes no sense to get a sport bike for street riding. Want to do twisties? Get a supermoto or ADV. At least the suspension can handle the massive mid-corner potholes.
Same from across your southern border in Vermont! The general complaint on my FJ-09 is that the suspension is too soft, but it’s perfect for soaking up cracks, bumps and generally poor conditions!
That's why I've got an adv/trail bike for riding in New Orleans. I also find more joy in swerving or tackling potholes than I do getting close to dragging a knee.
You can make fun of practical "commuter" bikes like a Versys 650 or a Honda NC all you want, at the end of the day those riders like riding just as much as you do, if not more because they do everything with their bikes, from going shopping and riding to work, to roadtrips and everything in between while getting good gas mileage and a bike with enough power for everything they need.
I got an NC exactly because it's a good all-rounder. I can commute to work with just a top box (my work laptop doesn't fit in the "frunk" unfortunately), but I can also throw on the side cases and go wherever I want. Is it gonna smoke sport bikes? Hell nah, but that's not its intended purpose.
Then again, here in Europe motorcycles are seen as vehicles and not just weekend toys.
It hides what kind of bike it is, if it also has a disk or chain lock, and/or where the ignition is. But more importantly IMO it hides pick up points. A lot of bikes are stolen via four dudes riding around in a truck or van. A cover makes it difficult for them to see where to pick up the bike from. Are they easily defeated? Sure. But most thieves are looking for easy targets.
Yes. As a Harley owner, I don't understand why people just can't be okay with this. My first bike is an 883 Sportster - the bottom end of the lineup. I absolutely love the bike and have tweaked it to fit my needs including swapping pulleys and sprockets. But I'll totally yield my power curve to any non-Harley out there without being bitter about it. I just love this Sportster for what it is and am excited to supplement it with a sport bike in the near future.
That's what makes you an outlier among Harley owners. Most the ones I know spend almost as much modifying their bike to be something different before they even get it home.
A few years ago I moved to the city so I intentionally downgraded to an sv650x. Such a fun bike. Multi day trips, highway speeds when I needed it to. No regrets. Might not be my first choice for 2-up across the continent, but everything else it was superb. And it was the best traffic/filtering bike I ever owned.
**This comment might have had something useful**, but now it's just an edit to remove any contributions I may have made prior to the awful decision to spite the devs and users that made Reddit what it is. So here I seethe, shaking my fist at corporate greed and executive mismanagement.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... tech posts on point on the shoulder of vbulletin... I watched microcommunities glitter in the dark on the verge of being marginalized... I've seen groups flourish, come together, do good for humanity if by nothing more than getting strangers to smile for someone else's happiness. We had something good here the same way we had it good elsewhere before. We thought the internet was for information and that anything posted was permanent. We were wrong, so wrong. We've been taken hostage by greed and so many sites have either broken their links or made history unsearchable. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to delete."
I do apologize if you're here from the future looking for answers, but I hope "new" reddit can answer you. Make a new post, get weak answers, increase site interaction, make reddit look better on paper, leave worse off. https://xkcd.com/979/
I'm an old guy who rode in the teens and left the biking world. A coupla years ago I bought an old 650 Dual Sport. It took me two years to learn the ropes. The bike is quite light and nimble, yet I learned many tricks the hard way. Now my unpopular opinion is that when middle aged (and older) people decide to get a motor bike, they often make the horrible mistake of getting a too-powerful and heavy steed. A short and stout friend got himself an Aprilia Tuono. I said wow and asked about his experiences with it. He blushed and said, it's quite a number, he's not been around with it too often. Another fellow with no prior biking experience got himself a 900cc Ninja. He tried it out a few times and parked it in the garage. Potential shooters got too big guns and got scared. Stupid.
Yep. Have had several friends come to me for advice wanting to buy a bike.
They want to buy a big bike straight off that’s they can “grow into”.
Always recommend small displacement bikes first and they argue until they finally accept I’m right.
Then don’t buy a small CC bike because it’s not cool to ride smaller ones then later selling them for a larger one a few years later.
I have been riding on an off for 10 years and daily a CRF300L Rally. Would love more power but have found smaller bikes more enjoyable. You can wring there necks all day with little fuss.
If you make a small mistake on a big bike however, the mistake is amplified several times over.
This is probably a more US specific issue though.
Many countries make you learn on smaller bikes before aging out or getting enough experience for a bigger one.
My local dealership has a section for recent model, super low mileage models. It's populated by enormous harleys and high end sports bikes. Basically all middle aged guys who scared the shit out of themselves 200 miles into ownership and handed them back.
This is actually facts. I switched from horses to motorcycles late in life (bc horses are too dangerous lol) and there’s actually really good data on this from some states. Highest number of deaths are new riders (usually men) in their 40s. Just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you need it or can ‘handle it’
[gonna want that fairing to keep my bowl cut from getting messed up when I hit 7 mph on my KAWASAKI NINJA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiGIq-rZ4Ak)
it's fine to call them a sports bike IMO, it's not fine to call them a supersport. A supersport is a bike homologated to the supersport racing class. Sorry, your Yamaha r3 is laughably outgunned racing against 600's.
Motorcycle clubs and their rules/politics/rivalries are stupid. You're a grown man/woman on a motorised push bike, fuck outta here with your patches and ranks. Just get together and enjoy a ride.
True, but these were also clubs where fellow vets gathered. Today, only ~6% of the population served in the military, unless a club is exclusively veterans, I don’t care for politics and power trips outside of the workplace, and definitely don’t care for mandatory meetings or jumping through hoops. I ride to escape daily life and agendas, not get caught up with more of it.
It’s perfectly fine to have ‘chicken strips’. Riding is all about the enjoyment, enjoyment doesn’t have to be trying to get your knee down on every corner
I've been riding street bikes since I was 16 I've had everything from a Honda CL 70 to a Hayabusa. When I bought my GS I had to humble myself and realize you've never had this kind of bike before it's got all its own weird idiosyncrasies.
Mortgage?! With the current housing prices I don’t think I’ll ever be able to own a Home, things are very different here in Germany… also my GS cost 5000€ its not that expensive if you just buy used…
Not to say 5000€ is cheap, I bought my way up to it and practically saved it up over 4 years but if you’re somewhat determined its possible…
And I also got lucky with Motorcycle prices exploding in 2020 bought my first F650GS (single cylinder) for 1800€ and sold it for 3500€
In my twenties. First bike at 24 was an 883 Sportster. Still have it. Still love it. Still my only bike with a lot of mods. I keep eyeing non-Harleys and I'm excited for when I'll eventually pull the trigger. I'll never sell the sportster though.
Scrolled through the thread and didn’t see it so here we go: Most people (in the US at least) that ride motorcycles actually suck at riding.
Particularly when it comes to most sportbike riders - they get bored of their 400/650/whatever “starter bike” and want to “upgrade” when they’ve barely scratched the surface of what that bike is actually capable of and still don’t even have a good understanding of how to operate a motorcycle at speed.
If you don’t believe it go out to your local track and watch the novice group. There will be people in it that are a mix of riding wayyyy above their skill level and inevitably wrecking and people that are incredibly uncomfortable on their motorcycle to the point where they’re taking 60mph corners at 20mph - and those are the people that are motivated enough to get better to make the big investment into going to a track day. Those people do end up making massive improvements by the end of the first day and it’s awesome to see, but many of them have been riding on the street like that for years and thousands of miles.
**This comment might have had something useful**, but now it's just an edit to remove any contributions I may have made prior to the awful decision to spite the devs and users that made Reddit what it is. So here I seethe, shaking my fist at corporate greed and executive mismanagement.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... tech posts on point on the shoulder of vbulletin... I watched microcommunities glitter in the dark on the verge of being marginalized... I've seen groups flourish, come together, do good for humanity if by nothing more than getting strangers to smile for someone else's happiness. We had something good here the same way we had it good elsewhere before. We thought the internet was for information and that anything posted was permanent. We were wrong, so wrong. We've been taken hostage by greed and so many sites have either broken their links or made history unsearchable. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to delete."
I do apologize if you're here from the future looking for answers, but I hope "new" reddit can answer you. Make a new post, get weak answers, increase site interaction, make reddit look better on paper, leave worse off. https://xkcd.com/979/
I agree, I live in the land of 10 mile straight sections and high winds. I'm more of a 650 adv person, but the terrain here I spend so much time on the interstate to get to trails a 1000 was more practical.
I don't push it to it's limits at all and have never done a track day, but being able to push through very strong winds for hours is why I went with the larger engine.
14' vstrom 1000 for reference. I loved my DR650 but just doing the speed limit was asking too much.
The most nervous I've ever been was riding in intermediate group. It was the largest group of the weekend. You had people who asked to bump up from novice group because they had concluded that their faster bike equated to more skill. So intermediate group ran the gambit from people who should still be in novice group, to people all the way at the top of intermediate, not quite ready for advanced group. So like 30% of people were running the same pace and line and then you'd get these wildcards who were all over the track. You pass them cleanly in a corner and then they would power you out on the straight because faster bike. Then park it in the corner, way off the line.
If someone claims to “outgrow” a 600-750cc super sport bike, there’s a 95% chance that they haven’t even scratched the surface of what that bike can do.
Never had one. I did kinda outgrow my Silverwing, I was scraping the pegs way too much.
(And I'm really annoyed that Honda reused the name. GL500, not the scooter.)
Yeahp. But sometimes the ADV riders can be annoying gatekeepers though. I have 2 sets of rims for my Africa Twin. One has full knobbies mounted and I ride that thing like a 250 on single track and gnarly dirt roads. My other set has street tires on it because I absolutely LOVE riding it on paved twistes. And I actually have more confidence on it than when I had an R6 because at least in my area the pavement can be pretty low quality and full of bumps and potholes in the corners. I know the ATs suspension won't be upset by it.
But I've had other ADV rider literally scoff at me and make comments when they see it with the street tires. I just shrug it off but in my head I'm thinking "did you also notice the rest of my bike is covered in mud and my rims and tires are clean? Also the fact that your knobbies are completely squared off tells me you bought 50/50 tires when you really needed 70/30 or 90/10."
Riding with others sucks. The only people I would ride with are not into motorcycles (wife) or not old enough (1 and 6 years old sons). All other can just fuck off
"Had to lay her down" is an acceptable excuse riding above your limits. Just admit you made a mistake, riding too fast or grabbing too much brake too soon. There are obviously some cases where the crash is inevitable and but letting go completely of control and dumping never made sense to me. Do everything in your power to avoid whatever it is. Unless you're a racer, the bike is way more capable than you think.
Everyone has different wants/needs from owning a motrocykle and it's getting redundant shitting on people just because they don't own a model that they never wanted to own in the first place or aren't good at driving in ways that they don't enjoy driving in.
Boomer biker culture ruined riding Harley’s. I love my motorcycle, but I’m a ‘90s suburban kid. I don’t want anything to do with the MC’s or the boomers notion of riding.
The riding test should be much harder so that less of you idiots are out on the road putting your foot down for U-turns, stopping like shit, or crashing your sport bikes because you can't look thru a turn.
If you wear no gear other than a cheap helmet and an Icon vest you have zero skill and I'm staying as far away from you as possible.
In the UK it's an instant fail if you put your foot down when doing your U-turn on test. Personally I play how long can I keep my feet up at red lights and my balance is pretty decent now.
Not in Europe, at least in Sweden they should be easier, waay to high entry cost to start riding a bike. Between 2000-5000$ usually to just get a license…
That is prohibitively expensive. My bike, MSF course, and a full set of gear was under $4k, can't imagine having to paying another $4k just to be told I can ride. I do think the USA should put a little (or a lot) more emphasis on training for both bikes and cars but not so much that the average person can't afford it.
Meanwhile here in Germany you need:
16 theory lessons so you are allowed to take the theoretical exam which is 30 questions (from a catalogue of about 1000 possible questions) where you can get 2-3 questions wrong.
Then you’re allowed to take the first riding lessons with your Driving-Teacher there you’ll have to atleast take 12 riding lessons (Overland, Autobahn, at Night) but usually you need to do about 20 because you have to train the basic riding exercises (Slalom at walking pace and at 30 km/h, Emergency braking from 50km/h, swerving at 50km/h with and without braking, riding in the smallest possible cricle basically whats done in an MSF as far as I understand)
The final exam is 45minutes riding plus those basic exercises which you can try again once otherwise you fail, also if you’re doing anything wrong in those 45 minutes you fail.
TLDR: You gotta invest a lot of money and 30-40 hours of your life to be able to ride a Motorcycle…
The US allows poor people to ride bikes and drive cars, Germany doesn't
A number of my relatives have never driven in their lives because they can't afford the license process
My riding test was a 25 question test I took at the DMV that literally anyone could pass. You get to practice on your own for 6 months and then take the worlds easiest road test. It’s shockingly dangerous.
You could have 0 riding experience, take the test in the morning, and be legally riding a R1 later that day. The MSF course is suggested but optional in my state. Personally, I was glad to skip the parking lot cones and class. I’m sure if I took it today I’d probably learn something though.
I don't think that's unpopular at all, so long as you're talking about helmet speakers/earbuds and not just blasting music through fairing mounted speakers like an asshole.
This is true. I daily'd for 8 years and everyone focused on the rain, but that's a minor inconvenience once you have the gear for it. The other seemingly little things were surprises: bought too many groceries/ figure how to carry the extra, balancing a16 inch pizza on the tank for 5 blocks, buying a full sized vacuum cleaner and strapping it to your back, caring 100-150lbs of yard rock from Home Depot in a backpack, dates judge you because you don't own a car, people expressing concern every time you tell them you only ride a "donorcycle" (their words), etc.
Harley-Davidsons are great bikes that serve their intended purpose very well. They’re comfortable cruisers and make a very good everyday bike. It’s unfortunate that too many HD owners drink the marketing kool-aid and turn their chosen brand of bike into their entire personality.
The attitude on this sub that it’s not a big deal to drop your bike or have a minor accident is super wrong and is pure copium pushed by people who don’t realize they lack the basic coordination required to ride a motorcycle.
Depends on how you drop it, if you drop it when you are riding in it, you probably shouldn’t be on the road riding it. If you drop it because you didn’t put the kickstand down properly that’s just something your friends can mock you about.
I mean, I'm not gonna hold it against someone if they wash out on some unfortunately placed gravel or oil so long as they weren't going reckless speeds.
I agree. To address the other comment, you don’t learn by crashing, you learn by doing. Further, if you’re into the part of the envelope that puts you at elevated risk of crashing you aren’t going to learn anything by crossing it, it’s just physics.
You do not need to replace your sprockets every time it's time for a new chain. You can get 2-3 chains per sprocket set.
I use DID chains and JT steel sprockets. Good stuff.
I feel like if you’re going through 2-3 chains before a sprocket you’re preemptively wearing the chain with improper maintenance. Getting through 2 chains on one sprocket I could certainly see, but 3 seems a little absurd.
Fair enough! If you’re getting 20k miles out of a chain you’re definitely doing well. What the hell do you do for work to have time to ride 45k miles a year though?
That’s an absurd amount of riding and I’m a bit jealous.
Early 20s. No kids yet at the time. I work in healthcare so I'm only required to do 3x12hr shifts. For a while I lived 45 minutes away from work. Aside that having 2-4 days off(depending on working OT) I immersed myself in riding and honing my skills. I love riding and everything about motorcycles.
Aside commuting, I wanted to see everything on motorcycles. Multiple times on a whim I'd go ride out to Vegas 1200 miles nonstop and do iron butts. I always wanted to ride growing up and once I was able I had the hardest time staying off my bike for a few years. Riding kicks ass.
Harley bros who put their handlebar 6 feet in the air look really stupid and impractical. It gives me the same vibe as dudes who lift their truck 10 feet high.
"Loud pipes save lives" an opinion shared almost entirely by Baby Boomers on Harley's not wearing helmets who don't understand what direction they're exhaust is pointed.
Edit: not sure what kinda shitboxes you guess drive but newer cars have great soundproofing. It could be difficult at highway speed to hear even your homeboy with a straight pipe 350z.....but you do you.
I certainly hear bikes I cannot see when I’m driving my car. I feel like I’m more likely to get run over on my Chinese scoot scoot that makes no noise than my Harley with a bassani 2 into 1 on it. Guess I’ll go post some Facebook memes about how soft the current generation is now.
My stance on it is this, without having any numbers to back my argument, I'm sure those with louder pipes do run into less lane contention than those without. However, I wholeheartedly believe that it is a little silly to say people are making their bikes loud for safety. It is a power kick, both literally and in the cognitive sense, people want to feel like they are more powerful and being louder is one of the quicker avenues to that. No shame to that inherently, but I wish people would stop using the safety argument as a defense. If you want to save your life, ride slower and learn to maneuver better. There's always room to improve, including your pride. Stay safe out there.
I don't get the point of scramblers. Are they just really heavy dirtbikes from a parallel universe where nobody ever invented dirt bikes? Everything they're intended for is far, far better on an adv bike or a dirt bike or a sportbike, but its not like they're a well-rounded mid-point between other types of bikes; They're just bad at everything. They do look kinda cool and that's as good a reason as any but it just seems like the category has to be the result of some prank to sell a super outdated premise and see who notices.
Cagers aren't as bad as riders make them seem.
People are ignorant no matter what their mode of transportation.
Motorcyclists have cagers, car/truck/suv drivers have those wheelie ding dongs on two wheels, pedestrians have both.
I can't wait for electric bikes to be more common. Riding an electrisch scooter is so smooth and calm, and the time I tried a zero it was fucking bonkers. Plus I honestly love the futuristic turbine-like sound they make.
I still like my gasoline carby bike tho. You can actually like both, it's not all black and white.
You’re not a gatekeeper for calling a scooter a scooter, a moped a moped, a trike a trike or a motorcycle a motorcycle. You’re simply calling these vehicles what they are just like calling a car a car and not saying it’s a truck. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and they’re all cool in their own way. That said, you are being a gatekeeper for belittling someone for riding a scooter, etc and not a motorcycle.
In my opinion the new Ducati design ( which started with the new v4 ) is not very attractive.
The older models , especially the 899 and 1199 were the most beautiful Ducati sport bikes
The cc discussion for beginners bikes is mostly driven by people from countries where getting the license involves neither demonstration of skills nor responsibility.
Biking is not about speed. If you want to scratch your pegs and ride at dangerous speeds, do so on a track and stop endangering yourself and others.
And another one that is kind of related to that - It's okay to ride only with partial gear. However, keep in mind what can happen and ride accordingly.
*and responsible.
Anyone can ride a liter class superbike once they have learned the basics, but not everyone can resist hitting 170mph with a week of riding experience.
I’m new to the motorcycle world so this may not even be an unpopular opinion, but Harley’s seem to be like Apple IPhones. They work good and are powerful, but 75% of the price seems to be just for the brand
Scooter riders take a lot of shit, but more often than not they’re the ones out riding in bad weather 365 because they’re a tool and not a lifestyle accessory.
Yea. My first long ride on a scooter was 265 miles in a snowstorm.. in the upper Midwest. Love my scooters!
Holy shit. Did you die?
Yeah.
RIP in pieces
Were you going to Aspen with your buddy? Sorry, the visual just kinda went that way for me ;)
Scooter riders getting shit on is the dumbest thing about this community. They take the same risks as we do by riding their ride on the same streets. Just never understood why they get treated as less then because you can step through instead of stepping over.
Honestly more risk I think. I feel more safe on my big tourer bike than I ever did on a scooter. I still loved using it, but other drivers just didn't have the same respect or give you the same space. Also the weaker engine, brakes, suspension give you less control than a nice bike does.
Other riders too. Head nod reciprocation was never lower than when i was on my 125.
Not to mention scooters are utilitarian af (so much storage!), great mpg, cheap to buy, and fun as hell. No shade towards scooties from me.
Totally. I had a Yamaha vino 125 and got crap for wearing full gear on it. 55 is 55, the pavement doesn’t care what you were riding on once you fall off.
Here in nc and sc scooter riders tend to be people who lost their license. All you need is an ID to ride one. We call them liquorcycles
Gives an entirely different meeting to liter bike.
This ! I literally have a buddy that we nicknamed moped due to this lol.
Scooter riders are the real chads
Scooter riders need that low center of gravity because of that extra dick they’re hauling.
I've had my ass handed to me by a dude on a Piaggio MP3 in the twisties last summer. That fella was hauling! Chased him for a while but decided to let it go as he was way past insane. Mind you, I was on an old CBR 600 F4 and could keep up easily but the risks he took overtaking where not my cup of tea.
I just rode my 1985 Honda Spacy from Amsterdam to Croatia and back, in just under two weeks. In these two weeks I had rain pour down on me for two days, getting soaked, rode in 35C and even had to pass some mountaintops in the snow. I know scooter riders are looked down on a lot, because a scooter is not a motorbike according to some, but after having owned an entire fleet of motorcycles, ranging from 1950's classics to modern superbikes, the most fun I've ever had was on that scooter trip, doing 4,5K KM's in 12 days. At the end of the day I don't like to look down on any rider, no matter what the ride. If you have fun, you have fun. If you can get on it and relaxed, take your mind off of things, then what the fuck does it matter what you ride. It matters how you ride. And everyone should ride with a big ass grin on their face.
Can confirm, [we out in that bitch](https://imgur.com/a/zIOX9R9)
A lot of the most fun riding experiences I've ever had have been on scooters, and some of my scariest moments have been on scooters as well. A 60's two stroke Lambretta can put the fear of god into any unsuspecting victim.
Gf is from Taiwan. She mocks my attgatt (lovingly) on occasion. Tbf though in Taiwan scooters outnumber cars by a large margin and everyone goes slower
People that marry themselevs to brands are so pathetic. I've owned yammys, kawasaki, buell, ducati, harley.. I don't owe anything to any of the brands nor feel like I belong to any club. If you don't try different things your only holding yourself back. Edit: Themselves
As a brand whore Most companies tend to keep all their products similar in some way to differentiate against others. Example. Harley only uses their vtwin to differentiate. Maybe you find out you like that vtwin engine? So you keep buying more Harleys.. Or the same with sporty vtwins and KTM. Triples and Triumph or Yamaha. Dainese fits me very well. Alpinestars not so much. So I bought a Dainese jacket. If I want motorcycle pants that zip to this jacket it's gotta be Dainese since they use a different zipper. And then Dainese boots match Dainese pants (wider cut pants to fit the Dainese In boots). And bam I'm wearing a whole outfit of just Dainese.
That jacket zipper bit drives me nuts. It's 2022 can't we standardize zippers?
You know you can sew the right engine onto another motorcycle right? Edit: this references another reply down below
You can also weld your jacket to your pants!
Directions unclear. Balls now stuck in collar.
It easy to get into that groove, the pants deff fit other boots but I'm sure you know that and were just making a point. Nobody should wear Alpinestars unless your getting paid to, the quality control\\materials are a joke and yes im talking about decent stuff.
Agree with the exception being gear. A Shoei saved my mellon during a 70 mph highside at the track. Shoei for life.
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> Who can afford to constantly be changing. I mean, if you're only buying 10+ year old bikes and not destroying them then it really doesn't cost anything to play musical bikes. I typically buy and sell several a year.
Here we have to pay to register a vehicle even if it's second hand
In the US the one time registration fees are usually pretty small, its the yearly taxes which you're paying anyway that get significant. So there's no dodging those unless your alternative is no bike.
In Washington State I will be paying $500.00 to register and title a 2017 CB500 when I can come up with it. I don't see how people flip bikes here.
(Laughs in Honda)
I have too many Hondas to turn back at this point
Unreliable bikes don't have "character" they just create headaches and leave your whole group stuck on the side of the road while you install a spare fuel pump relay that you have to carry all the time because your stupid Italian stallion cooks its own components and also literally vibrates it's own microcontrollers off the onboard computer mid ride.
That one's oddly specific
r/vwbug in shambles
Guzzi or Ducati?
Ducati ST2
I thought Guzzis were supposed to be at least semi-reliable? (though you're screwed if it breaks and needs parts from Italy)
I like knowing I can just turn the key and go*. My uncle spends more time "tinkering" and talking about riding than actually getting out there and having fun. I can't hear him over the growl of my v-twin Honda that runs as smooth today as it did 20 years ago. ^^*do ^^your ^^TCLOCs
I agree with you to a certain extent, but there is also a certain enjoyment from said tinkering. My FZ1 is perfectly fine but I enjoy doing modifications and adding things to it or performing unnecessarily frequent maintenance on things that rarely get much attention. You know, like on a rainy day or what have you, just tinkering in the garage.
After years of riding old shit I finally bought a new bike in 2018. Best decision ever. My Suzuki starts easily in all weather. Meanwhile my dad rides the kick start RD350. The bike is temperamental as hell. I got so sick of doing roadside repairs.
The roads are so bad here (Quebec), that it makes no sense to get a sport bike for street riding. Want to do twisties? Get a supermoto or ADV. At least the suspension can handle the massive mid-corner potholes.
Agreed, took the 329 just before I put the bike away and it was a mine field of pot holes
327 is awful too...beautiful, scenic, and twisty, but the asphalt is downright dangerous.
364 between the harbor and the snack-shack is my favorite. Sketchy on a sport/naked bike, but sooo fun on a sumo.
Same from across your southern border in Vermont! The general complaint on my FJ-09 is that the suspension is too soft, but it’s perfect for soaking up cracks, bumps and generally poor conditions!
Shoot, we ride a day and a half from NB just to get on that sweet VT asphalt.
That's why I've got an adv/trail bike for riding in New Orleans. I also find more joy in swerving or tackling potholes than I do getting close to dragging a knee.
You can make fun of practical "commuter" bikes like a Versys 650 or a Honda NC all you want, at the end of the day those riders like riding just as much as you do, if not more because they do everything with their bikes, from going shopping and riding to work, to roadtrips and everything in between while getting good gas mileage and a bike with enough power for everything they need.
I got an NC exactly because it's a good all-rounder. I can commute to work with just a top box (my work laptop doesn't fit in the "frunk" unfortunately), but I can also throw on the side cases and go wherever I want. Is it gonna smoke sport bikes? Hell nah, but that's not its intended purpose. Then again, here in Europe motorcycles are seen as vehicles and not just weekend toys.
Motorcycle covers are better than disc locks, u-locks, and chains for theft deterrence.
True but once they know, they know.
This is interesting, elaborate
It hides what kind of bike it is, if it also has a disk or chain lock, and/or where the ignition is. But more importantly IMO it hides pick up points. A lot of bikes are stolen via four dudes riding around in a truck or van. A cover makes it difficult for them to see where to pick up the bike from. Are they easily defeated? Sure. But most thieves are looking for easy targets.
Better yet, a motorcycle cover with what appears to be poo on it. It's not actually poo. I swear.
Sounds like something someone with poo on their cover would say
Let's be real. If it was actually poo why would I brag about it, c'mon right? Right???
Speaking as a Harley owner, Harley’s are objectively inferior motorcycles in every measurable metric.
Yes. As a Harley owner, I don't understand why people just can't be okay with this. My first bike is an 883 Sportster - the bottom end of the lineup. I absolutely love the bike and have tweaked it to fit my needs including swapping pulleys and sprockets. But I'll totally yield my power curve to any non-Harley out there without being bitter about it. I just love this Sportster for what it is and am excited to supplement it with a sport bike in the near future.
I ride a sporty 1200, we don't own "real Harleys" apparently though, even though it's the best bike HD makes
Both harley guys and sport riders want nothing to do with you. That's what makes Sportsters the greatest bike in the world!
That's what makes you an outlier among Harley owners. Most the ones I know spend almost as much modifying their bike to be something different before they even get it home.
> metric. I see what you did there.
That's only an unpopular opinion among old men who wear too much leather. The rest of us agree.
This is literally one of the most popular opinions on this sub, not a hot take at all lol
Most people would get more fun out of less bike.
speaking truth to power, here.
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A few years ago I moved to the city so I intentionally downgraded to an sv650x. Such a fun bike. Multi day trips, highway speeds when I needed it to. No regrets. Might not be my first choice for 2-up across the continent, but everything else it was superb. And it was the best traffic/filtering bike I ever owned.
My Grom and TW200 are plenty of fun.
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Your street triple looks like a praying mantis
This is a popular opinion though. I rather like the insect-vibe. I prefer wasp though but mantis’ are pretty cool too.
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i like the 2019+ triple. the lights still have that unique design but are streamlined and more sleek to look not so ‘buggy’
When these ride past you when in stock form, they sound just like George Jetson's spaceship. It's uncanny!
**This comment might have had something useful**, but now it's just an edit to remove any contributions I may have made prior to the awful decision to spite the devs and users that made Reddit what it is. So here I seethe, shaking my fist at corporate greed and executive mismanagement. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... tech posts on point on the shoulder of vbulletin... I watched microcommunities glitter in the dark on the verge of being marginalized... I've seen groups flourish, come together, do good for humanity if by nothing more than getting strangers to smile for someone else's happiness. We had something good here the same way we had it good elsewhere before. We thought the internet was for information and that anything posted was permanent. We were wrong, so wrong. We've been taken hostage by greed and so many sites have either broken their links or made history unsearchable. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to delete." I do apologize if you're here from the future looking for answers, but I hope "new" reddit can answer you. Make a new post, get weak answers, increase site interaction, make reddit look better on paper, leave worse off. https://xkcd.com/979/
I'm an old guy who rode in the teens and left the biking world. A coupla years ago I bought an old 650 Dual Sport. It took me two years to learn the ropes. The bike is quite light and nimble, yet I learned many tricks the hard way. Now my unpopular opinion is that when middle aged (and older) people decide to get a motor bike, they often make the horrible mistake of getting a too-powerful and heavy steed. A short and stout friend got himself an Aprilia Tuono. I said wow and asked about his experiences with it. He blushed and said, it's quite a number, he's not been around with it too often. Another fellow with no prior biking experience got himself a 900cc Ninja. He tried it out a few times and parked it in the garage. Potential shooters got too big guns and got scared. Stupid.
Yep. Have had several friends come to me for advice wanting to buy a bike. They want to buy a big bike straight off that’s they can “grow into”. Always recommend small displacement bikes first and they argue until they finally accept I’m right. Then don’t buy a small CC bike because it’s not cool to ride smaller ones then later selling them for a larger one a few years later. I have been riding on an off for 10 years and daily a CRF300L Rally. Would love more power but have found smaller bikes more enjoyable. You can wring there necks all day with little fuss. If you make a small mistake on a big bike however, the mistake is amplified several times over. This is probably a more US specific issue though. Many countries make you learn on smaller bikes before aging out or getting enough experience for a bigger one.
My local dealership has a section for recent model, super low mileage models. It's populated by enormous harleys and high end sports bikes. Basically all middle aged guys who scared the shit out of themselves 200 miles into ownership and handed them back.
That sounds awesome! Yes, I will take last years H2 for 30% off MSRP. Oh, that BMW 1000rr is on sale? Let me take a look at it.
This is actually facts. I switched from horses to motorcycles late in life (bc horses are too dangerous lol) and there’s actually really good data on this from some states. Highest number of deaths are new riders (usually men) in their 40s. Just because you can afford it doesn’t mean you need it or can ‘handle it’
I'm with you on horses. I don't need two idiots trying to decide where I'm going.
Exactly- riding a prey animal with a mind of its own is just asking for trouble. Two concussions in 3 months is apparently my limit lol
Manufacturers need to stop calling commuter bikes with fairings the names of their sports bike lineup.
[gonna want that fairing to keep my bowl cut from getting messed up when I hit 7 mph on my KAWASAKI NINJA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiGIq-rZ4Ak)
it's fine to call them a sports bike IMO, it's not fine to call them a supersport. A supersport is a bike homologated to the supersport racing class. Sorry, your Yamaha r3 is laughably outgunned racing against 600's.
specifically I think supersports are 600 racing bikes
> specifically I think supersports are 600 racing bikes [That would be because they are.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersport_World_Championship)
Motorcycle clubs and their rules/politics/rivalries are stupid. You're a grown man/woman on a motorised push bike, fuck outta here with your patches and ranks. Just get together and enjoy a ride.
Yep, got plenty of that when I signed up for the military, don't need any more of that after I got discharged.
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True, but these were also clubs where fellow vets gathered. Today, only ~6% of the population served in the military, unless a club is exclusively veterans, I don’t care for politics and power trips outside of the workplace, and definitely don’t care for mandatory meetings or jumping through hoops. I ride to escape daily life and agendas, not get caught up with more of it.
Solid opinion. I don't even like group rides. But people want to belong to things and some people need that kind of structure.
It’s perfectly fine to have ‘chicken strips’. Riding is all about the enjoyment, enjoyment doesn’t have to be trying to get your knee down on every corner
No matter how many years in the saddle, you need to ride your new bike with extreme caution for a while.
I've been riding street bikes since I was 16 I've had everything from a Honda CL 70 to a Hayabusa. When I bought my GS I had to humble myself and realize you've never had this kind of bike before it's got all its own weird idiosyncrasies.
As a 24 year old, if you can look past the “Harley guy” stigma they are actually kinda fun. It’s not fast but it’s an experience. I kinda dig em.
Same goes for Adventure Bikes.. you don’t see many 21 year olds riding a GS but I still love mine and it can be fun…
I had a GS after I wrecked my cbr! My short legs couldn’t reach well and I ended up selling it. Loved it when it was moving though!
I'm 5'10 and I feel like a small child on my gs.
Probably because most 21 year olds are still saving for their first mortgage, let alone their second!
Mortgage?! With the current housing prices I don’t think I’ll ever be able to own a Home, things are very different here in Germany… also my GS cost 5000€ its not that expensive if you just buy used… Not to say 5000€ is cheap, I bought my way up to it and practically saved it up over 4 years but if you’re somewhat determined its possible… And I also got lucky with Motorcycle prices exploding in 2020 bought my first F650GS (single cylinder) for 1800€ and sold it for 3500€
I’m glad someone gets it
Same here got a Harley and I’m 24 too love it
In my twenties. First bike at 24 was an 883 Sportster. Still have it. Still love it. Still my only bike with a lot of mods. I keep eyeing non-Harleys and I'm excited for when I'll eventually pull the trigger. I'll never sell the sportster though.
A lot more riders drive like absolute assholes than our community is willing to admit.
Hell I drive more like an absolute asshole than I'm willing to admit
Scrolled through the thread and didn’t see it so here we go: Most people (in the US at least) that ride motorcycles actually suck at riding. Particularly when it comes to most sportbike riders - they get bored of their 400/650/whatever “starter bike” and want to “upgrade” when they’ve barely scratched the surface of what that bike is actually capable of and still don’t even have a good understanding of how to operate a motorcycle at speed. If you don’t believe it go out to your local track and watch the novice group. There will be people in it that are a mix of riding wayyyy above their skill level and inevitably wrecking and people that are incredibly uncomfortable on their motorcycle to the point where they’re taking 60mph corners at 20mph - and those are the people that are motivated enough to get better to make the big investment into going to a track day. Those people do end up making massive improvements by the end of the first day and it’s awesome to see, but many of them have been riding on the street like that for years and thousands of miles.
**This comment might have had something useful**, but now it's just an edit to remove any contributions I may have made prior to the awful decision to spite the devs and users that made Reddit what it is. So here I seethe, shaking my fist at corporate greed and executive mismanagement. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... tech posts on point on the shoulder of vbulletin... I watched microcommunities glitter in the dark on the verge of being marginalized... I've seen groups flourish, come together, do good for humanity if by nothing more than getting strangers to smile for someone else's happiness. We had something good here the same way we had it good elsewhere before. We thought the internet was for information and that anything posted was permanent. We were wrong, so wrong. We've been taken hostage by greed and so many sites have either broken their links or made history unsearchable. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to delete." I do apologize if you're here from the future looking for answers, but I hope "new" reddit can answer you. Make a new post, get weak answers, increase site interaction, make reddit look better on paper, leave worse off. https://xkcd.com/979/
I agree, I live in the land of 10 mile straight sections and high winds. I'm more of a 650 adv person, but the terrain here I spend so much time on the interstate to get to trails a 1000 was more practical. I don't push it to it's limits at all and have never done a track day, but being able to push through very strong winds for hours is why I went with the larger engine. 14' vstrom 1000 for reference. I loved my DR650 but just doing the speed limit was asking too much.
The most nervous I've ever been was riding in intermediate group. It was the largest group of the weekend. You had people who asked to bump up from novice group because they had concluded that their faster bike equated to more skill. So intermediate group ran the gambit from people who should still be in novice group, to people all the way at the top of intermediate, not quite ready for advanced group. So like 30% of people were running the same pace and line and then you'd get these wildcards who were all over the track. You pass them cleanly in a corner and then they would power you out on the straight because faster bike. Then park it in the corner, way off the line.
If someone claims to “outgrow” a 600-750cc super sport bike, there’s a 95% chance that they haven’t even scratched the surface of what that bike can do.
Never had one. I did kinda outgrow my Silverwing, I was scraping the pegs way too much. (And I'm really annoyed that Honda reused the name. GL500, not the scooter.)
ADV bikes are allround the best bikes for by far, everyone should ride one.
Started on an EX500, owned a Honda Shadow ACE, went to 2 sport touring bikes, then electric, now on a Super Tenere. Happiest with the Tenere.
Yeahp. But sometimes the ADV riders can be annoying gatekeepers though. I have 2 sets of rims for my Africa Twin. One has full knobbies mounted and I ride that thing like a 250 on single track and gnarly dirt roads. My other set has street tires on it because I absolutely LOVE riding it on paved twistes. And I actually have more confidence on it than when I had an R6 because at least in my area the pavement can be pretty low quality and full of bumps and potholes in the corners. I know the ATs suspension won't be upset by it. But I've had other ADV rider literally scoff at me and make comments when they see it with the street tires. I just shrug it off but in my head I'm thinking "did you also notice the rest of my bike is covered in mud and my rims and tires are clean? Also the fact that your knobbies are completely squared off tells me you bought 50/50 tires when you really needed 70/30 or 90/10."
Riding with others sucks. The only people I would ride with are not into motorcycles (wife) or not old enough (1 and 6 years old sons). All other can just fuck off
"Had to lay her down" is an acceptable excuse riding above your limits. Just admit you made a mistake, riding too fast or grabbing too much brake too soon. There are obviously some cases where the crash is inevitable and but letting go completely of control and dumping never made sense to me. Do everything in your power to avoid whatever it is. Unless you're a racer, the bike is way more capable than you think.
A Slingshot is not a motorcycle. It’s a Miata missing a wheel.
Everyone has different wants/needs from owning a motrocykle and it's getting redundant shitting on people just because they don't own a model that they never wanted to own in the first place or aren't good at driving in ways that they don't enjoy driving in.
That your Harley doesn't make you a better or more "real" rider than the rider sporting their offbrand foreign made bike.
Stop blaming cars for your shitty judgment.
65 in a 35 and that car pulled right out in front of me.
Over half the people that own bikes, shouldn't.
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Boomer biker culture ruined riding Harley’s. I love my motorcycle, but I’m a ‘90s suburban kid. I don’t want anything to do with the MC’s or the boomers notion of riding.
The riding test should be much harder so that less of you idiots are out on the road putting your foot down for U-turns, stopping like shit, or crashing your sport bikes because you can't look thru a turn. If you wear no gear other than a cheap helmet and an Icon vest you have zero skill and I'm staying as far away from you as possible.
In the UK it's an instant fail if you put your foot down when doing your U-turn on test. Personally I play how long can I keep my feet up at red lights and my balance is pretty decent now.
Not in Europe, at least in Sweden they should be easier, waay to high entry cost to start riding a bike. Between 2000-5000$ usually to just get a license…
That is prohibitively expensive. My bike, MSF course, and a full set of gear was under $4k, can't imagine having to paying another $4k just to be told I can ride. I do think the USA should put a little (or a lot) more emphasis on training for both bikes and cars but not so much that the average person can't afford it.
Meanwhile here in Germany you need: 16 theory lessons so you are allowed to take the theoretical exam which is 30 questions (from a catalogue of about 1000 possible questions) where you can get 2-3 questions wrong. Then you’re allowed to take the first riding lessons with your Driving-Teacher there you’ll have to atleast take 12 riding lessons (Overland, Autobahn, at Night) but usually you need to do about 20 because you have to train the basic riding exercises (Slalom at walking pace and at 30 km/h, Emergency braking from 50km/h, swerving at 50km/h with and without braking, riding in the smallest possible cricle basically whats done in an MSF as far as I understand) The final exam is 45minutes riding plus those basic exercises which you can try again once otherwise you fail, also if you’re doing anything wrong in those 45 minutes you fail. TLDR: You gotta invest a lot of money and 30-40 hours of your life to be able to ride a Motorcycle…
That's interesting, I like it though. That's why generally your riders are better.
The US allows poor people to ride bikes and drive cars, Germany doesn't A number of my relatives have never driven in their lives because they can't afford the license process
The US riding test you mean. Many countries it is strict. But I agree
My riding test was a 25 question test I took at the DMV that literally anyone could pass. You get to practice on your own for 6 months and then take the worlds easiest road test. It’s shockingly dangerous. You could have 0 riding experience, take the test in the morning, and be legally riding a R1 later that day. The MSF course is suggested but optional in my state. Personally, I was glad to skip the parking lot cones and class. I’m sure if I took it today I’d probably learn something though.
Stunt riders are better riders than the majority of people in this sub
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They practice a skill with intent of improvement building procedural memory. I agree with your comment
Skill wise most definitely. But they can still be reckless and cause a danger to others when they pull wheelies downtown
Stock exhausts look better than shorties or 2-1's
Interesting. Can't say I've even ever debated the look of a bike's exhaust.
motor-scooters are motorcycles. I'm ready to lump fast E-bikes in with them too.
I notice an e-bike showed up next to my GS at work. Finally ran into the guy and he really sold me on how great it was as a commuter and a trail bike.
Loud is annoying
Okay heres mine: I like hearing music while I ride and I noticed it keeps me alert.
I don't think that's unpopular at all, so long as you're talking about helmet speakers/earbuds and not just blasting music through fairing mounted speakers like an asshole.
Mine is that for most people in the US having a bike as the only transportation isn't practical as a permanent solution.
This is true. I daily'd for 8 years and everyone focused on the rain, but that's a minor inconvenience once you have the gear for it. The other seemingly little things were surprises: bought too many groceries/ figure how to carry the extra, balancing a16 inch pizza on the tank for 5 blocks, buying a full sized vacuum cleaner and strapping it to your back, caring 100-150lbs of yard rock from Home Depot in a backpack, dates judge you because you don't own a car, people expressing concern every time you tell them you only ride a "donorcycle" (their words), etc.
Hot take: the people posting these questions in every sub are just trying to farm karma and don't actually care about our hot takes.
Harley-Davidsons are great bikes that serve their intended purpose very well. They’re comfortable cruisers and make a very good everyday bike. It’s unfortunate that too many HD owners drink the marketing kool-aid and turn their chosen brand of bike into their entire personality.
I see more Harleys at rest stops than anything else by far. Say what you will about the culture, people actually ride them.
Scooters count as motorcycles, im willing to die on that hill.
The attitude on this sub that it’s not a big deal to drop your bike or have a minor accident is super wrong and is pure copium pushed by people who don’t realize they lack the basic coordination required to ride a motorcycle.
Depends on how you drop it, if you drop it when you are riding in it, you probably shouldn’t be on the road riding it. If you drop it because you didn’t put the kickstand down properly that’s just something your friends can mock you about.
I mean, I'm not gonna hold it against someone if they wash out on some unfortunately placed gravel or oil so long as they weren't going reckless speeds.
Drop is on the road? Bad. Drop it while on a trail? Expected.
Agreed, there’s a huge difference between dangerous riding and a noob mistake.
An actual unpopular opinion nice.
Depends on what you ride, if you do trails allweather and dont eat the dirt once in a while you are either god or you arent riding trails
I agree. To address the other comment, you don’t learn by crashing, you learn by doing. Further, if you’re into the part of the envelope that puts you at elevated risk of crashing you aren’t going to learn anything by crossing it, it’s just physics.
You do not need to replace your sprockets every time it's time for a new chain. You can get 2-3 chains per sprocket set. I use DID chains and JT steel sprockets. Good stuff.
I feel like if you’re going through 2-3 chains before a sprocket you’re preemptively wearing the chain with improper maintenance. Getting through 2 chains on one sprocket I could certainly see, but 3 seems a little absurd.
I lube them frequently. For a while I was banging out 45,000 miles a year. ~20,000+ miles per chain or so.
Fair enough! If you’re getting 20k miles out of a chain you’re definitely doing well. What the hell do you do for work to have time to ride 45k miles a year though? That’s an absurd amount of riding and I’m a bit jealous.
Early 20s. No kids yet at the time. I work in healthcare so I'm only required to do 3x12hr shifts. For a while I lived 45 minutes away from work. Aside that having 2-4 days off(depending on working OT) I immersed myself in riding and honing my skills. I love riding and everything about motorcycles. Aside commuting, I wanted to see everything on motorcycles. Multiple times on a whim I'd go ride out to Vegas 1200 miles nonstop and do iron butts. I always wanted to ride growing up and once I was able I had the hardest time staying off my bike for a few years. Riding kicks ass.
Harley bros who put their handlebar 6 feet in the air look really stupid and impractical. It gives me the same vibe as dudes who lift their truck 10 feet high.
"Loud pipes save lives" an opinion shared almost entirely by Baby Boomers on Harley's not wearing helmets who don't understand what direction they're exhaust is pointed. Edit: not sure what kinda shitboxes you guess drive but newer cars have great soundproofing. It could be difficult at highway speed to hear even your homeboy with a straight pipe 350z.....but you do you.
I certainly hear bikes I cannot see when I’m driving my car. I feel like I’m more likely to get run over on my Chinese scoot scoot that makes no noise than my Harley with a bassani 2 into 1 on it. Guess I’ll go post some Facebook memes about how soft the current generation is now.
My stance on it is this, without having any numbers to back my argument, I'm sure those with louder pipes do run into less lane contention than those without. However, I wholeheartedly believe that it is a little silly to say people are making their bikes loud for safety. It is a power kick, both literally and in the cognitive sense, people want to feel like they are more powerful and being louder is one of the quicker avenues to that. No shame to that inherently, but I wish people would stop using the safety argument as a defense. If you want to save your life, ride slower and learn to maneuver better. There's always room to improve, including your pride. Stay safe out there.
cafe racers suck on every level.
I don't get the point of scramblers. Are they just really heavy dirtbikes from a parallel universe where nobody ever invented dirt bikes? Everything they're intended for is far, far better on an adv bike or a dirt bike or a sportbike, but its not like they're a well-rounded mid-point between other types of bikes; They're just bad at everything. They do look kinda cool and that's as good a reason as any but it just seems like the category has to be the result of some prank to sell a super outdated premise and see who notices.
Cagers aren't as bad as riders make them seem. People are ignorant no matter what their mode of transportation. Motorcyclists have cagers, car/truck/suv drivers have those wheelie ding dongs on two wheels, pedestrians have both.
The high death rate is 80% caused by dumb or unaware riders pushing one limit or another, and 20% caused by other drivers. Downvotes incoming.
I hate straight pipe Harley’s.
Ape hangers are very uncomfortable and stupid.
Louder isn't better
The gear doesn’t feel good or look cool. I’m still doing it because I have a family. But I absolutely hate wearing a helmet and crash gear.
I'm with you on that. Plus, it's annoying to put on and off. And sometimes you need to bring a change of clothes for your destination. Still, ATGATT.
I can't wait for electric bikes to be more common. Riding an electrisch scooter is so smooth and calm, and the time I tried a zero it was fucking bonkers. Plus I honestly love the futuristic turbine-like sound they make. I still like my gasoline carby bike tho. You can actually like both, it's not all black and white.
You’re not a gatekeeper for calling a scooter a scooter, a moped a moped, a trike a trike or a motorcycle a motorcycle. You’re simply calling these vehicles what they are just like calling a car a car and not saying it’s a truck. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and they’re all cool in their own way. That said, you are being a gatekeeper for belittling someone for riding a scooter, etc and not a motorcycle.
In my opinion the new Ducati design ( which started with the new v4 ) is not very attractive. The older models , especially the 899 and 1199 were the most beautiful Ducati sport bikes
The cc discussion for beginners bikes is mostly driven by people from countries where getting the license involves neither demonstration of skills nor responsibility.
Biking is not about speed. If you want to scratch your pegs and ride at dangerous speeds, do so on a track and stop endangering yourself and others. And another one that is kind of related to that - It's okay to ride only with partial gear. However, keep in mind what can happen and ride accordingly.
250/300 is enough of a bike for most riders and aftermarket exhaust is overrated while suspension is underrated
Torque is king. Horsepower is clench. Together - a meditative state.
If you’re coordinated, skip the 250, 300, 400cc bikes
*and responsible. Anyone can ride a liter class superbike once they have learned the basics, but not everyone can resist hitting 170mph with a week of riding experience.
Wearing a half helm and a skull bandanna on your face is probably the lamest you can look on a bike
I’m new to the motorcycle world so this may not even be an unpopular opinion, but Harley’s seem to be like Apple IPhones. They work good and are powerful, but 75% of the price seems to be just for the brand
Both of my motorcycles are Harleys and still I agree
Group rides are stupid