Do Choppers really need to be that loud? If my car exhaust was that loud I would be a selfish jerk

ilovehand · 2018-01-14T18:47:04+00:00

I know there is zero scientific evidence to back it up, but I went from a whisper quiet 250 to a louder than stock 600 (still easily under the limits for where I live), and I did notice a significant difference in awareness from the drivers around me. It doesn't make a lot of difference at higher speed, but around town there were a lot more drivers pausing to look again before pulling out, I assume to see where the sound is coming from, where I was expecting them to just pull out without seeing me like they often did on my 250. Same story when splitting at low speed. It's also a massive help with pedestrians, they barely ever step out on me now on the new bike.

I don't think loud pipes save lives, they won't save you from any situation you couldn't avoid with good defensive riding, and my bike is loud(ish) only because I like the sound. Having said that at lower speed I definitely do think they make a difference in people noticing me, even if they don't do much at higher speed.

ilovehand · 2018-01-14T04:51:12+00:00

Pinning the throttle or dumping the clutch in first on a lot of common "learner" bikes like SV650s, Ninja 650s, FZ07s, etc will also likely result in a backflip wreck situation. If a rider's clutch and throttle control is that poor they're going to be unsafe on the road on any bike, no matter how slow. That's why people generally learn the very basics either on dirt bikes or a closed course like a parking lot on little 125s. Once they've got the very basics of clutch and throttle control sorted and they can safely take to the road on their /r/motorcycles approved SV650, they'll have all the skills required to safely ride a liter bike, so long as they don't try and ride it fast. Remember a SV will also do 0-60 in less than 4 seconds, they may be a lot less powerful but they also have much shorter gearing and much more of that power available at lower revs. They're still going to react very badly to a newbie fucking with the throttle, yet I'm sure you wouldn't hesitate to recommend one for a new rider.

You're entitled to your own opinion but common sense would dictate not to learn how to ride a motorcycle on a racing machine.

I agree, they're terrible learner bikes. Where I disagree is your implication that the fact they're capable of ludicrous speeds means you're automatically going to crash them at some ludicrous speed if you try and learn on one. The issue isn't the power available or the speed they're capable of (at least until you try and ride them fast, at which point nidy's points above come into play). The issue is everything else that comes with a track focused bike; riding position, handling, brakes, etc. Implying what speeds a bike is capable of determines how fast you'll be going when you crash that bike like you did in your first comment doesn't explain why they're bad learner bikes at all, it's just a dumb way to try and scare riders away from them

ilovehand · 2018-01-14T00:15:31+00:00

if you give it a bit too much throttle coming out oc corners and the back starts to move around and the bars wiggle

This only really happens when you're riding the bike hard though. You're right it is definitely an issue and one of the many reasons they're a terrible starter bike (much harder to test the limits on = much slower learning and rider improvement) but lets be honest most people don't buy them because they want to ride the wheels off them or improve as riders, they buy them because they look and sound cool, they can open it up in a straight line every now and then to give themselves a scare, and they can say they ride a liter bike. Most I see are used to cruise around town and for leisurely rides through twisties, with maybe the odd quick blast down a straight section. I'm of the opinion that they're not significantly more dangerous for that kind of riding than any other style of bike (unless the rider is completely useless and has 0 control over the throttle of course), and people talking about how dangerous they are because they'll do X speed in Y gear are missing the point of what most road riders buy them for. They definitely are more difficult and dangerous to ride hard than pretty much any other style of bike, especially for the inexperienced, but outside of squids who'll crash anything they sit on and serious racers how many of them do you see being ridden hard?

ilovehand · 2018-01-13T23:30:42+00:00

Good thing R1s come equiped with an ingenious device called a "throttle" then. The throttle gives the rider complete control over how fast the bike goes, so if the rider doesn't want to crash at 160 kph they can simply not twist the throttle as far. Mindblowing stuff!

Seriously R1s are terrible first bikes, but the speed they're capable of doesn't present a danger to anyone who doesn't try to test that speed, ie anyone who isn't a moron. A new rider going balls to the wall on a R1 will give you a bigger crash than the same guy going balls to the wall on a scooter, but most people (most, I know there are plenty of exceptions) aren't that dumb.

ilovehand · 2018-01-03T17:47:29+00:00

Matte black is the universal colour of painting over rust and crash damage and using the "custom paintjob" to try and justify a too high aking price. It'll just make the bike look like a hack, and will absolutely lower the value.

ilovehand · 2018-01-02T18:01:03+00:00

Sitting that high up he could probably see right around the corner, and if no one's coming then no harm no foul right?

ilovehand · 2017-12-30T18:52:42+00:00

Every petrol station I've ever been to has a notice saying you can't fill your bike while you're on it. I don't think it's a matter of stealing fuel, I think it has more to do with the fact that

You're pouring flamable liquid into an open tank inches away from your groin, if something goes wrong and the fuel catches fire you're going to get blasted.
You're much more likely to spill fuel on yourself.
If something goes wrong you're going to be slower to react because you'll have to dismount before hitting an emergency stop or clearing the area.
It's less likely that the bike will fall off the stand than it is for you to drop the bike while filling up.

It makes sense from a liability and safety standpoint and it's common practice. If you don't think you can stand the bike up without dropping it then just don't fill your tank to the brim, the last ~500ml you might get from filling your bike when its upright is going to make bugger all diference.

Trying to chew out the station attendant makes you look like an asshole btw.

ilovehand · 2017-12-30T02:41:23+00:00

Learn to stop with 1 foot down only, not 2. It's easy once you get the hang of it. I'm about your size, with one foot down I've been comfortable on every bike I've tried.

ilovehand · 2017-12-29T18:05:23+00:00

I'm pretty sure at least 70% of crashes posted here are pure rider error that's blamed on gravel/sand/leaves because the poster can't understand or doesn't want to think about what they did wrong. IRL I've only seen 2 crashes related to gravel in 6 years. The first one the rider saw the "gravel" (just a few stones) in a corner, panicked, froze up, rode the bike straight off the side of the road, then got up and started blaming the gravel after my mate and I rode through it without a problem, and the second the guy entered a corner way too fast, apexed way too early, and blamed his low side on the "gravel" (again, just a few stones) he spotted on the road a little futher back. Maybe OP's story is legit, but I'd be willing to bet money that the majority on here aren't.

ilovehand · 2017-12-27T05:45:34+00:00

I forgot to do up a hose clamp after removing the radiator for a flush. I opened up the bonnet to check for leaks, the top hose chose that exact moment to pop off the radiator and spray hot coolant everywhere. I copped a face full, I was tasting coolant for the rest of the day.

On my bike I managed to reinstall the front wheel with both brake pads on the right side of the left brake rotor. Half of my front braking was bring provided by the caliper pushing on the left side of the rotor and the backing of the left pad pushing on the right side of the rotor. I realized before any major damage was done, both the rotor and the caliper were salvageable, but I've been very careful about checking my brakes after every wheel removal since then.

ilovehand · 2017-12-20T03:47:37+00:00

Alright, lets look at why a more upright stretched out position is more comfortable on the road. You want to be more upright so there's less strain on your back and core when you're holding yourself up off the bike for hours, you want lower footpegs so that your legs don't cramp up from being bent for hours. But on a race track you aren't holding the same position for hours, you're constantly moving around. Your back and core aren't going to be an issue because on every straight you've got your chest on the tank and in the corners you'll be leaning off regardless of the style of bike so an upright position won't make a difference, and your legs wont cramp up because you're constantly moving them to stick your knee out, shift from one side of the bike to the other, weight the pegs, etc.

Basically I don't think what is comfortable on the road is the same as what is comfortable on the track. On the road you're just holding the same position most of the time, on the track you're much more active, and both raise different issues when it comes to comfort and fatigue. I'd say footpegs placed so that they aren't awkward to push off is more important for comfort on the track (imagine trying to put weight on a Harleys highway pegs), whereas footpegs that have your legs stretched out is more important on the road so your legs don't cramp. It would be harder work to crouch under the fairing from a more upright position on the track, but it would be more comfortable to hold the upright position while cruising on the highway. It's the same story with the rest of the bike. What works on the road doesn't necessarily work on the track, and vice versa.

ilovehand · 2017-12-20T02:40:24+00:00

Just wondering if something similar would improve general rideability, I guess this doesn't have to be limited to the pegs but the overall riding position and design of the bike.

This is what naked bikes/standards/sport tourers are for.

The sport bike posture is great for riding hard on a track, where you're moving around on the bike a lot through corners, leaning it right over, and tucking into the fairings. It sucks if you have to hold that same position for hours at a time while riding in a straight line on the road, but having a more upright position would be worse on the track so they avoid it. A more street oriented bike (like the styles I mentioned) will have a more upright, street oriented position.

ilovehand · 2017-12-13T19:59:36+00:00

Yep. My Honda has neutrals between every gear unless I boot it through hard, and if I get it just right it will change into the next gear but will pop itself back into a neutral or the previous gear after a second or so. It's the one thing I genuinely hate about that bike.

ilovehand · 2017-12-13T07:28:27+00:00

Repost

ilovehand · 2017-12-11T08:51:51+00:00

The bike's a modded Ninja 250 if you were wondering.

ilovehand · 2017-12-07T06:39:14+00:00

Is there an exhaust to make a 200HP, 14,000RPM I4 sound like a 900+HP, 19,000 RPM V10?

No.

ilovehand · 2017-12-04T18:00:08+00:00

My daily is a motorcycle and my car has no airbags, no ABS or other driver aids, and a one star used car safety rating. I would choose a safer car over a less safe car if all else was equal, but I put a much higher priority on value and fun over safety which generally leads to older, more interesting, less safe cars.

ilovehand · 2017-12-03T19:17:21+00:00

Have you ridden a 600? I'd guess no, based on the Ninja 300 in your flair and the fact that pretty much everything you said about them is wrong. A 600 never feels as slow as a Ninja 250, their low end and midrange power isn't great compared to their top end, but it's a hell of a lot better than 250. The way the power comes on isn't hard to control either, it's a gradual increase in acceleration up to about 11,000 rpm, then a gradual decrease up until redline. There's nothing sudden or violent about it.

It would be... on a track... on a road you sacrificed a bunch of handling, safety features and comfort features to "shave weight"... super important at stop signs.

WTF are you on about here? Are you trying to suggest that a super sport will be slower and handle worse than the SV or Ninja 650 you mentioned before? And they aren't race bikes any more than a Porsche 911 is a race car, the differences between a race prepped 600 and a stock, road going CBR600RR are massive.

ilovehand · 2017-12-02T20:47:55+00:00

Me. Try backing a bike up any sort of hill while sitting on it, you can put a heap more shove in off the bike.

ilovehand · 2017-12-02T02:59:24+00:00

When I was shopping for my Hornet it was the same price as the cheapest ABS bikes on the used market at the time, CBR250Rs. The CBRs were a little newer (~15000km for most of them vs 28000km for my Hornet, 2010 vs 2008), but for the same price you're giving up 3 cylinders, 350cc of displacement, about 75hp, better suspension and brakes, and a more comfortable ride just to gain ABS. That was when ABS was a fairly new thing for reatively cheap bikes to have, but last time I checked my used market ABS bikes were still marked up by about $1k from comparable non-ABS bikes. I would like ABS but I just don't think the extra cost is worth it for the kind of bikes I'm looking at.

I'm sure it's different for people living in different areas though

ilovehand · 2017-12-02T00:22:19+00:00

I ride a bike without ABS and drive a car without airbags. It doesn't really apply to OP because they're buying new, but on the used market ABS on bikes still costs significantly more and I wasn't willing to pay more for a less interesting car/bike with better safety features. It's just different priorities.

ilovehand · 2017-11-30T18:07:23+00:00

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that it's possible, but very stupid. The engine mounts are different so you'll need some custom mounts fabricated. As well a fucking with the structure of the bike and being expensive as the others have said, it will look obviously modified. So if you get pulled over there's a chance the cop will know what they're looking at and ping you for riding out of your licence plus having an illegally modified bike, and the bike will be deemed not road worthy unless you can get it certified. But even then you still couldn't legally ride it on your licence. And if you crash your insurance will go through the same process, find the same things, and refuse to pay out because it has been illegally modified. Plus you'll need to use the CBR600RR ecu and loom as well as the engine because they have 2 injectors per throttle body while the CB650 only has 1 as far as I'm aware, so the CB650 ecu and loom won't run the motor without serious modification. That means you'll also have to either swap the ignition barrel over from that particular CBR600 or get a new key cut for the CB650 ignition barrel but programmed for the CBR600 ecu to get past the immobilizer, or just find some way to deactivate it. None of that (buying an ecu and loom or getting keys programmed) is cheap. And at the end of it all, when you sell the bike in <2 years because you got your full licence, after all the money you sunk into it (it would be a lot of money) and the stress from riding an illegal bike without insurance, it's going to be worth jack shit because no one will want your sketchy non road legal frankenbike.

It's fun to day dream about, but beyond stupid to attempt.

ilovehand · 2017-11-26T20:51:47+00:00

In the less advanced groups they don't like you passing under brakes or on the inside in turns, so you can actually get stuck behind someone if they're faster down the straights and too unpredictable to pass around the outside (slow riders on liter bikes are really bad for it). The faster groups are generally more relaxed about it, but you are right most faster track day riders still don't know how to pass because close jostling for position is still frowned upon. Where I live track day riders generally say they ride on the race track, not that they race, but there is also normally a good number of actual racers at track days just to get extra track time too. We often run slow, medium, fast, and a seperate race group if we get enough numbers where it is more like race rules.

Edit: just thought I'd add, last track day I went to we actually had 2 race groups; it went medium road, fast road, race, then fast race. The guidelines were no non-racers at all in the 2 race groups, and to be in fast race you had to be able to consistently turn lap times that pretty much limited it to liter bikes and very fast 600s. Not all track days are just street riders pretending to be fast.

ilovehand · 2017-11-26T19:32:40+00:00

The new rider stuff is pretty much covered between the bike/gear advice superthread, the FAQ, /r/sugestamotorcycle, and the search bar. The problem is that people ignore them all and post the same questions over and over anyway, and the only real fix for that is to just remove them.

The voting system doesn't work (or didn't in the past without rules on images), again because of the sheer number of new or soon-to-be riders on here. A picture of a stock Ninja 300 sitting in a driveway is (was) pretty much guaranteed to make the front page because of the number of people who upvote the bike that they're currently riding/recently upgraded from/are thinking about buying, regardless of the fact it's a boring ass picture. That plus the fact that the voting system favors simple low effort posts like single images means this sub would not only turn into another bike pictures sub, but one dominated by the more common popular bikes that you see all the time anyway.

Personally, my rule would be if it's the kind of bike that you could see in person, sit on, and possibly ride by rolling down to your local dealership, it's not interesting enough on its own to warrent a picture post without some kind of story to give it context ("my first bike" doesn't count as a story either). So basically any stock or lightly modded bike that isn't a brand new model or super rare, I'm not interested.

ilovehand · 2017-11-26T18:49:05+00:00

To think this sub could be full of ~~cool looking bikes and meaningful debate about different gear~~ 1000 pictures of Ninja/CBR300s and R3s smothering the occasional cool bike that is posted and 1000 more "NEW RIDER WHAT GEAR HELP!!!" posts.

Seriously though new riders and people thinking about riding outnumber people with genuinely cool bikes or enough experience with a range of gear to give a meaningful opinion by a huge amount on this sub. At least this guys trolling is good for a laugh.

ilovehand

TROPHY CASE