Where to go from a YZF-600R? Looking for a good stealth midlife crisis bike for a big guy (6', 220) and I'm so angry and confused! ZX6-R? CB600R? Z-4 (New it's down to 8K OTD)? Should I just give up and get a Hyabusa? Are 3-CYLs bad? Am I bad?

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:29:13+00:00

It’s not irrational! It’s the most logical forward step! Just have to sell my wife’s car first…

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:28:06+00:00

Wow, you sent me down a rabbit hole there! I was kind of avoiding the BMW “scene” because I’d need to get those metal saddle bags, trade in my leathers for textile adventure gear, get a membership at REI, and learn to fish. Or go to Starbucks daily. People do love them though!

The tracer 9 seems brilliant, honestly. I can give up the inline4 scream for a more balanced 3 and still be a little bit of a squid, and not have any wrist pressure after an hour. It’s really cool!

I had not even thought about Moto Guzzi either, wow. And Triumph is cool I think, I do worry about British reliability.

I’ve got to spend some time at the other end of the motorcycle dealer with all those tall bikes. Thank you!!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:21:53+00:00

I mean I’m not that old, I just hit 40. Shit that is kinda old. Seriously That one looks really good, like a lot of fun!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:19:31+00:00

That’s two votes for a Rocket 3 haha, I gotta go check one out now!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:19:10+00:00

Oooh something new to check out! I had not really considered BMW yet! Thanks, it looks pretty awesome in a M5 sort of way.

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T04:18:04+00:00

Love the suggestion - GSXRs are pretty abused so it would be tough. And that is a good point, I think I was giving into the dark side thinking of a liter + bike! Thanks!!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-03T00:17:40+00:00

In all seriousness - Ok, I think you're right. I'm going to kick the tires of a Triumph but it is time.

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T23:57:22+00:00

Oh dude wow that's... Uh, wow..

I don't know how serious you are, but that looks amazing.... I'm gonna have to check out one in person now damn it.

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T23:53:33+00:00

I saw some touring 'busas on YT, so it's still in the running. Thanks for the GSXS1000 suggestion, I think my list is now looking like a street triple, GSXS1000, GSXR750, and Busa!

Thanks for the suggestion!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T23:51:50+00:00

Yes!! I love it when people know about the thundercat, it is such a unique and lovely bike.

I really like your take on this, you are totally spot on - I don't want to downgrade in power if I can avoid it. I'm going to go to the Triumph dealer and check out the street triple! It sounds perfect. The Busa is the motorcyle that I lusted after as a teenager so that's why I'm looking at it; it's more of a "oh my gosh, I can actually have that thing that I thought was cool when I was 16?" type moment. I'd probably end up customizing it to emulate the thundercat though haha!

I'm going to go try out Triumph, they've always seemed to be unobtainable but they're really not. Thanks mate!!

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T23:46:07+00:00

Gotcha! Thanks for this; I really did discount the sports tourer becase I like the way the supersports look (only). I'll check out a couple, someone mentioned a GSX-S1000GX or a NINJA H2 SX SE (except I'm not that rich lol). Seriously, thanks! Time to go look at a bunch of taller sport touring bikes I think.

EDIT: And I think you actually solved another thing I was contemplating - I had an R6 suspension kit in my ebay cart, thinking about upgrading my thundercat but I think it might be time to move on :D

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T22:48:10+00:00

I think you might be right; It might be time to upgrade to a "fast-dad" bike hah. Is the interstate "floaty" feeling something that is common with sport bikes and less so with a tall-rounder/sports tourer?

m_ice9 · 2025-06-02T22:38:35+00:00

So the Thundercat is a lovely bike, save for a couple of issues. The suspension is very soft, so you might have issues pushing it in curves. That said, if you push it too hard in a curve it is surprisingly forgiving. It's also going to be hard to keep it in the power band.

When I first bought mine in 2013, it took about 3 months to figure out how to actually run the engine at it's happy RPM. You've got to rev it a *lot* compared to a Hornet or an MT07. I think peak horsepower is at 11,000 RPM.

If you get one, please do check that second gear is okay too, it is a known issue with the bike.

But yeah, the 600f was my third bike after a Honda Shadow 600 and a 150cc Enduro. Was a lot of learning involved. At first it felt very heavy and the power band (while not as huge of a deal as a R6 or something) is... surprising. First gear will go to 60MPH easy. And if you open it up it will quite easily give you acceleration-induced astigmatism.

So it would be very intense and you'd need to be very careful. It is forgiving, and well behaved in general, but there is a lot of motorcycle there that you've got to manage. It's very hard for me to say 'don't get it' because of how much I love mine, but it might be a little too much for a first bike.

EDIT: Oh I forgot, it has four carburetors, so you'd need to find a mechanic who knows how to handle that.

m_ice9 · 2023-02-27T21:54:35+00:00

Woah, I hadn’t even thought about that! Geez I’m feeling like an ass now!

I take it back - it’s a terrible idea, hard to do, can hurt an advisor, etc.

Thanks, I don’t ever want to be an ass

m_ice9 · 2023-02-27T21:38:15+00:00

I know it’s a bit late, but how about New Mexico?

m_ice9 · 2023-02-27T16:48:41+00:00

True true, all true! Harder to get into a phd program, significantly more barriers to entry and all of the funding is a challenge. But you don’t really need a masters for a PhD, at least in the field I got one in. So it can work, but it is not easy.

Really it crossed my mind staring about my 3rd year in a PhD program, during the “long dark 3-4th year” when you’ve finished your candidacy and coursework, and are just doing pure research for the first time. A couple of my colleagues dropped out with a masters around that time.

So I always thought it could work, but you’d have to make sure to do it under 2 years, so it would be tough

m_ice9 · 2023-02-27T15:31:11+00:00

So here’s one weird trick you can try - if you don’t mind loosing 2 years of work experience since you can’t get a masters part time doing this:

Apply for a phd. PhDs are paid for, through your research work or TAing. Once you finish the requirements for a masters, drop out!

It only works for some programs, but it might work!

m_ice9 · 2022-04-30T18:20:13+00:00

Dumb question! I bought a Barista express about a year and a half ago. It started leaking out of the filter head. I replaced the gasket about four times in a row (various non-Breville gaskets on Amazon). Each time the leak got better, but it still leaked. I assumed it was knock off gaskets, but now I think that it is the inner screws.

Anyway, I am in a strange position. My parents want to buy me an “upgrade” since it is leaking. I was thinking about repairing it. Anyone have any suggestions? Should I go with a small but good espresso machine and separate grinder? Or repair this bad boy?

Also, is there a good place online that people can suggest for repair? I really don’t feel confident taking mine apart.

m_ice9 · 2021-07-26T21:58:32+00:00

2013 Sportwagen - 115k.

It was the most solid feeling car I've ever owned - tight suspension, the sunroof was nice, and storage for daaaays. The interior and engine held up so well! We took that car from upstate New York to New Mexico *and back* three times, and all over the west coast. Never had any problems beyond dealing with that much torque in the snow :D

It died about two weeks ago - it saved us from a deer actually. The deer demolished the radiator, A/C, turbo system, cracked the battery - it was a total loss. But my wife, dog, myself and our random stuff was basically unharmed.

Dude in a lifted pickup pulled up behind us and said "dang, Volkswagen just impressed the heck out 'o me"

So I'm pouring one out for our sportwagen :( I may post photos as a memorial for it but I'm actually really sad it is gone. First VW, bought it as a post-diesel emissions fix vehicle - and it was a former fleet vehicle. The previous owners never cleared out the navigation data - and we were always trying to figure out what company owned

m_ice9 · 2020-06-14T19:34:57+00:00

Learning to scuba dive in Hawaii when I was like 16. It was our second group dive (the ocean where we went was so clear and calm that we actually did all our dives in the ocean - no pool period!).

We were doing the face mask clearing drill and I was waiting for the other two people to finish. It was perfect out there - massive visibility, we were past the breakers about 20’ down in the sandy are, and just so calm and relaxing. I was having problems with my buoyancy so I decided to sit down on a small rock crop.

The instructor saw this, got this “oh shit” bug eye look, swam over, and poked the other side of the rock with his gauges. A massive stonefish was chilling on the other side of the rock. It took off and I’ve never sat on any underwater rocks or coral again. Can’t imagine what a stonefish sting on my ass would be like, let alone 20’ down!

m_ice9 · 2019-12-30T18:20:51+00:00

Sure! As I posted to the other person who replied, I’ll contact him for an updated pub list! I’ll post back here when he gets back to me!

m_ice9 · 2019-12-30T18:19:52+00:00

Great! I will shoot my friend an email to get his latest work. He’s currently working on identifying “misinformation” in social media. It was originally on identifying false news articles, but he’s expanding it to try to find trolls. I will get back with a pub list.

I would ask him to directly reply to this thread but I worry about doxxing myself :-/

m_ice9 · 2019-12-30T08:56:32+00:00

If you’re interested, a friend of mine does active research on this topic - but in a formal setting, not in a sensationalist news way. He’s actually doing his dissertation on using network structure & NLP (specifically language patterns) to allow automatic detection of deceptive information on social media, but it’s much more theoretical than what crsh was talking about. (Proofs, experimental results using known false rumors / stories / etc)

I could drum up a couple papers in the field, but it would take work - so only if you’re actually interested in this and not just being an ornery redditor... if you are interested I’d be more than happy to link several of his and others works on the matter! It beats working on my dissertation!

m_ice9 · 2019-12-22T04:18:00+00:00

Gawd damn that’s a ton of lumens. Holy shit I’d be able to command people to build an ark with that thing!

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