RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted June 30, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 30, 2017 We could have sent away to Sportsbike at Boston for some trousers as they do free postage and return but for us it was worth the journey to go and try on several pairs. I am struggling to think of a bike shop in the region that offer as much stock to try on as them. J & S at Doncaster have a lot but nothing like that and the bike shops in Grimsby and Lincoln have far less. So going back to the original post have you a short list now? Summer is fading fast you know! Having said that I ride all year round even if it only goes out once a month it goes out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 So going back to the original post have you a short list now? Summer is fading fast you know! Having said that I ride all year round even if it only goes out once a month it goes out. I do, but it's pretty much unchanged from the earlier one. A Speed Triple may just have edged the VFR from the top spot, as I really do fancy something with a little character. I know a VFR would be a sensible purchase any day of the week, but those Triumph triples are tugging at the heart strings. A friend has a 955 Daytona, but he's not local, so will try and blag a quick ride next time I see him. The available cash to spend on a bike is tied up in an inheritance which is still bogged down in solicitors' red tape A house sale is involved and a sibling is being awkward, so mañana, mañana... Late summer, early autumn at the earliest, I reckon. I'm not in a rush for this, so will wishlist a while longer. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted June 30, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 30, 2017 I loved the look of the Daytona, loved the sound of the triple and it was a bit on the quick side. I could maybe have coped with the riding position before I had the Explorer but it was just so different and in the end I always chose the TE to go out on so the Daytona had to go. Good having a choice for a while but all good things come to an end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 I loved the look of the Daytona, loved the sound of the triple and it was a bit on the quick side. I could maybe have coped with the riding position before I had the Explorer but it was just so different and in the end I always chose the TE to go out on so the Daytona had to go. Good having a choice for a while but all good things come to an end. IMG_20160417_153543154_HDR.jpg Good grief. That Explorer certainly has some stature. It almost makes the Daytona look like a minimoto. Very nice. Looking at the clip-ons of the Daytona versus the flat bars, I have to acknowledge the fact that I'm getting older! I think I know which one would be more comfortable... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted June 30, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 30, 2017 Are you buying the bike over there or when you get here, bear in mind the re-registration costs. You've even got me, a committed 2wheelaphobe, looking in motor bike shops to see what's available! Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 (edited) Are you buying the bike over there or when you get here, bear in mind the re-registration costs. You've even got me, a committed 2wheelaphobe, looking in motor bike shops to see what's available! Hi Mike. If I'm honest, selling the UK machine before we leave and then buying another in Spain is obviously the easiest solution. Importing a UK bike into Spain is not supposed to be that difficult but (Spain being Spain) there are a good number of hoops that need to be jumped through. The bike would need a "certificate of European conformity". If that isn't available, then an independent engineer's report needs to be paid for. If there isn't at least one other bike of the same age, make and model already registered in Spain, that engineer's report becomes very very expensive. An extended "import" ITV test needs to be paid for. The test centre will reject a headlamp if it dips to the left. With ITV paperwork, taxes can then be paid and after the usual trip to the police station for yet more paperwork, a Spanish plate can be issued. If you get someone to do all the paperwork for you, you can pretty much double the total cost. If I choose to buy something in the UK that's a little unusual and possibly a bit vintage (say a 1985 GPZ), getting the bike on Spanish plates will be an expensive exercise. Much much easier if I buy something more common, but then if I do that, selling it before leaving the UK and buying another in Spain would make more sense. I should check out milanuncios.com to see what's available and maybe check out some Spanish motorcycle dealers' websites. For day-to-day life in Spain (as in the UK) a car makes more sense. Supermarket trips (how many 5L bottles of water and crates of San Miguel can you fit on a bike?), ferrying kids around etc etc. Biking is definitely more of a fair-weather "lifestyle" thing. I just think it would be nice to both have the cake and eat it. Even if the bike only comes out every other weekend for a quick ride down the coast or a trip up into the mountains, you can't put a price on that. I don't really get on with the whole "bikes are dangerous" argument. For example, walking out of Tesco carrying a bag of shopping the other day, I was nearly flattened by a pensioner reversing his Micra blindfolded. Risk is everywhere. For biking, a little bit of experience, the right protection and a dollop of common sense is the best you can do. It occurs to me that, knocking 50, it's high time I did what I want to do without overly worrying about the consequences. Just do me a favour and shoot me if I ever get a Harley though... Edited July 1, 2017 by Pete 75C Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted July 1, 2017 Share Posted July 1, 2017 Bikes carry some risk, of course, but most of it can be effectively managed. It certainly need to be regarded with a sense of perspective. I've spent much of my adult life living and breathing motorcycles, and a good chunk of it hanging around with other bikers. Maybe I've been lucky (if that's the right word) in that all the funerals I've been to have been a result of car crashes, suicide or cancer, and most of the people I've known with bits of metal in their skeletons got them from daft domestic accidents or playing contact sports. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 After reading Mike's post (above) and Googling some Spanish bike dealers around Alicante, I discovered that prices aren't too bad compared to the UK market. That bodes well for buying a bike out in Spain without going through all the import hassles. One dealer had this in stock for €3500 and it's only two years old... I had no idea what it was but it looked OK to me. Riding position looks good and the bike's styling doesn't overly offend me. Having Googled "Honda NC750" I then decided I wouldn't touch it with someone else's bargepole... It uses a detuned Honda Jazz car engine (why?), it has no rev counter which puzzled me and then I discovered why. It has clutchless automatic transmission. Also, the petrol tank isn't a petrol tank... it's a giant glove box. Sorry, just no. Is this the way bikes are heading? On the plus side, I discovered there's a Triumph dealership near Alicante but the prices were a bit eye-watering. Buying a bike in the UK to use for a couple of years and then selling it and buying another in Spain still looks like the best solution though, unless whatever I buy in the UK becomes like a family member and I couldn't bear to part with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted July 2, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2017 Worried that you had lost the plot there for a minute! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Turpin Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Was in a bike showroom yesterday because I have just begun considering getting my first motorcycle for over 30 years. To my surprise, the other customers all appeared about my age or older, provoking the comment from my wife that 'Everyone else in there was mid-life crisis too'. Is that what I am doing? Anyhow, I do like this: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I tried one of those when I was leading up to buying a Triumph last year. I can only say, don't. It's a variant of the Yamaha Bolt cruiser, restyled after the fashion of the XT500. I was very disappointed with it; heavy, lacking ground clearance and with minimal rear suspension movement due to the very short rear suspension units (the current Sportster has the same problem, for the same reason; rear subframe design compromised to achieve a very low seating position) The engine is very good but the overall bike, no. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blue Streak Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 You've Gotta love that 1970's Kenny Roberts Paint job 'tho. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Turpin Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 I tried one of those when I was leading up to buying a Triumph last year. I can only say, don't. It's a variant of the Yamaha Bolt cruiser, restyled after the fashion of the XT500. I was very disappointed with it; heavy, lacking ground clearance and with minimal rear suspension movement due to the very short rear suspension units (the current Sportster has the same problem, for the same reason; rear subframe design compromised to achieve a very low seating position) The engine is very good but the overall bike, no. Interesting. I like the looks of the Bolt as well. Never been a cruiser man in the past, but maybe my age has led me to desire a more enjoyable but sedate ride, and avoid speeding tickets. I have also never been attracted to Harleys, but the Bolt somehow seems an altogether different proposition. I have read that the pegs scrape easily though, which is disappointing.. Anyhow, I am going to spend a year saving up, and if I still want one next spring, I'm might just go for it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Can anyone explain to me the appeal of a low-down feet-forward riding position? Looking at Jim's picture of the Yamaha, it's not a bad looking machine for a cruiser (and yeah, the Kenny Roberts paintjob is nice). When my eldest brother's mental health deteriorated briefly and he bought a Harley, the riding position felt totally unnatural to me and on the move, it felt unstable. I spent my formative motorcycling years with my chin on the tank, so is it just different things to different people? I should point out that my brother made a full recovery, coincidentally as soon as he sold the Harley and bought a VFR... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatB Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Can anyone explain to me the appeal of a low-down feet-forward riding position? Looking at Jim's picture of the Yamaha, it's not a bad looking machine for a cruiser (and yeah, the Kenny Roberts paintjob is nice). When my eldest brother's mental health deteriorated briefly and he bought a Harley, the riding position felt totally unnatural to me and on the move, it felt unstable. I spent my formative motorcycling years with my chin on the tank, so is it just different things to different people? I should point out that my brother made a full recovery, coincidentally as soon as he sold the Harley and bought a VFR... I think it's mainly just a question of what you're used to. I've seen enough riders exercise perfect control over machines with forward pegs and high bars to be confident that such a riding position is not inherently dangerous as some would argue. Comfortable, however, is another matter. The inability to take any body weight on the legs, the tendency for any road shocks to go straight up the rider's spine and the reduced circulation in the hands due to their elevated position don't make for great long term comfort, IMHO. Mind you, again, I've seen enough riders do serious miles in such a position that it may work for some. Or maybe their pain threshold is higher than mine. Of course, there are the Feet Forward enthusiasts (not cruisers but things like the Quasar and Phasar) who maintain that a car type seating position has substantial advantages, although they seem unable to convince enough other people to make such a bike commercially viable. In series production the Honda DN-01 and some of the maxi-scooters come closest, but it's notable that the DN-01 is (I think) out of production after a fairly short life. For myself, even my taste in chops (or custom bikes in general if one is picky about definitions) runs to conventionally positioned footrests and flattish bars (although possibly on a high headstock). Indeed, even quite rearset footrests can be appropriate. However, a low seat and conventional footrests can lead to rather cramped legs, hence a tendency towards forward pegs. Again, it's down to the individual. When I'm looking speculatively at Harleys for sale, aftermarket forward controls go in the cons column against an individual bike. All that said, as a former resident of Bristol, I remember a bike that was running around in the late 80s/early 90s that we all called The Flying Crucifix. It was a big, old Japanese four, with a welded up hardtail conversion and the most enormous apehanger bars I've ever seen that weren't a wind-up, complemented by the widest, most forward, forward controls in the universe. That's as well as the matt black paint and open exhausts with little VW type tips. In spite of it's ludicrous impracticality it appeared to be ridden every day, year round. I never met the owner, and never met anyone who had, presumably because he was too busy riding the thing. So I don't really subscribe to a view on which is the "best" riding position for a particular individual. However, I tend to think that the riding position that suits the largest variety of people in the widest range of circumstances is the classic "slightly forward of upright, arms down at 45 degrees, knees at slightly less than a right angle and heels vertically below the hip joints" that has prevailed as the de facto standard since before WW1. Some things become universal because they work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Turpin Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 (edited) I think the best riding position is going to be one you can maintain for a couple of hours or so without crippling you. Having said that, I have trouble walking immediately after getting out of a car having spent any length of time travelling. And yes, the American chopper riding position looks all wrong to me also. Edited July 3, 2017 by Dick Turpin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 Harley set that "off and running" in the 70s. Try a Sportster with the original bench seat, and the buckhorn bars make sense. The forward footrests make perfect sense in the sense that the excessively low seat position, restricts leg room for riders of normal height. Same goes for the Big Twins. Try a 60s or 70s Big Twin with the "pogo" seat and the bars and footboards make sense. The forward footrests originate from the practice of mounting footrests to the original footboard mounts, as part of "chopping" the bike - look at 1960s and 1970s custom bikes, you will see that it was quite common to fabricate mid-mounted footrests on Big Twins, and the original Super Glide was so fitted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted July 3, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 3, 2017 Didn't they build diesel motorbikes? No that is Harley Davidson Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted July 3, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 3, 2017 (edited) Why are so few twins 180 degree twins? I thought it was a logical design. Edited July 3, 2017 by MJI Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Why are so few twins 180 degree twins? I thought it was a logical design. Vibration, basically. The original Triumph Speed Twin was advertised as "much smoother" than the big singles of the day, and it was. The 90 deg v-twin and 180 deg flat-twin have far superior primary balance, at the expense of a pronounced low-speed rocking couple, but the 180 degree parallel twin delivers rough power delivery along with maximum primary imbalance. That's why the new Triumph engine has a 270 degree crank - more usable power delivery in conjunction with mitigating the vibration of the parallel twin by means of rotating balance weights. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Dayz Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 Still on two wheels after first riding a bike forty years ago! My mate had a Suzuki AP50 and that was the first of many bikes I've thrown my legs over (although I'm now at the age where leg throwing isn't quite so easy lol). This is my current weapon of choice. Spent £lots on this bike to get it how I want it, but, don't tell the wife!! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 This is my current weapon of choice... That's rather tasty. A Firestorm nearly made it onto my shortlist, having owned a Suzuki TL1000R and developed a liking for big V twins. What year is it? Just not so sure about the riding position... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel Dayz Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 (edited) That's rather tasty. A Firestorm nearly made it onto my shortlist, having owned a Suzuki TL1000R and developed a liking for big V twins. What year is it? Just not so sure about the riding position... Hi Pete. It's a '98. The riding position is alright. Fits ok (I'm 6'). VFR750 clip ons fit (with a slight fairing mod), but, mines on standard clip ons and footrests. As regards V Twins, most of the bikes I've owned have been 4 cylinders across the frame. This is the first V I've owned. It's the 20th Anniversary of the 'Storm this year. There's a meeting of 'Storms to commemorate this at the Birmingham Motorcycle Museum on Saturday 15th July. Edited July 4, 2017 by Diesel Dayz Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted July 6, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 6, 2017 Vibration, basically. The original Triumph Speed Twin was advertised as "much smoother" than the big singles of the day, and it was. The 90 deg v-twin and 180 deg flat-twin have far superior primary balance, at the expense of a pronounced low-speed rocking couple, but the 180 degree parallel twin delivers rough power delivery along with maximum primary imbalance. That's why the new Triumph engine has a 270 degree crank - more usable power delivery in conjunction with mitigating the vibration of the parallel twin by means of rotating balance weights. Still seems strange as 360 parallel twins are really no better than a single And the 180 twins I had were fine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejstubbs Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 (edited) Didn't they build diesel motorbikes? No that is Harley Davidson I assume that is intended to be a joke at HD's expense? Or perhaps you're getting confused with HDT (Hayes Diversified Technologies) who build a diesel bike for the US Army (which could be compounded by the fact that Harley Davidson took over production of the Armstrong MT500 and MT350 for the British Army - though they weren't diesel powered). Horsetan is right, Royal Enfield did produce a diesel bike: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_motorcycle#Royal_Enfield - I have a vague recollection that they even tried marketing them in the UK for a short time. Edited July 6, 2017 by ejstubbs Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now