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Help me choose a motorbike

-alan- said:
I'm afraid as another unreconstituted motorcyclist from the 70s era - I'm on the same track. I've never quite been able to articulate what's wrong with the whole 'Hipster' thing, but that pretty much nails it :)
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The problem is it has dominated. Like Harleys in america and adventure bikes. But if a retro bike goes like a stabbed rabbit and corners like a Blade, then it is not guilty of being fake. It's the real deal. There are only three that do that:

CB1000R
Speed Twin
Vitpilen

The rest can get in the sea. Eg

Scrambler
Enfield
R 9 T
 
Don't start me on 'Adventure' motorcyclists with the two grands worth of empty panniers and CharlieMcBoorface tailored suits standing up on the pegs going over the speed bumps on the way into Tesco for the half-litre of milk of a Saturday morning... :)
 
-alan- said:
Don't start me on 'Adventure' motorcyclists with the two grands worth of empty panniers and CharlieMcBoorface tailored suits standing up on the pegs going over the speed bumps on the way into Tesco for the half-litre of milk of a Saturday morning... :)
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Them's the pillocks. Don't forget they all use road tyres too. I'd gladly set fire to every GS in sight. And Multistradas etc
 
-alan- said:
Don't start me on 'Adventure' motorcyclists with the two grands worth of empty panniers and CharlieMcBoorface tailored suits standing up on the pegs going over the speed bumps on the way into Tesco for the half-litre of milk of a Saturday morning... :)
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I go for ride-outs with a group down here (Devon and Cornwall) and on some of the goat tracks of roads we have I can't keep up with them. A bit like Chelsea tractors; they make sense here.
 
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awkwardbydesign said:
I go for ride-outs with a group down here (Devon and Cornwall) and on some the goat tracks of roads we have I can't keep up with them. A bit like Chelsea tractors; they make sense here.
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In this case I recommend a Husqvarna 701 Enduro, KTM 690 or a Yamaha T7 at biggest / heaviest. But these guys will go out and get the biggest and most expensive lumps possible, touching 20 grand, who is going to ride a 20 grand adventure bike on the trails with any verve? Not me. Even the Africa Twin looks much too heavy. And I understand it feels light. But that will count for nowt when you skid out on gravel. It's going down hard. And expensive.
 
^ Indeed.

awkwardbydesign said:
I go for ride-outs with a group down here (Devon and Cornwall) and on some the goat tracks of roads we have I can't keep up with them. A bit like Chelsea tractors; they make sense here.
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You want one of these - the tractors won't see you for dust :)

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The Chelsea tractor is a good analogy though. Both they and the Adventure bikes look like they should be purposeful in the dirt, but really aren't for anything other than the mildest off-road excursion.
Anybody doubts that - give them 5 minutes trying to pull a big lump of an overweight flat-twin out of a mud-hole once it's sunk right up to its axles. All the moreso when something like a DRZ 400 would most probably have managed to keep going through the clag in the first place. I spent far too much time righting upended Moto-crossers and Enduros in my youth to wish to attempt that kind of thing on a tarted up tourer :)
 
Once in Southern Ireland I made the mistake of taking the scenic route from Kerry to Cork.... now even the main roads there are like a country B road here but this was basically a mud track and had deep pot holes, ruts the lot... two up on Honda CBR1000F (the first one not the poncy retro) and to pull over and let a Landrover overtake as 30mph would have been impossibly fast on this road!...
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Once in Southern Ireland I made the mistake of taking the scenic route from Kerry to Cork.... now even the main roads there are like a country B road here but this was basically a mud track and had deep pot holes, ruts the lot... two up on Honda CBR1000F (the first one not the poncy retro) and to pull over and let a Landrover overtake as 30mph would have been impossibly fast on this road!...
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The roads are a lot better now, in fact in the main roads are excellent and the back roads are a lot better than they used to be.
 
-alan- said:
Don't start me on 'Adventure' motorcyclists with the two grands worth of empty panniers and CharlieMcBoorface tailored suits standing up on the pegs going over the speed bumps on the way into Tesco for the half-litre of milk of a Saturday morning... :)
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Lol, they're very popular around here, if you go to Newcastle any Sunday it's 50/50 adventure BMWs or power rangers on the latest fantastic plastics !
 
 
Darren L said:
The roads are a lot better now, in fact in the main roads are excellent and the back roads are a lot better than they used to be.
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it was satisfactorily eccentric and "Father Ted" like back then (1998 ish)! In spite of even main roads being single track there were hard shoulders on nearly all of them and yes donkeys, horse and cart, and, most common, seemingly pissed yokels in really beat up things like old Viva's driving along at maybe 10mph in hard shoulder!!

The most "Irish" was a full on motorway that covered only the last 5 miles or so into Dublin... the rest of the journey to that point, from anywhere, was still on "B" roads! After a forced no-more-than-50mph for what seemed a lifetime and due to the condition of the roads I gave it some and went past a Garda with "a hairdryer" who thought he was in a cowboy film by the way he operated it, at about 125mph... never heard anything more about it...

HUGE statues, painted often, of jesus on the cross at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere was another erm... eccentricity I wasn't expecting! Less still the eccentric, scary old lady running the B&B who had one about 9' high at the top of the stairs!
 
Wot u wont is a BSA DBD 34 Goldie in full clubman trim. .. Clip ons.. arse in the air... bump seat.. no brakes.. slipping the clutch up to 70 in first...

Proper bike that...
 
When I passed my test I bought a lovely second hand Yamaha RD500 when they were at the bottom of their value In early 2000s. Loved that bike, tripled my money when I sold it too!
 
-alan- said:
The Chelsea tractor is a good analogy though. Both they and the Adventure bikes look like they should be purposeful in the dirt, but really aren't for anything other than the mildest off-road excursion.
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That might be true for some of them but others are actually quite capable. On a trail bike race I did in Wales I finished mid-pack on my 2-stroke, lightweight Honda CRM250R but was well beaten by an Africa Twin and a BMW GS (the latter ridden by journalist Paul Blezard) - and while there was a bit of fire-road etc. it had proper off road sections too, and some of them quite tough (one climb in particular I recall as being very slippery and was quite a struggle even on the CRM).

I don't really think that something like a BMW1150GS was really expected to be doing trials or enduro type sections though, and while they will certainly mostly get used off-road they will be very capable on broken surfaces or gravel roads.
 
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