New motorcycles

[madatter]

Originally Posted by Coho911

Triumph bikes are incredible now.

I bought a 2014 Triumph Thunderbird Storm with 3k kms cheap and its been awesome.
Ill never own a Harley.....

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by Ken07AOVette

The last 4 bikes I had were Hayabusa's. Amazing bike, great handling, excellent mileage. I put Corbin beetle bags (hard) on one of them, the wife loved them because her legs were protected. She nearly fell asleep several times on the 'Busa.

I am not old enough for a Harley. I don't think I ever will, hate them.

Hayabusas? Surprised! Nice bikes though; you should see one that's in town here. A foot longer swing arm, a couple custom touches, and... oh yeah, turbo'd and tuned to about 500 hp!

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by does it ALL outdoors

Compared to what? Hopefully other big cruisers.

You should try one of the new M8's, smooth like butter with lots of get up and go without add on's. WAY too spendy for this guy though, $30,000K for a recreational vehicle is just ABSURD to me.

Out of the OP's two choices of Indian or Harley it's a no brainer. HD

Check out Indianmotorcycles.net and look at all the problems Poo-laris is having with the simplest of things like gauges fogging up and fenders rusting, chrome flaking, along with a laundry list of other problems. And customers are being denied warranty for the silliest of reasons, most often "operator error". Typical Poo-laris stuff, selling junk and not taking care of their customers. And look at the resale of them, guys are taking HUGE baths on them trying to unload them. I'm sure most of them are good bikes but what if it's one of the many lemons they produce? Polaris will get there with their issues but they arnt there yet.
But if that is what your into, by all means buy what YOU wanna buy, your the one that has to ride it.

Harley's are far from perfect but there's a dealer on every second corner and the Moco is pretty good about warranty issues.

No doubt Jap bikes are top shelf for quality and that's simply undeniable, but they lack a soul and you didn't mention them otherwise I would highly recomend a Metric bike.

HD's are WAY overpriced (as are Indians) and not the best quality (compared to a Metric) but once you kick a leg over one and bring it to life you will know why they are so popular.

In my 25 years of riding the most DB's I've come across are BMW owners, aka, the safety brigade.

The newer "Twinkies" are more like Jap bikes. Ballsy, handle nice, and stop well.

I don't know about Japanese bikes with no soul. Some of them are pretty vanilla, but a hot rod of a naked bike is a little more than just a machine.

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

And when riding with pride, are the assless chaps the proper attire?

All chaps are assless... Food for thought!

[mooseknuckle]

Originally Posted by Tactical Lever

Hayabusas? Surprised! Nice bikes though; you should see one that's in town here. A foot longer swing arm, a couple custom touches, and... oh yeah, turbo'd and tuned to about 500 hp!

That's Crazy, believe the new Kawasakis are supercharged!! They have a road one and strictly track 300-350hp respectively.

WOW!!!

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckle

That's Crazy, believe the new Kawasakis are supercharged!! They have a road one and strictly track 300-350hp respectively.

WOW!!!

My old Z1000 was only about 125 to the pavement, and that was a crazy fast naked bike. At least fast for me, as it was my quickest by far to date.

I think the regular production bike is around 250 or something? Look up the dyno run, and the track runs. I've never heard anything like it. Awesome sounding machine.

I'm kind of a Kawi guy, so I get pretty stoked about these high powered bikes.

I kind of want an Africa Twin though after thinking about it again.

[bloopbloob]

Originally Posted by Tactical Lever

My old Z1000 was only about 125 to the pavement, and that was a crazy fast naked bike. At least fast for me, as it was my quickest by far to date.

I think the regular production bike is around 250 or something? Look up the dyno run, and the track runs. I've never heard anything like it. Awesome sounding machine.

I'm kind of a Kawi guy, so I get pretty stoked about these high powered bikes.

I kind of want an Africa Twin though after thinking about it again.

I had a very short period of owning a 2003 GSXR 750, only a few months. I think HP to weight ratio was at the tops at the time. I think it was 165hp, and 325lbs(ish). Wicked little thing. Quickly realized I would die if I kept it. Layed it down once. Got in a short police chase once. Took it to 273 km/h once. Young and dumb. But I guess I was smart enough to know it was a bad idea. It was brand new, sold it by end of that one summer. Busa's are heavy, this bike was insanely light for the power it had. Not the greatest starter bike, in hindsight...

[bloopbloob]

Haven't read all the posts, but I'm surprised Ken! I'd totally guess you'd be a Harley guy, not someone rolling on a Busa!!!

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by bloopbloob

I had a very short period of owning a 2003 GSXR 750, only a few months. I think HP to weight ratio was at the tops at the time. I think it was 165hp, and 325lbs(ish). Wicked little thing. Quickly realized I would die if I kept it. Layed it down once. Got in a short police chase once. Took it to 273 km/h once. Young and dumb. But I guess I was smart enough to know it was a bad idea. It was brand new, sold it by end of that one summer. Busa's are heavy, this bike was insanely light for the power it had. Not the greatest starter bike, in hindsight...

More like 140hp and 370lbs dry, still impressive, but no need to exaggerate. I had one of the original 1985 GSXR 750s, and I had the pleasure of riding a kitted RG500, which was really impressive.

[bloopbloob]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

More like 140hp and 370lbs dry, still impressive, but no need to exaggerate. I had one of the original 1985 GSXR 750s, and I had the pleasure of riding a kitted RG500, which was really impressive.

Not exaggerating. Just don't remember the numbers... it was many years ago. I remember it at 165hp. 370lbs sounds familiar though. You're probably right. I'll be looking it up now, just cuz. Haha

[bloopbloob]

Originally Posted by elkhunter11

More like 140hp and 370lbs dry, still impressive, but no need to exaggerate. I had one of the original 1985 GSXR 750s, and I had the pleasure of riding a kitted RG500, which was really impressive.

You are correct sir, after a quick search. 366lbs, 140hp.
Brings back memories. I had a buddy with a CBR 600RR with a 75shot of nitrous. What a crazy mofo he was. He'd do wheelies forever, stand on his seat with arms straight out at 100km/h. Wheelie heel clickers over the windshield. Just Crazy. Almost a death wish. I was lucky if I didn't drop it trying to put the kickstand down...

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by bloopbloob

I had a very short period of owning a 2003 GSXR 750, only a few months. I think HP to weight ratio was at the tops at the time. I think it was 165hp, and 325lbs(ish). Wicked little thing. Quickly realized I would die if I kept it. Layed it down once. Got in a short police chase once. Took it to 273 km/h once. Young and dumb. But I guess I was smart enough to know it was a bad idea. It was brand new, sold it by end of that one summer. Busa's are heavy, this bike was insanely light for the power it had. Not the greatest starter bike, in hindsight...

Hayabusas are heavier, but still not that porky, and put down a lot of power. In the horsepower and speed wars that were renewed in the glory days of sport bikes, the original Hayabusa was the king of top speed.

The old ZX-11 held the title for probably a stinkin' decade (!), and then the Honda Blackbird had aspirations of taking it, or maybe just matching it, which they did, I believe the most accurate tested speeds were about 175, and 176 mph respectively. And then the Hayabusa which is the Japanese name for their Peregrine Falcon (take that, Honda!) came on the scene and hit something like 186 out of the box. Kawasaki responded with the ZX-1200R (or something like that) which trounced the Suzuki for horsepower, but due to the Suzuki's slipperier shape, it couldn't quite match the top speed.

I believe at that time, the nervous Nellys of the world expressed some concerns on how fast the bikes were getting, and some sort of unofficial limit to production bike speed became 186 mph. (IIRC).

Fast is fun, but I just can't believe the number of guys out there that think the new 600s are "beginner bikes"! Kind of like putting a 16 year old, new driver in an 800 hp Mustang. "Beginner car"..

[Tactical Lever]

Originally Posted by bloopbloob

You are correct sir, after a quick search. 366lbs, 140hp.
Brings back memories. I had a buddy with a CBR 600RR with a 75shot of nitrous. What a crazy mofo he was. He'd do wheelies forever, stand on his seat with arms straight out at 100km/h. Wheelie heel clickers over the windshield. Just Crazy. Almost a death wish. I was lucky if I didn't drop it trying to put the kickstand down...

I don't fully trust all the numbers out there for bikes. I remember hearing stories of old air cooled 750 Nighthawks and the like doing 260. Ya, right! Then some of the weights listed were highly suspect, and shown to be not very accurate. I still don't trust the speedos, as they have been shown to be pretty optimistic. And to top it all off, I'm not sure they even give us the right HP numbers either!

I'll tell you one thing on that subject. Even after adjusting the numbers for an optimistic speedo (on the high end) for my Z, it was still way too fast, according to some literature. I didn't quite set out to top records in a Speedo (look it up!), but somebody/something's fibbing!

[Ranger1894]

Try a Yamaha FJR 1300 or a Honda ST1300, next step from a rocket.