In 1970, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold to 204 million Americans. The most powerful mass-produced bike had 67 horsepower, but the median was probably around 35-40hp. They were approachable and cheap, and it wasn't weird or rebellious to commute to work on a bike. These bikes are too slow for modern interstate speeds, but they met the need of the time.
I hate parallel twins as much as the next guy (with the exception of the CP2 Yamaha motor and some of the big bore 2016+ Triumphs), but these things are tractable and powerful enough to conceivably be someone's first bike AND their second bike. Hardcore CP2 owners regularly get 100k+ miles (if you don't wheelie it) out of their bikes. In an era where disposable income is nonexistent and nobody works on their own shit, 24k valve adjustment intervals are absolute magic. They're the right motor for the era, and they can be pretty fun in the right chassis.
The goal is more bikes on the road. I don't care if they're powered by singles or twins or fusion reactors that run off racial tension. It's hard to imagine motorcycles pivoting from their current status as tools of antisocial personality disorder to one of daily use by average Americans, but I think everyone on the road would benefit from it. Saturation is the only way these objectively stupid machines are going to escape the banhammer over the next twenty years, and I think the P2's might be the ticket.
Fair, but the real demographic sample you saw was "people who can afford take a day or two off to attend a sporting event". Which is a worse sign, if you think about it.
Same here, different football. I'll go to a bears game every few years and it'll cost me $500+ american dollars. Ticket for me and the wife, beers at the game. Then I'll see guys at the game who probably go to all 8 home games who have to have this as the only fun thing in their budget because they have to be spending 3-5k minimum a year on football games
"In 1970, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold to 204 million Americans. The most powerful mass-produced bike had 67 horsepower, but the median was probably around 35-40hp. "
In an era where most cars were either 125 (gross!) horsepower Slant Sixes or 57-horse Beetles, this was ripping, but I take your point.
"The goal is more bikes on the road. I don't care if they're powered by singles or twins or fusion reactors that run off racial tension."
Agreed. But I think this is best done by taking the Karl Rove/Dodge Ram strategy: make the bikes MORE objectionable in the hopes that one out of a hundred age-appropriate men will buy them every year just to spite the world around them, which brings you back up to 1.5 million units. We can't "nice" ourselves into a bigger market, although I *do* see an astounding number of young men on those Groms.
@ SGEFFE : I guess it depends where you're at ~ I see stupid kids riding E-Bikes sans helmets all the time, mostly they're riding unsafely, wheelies in close traffic and so on .
_I_ don't want those idiots near my in traffic on any two wheeled vehicle .
I think my 1971 BMW R75/5 made 40 HP when new, it was sufficient but nothing more, forget wheelies, burn outs and so on .
55 years later it's still the best riding Motocycle I've ever been on =8-) .
American testosterone levels in the 18-39 age bracket dropped ~25% between 1999 and 2016, and probably significantly more in the ten years since. That's peak "maybe I should get a motorcycle" years. Maybe the market's following the consumer, rather than the other way around.
Maybe the real horror is that 25 y/o man in 2005 was a K5 GSXR 1k, and a 25 y/o man today is a GSX-8R.
Even if I wouldn't agree, I can intellectually understand an argument that the 2.7L TurboMax is a good fit for a Silverado LT or a Traverse but GM put that tug boat engine into the CT4-V!
In $_THE_CURRENT_YEAR? I'd say a parallel twin in the new Silverado. (This idea warrants a parody article published by an automotive lifestyle brand, later to be deleted at the request of Belle Isle's most notorious crash test dummy)
my german mech nephew put a recent triumph bike engine into a spitfire. looks factory and has lots more power than the original. he also has a bmw 2002 with the roof sawed off and a v-12 bmw engine in it. he builds stuff!
This is what bewilders me. How did I get through four different correctional institutions without a tattoo and these broads can't make it through the Taylor Swift Eras Tour without drawing dickbutt cartoons on themselves in permanent blue ink.
I used to have "no tattoos" on my list and it eliminated half+ of millennial women so I got rid of it. The wife has a couple, which I don't love, but at least they're not sleeves, chest, or neck tattoos.
The body counts were bad enough 22 years ago. I knew a girl who was at 20 by 19. My ex, who was about as boring as boring can be in that department, one day with out any inquiry on my part. "I've banged 10 guys" Ok, I didn't need to know that.
I am considering a p-twin, there are a couple of slightly older 700ish cc Hondas out there that have kind of funky lines, but I often read, that the engine is soulless, that it has no character other than it sips fuel, maybe at my age I could live with that, I have never ridden any of the other smaller bore crotch rockets, out side of my long gone XS Eleven Special, my current machine has a v twin, about 1700 cc’s… it ain’t fast, but it has all kinds of grunt. The 500 Rebel is a consideration too, and I think reasonably priced. I never considered myself emasculated, and at 145 pounds, I can handle a big Harley without dropping it, one handles an 830 pound bike with finesse.
All of the cars Jack listed are built to a formula, social media is their only difference….
I have owned a few Honda’s, including a parallel twin 400 hondamatic, the 650 custom and the Goldwing were not soulless, but the 400 was/is, I restored that bike thirty + years ago and it still runs and looks nice, but it felt utilitarian.
The Ace suffered from a blight of good engineering. It had a 2 pin crankshaft, one for each cylinder, which is anathema to cruiser buyers. Sounds and feels are a big part of the cruiser market and the draw of the entire segment. The 1100 was designed to run well and last a long time. It didn’t sound very good at all. I have been known to accuse it of sounding like a garbage truck.
Conversely, the Fury has the newer 1300 engine which was made for the old VTX series when they were made in the US plant. So, it’s squarely aimed at the American market with sound, looks, and general feel, apart from being quite weak on power.
This is why the Ace 1100 was chopped from the lineup and the 1300 powered machines took its place.
Yeah, when Honda closed the plant in Maryville they had a huge surplus of VTX models warehoused. They then took the engine architecture, added EFI and a few small changes, and put them in the new street models (saber, fury, etc.) to meet the then existing custom bike look. So, the VTX was chopped as a USA made model. Then the succeeding models were Japan made.
I too like the shmoove running of the M8 bikes. They’re a step forward from the Twinkies which were a step forward from Evos. Really great powertrain.
The Alfa guila 4 motor is the big drawback of the car. It sounds like a Mercedes diesel taxi. True there is lots of tq and it mates well with the zf box. But there is always turbo lag and the motor has zero sense of occasion or specialnes. It’s ok because the power is there and the rest of the car is so superlative. But it leaves what’s otherwise a special machine as not really a keeper, cause thee is always something missing. An Italian car without a voice
On to bikes the solution is spelt triumph
They make an excellent trident 800 triple well within the price range.
Yeah modern vehicles suck from screen to inside power plants to useless steering to fakey doo brake by wire
I just pulled the e46 m3 out of hibernation and the motor carries the car, from sound to repose that is wired to the pedal as opposed to modern mush to power to the broad reach of the power band through revs. If only the guila had that motor, if only, how complicated could that be.
Got it new in 05, 36k miles now. Other than coil packs which sarted to go bad and needed replacing, the 30k service which is shim checks on the valves its really needed nothing. I do change oil every year regardless of mileage and brake fluid every 2-3 years, rad every 5 or so. Plus it gets a bit of a warm up before pulling off and I always work it up to speed and full temp with sensitivity.
I am feeling like it should get the rear subframe reinforcement.
I think many of these cars are on their 4th or more owners and have been thrashed when they were just 22k used cars. They do need some care, and I wonder how many were given a proper warmup before being run
Like IMS bearing failures I think the sub-frame reinforcement on E46 is a bit overblown. IF, key word, the car is stock or near to it, you aren't tracking it, doing 6k clutch dumps on the regular, or replaced all the bushings with Poly or stiffer, i.e. Delrin or Solid. I think there is more of a risk having someone peel back the stock undercoating and potentially weaking the structure more with shitty welds or introducing the possibility of corrosion.
Let me know if you ever want to move it along, I promise I won't rip the S54 out for an LS and make it worse is almost every way.
They scare me, so no interest in trying to swap one, but a BHPH quality level S85 M5/6 would be fun to drive until it breaks and I leave it in a ditch to be *redacted* later.
Its is a little heavy. From the factory the spring, shocks is not ideal and the brakes fine for street, in that regard the newer gulia is simply better. . All USA spec cars need a CSL remap, as Us sec motors have all these flat spots and are dead past 7k rpm. Running as they should with mayeb a little race gas blended in so you have 96 octane to really use the csl tune its not hard to see the magic was all about, there is simply a precision and breadth of power across a wide rev range, the relentless pull from 3600-8k is something no modern seems to have, and no bent pushrod v8 ever had. It will comfortably charge/pull to 180 in 5th, thats not slowly adding speed, but a solid hard pull all the way there. . A modern car without screens and annoyances.
Even better is maybe a Euro spec 36 m3 which came with the same motor. But the difference is the E46 while bigger and heavier has peak BMW styling and build.
put it this way, with what a great e46 m3 is worth it could be a direct swap for anew M2 these days, but in many ways that seems like downgrade.
It’s a dream, in a lot of ways - also, like so many of the super cars, a bit excessive.
There has to be a “powerband” of value to cost where you can drive something hard and still tolerate a grocery store door ding. I would argue your E46 is in that powerband but a hole in the carbon door panel of a Totem would be a very bad day…
At which point the car ceases to be a car and becomes… a totem haha
“Lister bell stratos” please don’t continue I am already sold
Am I reading what you wrote correctly—they can get the Busso to 350hp, naturally aspirated, in a not-race trim? Amazing if true.
The final iteration of the busso v6 from the factory was 3.2 with 24 valves at 250 hp. These motors can be bored and stroked to a 3.7 with great rod ratios and internal balance, not cheap but close on 350 hp avaialable and similar tq.
For a stratos one could also find a Ferrari 430 motor and be at 460 hp I think but the v6 is just so right.
Yeah the totem is as you say a Totem. It does go to show that sown very rich people may have actual automotive taste and enjoy driving great anolog cars. Currently my win the lottery must have is a Tommy liners 039 which is the second comming of the f40’
All these special machines are finding an audience because new from factory cars are crappy in so many ways, and then those that can afford it and who
Like to actualy just drive have moved on
Check out also the Boreham Motorworks escort RS a 60s euro ford escort for 500 clams and if your got the scratch maybe worth it,
Next they’re going to do a . Rs 200 and then not having one will really bother me
Yeah the m3 can go to parking lots but I’ve always watched where i park so no dings. That’s the problem of keeping something in nice shape, one has to remain vigilant
The bbi over the years picked up a ding and some stone chips small stone dings on the front lip of the clam which come from running at speed behind another. There is a total paint artist who does mega stuff works with those little rubber hammers to tease
Metal as opposed to bondo. 2 summers ago he took care of those things for me.
There’s still road rash on the sills but rule no1 it gets driven as intended. I mean what’s the point of having a great car if you’re not going to really use it. The cars and cvofe I sorta get cause peole drive there and some really drove, concord is just an anathema to me, most of those cars are never driven. It’s like keeping a panther in a cage, why.
I’d love to drive that one and compare with my ‘73 that still has its original Nord complete with its misunderstood SPICA. I have no complaints about 130hp.
"They run at the same temperature, compared to an L-twin where you have a “hot” cylinder in the back"
isnt this only a problem with air cooled engines? liquid cooling ought to reduce the temp difference
"Maybe the Redditors are right to be afraid"
im afraid becuase ive never ridden a bike before and accidentally twisting the grip means i can wind up on the concrete. also im surrounded by retarded drivers. mostly the latter. actually scratch that im most afraid of the insurance id have to pay. maybe the trick is to ride far and fast enough away from everyone and hope a pothole doesnt send me into the stratosphere
anyway these gutless ptwins bore me. im going to look up a real motorcycle. a norton commando
i mean he was pretty banged up but was only in the hospital for a few hours. all of the 8 he broke were on the right side and the top 3 are likely to never fully heal due to the nature of the break and him being 75.
not like he was moving all that fast to begin with but he didnt seem to slow down much
i should also note that this wasnt on a bike but a car accident last year when some tard turned left into oncoming traffic and he hit him. truck was a total write off with the frame being bent rather severely
I suppose with liquid cooling a v twins it depends on the coolant flow path. Harley makes a big deal out of sending coolant to the rear cylinder first because it has the greatest need for heat removal and the temp differential is greatest that way.
I've told this story before, but it is relevant here:
I once spent a few days with a K7 GSX-R1000. It was the first model with selectable throttle mapping via a switch on the right handlebar. "A" was all the crazy, "B" was half the crazy until 50 percent throttle, "C" was no crazy aka rain or commute mode.
I spent most of the time in B mode, but decided to see what "A" was like. You know that scene in Star Wars where the Millennium Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace and the stars elongate? it was like that. a simultaneously terrifying and amazing experience.
the truly scary thing is anyone with the cash or credit rating can walk into a dealership and buy a liter bike without any evidence that they can actually ride, let alone handle that kind of acceleration and power.
I used to ride with a guy who used that to his advantage. he'd find a liter bike that some rookie had lowsided, buy it for cheeeeeap, stitch the plastic back together with zip ties, then dump a small truckload of money into suspension, brakes, and tires. "I love squids because they create a steady supply of cheap bikes," he often said.
I had a Yamaha R3 from 2015 to 2017. My shitty mechanic sold me a very shitty Suzuki DRZ400 with cobbled together hoses convincing me that was good for beginners. I took the training course first in the vast parking lot of a shuttered AT&T/Lucent/Bell factory, there was a performance driving school happening elsewhere in the parking lot, I remember Gallardos, 458's, GT-R's, and Accords making wonderful noises then stopping sideways, wished I was over there. After classwork that is as easy as the car driving exam, you're practicing riding.
Unlike most people there, I had no experience balancing an balancing a motorcycle. There were older guys getting back into it, young Harley guys who rode their own bike there, who have been operating for years under a learner's permit. After too much time walking the bike around the instructor had to pull me aside and threaten to give me the boot if I didn't get my shit together; I did. I later learned that leaning over and looking where you're going is not how to steer, countersteering is how bikes steer, that was explained to me much later on, then I felt like I was actually pushing the tires into the ground rather than hanging off of a horse. Driving straight into a block of wood at faster than bicycle speeds and the shocks just taking care of it was a big confidence boost.
I forgot to mention, the Suzuki was junk and the newly introduced R3 fit the bill nicely. I daily drove it above 50 degrees, it got 53 mpg but I had to fill the tiny tank every other day. 0-60 was around 6 seconds, top speed 110, 15.5K redline with the power up high, performance felt similar to my V6 Challenger, not slow by any reasonable expectation. Clutching on a weightless vehicle is great, you can feel every single "blub" and move forward with each one. Engine breaking is the norm, you only tap them to come to a complete stop or an emergency. It's like driving your car by sitting on the engine. Never in my life have so many people waved at me. Literally everytime I left the house without fail.
Everyone's reaction around me persuing this was "Oh my god you're gonna die!!! Okay I support your decisions, you're still going to die though.", then they tell me about Uncle Alcoholic etc. Whatever. The reality of riding a motorcycle is you are far less visible, so every car parked in a driveway WILL back out without looking, every car on the highway with you WILL push you aside without signaling because they can't see you in the first place, and I mean WILL, just a matter of when. You'll shrug at someone barreling through an intersection that would have squashed you because you knew it was going to happen, and it happens every day.
In fall of '17 I finally didn't see one coming, I merged onto the highway, didn't spend enough time looking in the mirrors (remember, unlike a car they can lean over), and then I woke up in the ambulence with a numb throbbing leg, just like that. I vaguely remembered a bus on my left, and the police report said that the witness said I passed him on the narrow onramp then drove into a bus, which I dispute, thanks for saving my life, but no thanks for the insurance ding. Got medflighted, that was cool, Massachusetts shrunk beneath me, world's round for sure, I was awake for the whole thing. I got a rod in the leg, hideous draining skin graft on my calf that now looks more like skin than raw chicken. Beth Israel's food was as good as a hotel, the staff were fantastic, and most nurses were knockout hot. (I remember one I was chatting with tell me about how she would build dragsters with her dad, but she wanted to get into nursing after her dad's health declined, she wishes she could have done more. I almost didn't believe her, I made a mental note of the nametag and found her Facebook, bikini pics next to pics of her tucked in the cockpit sewn up in a race suit) (aside from a crazy lady at the rehab hospital aggressively imploring us not to ask insurance to cover an ambulance ride, they did, what was the matter with her?) Mom's health insurance paid for everything but some PT co pays, the whole Cadillac healthcare experience was pretty pleasant. What wasn't was laying on the bed in the ER listening to my mom on the phone. I was groggily but calmly talking about the situation, this bone that bone, yeah missed the nerve, I took out a sign, she was blubbering, unintelligible. It was like a preview of my own worse case funeral.
$500 deductible and a stain on my record and the bike was gone. That didn't make financial sense, it was just scuffed up. But I really had no urge to get back on it. I didn't miss how I always stunk of sweat and CO2, cramming my head into a foggy helmet, no music, always windy corridors of highway I never noticed before, numb hands wearing leather gloves, basically dressing up to go snowmobiling to go down the highway in the hot summer.
The moral of this story is, if you don't have the imagination to own a motorcycle, you shouldn't. They are not well suited to daily driving.
One of the benefits of a fast bike is youre not likely to get merge into a car when youre going 110. I almost bit it on the r1 once. Didnt sleep well and rubbed up against a car at 80 i didnt see in the tiny mirrors . That was terrifyinh
I wish I had a chance to react, maybe things would have went differently, its like I teleported straight into an ambulance. In New Hampshire the next state over, over 100 mph is automatic reckless driving, the police do not have leeway to refuse, and second offenses become a mandatory arrest and felony. You are also allowed to ride with no helmet and have no insurance. The Harley cowboys are doing it right.
Laws like that are becoming more common. I've heard of a few including mandatory impoundment. Carrying the scarlet F is no small matter either and can make one nearly unemployable.
A felony for an offense where nobody was injured and nobody would have know if not for a cop eating a donut. The modern justice system is a bit of a joke. Felonies should be for real crimes. Driving 100mph on a modern car or bike on a highway isn't even fast. You can accidentally get there easily on a bike. A Telluride easily goes 125
I started with an MSF course, which (at least for me) was great. Granted, the 500cc Buell I chose to ride was not, but ... I wanted a challenge. The instructors were excellent; then again, that was 25 years ago.
A friend let me put about a thousand miles on his Ninja 500R (carbureted version) over two weeks. I was shocked to discover that my easygoing riding on flowing mountain roads, without really leaning the bike over was being done at 80mph. The bike would top out at 110, which to me was completely unnecessary.
NOTE: Do *not* use a car racing helmet for motorcycle riding. The top of the viewport is way too low on a car racing helmet. My neck was killing me from keeping my head tilted back after only a hundred miles or so. Goodbye Bell.
I was starting to like this motorcycling business, and was eying to get something of my own (had my eye on an FZ1), when a friend of mine's father was killed on his Vulcan 1500. Drunk driver hit him from behind on on I-285.
I did ride another friend's FZ6 for a little while, but declining health, horrible drivers, and constantly hot-n-humid weather has kept me off bikes. I *was* eyeing the Versys before I conceded that I probably shouldn't get a bike.
I had hope for the new Hurricane 4 debuting in the Grand Cherokee, but reviews have been middling. Since they've stated that the 5.7 will be exclusive to Durango going forward, hopefully Stellantis will come to their senses and drop in the inline 6s soon.
Yeah, I was quite disappointed in the review videos of the hurricane 4. Doesn't sound good, and without seeing any test data published yet, only seems marginally quicker on video than a Pentastar. At least you can get a Durango with a hemi for sub-50k though!
Dammit, Baruth, your writing gets better with each passing week, and your topic selection appears to be chosen out of my synapses like a Vulcan Mind Meld.
This paragraph right here-
“The p-twins do not have the raucous character of a Suzook 998 L-twin or a gear-driven Ducati twin. They don’t even match up to the smallbore Moto Guzzi that my friend, notorious Attempted Fingerer Blake Z. Rong1, used to ride around Los Angeles. Most of them used a 270-degree crankshaft to put both power pulses in a syncopated rhythm reminiscent of a Ducati twin, but a p-twin is to a Ducati like the Fleshlight is to a 1989-era Kappa Kappa Gamma: so far away from the real thing that it’s more depressing than nothing at all. The vibe of a p-twin’s vibration isn’t Sons of Anarchy; more like Is This Thing Gonna Break?”
NOBODY else in the auto writing community gets this and expresses this as perfectly as you do, sir.
Bravo!
I am now missing my RC51 SP-2 even more.
I was very proud to tell people once that I owned three motorcycles and one had gear driven cams, one had belt driven cams, and the last one had chain driven cams. I LOVED that diversity of engineering. I am keeping my old Ducati Monster because of the Desmodromic valve train and trellis frame.
And thank you for incorporating “Fleshlight” into another post.
"To this day I’m a fairly cautious motorcyclist", the man writes, following it with, "absent the occasional episode where I outrun police planes and/or almost fall off the back of an SV1000."
Then, "As for me? Well, I just spent $710 on new tires, sprocket, and chain for my SV1000. I’m going to ride it until the engine blows up — or until someone makes another Japanese sporting twin of similar minerals"
I rode chronically under-powered lumps starting with the Z50A I was unable to purchase as a child and could not obtain until I was 13, and flowing through the MX100, which was all I could afford when I was 15. The MX was no YZ250, which was what my heart (and more tingly parts) were ready for by then.
But by far the worst was the 1975 KZ400 I bought as my first street bike when I was 18. It was as Jack describes, "The vibe of a p-twin’s vibration isn’t Sons of Anarchy; more like Is This Thing Gonna Break?" It was like riding a paint mixer on the highway, only with less vim and vigor than my MX100 had with 15 y/o me piloting it. I rode the thing to St. Louis from my home in central Illinois, and immediately bought a trader-paper to start looking for an honest-to-goodness 4 cyl UJM when I got there.
I ended up on a 1973 Z1-900, which was by no means fast (by modern standards), but which was at least comfortable and powerful enough for a 19 y/o in 1982. I was humbled by Interceptors 1000s, etc. But it would do 120+ without a lot of drama, and it was inclined to give me what I was asking for.
I had a 2-cyl 2-stroke 1984 Kenny Roberts RZ350, but this cannot be considered a P2 in the sense of the bikes Jack is writing about. It was ridiculous as a street bike, behaving as it did like a 250 motorcrosser on the street. It could not keep its front wheel on the ground, revealing the shocking lack of self-control I possessed as a 27 year-old returning missionary and father of 3. There was nothing to do but to sell it after I proved that I remained an overgrown hooligan at the core. I still miss that stupid thing, although what I'd love to find would be a gray-market RZ500.
I'm riding another kind of twin now, albeit one with entirely different intentions. This one shakes like a paint-mixer as well, but it's endearing and comforting as opposed to irritating and obnoxious. I may buy another twin someday, but it'll be a Triumph (P2) or Ducati (V2) if I do. Neither of these machines displace under 1000 cc, and either of them will shake to one degree or another, but they captivate me each in their own way.
Still, I have to agree with our distinguished author (and his creative quoting of Milton), and with the summary statement "the men who sit in McLarens hold their manhood cheap when a kid on a Kawasaki Z650 pulls up next to them".
My first bike is (I still have it) an electric blue '07 Ninja 250R. Above 80, that thing made my hands numb, like I'd been using an orbital sander for half an hour.
Papua New Guinea. Nipa, Southern Highlands Province.
We lived about 10 klicks off the Highlands Highway (a gravel road) in a village called Hinjip. We were 3 hrs in a Suzuki Ute from mail, dry-goods, a phone, or 24/7 power. We caught rain-water and cooked on a woodstove. We had a kerosene fridge and Coleman lanterns for lights.
Our second child (39 years old now) was born in a clinic with no attending physician.
"RZ350...revealing the shocking lack of self-control I possessed..." This is what I call auto-suggestion, the reaction to the nature of the machine. I too suffer badly from this condition; on my old Mk 1 Fireblade I was dragged in by its "whip me, beat me, spank me" nature; on the VFR ("only if you insist") I am able to display occasional outbreaks of maturity...
Yeah I had a vfr and then saw that mk1 fireblade. Came close but our first child arrived and prob saved me. The 90s in the canyons outside Johannesburg on a Sunday the coos had the attitude that before 11 all the good people were in church and left us free to have at it. A fire blade would have been the thing
Started riding at age 7 when 70s parent thought it would be a good idea to let the kid loose on a 50cc.
First bike age 17 a somewhat used slightly abused gpz 550 followed by a newish Yamaha secs 550 stolen of the street in New Orleans
As always with me first money had to spare bought new Yamaha radian 1986 and still have that bike. Then there was a somewhat used up gpz1100 which had a big ass weave above an indicated 140
Could have been the slightly bald rear or the alignment or maybe it was a bent frame before I got it, almost went off the front at full tilt when I abruptly closed the throttle , how we learn
Then there was a Honda cbx the 6 cyl one a terrible bike but worth$ now apprently, followed by a new vfr 750 which seemed always slightly to tame but would be perfect now.
Yeah now still have the radian and a shaky 2011 v twin, rode it Sunday and it’s great in that steam train sort of way and when you hustle it stil not going that fast. But the child in me wants a street triple and a rocket 3.
"I had a 2-cyl 2-stroke 1984 Kenny Roberts RZ350, but this cannot be considered a P2 in the sense of the bikes Jack is writing about."
No, that was one of the maddest motorcycles to ever reach the general public. I literally walked twelve miles roundtrip to see it at my local dealer, multiple times.
The only thing cooler would be a European RZ500 or a Canadian Suzuki Gamma. None of these bikes had any veneer of general UJM usability, they were all barely disguised race-bikes with lights and plates.
The Katana always struck me as a halfway point, like they hadn't quite figured out how to turn a Harley into a Gixxer yet.
The 2.0 turbo-four, in the context of the modern world, is a machine exemplary of All That Went Wrong: It's made to be as cheap & easy to assemble as possible, ONCE in a factory in some slave-labor country, it's basically disposable because as a practical matter it can't be repaired, it's made for a purpose other than the official one, it's been NVH'd into the mechanical equivalent of James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend" and it actually makes you GET why women think the worst possible thing a man can be is "boring."
"The Katana always struck me as a halfway point, like they hadn't quite figured out how to turn a Harley into a Gixxer yet."
Business-wise, it was brilliant. They sold a bike with mostly previous-generation (meaning PAID OFF) parts and significant cost-cutting, so it was 60% of the bike but sold for 80% of a Gixxer's price.
I think cops love bikes. All the security guards at my job are extremely friendly to me when I ride up to the gate on a bike. Many of them ride too. I know one has an R7. Another an RC51 like the other commenter.
In 1970, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold to 204 million Americans. The most powerful mass-produced bike had 67 horsepower, but the median was probably around 35-40hp. They were approachable and cheap, and it wasn't weird or rebellious to commute to work on a bike. These bikes are too slow for modern interstate speeds, but they met the need of the time.
I hate parallel twins as much as the next guy (with the exception of the CP2 Yamaha motor and some of the big bore 2016+ Triumphs), but these things are tractable and powerful enough to conceivably be someone's first bike AND their second bike. Hardcore CP2 owners regularly get 100k+ miles (if you don't wheelie it) out of their bikes. In an era where disposable income is nonexistent and nobody works on their own shit, 24k valve adjustment intervals are absolute magic. They're the right motor for the era, and they can be pretty fun in the right chassis.
The goal is more bikes on the road. I don't care if they're powered by singles or twins or fusion reactors that run off racial tension. It's hard to imagine motorcycles pivoting from their current status as tools of antisocial personality disorder to one of daily use by average Americans, but I think everyone on the road would benefit from it. Saturation is the only way these objectively stupid machines are going to escape the banhammer over the next twenty years, and I think the P2's might be the ticket.
"fusion reactors that run off racial tension"
one of those could power the entire ai revolution by itself
I have just returned from the TT. The demographics of motorcycling don't look good!
Fair, but the real demographic sample you saw was "people who can afford take a day or two off to attend a sporting event". Which is a worse sign, if you think about it.
Wait till you see the demographics for the World Cup in the States.
Same thing. Who can afford the tickets? I don't get how europeans can travel here and attend the games considering their relative wages.
Football is like religion for some. Not me, I hasten to add!
Same here, different football. I'll go to a bears game every few years and it'll cost me $500+ american dollars. Ticket for me and the wife, beers at the game. Then I'll see guys at the game who probably go to all 8 home games who have to have this as the only fun thing in their budget because they have to be spending 3-5k minimum a year on football games
"In 1970, 1.1 million motorcycles were sold to 204 million Americans. The most powerful mass-produced bike had 67 horsepower, but the median was probably around 35-40hp. "
In an era where most cars were either 125 (gross!) horsepower Slant Sixes or 57-horse Beetles, this was ripping, but I take your point.
"The goal is more bikes on the road. I don't care if they're powered by singles or twins or fusion reactors that run off racial tension."
Agreed. But I think this is best done by taking the Karl Rove/Dodge Ram strategy: make the bikes MORE objectionable in the hopes that one out of a hundred age-appropriate men will buy them every year just to spite the world around them, which brings you back up to 1.5 million units. We can't "nice" ourselves into a bigger market, although I *do* see an astounding number of young men on those Groms.
One of the bright sides of all the idiot teens on electric dirtbikes on the roads is they might be future motorcycle riders.
I hadn't thought about that. Excellent, EXCELLENT point.
And to almost a one, they are at least smart enough to wear helmets!
@ SGEFFE : I guess it depends where you're at ~ I see stupid kids riding E-Bikes sans helmets all the time, mostly they're riding unsafely, wheelies in close traffic and so on .
_I_ don't want those idiots near my in traffic on any two wheeled vehicle .
I think my 1971 BMW R75/5 made 40 HP when new, it was sufficient but nothing more, forget wheelies, burn outs and so on .
55 years later it's still the best riding Motocycle I've ever been on =8-) .
-Nate
I'm not convinced, but I do hope you are on point.
now that you mention it, I think I see as many Groms as I do proper motorcycles...
American testosterone levels in the 18-39 age bracket dropped ~25% between 1999 and 2016, and probably significantly more in the ten years since. That's peak "maybe I should get a motorcycle" years. Maybe the market's following the consumer, rather than the other way around.
Maybe the real horror is that 25 y/o man in 2005 was a K5 GSXR 1k, and a 25 y/o man today is a GSX-8R.
The food is poison or it's the BC in the water.
Scott ;
You forgot hormones, when I was 14 Y.O. there were very few girls with big tits .
Now by age 13 so many look like Dolly Parton, this cannot be a good thing for their health no matter how fast it makes chickens grow .
-Nate
Truth courtesy of The NewNormal
Jack, when I first moved from New England to Nashville...
Nice people befriended me, and they tried to coach me, as to how to avoid "putting my foot in it."
They told me:
"John, there are three things you never do in the South...
"One: Never ask a woman her age...
"Two: Never ask a woman how much she weighs...
"Three: Never ask an Evangelical Youth Minister where he met his wife."
I complied, to the best of my ability.
My dear friend, I'm calling you out on comparing the weights of Sorority Sisters.
all my best,
"Spanish Johnny", or "Saint-Jean"
a/k/a John Marks
David Bromberg's version of Paul Siebel's song, Spanish Johnny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Mc65AMZUU
Even if I wouldn't agree, I can intellectually understand an argument that the 2.7L TurboMax is a good fit for a Silverado LT or a Traverse but GM put that tug boat engine into the CT4-V!
Sigh, what do you expect from GM?
In $_THE_CURRENT_YEAR? I'd say a parallel twin in the new Silverado. (This idea warrants a parody article published by an automotive lifestyle brand, later to be deleted at the request of Belle Isle's most notorious crash test dummy)
my german mech nephew put a recent triumph bike engine into a spitfire. looks factory and has lots more power than the original. he also has a bmw 2002 with the roof sawed off and a v-12 bmw engine in it. he builds stuff!
Is the inside of a 2002 engine bay a spatial anomaly? That sounds awesome!
"honey, I shrunk the S70..."
that 2002 must be featured in the next possible Drivin' for Harambe. this is not a request.
Heh, we need more data on KKG curb weights vs time and location.
Based on trips to my alma mater they are climbing like the stonks
I live next to a college and it's depressing the lack of eye candy
Junior says body counts are reaching Bonnie Blue levels. Plus multiple doodle tats at the minimum with sleeves and fishing tackle faces not uncommon.
Danger hair at least grows out but they don't like men.
"Plus multiple doodle tats at the minimum"
This is what bewilders me. How did I get through four different correctional institutions without a tattoo and these broads can't make it through the Taylor Swift Eras Tour without drawing dickbutt cartoons on themselves in permanent blue ink.
I used to have "no tattoos" on my list and it eliminated half+ of millennial women so I got rid of it. The wife has a couple, which I don't love, but at least they're not sleeves, chest, or neck tattoos.
The body counts were bad enough 22 years ago. I knew a girl who was at 20 by 19. My ex, who was about as boring as boring can be in that department, one day with out any inquiry on my part. "I've banged 10 guys" Ok, I didn't need to know that.
I have some fond memories of KKG. I'd rather not find out what it's like today.
I am considering a p-twin, there are a couple of slightly older 700ish cc Hondas out there that have kind of funky lines, but I often read, that the engine is soulless, that it has no character other than it sips fuel, maybe at my age I could live with that, I have never ridden any of the other smaller bore crotch rockets, out side of my long gone XS Eleven Special, my current machine has a v twin, about 1700 cc’s… it ain’t fast, but it has all kinds of grunt. The 500 Rebel is a consideration too, and I think reasonably priced. I never considered myself emasculated, and at 145 pounds, I can handle a big Harley without dropping it, one handles an 830 pound bike with finesse.
All of the cars Jack listed are built to a formula, social media is their only difference….
The rebel 500 is a nice bike. It’s not high performance except compared to a 250 or 300 rebel but for the price there’s nothing to pick on.
I can't disagree on the soullessness of Hondas, I've had a couple and still ride one. Hassle free ownership is more if a priority for me though.
I have owned a few Honda’s, including a parallel twin 400 hondamatic, the 650 custom and the Goldwing were not soulless, but the 400 was/is, I restored that bike thirty + years ago and it still runs and looks nice, but it felt utilitarian.
there is nothing at all soulless about the pre-VTEC V4 engine with gear-driven cams, but that may be the exception that proves the rule.
Even the Honda Fury (factory chopper) is boringly reliable compared to Harley and Indian.
I don’t understand how the Fury remains in the catalog and the Ace 1100 doesn’t!
The Ace suffered from a blight of good engineering. It had a 2 pin crankshaft, one for each cylinder, which is anathema to cruiser buyers. Sounds and feels are a big part of the cruiser market and the draw of the entire segment. The 1100 was designed to run well and last a long time. It didn’t sound very good at all. I have been known to accuse it of sounding like a garbage truck.
Conversely, the Fury has the newer 1300 engine which was made for the old VTX series when they were made in the US plant. So, it’s squarely aimed at the American market with sound, looks, and general feel, apart from being quite weak on power.
This is why the Ace 1100 was chopped from the lineup and the 1300 powered machines took its place.
Yeah, but they took away the VTX too😂. I didn’t mind the noise of the 1100, and at my age, I want smooth! At least my M-8 is smooth…
Yeah, when Honda closed the plant in Maryville they had a huge surplus of VTX models warehoused. They then took the engine architecture, added EFI and a few small changes, and put them in the new street models (saber, fury, etc.) to meet the then existing custom bike look. So, the VTX was chopped as a USA made model. Then the succeeding models were Japan made.
I too like the shmoove running of the M8 bikes. They’re a step forward from the Twinkies which were a step forward from Evos. Really great powertrain.
The Alfa guila 4 motor is the big drawback of the car. It sounds like a Mercedes diesel taxi. True there is lots of tq and it mates well with the zf box. But there is always turbo lag and the motor has zero sense of occasion or specialnes. It’s ok because the power is there and the rest of the car is so superlative. But it leaves what’s otherwise a special machine as not really a keeper, cause thee is always something missing. An Italian car without a voice
On to bikes the solution is spelt triumph
They make an excellent trident 800 triple well within the price range.
Yeah modern vehicles suck from screen to inside power plants to useless steering to fakey doo brake by wire
I just pulled the e46 m3 out of hibernation and the motor carries the car, from sound to repose that is wired to the pedal as opposed to modern mush to power to the broad reach of the power band through revs. If only the guila had that motor, if only, how complicated could that be.
e46 m3 is an outstanding ride and theres hardly anything to dislike about it
i mean, the moneypit factor
well yeah aside from the never working all the time behaviour
you sir have described vintage Ducatis. my wife often joked that the 900SS/ SP ran on equal parts gas and cash.
yeah ive heard you need a credit card to start the ignition
I'm totally stealing that line.
Got it new in 05, 36k miles now. Other than coil packs which sarted to go bad and needed replacing, the 30k service which is shim checks on the valves its really needed nothing. I do change oil every year regardless of mileage and brake fluid every 2-3 years, rad every 5 or so. Plus it gets a bit of a warm up before pulling off and I always work it up to speed and full temp with sensitivity.
I am feeling like it should get the rear subframe reinforcement.
I think many of these cars are on their 4th or more owners and have been thrashed when they were just 22k used cars. They do need some care, and I wonder how many were given a proper warmup before being run
Like IMS bearing failures I think the sub-frame reinforcement on E46 is a bit overblown. IF, key word, the car is stock or near to it, you aren't tracking it, doing 6k clutch dumps on the regular, or replaced all the bushings with Poly or stiffer, i.e. Delrin or Solid. I think there is more of a risk having someone peel back the stock undercoating and potentially weaking the structure more with shitty welds or introducing the possibility of corrosion.
Let me know if you ever want to move it along, I promise I won't rip the S54 out for an LS and make it worse is almost every way.
… but what about an S65 or S85 and make it… better in perhaps at least some ways?
https://youtu.be/IxNUlopEziE?si=4rCeol0_wMSbHx-W
They scare me, so no interest in trying to swap one, but a BHPH quality level S85 M5/6 would be fun to drive until it breaks and I leave it in a ditch to be *redacted* later.
Its is a little heavy. From the factory the spring, shocks is not ideal and the brakes fine for street, in that regard the newer gulia is simply better. . All USA spec cars need a CSL remap, as Us sec motors have all these flat spots and are dead past 7k rpm. Running as they should with mayeb a little race gas blended in so you have 96 octane to really use the csl tune its not hard to see the magic was all about, there is simply a precision and breadth of power across a wide rev range, the relentless pull from 3600-8k is something no modern seems to have, and no bent pushrod v8 ever had. It will comfortably charge/pull to 180 in 5th, thats not slowly adding speed, but a solid hard pull all the way there. . A modern car without screens and annoyances.
Even better is maybe a Euro spec 36 m3 which came with the same motor. But the difference is the E46 while bigger and heavier has peak BMW styling and build.
put it this way, with what a great e46 m3 is worth it could be a direct swap for anew M2 these days, but in many ways that seems like downgrade.
If only they could have carried on with the Busso v-6.
Now that was a motor.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-alfa-romeo-gtv-2000-50/
Saw that a while back
Expressive but also way less than the build cost.
Have you seen the Totem
Alfa.
My ideal
Lister bell stratos build with them lasting the buds v6 rebuilt to 350 hp
Have seen the Totem.
It’s a dream, in a lot of ways - also, like so many of the super cars, a bit excessive.
There has to be a “powerband” of value to cost where you can drive something hard and still tolerate a grocery store door ding. I would argue your E46 is in that powerband but a hole in the carbon door panel of a Totem would be a very bad day…
At which point the car ceases to be a car and becomes… a totem haha
“Lister bell stratos” please don’t continue I am already sold
Am I reading what you wrote correctly—they can get the Busso to 350hp, naturally aspirated, in a not-race trim? Amazing if true.
The final iteration of the busso v6 from the factory was 3.2 with 24 valves at 250 hp. These motors can be bored and stroked to a 3.7 with great rod ratios and internal balance, not cheap but close on 350 hp avaialable and similar tq.
For a stratos one could also find a Ferrari 430 motor and be at 460 hp I think but the v6 is just so right.
Yeah the totem is as you say a Totem. It does go to show that sown very rich people may have actual automotive taste and enjoy driving great anolog cars. Currently my win the lottery must have is a Tommy liners 039 which is the second comming of the f40’
All these special machines are finding an audience because new from factory cars are crappy in so many ways, and then those that can afford it and who
Like to actualy just drive have moved on
Check out also the Boreham Motorworks escort RS a 60s euro ford escort for 500 clams and if your got the scratch maybe worth it,
Next they’re going to do a . Rs 200 and then not having one will really bother me
Yeah the m3 can go to parking lots but I’ve always watched where i park so no dings. That’s the problem of keeping something in nice shape, one has to remain vigilant
The bbi over the years picked up a ding and some stone chips small stone dings on the front lip of the clam which come from running at speed behind another. There is a total paint artist who does mega stuff works with those little rubber hammers to tease
Metal as opposed to bondo. 2 summers ago he took care of those things for me.
There’s still road rash on the sills but rule no1 it gets driven as intended. I mean what’s the point of having a great car if you’re not going to really use it. The cars and cvofe I sorta get cause peole drive there and some really drove, concord is just an anathema to me, most of those cars are never driven. It’s like keeping a panther in a cage, why.
I’d love to drive that one and compare with my ‘73 that still has its original Nord complete with its misunderstood SPICA. I have no complaints about 130hp.
As with all engine swaps I’d like to know “has the fundamental overall car been improved by this swap?”
We need to find a way to fly you to wherever that car lives …
It’s funny, my car is 54 VINs later. They probably came down the line in Arese the same day in June, 1973.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-alfa-romeo-gtv-2000-50/
"They run at the same temperature, compared to an L-twin where you have a “hot” cylinder in the back"
isnt this only a problem with air cooled engines? liquid cooling ought to reduce the temp difference
"Maybe the Redditors are right to be afraid"
im afraid becuase ive never ridden a bike before and accidentally twisting the grip means i can wind up on the concrete. also im surrounded by retarded drivers. mostly the latter. actually scratch that im most afraid of the insurance id have to pay. maybe the trick is to ride far and fast enough away from everyone and hope a pothole doesnt send me into the stratosphere
anyway these gutless ptwins bore me. im going to look up a real motorcycle. a norton commando
Ride on dirt with some cheap used thumper that makes no power but also doesn't have a lofty seat! Your fears will soon be replaced by minor injuries.
see its the injury part im not super keen on
i saw what happened after my father broke 8 ribs and it seemed unpleasant
but yeah i think i can convince my buddy to let me rip around on his property on a 110cc. might even survive to tell about it
yeah who am i kidding i need to experience a proper bike
Your father must be tough if he made 8 broken ribs only sound “unpleasant”
i mean he was pretty banged up but was only in the hospital for a few hours. all of the 8 he broke were on the right side and the top 3 are likely to never fully heal due to the nature of the break and him being 75.
not like he was moving all that fast to begin with but he didnt seem to slow down much
i should also note that this wasnt on a bike but a car accident last year when some tard turned left into oncoming traffic and he hit him. truck was a total write off with the frame being bent rather severely
first-gen KLR for the win!
I genuinely thought when I first got on my CBR at the dealership that it was going to rotate itself out from under me if I breathed on the throttle.
'A man's got to know his limitations.'
I suppose with liquid cooling a v twins it depends on the coolant flow path. Harley makes a big deal out of sending coolant to the rear cylinder first because it has the greatest need for heat removal and the temp differential is greatest that way.
A liter bike is properly terrifying. I have never accidentally brought up the front wheel in either of my triples and they go fast enough.
I did once and could do it again. But I won't.
I have and do on a Speed Triple regularly. Is more like float the front wheel than a 30 deg wheely. It's the limit on acceleration, not hot dogging.
When i test ride the speed it was too fast for my use. Id definitely end up with some stupid speeding ticket. How bad is the insurance?
For an old guy, about $150/yr.
I've told this story before, but it is relevant here:
I once spent a few days with a K7 GSX-R1000. It was the first model with selectable throttle mapping via a switch on the right handlebar. "A" was all the crazy, "B" was half the crazy until 50 percent throttle, "C" was no crazy aka rain or commute mode.
I spent most of the time in B mode, but decided to see what "A" was like. You know that scene in Star Wars where the Millennium Falcon makes the jump to hyperspace and the stars elongate? it was like that. a simultaneously terrifying and amazing experience.
I did that on an open part of the highway in the R1. It went from 80 to 150 really fast. And that bike was 50hp down on modern liter bikes.
the truly scary thing is anyone with the cash or credit rating can walk into a dealership and buy a liter bike without any evidence that they can actually ride, let alone handle that kind of acceleration and power.
I used to ride with a guy who used that to his advantage. he'd find a liter bike that some rookie had lowsided, buy it for cheeeeeap, stitch the plastic back together with zip ties, then dump a small truckload of money into suspension, brakes, and tires. "I love squids because they create a steady supply of cheap bikes," he often said.
the guy was insanely fast, too.
I had a Yamaha R3 from 2015 to 2017. My shitty mechanic sold me a very shitty Suzuki DRZ400 with cobbled together hoses convincing me that was good for beginners. I took the training course first in the vast parking lot of a shuttered AT&T/Lucent/Bell factory, there was a performance driving school happening elsewhere in the parking lot, I remember Gallardos, 458's, GT-R's, and Accords making wonderful noises then stopping sideways, wished I was over there. After classwork that is as easy as the car driving exam, you're practicing riding.
Unlike most people there, I had no experience balancing an balancing a motorcycle. There were older guys getting back into it, young Harley guys who rode their own bike there, who have been operating for years under a learner's permit. After too much time walking the bike around the instructor had to pull me aside and threaten to give me the boot if I didn't get my shit together; I did. I later learned that leaning over and looking where you're going is not how to steer, countersteering is how bikes steer, that was explained to me much later on, then I felt like I was actually pushing the tires into the ground rather than hanging off of a horse. Driving straight into a block of wood at faster than bicycle speeds and the shocks just taking care of it was a big confidence boost.
I forgot to mention, the Suzuki was junk and the newly introduced R3 fit the bill nicely. I daily drove it above 50 degrees, it got 53 mpg but I had to fill the tiny tank every other day. 0-60 was around 6 seconds, top speed 110, 15.5K redline with the power up high, performance felt similar to my V6 Challenger, not slow by any reasonable expectation. Clutching on a weightless vehicle is great, you can feel every single "blub" and move forward with each one. Engine breaking is the norm, you only tap them to come to a complete stop or an emergency. It's like driving your car by sitting on the engine. Never in my life have so many people waved at me. Literally everytime I left the house without fail.
Everyone's reaction around me persuing this was "Oh my god you're gonna die!!! Okay I support your decisions, you're still going to die though.", then they tell me about Uncle Alcoholic etc. Whatever. The reality of riding a motorcycle is you are far less visible, so every car parked in a driveway WILL back out without looking, every car on the highway with you WILL push you aside without signaling because they can't see you in the first place, and I mean WILL, just a matter of when. You'll shrug at someone barreling through an intersection that would have squashed you because you knew it was going to happen, and it happens every day.
In fall of '17 I finally didn't see one coming, I merged onto the highway, didn't spend enough time looking in the mirrors (remember, unlike a car they can lean over), and then I woke up in the ambulence with a numb throbbing leg, just like that. I vaguely remembered a bus on my left, and the police report said that the witness said I passed him on the narrow onramp then drove into a bus, which I dispute, thanks for saving my life, but no thanks for the insurance ding. Got medflighted, that was cool, Massachusetts shrunk beneath me, world's round for sure, I was awake for the whole thing. I got a rod in the leg, hideous draining skin graft on my calf that now looks more like skin than raw chicken. Beth Israel's food was as good as a hotel, the staff were fantastic, and most nurses were knockout hot. (I remember one I was chatting with tell me about how she would build dragsters with her dad, but she wanted to get into nursing after her dad's health declined, she wishes she could have done more. I almost didn't believe her, I made a mental note of the nametag and found her Facebook, bikini pics next to pics of her tucked in the cockpit sewn up in a race suit) (aside from a crazy lady at the rehab hospital aggressively imploring us not to ask insurance to cover an ambulance ride, they did, what was the matter with her?) Mom's health insurance paid for everything but some PT co pays, the whole Cadillac healthcare experience was pretty pleasant. What wasn't was laying on the bed in the ER listening to my mom on the phone. I was groggily but calmly talking about the situation, this bone that bone, yeah missed the nerve, I took out a sign, she was blubbering, unintelligible. It was like a preview of my own worse case funeral.
$500 deductible and a stain on my record and the bike was gone. That didn't make financial sense, it was just scuffed up. But I really had no urge to get back on it. I didn't miss how I always stunk of sweat and CO2, cramming my head into a foggy helmet, no music, always windy corridors of highway I never noticed before, numb hands wearing leather gloves, basically dressing up to go snowmobiling to go down the highway in the hot summer.
The moral of this story is, if you don't have the imagination to own a motorcycle, you shouldn't. They are not well suited to daily driving.
Absolutely, totally, wonderful comment. Thank you.
One of the benefits of a fast bike is youre not likely to get merge into a car when youre going 110. I almost bit it on the r1 once. Didnt sleep well and rubbed up against a car at 80 i didnt see in the tiny mirrors . That was terrifyinh
I wish I had a chance to react, maybe things would have went differently, its like I teleported straight into an ambulance. In New Hampshire the next state over, over 100 mph is automatic reckless driving, the police do not have leeway to refuse, and second offenses become a mandatory arrest and felony. You are also allowed to ride with no helmet and have no insurance. The Harley cowboys are doing it right.
Laws like that are becoming more common. I've heard of a few including mandatory impoundment. Carrying the scarlet F is no small matter either and can make one nearly unemployable.
A felony for an offense where nobody was injured and nobody would have know if not for a cop eating a donut. The modern justice system is a bit of a joke. Felonies should be for real crimes. Driving 100mph on a modern car or bike on a highway isn't even fast. You can accidentally get there easily on a bike. A Telluride easily goes 125
Guess that’s why people just run.
OTOH, I know from experience that a K02-clad Wrangler is incapable of felonious speeds, it is electronically limited.
I started with an MSF course, which (at least for me) was great. Granted, the 500cc Buell I chose to ride was not, but ... I wanted a challenge. The instructors were excellent; then again, that was 25 years ago.
A friend let me put about a thousand miles on his Ninja 500R (carbureted version) over two weeks. I was shocked to discover that my easygoing riding on flowing mountain roads, without really leaning the bike over was being done at 80mph. The bike would top out at 110, which to me was completely unnecessary.
NOTE: Do *not* use a car racing helmet for motorcycle riding. The top of the viewport is way too low on a car racing helmet. My neck was killing me from keeping my head tilted back after only a hundred miles or so. Goodbye Bell.
I was starting to like this motorcycling business, and was eying to get something of my own (had my eye on an FZ1), when a friend of mine's father was killed on his Vulcan 1500. Drunk driver hit him from behind on on I-285.
I did ride another friend's FZ6 for a little while, but declining health, horrible drivers, and constantly hot-n-humid weather has kept me off bikes. I *was* eyeing the Versys before I conceded that I probably shouldn't get a bike.
I had hope for the new Hurricane 4 debuting in the Grand Cherokee, but reviews have been middling. Since they've stated that the 5.7 will be exclusive to Durango going forward, hopefully Stellantis will come to their senses and drop in the inline 6s soon.
Yep that hurricane 6 is exactky what the GC needs. I’m going to assume the 4 is a legacy of Carlos travesty
Yeah, I was quite disappointed in the review videos of the hurricane 4. Doesn't sound good, and without seeing any test data published yet, only seems marginally quicker on video than a Pentastar. At least you can get a Durango with a hemi for sub-50k though!
An I6 GC would be my next car, no doubt. It would be an American X5 that doesn’t make you look like an impotent cock.
But an I4 is just, ugh.
Dammit, Baruth, your writing gets better with each passing week, and your topic selection appears to be chosen out of my synapses like a Vulcan Mind Meld.
This paragraph right here-
“The p-twins do not have the raucous character of a Suzook 998 L-twin or a gear-driven Ducati twin. They don’t even match up to the smallbore Moto Guzzi that my friend, notorious Attempted Fingerer Blake Z. Rong1, used to ride around Los Angeles. Most of them used a 270-degree crankshaft to put both power pulses in a syncopated rhythm reminiscent of a Ducati twin, but a p-twin is to a Ducati like the Fleshlight is to a 1989-era Kappa Kappa Gamma: so far away from the real thing that it’s more depressing than nothing at all. The vibe of a p-twin’s vibration isn’t Sons of Anarchy; more like Is This Thing Gonna Break?”
NOBODY else in the auto writing community gets this and expresses this as perfectly as you do, sir.
Bravo!
I am now missing my RC51 SP-2 even more.
I was very proud to tell people once that I owned three motorcycles and one had gear driven cams, one had belt driven cams, and the last one had chain driven cams. I LOVED that diversity of engineering. I am keeping my old Ducati Monster because of the Desmodromic valve train and trellis frame.
And thank you for incorporating “Fleshlight” into another post.
You Sir, are an American Treasure.
And keep the Lieberman snark coming.
There are two kinds of men; those who owned an RC51 and those who regret not owning one.
I am in the latter camp.
I had a Yamaha TDM 850 which was a P-Twin. Decent but a little boring. Traded it for a Triumph Daytona 900 triple. Much better!
I kind of like the Katana but it was considered an unserious squid bike.
The slang for that TDM was “Tedium”
:)
“Totally Discontinued Model” as my friends called it.
I once had a vfr 750 and half the decision to buy it were the gear driven cams.
An air cooled monster trellis frame is a keeper for sure. Not even sure why the new monster is called a monster
Rc51 that’s something
Ptwin vibration that’s what nvh was coined for.
And old biker freind claims that’s b twin such as Ducati has a cadence that matches what a foetus hears from its mothers heart
everything should have gear-driven cams.
Especially if the gear drive makes a sound
Same with superchargers
you had me at RC51
Man, that new GSX looks cool. Too bad about the drivetrain, though realistically it wouldn't bother me that much.
"To this day I’m a fairly cautious motorcyclist", the man writes, following it with, "absent the occasional episode where I outrun police planes and/or almost fall off the back of an SV1000."
Then, "As for me? Well, I just spent $710 on new tires, sprocket, and chain for my SV1000. I’m going to ride it until the engine blows up — or until someone makes another Japanese sporting twin of similar minerals"
... and so forth.
You're fooling no one, Jack
... and this was one FINE piece of writing.
I think he’s trying to fool himself.
And agreed, its great writing.
"That’s why God gave us the 1441cc motorcycle: parenting."
Gold.
"And what do you want to be when you grow up?"
"Dad says I'm gonna be a weapon when he's done with me!"
I don’t really know anything about motorcycles and don’t really care about them, but even I found this article depressing. Well done!
I rode chronically under-powered lumps starting with the Z50A I was unable to purchase as a child and could not obtain until I was 13, and flowing through the MX100, which was all I could afford when I was 15. The MX was no YZ250, which was what my heart (and more tingly parts) were ready for by then.
But by far the worst was the 1975 KZ400 I bought as my first street bike when I was 18. It was as Jack describes, "The vibe of a p-twin’s vibration isn’t Sons of Anarchy; more like Is This Thing Gonna Break?" It was like riding a paint mixer on the highway, only with less vim and vigor than my MX100 had with 15 y/o me piloting it. I rode the thing to St. Louis from my home in central Illinois, and immediately bought a trader-paper to start looking for an honest-to-goodness 4 cyl UJM when I got there.
I ended up on a 1973 Z1-900, which was by no means fast (by modern standards), but which was at least comfortable and powerful enough for a 19 y/o in 1982. I was humbled by Interceptors 1000s, etc. But it would do 120+ without a lot of drama, and it was inclined to give me what I was asking for.
I had a 2-cyl 2-stroke 1984 Kenny Roberts RZ350, but this cannot be considered a P2 in the sense of the bikes Jack is writing about. It was ridiculous as a street bike, behaving as it did like a 250 motorcrosser on the street. It could not keep its front wheel on the ground, revealing the shocking lack of self-control I possessed as a 27 year-old returning missionary and father of 3. There was nothing to do but to sell it after I proved that I remained an overgrown hooligan at the core. I still miss that stupid thing, although what I'd love to find would be a gray-market RZ500.
I'm riding another kind of twin now, albeit one with entirely different intentions. This one shakes like a paint-mixer as well, but it's endearing and comforting as opposed to irritating and obnoxious. I may buy another twin someday, but it'll be a Triumph (P2) or Ducati (V2) if I do. Neither of these machines displace under 1000 cc, and either of them will shake to one degree or another, but they captivate me each in their own way.
Still, I have to agree with our distinguished author (and his creative quoting of Milton), and with the summary statement "the men who sit in McLarens hold their manhood cheap when a kid on a Kawasaki Z650 pulls up next to them".
"Any bike is better than no bike."
Indeed.
My first bike is (I still have it) an electric blue '07 Ninja 250R. Above 80, that thing made my hands numb, like I'd been using an orbital sander for half an hour.
That's what she said.
Speaking of something ELSE that's 19 years old...
You were a missionary..? Where?
Papua New Guinea. Nipa, Southern Highlands Province.
We lived about 10 klicks off the Highlands Highway (a gravel road) in a village called Hinjip. We were 3 hrs in a Suzuki Ute from mail, dry-goods, a phone, or 24/7 power. We caught rain-water and cooked on a woodstove. We had a kerosene fridge and Coleman lanterns for lights.
Our second child (39 years old now) was born in a clinic with no attending physician.
"RZ350...revealing the shocking lack of self-control I possessed..." This is what I call auto-suggestion, the reaction to the nature of the machine. I too suffer badly from this condition; on my old Mk 1 Fireblade I was dragged in by its "whip me, beat me, spank me" nature; on the VFR ("only if you insist") I am able to display occasional outbreaks of maturity...
Yeah I had a vfr and then saw that mk1 fireblade. Came close but our first child arrived and prob saved me. The 90s in the canyons outside Johannesburg on a Sunday the coos had the attitude that before 11 all the good people were in church and left us free to have at it. A fire blade would have been the thing
Started riding at age 7 when 70s parent thought it would be a good idea to let the kid loose on a 50cc.
First bike age 17 a somewhat used slightly abused gpz 550 followed by a newish Yamaha secs 550 stolen of the street in New Orleans
As always with me first money had to spare bought new Yamaha radian 1986 and still have that bike. Then there was a somewhat used up gpz1100 which had a big ass weave above an indicated 140
Could have been the slightly bald rear or the alignment or maybe it was a bent frame before I got it, almost went off the front at full tilt when I abruptly closed the throttle , how we learn
Then there was a Honda cbx the 6 cyl one a terrible bike but worth$ now apprently, followed by a new vfr 750 which seemed always slightly to tame but would be perfect now.
Yeah now still have the radian and a shaky 2011 v twin, rode it Sunday and it’s great in that steam train sort of way and when you hustle it stil not going that fast. But the child in me wants a street triple and a rocket 3.
Alas where to ride such machines.
Wales! When you can dodge the rain, of course…
Maybe Scotland also?
True. But from the south of England, France is closer and the weather’s generally better
What was wrong with the CBX?
"I had a 2-cyl 2-stroke 1984 Kenny Roberts RZ350, but this cannot be considered a P2 in the sense of the bikes Jack is writing about."
No, that was one of the maddest motorcycles to ever reach the general public. I literally walked twelve miles roundtrip to see it at my local dealer, multiple times.
It really was.
The only thing cooler would be a European RZ500 or a Canadian Suzuki Gamma. None of these bikes had any veneer of general UJM usability, they were all barely disguised race-bikes with lights and plates.
Glorious.
The Gammas were... I don't know what the auto equivalent was. A four-speed 930 Turbo, maybe.
All I know is that I deeply envied the guys at "Cycle World" and "Motorcyclist" who got to ride them and get paid for it.
The Katana always struck me as a halfway point, like they hadn't quite figured out how to turn a Harley into a Gixxer yet.
The 2.0 turbo-four, in the context of the modern world, is a machine exemplary of All That Went Wrong: It's made to be as cheap & easy to assemble as possible, ONCE in a factory in some slave-labor country, it's basically disposable because as a practical matter it can't be repaired, it's made for a purpose other than the official one, it's been NVH'd into the mechanical equivalent of James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend" and it actually makes you GET why women think the worst possible thing a man can be is "boring."
Well put! "Compliance" is the Devil's business.
“ it actually makes you GET why women think the worst possible thing a man can be is "boring."”
Perfectly put sir, perfectly put
"The Katana always struck me as a halfway point, like they hadn't quite figured out how to turn a Harley into a Gixxer yet."
Business-wise, it was brilliant. They sold a bike with mostly previous-generation (meaning PAID OFF) parts and significant cost-cutting, so it was 60% of the bike but sold for 80% of a Gixxer's price.
Third day I had my CBR600F4i, I got pulled over by a Cleveland cop on 77.
"This is my first 600, officer. I honestly didn't know it was this fast."
He let me go with a warning, which was nice of him. Because I'm pretty sure I was into triple digits.
It's odd, I've been let go a few times on bikes when I don't think I would have been in a car.
I think cops love bikes. All the security guards at my job are extremely friendly to me when I ride up to the gate on a bike. Many of them ride too. I know one has an R7. Another an RC51 like the other commenter.
Unless you're being chased, the only real danger is to yourself.
When I noticed the cop, I pulled over, shut the bike off and dismounted.
I think that's why he gave me a warning.
Not being a dick, having insurance, and not being a squid goes a long way.
Valid license and no warrants help, too.
True but I think that's covered by "not a squid"
Granted, not being a dick and having insurance probably is too.