Bikes you didn't like nearly as much as you thought you would.

[TexRivers]

Originally Posted by '05Train

R1200RT. On paper it's such a great bike. The reality of it was that it was dreadfully boring to ride, drug its pegs around almost any corner above 40mph, was a PITA to work on (the whole fairing must come off for just about anything), and was just not comfortable for my 6'2" frame.

Ditto for the 07 K12GT, extremely boring to ride under 90 mph. I got too many speeding tickets.

Traded the K12 for a Guzzi V7. I loved the looks, but bike was way too small for cross country touring.

Traded the V7 for a California EV Touring and it fits my needs 100%, full size tourer and just the right combination of speed and handling with tons of character.

[greer]

Tex,

Too small as in cramped seating position or engine performance?

Sarah

[oalvarez]

(^ hopefully Tex will share his thoughts as well, but I,would say "both." At 5'10/30" the V7 fit me well but without much room to spare, anyone taller and they're going to feel it in the knees. Engine performance/output is sufficient for normal riding, but again, there just isn't a lot of it beyond a certain point.)

[UnsureFooting]

01 Kawi Concours. I actually loved riding it. It only had two downsides, but those downsides were big enough to kill it for me. One was the footpeg placement, I'm 6-2, and it was just a bit cramped. The other was the highly effective fairing. Riding that machine around Dallas in 100+ heat was awful between no airflow and the hot-enough-to-bake-cookies air getting blown straight off the engine onto my feet.

[TiPirate]

My buddy's (5'8" and 155Lb) Kawi Z1000 is hard not to like when you're standing around shooting the shit, but the ergos are silly. And the wall of noise always cresting behind your head from the scorpion pipes is pretty annoying after a few miles. Buffeting, non-existent gearbox and stratospheric powerband.

My other buddy's (6'2" and 160lbs) Honda 954RR is a different ball of wax. Feels cheap all 'round. A definite case of "where's the engine?" then the powerband hits you in the back like a runaway log truck and you're doing mach chicken. At least the Fireblade is fast enough you don't have to deal with the constant sonic boom from the Muzzy pipe.

For the record, I'm 6' and 220Lb and ride an R1100R. It's not awesome at anything.

[DiabloADV]

Originally Posted by TiPirate

... It's not awesome at anything.

My favorite kind of bike.

[TiPirate]

Originally Posted by DiabloADV

My favorite kind of bike.

When we switch bikes back, my friends always comment on how the BeeEm is a nice place to sit, but there's not enough drama. As if riding the motorcycle equivalent of a hair band is somehow better.

Mr Sensible and the freak show. They love to joke until they need to stash something in the system cases.

[Tuna Helper]

Originally Posted by rat110

Honda cbr600f4i.

Around town and on the highways it just seemed flat, dull and too damn quiet.
I had just come off a VFR800, so this may have something to do with it....

When it wound up it was ok, but it just didnt sit right. I kept wanting to like it, but couldnt. Plus it hurt my wrists.

Meh.

"Hurt my wrists" has killed it for many of the bikes I've ridden. CBR f4, ZX-14, cb650, XB12Scg, except it was/is the angle of the bars on the last two that does it.

[alii1959]

The bike I was most excited to ride: Kawasaki Meanstreak. I took it out on a group demo ride. At the time, it seemed to be the cruiser that fit me best. Lots of noise, lots of commotion, poor seat, so-so brakes, terrible ergos. Couldn't believe how much I hated that thing! One of the worst riding experiences ever! Never looked at one again.

Second worst: Ducati Hypermotard. Who came up with this thing? For a shorter guy like me, horrible ergos. Tinsy tank. Laughable mirrors. Might as well just sit on the tank, seat was behind me the whole time. Boys did not play kind with said tank. But, dear DOG, that sound....that amazing sound.... Fortunately, I wear earplugs and couldn't hear the sound over the pain in the nads, pain in the back, pain in the wrists, etc.... Oh, but that sound!!

I do believe that Harley's and Ducati's are the only bikes that could be sold on sound alone. Absolutely amazing! May have to buy a cheap monster one day...just so I can listen to it idle next to my Road King....now, that would be a symphony, eh?

[redmille]

2002 K1200rs, beautiful bike in ice blue with the red stripes, but a bit of a pig and not that comfy and a bit buzzy.
Sprint ST 1050, for years thought I would like one of these until I rode one. Not for me.
CRF450X, bought new and sold six months later, it always seemed to want to come out from underneath me.

[Domromer]

Vstrom 650, it's my current bike and the 2nd one I've owned. No matter how I change the seat, pegs, or bars its just not a comfortable bike for me. That and it just doesn't really excite me at all. My klr was more fun to rip around town, and my xrl was more fun than the klr. I'm on a quest for a comfortable standard the can tour, go down shitty roads, and carry two up in comfort.

[TexRivers]

Originally Posted by greer

Tex,

Too small as in cramped seating position or engine performance?

Sarah

Too small in both engine and cramped riding position. I'm 5-10 & 31" Inseam. It was ok for 800 mile 3 day weekend trips to the Texas hill country, but I like to do longer rides and often need to do 500+ mile days to get to from Houston to Colorado and further west.

I got seduced by its looks, but it is a small bike.

Don't buy one with a plastic tank, the paint cracks. The new ones have steel tanks.

My full sized Cali gets just as many compliments, many more than my buddies' Harley's, and I can ride it all day and night.

[99Bandit]

I bought a 2002 HD Sportster 883R off the showroom floor after a very long hiatus from owning a bike. I thought it would be a good replacement for my old Nighthawk 650SC. I was wrong. Even with dual front discs, it felt like I was trying to stop a freight train. Of course it couldn't get out of its own way and handled like shit. I tried every type of bars, seats, forward controls and mids. I just couldn't make it fun to ride. I liked how it looked but hated riding it. It spent 10 years as a strictly "in town" bike until I traded it for a Bandit 1200S.

Best decision I ever made.

Another bike that I couldn't get off of fast enough was the 02 Buell M1 Lightning. The seat was like a torture device from the Spanish inquisition.

[9990]

I wanted to like my Bonneville. I really did.

Classic standard looks. Nice round headlight, not too big, not too small. Blacked-out engine with ground/shiny edges to the cooling fins on the cylinders. Nice, long megaphone mufflers, gently upswept. Classic handlebar -- just enough pullback but not too much. Simple analog gauges with inset digital modern functions. Mag (cast) wheels, which I like better than spokes any day. Something to do with growing up in the 70s I guess.
Bench-like seat with just enough contour to be interesting. And mine was Aurum Gold -- how often do you see that color on a motorcycle? Classy but understated.

Oh it looked great. Even felt great to sit on in the dealership. "I'll take one!" I said.

But once I started riding it, it all became clear. Unfortunately clear.

The pegs were exactly where my feet naturally fell, so I had to put my feet down outside the pegs. Not comfortable, pegs always poking the insides of my calves. And that nice looking handlebar was just about exactly wrong for me. According to cycle-ergo.com my height (5'10") and inseam (30") result in a 7 degree forward lean on the Bonneville. All I can say is that angle, whatever it was, was damned uncomfortable! Not straight up like a standard or an adventure bike, or a cruiser for that matter, and not forward-leaning enough to be truly engaging, like a sport bike or a sport-tourer. A kind-of lean, just enough to make your back hurt.

And the grip angle! My wrists ached after 10 minutes every time I rode it. Not from weight, from the angle. To have straight wrists with those bars I would have had to have my elbows nearly touching in front of my stomach. Who do they test these things on, midgets??

And then we get to the vibration! Parallel-twin vibrations are, I think, something that either you don't notice at all, or they drive you up a tree. For me they hurt my hands, then they put my hands to sleep -- completely numb, both hands, inside 15 minutes. Like controlling the throttle with thumb & pinky only level of numb. Sigh. Even though it sounded cool.

Which is a crying shame, because the Bonnie is such a cool bike. Not light, but not outrageously heavy either. Rather nimble. Smooth, linear power delivery. Deceptively fast. Nice exhaust note. And a looker! At least for some, including me.

Like I said, I wanted to like it, but I ended up trading it in with less than 200 miles on it. My bank account said ouch.

Hasn't soured me on Triumphs though. I have a new-to-me 2001 Sprint RS 955 which I love. Nimble (truly), fast, easy to ride. And, as others have said, that triple is unique. Sounds like a diesel truck at idle and has the torque to go with it. And once you get into those higher revs that triple wail is a sonic signature like no other, and to me better than any Japanese inline 4 high-rev whine. To top it off, the bike weighs only 450 lbs.

Works for me.

But yeah, the Bonneville. I so wanted it to be my favorite bike. I guess it's also a realization that the older one gets, the more ergonomics and comfort matter.

[dirtdreamer50]

9990
I had the exact same problems with a Bonneville T100. I lowered the pegs, but that didn't help the leg poking problem. The seat was like a 2x10 wooden board, but the Scrambler solo seat fixed that. Grip puppies helped the bar vibration, and a new set of bars fixed the dumb hand angle ache. The nonexistent exhaust note was fixed with a great set of mufflers from Feked.com, in the UK.

The one thing I couldn't fix was,"it didn't like to turn". Toss it into a corner or curve, and it still wanted to go straight, to the point where it was scary at highway speeds. I too took a bath on the trade to a bigger mistake, a Sprint 1050, but that's another sad tale, that led me to a Tiger 1050, which was an even bigger disappointment. I love Triumphs, but haven't found the right one for me, yet. dd50
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