Why Do You Ride The Bike You Do?

[8trackmind]

Originally Posted by SinPrisa

I ride a Wee because I'm cheep.

Agreed. The Adventure bike for a man with on hand on the bars, and the other on his wallet.

[PhilB]

For me, it was all about finding the bike that had everything I wanted. I like the look and the feel of an unfaired bike. I like the lightness, handling, and brakes of a sportbike. I like the sound and torque curve of a twin better than a four. All of that spells Ducati Monster. At the time (1993), that was the only thing it spelled. Since, and now, there are other choices, but then, the Monster was it. I've been really happy with it, so I'm sticking with it for as long as I can reasonably keep it running. Which looks like forever.

PhilB

[bbagwell]

I ride my DR650 the most. It does what I need/want it to do, and I have fun riding it! I ride my TW200 when I want to ride the trails, or just take a slower paced ride.

[RFVC600R]

My bike can ride on the freeway all day and keep up with 2 stroke 250 and 450 MX bikes. I just let some air out of my tires. I ride this pig in it's natural habitat.

[atomicalex]

I've had a Beemer thing for so long that I couldn't fight it off. I looked at, sat on, etc a lot of bikes, but after doing my classes on a twin, I was hooked, lined, and sinkered. Constant harping on the ABS thing from my instructor was such an easy out. It was the classic case of using anything and everything to justify a decision you'd already made. I bought my bike because I wanted it. I wanted the bike, the name, the color, the options, all of it.

A year-plus later, I really like my thumper. It's a real Allerkönner (does everything) for me. The expandable bags are perfect for commuting (90% of my miles) and traveling. The power is enough to not get killed on the highway and not enough to kill myself with. The suspension is compliant enough to not hurt and to soak up the bumps and get me over them. The package works well enough that I don't feel the need to send it away, and do feel the need to put as many kms as I can on it.

It's a great beginner bike. If I have to stay a beginner to keep riding it, I think I will. :)

I do want to get one of those fancy sport bikes, though, because some days I feel like scooter trash, what with sitting up so straight way up there in GS land....

[DC2wheels]

'92 BMW K100RS

Feels comfortable like an old, broken-in pair of slippers. Not insanely fast. Reliable. Good fuel mileage. Good handling (revised f&r suspension) CHEAP!


But looking to do some dirt roads and trails- DRZ400 on order

[Yooper_Bob]

I've got a 2007 KTM 640 Adventure, and I absolutely love it!!!!!

It can do everything so well (except for maybe really tight single track...but I blame that on the idiot behind the controls). It goes anywhere that my old DRZ 400s did, but its taller, faster, more powerful, and has a better suspension.

The bike has the suspension and handling to easily run rutted, root infested, rocky, sandy two tracks all day long, and yet you can jump out on the highway and cruise along in comfort thanks to the fairing and plenty of top end.

The fuel range is outstanding (easily go 250+ miles per tank), and the frame is sturdy enough to load up the saddlebags with a long weekends worth of camping gear.

I will never get rid of it!!!!

[Yossarian™]

I ride what I like.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) I find something to like about almost every motorcycle.

Riding makes me happier.

[daveinva]

I ride the Spyder because I hate paying attention to potholes in twisties when I'm trying to enjoy the scenery. I also ride it because I don't give a flying frack what other riders think about the ride that makes me happy.

I ride the Ninja 500 when I need to feel the lean and can be bothered to pay attention to those aforementioned potholes.

[corndog67]

I just sold a Monster S4. I kept it longer than any bike I've ever owned, 5 1/2 years. And, to my surprise, the bike was extremely reliable, never left me walking, and ran just like it did when I bought it. Even after 5 + years of beating on it. I thought about it for a bit, then decided that maybe I should sell it while it's still reliable, so I did. It was a great bike, big time power, turned really well, good brakes, and like I said, reliable.

But my tastes/wants have changed. Last year I bought a KTM 950 Supermoto. It's big, big fun. Does wheelies in 3rd gear. Isn't quite as fast as that Ducati, but more than fast enough. The feeling of confidence when throwing the KTM into corners is unparalleled. You can feel exactly what the tires are doing at all times. I'll keep it for a while, no telling what'll be next. Maybe an Aprilia Tuono V4.

Oh yeah, just bought a steel tank, mid 70's XR75, which I've wanted since I raced minibikes in the early 70's.

I used to have to have the fastest, newest, latest tech, whatever. I guess I'm getting old.

[Tinker1980]

I ride a KLR because you can't do this with the GSXR that all the kids ride nowdays:



An inmate here had it in their signature: Nothing does everything better than a KLR.

[thedrewski86]

I recently acquired a new daily driver: my CBR1000f. I picked it because it was cheap (cheapest bike I ever bought by $1000!), it came with a parts bike, insurance was cheap because it's 20+ years old, fast, comfy for me and my wife and get's way better mpg than my previous ride. Pretty much any vehicle I own I become very attached to and this will no doubt be the same. It seems to fit me to a "t" thus far. I can see putting a lot of miles on this one.

[max384]

My bike is an '09 SV650S. I bought it because I got it very cheap (wrecked, R-title, put back together, selling for a fraction of the new cost), it's cheap to insure, and cheap to maintain. These are all things a poor student who commutes is looking for in a bike. I've since put nearly the purchase price into it in farkles. I've converted from clip-ons to handlebars, re-geared it, upgraded the suspension back and front, put hard luggage on, upgraded brake lines, fabbed up a skid plate for it, installed a Scottoiler, lowered the pegs, installed a SpeedoDRD, installed a touring windscreen, installed LED auxiliary lights, added some DC charging ports, and a few other things I can't think of at the moment.

I'm to the point where I'm about done farkling. I've got this bike to how I want it for the riding that I do with it. Although I bought it because it was cheap, I've really fallen in love with this bike. It's just really capable in a lot of different settings. I'll definitely be keeping this bike for many years. Even if I do get another bike, I'll probably hold onto this one since resale value will be terrible because it's an R-title, has fairly high mileage (well, not really, but anything over 10k seems to turn a lot of people away), and you never get close to what you've put into a bike in terms of upgrades.

My friends always laugh at me for buying this bike and ask why I didn't just buy a Vstrom instead of the SV. The answer is, of course, because I got the SV for cheap... But in reality I could have bought a bike that suits me nearly out of the box for not much more than I paid for my bike plus farkles. But, it is nice to put the work into a bike to get it how you want it and be happy with the result.

[comac90]

WR250R ... It does everything (I want to do) well. Cheap, 60-70mpg, runs 80-90mph on slab, fun enough in the twisties, great in the dirt, light (compared to a GSA ), awesome commuter, comfortable, easily fits on the back of my jeep if i wanna tote it somewhere and the most fun of any bike I've been on.

T

[daveinva]

Originally Posted by max384

Love that sticker...