Versys-X 400 speculations thread

That's an interesting parallel story to my young and tender years...LOL! In TX we could get a full DL at 15. My first car was a '57 Chevy 210 2-dr with a 283. My stepdad was a recreational drag racer in a club in San Antonio, TX, and we started modding the car as soon as I bought it...had started working at a local grocery store chain at 14 after school, so had a chunk of cash burning a hole in my pocket. While looking for some "fuelie" heads in the junkyard for the 283, the owner asked if I'd be interested in a complete 409 Chevy engine...the 425hp dual 4-bbl version. It was downhill from there...LOL! I didn't blow up the engine, but I went through a few OEM chuck-style rear ends until installing a complete 12-bolt rear...LOL! What did your Buick 425 come out of?

The Buick 425 was in the truck when I got it. I traded a xs 650 special to a guy that I met when selling solar heat systems, an after school and summertime job , and farmers needed their hay and alfalfa bucked and stacked, and would cleanup scrap sheet rock on new house builds using the truck for dump runs and a few other jobs. I was a busy teenager and a wheeler dealer. Traded my Suzuki sp125 for the xs 650. Lol

FWIW you can weigh a motorcycle with a bathroom scale and a stack of magazines the same height as the scale. Put the scale under one wheel and a same-height stack of magazines under the other, gently balance the bike vertically, and read the weight. Then switch the positions of the magazines and scale, and then read the weight again. Add the two weights together and you have the total weight.

My dad felt that I would be better off with a pickup ( I could haul my bikes myself) , so he brought home a 68 Mercury with a 390 2-barrell , 3 on the tree. $ 800 . Paid monthly , by the time I had it paid off it was burning plenty of oil . He told me to be patient , He wrangled a 429-4v out of a rolled 71 marquis . He installed it with some headers into the truck tranny and all . . Standard steering and standard brakes . YIKES

I worked as a welder/ fitter for around 25 years and the shipping guys used that technique for heavy equipment or things too heavy for the scales. If I remember correctly they would also use hanging scales doing one end at a time and like you described but using metal for spacers and measure the hanging end to match.

I'm not certain you need the magazines. I seem to recall from quite a few years ago that I had weighed one of my enduros, out of curiosity. I did the bathroom scale thing but no magazine. A few weeks later I read the suggestion of using [something?] to keep the bike level. I used some wood scraps I had laying around. As I recall, it made no significant difference.

But I have difficulty remembering what I had for breakfast some days, so if someone can demonstrate that there's a significant difference I'll be glad to apologize.

Come to think of it, perhaps I'll try it myself tomorrow. I've been curious how much my 300 weighs as I've got it set up.

...ken...

I was reading about displacement and thumpers but no much is said how a good transmission makes all the difference in any bike both for the usable torque and cruise + highway use + efficiency. Imo that is one of the huge flaws of the 690 that bugs down in the dirt and then feels like coming apart on the highway.
That transmission is not for me and I am not alone. I understand some might like it. Even the devil has followers.

I think most people hoping for a vx400 is because they understand the many benefits of a mass produced super reliable japanese twin mounted on a "adv" chasis from a japanese big 4 brand.

Imo other thumper conjetures and discussions would be better reserved for other thumper dedicated threads, bajaj-ktm, dual sport, swm, etc...

The wbove are also the reasons why so many folks like the T7, uterly reliable bomb proof engine from the mt7, simple electronics and very practical and versatile.
If a new light 400 or 500 does not show up thr T7 is looking betrer every day.
And yes I would still buy a vx300 over a klr because of its engine and specially the weight.
Also Itseems to me that if a thumper enthusiast is willing to dance the DR650 tango that is still a very good and simple choice for a used one with all the upgrades. Funny a 30yr. Old design can still bring a lot of happyiness on a budget and w/o headaches.

I've tried it both ways and the difference is very slight -- if you weigh it using just a scale the weight will be slightly less than actual. And by 'slightly' I mean a few pounds which is probably within the margin of error of the scale anyway. But, some people are particular about such things and to them a few pounds is a big deal which is why I wrote it the way I did. And, as you pointed out, you can use anything under the non-scale wheel: stack of magazines, scrap(s) of wood, telephone books (they actually still print those things), those university textbooks from 30 years ago that you kept naively thinking you would 'read again some day', etc.

I look at it like 2 guys carying something heavy like a mattress or washing machine up stairs. The guy on the bottom is carying most the weight.

Say your scale is 3" off the ground.

An object with a 60" length will only be tilting a few degree off level so it wont have a large effect on actual weight . Weighing slightly less. That would be 2.8 °

Something the same weight but only 20" long would increase the angle and have a larger effect of weighing lighter than actual weight. That would be 8.5°

Pythagorean theorem is useful for these things.

Python..... who??

...ken...

Come on Ken its basic math. I thought I would never use it but ended up working at Northwest Pipe doing lay-out on pipe cutting outlets , elbows, tangents, manways ect. Wish I could forget. Pie was not something I only ate but used for layout. Radius , diameter , sine of degree, cosine , tangents of degree , triangulation, plum-bob ? Anything?

Yeah, just yankin' your chain. Sorry. Didn't realize it would bring back such sweet memories! I do remember the old saw about the square of the hypotenuse being equal to the square of both sides. And all the formulae for calculating diameter and radii and etc. Even outside work they are very useful to know. I never did get into sines, cosines, tangents. But I've never felt deprived at the lack.

...ken...

Its all in good humor. I could have stayed under a welding hood but always wanted to learn more. Ok , and get paid more.

You shouldn't feel deprived you owned a GPZ 550. Ran high 11s in the 80s if I remember correct. I feel deprived , because I never had one.

Edit : I was wrong its more like 12.5s still fast and I bet it handled great.

I dont feel quite so deprived knowing my Nighthawk S was slightly faster in the 1/4 mile. Lol
I did drag race a guy on a Honda 750 interceptor . Dam close race.

Cycle Guide recorded quarter-mile times of 12.048 seconds, putting the Nighthawk S ahead of Kawasaki’s GPz750 (12.167 seconds) and only slightly behind Suzuki’s GS750E (11.893 seconds). It was only a fraction slower than Honda’s liquid-cooled V4 sportbike, the VF750F Interceptor (11.963 seconds).

I was triple lucky. I had three GPz550s: two 1981s (stuffed the first one into a guardrail in NW Montana) and a 1982. I never drag raced any of them. But I loved the way you could twist their tails in the mountains. .

...ken.. .

Pythagoras is a who. Python is a what -- either one of several species of snakes or a programming language depending on who you ask. I prefer the latter because it is very useful in data science.

I remember Python, Monty better. Also for me pi r squared l (don't know how to symbolise it here!)
is still useful as the volume of a cylinder, working out oversize bores etc.

No, no, no... CAKE are squared. Pie are round. (old Newfoundland wisdom).

JP

I like my pizza in 12 slices so that way I get more for the same price.

I saw a chicken count its eggs .
It was a mathmachicken.


Did you know diarrhea is hereditary ?
It runs in your jeans .


The Kawi GPz 305 was a twin, made between 1983 and 1990. It could reach a top speed of 94 mph (152 km/h). Claimed 33.26 HP (24.8 KW) @ 10000 RPM. 361 lbs wet.

Don't forget that HP and weight figures given by any manufacturer in the 70's through early 2000's should be catalogued under fiction rather than historical genre...


Gustavo