Any Motörbike riders here?

AK99 · August 2022

p90fool said:

Kittyfrisk said:

^ You seem very taken with the Interceptor, it would be good to hear a review of your experiences with it.

Although the majority of my holidays and camping trips have been on a Bullet for the last 18 years or so I always keep a modern push button bike alongside it for long, faster day trips. Most of these bikes come and go and I rarely ride them for pleasure, but the Interceptor looks like sticking around for a while as it ticks so many boxes for me.

It's fun on the sorts of smaller roads I like exploring but just about quick enough to blitz the boring roads in between them, it looks fairly cool for a modern cheap bike and it does nearly 20 miles to a litre, which is double mileage of the Suzuki it replaced.

There are no real downsides for me, it's mechanically very simple, the electronics aren't too daunting to troubleshoot and parts are cheap. I've done 10,000 miles on it so far but have no fear of wearing it out as I can afford to rebuild it every few years, something which was becoming increasingly daunting on Harleys.

So yes, I'm really quite fond of it considering it's a modern, big selling cookie cutter bike.

Met a former neighbour of mine last week back up home who's a long term biker - who bought an Interceptor recently (same lovely colour as yours incidentally). He reports getting 70+ mpg out of it too, which I find amazing. Maybe too many heavy bikes and ones of the sporting variety have dulled my expectations on that front.

Anyways, back to yer man's bike, he fitted a freer flowing air filter, and also drilled out a 10mm hole in the baffles on the standard silencers, and got a fairly mild remap to overcome the worst of the ultra lean Euro 4(?) emissions standard tune - and it sounds great

Really nice thing I have to say.

Neckwringer · August 2022

Forgot all about this thread..................

p90fool · August 2022

Nice, I haven't ridden one of those for years!

Neckwringer · August 2022

p90fool said:

Nice, I haven't ridden one of those for years!

Certainly not standard and with a few trick bits...............ooooph

p90fool · August 2022

Neckwringer said:

p90fool said:

Nice, I haven't ridden one of those for years!

Certainly not standard and with a few trick bits...............ooooph

I hope that includes camchain tensioners!

gavin_axecaster · August 2022

A properly sorted Firestorm is a beautiful thing.

Dominic · August 2022

.......but an RC45 is one hell of a lot better !

Neckwringer · August 2022

p90fool said:

Neckwringer said:

p90fool said:

Nice, I haven't ridden one of those for years!

Certainly not standard and with a few trick bits...............ooooph

I hope that includes camchain tensioners!

Yea,goes without saying and R/R to name but a few.......................

TheBigDipper · October 2022

Haven't been out on the bike for a few weeks for one reason or another. I just sold a pedal and found that the buyer was just the other side of the New Forest from me. And was happy for me to deliver. So I've just had a lovely bimble across the Forest, met a nice chap, delivered a pedal, had a cuppa and rode home again. Very relaxing and nice to be "in the moment"... :-)

Haych · October 2022

My bike has not had much use recently either. We went on holiday as a family the last week in August so haven't properly used it since before then.

After we came back from holiday it was back to work/school, then the kids brought bugs home and everyone was ill for what seemed like weeks on end, including yours truly.

Mrs Haych is all geared up to ride pillion now, so we went out for a very gentle first ride together while they were planting Liz - we figure the roads would be quiet. It was the missus' first time on a bike and my first time riding with a pillion, so we were both a bit tense, but it went well and she's pretty much a natural at going with the flow. She's eager to get out again for a longer ride now.

Had a few errands to run Saturday just gone so hopped on the bike to do them and thoroughly enjoyed being out there again.

I've started watching a few motorcycle touring videos on YouTube these last couple of days so now have got the urge to plan something for next year - if my "mates" weren't arseholes I'd probably suggest something to them but after this year's fiasco I'd rather set myself on fire than hold out an olive branch to those two gits. Whatever I do, I reckon I'll be going alone, which isn't completely bad, but it's always a bit more fun with like minded companions.

Dominic · October 2022

went for a quick joyride yesterday.......not a summer's day but sky was mainly clear ........thought I'd get in a quick 40 miles
Within a matter of less than 2 minutes the sky went black ,a storm cloud raced toward me ......the fastest incoming storm I've ever seen whipped along by a whirlwind .
Was I two miles from home ?, was I ten miles from home ? ........No,I was exactly half way through and about 25 miles from home .....got absolutely soaked ,road flooded and the wind was incredible .I couldn't ride .
The wind and rain passed after 30 mins .......I rode home through floodwater and past at least 3 uprooted trees .
When I got home I saw a huge Birch tree had collapsed across garden and drive .....exactly where bike was parked before I went out ! Everything happens for a reason !

thebreeze · October 2022

Hello gang, I’m pretty much at where @octatonic was all those years ago when he started this thread, so forgive the basic questions but it is great to have a source of info from you guys/girls.

Helmets. I’ve been reading your thoughts about safety/wind in your face/peripheral vision etc. Clearly, the full/all-in-one is the safest. If you get one without a visor (or it has a removable one) is that the best of all worlds, or doesn’t it work like that? I.e will your face be okay/best protected if you have a full helmet but no visor on?

Haych · October 2022

You can get the MX style helmets which have a chinbar and a large aperture/eye port - usually they’re used with goggles, but don’t know how goggles affect peripheral vision (never used them).

A good full face helmet is best IMHO. Something like the AVG K6 has unimpeded vision and you have all the protection built in.

Personally, I wouldn’t ride without some form of eye protection - a stone chip or even a medium sized fly in your eye at a decent speed is going to not only hurt, but be a massive distraction.

octatonic · October 2022

MX helmets are fine but I don't like them on the road.

The most important thing for me is fit.
I have a 'Shoei head'.
Nothing else is comfortable- Schubert, in particular, gives me a headache in about 15 mins.
Shoei GT Air are particularly good for me.

Go try a few on.

jaytmon · October 2022

@thebreeze if you can hang on a few weeks, get a ticket to the NEC bike show. Apart from lots of lovely shiny two-wheeled delights to drool over, there are usually some very good deals to be had on helmets, and a massive array (wanted to type ‘arai’) to try on. As @octatonic said, fit is probably the most important thing.

TheBigDipper · October 2022

Full face helmets offer the best protection if you crash. They also offer the best protection against bad weather. "The wind in your face" is, IMHO, overrated. Once you start riding faster than 40-50mph, the wind in your eyes will start to affect your vision if you don't have the visor down or wear goggles. Heavy rain and the cold is no fun when you're riding and will affect your concentration levels after a while.

MX helmets tend to be bigger in the chin area, and that means more wind noise for most of us.

Buy based on fit. Different makes have shells for different shaped heads. Arai and Shoei are very different. More expensive helmets will have more shell sizes to match the different head sizes they fit. Cheaper makes will have fewer sizes of shell and make it up with the lining and padding. So you could end up with a big helmet (large shell) and lots of padding because you have a medium head.

Funnily enough, I'm using an AGV K6 at the mo, and prior to that, two Shoei GT-Airs one after the other. @Haych and @octatonic have good taste! :-) I only tried a K6 this time because it was new and I wondered if the Shoei was worth the extra. I think it was, TBH. The AGV is fine for its price and I'll run it for another year, but the Shoei was superb - for me and my head. Both are very quiet. The K6 wins for extra peripheral vision and the Shoei wins for long term wearing comfort. The built-in sun visor was a feature I never used. Not very good, optically, I thought.

Corvus · October 2022

Fit is the main thing, after type, I also have a Shoei head and Arais don't fit at all. I have a Shoei full-face and an open face. The peripheral vision sideways is the same. There's more up/down in the open face but makes no odds. The open face is a fair bit worse for wind noise.

I mostly wear the full-face esp in town, have smacked the front of one hard once. Would have been a right mess in an open face. Also scraped up a guy who'd done the same, hit face-first hard. The open face gets used in the lanes really. Shades with foam edging sorts the windblast problem pretty much. I wear a face covering either a thin fabric one or a neoprene one, that's better when you get pinged in the face by a small stone or fat kamikaze insect.

thebreeze · October 2022

Thanks for all your thoughts, really helpful. I’ve clearly got to try some on and will almost certainly go for a full face I think. I’d do what you say @jaytmon but I’ve got some training in the middle of Nov. I’ll ring them to see if I can borrow a helmet for that (although they say to bring one). Somewhere earlier in the posts (it’s long!!) someone mentioned a Vyper (I think), quite liked the look of that.

octatonic · October 2022

TheBigDipper said:

The built-in sun visor was a feature I never used. Not very good, optically, I thought.

That is interesting- I used it pretty much all the time (daytime anyway), but I am pretty sensitive to light.

Sporky · October 2022

I just bought myself an M1000RR. Haven't been on a motorbike in 40 years or so, so I'm starting small.

Haych · October 2022

Sporky said:

I just bought myself an M1000RR. Haven't been on a motorbike in 40 years or do, so I'm starting small.

https://youtu.be/3WAOxKOmR90

thebreeze · October 2022

Sporky said:

I just bought myself an M1000RR. Haven't been on a motorbike in 40 years or so, so I'm starting small.

I bet that’s harder to build than the real thing!

guitargeek62 · October 2022

I’m in Tenerife this week and will be renting a bike here on Tues to ride around and see the sights. The roads look incredible, I’m a little excited!

thebreeze · November 2022

Is counter-steering a mandatory skill for anyone on a motorbike? Is it easy to practise without falling off all the time and wrecking your bike if you're a beginner?

Haych · November 2022

thebreeze said:

Is counter-steering a mandatory skill for anyone on a motorbike? Is it easy to practise without falling off all the time and wrecking your bike if you're a beginner?

Pretend you never heard the phrase. You can’t ride any bike without countersteering, it’s just how they work. You can consciously practise it, but you’ll do it subconsciously and automatically anyway.

thebreeze · November 2022

Haych said:

thebreeze said:

Is counter-steering a mandatory skill for anyone on a motorbike? Is it easy to practise without falling off all the time and wrecking your bike if you're a beginner?

Pretend you never heard the phrase. You can’t ride any bike without countersteering, it’s just how they work. You can consciously practise it, but you’ll do it subconsciously and automatically anyway.

Okay, thank you, that's interesting. I do a lot of cycling and I'm not consciously aware of it - is that because I'm not going fast enough or am I doing it on a bicycle too but just unaware of it?

Kittyfrisk · November 2022

As @Haych says, I wouldn't get too bothered by it. It is an explanation of what you do anyway.
A bit like applying physics topics such as gyroscopic rotation when referring to how the bike handles going round corners...
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/motorcycle4.htm

Haych · November 2022

thebreeze said:

Haych said:

thebreeze said:

Is counter-steering a mandatory skill for anyone on a motorbike? Is it easy to practise without falling off all the time and wrecking your bike if you're a beginner?

Pretend you never heard the phrase. You can’t ride any bike without countersteering, it’s just how they work. You can consciously practise it, but you’ll do it subconsciously and automatically anyway.

Okay, thank you, that's interesting. I do a lot of cycling and I'm not consciously aware of it - is that because I'm not going fast enough or am I doing it on a bicycle too but just unaware of it?

Possibly a bit of both. I think below about 12 mph the countersteering thing doesn’t work the same, but chances are you’re doing it and you just don’t know you are.

It’s a bit of a contentious topic among some riders, who claim countersteering doesn’t exist.

The principle is simple though, say you want to turn left; to do so you need to make the bike lean left, and to do that you need to turn the bars slightly to the right, which naturally tips the bike left as the weight shifts the opposite direction and allows you to turn left. It’s momentary and a completely unconscious process but without it, it’s impossible to steer a bike at speed.

There’s a veritasium video that explains it really well, hold on, I’ll see if I can find it……

Here it is:

https://youtu.be/9cNmUNHSBac

I don’t recall if it specifically mentions countersteering but the principle is explained very well.

thebreeze · November 2022

Thanks chaps, that's reassured me a lot.

Dominic · November 2022

@Haych is spot on ......it's totally intuitive to some degree and happens automatically .
The only time you would need to very consciously do it is if you are a seriously fast experienced rider /track / circuit day person and you have gone into a turn too openly and are starting to run wide or really need to tighten your line / avoid another bike that's running in front etc .In that situation a strong push will cant the angle of lean down especially if you push down on the same footpeg and shift your weight and twist your head more into the bend.

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