• What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:10 am**

My NC24 is my first bike. I love it. I've been thru a lot with it, I've nursed it hahaha. Its given me good times, adrenaline, riding skills and maintenance skills.
I'm still learning to use more of its power more often. (with a max of about 10-13k rpm) Still improving my gear selection and changes.
I've had the bike over 2 years, only 2500km so far. Its only just started running right recently. I plan to put a lot more kms on it now.

Having sex and riding that bike are the 2 best things in my life... And I don't have a gf at the moment, so thats the best thing in my life atm hahahah.

This is probably not the place to admit this...
I'm not really a cornering nutcase like most of you. I don't ride at the track. I've been for 1 trackday. I don't have bucks at the moment to throw on lots of maintenance or a dropped bike. I am keen on the next track day, for fun and to improve myself, but its not my passion.
I don't think the street is the place to be scraping footpegs, so I don't see the need for a bike that handles like a VFR400 or a 600 (or even a 1000 possibly) on the street. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Since experiencing a 900 fireblade for a day I've wanted a bigger bike, thinking as soon as I'm able to, I'm gonna get a GSXR1000. K1-K5. I've always had my eye on the GSXR600-1000 in blue and white. (Though red and black is sick as well) Then again the R1 is even more beautiful and sounds eargasmic with 2bros pipes, but theres something about the GSXR...

Then today I was checking out busas, with actual seriousness. They are really ridiculous bikes. One thing they really have going for them is they're more comfortable than any sport bike. And you'll NEVER need to upgrade for power again hahahahha. A big attraction to their abundance of power, is the idea of showing non-bikers the wonder of the 2 wheels.
I'm sure any litre bike will also accomplish that with ease. But a 600 wont.
Realistically, I probably won't be missing any of the sacrificed handling.
The comfort benefit of the busa is kind of moot since I'd like to get an Africa Twin (or some kind of touring bike) at some stage and go up East Africa a bit. So if I want to ride for hours, I'll take the twin. If I had a busa it would be a tough choice sometimes, but the busa is a bit thirsty for touring.

One thing I love about the VFR400 is its light weight and the ease at which you can flick it over, and lane split through traffic. IIRC the VFR400 is 705mm, the GSXR1000 is 710-715mm and the Busa is 740mm. That extra 25cm is significant when lane splitting. At some traffic lights I hardly fit through.

If you're concerned about the safety aspect of riding a busa, I should mention that I'm also not a complete maniac like a lot of bikers. I enjoy a few adrenaline rushes along the way, but most of the time I'm fairly behaved. (that means 'unbehaved' compared to the average road user, but on the behaved end of 'unbehaved' bunch) haha. I regard myself as extremely safety conscious as far as the average biker goes.

I'm really talking rubbish when it comes to the busa, I doubt I'd let myself get such a powerful bike. Its just silly. But then again why do we ride superbikes? (talking rubbish again, it happens quickly) And its too big, and heavy. Motorbikes are supposed to be light.
I'm still infatuated with the GSXR1000. Never ridden 1. Typical of infatuation :)

Its gonna be a while still til I upgrade. I need to make some more biker friends and ride their bikes to get experience on different bikes.

Any thoughts?

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 10:21 am**

If your serious about a gsxr, have you thought about a 750? tried a friends for a while whilst repairing my blade and i found it a great laugh. I found the power difference between the 750 & 1000 not to be huge, but found the 750 to be far better than the 600....

I leave it to you its just my thoughts, i can't say dont go for bigger bikes it your choice, im bored with my 929 and have just tested an 05 zx10r and found it was a far more powerful than the blade.

do you take pillions? would the seat be good enough? I found the r1's pillion to be quite small but the gsxr's aint bad ( according to the mrs )

The simple thing is test as many as you can....

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 11:26 am**

Have had a 1000k5, various 750s (slabside, SRAD, K7) and a 600 SRAD. The 1000 was amazingly quick but still quite light, the 600 very thrashy but quick and the 750s a great compromise. I found the 1000 a bit much - in terms of the temptation to go bonkers everywhere all the time. It was great fun though

Various pics here.

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:44 pm**

banoffee,

love the tlr

, tried one when i was 23 just after i passing my test at 21, had a zx6r ninja as first big bike, tried the tlr and scared my sh!tless. the torque was crazy, settled for the blade in the end as i knew in myself i would put the tlr through a hedge!

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:32 pm**

it was gorgeous! never really got on with it though. was SO clean it went for £4k when I sold it a couple of years ago.

did you try a TLS? mine is one of those 'wish I'd kept it' bikes. the 2-1 system and removed stickers suprised a few people who thought it was an SV650

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:44 pm**

never tried the tls, as i was 23, the insurance for any 900cc plus bikes was gonna sting me until one of the guys at my local honda dealer suggested the tlr as it was not classed as a superbike but a sports tourer - well because of that it was as cheap as my ninja to insure!

Took it out for a blast and quickly realised, it wouldnt be long before i, the tlr or both ended up in a hedge! so decided to stick with the ninja a bit longer, about 12 months later the gearbox was on its way out ( bike had done over 30k )

by that time my honda dealer had gone bust, so went to the yammy dealer and they had a lovely 929 blade with 4000 miles on the clock at 6 years old so i couldnt say no!

I think for lope it doesn't really matter what size the bike is, so long as you feel comfortable riding it, if your scared of it...you shouldnt ride it.

thats my logic - hence not buying the tlr, however i am the chap who put an angle grinder through the side of my foot a couple of weeks ago, so logic doesnt always work!

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:21 pm**

banofee: I'm completely speechless about how many bikes you've owned. You've had all the best bikes that people rave about :)
What do u do for a living? hehehe how many bikes do you own now?

pug: why did your ninja 600 gearbox break at 30k? that seems ridiculous. Did u not change the oil or something or shift without the clutch?

Geez.

banofee: so how does it work out that you're less tempted to go bonkers on the GSXR750 all the time compared to the GSXR1000? :)

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:34 pm**

pugparcles - know what you mean about TLR insurance. I went from the K5 1000 to the TLR and my insurance became MUCH cheaper at renewal time

lope - got 3 bikes at the mo... 1989 NC30, 1986 GSXR750 and the 848 which are all quite different to ride. as for the difference between the 1000 and the 750 let's just say one became all too easy and tempting to wheelie at motorway speeds and the other needed to be modified (yoshi can, larger rear sprocket, TRE, PC, K&N, factory velocity stacks) before it felt as alive, probably as owned it after the other but it felt like I was 'using it more' in day to day riding which was a good thing. am loving smaller bikes these days

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:46 pm**

from what i can gather the bike had a rather hard life before i owned her, about 6 months after i bought her i bumped into a chap at the honda dealer whos bike it was and it turned out he used it as a track day toy.

the fairings were mint when i had it, so at a guess track day fairings to keep originals mint and she was not really looked after. I changed oils / filters etc about every 2500 miles but at around 30k ( i had her at 24k ) it started slipping, and not sounding good at all. For the cost of parts and labour ( i was very inexperienced mechanical wise at this point ) i was thinking of changing at the time as well so this helped me make my mind up.

i always look after my bikes as they are my main mode of transport just got caught a bit with the ninja. My mechanical knowledge has moved on leaps and bounds now, hence the vfr - fireblade conversion im working on.

with regards to the 750 / 1000 question i would say the 750 is more useable in the real world, for a weekend blast go for the thou

Posted: **Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:01 pm**

Lope wrote:

My NC24 is my first bike. I love it. I've been thru a lot with it, I've nursed it hahaha. Its given me good times, adrenaline, riding skills and maintenance skills.
I'm still learning to use more of its power more often. (with a max of about 10-13k rpm) Still improving my gear selection and changes.
I've had the bike over 2 years, only 2500km so far. Its only just started running right recently. I plan to put a lot more kms on it now.

Having sex and riding that bike are the 2 best things in my life... And I don't have a gf at the moment, so thats the best thing in my life atm hahahah.

This is probably not the place to admit this...
I'm not really a cornering nutcase like most of you. I don't ride at the track. I've been for 1 trackday. I don't have bucks at the moment to throw on lots of maintenance or a dropped bike. I am keen on the next track day, for fun and to improve myself, but its not my passion.
I don't think the street is the place to be scraping footpegs, so I don't see the need for a bike that handles like a VFR400 or a 600 (or even a 1000 possibly) on the street. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Since experiencing a 900 fireblade for a day I've wanted a bigger bike, thinking as soon as I'm able to, I'm gonna get a GSXR1000. K1-K5. I've always had my eye on the GSXR600-1000 in blue and white. (Though red and black is sick as well) Then again the R1 is even more beautiful and sounds eargasmic with 2bros pipes, but theres something about the GSXR...

Then today I was checking out busas, with actual seriousness. They are really ridiculous bikes. One thing they really have going for them is they're more comfortable than any sport bike. And you'll NEVER need to upgrade for power again hahahahha. A big attraction to their abundance of power, is the idea of showing non-bikers the wonder of the 2 wheels.
I'm sure any litre bike will also accomplish that with ease. But a 600 wont.
Realistically, I probably won't be missing any of the sacrificed handling.
The comfort benefit of the busa is kind of moot since I'd like to get an Africa Twin (or some kind of touring bike) at some stage and go up East Africa a bit. So if I want to ride for hours, I'll take the twin. If I had a busa it would be a tough choice sometimes, but the busa is a bit thirsty for touring.

One thing I love about the VFR400 is its light weight and the ease at which you can flick it over, and lane split through traffic. IIRC the VFR400 is 705mm, the GSXR1000 is 710-715mm and the Busa is 740mm. That extra 25cm is significant when lane splitting. At some traffic lights I hardly fit through.

If you're concerned about the safety aspect of riding a busa, I should mention that I'm also not a complete maniac like a lot of bikers. I enjoy a few adrenaline rushes along the way, but most of the time I'm fairly behaved. (that means 'unbehaved' compared to the average road user, but on the behaved end of 'unbehaved' bunch) haha. I regard myself as extremely safety conscious as far as the average biker goes.

I'm really talking rubbish when it comes to the busa, I doubt I'd let myself get such a powerful bike. Its just silly. But then again why do we ride superbikes? (talking rubbish again, it happens quickly) And its too big, and heavy. Motorbikes are supposed to be light.
I'm still infatuated with the GSXR1000. Never ridden 1. Typical of infatuation :)

Its gonna be a while still til I upgrade. I need to make some more biker friends and ride their bikes to get experience on different bikes.

Any thoughts?

Um i'd say ride as many bikes as you can and see what you think of them, dont' just take them for a quick spin, ride a route your very familiar with, that way you'll be able to spot differences between your bike and the new bike easier.

It's very much down to personal preference when it comes to a bike.

If your looking at older suzuki's why not get a GSX-R1100?

Post 93 models have 155bhp and they give an interesting ride... different years handle quite differently due to Suzuki changing things every year hah!

Final question, could you send me some pictures of how your exhaust system is connected to the collectorbox!?

What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

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Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)

Re: What 'upgrade bike' to get (in addition to the VFR)