New ZR7!

Message

camthepyro · Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:25 am

So I picked the bike up today, and the ride home from the dealership (about 5 miles at most) was... interesting. I haven't ridden in well over a year. It was scary. Not so much the other drivers, because the worst that happened was some jerk tail gating me. But, just trying to get used to riding a bike again.

The seating position is more forward on the this bike than it was on my Nighthawk, and the footpegs further back. I kept putting my feet in the wrong place. I need to get used to throttle control again, as I was being pretty twitchy. Same goes for brakes. I wasn't able to brake smoothly and come to a gradual stop. I kept braking too hard. The fact that the brakes on this bike are a lot stronger most likely plays a major role in that.

I did the old "leave the turn signal on" trick, but not because I forgot to turn it off, but because the signals are different on this bike. My old one you would just flip it back to the left to turn off the right signal. This one you have to push a little button to turn it off.

Anywho, hopefully it won't take me long to get used to riding again. Wish me luck!

NorthernPete · Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:33 am

push button cancellation is the bestest.

gumby191 · #13 Unread post by **gumby191** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 5:21 pm

I have a 2001 ZR-7S (the one with the fairing), and I love it. It's a great all around bike and you can get them for really cheap now, for some reason they were never really popular. Just take your time getting familiar with the bike, empty parking lots are great for that. I put around 20,000 miles on mine within a year and a half and it hasn't given me a single problem, the only complaint that I have about the bike is that it is really top heavy with a full tank of gas.

camthepyro · Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:00 am

gumby191 wrote:I have a 2001 ZR-7S (the one with the fairing), and I love it. It's a great all around bike and you can get them for really cheap now, for some reason they were never really popular. Just take your time getting familiar with the bike, empty parking lots are great for that. I put around 20,000 miles on mine within a year and a half and it hasn't given me a single problem, the only complaint that I have about the bike is that it is really top heavy with a full tank of gas.

Yeah, I love mine. My only real gripe is the lack of a 6th gear. To maintain safe highway speeds (around here that's about 80mph) I have to rev at about 5 or 6k.

It is a fairly heavy bike, but doesn't bother me much. I can easily flat foot it so I'm not bothered by it. I haven't got a chance to put it through it's paces in the twisties (mostly because I don't know where twisties are around here), so I don't know how it handles when leaned over to the pegs.

But overall I love it. I've put almost 200 miles on it since Saturday, and my commute to work is only about 10 miles.

I can tell you one thing, this puppy is fast. I actually did a little bit of a wheelie leaving a light the other night accidentally. I was really accelerating hard, and when I dropped it into second I was double clutching, and it picked the front tire up about a foot or so. Sure took me by surprise.

DireWolf · #15 Unread post by **DireWolf** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:18 am

camthepyro wrote:
gumby191 wrote: it picked the front tire up about a foot or so. Sure took me by surprise.

The best wheelies generally are a surprise.

Brackstone · Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:47 am

camthepyro wrote:I was really accelerating hard, and when I dropped it into second I was double clutching, and it picked the front tire up about a foot or so. Sure took me by surprise.

What's double clutching?