Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Bloody hell, I have to agree with Hyperr and Highside (not something I usually enjoy). Some guys are natural and others have to work at it if they want it. My wife , The Goose, started on a 125 scooter, then a 250 scooter, then a 250 Honda twister. Jumped from there to a VFR800 v-tech and now has the 2010 c-abs 600 RR Honda. Four years, lots of saddle time, track training, road training and living with a road Marshal to get there. She now has full confidence in her ability's to control the bike and gets up to 200kph on our lovely country roads.

The point being, there are different paths to getting where you want to be. As for a 600 as a bike, they are nasty pieces of work unless you know how to ride. They are strong motors with huge power available in small frames and lightweight. In may ways they are more dangerous than a litre bike and you need to give them plenty of respect.
If your ego is bigger than your ability, you are in trouble.

Superfly3176 wrote:Just curious on the general concensus of how long it took you to get into a sports bike. I by no means think I'm ready now but I'm just curious how long it took yall.

Some folks are NEVER ready for a sportbike. They are light in weight, with very powerful engines and have very
sensitive controls (steering input, brake response, throttle response), ie they are unforgiving of mistakes. How inclined are you to white knuckle excitement/fear?

The riding position puts the rider's weight on their hands/wrists (as opposed to a standard seat or cruiser). This leaned forward position can cause neck problems for some folks, because you've got to tilt your head back to see down the road.

P

I usually get neck problems watching chicks on sports bikes.

I started riding an '05 CBR1000RR after riding a 1981 Honda CM400T for about 3 years. I also spent some time on a Suzuki DRZ400SM during those years. It really is going to vary from person to person, though, and it does have a lot to do with disposition.

I treat the bike right. I'm not scared of it, but I'm well aware of what it's capable of doing. Getting a sportbike like this entails, in some ways, learning to ride all over again. It's not just the speed and acceleration. The riding position is completely different, and these bikes don't really have handlebars. Turning consists almost entirely of leaning, as the hand grips are attached directly to the forks.

I've only ridden the Z750S and FZ6 (not any crotch rockets) and they are fast. I would say you need:

- total control of your wrist
- full confidence in your riding ability
- excellent slow manoueverability
- be able to resist the urge to ride it like you have a death wish
- maturity

As said before, just like in other life situations some people will be able to do it well and others will not.

For me, I was not comfortable trying a sports bike until my 4th year riding.

I'm going to approach this from a different angle...

A sportbike is a tool, but it's a tool for a narrow purpose... to go fast and to corner like you are on rails.

But to use a tool like a sportbike correctly you really need to know what you are doing and be able to push that bike to 80% of it's limits on top of that. Not an easy feat for newer riders!

Sure, you can own a sportbike, ride it around and use 40% of it's capability, but then you would be using the tool incorrectly. You might as well own a different type of bike that (like a standard, tourer, cruiser, ect)

IMO you really need to ride a bike like it was designed to be ridden to get the full use and enjoyment out of it. A 600cc sportbike engine loves the high RPMs, if you are not riding it up there, say 7500rpm+ then you are not getting it. But to be frank, riding it at high rpm accelerating to 9-10,000 is not an easy thing to do as it takes a lot of skill (to ride and not make a mistake) and that's where riding a non-sportbike bike comes in where riding around the 5,000rpm range or lower is what that tool was designed for.

There are indeed not many riders who can ride an open-class sportbike like a Honda CBR1000RR (not directed towards G3rrity) just that I interviewed Honda about the CBR1000RR and that's what THEY said. In fact, Honda said their 3 MotoGP test riders couldn't ride it 100% and Honda did express concern about marketing such a bike. (Honda is big on rider safety).

Mike

The more and more I look the more and more I'm interested in Buell's too bad Harley killed the line but maybe in a few years I'll picked up a used one with that 1203 motor. They seem to have a smooth power curve and aren't as revvy like other sportsbikes.

I'm sure they're still powerful enough but the motor is similar to the one in my bike as well with different heads and cams. I kind of want a sportbike I really hate scraping my pipes when trying to get into a turn.

Lion_Lady wrote: sensitive controls (steering input, brake response, throttle response), ie they are unforgiving of mistakes.

I'm sorry but I simply cannot agree with this. I'm going to guess that you have never had significant saddle time on a 600cc sportbike. My CBR600RR is arguably the most forgiving bike I have ever owned, and I have owned a ton of bikes (two-smokes, four strokes, singles, twins, triples, fours, and sixes).

The steering input on my CBR600RR is so precise with great feedback and so easy to control and very forgiving.

The brake response is far from sensitive. It is highly predictable with great feedback and very forgiving. You want to talk sensitive brakes, how about my non-ABS R1150R. The rear will lock up almost just by looking at it.

I don't see how the throttle response is sensitive on a 600 sportsbike. At low rpms, it has virtually no power whatsoever. At 7000 rpms or above it has the throttle response best described as a crisp predictable response of a perfectly tuned pumper carb.

You want to talk about a non-forgiving bike, it would be my Hypermotard. It's definitely a bike that will bite you in the @ss for every mistake you make and will spank you silly if you are a sh!tty rider. It's an absolute hoot to ride but even scares me at times.

/\ Couldn't agree more.

HYPERR wrote:

Lion_Lady wrote: sensitive controls (steering input, brake response, throttle response), ie they are unforgiving of mistakes.

I'm sorry but I simply cannot agree with this. I'm going to guess that you have never had significant saddle time on a 600cc sportbike. My CBR600RR is arguably the most forgiving bike I have ever owned, and I have owned a ton of bikes (two-smokes, four strokes, singles, twins, triples, fours, and sixes).

The steering input on my CBR600RR is so precise with great feedback and so easy to control and very forgiving.

The brake response is far from sensitive. It is highly predictable with great feedback and very forgiving. You want to talk sensitive brakes, how about my non-ABS R1150R. The rear will lock up almost just by looking at it.

I don't see how the throttle response is sensitive on a 600 sportsbike. At low rpms, it has virtually no power whatsoever. At 7000 rpms or above it has the throttle response best described as a crisp predictable response of a perfectly tuned pumper carb.

You want to talk about a non-forgiving bike, it would be my Hypermotard. It's definitely a bike that will bite you in the @ss for every mistake you make and will spank you silly if you are a sh!tty rider. It's an absolute hoot to ride but even scares me at times.

Hyperr, I think what LL is saying is the 600cc bikes are "supertuned" evenly in regards to horsepower, weight, brakes, suspension etc, thus those items are more advanced and "sensitive" versus non-supersports and when you put them all together in one package you need to be aware as things can quickly go wrong.

I do agree with you that power doesn't come on strong in the low RPM's of a 600cc superbike, that's really an inline-4, small cc charateristic, but the 600cc superbike engine is tuned to ramp up RPM's quickly, thus you can easily get into the weeds if you WOT it fast.

I still will go with if you are not riding a 600cc bike into the 8000 RPM range and most of your riding consists of corners and twisties then you bought the wrong type of bike.

I can agree with you on the Hypermotard, high torque is a cute monster that has bloody claws when kicked at any speed.

Mike