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Sorry, just a combo of ignorance and curiosity, no more insurance questions I promise ...

Sapaul, it sounds like Goose isn't having any trouble making longer trips on a sportbike. How tall is Goose ? Any complaints about the ergonomics on the CBR vs the VFR ?

The Goose is 5'9" or 1.75m so she is fairly tall and can flat foot the 600 and the VFR. The ergo's are fine for her as she has one of those rubber bodies that can fit on anything, unlike me who cramps up after 45 mins on the 6. The biggest problem I find not just with The Goose but the girls that come for training is that they do not apply their strength the same way we do and the slightest bit of unbalance has them in a panic. When you weigh less than 60kg or 130 pounds, anything seems intimidating.

The 6 has a lot less top end weight and feels easier to balance.

sapaul wrote:The biggest problem I find not just with The Goose but the girls that come for training is that they do not apply their strength the same way we do and the slightest bit of unbalance has them in a panic.

Lacking our upper body strength, they depend more on finesse and balance.

Our garage contains four motorcycles, but they're parked two-up. Mrs. and I both are always moving them around. She plays it safe, starts them up and rides them out to sort them outside where there's more space. Me, OTOH, I stand alongside and lean them over at some crazy angles to wiggle them around inside the garage, using brute force to keep them off the floor. Her way requires more patience, is safer & smarter; my way will eventually land a bike on the floor....

jstark47 wrote:

sapaul wrote:The biggest problem I find not just with The Goose but the girls that come for training is that they do not apply their strength the same way we do and the slightest bit of unbalance has them in a panic.

Lacking our upper body strength, they depend more on finesse and balance.

Our garage contains four motorcycles, but they're parked two-up. Mrs. and I both are always moving them around. She plays it safe, starts them up and rides them out to sort them outside where there's more space. Me, OTOH, I stand alongside and lean them over at some crazy angles to wiggle them around inside the garage, using brute force to keep them off the floor. Her way requires more patience, is safer & smarter; my way will eventually land a bike on the floor....

Amazing how we have the same problems. I keep 2 bikes in my garage and 2 in a wooden garage, The Goose cannot get any of them out except the 6 but then she can't put it back. Ha ha, I always know when she has sneaked out

Saturday night, totally bored, I sms a couple of old friends, one of which has just got a triumph st 1050 (lovely bike). I knew he needed a few k's to get to his 1 000 km service and conned them into riding on Sunday. I live in an area that borders the rural and can get on some good quiet roads within 20kms. We did just on 200kms without going more than 60 kms away from home.

So off we went. It just goes to show what saddle time can do for you. The Goose just keeps on getting better on the 6 as she gets more comfortable with the bike. This allowed me to run a bit and my old mate on his ZX12 with his Goose on the bike chased me for a few k's over the 200 mark. He was impressed with the GS and how it corners as he does the slow in, fast out, where the GS you can keep pinned and ride around the corners. We swapped for the ride back. His observations were.

Wind protection, first thing he commented on. He needs to get to 140 for the wind to lift him and take up the wrist strain. No such thing on the GS

Too bloody tall, he is also a short "poo poo" like me and did the old waddle on landing thing. Something I have never seen him do. He said he had renewed respect after watching me stop on it.

lack of revs, could not believe that he could hit 220 at 7500 revs

His Goose said that it was the most comfortable bike she has been on.

On the ZX12, I forgot how good this bike is. 10 years old and this just wants to run when it gets to 200. Handling is thought quick and requires very little rider input up to that speed. It is solid with the suspension a little hard compared to the GS, even though I have mine set very hard. It is a planted comfortable bike that could easily scare you with the power output.

As for the 6 and the 1050, we are still waiting for them to come home so I will let you know later

Another update

We had a ladies training day from my place on the weekend, I had Marshals training later that day so it fit in nicely.

Being clever, I passed The Goose over to another trainer, so I would not get any uphill. HA HA. This guy was cheap, it only cost a coke and I got all the info off him.

As she knew the route and the other girls didn't I sent them off first on the one on one. We all left within 2 mins and we all got caught at the first robot which is a notorious slow changer. I was in the middle with my noobie and The Goose was up front. As the lights changed, she disappeared up the two lane with her trainer in tow. We rode for a good 45 mins with the trainers and noobs spreading out over the course as we did not want them in a group. By the time I got back to my house, The Goose and her trainer went out on another round and said they had been back by about 10 mins.

Her trainer said that it was a pleasure riding with her as she is so consistent, he knew her moves before she did them and apart from one or two little nit picks he could not fault her. This is a big improvement on the VFR as she always had an issue with the weight of the bike. It was only on the "right day" that she rode it well. Other days were inconsistent.

I finally heard her admit that although she picked the VFR, some of the reasons she picked it were not quite right Major breakthrough.

The discussions after the training were interesting to say the least and one very important thing came out of it. Very often, females will pick a bike that appeals to them because of the looks with NO thought as to how it will ride. They admitted to thinking that the differences between each bike were so small as to not make a difference. We had super bikes to KLR's to a 250 Twister and a Grand Vista scooter and each girl said that looks were on top of the priority list. The shortest girl on the Twister said that if she was taller she would have gone straight for a 600.

This new 600 is teaching me more all the time, so never mind it being a good buy for The Goose, it is turning into a good buy for me too.

sapaul wrote:Very often, females will pick a bike that appeals to them because of the looks with NO thought as to how it will ride.

I think this is how my beloved ended up with a Triumph Trophy 1200 as her 3rd bike. A bike for which the overall weight and top heavy weight distribution were too much for someone her size and strength, and for which the power was totally redundant to her requirements. A local guy had a pretty red '02 and she loved it (she ended up with a gray '03). She now rides a F650GS (the two cylinder 800cc version) which is much better suited to her size, but still has plenty of power and touring capability.

GREAT BIKE, I did a ride report on that n the BMW section a while back. Reminds me of a Victorian prostitute, all prim and proper, until you unleash the beast.

The Goose rode it at a track day and said

bluuuurrrggghhh. Could not get her ovaries to tingle at all, yet I think it can be an exciting bike and can corner like on rails. AH well, I was never meant to understand the female mind. That's why we get to pee standing up and they got multiple organs.