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My friend just bought a 250R today. And man, I don't think it will be too long before I have one too

High_Side wrote: There is a little bit of Duck touring in my "blog" over here:
viewtopic.php?t=16003

After over-cooking it many times riding rockets on tour my wrists have some severe issues. The Monster has a great riding position with a nice balance of wind on my torso. The handlebar is a little wide but overall it is a very decent touring mount.
I also find that a lot of bikes that I have owned with farings are less comfortable than those without. Many sport fairings tend to concentrate the wind blast towards your upper torso magnifying the problem. I was amazed at how much more comfortable my VTR was with the fairing removed. In spending 7 days on tour witht he Monster last summer it still felt great towards the end.
My VFR experience is limitied but it is obvious that it is much better than the VTR. I still have my doubts as to whether it will be as good as the Monster after several days in the saddle (after my 3 hour long rides that I have taken thus far). I'll know for sure after my tour in June.
Cheers,
High_Side

That is interesting. I actually prefer sport fairings at highway speeds (65-80+) BECAUSE of the wind directed towards the chest. It keeps my weight off my arms. As for The cruisers I have owned, at those speeds, wind blast is significantly more fatiguing on the highway (without a windshield). I only got a chance to ride an S2R up to 65mph, but it felt similar. The small fairing did an adequate job of channeling air at my chest, but at this point I was probably used to my VFRs fairings.

BTW, with the VFR, get an aftermarket seat (and depending on your height, bar risers... I didn't need them, but I have a friend who got them) and it will be the most comfortable mount in your stable. I was able to do 8 straight hours on the stock seat with a little grumbling, but on my roommate's VFR with the sargent seat, all is happy.

DivideOverflow wrote: As for The cruisers I have owned, at those speeds, wind blast is significantly more fatiguing on the highway (without a windshield). I only got a chance to ride an S2R up to 65mph, but it felt similar. The small fairing did an adequate job of channeling air at my chest, but at this point I was probably used to my VFRs fairings.

The big difference with cruisers having no fairing is that you are already leaning slightly back and the wind only serves to push you farther back off of the bike. With the Monster, the wind is still serving to lift you slightly causing a nice balance. I find that this is the case up to around 80 mph when the fairing would likely start to be more of a help than a hinderence. I did have the odd blast up to 120 mph while on tour with the Monster last year which was no problem, but not where it really likes to play. I still felt great at the end of the day.
I may just be happy if my wrists aren't locked and on fire at the end of the day as well....

DivideOverflow wrote: BTW, with the VFR, get an aftermarket seat (and depending on your height, bar risers... I didn't need them, but I have a friend who got them) and it will be the most comfortable mount in your stable. I was able to do 8 straight hours on the stock seat with a little grumbling, but on my roommate's VFR with the sargent seat, all is happy.

I'll consider this if the VFR turns out to be a keeper.
How is that 1000SS over distance? I looked at a 900SS when I bought the VTR but didn't think I could take the riding position back then even. Nice ride though....

I just bought a Ninja 250 last night, one i found on Craigslist!

HarleyW wrote:

Dragon on Wheels wrote:I recently put a deposit on one of these bikes, but I won't be able to pick it up until next week. I can't give you any actual experience with it yet, but I chose it because it's gotten lots of great reviews and the price is very good. I also liked the way it felt when I sat on it at the dealer.

Great! Keep me updated.

I just rode it home today! It felt great! The bike is very easy to handle and it moved along with traffic pretty well(I was very nervous though, so I kept the speed low). It also turned well and stopped well too. For the most part, I'm very happy with it.

I did have one trouble with it when it seemed that power just went away. No matter how much I turned the throttle, nothing happened. I let the bike coast to a stop and then tried to start it again. This happened twice and the second time, I had to use the choke again before it would start. Does anyone have any ideas why this might happen? Anything I can do to avoid it?

Dragon on Wheels wrote: I did have one trouble with it when it seemed that power just went away. No matter how much I turned the throttle, nothing happened. I let the bike coast to a stop and then tried to start it again. This happened twice and the second time, I had to use the choke again before it would start. Does anyone have any ideas why this might happen? Anything I can do to avoid it?

Power went away while riding? Did it run out of gas?

When I start my bike cold and don't use the choke, it will usually die anywhere from 30 seconds to say 3 minutes after I start it. You gotta get your bike warm before it's ready to go. If it's a cold start, start with the choke on and leave it on for oh a minute.

If you were cruising along for a while, and it just died, and wasn't out of gas, then that's not supposed to happen.

I had been riding for a while (10 - 20 minutes) and the power went away while I was riding. I'll need to check the gas, though the dealer said that there should be at least half a tank in there (I don't know why it wasn't full and I didn't think about that until just now =/).

High_Side wrote: How is that 1000SS over distance? I looked at a 900SS when I bought the VTR but didn't think I could take the riding position back then even. Nice ride though....

Not good in stock form.... hehe. Going 55+ definitely helps the wrists, 80mph I could probably cruise for quite some time without discomfort. However, at the end of a day of riding (5-8 hours), my wrists are killing me. This is mostly due to city driving though, braking forces all the weight onto your wrists.

Some bar risers would fix the problem right up. The problem is that the bars are literally just an inch too short, and about 1/2 inch too far forward. My arms are kind of short for my height (nothing ridiculous looking, but I have shorter arms and legs, and a longer torso... 6'0 with a 30 inch inseam). I'm confident that once I can pick up the bar risers, I will have little to no pain at the end of the day... the bars are just low enough and far enough away to prevent me from holding myself up effectively, without pulling my hands off of the grips. This makes it hard to use my legs/abs to hold myself up while braking and holding the clutch, because I feel the clutch might pop out of my hand due to the reach issue.

Granted, I'm also a younger guy, so I can still take a bit of a beating and be fine the next day.

I'll tell you what though, the seat on my Ducati is the best seat ever. EVER. No pain ever, no discomfort. It just works. I even prefer it to the Sargent seat I had on the VF700F, or any Corbin I have sat on. It pretty plush and soft, but it doesn't give you that soreness that you generally get from soft seats (the prostate pain, as I've heard it called). I don't know why or how, but Ducati did a great job with this.

Dragon on Wheels wrote:

HarleyW wrote:

Dragon on Wheels wrote:I recently put a deposit on one of these bikes, but I won't be able to pick it up until next week. I can't give you any actual experience with it yet, but I chose it because it's gotten lots of great reviews and the price is very good. I also liked the way it felt when I sat on it at the dealer.

Great! Keep me updated.

I just rode it home today! It felt great! The bike is very easy to handle and it moved along with traffic pretty well(I was very nervous though, so I kept the speed low). It also turned well and stopped well too. For the most part, I'm very happy with it.

I did have one trouble with it when it seemed that power just went away. No matter how much I turned the throttle, nothing happened. I let the bike coast to a stop and then tried to start it again. This happened twice and the second time, I had to use the choke again before it would start. Does anyone have any ideas why this might happen? Anything I can do to avoid it?

Hey thanks for keeping me updated. I hope you get that prob assorted out. Im looking forward to getting my bike. Im thinking between a sv500, ninja 250 or 500, or a hyosung 250.