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So i Rode an hour down to Lexington to meet my buddies jim and dan for a ride, Now Dan and i arent the best for keeping each other accountable when we ride...

But Oh what fun, me on my 85 nighthawk, Dan on his 01 bandit, and Jim on his 92 Seca2, Jim is more a cruiser type, and doesnt push it near as much as Dan and I so he was behind us alot of the way...

Anyway, we find some real neato backroads, left right left right left right, you get the picture, pretty scenery as well. Now we all want to kinda push it (except maybe jim) our 1st time out but there is a suburban in front of us.
Which in hindsight is probably better, so we didnt kill ourselves.... Anyway, We go the entire way, hang out at IGA for a while, and turn around.

Now we head out, winding country roads are going by rather quickly, and suprising enough, I'm keeping up with Da and at times have to slow down. Now i was not aware that a 20 year old nighthawk would lean that far over.... scared me the first time i leaned that far following dan through a sweeper. (kinda straightened slightly and crossed the double yelow ) i learned my lesson though and it didnt happen again.

But yeah, its strange Dan has alot better tires and alot more nimble bike, i'm just suprised i was able to keep up, Heh i trust my kenda challengers now alot more,I think i have about a 8th of an inch chicken strips left, though i could swear i was on the very edge of my tires.

I was talking to Dan afterward and he was saying that was the farthest he had ever leaned, and i was matching him... anyway We all had a super fun ride.
Makes me want that SV even more, If a 20 year old bike can do that kind of stuff, imagine a modern bike.

I rode Dans bandit a little, form his house to the taco bell we had lunch at, and it seemed more buzzy than mine, kinda annoying.. but what a nimble ride, seriously, if the SV handles anything like that bike, i'm gonna be a happy camper!

thanks for Bearing with my story FUN!

Have fun, but be careful!

In most situations, with the majority of riders - a well-maintained 20 year old bike will hold it's own. But put a skilled rider on the newer bike, and the old bike rider is going down!

Don't ask me how I know that. (I ride a 21-year-old bike.)

heh, Yeah.... a lot of times i dont think before i do things, and afterwards think back "yeah that was kinda dumb...."

All in all, i'm a pretty safe rider, i dont take too many unnessisary risks, twisty roads are fun though!! we bot kept the shiny side up however.. so all in all it worked out in the end, its probably a good thing i dont get to ride with him too much

I ride hard occasionally too. Most of the time I have no trouble keeping up with friends on newer bikes. One thing to be cautious of on older bikes like ours though is going through corners with bumps in them. Our softer suspension has too much compression and slow rebound, which will cause us to be pushed toward the outside of the corner if there are significant bumps mid-corner, like wrinkles due to tree roots, water damage, pot-holes etc.

Combine that scenario with a corner that has a decreasing radius and things get hairy real quick. I found that out the hard way, and I've slowed down a lot on un-familiar roads now.

thanks for the advise, i did not know that.

i did set my suspention to the hardest settings though, not sure if that helped any...

That probably helped a lot. I can't adjust my rear suspension because I need to replace parts in order to do so, and I guess I'm just too poor and lazy to fix something that doesn't prevent me from riding at all.

I guess I'm thinking I'll wait and sink the dough into my next bike. My current ride is only meant to get me back in the saddle, so-to-speak. But I've ridden over 5000 hard miles so far and it's kind of hard to imagine life without my little FJ 600.

When you make the jump from the old to the new, you'll be suprised how much better the newer bike will perform, especially in handling. I pretty much went the same route you want to go. I had a '82 Honda Nighthawk 750 and bought a '03 Suzuki SV1000. The first turn I took completely amazed me. I was already at the speeds that the Nighthawk would start coming loose at, and was barely using the capabilities of the bike. The SV handles incredibly well, so if you get one, I know you'll be very happy in that end.

Even the switch from the cruiser to the standard was amazing. Do yourself a favour and take it a little easy on the corners when you get that new bike

Will do Sev, until i get used to it at least , I have pictures of my back tire from after the ride, however i can't find my usb cable for my camera otherwise i'd post em....

meh i'll find a way.


I did ride Dan's 01 bandit 600 S, it was alot more vibrationariffic than my bike, but i did notice the turn in was signifigantly faster, and it just felt more planted.

I kinda didnt want to give it back..., though i'll take the smoothness of my bike anyday

I coulda sworn i posted those tire pics this morning..... weird...

right side...



left side




coulda sworn...