My take on some different kinds of BIG BIKES for Taiwan

Life Cars & Motorcycles
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Wrote this on the “other” site originally…but I put a bit of effort into it and thought I’d share it here as well. I wrote this in reply to someone specifically asking me about the different kinds:

Well, I have experience with cruisers, naked bikes, and sports bikes. I’ve recently been looking into supermoto bikes…they’re pretty much a dirt bike designed for dry pavement.

Sports bikes are the coolest (in my opinion :wink: )…the loudest (well, mine are)…and the fastest (no debate here). Crossing a bridge that has NO TRAFFIC ON IT…I can go from 60km to 230km and back to 60…and that’s in about 2 city blocks.
The downside is that they’d be the most expensive to repair…the most difficult to repair…and the easiest to be damaged if just dropped on their side. For example, one mirror for the CBR1100XX costs more than 30,000nt…for one mirror.
If going for a sports bike I’d recommend a HONDA or maybe a YAMAHA since they are the least likely to break.

Honda CBR600RR

A Naked Bike is pretty much a sports bike without the extra body work…and a slightly tuned down engine…which should increase reliability. Much more practical…but practical might not be what you’re looking for.

Honda Hornet 600

Cruisers…cruisers can still give small naked bike a run for it’s money if ridden well. And with the expressways opening up in the near future…they aren’t the stupidest bikes to own. But keep in mind that they’re aren’t as comfortable as they appear. I’d rather do 8 hours on a sportsbike than on a Harley. With a cruiser I’d suggest getting a 1000cc or more…since the engines produce much less power than their cousins.

Honda Shadow 1100

Supermoto, the newwer fad amongst the biking crowd. A friend has one and he says it can navigate traffic better than a scooter…due to it’s high handle bars you don’t need to worry about car mirrors. Also the body is made to be dropped…so feel free to drop it…crash it…and then just get back on and ride away. Sturdy, agile, convenient bikes…that just don’t suit some people’s tastes. These bikes also have a different riding style than other bikes…so get ready to “re-learn” how to ride.

Suzuki DR-Z 400SM Oh, and here is a vid of supermotos doing their stuff on dry pavement: video.bikepics.com/wmv-416-96/Co … -78sec.wmv

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Especially when you crash.

Matter of opinion. :smiling_imp:

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These topics are quite pointless…lots of bikes are cool…maybe some are not up to the task that you want out of a bike…but I can sure as hell say that sportsbikes can’t be classed as the coolest…nor can any other class of bikes…

here is a quick run down of a bikes that I think are “Cool”…but all quite different from one another…

-KTM superduke
-Suzuki GSXR-750
-KTM 950 Supermoto
-Triumph speed triple
-Honda CBR600RR
-BMW R1200GS
-Honda VTR SP-2
-Ducati Monster S4R
-Suzuki SV-1000S
-Kawasaki ZX-6R
-Yamaha FZ1000 Fazer

.,…and the list could go on and on…

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I used to think sports bikes were the shi*te. Hands down the best and only kind of bikes to own. Having owned over 10 different bikes, and ridden almost every type of bike out there, my opinion has changed. Maybe I’m just getting old. Never thought I would buy a supermoto bike, but I did. And I love it. Light, nimble, lots of torque, incredible suspension, up-right rideing position, and the most flickable type of bike I have ever ridden. If only they could make the seats a big bigger then it would be the perfect bike. One more plus, the parts for these types of bike are cheap. No more worrying about dropping the bike and having to dump $20,000 on fairings and parts.

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Well, maybe if you were able to read you’d see the “topic” isn’t about which bike is the coolest.
And I give very positive reviews for the Naked Bikes and the Supermotos…maybe even more-so than the Sportsbikes. Yes, the “cool” thing was just my opinion…no need to pick one small sentence out of a whole page of writing and jump on it people :unamused: . Want me to go edit the terrible word “cool” out of the original post…fine…no problem.

Just added a “in my opinion” so all you “how dare you say one kind of bike is cooler than another” people can breathe again.

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Well, maybe if you were able to read you’d see the “topic” isn’t about which bike is the coolest.
And I give very positive reviews for the Naked Bikes and the Supermotos…maybe even more-so than the Sportsbikes. Yes, the “cool” thing was just my opinion…no need to pick one small sentence out of a whole page of writing and jump on it people :unamused: . Want me to go edit the terrible word “cool” out of the original post…fine…no problem.

Just added a “in my opinion” so all you “how dare you say one kind of bike is cooler than another” people can breathe again.[/quote]

Dude, it’s amazing how you light up so darn fast!..Just playing with ya since you left the door wide open! :wink:

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The simple fact of the matter, of course, is that compared with a 5-year-old Nissan Sentra, there are NO “cool” bikes. That’s not an opinion – its a simple fact.

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[quote=“skylarkpuma”]

Dude, it’s amazing how you light up so darn fast!..Just playing with ya since you left the door wide open! :wink:[/quote]

Yeah…I’ve been known to light up quick :fume: …but then I come down equally as fast :rainbow: . I’m kinda like one of those little dogs that’s wagging it’s tail one second and then snapping the next.

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So coolness factor aside…you guys got anything non-biased you want to add to the different catagories of bikes?

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Good topic, Mordeth.

I’d like to separate the ideas of “Harley” and “cruiser”, if that’s OK…

First, let’s clear something up. Recently I’ve noticed that newspapers in Taiwan refer to ANY bike over 250cc as being a “Ha Lei Ji Che”, which is the Chinese translation of “Harley Davidson Motorcycle”. They should be saying “Zhong Xing Ji Che”, or “heavy-type motorcycle”. A Yamaha R1, for instance, is a “Harley” according to Taiwanese media. They have boiled down “big bikes” to the lowest common denominator: “Harley”. If this happens again, get back at them: call up the newspaper and say “You Japanese people are all the same.”

The Harley Davidson market is very special and nearly fixed, but not exclusive. HD makes bikes for people who enjoy the “tradition” of riding a very heavy motorcycle with its inherent vibration and unique exhaust cadence. The very traditional nature of the bikes is what attracts their customers. Non-HD riders may switch to HD, or vice versa, but that’s probably rare. If someone gave me a HD motorcycle, I’d accept it, but if it were to cost more than NT$1000, I don’t want one.

Sports bikes
They always incorportate the newest technology into sports bikes first, don’t they? That comes from racing technology. Knowing all the things the bike is doing while you’re riding, to me, is nearly half the fun. I love sports bikes. As for being “the loudest”? I hope not. My dream bike is an R1 and I’d like to take off from a restaurant stop somewhere and show people how non-invasive I am by keeping the stock pipe. A few more HP isn’t really that necessary for me.

Naked Bike
Ah, like the Yamaha FZ1000 Fazer which skylarkpuma mentioned in his list. Great. I’ve seen a few. NICE bikes. I haven’t ridden one, though–unless Yamaha FZ-150 “Breeze” counts. (Question: Were these bikes called “street fighters” for a while, or am I thinking of something else?)

Cruisers
The expressways are opening up in the near future? First I’ve heard of this. Is that cruiser-only or other bikes, too? Mordeth said: “I’d rather do 8 hours on a sportsbike than on a Harley.” Me, too!!! I would LOVE to spend 8 minutes on a Harley–just for fun. Then, I’d love to spend 8 hours on something like a Shadow 1100 or Kawasaki Vulcan, and after that: 8 days on a Honda Gold Wing. (Ah…hell! Come to think of it I’d like to spend 8 days each on all of those bikes, except for the Harley. :slight_smile:)

Supermoto
Last week, I spent 2 days with SatelliteTV up at his place in A Li Shan. I rode around on his “Hartford” VR-150 or something. Mordeth said “get ready to “re-learn” how to ride.” That’s true. I could not force myself to lean into turns with a narrow knobby tire. I just didn’t trust it. Later, I tried to follow SatelliteTV when he was riding his bike and he totally left me. He laid that thing down low in turns and had to “wait” for me to catch up.

I am in the process of purchasing a cruiser to eventually replace my “in town” bike and I think that Mordeth has a really good point about supermoto being a good bike for driving in town. I have recently thought that I would like that kind of bike for in-town driving, and maybe a trip to the outback once in a while. Mordeth’s idea of supermoto is a good one, and he’s not alone

Questions for Mordeth:

  1. How dangerous are knobby tires on pavement or “twisties”?
  2. Would you recommend changing to “normal” or even “less knobby” tires for everyday driving? (To increase road-grip and maybe reduce noise/vibration?)
  3. When you said you’d have to “re-learn how to ride”, what did you really mean? (Does that mean I’m a good rider who figured it out right away, or a very lucky bastard who didn’t think it was much different than other bikes)?

In the more-affordable, in-town department, Kymco (as an example):
Last year, if you looked at www.kymcorider.com, they had the relatively new Venox model (250cc V-twin cruiser) as well as the old Zing remodeled as the single-cylinder 150cc but with dual exhaust “Hipster” and then there was a sort-of supermoto bike there. Now it’s gone. Does anybody remember what that was called. It seemed to have a cheesy name and I imagine that being the reason that I have never seen one on the road.

I’m thinking that something like a supermoto might be the bike that will replace my current in-town bike.

Thanks, Mordeth!

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I’m guessing you mean the Kymco KTR? Pretty common bikes.

You also seem to contradict yourself with this:

[quote=“coolingtower”]Mordeth said “get ready to “re-learn” how to ride.” That’s true.

…

  1. When you said you’d have to “re-learn how to ride”, what did you really mean? (Does that mean I’m a good rider who figured it out right away, or a very lucky bastard who didn’t think it was much different than other bikes)?[/quote]

Was it different to other bikes or not?

Cheers

kamiwaza

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Honda Shadow 110050hp only. Looks great but how could that amount of power in a big heavy bike be fun? May as well ride an old 50hp Harley before they punched the exhaust baffles out of it with the nearest handy steel rod.

Suzuki DR-Z 400SM [/quote]40hp out of this.

Checked the video. Looks like great fun. I wonder if they mix pavement (bitumen for Australians and possibly other Commonwealthers) and dirt in the same events? Never seen this before.

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I owned a sports bike here in Taiwan. Loved it. I plan on getting another. I am partially thinking about getting a naked “sports bike” like the kwak seen above (very nice looking). But if you look at any magazine’s review of a Honda one thing you will see mentioned again and again is “Honda build quality”. They could say it has “great build quality” but they don’t…they just say “Honda build quality” so Honda has become a synonym for reliable…or great.

I have the British TWO mag here and they are comparing used sports bikes…all about 6 years old. They say the Honda is pretty much the only one that still feels like new with more than 32,000km on the speedo.

And from personal experience I’ve seen shitty made Yamahas…and Kawasaki’s…but I’ve yet to see a faulty Honda (I’m sure they’re out there…just saying I haven’t seen one as of yet).

So the point of the above is…buy Honda.

Everyone and there dog seems to be buying naked bikes in Taiwan now…and for good reason…cheaper, easier to fix, cheaper to repair. So if you want a bike that’s just as fast as everyone else’s and blends into the group…by all means get a naked bike.

But if you like being on the fastest bike in nearly any given group. As well as being on something that looks gorgeous (to you). Then why settle for 2nd best. Get that sports bike you want. I did ride mine on the race track a few times, there was one in Tao-Yuan county…not sure if it’s open still. And on larger roads such as the #3, or either coastal roads…a sports bike will pull away from any other type of bike.

And yeah…stay away from Ducati.

P.S. a good site for reviewing/comparing stats is motorbikes.be/en/compare.aspx
I think they also have normal reviews as well…never really looked at them though.

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I live in Longtan and I think the mentioned track is the one here (and I live just arround the corner of it…). So as far as I know the race track is open even there are no official races besides kart and scooter but there are others going on the track. A friend told me he saw some kind of supermoto drivers prepairing (locals so he said they just had some up to 250 cc… want to check that out once too…).

Oh and as we have some speaking for nacked bikes and super sport bikes, any one for these supermoto ones?
I am thinking of getting one, but not sure how the situation is here. Maybe it is also because I am from “KTM-land” and there it is to get one and with a good price too. Mantainence in Austria is also easy (for all kind of bikes I think…). Any tips for me too?
Oh, and are there any good shops in Taoyuan county (not that I can already afford a bike, but want to start to inform me…:wink: )

Thanks in advance…

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I ride a Kawasaki and i personally think it is great. I haven’t had any major problems with it and i’ve had it for over 3 years now.

As for being the fastest on the roads…just remember 0-dead in .5seconds.

If you want to buy a big bike you need to talk to a range of people then travel around to all the dealers and test ride some bikes. You also need to think what you want the bike for. If you want to travel around taiwan then personally i would forget a racing bike. You can’t carry shit, you feel like shit and as the highways aren’t open to us you have to ride on the mountain roads and the other bikes leave you standing.

Riding a big bike is about personal taste. Buy what you want to buy and enjoy it. :laughing:

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Kawasakis might be great bikes in theory but what do you folks think about the cautionary “Farewell Kwakker” thread?
[Farewell... Kwaker

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Mordeth always likes to take a different stance on things…but there is nothing biased about my comment or HM or Plasmatron’s comment…just similar opinions…and i’m surprised that we didn’t conflict on this as we often do on everything else!..

@mordeth…How could you stay away from this???

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[quote=“UKbikerchic”]I ride a Kawasaki and I personally think it is great. I haven’t had any major problems with it and I’ve had it for over 3 years now.

As for being the fastest on the roads…just remember 0-dead in .5seconds.

If you want to buy a big bike you need to talk to a range of people then travel around to all the dealers and test ride some bikes. You also need to think what you want the bike for. If you want to travel around taiwan then personally I would forget a racing bike. You can’t carry shit, you feel like shit and as the highways aren’t open to us you have to ride on the mountain roads and the other bikes leave you standing.

Riding a big bike is about personal taste. Buy what you want to buy and enjoy it. :laughing:[/quote]

I’m sure there are some “good” kwaks out there. I’ve just never heard of a transmission jamming and locking up on a Honda like it did on motorcyclerider’s 2004 Kawasaki. I’m not saying all other bikes are bad, I’m just saying that Honda build quality is…better. And you can buy almost any magazine and read almost any review about any Honda…to see they will probably mention the superb build quality at least once.

Not saying I would never buy another brand…but then again…the more I write about this, the more I’m starting to convince myself not to buy another brand…hehe…funny how that works.

I’ve ridden a sportsbike for 10 hours straight stopping minimally and other than feeling tired I felt alright. If I ride a scooter for more than a couple of hours…I’ll feel sore. So depends on the rider I’m guessing.

Odd thing to say. The highways aren’t open…yes. But expressways are (some are and the police don’t seem to mind on the rest) and nothing beats a sportsbike on an expressway. Plus freeways and expressways aside…that doesn’t just leave mountain roads. As I’ve already said there is the number 3,15,61…etc…coastal roads mainly.

If I wanted to ride on the twisty mountain roads doing an average speed of around 100…I’d ride my scooter. And that’s not mentioning the fact that I’ve almost been hit head on by other big bikes, blue trucks, rice racers…etc…on mountain roads. And never had a close call like that on the #3.

Yeah, that Ducati is gorgeous…and if it didn’t cost more than a sports bike…I’d probably buy it…regardless of my above statements. But I’m a sucker for a pretty face.

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When I brought up the [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/farewell-kwaker/21669/4 Kwakker"[/url] thread, I wasn’t thinking of build quality. I was thinking of the concerns that Motorcycle Rider brought up regarding the service provided by the dealership.

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I would still recommend buying a Kawasaki even after all the sht I went through. I probably just got the lemon of the bunch. But warning, DO NOT expect and quality or professional servicing from any of the so-called license Kawasaki service centers. None of them have qualified mechanics, I know for a fact. They fcked my bike up and I have heard that mine wasn’t the only that had problems after being serviced at Kawasaki Taiwan. Buy a Kawasaki if know a good mechanic, cause they will break. Not the engine, Kawasaki engines a bullet proof, I mean everything else. On my ZRX1200 I had to literally check for missing screws and loose body panels after every ride. One word “loctite”. Loctite everything on the bike. Oh, my gas guage broke after the first 500km on my ZRX. Okay, come to think about it, buy Honda. After owning 5 Hondas, the only problem I had with one was that it attracted suicidal drivers who wanted to play chicken with me on the road. :fume:

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