klubhead 0 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 i love winter, i went boarding every week from november to may but come march i love to ride ashphalt!! riding a motorbike keeps me sane during the summer months. anyone else riding?? i got 2 bikes at the moment, a yahama tw, super long swing arm, raised, total custom and a yamaha majesty, low rider, malossi upgrade, stereo system etc... the next bike will be the new honda xr 250, totally customised ( probably by 10 knot )... savving the reddies for it now!!! burning rubber wheels beats burning rubber heels! Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 go for the CRM 250. the 2 stroke has way more kick than the XR! Link to post Share on other sites
nagpants 1 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 Never had a bike, but my brother has this big monster of a thing, a BMW 1000cc or something. It looks awesome. Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 I've cashed a motorbike once or twice, but I don't ride. Link to post Share on other sites
klubhead 0 Posted May 5, 2003 Author Share Posted May 5, 2003 yeah, the crm is a much better bike but honda i think has stopped making them. what do you think of the yamaha yz or the kawa kdx??? maybe a husky? Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted May 5, 2003 Share Posted May 5, 2003 I am a Honda man myself, though I did recently have a RMX 250 and they go off! Not really built for the J roads! Yes honda (and all makers) have stopped producing 2 stroke engines???? You can get them onYahoo japan but pretty pricey. Klubhead, long time no posts? where ya been? Link to post Share on other sites
klubhead 0 Posted May 6, 2003 Author Share Posted May 6, 2003 winter time so busy boarding working etc.. no time tto post anytthing! bit more time on my hands now reckon i can get a super customised crm for about 600,000 yen, found a good bbike shop that only does custom free-style off-roaders Link to post Share on other sites
Yuki's Passion 1 Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 I got a Suzuki 2 stroke. It will take almost any bike or car off the line up to about 80k or so. Only bad thing is tsuyu is coming... hate riding in rain! Link to post Share on other sites
OnTheTin 0 Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 I used to ride a 250 bike back home. Those were the days, wouldn't mind taking it up here again Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 6, 2003 Share Posted May 6, 2003 Used to ride a Yamaha FZR250 and then the R6 which was an amazing bike, incredible. I Love riding sports bikes, best thing ever, but can't ride a dirt bike for dust. I once churned it up in the mud on a moped. Serious mud tracks in the south pacific. Got it through 2 feet deep sludge at high speed but my GF fell off the back into the mud. The rental dude was not impressed. Link to post Share on other sites
MistaSparkle 0 Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 Wanna get a sports bike soooo bad. I just don't feel like dropping the required 20man to get a bike license. Link to post Share on other sites
snobee 0 Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 Spent years knee scraping in Oz riding mainly Yams - RD, RZ, XJ's and Guzzi T & le Mans. In fact it was the 10yr gap of missing the buzz of leaning into it that got me going in skiing. Japan is a cafe boyz(& gilz)racers delight, with so many fantastic winding roads with creamy lines. The one big problem though as I see it - there are so many other road users who drive, ride, pedal, amble.... oblivious to all else, that the risk out weighs the joy. Or I'm getting old. Link to post Share on other sites
akibun 0 Posted May 7, 2003 Share Posted May 7, 2003 I used to have small scooter when I was 17. That was fun. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 Let me see if I can talk you out of riding motorcycles. I rode older BMW boxers and had some Honda and Kawi standards in the 80s and early 90s. We used to ride around northern Michigan, then I moved to LA and we'd ride up to San Francisco, visit Monterey, go to Vegas, camp/tour in Oregon, along the Pacific Coast Highway...those were great times. Then when I moved to Tokyo I got a used BMW K75s off some German guy for cheap and felt good about having a bike and riding free and easy. But it soon became apparent that big city riding SUCKS, so I sold it. Not a day went by when I didn't have a lucky escape. Oil patches on the road, taxis zooming in to cut me off then suddenly opening that automatic door, opposing traffic suddenly turning right across the road in front of me, bad drivers and old people weaving across lanes without looking in mirrors or head checking, planks bottles shoes and branches on the road suddenly revealed when the car in front swerves around them, kids and bicycles and scooters darting out of parked cars and blind spots, pebbles inexplicably spilled on sharp curves, huge buses and transport vehicles blocking and weaving over the roadway... I was a pretty careful rider and had years of experience under my belt, but I was lucky if I had a day without some kind of scare in it. There was little joy in central Tokyo riding, as I was forced to go really slowly amid pouring rain, or in oppressive sweltering heat and humidity (wear the leathers and sweat even more, or ride stupid soft and pink but comfy in a t-shirt?). The diesel and gas fumes were overpowering. The constant roar of traffic and engines was headache-inducing. Traffic jams, endless lights and signals, back roads where my 750 was not allowed (I took it there anyway). Having to ride ever slower and with the utmost caution because of all the constant dangers and stupid traps every kilo... As a biker you get used to these scares because they are a fact of life and you are on notice that this kind of stuff goes on. But even the starship Enterprise can't keep full shields on all the time. No matter how defensively you ride, someday, some idiot car driver--be it a kid playing with the radio and not watching the road, be it an old person running a light or cutting you off, be it a couple of cars having an accident right in front of you--chances are, someday, you are going to have a problem. And the fact that I was accepting these risks and irrationally expecting that my problem, if it occurred, wouldn't result in a severed leg, a crushed pelvis, loss of a square meter of skin, or paralysis, was even more scary to me. Ever been in a car accident? Ever seen one? Ever narrowly missed one? I've had several, and only one, on black ice in the dead of winter, was my fault. The others were (i) a kid ran a stop sign and t-boned the side of my car, totaling it; (ii) a drunk plumber in a giant pickup truck rear-ended me while I was stopped at a red light, pushing my car into the busy intersection where it was creamed by oncoming traffic; (iii) an idiot fiddling with his radio failed to see the brake lights on the expressway, and piled into my rear end; (iv) a mattress flew off a truck in front of me on the expressway, with speeding cars on either side I had to drive straight over it and broke the car's tie rods and skidded into another lane, sideswiping another car; (v) instant double flat tires from broken bottles in the street that must have been put there by malicious kids... These are the main ones I remember. Now what if I had been on my motorcycle in those cases? I think I'd most surely be maimed, possibly dead. What can a biker do about these risks? Nothing, except don't ride. There's nothing you can do to eliminate the risk of being t-boned by a drunk driver or a jerk who runs a stop sign. Even good drivers make mistakes. Ever accidentally run a stop sign or drifted into another lane without checking first? After a few years of driving, most everyone has done these things. Drivers screw up all the time. Drunk drivers, old drivers, inexperienced drivers, road rage drivers, stupid drivers. Mechanical problems, road problems, cascading series of unpredictable circumstances... When the next accident inevitably happens, you don't want to be around there on a motorcycle. My stepmom is a nurse. She showed me some polaroids of motorcycle accident victims. Not a week goes by when they don't get another one in the hospital there. How about no lower jaw? How about knees crushed to jelly? Ever seen the look on the face of a guy who's rehabbing a crushed pelvis? She said most of these guys crashed due to other people's mistakes...the only thing they did wrong was be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In some sense it's hypocritical of me to adopt this position, because I had my fun riding for many years, and I look back on those days with a warm feeling of pleasure. But then when I really think about it--think about zooming along at 130 kph for hour after hour on the freeway, a pink vulnerable smidgen of living flesh, it horrifies me. It absolutely horrifies me! And I am glad I was lucky enough to make it through without serious trouble. Many bikers have had this conversation before. Maybe someone will now post something like "BM, there are risks in everything..." or "stats show the chances of getting hurt on a bike are lower than XYX"... Yeah, sure. But why roll these dice? The stakes are too high. This is one risk that is totally within your control. Ride safe! Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 Yes, accidents do happen way too often. I've only been driving for about 5 years and i have been in two crashes. Neither were my fault. It got side swiped both times. Neither were all that serious but they were enough to scare me a bit. I've often thought about riding a motorbike but for the very reasons you have mentioned BM i have never really taken it up - except in Thailand, where i had an accident which resulted my lady having a huge scar on her calf. I feel like shit for causing that and thats why i probably wont get on one again. My little (18 years old) has just started riding a little automatic scooter in the UK. I hate it. I know what he is like and i am dreading the day when we get a phone call saying that something is going to happen. He's only been riding for about 6 months now and to my knowledge hasn't had any serious close calls, but he found black ice in winter to be very interesting. Link to post Share on other sites
S(in)ister 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 City riding might suck, but country riding is just the best - just can't beat it. I wish I had a motorbike here. Link to post Share on other sites
badmigraine 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 If you must ride, then country is the best for sure. Where I lived in Tokyo, it was so crowded and everything was so jammed in together, there wasn't even space to park my motorcycle. I tried it here and there, and each time some obaasan or cop told me "no parking here!" Then I tried it some other places, and often people would kick the winkers until they were smashed, or put cooking oil over the saddle, or let all the air out of all the tires. I finally found a place that did not seem to have been claimed by any of the ancient residents of this area that seemed to have somehow become owners of small sections of public street. After that, my bike became something of a fixture in that one spot and as such was soon appearing on the radar of bike parts thieves and bosozoku/chinpira type people. Many a time I came out of the apartment, or back from working late, to find someone or the other squatting next to my bike with tools and plastic bags. Many a time I came back from a weekend out of town to find the winkers all gone, the fuses gone, once the windshield was stolen, once they tried to get off the saddle, once the backrest was missing and somebody stole the saddlebags too. The mirrors would go occasionally too. I must have spent about 30,000 per month on replacing parts or fixing winkers smashed by some a-hole who thought they had a right to destroy my bike because I parked it legally on a stretch of road that they had long since claimed as their own. The weirdest thing about this to me was, my apt. and the bike were parked less than 50 meters from the Omori Police Headquarters on Dai-Ichi-Keihin. All in full view of the police station folks. You'd have thought thieves would try somewhere else, not right in front of the police station. And you'd have thought the police would have seen and arrested these thieves. But then again, you would have thought that you could park your bike safely nearby without some vicious old grandma or bitter old grandad kicking off the winkers or taking a screwdriver to the gas tank paint, too. "Japan is a safety country..." Ahem. Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 A knowledgeable man once told me, "there are two kinds of motorcyle riders...those that have crashed, and those that have not crashed yet." Link to post Share on other sites
MistaSparkle 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 I'm considering getting a scooter like one of those honda zoomers. I see tons of people riding those things around Shibuya... do you think riding those run the same risks as riding a large/sport bike?? Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 Those small auto scooters obviously don't have the same power. My brothers one can only get up to 100km. But coming off at any speed on a motorbike isn't going to tickle. And there are always going to be bad drivers out there, no matter what you have in between your legs. So, in short, i don't think you'd be any safer on one of those scooter things. Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 The 50cc scooters have a top speed of about 60 km/h, but legally 30 km/h. If you ride them the way the law dictates, pretty safe. A fast, practical way to get around the city, if you can justify the pollution from those dirty two stroke mothers... Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 hang on, be careful with scooters. I believe that they are rather dangerous in the hands of people who think that they are safe 'cause a scooter is slow and easy to sit on. They do not always handle very well and they are just as hard to see (for a car driver) as a motorbike. Many bike accidents happen as other drivers can't see you and *important* the bike rider was not watching out for drivers who didn't see him. You have to be very alert all of the time on a bike. You pretty much have to drive the cars on the road around you... anticipate their mistakes. So what happens when you do anticipate a drivers 'didn't see you' error? Usually accelerate out of trouble or depend on good braking and direction performance. These things are vital and scooters can't provide them. A scooter rider is just as hard to see. Slow is often more dangerous as you are totally unable to extracate yourself quickly from a dangerous blind spot as Vague-san merges into your lane forcing you to ride into the car at the intersection who didn't see you either as he pulled out. Besides, its really hard to get a scooter on it's back wheel for any good length of road. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 A couple of lady friends of mine at school got scooters and were often to be seen sitting in heaps in the common room, scratched, bruised, and semi-conscious from their last bing. They never got their pranged bikes checked out either, so they got more and more bent out of shape and dangerous (the bikes that is - the girls were beautiful but dangerous from the start). Link to post Share on other sites
miteyak 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 Many bike accidents happen because car drivers dont appreciate how fast they can brake, accelerate and go. With all two wheel transport, you have to ride like you're invisible. As for safe, I was referring to the likelyhood of serious damage or death. You probably will get in a few scrapes on a scooter, but when I think about the accidents i've witnessed/known of, scooter accidents are trivial in comparison. I knew someone once who drove at a top speed of 120mph. This fastidiously safe individual wouldn't drive any faster, because he needed the last 20 mph as a safety net to 'accelerate' out of trouble... ummmmm... Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted May 8, 2003 Share Posted May 8, 2003 I do see your points Miteyak, a scooter reduces your chances of a lethal high speed prang (usually rider error, lack of skill etc). But in city traffic when both bike or scooter will be travelling at the same speed, I would rather be on a bike for fast handling, power braking and speed bursts... all of which help avoid accidents. However, as you said, no matter what 2 wheel device you ride, you must assume you are invisible. Like you, I am not sure of your mates theory. I can't talk, I used to go 250kmph in the Sydney Harbour tunnel at night time (before the speed cameras were installed). I didn't go any faster 'cause it wasn't long enough to build up the speed and then slow down again. Link to post Share on other sites
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