Why a Great Suspension and Great Riding Abilities are necessary!

Last year I got my butt handed to me on a plate after chasing a 250 Yamaha Motard through the twistie hills of Southern Ohio on my 1250 Bandit. The guy on the 250 is an avid rider with lots of dirt background and knew how to ride. At that moment, horsepower became less of an issue and riding habits and a great suspension became priority number 1.

Well, in my quest to learn more about riding and tweaking my abilities, I was surfing through YouTube looking for Lee Parks, Keith Code, Doug Chandler, PhilS from TWTex.com (never found him ), and others showing great style and substance. I found this little 10 year old on a 22HP Honda race bike just smoking the other ZX6's and such at a California Superbike School event. Once again, this showed me that horsepower is WAY down the list of things I need right now. Either way, it's fun to watch this kid passing the others and just eatin' up this track.

Enjoy.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDxHGkQIQUs

at 3:32, you can see one of the guys about to be passed, cut back in front of him, and about take him out. this exact thing happened to my friend a couple months ago, same track, same corner. he was on his RS125 and other rider was on 750.
my friend wasnt so lucky and simply got his front wheel pushed 2 feet.
his bike paid the price as well. squid rode around like nothing happened.

dont they all.

Phil, congrats on learning what really makes a fast bike fast. I encourage you to seek out track days near you from riding schools. If there are none near you then they are worth the trip. We have a few here in Texas where the instructors will take the time to coach you on how to turn your bike safely at speeds that you never thought it would do.

Thanks for sharing the video.

Pshhh!! I could take him...

Also, weight and physics has mucho to do with how fast a motorcycle can go through a turn. Generally, a lighter motorcycle will make it around the same turn faster than a bigger bike with similar abilities. A bandit will grind hard parts before a motard any day also. But you can kick their butts on the straights. Oh wait, there is probably a turn at the end of that straight somewhere.

I have met "Scrappy" Pete. His website is shown on the video, which also lists all the titles the kid has one to this point. I would guess that we will see him in professional racing in the future.

Oh yea, don't underestimate those motards in a nice twisty situation. They are sooooo easy to ride fast through the tight stuff. I was by no means good on my DRZ, but I took it to the track after only having it two weeks and was railing corners on my stock tires. No sportbike passed me or left me in the corners. I can't imagine with sticky tires, properly set up and with more ride time on it how I could have done. Or even with a higher performance bike even.

I did get smoked on the longish straights though many times, and many times by big bikes who'd barely lean over in the corners. I was wishing for a tighter track with shorter straights. I can usually hang with those guys enough to outbreak them and then leave them in the corners. Motards are tons of fun though and if you get a chance to ride one, give it a whirl. And don't try to keep up with them either. I nearly thrashed my gixxer trying to keep up with my buddy on his KTM (who was a member of the track and is out there every weekend)

On a similar note though, when you do track time, you find out really quickly that it's not all about horsepower. I have done much cornerworking and seen guys on the 125GP bikes passing liter bikes through the corners and making it look easy. I chased a guy on an Aprilia RS250 around the track and man was that a sweet ride. One of these days I'd like to pick one of those up for sure.

Oh yea, and this thread is worthless without pics.

I've upgraded my suspension (correctly) only a couple times, once on an '05 Bonneville, and again on my FZ1. I learned a couple things, a good suspension dialed in for YOUR weight ROCKS!!! and lowering the internals of the suspension on my FZ1 may have indeed been an improvement, but it eliminated ANY initial "sag" and was a buckboard to ride.....

I'll be upgrading the suspension on my Bandit someday, but after lowering the suspension on a Sportster, BMW Roadster, and a Fizzy.... my 5' 2"ness will simply deal with the precarious nature of a tall street bike.

On the other hand, I can't help but be curious about lowering the internals of a bike that already has loooong travel in the factory suspension. I wonder if I lowered the internals on something like a dual purpose, dirt bike, or motard, if I can retain any comfort by retaining some sag even after it's been lowered.....(???)

-Which then brings to mind the next question:

What kind of bike (big thumper?) would a guy buy to make into a fun canyon carver/wannabe Motard??? Or is there a big affordable thumper (read, inexpensive) that is already offered with street wheels & tires for canyon carving fun???

You might head over to www.supermotojunkie.com and have a gander. Folks like the big hondas and KTM's from what I've seen so far. Or you can buy a ready built one in the form of a Husqvarna SM610.

So how much would that Husky SM610 cost a guy?

Sounds like it's big enough to handle the hour ride via the Stupor-slab (freeway) to our local canyon carving haunt.

Eh, even a DRZ will handle the slab ride. It's your butt and that banana seat that usually is the limiting factor.

06 was the last major redesign that I can think of unless they are running FI on them now...which I think has been elsewhere but we were slow in getting them in the US.

New I think they can be had for somewhere around $7K and used, well, $4K-$5K for an 06 I think. Haven't priced them recently. Sweet bikes none the less though.

Also, once you've narrowed down to a particular model, you might hit up Thumpertalk for some more specific info in their manufacturer forums.

However, peruse SMJ's for sale forums and you can find some ready built Honda's and KTM's as well that didn't come off the manufacturing line as SM's but have had all the work done to convert them. There's some sweet deals out there.

Bear in mind though, that with the bigger bore bikes usually comes with added weight. While a 600ish bike makes a good motard, it won't compare to the fun of a 450. That said, the bigger bore bikes are usually MUCH less high maintenance...with the DRZ being a prime exception. The DRZ doesn't make the HP of the higher end motards, but the motor is pretty well proven bulletproof. Hence why they make such great DS bikes.

My son has a DRZ400 SM and has lots of fun screwing with his friends who all ride 600 supersports and others on the local twisties, recently we went to a local mountian road that all the supersport guys hang out at on the weekend and he was able to keep up with and pass guys on Gixxer 1ks because it was so tight. The strange thing is it doesnt look like he is going that fast its just the amazing corner speeds he can maintain. He says its easy because his bike is so light, he is 20 and has been riding motocross since 8 so lots of experience with the whole dirtbike ergos of the supermoto bike. Only downfall is he goes through tires like crazy three sets in 6k miles. The funny thing is the tires are worn out on the outside yet the center tread is still good, they get melted on the outside and you can peel the balled up rubber off them with your hands.

I wish I had roads where I could wear out the outsides of my tires first.

BMW R1100S: Engine: stock. Suspension: Ohlins. Turned lap times at Barber 2 seconds quicker than with my 15 HP more and 60 lb lighter Buell with stock suspension.

Honda CRF 450X: Engine: stock w/ more flywheel weight. Suspension: RG3. Hey! I can do whoops! I'm still the limiting factor.

Litre bike riders get pissy when they can't shake a stock boxer.

BMW..... loved it for 60,000 miles.
This was filmed aboard my 2001 R1150RA. I replaced the factory springs with some HyperPro ("Purple Perfection") single-rate springs at about 20,000 miles. The suspension makes all the difference in the world, but I would say that the rider (in my case) has improved SIGNIFICANTLY since this ride.....
(someday I'm gonna attend a class and learn how to ride correctly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stNPEhubfMI

gixxerjasen said:

I wish I had roads where I could wear out the outsides of my tires first.

Click to expand...

Agree! Here in south Louisiana, after several thousand miles , the tire is so squared off, we can almost walk away from the bike without putting the stand down.

Seriously, I"ve always had fun following other bikes with my DR350, DRZ400, KLR650s in Arkansas fun roads areas. Amazing what they will do. Couse,. I"ve passed many riders with a fully loaded for camping/traveling R1150GS and I'm not hardly what I consider a fast rider. When I see someone coming up behind me on twisty roads anywheres. I get to the far right and wave them by. . Amazing how may speed up and get stupid trying to stay ahead of you.