PJay

I know what your saying but ny additional £800 was fully comp on a bike valued at £4500, thats a lot of money to lose if you bin it and TBH it's not hard to write a bike off.

PJay

Stoney

TBH mate the extra £300 odd quid wasnt and option at the time, but it'll be insured comp when its time to renew

RSrussell

I got 2 wrong

Which of the following would NOT make you more visible in daylight?

Mark one answer

A black helmet
A white helmet
Switching on your dipped headlamp
Wearing a fluorescent jacket

You get cold and wet when riding. Which TWO are likely to happen?

Mark two answers

You may lose concentration
You may slide off the seat
Your visor may freeze up
Your reaction times may be slower
Your helmet may loosen

33/35 so i still passed

Rich_w

Which of the following would NOT make you more visible in daylight?

Mark one answer

A black helmet ........................... X
A white helmet
Switching on your dipped headlamp
Wearing a fluorescent jacket

You get cold and wet when riding. Which TWO are likely to happen?

Mark two answers

You may lose concentration .........................X
You may slide off the seat
Your visor may freeze up
Your reaction times may be slower ...............X
Your helmet may loosen

PJay

RSrussell

pmsl, rich, fair enough rich, tis all bollox though. lol

but if thats what they want......

MickB

I dun my bike test just before xmas,dodgy time of year i no but once i made my mind up i ad to get it dun,passed on the 19th december .
Dun a 4 day DAS course and in the end all in cost me about £580.
I got a little honda mtx 200 trail bike for now,quite nippy and cheap to run,only cost me £76 tpft that will do me for now .

Cheers Mick.

RSrussell

What are the J1 and G2 models? just browsing some for sale and these keep popping up

RSrussell

Just an "F3" aswell

Rich_w

Basically Kawasaki rename the bikes with the Letter/Number prefix each year.

So

A G1 is 98
A G2 is 99
J1 is 00
J2 is 01

For Bike manufacturers sometimes its only a Facelift, sometimes a completely new design version ,so its a different letter. The J is a later bike than the G and the F is before both.

IIRC
A F3 is a bit squarer and looks its age abit now. Most bikes are going for the sharp pointy style tails.
The G models are similar to the Js but have a large single headlight, whereas the Js have twin lights. Go for a J if you can afford it. But the G is effectively the same bike. Kawasaki didnt update there bikes very much during this time. So nothing major between the G and J apart from the lights.

There will be hundreds of Ninjas for sale. You have to buy one in Green if its a Kwak. No options! Lots and lots of people get them as 1st sports bikes. Plus for whatever reason they dont hold they're value as much. Dont know why, there still a good bike and quick enough to scare you.

HTH

RSrussell

cheers Rich, but the guys on visor think i'll kill myself

is it me or is the site real slow on there

I'm looking at a 400 now as they scared the shit uot of me with promises of instant death

gurnE

I'm sorry but fuckin' bollox

Speaking as someone who has has dozens of bikes and spent the last 4 years as a bike mechanic, if you've got half a brain then there is no reason why you can't go out and buy an R1

The bike is as fast as you make it, you control the throttle, everything else is just physics!

600 is a perfect size to start on, they bore me to be honest but you got to start somewhere

If you go out and buy a 400 you will be bored of it within' 6 months (Although an RVF400 is probably the best handling road bike I have ever ridden)

A 600 is bloody fast but tame enough to not high side you @ every roundabout

If you ain't brain dead (or a fag) then a 600 is the perfect starting size

gurnE

Above 60mph i'd agree with that statement

Ain't nothing this side of Hadland's escort that will beat a 600 off the lights though!

Rich_w

Rikki

Yeah, Visordowns pretty slow at the moment. Ben who owns it only started it as a hobby, because it become so popular its too much for the servers. Sound familiar?


As for jumping on a 600 as your first bike and the "You will die in a crash" type comments. Everyone gets it. So dont take it personally. As you say its about temptation to just wank the throttle open. And they ARE right about riding with more experienced people than yourself. A lot of "Ride Outs" as they are called rattle along at a frankly stupid pace, A 400 is a good starter bike, though they are generally pretty small, so if your tall it may be more uncomfortable after a little while. They were designed I think primarily for the Jap market.

You wont die on a 600 if you're sensible (Oh shit ) But go and get the license first on the 500 they'll lend you, then you'll have a marker on what differfent bikes are like. 125s for example are shite if you get hit by a crosswind and they feel like bicycles more than a real bike. 500s got some weight to it so you can chuck it about a bit and not feel like your going to fall off.

For doing your test you should really have at least a jacket, gloves, pair of jeans, boots and a good helmet. The saying is spend as much as you can. My Alpinestarts jacket was £200, Gloves were a freebie from a mate. Boots were a pair of Dealers I had, and my Quantum F Arai was £400.

http://www.jsaccessories.co.uk/index.htm Are good for deals on stuff My helmet is now £250 from the Greenwich store and they have tons of stuff to try on before you buy. Also got "normally" very knowledgeable staff so pick their brains on it when your there on size and fitment. You dont need to spend as much as me and have probably just as good stuff. Im a poser so thats why I went for the named stuff Dont waste time on a all in one suit yet. Also try http://www.hein-gericke.com/hg-shop/...b_frameset.php Good deals as well.

gurnE

Yep, 2 stage license in Japan

Piece of piss to get a license up to 400, fooker to get an unlimited license

(part of the test involves throwing your bike on the floor and picking it up )

Anonymous

personally i think DAS is one of the most dangerous things ever thought of

id go for a 400cc at the most to start with then work your way up to a six then a thou if you feel the need.

even 400s will waste cossies, seen it done

what ever you go for be bloody careful, and get some knee sliders

davie0146

hope you join the biking fraternity, i have had bike for fooking years great thing bloody dangerous and not as expensive as a rs until you fall off

stay away from the 400,s you will be bored shittless after 2weeks.
the up keep of them aint that bad if you keep on top of the basics.

as stated above spend as much as you can on kit as it could save your life in a crash.

i spent about 1500 on kit alone when i bought my last bike ZXR750.

a good 600 would be fine for starting with as there is no point going for smaller as you will be pissed of after a while then loss money trading it in.

2 strokes are fun but they do have a tendancy to explode when overtaking a line of car at 90mph

have fun

gurnE

A Honda CBR400 is a fast over 60mph as a standard 2wd saph........ie FECKIN' SLOW!!

400's are for girls and midgets!

Anonymous

couldnt agree more, i had a KR-1 250 (a real racer )
then got a ZX-6R

RSrussell

pmsl, i'm just over 6ft, so does that mean i have to get a 600 oh does it, please

I don't think i'll be going out on "rides" as such, its just a little tool for my own pleasure.

gurnE

the most painful sunday of my life was spent on a CBR400 with rearsets(My blade had just done second gear, pesky wheelies )

Was like a instrument of torture........lol (I'm 6'5" btw)

Rich_w

imagining GurnE on a 400. With sets At 6,5

RSrussell

erm what are "rearsets"

gurnE

Higher footpegs for extra ground clearance.

Gives you chance to grind your nice expensive race can to shit (that means exhaust rick )

RSrussell

pmsl i know what a can is.

see i'm just looking at keeping bog standard fast enough. no?

gurnE

No real point going past dynojet kit and race can on a modern sportsbike

Law of diminshing returns, the japs tune them so much that any further engine tuning is alot of ££££ for just a few more BHP

PJay

I did mean once rolling, guess i shoulda made it clearer, 600 was my first bike no problems with it at all, i'm not dead, 6'3" and it was ok comfort wise too.

PJay

RSrussell

and this is a.......?

Rich_w

Yeah, but it'll be quiet then. And you can't be a sports biker without some 6000DB race can on it, with a dynojet kit or power commander on it. Some will tell you anyway (DJ kit is new jets for the carb. PC is a plug and play rechipped ECU basically)

Seriously the only thng you DEFINETLY need are Crash Bungs. Look like Doorstops and attach to the side of the bike, so IF you drop it the damage will be limited.

RSrussell

cheers rich, noted

ok so with me thinking of going with a 600, how many times have you crashed within the first 6 months?

gurnE

Seen more than a few bikes that have bungs bolted to the frame and because of this when slung down the road, the frames been bent.
Gone from replacing side panel, top fairing, clip-on, foot peg to a write off thanks to crash 'protectors'

RSrussell

well i don't "plan" on falling off

gurnE

You will drop it once within 12 months trust me, even if it's toppling over at traffic lights!

AlexD on here will tell you about the time I was showing off, getting my knee down in front of him in his RST, cold tyres meant i got straight off the fuckin' thing

Didn't live that one down for a while

Anonymous

Hello mate,just thought id quickly add a little somethin 2 this thread as i went thro

this dilemma last year.

Me and a mate took our theorys last year and booked our Direct Access

courses straight after passin that at a cost of £400 including test over 3.5 days and

we both past.

After talkin 2 a few mates with bikes, me and 2 mates went and bought brand new

Gixser 600's K2's and have never looked back.Ive had mine almost a year now

and have put almost 4k on her and would definately say if ur sensible enough go 4

a 600.This is the first bike we all got and know now we would have regreted gettin

anything smaller,coz ur confidence does grow damn quickly.

Good luck with it mate,hope u have 1 for the summer.

PJay

Agreed, worked in recovery for a long time and these 'protectors' write of alot of bikes! best bet at first is to respect the bike, be scared of the bike....Oh and have fully comp insurance 'just in case'

PJay

gurnE

[quote="PJay"]Wise words

Rich_w

GurnE

Were those the XL versions though. I can imagine they catch something (pothole, manhole cover) and get a leverage effect going on. Reason I swear by them is, my mates foot slipped and he just over balanced his GSXR6 whilst turning round. Crash bungs were great, slight mark on the brake lever end and the bungs got scuffed. Could have been far worse.

Not having a go, but how fast were these bikes chucked down the road, cos obviously at somepoint no crash bungs are going to help. I appreciate that they might bend the bosses there screwed into, so you need to get them replaced, but to write the frame off

RSrussell

Big pimp, i think thats just done it for me

CBR here we come

pmsl at not warming up the tires so how long does this take?

gurnE

Crash protectors can work fine mate, but in the 4 years I spent as a motorcycle mechanic in a busy dealership I saw quite a few bikes written on solely because the crash bungs had written off the frame.

Varies from bike to bike though, have even seen some motrax ones that mount to the thin metal fairing mounts, fat lot of use they will be!!

more trouble than they are worth IMO

PJay

Matey with the gsx6 was luck, the one on the n/s is screwd into a fairing bolt hole and usually rips the thread out of the frame and the one on the o/s is in an engine mounting bolt hole and usually does the frame/engine mount.

PJay