Small displacement question

[Goom]

Originally Posted by himynameisjoe

Honestly I think a 125 would be fine in traffic. Other countries do it just fine. How often do you drive/ride over 45 in traffic?

Unless you're talking about freeway 55-75 mph traffic. But I don't think that counts.

It depends on where you live, really. Unless I'm going downtown (which isn't exactly the sort of bustling metro area some of you deal with) there are few places I go under 45. I wouldn't have much of a chance of survival on a 125 around here.

In a densely populated, slow moving traffic scenario, I could see it being practical. At some point though, riding a motorcycle can really lose it's luster. For me, that point is stop-and-go traffic.

[himynameisjoe]

Originally Posted by Goom

It depends on where you live, really. Unless I'm going downtown (which isn't exactly the sort of bustling metro area some of you deal with) there are few places I go under 45. I wouldn't have much of a chance of survival on a 125 around here.

In a densely populated, slow moving traffic scenario, I could see it being practical. At some point though, riding a motorcycle can really lose it's luster. For me, that point is stop-and-go traffic.

Man you must live in a really small area I know I live in a small ass town (well towns really, there are like 3 connected, pretty much the same place though) and I know of only one road I can legally go 55 mph. Even that on a 125 scooter would be fine.

[Goom]

Originally Posted by himynameisjoe

Man you must live in a really small area I know I live in a small ass town (well towns really, there are like 3 connected, pretty much the same place though) and I know of only one road I can legally go 55 mph. Even that on a 125 scooter would be fine.

I just happen to live in the "Crossroads of America". Indiana is full of highways, but not so full of people.

[himynameisjoe]

Originally Posted by Goom

I just happen to live in the "Crossroads of America". Indiana is full of highways, but not so full of people.

That's why I don't think I could live in the Mid-west... haha

[Old Guy on a '08]

Naw...

I can't imagine this as an "one and only bike".
Maybe if I didn't want to (didn't need to) hit the freeway and go someplace. 'Course it would be an okay thing to throw in the back of the pickup and haul to the twisties where handling and "throwability" rain king. When I was up at Tail of the Dragon this fall, there was a guy riding at Honda Ruckus. He was having a blast... cheap... easy to repair... low... throwable....

So, maybe YEAH, if the price was right. Like $400-500. But a new one for $2000+... NAW!!!

[sharky nrk]

Originally Posted by Goom

I just happen to live in the "Crossroads of America". Indiana is full of highways, but not so full of people.

and 90% of the roads suck

[Racer x]

I have ridden sky line drive on both a motorcycle a VFR 800. And on an Aprilia Scaribeo 50. The speed limit is thirty mph. And people are crawling at 20. With the motorcycle is was constant work . 1st 2nd back to 1st break turn. Like a parking lot .

On the scooter the cvt trans slows you down so there is little breaking. It does loose speed on the up hill. (A 125 would be better) But it is fun to get speed up maintain the speed and try to get up the hill with out slowing down much. When cars are behind I just pull over. Loads of fun.

[Old Guy on a '08]

The key to riding Skyline drive is early mornings midweek... never on a weekend... never, never, never on a nice fall weekend when the weather is perfect for riding...

Late September Wednesdays around 10AM are best...

Same can be said for the Blue Ridge Parkway.

[Whiskey]

Not a hope, in reality a 4 stroke 125 is a pretty dangerous machine as it's unable to get up to pace & stay ahead of the traffic, most of them put out 11hp.

A 2 stroke RS125 would be the only 125 I'd even consider, but then again it's about 28hp & peaky

[bbonds007]

Would I buy a 125? No, but I would be interested in a 250ish sports bike built solely for mpg. Not sure if the science fits, maybe a hybrid, but I would totally dig a little putter that got 100+ mpg.

[Racer x]

This little putter gets over 100 mpg. And is a lot of fun to ride. If they would only come out with it in a 125 fi. It would rule.

[Goom]

Originally Posted by sharky nrk

and 90% of the roads suck

Amen to that. Then again, I'm moving to Florida in a couple of weeks. Something tells me I'll miss these sucky roads that actually have curves and hills.

[Whiskey]

Originally Posted by bbonds007

Would I buy a 125? No, but I would be interested in a 250is h sports bike built solely for mpg. Not sure if the science fits, maybe a hybrid, but I would totally dig a little putter that got 100+ mpg.

That's a total contradiction in terms. the likes of a cg250 is solely for mpg, but it'll never be a sports bike, the cbr 250 is probably the closest thing to what you want, but it's neither a sports bike nor a complete mpg machine.

You could always get a racing Honda 50... They have a charity race every year on the track near my hometown, usually a few guest racers show up for a laugh. Le Mans style start & getting the knee down on a cub 50 takes skill & can be very funny...

I'll try to dig out a video when I'm not on my phone

[bbonds007]

Guess I am guilty of being self-conscious about looks. When I say sports bike, I should have said the body and flick-ability of a sports bike. I just can not stand the scooter look.

I think the Honda NC700X is a pretty interesting machine. I mean surely if a 670cc engine can get 65mpg, a 250cc engine could get even more, no?

Then again, I know very little about motorcycle science so what do I know.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by himynameisjoe

How often do you drive/ride over 45 in traffic?

Every day I go to work.

I either take the highway route followed by a nice long jaunt on 55 mph 4-lane wide traffic, or I take the 45 mph curvy back road and follow it up with the same stint on that 55 mph 4-lane wide road through the middle of an absolutely chaotic area.

I can understand the "how often do you really have to go over 100" argument for not buying a 600, but the "how often do you have to go over 45" argument is excessive. How often? Every damn time I ride! No joke. I live on a state route. It's 35 on my section, but traffic hauls at 50 because the 45 section ends less than 1/4 mile from my driveway.

[Old Guy on a '08]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Every day I go to work.

I either take the highway route followed by a nice long jaunt on 55 mph 4-lane wide traffic, or I take the 45 mph curvy back road and follow it up with the same stint on that 55 mph 4-lane wide road through the middle of an absolutely chaotic area.

I can understand the "how often do you really have to go over 100" argument for not buying a 600, but the "how often do you have to go over 45" argument is excessive. How often? Every damn time I ride! No joke. I live on a state route. It's 35 on my section, but traffic hauls at 50 because the 45 section ends less than 1/4 mile from my driveway.

Yeap. I live on a 4 lane divided hwy (used to be a two lane country road 25years ago when I moved here. Speed limit is 45 but the actuall speed is closer to 55. During rush hour, if I'm making a left, I need to "get it up" in a hurry; that's just to get into the center turn lane. I have to ride a mile to get to a two lane (except for the business park accross the highway from me... which, on Saturday morning is desserted and has some awsome corners ) but it's four lane and 55mph in most any direction save that one (and the business park - which is 45 and mostly 5omph in actualality.

While a hot 125 would still do the job the Ninja is better. There are "times" when I wish I had a 500cc+ bike, with a gob of bottom end torque.

[csmith12]

If you have the chance to pick up a small 125 then do it! Most of us know how expensive it is to hit the big tracks but you know what is almost as fun? Kart tracks on slightly smaller bikes.

$15 for the day + gas and the Kart track is local. Oh... seems I have given away one of my practice secrets of riding. Yea, basically I do the same at the bigger tracks as I do on the smaller ones. The bigger tracks are just faster.

[himynameisjoe]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Every day I go to work.

I either take the highway route followed by a nice long jaunt on 55 mph 4-lane wide traffic, or I take the 45 mph curvy back road and follow it up with the same stint on that 55 mph 4-lane wide road through the middle of an absolutely chaotic area.

I can understand the "how often do you really have to go over 100" argument for not buying a 600, but the "how often do you have to go over 45" argument is excessive. How often? Every damn time I ride! No joke. I live on a state route. It's 35 on my section, but traffic hauls at 50 because the 45 section ends less than 1/4 mile from my driveway.

No no, you misunderstood I really should have worded that better. By "45 in traffic" I meant like if you're just riding around town, NOT going on a highway or any sort of fast road. Strictly riding within your town or city, where there is usually traffic and stoplights and stop & go traffic, how often do you make it over 45?

[csmith12]

Joe, quite often depending on your city. Ever been to Vegas or the outskirts of Orlando? You can easily get 45 between lights and such in those types of urban settings.

[himynameisjoe]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Joe, quite often depending on your city. Ever been to Vegas or the outskirts of Orlando? You can easily get 45 between lights and such in those types of urban settings.

You guys... lolol I can't even remember what my original point was anymore! haha

I think all I was trying to say was for in city/town riding, a 125 would probably work out. Though admittedly I was talking more about a 125 scooter, than a 125 bike.

And no, never been to Vegas and I haven't been to florida since I was young. Plus what are the actual speed limits though? Like I realize we can all race up to 75 mph in town, I do it all the time. But the speed limit is 35. So just because I can and do, doesn't mean I have to. Because most people are doing 35-45.

[csmith12]

No worries Joe, it's all good.

Here is an example. Trek down the east cost of FL on the A1A as millions of tourists do each year. The speed limit is all over the place, 55 in some places down to 25 in others. As you ride by the beach areas and then wind through residential and then industrial areas.

[himynameisjoe]

Originally Posted by csmith12

No worries Joe, it's all good.

Here is an example. Trek down the east cost of FL on the A1A as millions of tourists do each year. The speed limit is all over the place, 55 in some places down to 25 in others. As you ride by the beach areas and then wind through residential and then industrial areas.

Yeah that makes sense haha I do know what you mean, I can think of a few places around here that go from 55 to 25 to 45 to 35 back to 45 then to 50

But I still hold my ground that if you just want to pop down to the shops for a minute, a 125cc or a 1000cc is going to get you there in pretty much the same time.

[csmith12]

[Numbersix]

I *did* for two years. The 108cc Honda Elite rev-limits at 53mph; but it does 0-40 fast and 40-max at car-like acceleration (and 93mpg no matter how I thrashed it).

My daily life doesn't happen to involve a lot of freeway travel and when I think of riding for entertainment, I think of country roads rather than the mega-slabs (maybe I had my fill of those growing up in SoCal?).

Would I buy a 125cc sportbike? Maybe not. In that range a scoot is actually better with CVT transmission and cargo capacity. 150cc is the dividing line as that's most states' minimum for freeway-legal. It's good to have the capacity even if I wouldn't try and run a 300 mile trip on the slab with a 150cc bike.

[Joshorilla]

Originally Posted by Scattcatt

I'm all for a 125, would depend on how good it looked I guess. Like I've always loved the Apriia RS125

Thise thinks are like bloody flies buzzing around here, annoying sounding, nasty build quality and almost guaranteed to break as they run so hot and dirty.

Infact, they're very cheap here also, some people on here seem like they'd kill for one, I don't get it.

Nasty Aprilia on our equivilant of craigslist.
http://tig.gg/listing.php?lid=14663

I'd rather this
http://www.tig.gg/listing.php?lid=14534

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by himynameisjoe

By "45 in traffic" I meant like if you're just riding around town, NOT going on a highway or any sort of fast road. Strictly riding within your town or city, where there is usually traffic and stoplights and stop & go traffic, how often do you make it over 45?

Again, every time I turn out of my driveway. I live on a state route about 1.25 miles from the center of town. Literally, my driveway is connected to a state route, there's not even neighborhood streets in a development or anything like that.

Here's Hudson. Route 91 and Route 303 go through the middle town, like crosshairs. Both have lots of traffic. Both keep a good 50 mph until you get right into town, even though the speed limit goes down from 45 to 35. So basically, I go "45 in traffic" every time I pull out of my driveway.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hudso...mit,+Ohio&z=13

On my way to work, I go the back way usually through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Speed limit is 45 on the section I ride. There's pretty good traffic and about 3 stop lights. I ride 45+ in traffic with stop lights every day I ride to work.

[akima]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

So basically, I go "45 in traffic" every time I pull out of my driveway.

I turn onto a 30MPH road outside my house that imediately turns into a 50MPH uphill road. If you don't ride at 50MPH you either get people overtaking you or tailgating you all the way up the hill. From there on out it's a mix of 50MPH and 60MPH limit roads. The other option is jumping on the motorway where there's a 70MPH limit. I avoid motorways though purely because they're so boring to ride on. I take the longer route to work each day, because there are twists, turns and 5 roundabouts. Lots of nice scenery too.

I quite regularly see scooter riders on these roads and it looks so sketchy!! They're too underpowered. I almost road raged on a cager the other day because he was hugging the rear tyre of a scooter for ages and then finally made a dangerous overtake. Made me so angry. I personally wouldn't ride something so low powered just because I know that there are so many cagers like the one I just described who are quite happy to balance your life on a thread just to try and shave a couple minutes of their journey time.

I feel kinda bad for my lil ninja sometimes - I wake her up at 7am in the cold and then immediately power her up a steep hill at 50MPH. Not much I can do about that though. That's the flow of traffic. I don't think it's too good for the engine.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by akima

I don't think it's too good for the engine.

Just make sure you don't rip it up to 10k or 12k right away. Keep it under 6 or 7. You can give it some gas, but short shift till the engine is warm-ish and it's running like it does when it's warm.

Other than that, I wouldn't worry too much about cold starts. Just be sure to change the oil regularly so you can help your engine as much as you can.

[Whiskey]

As promised, the start of the Nifty 50 race. Honda 50s to 90s doing an 8 hour endurance race for charity

Link to original page on YouTube.

[choneofakind]

^^ That's awesome whiskey

[Apex]

Yeah, around that engine size, the scooters seem like the best bang for the buck.

[Numbersix]

Originally Posted by bbonds007

Guess I am guilty of being self-conscious about looks. When I say sports bike, I should have said the body and flick-ability of a sports bike. I just can not stand the scooter look.

Scoots tend to have low COG due to the engine placement; between that and the (usually) small wheel size they are monumentally flickable to the point where at speed some consider them unstable.

So I think you just mean the looks, but that's sufficient. Lots of people don't like Mazda Miatas either even though they're well-balanced and maneuverable. I don't like the Charger or Camero look and despise Corvettes but drool over Mustangs.

[thomason2wheels]

Originally Posted by Jiggles

Thats 5hp less than what the 250 has, throw a sexy area p on it and its a 250

Nice avatar Sean....how many smirnoffs had u had whenthat one was done? :-)

[Jiggles]

I think the percocet permanently altered my mind

[Old Guy on a '08]

Mind???? I thought your were MINDLESS...

[greenkawi2fiddy]

I honstley love my 250 I mite get a bigger one later but for now it gets me point a to point b and everywhere in between and fast enough to hit 90 pretty easy and that's with me in upright position wind catching me and all

[choneofakind]

Back to Mark's original question though - I think if I were looking for a cheap small bike to just ride around town and run errands with, I would definitely consider something in the area of 125-150 cc's. However, if I were looking in this market, I would likely look at a scooter of some type rather than a motorcycle. They're easier around town; just twist and go. Many come with space to lock a helmet in a trunk as well.

I have nothing against small engines. I do ride and love a 250 after all

[greenkawi2fiddy]

The 2012 ninja 250 comes with a spot to lock your helmet to it take off the back seat that you have to use the key to unlock and take it off there's a video on you tube that shows you. Just fyi incase anyone dident know cuz I dident for a while lol ya a scooter thoe is problly best bet for around town grocrie getter you can put a basket on it lol and not make it look any more funny than it already does

[ricomtzjr]

Originally Posted by rojoracing53

we have two series in CA for mini and pocket bikes

I love these things. I have a 47cc for my son that I have been working on. Looking at getting a tuned engine and exhaust since the current one has an exhaust leak and I can't seem to get it running right. I got that one free though. He also has a Razor electric pocket rocket. It goes about 15mph tops. It's good enough for him for now until he gets more skilled and until I get the 47cc up and running.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by greenkawi2fiddy

The 2012 ninja 250 comes with a spot to lock your helmet to it take off the back seat that you have to use the key to unlock and take it off

Yeah I put a bolt on my pregen seat so I can do that as well. But a lot of scooters have locking areas under the seat that are watertight and big. That's what i'm talking about. Those would be useful.