What bike choices?

[Bubbs]

Good afternoon,

I'm done with sports bikes. Just sold my ZX6R and waiting on a tax payment from the house build to buy myself something that suits me. I find sports bike are just too uncomfortable, my lower back is in bits, and my neck starts hurting after a while. I just don't feel comfortable on them unless I'm hooning it enough to have the wind ease the pressure on my poor body parts.

So my next bike I'd like to have the following attributes
- Upright riding position with nice leg room
- Ability to go 2 up
- Something that puts a smile on my face in terms of handling / speed
- Light enough to flick through traffic.
- Something a little bit more grown up than a sports bike that allows me to clock up a lot more mileage.
- Ability to touch the floor (5 ft 8)

What say you?

Like the looks of: CB1000R, Stripple, Z1000 etc.




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Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

[Dcwhite1984]

I really like the looks of the Honda CB1300 alternatively and Fazer 1000.

What sort of budget you looking at?
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The trick to life is to not get too attached to it.........

[Bubbs]

Approx. £3 - 4k

Never liked the look of Fazers, CB1300 looks like it could fit the bill to include 2up. If I'm honest 2up is not really that important to me, the wife keeps banging on about me taking her out on the bike. If I make it hard for pillion maybe she will get her test.
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Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

[P.]

Obviously I'd recommend trying a Triple. Comfortable and definitely fun.

CB1000R seems a good call but unsure as I've never ridden one, the detuned lump is where I see sense.

[nowhere.elysium]

Get something old. They're more entertaining.

An undersized avian has informed me with some degree of reliability that Shaft might be selling his Katana at some point. If he is, I heartily recommend it - it's still fast enough to be fun, comfortable enough to take a pillion, has a very comfy riding position and is generally good. They're also quite easy to work on. You'll notice that i happily rode to the BBQ and back on its less sporty stablemate last year, and had nothing but praise for the bike's competence in that regard.
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[Bubbs]

[monkeybiker]

I've got a 2003 Z1000 and love it. Plenty of power and for you at 5feet8 should not have a problem putting your feet down. I'm around 5feet11 and can flat foot both feet with some knee bend as well.

It's got quite a good riding position but my only complaint would be the seat is quite hard but you can get corbin seats if it bothers you but I never bothered.

Can easily take a pillion and a bit of luggage.

[chickenstrip]

After ZX6s, a big Kat is going to feel like a super tanker in the handling stakes. Wouldn't stop me owning one, but you'd have to lower your expectations somewhat. And that's the problem with going to old stuff if you've never had those kinds of bikes before. I'd be thinking about FZ1, Z1000, CB1000R, or even Street Triple - I'm 6' 2'' and they don't feel too bad to me, but I'm sure you'd be even happier at your height. Pigeon does long trips on his with all the camping gear, and seems happy enough.

Or Z650 - can be made to handle and go quite respectably if you must go old. Reliable and easy to maintain too (although under-bucket shims, so cams out for valve clearance adjustment).
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[nowhere.elysium]

[chickenstrip]

[nowhere.elysium]

I was on about the 650 Kat.

I rode a Z650 recently that's very well kept, and I found the handling to be awful when compared to my GS, which is a few years younger admittedly, but still - the Z was pretty sketchy in the corners, and even worse over uneven road surfaces.

The GS is low and a fair bit heavier (by about 20kg) and the CoG is much lower than the Z's. The extra length does it a lot of favours, if you ask me, and I've yet to find it too much of a handful in corners. Of course, I'm not a sportsbike rider, so I would imagine that our perceptions of good handling are a bit different.
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'10 SV650SF, '83 GS650GT (it lives!), Questionable DIY dash project, 3D Printer project, Lasercutter project

[nelmo]

If you want to do high mileage (I assume you mean in one day as opposed to over the life of the bike?), you're going to want a fairing, or at least a partial one. Street Triples, Z1000s are great but naked bikes aren't good for distance.

You'll also get a much newer bike (and cheaper insurance and petrol) if you go smaller - 650s are almost as quick as 1000s in acceleration and just lose out in top speed but how often do you go over 120? Personally, I rarely hit 100

So, Versys or V-Strom are good in my experience and I think the NC I've got now is even better. Ok, only 110mph top speed but £4.5k for 1 year old bike and 75mpg average plus Honda build quality.
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Bike history: Suzuki GSXF600, BMW F650, Honda Varadero, Suzuki V-Strom, Kawasaki Versys
Current: Honda NC700X

[chickenstrip]

[nowhere.elysium]

[G]

[SQL]

[chickenstrip]

[Rogerborg]

Do you know of any eclectic gathering of motorcycles where people would cheerfully offer you test rides in a variety of on and off road conditions?
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
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[Clanger]

How about:
XJR 1300
Bandit 12
Kwak Versys 1000
sv1000
BMW 1300

I can vouch for them being comfy rides for pillions, as I've been on the back of all these bikes myself.

This sounds like it calls for a few test rides, nothing like walking into a shop and picking out a few to go for a spin on.

p.s. I'm shorter than you and ride the nice tall Kwak Versys 650 (the seat has not been lowered / altered in any way). Inside leg is what matters...
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter won't mind - Dr. Seuss

[G]

Adjustable rearsets probably won't put you much further forward, but shouldn't cost a massive amount to get a basic set made up that's further forward even just a basic bracket that puts the normal ones forward.

I've generally ridden 'streetfighter' style bikes with standard pegs, but the only issues I've had with bad back have been from neck pain which was solved with a lighter helmet.

[Bubbs]

[sinedtomuch]

Wouldn't adjusting the rear sets make the brake and gear selector out of sync?

[G]

Not if you adjust them too.

[sinedtomuch]

Wouldn't that require more than just a rearset to adjust your brake and gear selector?

[G]

Yep, it'd also require... the adjusters built into the gear linkage too.
Brake shouldn't need to be adjusted as it's usually mounted on the bracket.

Worse case, you'd need a shorter linkage for the gears - should cost a fiver to get someone to cut and reweld it.