500cc bikes

[chris-red]

When did then become surplus to requirements? Nobody makes a 500cc twin commuter anymore it's all 250's or 600 IL4 or 650twins now.
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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Livefast123]

When 600cc became middle weight i think
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Current ride - Yamaha MT-07

[pinkyfloyd]

The old 500's became obsolete due to the emission regs that came in and as above said. 600 became the standard middleweight that replaced them.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
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Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[DrDonnyBrago]

I would like a modern 400cc IL4 too tbh.

Do they still make the CBF500/gs500?

There is some newish GS500 thing with a fairing on near me.

[chris-red]

[JonnyFoxtrot]

[DrDonnyBrago]

[chris-red]

[chris-red]

[nowhere.elysium]

[whitedevil]

ninja 400r new for 2011
CBR250R new for 2011

[nowhere.elysium]

[chris-red]

Everybody knows 400's are for girls,













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Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

[Rogerborg]

Hey! Girls and short-arses.

Personally I'd love to see some new lightweight fuel efficient 350-500s commuters being produced, but it's not going to happen.

All the margins are on big bikes, emissions regs make it prohibitively expensive to develop a full range of engines, the 3rd Driving License Directive is about to make anything under 500cc worthless, and as you point out, small bikes are perceived to be for girls (short arses, arse bandits, ...)

That said, maybe the Chinese will pick up the ball if the Japs and Europeans drop it. They're already doing a few in the 230-400cc range.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[MarkJ]

[ms51ves3]

[Ingah]

[Moo.]

But from that.. bike dealer finance post a few weeks back, did that say that 125's and small bikes were the only thing the big four were selling, and the big bikes were hardly selling at all? Hopefully, theres some incentive.
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A2 Passed 18/6/10

[salty21]

unless you have a small penis or like bragging down the pub then a 400 is perfect for road riding. I suppose the only downside to them is motorways but you could easily play with gearing for that.

personally i've never seen the need for 1000cc superbikes for the road apart from bragging rights and a general ego boost.

each to their own i suppose.
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04 NSR 125(sold) ---- 03 CBR 600rr(sold) ----90 pan euro ST1100 '' ----02 CG 125
94 CB400 Super Four ---- 2000 VTR SP1 (sold) ---- 08 ninja p8f(sold, meh) ----05 CBR600rr

[Benson_JV]

[Rogerborg]

That's actually out of date. Wonder of wonders, the EU actually listened, and reduced the requirement for A2 to 400cc+. In practice that means a "500" like the GS500 / GPZ500 / CB500 / ER-5.

But note that training schools will need 600cc+ bikes - so actually "650" as the "600" bikes are slightly under 600cc - for A1 tests. So training schools will need to upgrade their fleets to SV650s or similar (I've seen a local school switching to Hyosung GT650s). Depending on the exact interpretation (still to be seen) they may end up using those 650s to do both A2 and A1 tests rather than running a fleet of both 650s and 500s, so new riders are likely to be training on 650s even for A2.

Now... A2 lets you ride any engine size, generating up to 35kW. Yay, but the GPZ 500, CB500 and ER-5 all generate more than that! The only "500cc" road bike that's slightly under 35kW is the GS500, at 34.3 kW.

Anyway, long story short, if you get an new A2 license, then chances are that you'll be used to a 650 - possibly a full power one - and you'll have to restrict any 500cc+ bike (except the GS500). So after you pass, are you really going to want to get a smaller bike than the one you trained and passed on, and are already used to, and still have to pay to restrict it? I'm not seeing it.

This is just speculation until we see the actual legislation - due any day now - and how training schools react, but however it plays out, the result is going to be to push new riders onto bigger bikes, rather than encourage them to ride smaller ones. Exactly the opposite of what was intended, but that's Brussels for you.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[chris-red]

[Rogerborg]

A late model CBF500 is definitely top of my wanted list when my restriction runs out next year.

It's teeth grindingly disappointing that they've dropped it from the range. The CBF600 won't leave you much change out of £6000, will be more expensive to run and insure, and masses 40kg more.

Thanks, but no thanks, Honda, that's way more bike than I need. Introducing bigger, heavier, more expensive bikes just as the economy started to circle the drain? Nice one! No wonder new bike sales have been plummeting for the past couple of years.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[ThoughtContro...]

[Serendipity]

I’ve done my current commute on a CBR600, RXS100, FireBlade and now a CB500 and the 500 is definitely the best tool for the job.

If I had to cover miles of clear twisty road I’d probably favour the sports bikes, but even then the CB500 isn’t far behind on the open road unless you’re talking nutty speeds. However with my mostly urban journey the faster bikes are wasted (still did four years on the Blade though).

The RXS isn’t a bad alternative and it was useful to have a much lighter bike in the snow and ice, but it just doesn’t have the road presence and speed to keep up with briskly accelerating cars. And I’m not talking supercars here, but getting run off the road by a hormonal Asian woman in a Micra is never good for your self esteem.

I was lucky with my CB500 finding a stupidly low mileage 1995 version. It’s still got less than 10k on the clock and feels like new. The fuel economy is good, but there’s realistic performance there when you need it. You can chuck it about in the corners and the low first gear is great for crawling through the traffic. Best of all, with the thumping twin and a fairly free breathing pipe it feels like a proper bike from a time when men were men and hedges had holes in them.

https://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd227/serendipity_uk/CB500/IMGP7402.jpg

Ignore the garish pink graphics though...
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2016 CBF1000F - Commuter heaven | 1994 CBR600FR - Awaiting defibrillation