Anyone here commute on something wholly inappropriate?

[gorillaonabik...]

I used to purely ride sports bikes. Everything - and I mean commuting, touring, going to the supermarket, picking up the girlfriend / wife, transporting unfeasibly inappropriate pieces of furniture - you name it and I did it on a sports bike. Hell, I even rode around on a blade with the remnants of a broken leg.

However, these days I am more 'practical.' I have a CB1300 which is great for commuting, a 21 litre tank is kinda handy but long motorway miles are annoying as I only have a bikini. Also, the lack of top end gets irritating after a while and I need a little more grunt.

So I was thinking a ZZR1400 would sort out the motorway blues but then again, is it practical to commute on one of them? What is your experience of daily commuting through London traffic on something stupidly inappropriate? Is it as painful as it looks or is it reasonably appropriate?
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FZR400 (blown engine), ZXR750 (blown engine), ZX6R (accident), CBR600 which had engine issues after which I learned to change gear..., CBR900, CBR924 (stolen), CB600, CB1300 (everything blew up), BMW K1300GT (written off, hit from rear while stationary), Bandit 1250 for a couple of months, Triumph Sprint ST 1050 (nicked) and somewhere in there, I wrote off a Ducati 748 at Cadwell.

[SQL]

[chickenstrip]

Happy tackling city traffic on my FZS1000. Bit more poke than a CB1300 too. FZ1 might be even better.

[1198]

A chum of mine commutes all year roundon a Ducati 848 Evo Corse thing. Lovely thing it is too.

[_Troy_]

I commute on a ZX6R, but it's an old one, so not really that extreme. As of today the GFs dad commutes on his '14 R1.
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Current bike: ZX6R J1
Previous bikes: CLR 125 | GS500 | ZX6R G2 | SV650

[P.addy]

I've commuted on...

Masai DB125H '08
Yamaha TT600R SM '02
Honda CBR600RR '03
Yamaha R1 '01
Honda Varadero 125 '07
Suzuki TL1000S '97
Skyteam Gorilla YX140 '06
Kawasaki ZXR750/9R '92
Kawasaki ER5 '02
Honda Blackbird '00
KTM 200 EXC '99

Bold ones being the worst of the lot Motorway commute and into London.

[27cows]

I commute approx. 20,000 miles a year on an RXS100. Which is a commuter bike and entirely suited to this kind of usage, while costing the most ridiculous pittance to run and still beating more or less anything through serious congestion.

So...no
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The RXS100: vehicle of choice for Chuck Norris

[sabian92]

[Sable]

Regularly doing 50 ish miles a day commuting up the a1m, round the m25 and up the m40 on my sinnis trackstar. Generally just sit in the left lane and travel at truck speeds.

Opposite end of the spectrum, but often seems wholesomely inappropriate

[P.addy]

[Shaft]

Not so much commuting, but when I was a London based DR, back in the 80s, there was a bit of a thing for using bikes that wouldn't normally be top of the list.

The most popular fleet bikes would be Super Dreams or RS250s (Datapost had hundreds of those, all bright red with Rickman fairings and hard luggage sets) while owner riders usually went for something a bit bigger, CX500s, GS550s, that kind of thing.

Some of us got bored with that stuff and went with whatever came along at the right price and we fancied riding; I myself variously pedalled such lightweight chuckables as a Z1300, XS1100S and a CBX1000, while I regularly saw a guy on a full dresser Gold Wing (complete with 'Delta' stickers) and an old buffer on a BSA Rocket 3, with cardboard, perspex and chequer plate weather protection.

I think the bloke that made me really raise my eyebrows, was the fella that pulled up next to me on a slabside GSXR1100, topbox bungeed to the tailpiece, about a week after they were launched.
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Things get better with age; I'm close to being magnificent........
20 RE Interceptor, 83 Z1100A3, 83 GS650 Katana
WooHoo, I'm a Man Point Millionaire! https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=234035

[slowlydoesit]

[map]

For a while I had to borrow my daughter's Vespa lx50. I kept the L plates on it.
That was fun on nsl roads.
Plus when the highways agency wobble tried to direct me onto a motorway because an accident had closed the road (the idiotic moron, not that I bear a grudge).
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[P.addy]

[map]

[Whosthedaddy]

I commute 20 miles a day on the 125 monkeybike
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Current : MSX 125 Past : CBR 900RR Monkeybike : c50 LAC : ZXR750 H2 : FZR600 : ZX7R P3 : YW100 : TRX850: Trophy 900 T309 : GSXR 600 L0: Monkeybike : XJ6S Whosthedaddy

[Ariel Badger]

I used a 1930 hand change Ariel 500 as regular transport up to about 2008.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[Wonko The Sane]

[deadwolf]

Anything is possible. What with bikes already being one heckuva illogical choice of transportation, why not go all the way and ride something even more out of the ordinary? I've long suspected that most bikes are surprisingly capable when forced to perform outside their area of specialisation.



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Motorsapien Art

[gorillaonabik...]

[wr6133]

[c_dug]

I commuted on my tdr250 for a couple of months, it wasn't really up to the task to be honest. Only 10 miles each way too.

Sports bikes make very good city filteres to be honest, but I've found that for the most part it's the rider not the bike that makes the difference. I've said in the past that on the same commute through London my cbr was a far easier ride, but not actually much quicker at all than my divvy is.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[P.addy]

[grant965]

Tl1000R ?
Actually really good commuting on, not as wide as you think and loud enough to get you noticed so some mong doesn't pull out in front of you
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Ex bikes: 05 Suzuki En 125, '98 Yamaha Thundercat, '08 Honda cbr125, '05 Kawasaki z750, '03 Triumph Daytona 600, '91 Kawasaki ex250, '03 Hyosung Comet 125
Current Bike: '02 Suzuki TL1000R

[chickenstrip]

I commuted up the M11 on an RG500 for a while, with a kit bag strapped on the back. Not the greatest idea I've ever had.