Motorcycles

[orionz06]

To those doing trips on the Monster, any long ride issues? If I had boat loads of money I'd have 3-4 bikes but one will have to do. I have been looking for 5 years and have finally narrowed it down to a few of an almost similar type. I am not gonna get a bike suited for less than 5% of my riding and I am not a 65 year old man with back problems.

[JFK]

To those doing trips on the Monster, any long ride issues? If I had boat loads of money I'd have 3-4 bikes but one will have to do. I have been looking for 5 years and have finally narrowed it down to a few of an almost similar type. I am not gonna get a bike suited for less than 5% of my riding and I am not a 65 year old man with back problems.

At a few hours the stock seat gets a little unpleasant. There are aftermarket, or even Ducati options for better distance seats. I try to stop every two hours or so anyway. I don't subscribe to the Iron Butt crowd. The most I have done in one day is 600. 400 is acceptable and not too bad.

[orionz06]

So it sounds like no big deal. I can ride a road bicycle for 5-6 hours without much issue, I imagine not pedaling and a padded seat not wedged in my ass would be marginally better.

[RoyGBiv]

So it sounds like no big deal. I can ride a road bicycle for 5-6 hours without much issue, I imagine not pedaling and a padded seat not wedged in my ass would be marginally better.

You might be surprised how much of an individual thing a seat fit can be. I could ride my Beemer all day, it was a comfy as a car seat, maybe more so. My ZZR seat hits the back of my legs in a way that I have to stop every 2 hours and stretch. More than 300-400 miles in a day is painful. I'm still looking for the right seat, might have to go custom, or switch bikes.

[Dan_S]

So it sounds like no big deal. I can ride a road bicycle for 5-6 hours without much issue, I imagine not pedaling and a padded seat not wedged in my ass would be marginally better.

Kinda an apples to oranges sort of comparison there...

[Frank R]

If you want dependability, buy a Yamaha.

[Dan_S]

If you want dependability, buy a Yamaha.

An interesting assessment of rather sweeping proportions, so I'd be quite curious as to the reasons behind the statement, rather than a somewhat vague "only Yamaha bikes are good for anything..."

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I ride a Moto Guzzi Griso myself...









They sound amazing with a Mistral CF can on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua33dTj6ET0

Not sure if you're a member over at SouthNarc's forum...there's a huge long thread there in which I took that bike from Vancouver down to LA, Vegas, and, quixotically and on a totally foolish spur-of-the-moment decision, Edmonton, which obviously is very, very far from the Mojave.

Anyway, when I bought it I was looking for something very cool, very fun, moderately quick but with more torque than HP, and with a riding position comfortable enough that I could put five thousand miles on it in a couple of weeks if I wanted (which I did).

If you like I could send you the link to what is basically the same thread, only on a public, motorcycle forum. Anyway the Guzzi is not necessarily the be-all end-all but it is very, very, very fun to ride, and everywhere I go, it's like a dual function magnet: chicks and motorcyclists just flock to it.

I could talk bikes literally all day. I really wish I noticed this thread earlier.

[Frank R]

An interesting assessment of rather sweeping proportions, so I'd be quite curious as to the reasons behind the statement, rather than a somewhat vague "only Yamaha bikes are good for anything..."

Your reading comrehension seems to be failing you. I don't recall saying only Yamaha is good for anything. Of course it's late so maybe that's your excuse.

Maybe in the morning you could look facts pertaining to motorcycle dependability. Or maybe not.

[Dan_S]

Water-Man,

I didn't mean any offense by what I posted - in fact, I'm still curious as to why you said what you did.

From my understanding (which isn't based on internet studies, but rather from a combined 50 years or so of working on bikes between a couple guys I know quite well,) Yamaha, while good, certainly isn't something that is significantly better than a Kawasaki or Suzuki.

I guess what I was really wanting was to hear your personal experiences, rather than to be told to go look stuff up on the internet. I don't need to look stuff up on the internet, because I know guys that spend their lives actually fixing bikes.

No hard feelings on my end here - and I still would really like to hear what you've experienced personally that leads you to make such a blanket statement.