I'm Leaving

[Jamz]

Hmm.

Raised bars are for 'comfort' - not handling.

If raised bars made for better handling you wouldn't see every single sports and race bike with drop bars.

clip-ons are where they are because it's more aerodynamic to have the riders body in that position, very little to do with handling.

That's an advantage, yes - but if that were the whole story you'd see the BSB teams at Mallory and places like that with raised bars. Or if it was any sort of advantage they'd simply put a bigger screen on.

Buells have the higher cornering speed simply because of the low down weight - oil in the swingarm, fuel in the frame, and funky brake disks on the outsides of the wheel rims.

First bike I ever got my knee down on was a VFR750 streetfighter with raised bars, and owning two since then in stock trim I'd say it didn't handle better but the steering felt much looser and twitchy. When I got off that back onto my ZXR400 it felt like I was holding the front spindle in my hands, and I could go kneedown on any corner at any speed.

Raised bars may help (and correct me if I'm wrong) with cornering where you actually have to turn the bars in the direction you want to go, but as far as counter-steering is concerned drop bars are much better.

[Xphyral]

you'd need a lot more fairing than a bigger screen to cover a dude sat upright with wide bars, and thats a lot more weight. And a bigger screen also isnt as aerodynamic.

looser and twitchy is the result of a larger amount of leverage on the bars and wide bars are easier to counter-steer needing a lot less input to get the same result, the added bonus is you get more in the way of low speed manoueverability with bars that dont cause your wrists to foul the tank or upright moto-x bars. You never turn the wheel into the corner your heading for at any speed above a walking pace.

havent we had this bar discussion previously though?

[jake]

"The handling is no better than any other naked bike, it has black round things and wide bars. If you want to talk "real" roads then many many bikes are more stable than the zxr400. But then again, there wasn't a largely discernable difference between the two bikes other than you dont get your thumbs trapped when on full lock with the buell."

that to me is sounding like you have prob with getting your thumbs caught on full lock with the zxr? correct me if im wrong

"As for your trapped thumbs on the zxr, drill your lockstops and put bolts thru them before you have a tankslaping moment that hurts dude"

very helpfull advice there from experience. I dont care if you take it or not now to be honest, was just trying to be helpfull.

"why would you have your thumbs trapped at tankslapper speeds.. honestly that's got to be the stupidest comment i've read yet"

I dont beleive you have ever had a tankslapper on a zxr, or probs any other bike for that matter for you to come back at me with a comment like that. Why do you think the acu tell you to do as i said with the lockstops on racebikes?? have a guess. And you dont need to be going real fast to have a tankslapper before you start with that.

do you work for MCN incidentally?
ride on

[mongo]

Ladies, ladies, quit all this bickering, its up to you what you want your bike to do at the feedback you get from it.

I mean just take serge nuques for example:



What a legend

[Xphyral]

"The handling is no better than any other naked bike, it has black round things and wide bars. If you want to talk "real" roads then many many bikes are more stable than the zxr400. But then again, there wasn't a largely discernable difference between the two bikes other than you dont get your thumbs trapped when on full lock with the buell."

that to me is sounding like you have prob with getting your thumbs caught on full lock with the zxr? correct me if im wrong

"As for your trapped thumbs on the zxr, drill your lockstops and put bolts thru them before you have a tankslaping moment that hurts dude"

very helpfull advice there from experience. I dont care if you take it or not now to be honest, was just trying to be helpfull.

"why would you have your thumbs trapped at tankslapper speeds.. honestly that's got to be the stupidest comment i've read yet"

I dont beleive you have ever had a tankslapper on a zxr, or probs any other bike for that matter for you to come back at me with a comment like that. Why do you think the acu tell you to do as i said with the lockstops on racebikes?? have a guess. And you dont need to be going real fast to have a tankslapper before you start with that.

do you work for MCN incidentally?
ride on

re-reading my reply, i'd like to apologise i was thinking speedwobble when i read tankslapper and thought you were just being stupid. I've never had a tankslapper on the 400, i've had two on the 750 and amazingly it never once occured to me to notice whether my thumbs were getting trapped or not. How much would modifying the lockstops affect the turning circle on the zxr, it's still gotta be ridden on the road and i'd still like to be able to pull a decent u-turn now and again.

[Jamz]

Actually the only major tankslapper I've had was on my ZXR400!

I pulled out to overtake a car and think a catseye must have popped the wheel up just enough. It was a full-on scary jobby, but stayed straight and I just rode through it.

On full lock my thumbs were fine - unless I had the Oxford magnetic tank bag on - then it would catch my thumbs.

Unless you've got really fat thumbs, I don't think it should trap them with the lock-stops as standard.

[rene]

should try riding a TL can honestly say i havent had a ride yet were i havent had one big tank slap, really need to get a damper sorted but at the moment it just adds to the fun

[masterofinsanity]

keep bidding on dampers for mine, need to get one.

[jake]

"The handling is no better than any other naked bike, it has black round things and wide bars. If you want to talk "real" roads then many many bikes are more stable than the zxr400. But then again, there wasn't a largely discernable difference between the two bikes other than you dont get your thumbs trapped when on full lock with the buell."

that to me is sounding like you have prob with getting your thumbs caught on full lock with the zxr? correct me if im wrong

"As for your trapped thumbs on the zxr, drill your lockstops and put bolts thru them before you have a tankslaping moment that hurts dude"

very helpfull advice there from experience. I dont care if you take it or not now to be honest, was just trying to be helpfull.

"why would you have your thumbs trapped at tankslapper speeds.. honestly that's got to be the stupidest comment i've read yet"

I dont beleive you have ever had a tankslapper on a zxr, or probs any other bike for that matter for you to come back at me with a comment like that. Why do you think the acu tell you to do as i said with the lockstops on racebikes?? have a guess. And you dont need to be going real fast to have a tankslapper before you start with that.

do you work for MCN incidentally?
ride on

re-reading my reply, i'd like to apologise i was thinking speedwobble when i read tankslapper and thought you were just being stupid. I've never had a tankslapper on the 400, i've had two on the 750 and amazingly it never once occured to me to notice whether my thumbs were getting trapped or not. How much would modifying the lockstops affect the turning circle on the zxr, it's still gotta be ridden on the road and i'd still like to be able to pull a decent u-turn now and again.

aye no probs dude... i was in a grump yesterday after work!
To be honest, it does f*ck yr turning circle up. Ive got a road L that i got for bits, and that was real close to the tank when on full lock, like 35,40mm...
On my h racebike, ive made that gap about 100mm, so it eliminates any chance of trapping yr hands...but then aint no way its gonna do a u turn. If i ever get a road zxr sorted, ill probs shorten the steering lock a wee bit, but only cos ive got spade hands.
anyhow..... peace and love bro

[Vard66]

That's an INSANE angle! Makes me feel ill looking at it... I suppose, him being more upright, it puts better weight on the tyre though, which can only help hold traction...

[superman]

i bet he has a new pair of boots every day lol

[Scott221]

Surley he didn't save that.

[mongo]

Surley he didn't save that.

He certainly did, its teh way he rides, hes a yamaha super moto rider and natural born nutter, its just applying motard riding to superbikes lol, it must of felt mighty strange....