ZX-2R -> ZX-12R, something of a step-up

[R-Soul]

So I ride a ZX2R, also known as a ZXR250. It's my first bike and I ride it everyday, I really like it.

Last night a friend let me ride his ZX-12R around a parking lot, it's the first time I've ever ridden a bike with more than 250cc... HOLY SHIT

I didn't get out of 2nd gear and didn't go over 50km/h but the 3mm of throttle travel I applied brought me up to speed far faster than my bike ever could.

The freakin' speedo goes up to 340km/h, even going 100km/h would look like you're not even starting to move.

How do you psychos with big bikes manage to keep them at road-legal speeds?

Still, I've had a shit-eating grin on my face all day today.

Do you now understand how easy it is to pass a car? Its so effortless its almost disdainful. which is why you get overconfident and pass cars at stupid times, and cant get back into your lane because your riding ability has not grown with your bikes power...

The self control is ridiculously important.

[Grasshopperus]

This is how it starts, mate invites to to ride big bike, your little 250 feels crap, and all you can think of when riding it is how blown away you were by the effortless torque of the big bike. Soon you are browsing through the trademe - then its buy now and you have a torque monster in your garage.

I sense a kindred spirit, happened to you too eh? I'm perilously close to my full license too...

Do you now understand how easy it is to pass a car? Its so effortless its almost disdainful. which is why you get overconfident and pass cars at stupid times, and cant get back into your lane because your riding ability has not grown with your bikes power...

The self control is ridiculously important.

Understood, good advice

[madbikeboy]

Don't EVER take it on a track day, cause you will be completely ruined. Riding on the road becomes very padestrian, you don't want to speed because whats the point when you have done well over 200 clicks on the track? So you plod along at 103.9 while dreaming of the next track day.

It's worse than that. It's like being addicted to crack, waiting for the next hit. I have a litre GSXR. I have a 600 track bike. I'm addicted in the worst way. Bungy jumping is naff. Base jumping is kind of neat the first few times. Racing a jet boat. Racing a car. Parachuting (yawn). Nothing beats the sensation of full throttle on a good litre bike, wheelstands out of corners, smearing rubber on the exits, full lean with the rear starting to spin up.

This is the curse/gift that we are afflicted with. As we move up, each step lessens with the law of diminishing returns until the numbers on the speedo becomes academic. But, like Icarus crashing to earth, our soaring can be tragically Darwinian. Large displacement bikes ride like pussycats, it's only when you start to ride them harder and they spank back that you see the reality for what it is.

Track days are addictive, and riding on the road becomes passe - then racing, then...

Enjoy the passage of time and journey through the steps - PM me to have a ride on a race prepared 600 for an incredible visceral thrill. A litre is well beyond that even...

[tig99]

With the power comes cost, tyres petrol speeding fines. But soooo much fun. Try a 750, enough power less weight. Big bikes stops you getting old.

[Madmax]

tyres
some times 100km feels so slow you have a urge to get off and have a walk

[Blinkwing]

tyres
some times 100km feels so slow you have a urge to get off and have a walk

Yeah, driving on the autobahn in Germany at speeds of up to 300km/hr ... it's funny how slow 100km/hr seems. When my friends & I slowed down to 100km/hr, we thought we were going at speeds of 40/50. Huge shock when we looked at the speedo. "Wow, 100km/hr is slow!"

[Rhys]

Do you now understand how easy it is to pass a car? Its so effortless its almost disdainful. which is why you get overconfident and pass cars at stupid times, and cant get back into your lane because your riding ability has not grown with your bikes power...

The self control is ridiculously important.

I rember that lesson well, still have f**ked body to prove it!

[DarkLord]

true about the license losing part... I got snapped doing 123 the other day and got 35 demerits and a $170 fine...

kinda glad they didn't catch me on some of my runs around the lake... at the speeds I was doing I'd have been walking home :P