Originally Posted by skelstar
I've ridden my friends SV1000 a TL1000 and an R1 plus taken a GSXR1000 K5 for a demo in the last year. As mentioned in my review, you need to know your bike real well to push it hard, no matter what it is. With the above bikes I've ridden in the last year, I did not know them well enough to push them hard and was reluctant to do so, as the riding position is foreign to me after riding the 1400 for 22,000 kms.
At the risk of sounding like an arse, it is quite easy to check a riders ability by looking at their tyres. On anything above a 600, they are a hard rider if they have no chicken strips on the rear. They are more than a hard rider if they have no chicken strips on the front as well. Ground clearance issues play a part here, but if a litre class sports bike has no strips front and rear you can bet the rider knows his bike and pushs the envelope to the limit.
I stand open to be corrected here but I am sure others will verify this.
My friend on his R1 is one of very few people I know who has no strips front and rear. I mention this, as 95% of the time I can stay with him on the 1400 but I have to hang off the bike to do it. When I ride like this, I am on the limit of my machine and believe me, I know it's the limit for the bike. Me. I would like to push even further if I could so are looking at solving the ground clearance issues, which aren't actually too bad for this bike.
When I was younger (I'm nearly 50 now) I rode an RD350 which in my day was the fastest bike you could buy, none of my friends could stay with me in the corners. BUT, that was well over 25 years ago and it's been that long since I was on a bike prior to buying the 1400 last year.
Not sure if this helps Skelstar. Maybe I would kill myself on a full blown sportsbike and I kinda want to be around for a lot longer.
What I like about the 1400, is when you lay down the power out of a corner, the bike hunkers down and shoots away without the rear stepping out which happens too easily on high horse power sports bikes and in the case of hard road riding, lower horsepower and more torque, has it's advantages.
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