Weapons of Traffic Destruction!

[Coldkiwi]

Lots of us commute each day on our bikes (including me) but I'm interested in what people think is the all round BEST bike for getting into/out of town (say Auckland) where you have to do suburban streets, 2-3 lane arterial roads and motorway before getting into the CBD etc. Say a 20-30 minute ride with reasonable levels of lanesplitting.

What have you ridden in the past? How does it measure up in the following criteria? Rate your ride out of 5 on each one you've tried where 1 is pants, 3 is not bad, 5 is 'you little beauty!'

1) How Comfortable? Do you need to stretch or stay active otherways to avoid backpain?
2) How Economic? Do you get 10k/litre (give it a 1) or 20+k per litre? (give it a 5)
3) How good does it stop? Is it like throwing an anchor out or would waving a holed umbrella work better?
4) How good does it go? Plenty of grunt and torque or would it struggle with a rice pudding?
5) How good does it let you avoid others? Is it agile or a barge in disguise?
6) How does it look/sound? Do you get eyed up in town at the lights or is it a dirty dog?
7) How expensive is it to insure? Less than $400/yr (give it a 5) or more than $1400 (that'd be a 1)
8) How much would you rather use something else to commute on? Wouldn't trade it for any bike of any age (5), could think of a few bikes I'd rather use (3), Can't wait to upgrade to almost anything else (1)

[Coldkiwi]

Based on those criteria, I'd rate the GSXR600 as follows:
Comfort: 3 (good seat, woeful position)
Economic: 2
Stop: 5
Go: 4 (needs a bit more torque)
agility: 5 (specially with the supercorsa on the frnt)
looks/sound: 4 (still not italian)
Insurance: 2 ($930/yr)
Dream machine?: 4 (fuel guzzling and backaches take 2nd place to funtimes)

Total: 29/40

[Cajun]

Based on those criteria, I'd rate the GSXR600 as follows:
Comfort: 3 (good seat, woeful position)
Economic: 2
Stop: 5
Go: 4 (needs a bit more torque)
agility: 5 (specially with the supercorsa on the frnt)
looks/sound: 4 (still not italian)
Insurance: 2 ($930/yr)
Dream machine?: 4 (fuel guzzling and backaches take 2nd place to funtimes)

Total: 29/40

Okay i can't say about auckland but i did communt from end of north western to auckland city for one week on my gixxer

Comfort: 4
Economic: 3(it be a 4 compared to the wifes vtr1000f) (fuel light on about 210ish needs gas by 250)
Stop: 5
Go: 4
agility: 5
looks/sound: 4
Insurance: 4(espically since its under my father in laws name who is uyssles member but i am a named rider)
Dream machine?: 5

TOTAL = 34

I do alot of open road communting in tauranga on it, not really motorways but highways so its easy to get thru traffic, and you can at faster speeds, other than that it matches everything above

[James Deuce]

Interesting idea - Have to do this from a Wellington perspective though

Nothing like a thoroughly subjective opinion, but then that's bikers for you.

TRX850:

Comfort: 3 (ave. seat, ave. pos.)
Economic: 3.5 (250-260km on 18lt in commuting traffic)
Stop: 4
Go: 3.5 (plenty of nelly to deal with traffic)
agility: 4
looks/sound: 5 (sounds Italian)
Insurance: 4 ($320/yr)
Dream machine?: 2 (perfect bike for me at the mo, but I rather have a rat bike to commute on.)

Total: 29/40

[vifferman]

1) How Comfortable? Do you need to stretch or stay active otherways to avoid backpain?
VF500: Very comfy, soft seat, good upright posture. 4
VFR750: As above, but lower bars, so 3.
VTR1000: Hard seat, low bars, legs cramped: 2.
Much of comfort comes down to assuming the right posture, and can be worked around, but I had to buy some risers for the FahrtSturm's bars. Later models have higher bars with a different angle.

2) How Economic? Do you get 10k/litre (give it a 1) or 20+k per litre? (give it a 5)
VF500: Reasonable economy. 4-5
VFR750: 40ish mpg. 3
VTR1000: 30 mpg or less. 1

3) How good does it stop? Is it like throwing an anchor out or would waving a holed umbrella work better?
VF500: 3
VFR750: 3
VTR1000: 4-5 (braided lines and a brake rebuild worked wonders).

4) How good does it go? Plenty of grunt and torque or would it struggle with a rice pudding?
VF500: ~52 ponies. Plentynough for commuting. 3
VFR750: ~86 horsies. See above. 4
VTR1000: Too much for commuting. Gets me in trouble. 5

5) How good does it let you avoid others? Is it agile or a barge in disguise?
3 for all. Except that lazy VFR. Give it a 1.

6) How does it look/sound? Do you get eyed up in town at the lights or is it a dirty dog?
VF500: Old, but sounded good (custom cans): 2
VFR750: Classic good looks, but needed an aftermarket can to liberate that V4 roar. 3
VTR: Ugly, but sounds OK. 3

7) How expensive is it to insure? Less than $400/yr (give it a 5) or more than $1400 (that'd be a 1)
5 for the VF, 4 for the others.

8) How much would you rather use something else to commute on? Wouldn't trade it for any bike of any age (5), could think of a few bikes I'd rather use (3), Can't wait to upgrade to almost anything else (1)
I reckon a SuperRetard would be the best commuter, as long as the bars weren't so wide they caught on cars.

Totals: VF500 = 24.5; VFR750 = 20; VTR1000 = 20.5

[vtec]

1990 Honda CBR 250 RR

Comfort: 3 (good seat, not brilliant position but more upright than your 600 cold)
Economic: 4.5 (Depends how I ride but I get about 19km/l)
Stop: 4 (Brakes take ages to work in the wet)
Go: 3 (needs a lot more torque, but if you ride in the right rev range it's fine)
agility: 4.5 (seem to be able to flick it around alright)
looks/sound: 3.5 (sound not important to me but a nicer set of fairing would go down a treat)
Insurance: 2 (I'm just guessing, I don't insure my bike)
Dream machine?: 3 (I think I need an engine at least twice as big)

Total 27.5/40

You forgot to add reliability, so far mines been perfect 5/5

[k14]

For my 91 cbr250rr

Comfort: 2 (bad seat, cramped position)
Economic: 4 (6l per 100kms is pretty good in my books)
Stop: 5
Go: 3 (needs alot more cc's)
agility: 5
looks/sound: 3 (might be better with a racing can)
Insurance: 3 ($340/yr)
Dream machine?: 2 (but my learner dream machine)

Total: 27/40

[Coldkiwi]

interesting reading! Yeah, I reckon its a good idea Jim

Don't forget the total at the end guys.

ps. K14- if you reckon a 12yr old 250 has good brakes, you need to get a post 2000 supersport machine for your 21st! (Happy Bday btw)

[Motoracer]

ps. K14- if you reckon a 12yr old 250 has good brakes, you need to get a post 2000 supersport machine for your 21st! (Happy Bday btw)

Same goes with the difference between K3 600 and K4 600.

I don't commute on my bike so I can't comment.

[MikeL]

I haven't done the sums but I'm pretty happy with my CB-1 for commuting. The XJR is O.K. too - has much better brakes, looks, sound, but not as nimble or cheap to run. A 400 has power enough for city/suburban riding, while the XJR has too much and is much harder to keep at the speed limit.
For day in, day out riding to and from work cheapness and reliability are more important than comfort, performance or looks, but you still want a certain amount of "fun factor" for those occasions when, coming home from work, the spring sunshine makes you want to take the long way home...

[StoneChucker]

R1

1) How Comfortable? Do you need to stretch or stay active otherways to avoid backpain?
4 Gets a little cramped after a long, long ride, but nothing major.

2) How Economic? Do you get 10k/litre (give it a 1) or 20+k per litre? (give it a 5)
3 About 14.5 kms/litre

3) How good does it stop? Is it like throwing an anchor out or would waving a holed umbrella work better?
5 Stops like the clapper, I have to wait for time to catch up with ME.

4) How good does it go? Plenty of grunt and torque or would it struggle with a rice pudding?
3 Plenty of grunt, no issue there, but, it's much happier on the open road

5) How good does it let you avoid others? Is it agile or a barge in disguise?
3 Good agility, but it is a big bike (than say a 250 or 400), so not the best for lane splitting

6) How does it look/sound? Do you get eyed up in town at the lights or is it a dirty dog?
4 Looks the shit, the sound is a little quiet, unless you're at the sprints that is

7) How expensive is it to insure? Less than $400/yr (give it a 5) or more than $1400 (that'd be a 1)
1 $2400 (Used to be about 1600, before the first claim)

8) How much would you rather use something else to commute on? Wouldn't trade it for any bike of any age (5), could think of a few bikes I'd rather use
(3), Can't wait to upgrade to almost anything else (1)
5 I love it, and, well I don't use it to commute, so I'm basing all these answers on the little town riding I do.

28/40

[sAsLEX]

oh and K14 who does your insurance again?? think i still have that form somewhere

[k14]

interesting reading! Yeah, I reckon its a good idea Jim

Don't forget the total at the end guys.

ps. K14- if you reckon a 12yr old 250 has good brakes, you need to get a post 2000 supersport machine for your 21st! (Happy Bday btw)

Yeah thats a pretty good point actually, it does stop fairly well. Although compared to the RS125 i raced on sunday its nothing. I was too scared to use its full braking as I had a sore crutch "region" from the first time I used the brakes at the start of the day. I must "test" one of these "modern sportsbikes" in the very near future. Only 4 months to go till i can get my full

[Hitcher]

1) How Comfortable? 4
2) How Economic? 4
3) How good does it stop? 5
4) How good does it go? 4
5) How good does it let you avoid others? 4
6) How does it look/sound? 4
7) How expensive is it to insure? 3
8) How much would you rather use something else to commute on? 4

31/40

[Motu]

A dirt bike makes an ideal commuter,you sit tall with plenty of visability,stand up to look over the bloody Pajero...

1) comfort? why do you need comfort to comute around the city?,I don't feel like a stretch till after 150km - a dirt bike is made to ride standing up as well as sitting down..so just stand up and stretch,you are still in total control.

2)Economy? you gotta be joking,it's a small single cyl,20km/litre plus.

3)Stop? as good as it's tyres can handle,what more do you need?

4) A single cyl made for gobs of low down grunt,they respond instanly to a stab of the throttle,perfect inner city squirter.

5) Agile?...a dirt bike?...well,yes,there is nothing more agile at the low speeds of commuting traffic.

6)How does it look? fuckin cool mate - sitting at the lights in your MX gear,the little boys eyes light up,you just know what they are telling Mum they want for Xmas...the teenage girls?...well,let's just say I've seen that before look before.

7)Insurance? I've never insured a bike in my life ...WTF for?

8) A motard would be a better comuter than a dirt bike,but we are talking almost the same thing eh?