Which Motorcycle?

PittSpeed Automotive PittSpeed Off Topic
1

Need to pick a new toy. Had a 2006 R1, a few mods. It was fairly easy to pick a bike back then, now with prices being semi close, and most of them being decent looking I can’t decide what to get.

I’ve managed to narrow it down to four options…

#1 My roomate has the same bike that I had, he’s trying to sell his. Its a 06 R1(raven) with 2k miles on it. BONE STOCK, he never rides it. So I could start from scratch, put my pcIII on, K&N, exhaust, basically have my bike back for around $7,000.

#2 White Ducati 1198. The bike looks, sounds amazing. Keeps its value fairly well. I couldn’t imagine how fun it would be to ride a bike with that kind of torque. Only issue here is, insurance price, and tagged at $16,500…

#3 2010 R1… I dont really care much for the stock styling, but with a few mods I guess it could grow on me. Heard one run and it sounded pretty sick. But the price is $13,300. And I am NOT a fan of the fly-by-wire throttle or all the other electronic BS. I just dont like how it feels on my friends R6.

#4 09/10 hayabusa… big, heavy, fast. Comfortable I’ve heard. I’ve always liked them since I was a kid, but dont know if I’ll still have the kind of fun on it like a sport bike. I can snag a 09 new black one for around $10,500.

I dont really plan on taking any of them to the track (except 1/4 mile run for fun). I mainly take weekend rides in the seven springs area, and WV for some decent twisties.

I would probably be happy with any of these choices, just looking for some opinions. What would you do in this situation?

2

You could buy mine- has the serious torque in the whole RPM range, sounds sweet, and gets the looks from both cruisers and sport bikers.

Click

3

go with the bike your familar with for past few years. Newer bikes are getting uglier and more EPA shit on them.

the Ducs have always been over priced, over maintenance and lack of performance…sorta like italian women

busa…really big heavy sled, great for over country rides. not good for tight fast twisties.

4

overpriced? if you mean paying for a hand built bike that maybe is owned by 25,000 other ppl in the world is overpriced then sure. i would take a ducati over some run of the mill suzuki or yamaha any day

5

Ill take my honda over the elite group of duc owners for what most ppl use them for.

6

Each of those bikes are powerful enough, and handle plenty well enough to be unsafe on the street if you are tempted to push them. Maybe I’m getting older, but I would sacrifice shitty riding position for comfort any day. I’ve ridden plenty of bikes and their all great fun, but it seems that on an I4 get ya going 80mph+ before your in a juicy power band. I love triple and v twin nut down low.

7

get a scooooooooooooooooootere

8

x2

Ducatis are sweet, but the maintenance sucks on them. If you do your own work, then you won’t have to pay for it, but I understand a valve adjustment (which they need somewhat regularly) is a many hour job.

You can’t beat a Japanese sport bike for reliabilty.

Lee’s Triumph is a sweet machine. I’ve ridden Travis’ (vtecsol) Street Triple & had a blast. I would only imagine the Speed Triple would be even better.

9

get an R1

10

i hated the ducati 848 on the test ride i took , that bike should stay on the track, i am assuming that the 1148 will be the same, suspension like bricks, i have ridden a few busa’s and they are comfy but i dont like the way they handle, but thats just me, jap sport bikes are reliable, thats why everybody buys them, that is an unreal price on the the speed triple, and other than the busa it has the most power, but i am biased, the triumphs you either love them or hate them

11

http://static.blogo.it/twowheelsblog/condomBike.jpg

12

:wackit:

13

170 hp to the wheels…i gotta go with the 09 busa!!

14

Hayabusa. Just because I love the way they look.

15

New vmax has 200 whp :smiley:

16

They had one at bike night at QS on 51S, and it even sounded like such a beast. Like my speed triple, though, it’s a love/hate thing. It is so ugly and unique to me that I friggen love it.
If I wanted to stay in the “I’m gonna kill myself” market instead of trying to steer over to the cruiser stuff now, I’d seriously look at the vmax.
But my heart is always with the euro bikes. I hate having what everyone else has, reliable or not.

17

Agreed 100%. I wanna ride a new vmax sometime. I tried at J-Town, but it was booked up.

18

isn’t the '10 R1 the engine with the new cross-plane crank? Thing is supposed to have the mid-range of a v-twin with the top end of a normal I4. That’s my vote, but I haven’t actually ridden the bike.

19

Sorry I haven’t responded to my own thread, been tied up.

I’m going to have to pass on that triple, it just doesn’t do it for me. I’ve decided to try and wait it out till march before I pick one. So far there hasn’t been much release info on the 2010 busa, or ducati. The 2010 R1 will stay the same as the 09 which supposedly kicks ass and they will have the color choices I like better.

I think Im going to rule the ducati out just because of the price. I can’t justify throwing down that much at this point in time, although that is the bike I would get if money were no object.

One other bike I somehow forgot that I love is the RC51. I think Im going to look deeper into finding a nice used one for a decent price before I jump into a new bike with a 11k(and up) price tag. Also my roomate said he would take $6500 for his R1, which is going to be tough to say no to, but I think that will be my last resort. I loved my R1, but this seems to be a opportunity for me to try upgrade/try something new. The R1 didn’t seem to have any low end grunt, and high speed runs doesn’t do it for me, I love twisties, the R1 loved open road.

Thanks for the input, I’ll post up what I end up doing. I’m going to try my best to hold off on any impulse buy. I would like to save some cash up over the winter instead of picking up a bike payment and buying mods for it.

20

RC51 is a hell of a machine.