BigDave2040
New member
This post is going to be a little bit vague, but bear with me!
I've been on the look for "the perfect bike" for a few years now, and I feel like I'm getting closer, but not quite there yet! My first was a 2007 R6, which I enjoyed a lot but ended up trading in for a 2008 CBR1000RR. That was pretty unnecessarily fast, and after a few tickets I decided that wasn't really the right thing for me. Since I generally liked the "feel" of the R6 more than the CBR, I decided to go back to Yamaha and pick up a 2012 FZ6R, thinking that it would be a pretty great bike for just getting around town, and it is! Smooth ride, feels very maneuverable, no major complaints. However... it's really lacking in power sometimes, especially when I've got a passenger or doing some highway riding (or both).
So... I saw what I considered to be a great deal on a 2010 VFR1200F and jumped on it. After a couple of weeks, I'm pretty disappointed with it. It's got a ton of power for smooth highway riding, and it definitely looks killer, but it just doesn't feel great at all at lower speeds around town (i.e. 30-40 mph) which is most of the riding I do. It's got a lot of vibration, and kind of rumbles like it's a rocket ship about to take off when cruising at lower speeds. It also makes a fan noise not totally unlike a starship entering warp speed once it gets around 3,000 RPM. My clutch hand ends up just being kind of tired from having to cruise with a disengaged clutch all the time, or deal with the noise and vibration and jumpiness from cruising a speed the engine clearly doesn't want to be going at.
Does this problem make sense? I don't know how best to describe it, but it's a little similar to my old CBR in that it just doesn't feel very pleasant to ride around at the speeds I actually travel at in civilized society.
I'd like something like my FZ6R, that has a smooth and generally painless ride at low speeds and doesn't necessarily make me feel like I *need* to be going faster to enjoy my bike, but also has enough power that I don't feel crippled on the highway and can have a little fun when I want to. I do not need to feel like I'm strapped to a jet engine *all the time*.
It sucks that test rides are so uncommon in the world of motorcycling and that I have to ask on a forum instead of being able to try them out for myself, but... Do you all think that the FZ8 or FZ1 would give me what I'm looking for, in terms of a smooth ride with the *option* of more power? I'm not huge into wheelies or riding too hard, but I'd like to at least break 100hp. Again, I've been pretty happy with my two Yamahas and generally not as happy with my Hondas. I've also heard good things about the Ninja 1000.
Again, sorry that I'm being kind of vague, but I feel like in the absence of an environment where I can try out a few different kinds of bikes, I don't have a lot of options but to try to explain my problem and hope somebody can relate!
I've cross-posted this same question on the FZ1 forum; I'm definitely interested in both bikes.
I've been on the look for "the perfect bike" for a few years now, and I feel like I'm getting closer, but not quite there yet! My first was a 2007 R6, which I enjoyed a lot but ended up trading in for a 2008 CBR1000RR. That was pretty unnecessarily fast, and after a few tickets I decided that wasn't really the right thing for me. Since I generally liked the "feel" of the R6 more than the CBR, I decided to go back to Yamaha and pick up a 2012 FZ6R, thinking that it would be a pretty great bike for just getting around town, and it is! Smooth ride, feels very maneuverable, no major complaints. However... it's really lacking in power sometimes, especially when I've got a passenger or doing some highway riding (or both).
So... I saw what I considered to be a great deal on a 2010 VFR1200F and jumped on it. After a couple of weeks, I'm pretty disappointed with it. It's got a ton of power for smooth highway riding, and it definitely looks killer, but it just doesn't feel great at all at lower speeds around town (i.e. 30-40 mph) which is most of the riding I do. It's got a lot of vibration, and kind of rumbles like it's a rocket ship about to take off when cruising at lower speeds. It also makes a fan noise not totally unlike a starship entering warp speed once it gets around 3,000 RPM. My clutch hand ends up just being kind of tired from having to cruise with a disengaged clutch all the time, or deal with the noise and vibration and jumpiness from cruising a speed the engine clearly doesn't want to be going at.
Does this problem make sense? I don't know how best to describe it, but it's a little similar to my old CBR in that it just doesn't feel very pleasant to ride around at the speeds I actually travel at in civilized society.
I'd like something like my FZ6R, that has a smooth and generally painless ride at low speeds and doesn't necessarily make me feel like I *need* to be going faster to enjoy my bike, but also has enough power that I don't feel crippled on the highway and can have a little fun when I want to. I do not need to feel like I'm strapped to a jet engine *all the time*.
It sucks that test rides are so uncommon in the world of motorcycling and that I have to ask on a forum instead of being able to try them out for myself, but... Do you all think that the FZ8 or FZ1 would give me what I'm looking for, in terms of a smooth ride with the *option* of more power? I'm not huge into wheelies or riding too hard, but I'd like to at least break 100hp. Again, I've been pretty happy with my two Yamahas and generally not as happy with my Hondas. I've also heard good things about the Ninja 1000.
Again, sorry that I'm being kind of vague, but I feel like in the absence of an environment where I can try out a few different kinds of bikes, I don't have a lot of options but to try to explain my problem and hope somebody can relate!
I've cross-posted this same question on the FZ1 forum; I'm definitely interested in both bikes.
