I live in Seattle WA, and much to my SWMBO's annoyance, I insist on riding year around. I started out riding a Ninja 250R for a year (7000 miles) miles, and then got a RF900R (4000 miles). Now I've had the GS500E for 2 months (2500 miles).
THE GOOD:
- Lightwieght, with good handling.
- Decent 0-60 power for one-upping.
- Reliable motor that is easy to maintain.
- Will smoke a 12K Honda RC51 in the tight twisty stuff, as demonstrated this weekend :)
- Excellent commuter.
- Very impressive stopping power (esp, with some EBC pads... even if they do sqeal a little.)
- awesome seating position.
THE BAD:
- Mutilates my SWMBO's backside after 40 miles.
- Jetting lean from the factory, Took alot of fiddling to get is dialed in 40 pilots, shim up one of the jet needle, carb sync, and I still have a slight flat spot at 1/4-1/2 throttle opening.
- Stock Exedra's are probably the worst tires I have ever ridden on. Replaceing them with BT45's solved alot of problems.
- Bike doesnt have freeway legs.
- Front suspension sucks... my progressive are in the mail :)
- Frame componentry is of cheap build quality. My centerstand, kickstand, are rusting some, and my frame bolts have surface rust on them.
- You have to be an acrobat, and ambidexterous to adjust the rear preload... where is houdini when you need him.
- Getting on the throttle hard are freeway speeds lightens up the front end cuasing a little bit of slight wobblies.
I really like the bike though. I think its a keeper, I just need to get the seating comfort issues sorted out, along with the flat spot in the carbueration, and a small flyscreen to help with the wind.
-Nathan
SWMBO?
Quote from: zoltanSWMBO?
thats what i thought too ???
Actually if your bike in 70+ degree weather out in the direct sunlight for most of the day, it wont take that long for the bike to warm up, out here in 75 degree weather in direct sun, not in the shade, but sun the bike seat gets warm, the engine is warm to the touch so that means its at least 80 degrees or more on the inside of engine. Bike warms up in minutes ready to go.
Quote from: zoltanSWMBO?
is that "Significant, Whineing, Moaning, Bitching Other"? (the oppisite of my wife :thumb: )
Wow, thats wayyy to complicated. Who thought that one up?
It's "she who must be obeyed", coined by Sir Henry Rider Haggard in the novel "She" in 1886, and made popular by Leo McKern's title role on the English sitcom "Rumpole of the Bailey" through the 80's.
But seriously, 6 minutes to warm-up at 70 degrees? That seems excessive. I use the choke to start, give it about 30 seconds (time enough to don the helmet and gloves) then ride through the parking lot slowly in 1st gear (about 3k RPM). It takes another 30 seconds to get out of the parking lot, and by then it will run fine with the choke off (meaning, it won't kill when I clutch at a stop sign).
:? hmmm, mines ready to roll in around a minute. sometimes less :dunno:
I just start it up, get on my gear (jacket/gloves/helmet), and ride it for bout 2-3 minutes. Works everytime.
I was waiting to see if my bike was the strange one. Guess not. It has no warmup problems. I set the choke and start it. Adjust RPM to 1,500-2,000 using the choke. Put on helmet and gloves, and readjust choke to same PRM as it picks up speed. Then get aboard and ride off. After several miles I push the choke completely off. This seems to work well from 50 degrees on up. No sputtering. :)
I ride mine all year round. Even in freezing temperatures it takes only about 30 sec with full choke before she accepts throttle if applied in moderation, that's when I take off. I have to run her for a few kms though, before she's happy in idle without choke.
i guess i don't ride with the choke on at all. if i did that i'm sure it'd take less warmup time. i guess i just assumed it wasn't that good for the bike. but i'll start riding with the choke on a little from now on.
I think the ideal is to let it warm-up at 3k RPM until you can turn the choke off without killing. Then you're good to go. But I'm guessing that the most important thing is to not load the engine (acceleration) or rev it too high. I suspect that tooling through a parking lot at 3500 RPMs in 1st gear is not applying much load. If you, a fractional-horsepower machine, can pedal a bicycle through the parking lot at 14mph then it can't be much work for a 30hp engine. It's probably not too much harder on the engine than no load at all.
That said, I'd suggest not dumping the clutch ;) , and keeping RPMs below 4k RPM. I find that I can turn off the choke completely without stalling at the stop-sign 2 blocks from my house, so that's maybe 30 seconds of idling warmup, then 30 seconds of slow "rolling warmup" at 3500 RPM, before I'm off to ride in street traffic.
But I do try to avoid hopping on the freeway until I've ridden for several minutes. I figure that riding freeway speeds as soon as it's warm, would probably be harder on the bike than the slow "rolling warmup."
PS-Warning! I'm talking through my hat here. This reflects my gut feeling, and is not based on any real knowledge of anything! Caveat lector!