SWEEEEEEEEEET!  

I hope to be getting a YZF600R soon ...... or SV650 ..... or .... Speed 4 ...... or ..... crap  here I go again.  :dunno:

Dang. Forsaken by Pantablo!!

Nice ride man.

What happened to the Super Chicken ?
The 600 looks like a very cool ride and probably perfect for your riding style and yea, that undertail exhaust is damn sexy.
So how big a back tire can you put on it ? :mrgreen:

Enjoy it man!
Spend a little more and go to superbike school now that you've got one.....

Awesome ride man....be safe!

thanks guys. I feel really lucky to be able to have gotten this bike and to have everything else in my life come together as it has/is right now.

The seat...well I did 60 miles yesterday bringing it home in every condition from traffic to canyons. Its VERY comfortable for me. The seating position is perfect, probably due to my small stature. My hands and arms feel completely natural where the bars are. The seat is surprisingly comfortable. Not a single issue in those 60 miles. When I test rode the Triumph Daytona 600 I noticed IMMEDIATELY that seat felt like a  peice of plywood. Not so with the 600rr. May have something to do with only weighing 120# though.

This is by far the best way to get a 180/55 rear tire. Gave up on the superchicken and just decided to get the best bike I could for how I ride and be done with it. I hope to keep this one for a very long time.

I think the fender is sexy. I'm not touching the bike AT ALL for some time yet. First change will probably be a fender eliminator though. May be the ONLY change. I can't second guess the Honda engineers, now can I? I will set the suspension sag soon-probably after the 600 mile service so its a bit broken in (dealers suggestion). Superbike school is on the radar, just dont know when...and I defiinitely want to use THEIR bike now. I would hate to toss this baby down the track.

Fender eliminator and frame sliders may be only thing I change/add.
Oh god its sexy. But I wont forget my roots. You guys are a riot to communicate with. I'll still be around.

I'm riding this bike just like when I first rode the gs (without any experience). Deserves lots of respect so I'm treating it like I have to learn to ride all over again (I do with this thing).

I cant wait to ride again.

you lucky sob

good luck with your new bike

I had tried posting before, but for some reason it didn't go...here's round #2

My riding partner has a 03 600RR and loves it.  He just put a Jardine R1 slip on and it sounds sweet! (for a inline 4 that is  :nana: ).

Check out www.600rr.net
It is a message board for the RRs.  He is irishrr and his name is Chad...hit him up with questions if they arise.  He is a good rider and runs the motorcycle safety foundation for the base cops out here.

Enjoy the ride!!  And thanks for the help with my GS!

Nice rode Pablo. I am envious!
You are going to love that thing! I bet its an absolute blast once you get used to it. Enjoy, and good luck! I have a feeling you will still lurk around these parts.

congrats pablo...

Woot!

I cant wait to ride with you when i get back to LA this summer.

By the way I am going to send you an email. I know your starting up your own company.. i thought you would use some "links" or atleast get to know some ppl in the industry. My friends dad, though retired has been doing some small work for companies.. stuff like you do.

ANyway i will send you the stuff..

Congratulations!, thats a sweet bike.  

thanks for the link to 600rr.net but already going there (and cbrworld.net too). Strange bunch of guys there though, a bit gixxer.com in that lots have the 600rr as a first bike, ever. Crazy.

Manjul, What kind of industry links are we talking about here? IT Network links? I'll wait for the email.

Thanks again guys. I cant wait to ride the thing again.

don't forget to change your sig  

OBTW...

I never bookmarked the site where the two bozos started a site towards their tale of woe about their RR and to generate signatures for a petition to be sent to American Honda.  Pablo, during your web travels in CBRland, has that item popped up, or was it BS (as I suspect)?

Nope, never came across any sites like that about the RR. There are some grumblings about oil usage on the 2003's but havent heard anything about the 2004 models in that regard. They [Honda] think 1 qt in 1000 miles is normal...for a brand new bike?! WTF...we'll see, its not like I'm not used to it...

Gotta change my sig...I keep forgetting.

Well done mate,

Every test Ive read comparing the Honda against its rivals has gone the Hondas way. And it looks wicked! Good luck with it but dont forsake us peons on the GS!
(Can we have some more photos please? And how about a soundtrack???)

That is AWESOME Pablo! Have fun on it!

hey, thought this would be a good thread to ask.... I remeber a little while back someone posted a couple links to some good articles about "why not to get a 600 for your first bike".  A guy on a unrelated forum (mountain bikes) posted something about wanting to get the Gixxer 600, and i just wanted to point him towards those articles, that go on about excuses newbies have to get a 600 as a first bike, and the rebutals etc.

thanks

here's a good link:
http://www.beginnerbikes.com/editorials/formequalsfunction.htm


Also, I copied this text from another site and saved it for such people. I dont have the link, only the actual text so here it is:

Why not a sportbike for a first bike?

After a rash of posts about what bike to get as a first bike, and a lot of posts defending the reasoning behind "only a 600" or "having respect", or "too big to ride a small bike"....

Why not a GSXR/R6/ZXR/CBR/996 etc?

Well, I am not sure that the fact that these are "only 600's" means a great deal, they are seen as "slow" by newer riders, and therefore easier to master than the 1000cc versions. Many people have said that they feel a 750 would be fine.

I guess that your idea of slow, is a fair bit different to mine. My idea of slow is something that accelerates like, say, a Geo Metro, not something that accelerates faster than a Dodge Viper.

Lets face it, the modern 600 is faster than a 750 of six or seven years ago, in a straight line, up to about 130mph.......

Six years ago the 750 class was in the middle of open warefare season, the (then new) SRAD 750 was the king of the beasts, trouncing the CBR900RR, and the FZR1000 or Chunderace) and destroying everything else in its path. Not just in a straight line either, but the 96 SRAD was a marvellous corner carver.

In its day, it was brutal - it still is, wild head shakes, inadvertant wheelies, and an utterly brutal rush beyond 10K RPM.

The latest 600's whilst just as fast, are only slightly more civilised, the power is not as brutal, but there is still a huge rush, and on the dyno they are only a couple of HP short of the benchmark.

So the power of the latest 600's is amazing, there is frankly more than 99% of people can use, and more than anyone can need on the street - on the track its a different matter, but we are talking street bikes here.....

Its not just the power either, its the power delivery.

These bikes are race-bikes with lights, or at least they are very, very similar to race bikes. In order to be competative in racing, where modifications are minimal, the engines are tuned to be very "racer friendly". The throttle response beyond a few thousand revs is instant, this is great if you are on a track, but merely OK on the road. If you are heavy-handed, it can be very dangerous. The MSF course teaches you to roll on the throttle in a curve, to a newr rider, rolling on is just that, add 1/4 turn maybe ? Well with a modern sports bike 1/4 turn is FULL throttle. Rolling on on these bikes means may 1/32nd of a turn - if that.

This is not a nice trait - you have just gone from 20hp to 80hp in the blink of an eye, and you lowsided - if you are lucky- into the scenery.

So, handling is the next problem.

These bikes are race bikes with lights, this means that they are super-fast handling. In fact they are astonishingly nervous, in order to make they turn fast, they are set-up to respond to minute inputs, and this is another major issue for a new rider. A new rider will not have the subltly of input that the bike needs, rather than push the bars, you apply a slight pressure, and the bike sails into the bends, push on the bars hard, and it becomes all nervous and unsettled, and again, the new rider may be lucky to get through the bend.

Obviously this will not be a good thing - to an experienced rider these bikes feel planted, and predictable, for a new rider, they feel horrible, and your confidence takes a hit.

Ok - Brakes

Again, these bikes are similar to race bikes. One of the few places that they differ is in the braking department. The brake pads have to last a little longer than race compound ones, so they are a little less brutal than those on a racer, also they have rubber hoses, which have a little "give" in them, making it harder to lock the fronts.

But, they are still eye-poppingly good, its possible to stand any of these bikes on its nose, at really, really high speeds, assumning you are hard enough on the brakes.

Then there is the rear brake, and again this is overly efficient, all too easy to lock it, all to easy to high-side as a result of the locked brake.

Repair costs.

As they are race replica's they comer covered in expensive plastic. Each side is $600 or more. A slow-speed drop could easily cost you over $1000 just in plastic bits. Add to that the normal "consumables" and you are in the $1300 range for a 10mph spill.

Combine all of these factors, and I hope that you see why a sportsbike is not a good first bike.

It has exactly the wrong set of characteristics for a new rider to learn to ride. Its too fast, too responsive, too twitchy, too nervous, the brakes are too sharp and they cost a lot to fix.

I'm not going to tell you that you should not get one (I'm not your mother), just that you need to bear in mind that these bikes belong in the "expert class", not the "new rider" one.

Beat me to it, Pablo! I was gonna say:

========================================

If I'm not mistaken, it was a 2-part article on the Beginner Bikes Magazine site:

Form Equals Function: Sportbikes are Not Beginner Bikes
and
Form Equals Function: Part Two

Enjoy!