Ever thought about downsizing?

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Agree with patw. Downsized from 600 to 250KLXS. Much better all round bike especially for this pothole filled city. You sit up much higher also. Will hitchcarry it to the twisties in comfort instead of boring endless slab to get to good riding. Many advantages from insurance to gas & maintenance. Downsizing works.
 
Five licenced bikes from 400 to 125. Insured all for under $2000. Small bike syndrom and variety to boot every day of the week!
 
I realized last year I do not require a SS to commute to work and downsized to a 500. It's the sweet spot for speed, fuel economy, and insurance for me. I can past cars on the highway no problem, I spend $15dollars a week to fill the tank, and $500 a year for insurance. I have a lot of other hobbies that occupy my free time and by lowering the total cost of ownership on a bike, lets you enjoy the other things in life as well!
 
I think that's why the Honda CB500s are so popular ( actually 440s I think ).
Light, agile, cheap to insure, fun to ride and ABS standard for way cheaper than the usual Honda over engineered, heavy and inappropriate mid-weights.

Oh yeah forgot ....very easy on fuel as well yet lots to keep up with traffic or do light solo touring.

If I was buying from scratch right now....it would be a kitted out CB500x.

Stick a set of Heidenau boots on it, a bash plate and bark busters and at least make use of the dirt roads in Ontario since there is not all that much interesting paved roads.....and you can still commute nicely with a top case.

I thought Honda had a winner when they introduced that.....memorable demo ride ...yet just a 500 twin.

Guy that rode the other one on demo said he just wanted to point it to the horizon and keep going.
It really gets back to the lightness, agility and freedom that the earlier models like the Yamaha 250, Honda 305 Hawk, Suzuki 550 etc represented.
 
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Ok, so I'm just not getting it. A ninja 650 gets incredible gas mileage already, it's not on an insurance hit-list, it's pretty much a perfect commuter and you can take a passenger. Too light a bike and you get tossed around big time, running at 10,000 rpm on any 400 series highway bites.
 
Don't most people ride small bikes because they have to? I agree with the 1000000rpm on the 400 analysis: bites. Small bikes are great in the right places.
 
I've actually enjoyed my time with the 125 (1 season) and the 250 (3 seasons) as it got me into the commute and some light touring. Plus experience with different bikes is great.
For mileage, the 250 was a great balance of range and price. Always around 300-330km before I filled up, and never once over $15 of regular fuel. Oil change was a total of $15 or so + I bought 1 set of tires ($400) at 17,000km and $480/year in insurance can't be beat.

I can't wait to pick up the CB500F this weekend and hope it gives me as much pleasure as the 250. If I had the space I'd go for something bigger and better suited for touring and keep the 250...but no space as it's only a shed so far.
 
Not exactly a downsize but I want to go from my 750 SS to a 1000 naked. While there isn't a significant power loss, I'd rather the upright position and less need to keep it in the powerband going through corners...which leads to banging through gears...which leads to wondering why everyone is so damn slow...which leads to omfg I need to slow down.
 
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CafeRay said:
Higher end on the SV?? Just running through the gears used to get me to 150 if I wasn't careful.

Bandits 1250s are scary fast and can take you across the country.
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Oh dont get me wrong, I loved my SV. One of the best bikes I've had. A lot of fun. The only bad thing I had to say about it was, on highways, at speed, there seemed to be more of an effort on the engine to sustain the high speed, and moving to an even higher speed if needed was a bit of an effort also. That is simply cause its 650. That and long distances were not hugely comfortable.
Other than that! What a bike!
If I downsized from the 1250s , the SV would be top of my list.
 
inreb said:
Don't most people ride small bikes because they have to?
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Because they have to have fun? There are some guys on my secret twisty escarpment roads that pull away from 600s on Ninja 300s.

The mindset is these bikes are for starters, but for experienced riders, nothing flicks faster with narrow tires and low rotating mass, and for tracks you tend to push harder on a cheaper bike.

The highway issue is fixable, these bikes tend to have very low first gears for easy take off for novices, but a sprocket set (+1/ -2) change does wonders. And the stock tires are typically crap.

But, they are not really the tool for our boring laser-straight highways in Canada.
 
inreb said:
Don't most people ride small bikes because they have to?
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CafeRay said:
Because they have to have fun? There are some guys on my secret twisty escarpment roads that pull away from 600s on Ninja 300s.
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Everybody knows 600s are dogs, that's been discussed here plenty:rolleyes: I still maintain people aspire to the bigger in North America. Like I said, I like small bikes and I also said I don't like small bikes for the reasons you stated. Quit agreeing with me.
 
CafeRay said:
Because they have to have fun? There are some guys on my secret twisty escarpment roads that pull away from 600s on Ninja 300s.
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Imagine if the 600 had been running.
 
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