Likes and dislikes when it comes to motorcycles

[YellowDuck]

Likes: ease of DIY maintenance.  I can't remember the last time I took a bike to a dealer or repair shop.  Just loose wheels if I was too lazy to do a tire change myself.  I LOVE screw tappet valve adjusters and resent needing to keep a supply of shims on hand to accomplish something so basic.  I am into simplicity.  If an 850 cc air cooled 2-valver doesn't make enough power for me, I will look for one that is 1000 or 1200 cc.  Nothing about the way I ride on the street requires squeezing 120 hp out of 600 cc, and tolerating all of the attendant finicky technology.

Dislikes: anything non functional.  There was some Kawasaki naked bike, maybe an early ZX900, that had a steel tube frame, but there was an aluminum-coloured plastic cover over the frame above the pegs, whose only purpose was to resemble an aluminum sport bike frame.  I found that offensive.  I have similar issues with fake cooling fins on liquid cooled engines.

Another dislike: cheap-ass suspension components.  How much more would it really cost to put pre-load adjusters and basic cartridges in bargain-bike forks?  My V85 is the first new bike I have ever purchased where I didn't feel the need to completely revise the suspension at both ends within a year.

[faffi]

Is it this 1985 Ninja 600 you had in mind?

[guzzisteve]

I guess that wasn't a brick laying on the floor of my 1980 Chevy K20 that was the cruise control weight 

Or the knob on the dash in old jeeps & pick-ups.

[YellowDuck]

Is it this 1985 Ninja 600 you had in mind?

No it was this thing I was thinking of.  2003 Z1000.  That big silver bit in the center of the frame is a plastic cover.   

[Perazzimx14]

Another dislike of mine is standard travel suspension. After riding bikes with long travel suspension I ain't going back. Turns out length does matter

[faffi]

YellowDuck, that silver thing/line on the fairing that looks like a frame member is part of the fairing, IIRC. In any case it was made from plastic. For 1986, there was a special edition with the alloy frame from the GPz400, and on that frame the loop was an integrated part for strength.

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

YellowDuck, that silver thing/line on the fairing that looks like a frame member is part of the fairing, IIRC. In any case it was made from plastic. For 1986, there was a special edition with the alloy frame from the GPz400, and on that frame the loop was an integrated part for strength.

I think he means this thing circled in yellow.

[kingoffleece]

Guzzi.  Easy to own and REAL easy to maintain at home for the basics.  Works for me.

[faffi]

I think he means this thing circled in yellow.

Err, I know that. I was referring to the picture I posted earlier of the Ninja 600.

[Huzo]

Hate it when you walk out to a pack of bikes and you have to check the registration to know which one is yours.
Das ist not goot….

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Err, I know that. I was referring to the picture I posted earlier of the Ninja 600.

But YellowDuck never even mentioned anything about the Ninja 600...

[faffi]

Fekk, my bad, I did not noticed we were on page 2, I just looked at the only post above mine. Don't assume, or you make and-so-on. Sorry!

[Moparnut72]

Another dislike of mine is standard travel suspension. After riding bikes with long travel suspension I ain't going back. Turns out length does matter

Agree whole heartedly, my R75/5 had over 8" of travel front and rear. It rode quite smoothly and handled well enough. My V7 850 rides like a lumber wagon in comparison. It probably handles better but who knows due to vast improvement in tires. Anyone who buys a V7 generally is not interested in touching peg feelers but would rather have a more comfortable bike. My 2 cents.
kk

[kingoffleece]

R75/5 was made quite a while ago.  One educated guess is that certain expenses were much less then for manufacturing and development.

[mhershon]

Brown seats, deleted rear fenders, motocross tires on street bikes, warning lights that require dealer attention to turn off, matte paint, inner tubes, rear wheels that are detachable only on lifts by mechanics with 16-drawer toolboxes, centerstands unusable by retired riders, front forks without drain bolts, alternator rotors without TDC marks, old crabby motorcyclists with a lot of pet peeves.