The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
I am not exactly present on forums in regards to motors. I lurk on most of the forums (Piston Heads, BCF and MCF), I know that a few of you are or have been active on such forums. I just thought it'd be nice to have a thread like that on here. There is little really happening for the likes of small capacity bikes in the uk at the moment and the wholly British bike brands don't supply into that market. Recent news presented a gleam of hope that is Royal Enfield, They could be bringing back a nice war time classic that hopefully doesn't get too pricey..https://www.motorcycle.com/mini-features/royal-enfield-files-for-flying-flea-and-roadster-trademarks.html. I'd just love for Honda and Yamaha to bring back 250 variants of the shadow and dragstar.
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
A 250 Dragqueen???!!!
The 650 is enough of a hideously laggy, heavyweight-but-lightbuilt, janky pile of [censored], with only 40BHP (when new)... why would you want to cripple it even more?
Have you ever ridden the 125 Draggie?
144kg with only 12BHP... I don't think I could ever cope with that!!
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ttaskmaster
The 650 is enough of a hideously laggy, heavyweight-but-lightbuilt, janky pile of [censored], with only 40BHP (when new).
My first car, a 1.0 Mini estate, was ISTR 35bhp when new and I'm sure a fair handful of those horses had bolted by the time I got my hands on it :)
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ttaskmaster
144kg with only 12BHP... I don't think I could ever cope with that!!
0-62 in 18seconds, who cares? I'm an economy guy, the point of a cruiser is comfort. And why would you take the 650 when you could take the 400 XD, 8 horses ain't gonna make a real difference. There's alot more room for power in the 250 as well, met some guys in 2016 at cholmeley who bored it out to over 30.0, put far to much money into it and sadly made it a bobber with no rear sus.
But yea, why wouldn't I want small displacement. It doesn't have to be cruisers. But something a bit more premium and doesn't look skinny like the CBR
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
lets be fair guys... small engines effiicient bikes make far more sense that Ecars are mutiple times the price. Power and speed are an irrelevence
Take up less space on thge roads, less parking needed.
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Zak33
lets be fair guys... small engines effiicient bikes make far more sense that Ecars are mutiple times the price. Power and speed are an irrelevence
Take up less space on thge roads, less parking needed.
Now we just need bmw to bring back the C1 :)
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
0-62 in 18seconds, who cares? I'm an economy guy, the point of a cruiser is comfort.
Unless you're 5' 7" or less, the Dragstars smaller than 1100 are not especially comfortable... and certainly not economical, even with the Custom being 50kg lighter (and far better looking) than the Classic!
Plus, with cars themselves getting ever faster off the line these days, to the point where they rival my FJ, a big, slow bike that can be outrun by a bus is more of a liability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
And why would you take the 650 when you could take the 400 XD, 8 horses ain't gonna make a real difference.
The 650 is usually cheaper and far easier to find than both the 250 and 400.... same for parts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
There's alot more room for power in the 250 as well, met some guys in 2016 at cholmeley who bored it out to over 30.0, put far to much money into it and sadly made it a bobber with no rear sus.
IIRC, the 125, 250 and 400 all used the same frame, so you could just put a 400cc engine in either of the other two. Probably why the 400s are rare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
But yea, why wouldn't I want small displacement. It doesn't have to be cruisers.
Long as it's got enough kick to get you going and not be dangerously slow, then sure.
I did briefly toy with the idea of getting one of those Enfield Bullet 500s from India. Pretty cheap, pretty cool and something insane like 90mpg!!
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ttaskmaster
Unless you're 5' 7" or less, the Dragstars smaller than 1100 are not especially comfortable... and certainly not economical, even with the Custom being 50kg lighter (and far better looking) than the Classic!
Plus, with cars themselves getting ever faster off the line these days, to the point where they rival my FJ, a big, slow bike that can be outrun by a bus is more of a liability.
The 650 is usually cheaper and far easier to find than both the 250 and 400.... same for parts.
IIRC, the 125, 250 and 400 all used the same frame, so you could just put a 400cc engine in either of the other two. Probably why the 400s are rare.
Long as it's got enough kick to get you going and not be dangerously slow, then sure.
I did briefly toy with the idea of getting one of those Enfield Bullet 500s from India. Pretty cheap, pretty cool and something insane like 90mpg!!
my friend has an Enfield Bullet 500 and he gets over 90 mpg.. but it is a challenge to get him to go far on it at all.. i think it's...challenging in comfort terms for an old boy ;)
AND.. wherever he parks it, he get loads of people talking to him about it and then he's late for lunch.. again ;)
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TeePee
Is this a Grom thread?
Only if it actually goes Grrrrommmmmm when you rev it... :D
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ttaskmaster
Only if it actually goes Grrrrommmmmm when you rev it... :D
still think Groms are over-rated and have a stupidly inflated price. I honestly think I'd go Chinese if I had a monkey bike, Something like the TNT
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
I had no idea what a Grom was.
Now I do
It's lovely.. and as a devoted Honda lover - I'm impressed
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
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Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
still think Groms are over-rated and have a stupidly inflated price. I honestly think I'd go Chinese if I had a monkey bike, Something like the TNT
There's a Razkull that's basically a clone of the Grom for half the price. I've been tempted, and I have one fewer bikes than I need....
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
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Originally Posted by
PC-LAD
I honestly think I'd go Chinese if I had a monkey bike
Jingchen used to do a line of Honda M50 clones. The ScooterMan company used to use them... and some even lasted more than a year with proper maintenance. Don't ask me how I know this!!
Re: The British Bike Sector and small capacity motors
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ttaskmaster
Jingchen used to do a line of Honda M50 clones. The ScooterMan company used to use them... and some even lasted more than a year with proper maintenance. Don't ask me how I know this!!
Ahah, I'm interested in the longevity of Chinese motors. Qiangjiang motors seem to be getting about 20k on them before they start to fizzle and shake themselves to death. Hyosung (the koreans) out source their engines to china as well but i can't remember who makes them.
As soon as the chinese manufacture with some half decent materials, high tolerances and a good QC. Competition will be rough. I played around with a lexmoto (dad was thinking of getting a bike since he's retiring and needed something to get on his feet again),it was the ICSA, But i was impressed with the fact for the price of a used YBR that would have been thrashed by a teen and 10k on the clock you could get a bike with a 2 year warranty parts and labour and according to the sales guy you can go into any sellers garage and they will complete the warranty work for you.
