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First "real" ride

celias

celias

Bicycle
As a new to me extremely pleased new owner I took Gdzila for a ride to one of my favorite loops around home--about 200 miles mostly on twisty beautiful roads on a sunny Fall day.

WHAT A BIKE.

It is hard for me to describe how beautifully this bike rides and what she can do--OK, a bit over board as I can do more with my VFR and I am sure that those of you riding CBRs or GSXs are grinning at my ignorance.  Nevertheless ... what a bike. 

The only thing I did before taking her out for a real ride was to put new tires (Pirelli Angels) and rear brakes--I changed oil in the engine and gear case. 

What I noticed the most:

* I read that this bike is hard to turn ... compared to what?  If it compares to my VFR and similar or better bikes probably yes, but compared to comps?  Come on, this bike can turn ... and my VFR cannot protect me from wind as well, so comparing apples to apples, what were they talking about?
* I also read about the mirrors and some wobble  at some low speeds.  The mirrors are not an issue and I could not tell at all about wobble at any speed.
* The rear brakes don't work at all for me, does someone else shares this issue with me?  They "work" in the sense that they slow me a bit, but they don't really do much, right?  I know I put new brakes, but I am talking 200+ miles after I put them on.
* It flies, this bike just flies at any gear without any vibration, what a beautiful engineering accomplishment.
* I am getting consistently about 180-200 miles per tank, so I will completely ignore from now on the information provided about "range" that changes the way I ride--it makes me slow down when it shows 61 miles range and then it tells me it is really 82, and I would just look at the average consumption information and forget about everything else
* front suspension?  On a sharp turn I almost lost my front tire, it skipped, but I recover it--I don't know how.  I attribute it to new tires and going too far to the side.  Anyone with the same experience without new tires?

I look forward to more of the same as soon as my work allows and the weather cooperates.  What a bike!

Cheers,

CElias

 
The placebo rear brake pedal is common.  Pressing the rear brake results in a comforting feeling but thats about it,  the front brake is needed to stop.

Fortunately the front brakes do a great job of scrubbing off speed and bring you to a controlled stop.

 
Hard to turn = Crappy OEM Bridgestones
Yeah,... WHAT A BIKE!  :)
Rear brake is useful for trail braking but not much good at stopping you.
When it does bite the ABS kicks in anyways.
I get about 160 miles to reserve so maybe 200 with reserve, but I thrash the crap out of her most days.
 
The only time I ever use a real break is trail breaking. ( Front breaks for stopping ) . If your ABS is set right hitting the back breaks will set off the front easy. Taking any curve and getting the front tire to skip or slide ??????? I would LOVE to see that.  As for the factory tires ? I left mine on and im here to tell you, I've layed my bike down in a curve to the point my boot was scrapeing the pavement and I had no problems. Im going to wear them out, then perhaps some angels . AS for the vibration ? Show me one C14 that dont. their noted for it. Or what we call a BUZZZ . lol . But it's ten times bettwer than my Harley . As for fuel millage ? I don't care what kind of millage I get , It's a fair price to pay for the thrill I get out of the bike . AMAZING !  . I love love love my C14 . Happy riding !
 
Boomer said:
Hard to turn = Crappy OEM Bridgestones
Yeah,... WHAT A BIKE!  :)
Rear brake is useful for trail braking but not much good at stopping you.
When it does bite the ABS kicks in anyways.
I get about 160 miles to reserve so maybe 200 with reserve, but I thrash the crap out of her most days.
Click to expand...

Pretty close to my thoughts. The rear brake worked fine. But the ABS does kick in pretty easy. But I'll take that over it locking up like the C10. The 021's are most likely what was read about turn in, because it's true. I averaged around 180-200 before the low fuel kicked on. Obviously better on the highway than rocketing around.
 
Carlos this reply is offered in reference to your less than stellar experience with the rear brake on your '08 Concours 14.  I addressed this issue more than once on the ZG/GTR fanatics forum a couple months ago.  As can be expected, my opinion was met with considerable wide ranging appraisals by other forum members.  I'm not going to re-write the advice I gave but will direct you to the forum topic so you can read for yourself what conflicting opinions can emerge from a simple question.  The first forum entry is: http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=3432.30 where you'll find my replies on the last page.  The second forum entry is:  http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=4013.15 where my replies are on the second and third pages.

 
Thank you Bud, I will try it and let everyone know how it went.  If I get in trouble--I am not good at all with tools and tend to break more often than fix--I will send a note for advise, but from your description it sounds easy.

Cheers,

CElias
 
CElias said:
Thank you Bud, I will try it and let everyone know how it went.  If I get in trouble--I am not good at all with tools and tend to break more often than fix--I will send a note for advise, but from your description it sounds easy.

Cheers,

CElias
Click to expand...

Carlos,

It is easy, just about as easy as falling down.  The reply made by 556ALPHA (http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?topic=3432.30) should give you an idea of both the simplicity of the spring removal and also the effectiveness of its removal.  He also offered pictures that I have copied and included here.  I agree with his assessment of the spring removal making a "huge difference".  The rear brake becomes useful rather than vague or damn near useless.  He also stated that he is hopeful that there are no "side effects".  I guarantee there are no negative side effects as the spring in the master cylinder is more than adequate to return the pedal to its rightful position and to fully release the brake.  There are those who have stated that the factory must have had a good reason to incorporate the spring in the design.  This is not necessarily so as this motorcycle and just about every other vehicle manufactured anywhere begins life on a computer screen wherein the engineering department will input an assortment of ideas that will eventually be refined until a working design emerges from all the effort.  The results are spectacular as the current crop of vehicles of every description are very, very good.  However, there are occasions when various components can be superfluous (the spring in question and throttle body secondary butterflies readily come to mind) or modified to offer an improvement in operation and/or performance.  As I have said in previous posts on this subject, try it and either accept it as being helpful or consider it a waste of time and reject it by putting the spring back where you found it.  All comments that do not include a trial of the suggestion are useless because they are not based on empirical evidence.  Unfortunately, the majority of the responses to this question belong in the non-empirical category.
 

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I am happy I asked since I use the rear brake to slow down before turning along with downshifting.  I have some time Thursday, I will take it out then.  I will let you know.  Thank you again for excellent advice.

CElias
 
Take it easy for the first few miles on any new set of tires. (Oils and protectants for the rubber in production need to be "scrubbed" off with riding.)

As for trail braking, linked brakes takes a bit of getting used to.  (Honda CBR-1000F's had similar issues.)
 
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