I Love My Motorbike
Someone who knows what they're doing can squeal the tires on just about any car with a manual transmission. Judicious use of the gas pedal with the proper application of clutch is all it takes. Really. It's not impressive. In high school I used to love my step-dad's 1968 Ford LTD. It was so big that you could lay down across the front seat and it had a 390 cu inch engine. AND even though it had an automatic transmission, it had so much power available that when you were already doing 25 - 30 miles an hour if you stomped on the gas it would spin the tires.
Motorcycles are the same way. if you give one enough gas and pop the clutch right you can get it to do a wheelie. My bike has a drive shaft (like a car) instead of a chain so it looses a lot of power in the transmission to the rear wheel. SO I have never popped the clutch on it and tried to stand it straight up. It also has a bigger engine than some cars and weighs 1/2 to 1/4 what small cars do (without me on it) so I'm a little afraid of it at times.
At other times it makes me laugh outloud. I have recently discovered that if I start out in first gear and just keep turning the throttle right, the bike has So Damn Much Power and accelerates so fast that it picks the front wheel up with no clutch work and no shifting gears at all. This pleases me a great deal.
So last night on the way home from the firehouse I slowly pulled away from a traffic light and just kept pulling until I was riding along with the engine screaming and the front wheel about two feet off the ground.
Once I let off it dropped back down and I just giggled with glee all the way home.
I love my new bike.
Smart car - 999cc engine, 71 hp, 8' 10" long, 1600 lbs
1400 GTR - 1352 cc eng, 15c hp, 7' 6" long, ~700 pbs
Motorcycles are the same way. if you give one enough gas and pop the clutch right you can get it to do a wheelie. My bike has a drive shaft (like a car) instead of a chain so it looses a lot of power in the transmission to the rear wheel. SO I have never popped the clutch on it and tried to stand it straight up. It also has a bigger engine than some cars and weighs 1/2 to 1/4 what small cars do (without me on it) so I'm a little afraid of it at times.
At other times it makes me laugh outloud. I have recently discovered that if I start out in first gear and just keep turning the throttle right, the bike has So Damn Much Power and accelerates so fast that it picks the front wheel up with no clutch work and no shifting gears at all. This pleases me a great deal.
So last night on the way home from the firehouse I slowly pulled away from a traffic light and just kept pulling until I was riding along with the engine screaming and the front wheel about two feet off the ground.
Once I let off it dropped back down and I just giggled with glee all the way home.
I love my new bike.
Smart car - 999cc engine, 71 hp, 8' 10" long, 1600 lbs
1400 GTR - 1352 cc eng, 15c hp, 7' 6" long, ~700 pbs