Jul 14, 2006 08:57
So I finally got my bike to start (new battery) and rode it in to work today. It is very different then Jinlin's cruiser which I have been riding a lot lately. While rides on both machines are fresh in my head I wanted to do a comparison.
After riding the cruiser for a while I think I "get it" with cruisers. It's not about squeezing every bit of performance out of the bike while scenery whizzes by. It's more about enjoying the environment around you, the road, and the machine at the same time. Curves are still fun, and I enjoy the "wrongness" of trying to zip a 500 lb cruiser through a windy road. The torque of the engine pulls me out of the curve, but the cornering clearance severely limits the bike. I have mixed feeling about the lack of tach and clock. It is nice to just enjoy the ride and not worry much about shifting at the optimum RPM or getting anywhere on time. Let the bike talk to you, not the instruments. On the other hand though a really miss the tach. I don't even know where the redline is. For all I know I've been short shifting by thousands of RPMs and think I'm close to peak torque. All in all though out of the two the cruiser would be my choice for 2-up riding and for early morning (read: pre-coffee) errands.
My "sportbike" (it is actually a standard, but I like to think of it as a sportbike) is so much more connected to the road. I love throwing it into the curves. Go into the curve a bit on the outside and a truck barreling down the opposite way? No problem! Twist the throttle and dive into the inside of the curve. There is plenty of cornering clearance to get lower (at least the way I ride there is). The 11,000 RPM redline is so much fun! Scenery? What scenery? The low speed handling is much better too. I really feel like I can control where the weight is on my bike. I can stand on the pegs and shift the my weight and the bike's around. On the cruiser I feel like I'm stuck in one position. Out of the two I would choose the "sportbike" for commuting and for early-ish morning (read: post-coffee) rides for the sake of riding.
Oh yeah also I have to fill up the gas tank every 100 miles on the cruiser....I feel like every other day I have to fill up. I get 200 miles per tank on my bike.