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Have fun. Ride small.

Amos Malone said:
You can also drive small. I simply do not understand why the Kei car is not more popular in first world countries. Max speed (electrically limited) 87 mph. Weight under a ton. Easily seats 4 adults. You can park it nearly anywhere.
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Because here in the USA you NEED a ginormous pickup or SUV to drive one person to and from work!!

More seriously, I'd go for a very small and economical car but I have no need for one. My wide wouldn't go for one. She drives a small SUV. She has trouble getting in and out of a small car. I have a truck because occasionally I need a truck. Most of the time it sits in the driveway and doesn't use any gas. When I need to go somewhere by myself I almost always ride one of my scooters which is way more fun than driving a cage and uses less gas too!
 
Amos Malone said:
You can also drive small. I simply do not understand why the Kei car is not more popular in first world countries. Max speed (electrically limited) 87 mph. Weight under a ton. Easily seats 4 adults. You can park it nearly anywhere.
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In the US, a big vehicle is a status symbol. It has been that way for 70+ years.
 
Neighborhood beater out n about! Just turned 30hrs. The yx 125cc motor will tick over at 1250rpm!

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klaviator said:
Because here in the USA you NEED a ginormous pickup or SUV to drive one person to and from work!!
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And if this is not enough to get rid of those pesky kids we can always relax the gun ownership laws (trying very hard, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to not mention the Small Penis Syndrome theory).
Tasteless jokes aside (I'm sorry for them by-the-way). How do you work on the engine in this thing. Or load or unload the back. Also, 16 mpg!? At current gas prices!? Kei cars are usually between 70-100 mpg.

klaviator said:
More seriously, I'd go for a very small and economical car but I have no need for one. My wide wouldn't go for one. She drives a small SUV. She has trouble getting in and out of a small car. I have a truck because occasionally I need a truck. Most of the time it sits in the driveway and doesn't use any gas. When I need to go somewhere by myself I almost always ride one of my scooters which is way more fun than driving a cage and uses less gas too!
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Honda N-Box Kei car is popular with older people in Japan due to how easy it is to get in and out of.
The scooters are always a nice option. Some older people do get balance issues and since the bones get fragile with age I've always assumed I'd stop riding as I get older. Although I've never used bikes as much as after I reached 50.

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One of
 
Amos Malone said:
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And if this is not enough to get rid of those pesky kids we can always relax the gun ownership laws (trying very hard, but ultimately unsuccessfully, to not mention the Small Penis Syndrome theory).
Tasteless jokes aside (I'm sorry for them by-the-way). How do you work on the engine in this thing. Or load or unload the back. Also, 16 mpg!? At current gas prices!? Kei cars are usually between 70-100 mpg.


Honda N-Box Kei car is popular with older people in Japan due to how easy it is to get in and out of.
The scooters are always a nice option. Some older people do get balance issues and since the bones get fragile with age I've always assumed I'd stop riding as I get older. Although I've never used bikes as much as after I reached 50.

Screenshot 2022-06-15 at 19.20.54.png

One of
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Ain't it easy to throw rocks from afar, using "facts" that politicians and big media spend huge amounts of money to make everyone believe?
 
Maybe one day my SR50 will b back on the road but
I've recently become the owner of a 2012 Triumph Tiger XC which makes my range of bikes from the SR50 now a 70 to a 525 and a 640 plus an R65 and an R1100. Pretty good mix.
 
skibum69 said:
Maybe one day my SR50 will b back on the road but
I've recently become the owner of a 2012 Triumph Tiger XC which makes my range of bikes from the SR50 now a 70 to a 525 and a 640 plus an R65 and an R1100. Pretty good mix.
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Sr50? Aprilia?
 
nmroadrunner said:
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Doing my part to get small...
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This is where "downsizing" gets in to muddy water for me.

First of all, I want to be clear that I love Hima's. Test rode one, almost bought it. Was shocked at how smooth everything on that bike was. The ride was smooth, the handling was great, the engine felt damn near electric. Nothing against a Hima at all. A close friend bought one and loves it. His dad loves it, too, as he's always stealing it 😁 I still think about buying one pretty often.

But back to downsizing getting in to muddy water. Is a 400cc, sub 30 HP bike a small bike? I guess so. But it's 425 lbs. My FZ 09 with ECU flash/lightweight aftermarket exhaust gives me 120hp at 410 lbs with a full tank.

The small bike menu is tempting, but it's a tough pill to swallow when the only thing I'm giving up is power and I'm keeping all the weight.
 
I keep thinking about a smaller bike , 500cc or so. I think the small bikes and scooters are cool but I'm not sure I'll ever want to give up that 70 to 100 zone.

I ride old, heavy, slow ,r1100gs's, and r1150r so performance wise a 500cc bike wouldn't much step down. I'm thinking on it more and more the older I get.
 
Small engine bikes are not always small bikes.
Small bikes can have decent power (I should get up to about 80-90 mph in my 250cc but I've never gone for top speed).
You should be able to find a bike that has a nice balance of power and weight and is a good fit for you.

My use of bikes these days is to mostly avoid the highways, big cities and fast moving traffic. You might be able to go from city to city in short time at 100 mph. For that a big bike is a better fit.
Maybe leaving the highway, slowing down, and passing through the towns that are between cities can be more fun. For going from town to town at lower speed the small and light bike shines. Easy to park for photo opportunities, easier to get off and on. Your daily mileage might be lower but you're more relaxed when you arrive at the destination.
Purchase price is usually lower. Spares cheaper. Insurance less costly. Uses considerably less fuel. You see more of the country (nice waterfall with a parking lot is almost never by the highway, neither is a bridge with a roof). You interact with more people.

Those times I've visited US the roads have been in a condition that makes me dread passing 60-70 mph, let alone go up to 100 mph. Roads so uneven that the car is bouncing up and down, large potholes, cracked asphalt. Run-off roads for trucks that are so badly maintained/loaded that the brakes fail on long downhill sections. They actually need to construct run-off roads for that. Think about that for a while. Truckers are supposed to professionals.
 
It's interesting how people have such different ideas on what is a small bike. I have a 400 (actually 395cc) bike. It's pretty heavy and I bought it as a two up touring bike. I consider it a midsize bike even thought the engine is pretty small. I have five bikes and three of them are smaller than my 400.

My 395cc two up touring bike:

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It started life as a 50 but I put in a 70 kit. The motor was sent out and was ported, polished and case matched. It will do 80 kmh on the flats with my 200 lb carcass. It's in the shop waiting for an injector, this little machine has pretty much been a lemon its whole life. Barely 1000 km's on the clock and it's an '06!
 
Stormdog said:
I would disagree with that last bit about being safer.
A small bike can go fast enough to get you into trouble, then not have the power to get you back out.
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You have a fair point here, and nothing is more intimidating regardless of riding experience than filtering out on to a busy lorry filled highway in the rain on a 125 loaded with your world.
Even a 500 or 600 class gives you the legs to get up there fast and maintain pace .
Anything much smaller even a 250/300 and your going to find that on highway use if more of a challenge.
Not dishing the- 125/ 200 adv/ touring just agreeing with your analogy.
Carving down through France in the 70s & 80s , on my Morini 350 with its near constant Generator problems swapping battery's every 70 / 100 miles with mates jap bikes. i know what reliability meant and the importance of the very basics being in place all the time. Thankfully even back then there was reliable and relatively quick for size 125s and 200s around that were long distance capable.
But the Bigger highways???? I think given todays traffic speeds and sheer volume in such cercumstances i think a 400/ 500 is the absolute minimum in a loaded bike i would want to use in all the conditions i am likeley to encounter .
I supose if i were to plan a route and rigidly stick to that route, or perhaps more important avoided motorways which face facts every mobile phone/ tabblet navigators all have an avoid motorway feature. So in reallity if i was to avoid the dreaded motorways alltogether it's easy enough done, and the the small bikes are right there again Viable tools for perhaps a more interesting trip than on a boring motorway.
 
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