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What is sadly missing from modern entry level motorcycles?

Key-less start would be nice.

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Have any of the motorcycle companies reliably implemented keyless start other than Harley? I feel that they're the only brand I don't hear complaints about.

The stupid place Yamaha put the key on my FZ 09 makes me want keyless start 😁
 
Have any of the motorcycle companies reliably implemented keyless start other than Harley? I feel that they're the only brand I don't hear complaints about.

The stupid place Yamaha put the key on my FZ 09 makes me want keyless start 😁
The keyless on my 2011 Multistrada worked great and i had nothing to complain about with it.

The only had an issue with it once and it was 100% self inflicted. I left the key in my pants pocket and ran it thru a wash. Wrecked the key and i had to have it replaced. Ducati did put a failsafe in it where you could hold the key over a spot on the windshiend and it would then work but otherwise it was dead. They also put in a pin that you could use to start it without the key present. Like i said, i cant blame Ducati for the issue i had since it was totally my own doing. I did have to pay for the new key and programming and it was expensive enough that i never did it again in the 8 years i had the bike after that.
 
Thanks. That's good to know since Multi's are kinda interesting to me. I live in a remote area. Never take the keys out of anything. Had several vehicles through the years modified to not require keys because they weren't needed. Don't even have a key to my house 😁 So I'm bad about walking off and not pulling the key out of the bike sometimes. It's a bad feeling when you're in the far corner of the grocery store and start wondering if your bike is still where you left it.
 
Less weight would be nice across most bikes/brands. The trend to ever increase HP and weight is out of control IMHO but YMMV....
And yes I ride a R1200 GSA.... :rofl :1drink
I thought "oh, fuel gauge, that'll be nice" - cept it don't work and I don't care enough to fix it

USB outlet has been handy the one or two times I wanted to charge my phone during the commute 😆
 
I believe it's an "entry bike" thread. For entry bike, I want something light as possible with a low cog. Hell, I've been riding a long time and I'm a big guy and anything over 400lbs pretty much turns me off. Big fan of what most consider entry or midsize bikes. I've had bikes that hold 5 gallons up high and I don't miss em. Most new riders haven't built up the endurance ( or desire) to blast out hundreds of miles in one sitting. Some days it might take me 6-8hrs to burn a tank of fuel. But I ride mountain backroads on the east coast. If I lived some place that I needed to traverse huge expanses at I might have a different perspective. As it is, I'll take refilling one more time vs having to straddle a fuel barge all the time.
My KLX will go over a hundred miles on a tank but I won’t!
 
My KLX will go over a hundred miles on a tank but I won’t!
my daily commute is longerish and there is 1 gas station on the way between my house and my office. It happened to be closed the other day, and I was sure happy to have nearly 2 gals worth of reserve 🤣

offroad? 2 gal is plenty for a day of fun. Highway? i'll take it all and i'd love to have a transfer tank mounted too !
 
There is also a question of what "Entry level" means. To me it doesn't necessarily mean beginner. It could be for experienced rider entering different class of bikes and wishing to do so at low-ish cost. Race to Adventure bikes, etc.
"two brakes and a clutch" and also a gear shift, shift into correct gear.
Fuse box could be great for people traveling on Adventure Bikes to power extra lights, satnav or heat the grips in bad weather.
If you are a beginner it might be nice that the bike you bought had some amount of features. So you wouldn't be forced to replace it with unfamiliar bike as your experience grows and you wish to try more things.

Amusingly the current 390 Duke has the exact electronics suite as my 2014 1290 Super Duke R.

So that is all canbus, dual zone ABS, three riding modes etc.
 
I've never used a center stand. Even when I had bikes that had em. That's something that eludes me
 
Rolling a 500 lb bike with one hand and spraying the chain with the other hand is a lost art.
😁 Scott oiler, my man.

I mean, I use paddock stands at home all the time, so I guess I get it. Just that even when I had a center stand on my old CB's I still used the paddock stands. Granted, on those bikes, it was a bitch to get them up on the stand. And they drug so easy.
 
I've never used a center stand. Even when I had bikes that had em. That's something that eludes me
Really? I love having a center stand on a bike, if its in the garage its almost always on it and then I don't need extra swingarm stands when I have multiple bikes down for maintenance. Sometimes in front of the brewery I have to assert dominance over the other casual riders and have to pop it up on the center stand to :lol3
 
I recently accidentally discovered my V-strom does quick shift. It's somewhat clunky from 1st to 3rd. 4th to 6th is fairly smooth.
I loved my fz6r with a close ratio 4th-6th. My gen1 strom and gen3 klr are seamless in the top gears. I hate 1st to 2nd on 90% of bikes. As I bang shifted my strom today I pondered the neutral on the bottom pitbike engines. But 4 gears are easier to count than a 6 speed. I treated my xt225 as a 4 speed after 5 years of abuse as a 6 speed. 1st and 6th were never used. My drzsm was impressive on intesection turns from a stop in 2nd gear. This is the ultimate cheat. Your riding buddy will have to catch 1st to 2nd in the kink of the apex. Gets other riders bewildered how you pulled off such a fast turning takeoff.
 
Really? I love having a center stand on a bike, if its in the garage its almost always on it and then I don't need extra swingarm stands when I have multiple bikes down for maintenance. Sometimes in front of the brewery I have to assert dominance over the other casual riders and have to pop it up on the center stand to :lol3
Likewise , I always use my center stand if parking for more than an hour
 
What's missing on bikes? How about lack of abs.

Couple hours ago, I'm cruising down the empty left lane to have some space and jackass in the right lane whips it directly in front of me and stands on the brakes. Because squirrel. Speed limit is 60mph. He's close enough I can see the whites of his eyes in his rearview. Didn't give a shit, just whipped right over on me

Rear tire is locked. It's patting the ground and doesn't have a chance. Forks are damn near solid and the bike is stopping so hard I'm struggling to not collapse at the elbows. Got stopped a bit to the side of the car and my front tire is about a foot past their bumper.

Couple miles down the road it occurs to be that an ABS equipped bike would've recognized the locked rear tire, released the brake pressure and sent me in to the ass of that car. The bike was smooth and composed. Very, very smooth. A pulsing brake system repeatedly upsetting the suspension at that point would've be a huge detriment.

We really gotta stop mandating shit in to effect that's not necessary.
 
Whether or not ABS would have helped or hurt your situation really depends on how well the ABS is implemented. The absolute worst I ever owned was a BMW F800ST. It didn't quickly pump the brakes - it released them until you released the lever and reapplied the brakes. It was crazy dangerous. The best was probably my FJR1300 - very smooth and quick cycling of the brakes. That said, I've never really cared whether or not a bike had ABS until I bought my FZ-09. It's an early model without ABS and it absolutely needs it because it's so light with such a short wheelbase. It's way too easy to lift the rear tire off the ground during hard braking.

In your situation I doubt a good ABS would have hurt. After all, you didn't get stopped before the bumper anyhow. And ABS might have given you more steering control. I agree that a poorly implemented ABS would have made your situation worse.
 
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