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Written by Dave Sonsky
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 22:58 |
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Mod syndrome is something that's unavoidable for most sportbike enthusiasts. We've all suffered from mod malady and sometimes it's absolutely impossible to cure, and can even get progressively worse. It's a curious situation: Spending money for shinier, faster bits can make us feel great, but sometimes those buys can backfire and really hurt.
A lot of mods aren't cheap, and we have to choose wisely when flipping through catalogs and browsing Web sites. Even on an imaginary shopping spree, the chances are pretty great that we'd make some poor decisions while selecting parts to make our bikes look better and go faster. This is why we wanted to find out through cold, hard numbers which of the most popular aftermarket mods had the biggest reward-both on paper as well as perceived.
With a stock 2009 Yamaha R1 as the platform we looked to Graves Motorsports for support and to help us record the results. The plan was simple: Take an average fast group rider, put him on a stock bike and add aftermarket parts one by one, all the while noting lap times and rider impressions. The results were interesting, and not exactly as we predicted.
2009 Stock Yamaha R1 Mods Action2
WHAT ABOUT GEARING?
No, we didn't forget about one of the most valuable and cost effective mods for a sportbike, but the nature of Willow Springs Raceway didn't require any gearing adjustments. First and second gear aren't even used during a lap, and because of the high speed corners, lower gearing wouldn't have had an impact.
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Written by motorcycle
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 22:52 |
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For the uninitiated, the MP3 is Piaggio’s three-wheeled scooter line with two wheels up front. The revolutionary parallelogram front end uses an automobile-like double-wishbone aluminum suspension system supporting two independent steering columns that allows it to lean like a proper motorcycle. The result is a fuel-injected scooter that brings along another contact patch for new-rider safety as well as salty-dog giggles. On the right canyon road, it’s like skiing through the trees, holding your line with your outside foot (wheel) instead of your inside leg’s ski edge. Back and forth is wicked fun, like skiing a giant slalom run. At booger-picking speeds, like when maneuvering in a parking lot, a rider feels the added balancing help of the third wheel. The 400 i.e. is the more economical and practical version, with more underseat storage, but the 500 turns us on for its capability of busting a ton on the speedo and while getting more than 50 mpg.
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Written by motorcycle
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Tuesday, 13 July 2010 22:47 |
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Also from the Piaggio Group is the recent Vespa GTS 300. It includes the curvaceous Italian styling that has made Vespa a legend in the scooter world, plus it's the biggest, fastest, Vespa ever made. New riders would be well advised to go easy on the light-action throttle for the first few rides, as the GTS can whisk you away with a surprising pace in near silence and considerable grace. In Fonzie's upcoming review, he calls it “the invisible hooligan.”
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