New Motorbike.

[Arokh Takakura]

Engine wearing in, all new components. Opening the throttle violently can dramatically shorten engine life, as friction in the engine is initially higher than normal until some machined internal parts smooth off. Horsepower also increases over those first 500 miles. Even my nitro rc car had to be driven gently for the first five runs.

[BlackSergal]

The super duke in orange is a great choice of bike where your at. I was looking at them, but ended with the FZ6 in red due to how $$$ euro bikes are here.

[Arokh Takakura]

Got it today! :D

[Arokh Takakura]

I got it. First impressions?: O.M.G.

It's Ffffing quick. And I'm not allowed to open it above half throttle or over 7,200rpm out of 14,000 yet. Yet it's already twice as fast as my old bike, if not more. It's also incredibly flighty and lightweight, a stab of the throttle in third in town saw me jump from 30 to 60 in about a second flat. It'll break 30 in 1st. It feels like a big bike in every way, the only thing that keeps reminding me it's a 125 are the L plates, but how this is learner legal baffles me. It's yet to feel strangled, strained, or struggled on some of the VERY steep fast hills around here and I haven't even fully opened the throttle or had to for that matter. Bear in mind this is also the run in period when the bike is tuned to be a little flatter to spare the engine some wear and tear. After 500 miles I can get the engine re-mapped by KTM and can fully open the throttle.

It turns a lot more heads than I expected, hate to admit it, but I got a grin from all the local youths giving me thumbs up as I rode past. It's very popular among younger bikers who all wanted to have a look and came over to talk to me about it when I stopped for some petrol.

The quality of the bike blows me away, sure it's £3,795, but you get that much worth of 125, which works out to be a lot. The instruments are incredibly high tech and constantly feed you information, engine temperature, oil temperature and pressure, MPG, time ridden, average mph, top mph, it even has a gearchange light that strobes, then turns solid red when it is the prime time to shift up(This will be raised by approx 4k rpm when the bike is run in). The brakes are a Brembo partner company yet feel just as good as the real thing, the feedback through the whole bike is immense. Riding this has made my old bike feel like bashing rocks together.

My only niggle? It's all tuned to be learner friendly, the throttle is softened. you can really tell, even as sudden and sharply as it flies up through the gears. The brakes are also soft, and it's got that F*&@king sidestand safety where it has to be in neutral, sidestand up to start. The bonus though? All of these can be ajusted/changed through the ECU/Engine management computer at your friendly local KTM dealers, so this thing is getting sharpened up once it's run in.

That said, when I'm doing 72mph in fifth out of sixth gear at HALF throttle, I've little to complain about. Can't wait for full throttle in sixth.

Second port of call is a tail tidy, not keen on that 'dorsal fin' of a rear numberplate holder. And perhaps a slip on silencer, as the current one is very purry and quiet. I want savage and obnoxious.

[BlackSergal]

This was a great buy man, one your going to be happy with for years.

[RazorFox]

HAY GUYS, CAN I PLAY TOO?

EDIT: Before anyone says anything, the Obama/LGBT pride sticker on the back is an anti-theft device. They're hard as Ffff to take off and no thug from the lower 9th is going to touch a bike with that on it no matter how crazy he may think that motor be.

[Arokh Takakura]

So hipster it hurts.

[Guest Ruin Nefarious]

.. LOL.

[RazorFox]

nvm it broke yesterday. ._.

[Arokh Takakura]

Functional motorbikes are too mainstream.

[Deadmon]

Dude, mopeds are Ffffing cool. As long as you arent going very far.

As far as your limitations on the bike Arokh, its silly if you actually limit yourself. As long as you arent making a scene, or exceeding the streets speed limit by a notable amount you arent going to get hassled. And they arent psychic and can see that you have a limited motorcycle license :P

Im interested to see when you get a bike with some real power. I had a 150cc back in freshman year of HS. Im sure your street bike has some nicer tuning and whatnot and is more powerful, but ive messed around on my friends CBR600 I think it is? And -that- is a fun ride.

Oh... and I dont know if the spike strip motorcycle thing is true. Im from dallas and in general police dont want to physically stop a motorcyclist unless its with a roadblock of cars bumper to bumper. Ive seen them stop someone like this, I presume its because any physical interactions on a biker with a car is most likely gunna end up with a dead biker. Run over or sent flipping down the highway at 70+ MPH like a ragdoll.

[Arokh Takakura]

The bike has since run in and will do 86mph flat out, which is 16mph more than the national limit, which is plenty for me.

Dis: No, they can run my plates and find out everything about me instantly. I am limited by law. Everything is electronically inter-connected now and UK police cars are fitted with automatic number-plate reading cameras that run every single plate they capture. It tells them if my bike has an M.O.T.(Road safety test), Insurance(Required by law in the UK), Tax(Also a legal requirement). It then tells them my age, name, address, and my passport details if I have one of those too, and shows a picture of me. So all they have to do is drive around and wait until a car/bike makes the onboard computer bleep. It shows them an image of the car that drove by/infront of them and which direction it was heading etc.

Did I mention UK drivers are some of the most heavily monitored, regulated, and taxed in the world?

[Markius Fox]

The question is. Are you a Happy Dragon?

If yes, all is well.

[Arokh Takakura]

Ow.

More damage than shown in image, both mirrors severed and smashed, tank has gouges and puncture wounds and switchgear is smashed and Ffffed up, front diffuser warped etc.

Van pulled out sideways into two lanes of filtering traffic from behind a car that had stopped without looking or stopping first to do a u-turn. Was right on top of him and saw it all happen, just didn't have the braking distance, so brought it side on into his van and caved in the panels along the side with my body.

[RazorFox]

This has been a bad week for bikes. D:

[Guest Ruin Nefarious]

Did you lose your bike too, Z?

[RazorFox]

Did you lose your bike too, Z?

[RazorFox]

MOTORBIZZLE

[BlackSergal]

"Café racer from Saigon" ;)

Looks fun as Hell

[Arokh Takakura]

[Aero]

Someone buy me this...

http://motorplush.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2012-Honda-CBR-1000RR-Fireblade-rear-view-26.jpg

[Aryte]

"Café racer from Saigon" ;)

Looks fun as Hell

Looks like it should be on the congested streets of India.

[Larry Furlough]

I love Arokh but Aryte might be correct.

[RazorFox]

I'm picturing Arokh's enormous dragon avatar barreling down a foggy road in the English countryside on that itty bitty cafe rocket at 74+/- miles per hour with this playing in the background and it's making me giggle.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fp8mYC5abE[/media]

[Larry Furlough]

http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Content/Pages/2012-Motorcycles/vrsc/night-rod-special/night-rod-special.html#/c/gallery

please