Motorcycle Forum / General / Sportbikes / September 2005

So....about 2 or three weeks ago I jokingly mentioned to a buddy that I
would sell him my trackbike, except he already had one. So he decided, on a
spur of the moment, to sell his trackbike, and if he sold it, he told me to
park mine, because he wanted it. Cash or trade, the details to be worked out
later.

So...today he dropped his F3 trackbike off in Chicago, its a done deal, so
the 750 is pretty much accounted for, one way or another.

So the question is, whats next? Some of the regulars might remember when I
sold my KLR, and asked this same question about the 929. The best answer
was, get an sv650. I ended up with pretty much that exact combination after
a swap or sale, the sv650 and a gsxr750 trackbike.

So now that the 650 has "volunteered" to be a trackbike, at least through
2007, what should it be mated with? I listed some possibilities in an
earlier thread on a different topic, but I figured its been a slow day so
why not make the question official.

The 650 has become a primary trackbike, with a license plate, so it can be
counted on for lightweight street duty, say, commuting when the tires are
roasted, the occasional spare if Saddle ever comes out and needs a track
ride, etc etc. At some point in time, its possible it will lose its street
pretensions altogether and I'll pull all the street stuff off, mount a small
upper race fairing and just leave it that way, while taking it to smaller
tracks rather than larger ones.

So if its the trackbike, what for a streetbike? As I see it, there are three
categories, most of them major streetbikes with minors in other niche areas
of riding. Those 3 niche areas from my point of view are sometimes-big
trackish, offroad, and touring. Examples of sometimes big trackish would be
a used ZX-12R, an older ZX-9 Ninja, Interceptor, SuperHawk, SV1000, FZ1,
Multistrada, something along those lines. Off roady would be that dirt bike
looking beemer, Mike says to include the new Buell, a KTM 950 Adventurer,
VStrom, etc etc. Touring would be an ST1100, Concours, R1100S.

Of course, some of these choices, and this isn't an entire list, just a "top
of the head" list while sitting here, would do multiple duties, like you
could argue the VStrom would qualify as light offroad as well as touring
with the right accessories. A Beemer R1100S would work as an occasional
bigtrack bike as well as a touring machine, depending on seating position.

I am going to rule out anything too sporty, on the grounds that I don't like
the seating position of sport bikes anyway, so the ZX12R would get dinged by
this criteria unless I did some seating position modification, which it
could be argued I could do to a Gixxer1000 as well. But I include the big
Kawasaki's because they were always of a reasonable seating position, made
good multi state touring bikes when I was younger, so a ZX-11 would work,
but a ZX10R wouldn't.

I have only light predispositions at this point, and my usual ones, I tend
away from any other than the 4 main japanese manufacturers but I would
consider the occasional Beemer, Triumph Tiger, Ducati Multistrada, Mike says
I must include the Ulyssess, the price should be in the $10G or less range,
sure I could spend $15G's for a brand new Adventurer but I don't want to, so
used or new, lets try and keep it under $10G's.

It doesn't have to JUST commute, or JUST trackride, or JUST offroad, or JUST
tour, I do like variety in my rides, and as the regulars can tell, there is
a good chance I'll just be doing this all over again in another year or
three. I'm kinda like Larry the lawyer, except I keep mine around a bit
longer.