Any Motörbike riders here?

Dominic

There is one style of bike I don't understand .....The Supermotard
why ?

jaytmon

Dominic said:

There is one style of bike I don't understand .....The Supermotard
why ?

Funny you should say that. Having recently sold bike no.2 and gone back to being a one bike bike owner (one guitar is never enough right), I had a serious hankering for a Husqvarna 701 supernoto….totally impractical but I bet it’s a riot to ride, especially as I’m surrounded by country lanes. So far I’ve resisted temptation…

Dominic

but they're meant to have road tyres......proper supermotards are used on tracks with slicks.......don't see the point

p90fool

Dominic said:

There is one style of bike I don't understand .....The Supermotard
why ?

Don't know. A friend of mine lent me his 650 Husaberg, it was pointless on rural roads as it ran out of gears at lower speeds than I would have ridden them on a mid-sized commuter bike, and the only fun you could possibly have with them in an urban environment is if you took the number plate off, or actually just stole one.   

I can't see the point of a 0-50mph hooligan bike unless you happen to own a karting curcuit. 

LastMantra

Thing about these enduro, hybrid, off-road jobs is that most of my riding has been off road/O.R. bikes and I wouldn't really want anything over 250-350, you need to be able to pull it out of ditches and bogs, some of those things you wouldn't be able to lift if it fell over on the road.
Never mind anything else.

Plus it's OK doing the standing up bit but how long can you keep that up, they need a big spongy seat, like old trail bikes had. 

jaytmon

Dominic said:

but they're meant to have road tyres......proper supermotards are used on tracks with slicks.......don't see the point

Ah I see what you mean. Very niche, that’s for sure. 

LastMantra

I like the idea of a bike that can go anywhere though. Gives the full 'freedom' a bike can offer. 

LastMantra

My dad had a SP1000 Spada when I was a kid, that was a nice bike to sit on the back of when I was wee.

His mate had a mk2 le mans that I always loved.
It was a bit nippier but rarely lost me and my dad for long. 

robinbowes

Dominic said:

There is one style of bike I don't understand .....The Supermotard
why ?

Would you class this a Supermotard?

Dominic

yes, epitome of it.....a hybrid of an Enduro and a sportbike .
As the name suggests,they were a French Obsession 20 years ago but I just don't understand the purpose of them other than a wheelie machine

p90fool

On a boring note, I just put a new rear tyre on the back of my wife's Triumph, and have noticed that the rear tyres on all of our other three bikes are at less than 1.5mm.
It's going to be a sweaty, expensive week. 

jaytmon

Dominic said:

… I just don't understand the purpose of them other than a wheelie machine

To be fair I could say the same thing (for me) about Harleys. Apart from the last bit of course.  

https://youtu.be/MriQf8cYTgA

AK99

Dominic said:

yes, epitome of it.....a hybrid of an Enduro and a sportbike .
As the name suggests,they were a French Obsession 20 years ago but I just don't understand the purpose of them other than a wheelie machine

They are generally lightweight with  reasonable power, which gives them decent power to weight ratios - and when you couple that to a stiff frame and decent brakes, and usually a high-spec suspension setup, you get something that accelerates pretty quickly, and then brakes, stops and corners really well. They can carry huge corner speed because of the light weight and stiff frames.

The breed in general are crap for the open road and sitting at anywhere over about 60 mph for any length of time admittedly, but light and nimble as fk for when you're just on the mood for something you can let rip a little now and then. A proper supermoto/hypermotard would be a great tool for running rings round adventure bike types on the curvy stuff (and off-road if you had the right tyres ), and you'd also get to play with the sports bikes on roundabouts and anywhere else you have to stick to non-jailtime speeds

cruxiform

Arty shot of the new bike down at Brighton this week. This is the third one I’ve owned, I must like them. Off to Germany next week for a long weekend, then a two week tour in mid July. No idea of where I’m going yet, just going to rock up in Calais and see what happens!

Dominic

lovely tool for that kind of trip
,May she carry you safely and swiftly

Haych

Yep, lovely looking machine. 

My weekend is looking a bit like this. 

Hit the road after work today and landed at Ragley Hall for the ABR Festival just after 4:00. 

There’s already thousands of bikes (yay) and people (boo) here and it doesn’t open properly until tomorrow!

I’m camped next to a German chap who has come all the way from SW Germany just for this weekend!  He’s been telling me that he had his bike shipped to the US and did a 48,000 Kilometre tour over there on it, including both the Dempster and Dalton Highways. 

Bastard!

cruxiform

Dominic said:

lovely tool for that kind of trip
,May she carry you safely and swiftly

Thank you. Can’t wait, the chance to switch off, chill and just ride.

cruxiform

Haych said:

Yep, lovely looking machine. 

My weekend is looking a bit like this. 

Hit the road after work today and landed at Ragley Hall for the ABR Festival just after 4:00. 

There’s already thousands of bikes (yay) and people (boo) here and it doesn’t open properly until tomorrow!

I’m camped next to a German chap who has come all the way from SW Germany just for this weekend!  He’s been telling me that he had his bike shipped to the US and did a 48,000 Kilometre tour over there on it, including both the Dempster and Dalton Highways. 

Bastard!

Have a good one, weather looks good this weekend.

Love your bike btw.

Haych

^ thanks mate. I quite like it too…… until I see a nice GS TE, then I want to remortgage the house and do a round the world tour lol. 

Moe_Zambeek

I’ve had a couple of supermotos and similar, the last being a Vitpilen 701. The point of them is that they are light and they are fun to ride 

Round here with plenty of tight single track twisty roads they’re great. Plenty of quiet single track twisty up / down gravel festooned roads to have fun on. Also great for commuting on. Not great for touring but having said that I have toured the Picos (from Scotland) on an MZ Baghira. Anything is possible if you have the desire. 

You do need to follow the original French idea though and have a decent amount of CCs available or you do run out of steam quickly - if you’re running a motocross derived machine for instance. I lived in France at the turn of the
millennium and the supermotard then was an XR650 / Tenere or similar with 17” rims, decent tyres and extra braking power. A 660+ 4 stroke is ideal. The Husky 701 / KTM 690 motor is good up to a ton + if you can hang on and pretty user friendly too, once you fix the hopelessly shite clutch slave. Long travel suspension and an upright seating position with good leverage makes them ridiculously easy to chuck around once you’re used to it.