Weight Relative To Fun
A V-Strom on a gravel road.
My 1999 Kawasaki Concours is a far better bike than my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. So why is it that it has always been very clear in my mind that it is just more fun to ride the Honda? I think I figured it out awhile ago: Weight.
It just make sense. I’ve ridden scooters a number of times and the one thing I keep saying about them is that scooters are fun! And of course, scooters are light. When you’re riding a scooter – at least a small one; there are some big scooters – you’re not concerned about tipping over. There is zero chance when you come to a stop that you’re going to drop the thing. It’s too light. That leaves you free to just go zipping around and enjoy the ride.
It’s a very different matter when you’re on a heavy motorcycle. My CB weighs around 580 pounds wet. At 580 pounds, the CB is nowadays a mid-sized bike, though when it was new it was considered a big bike. It also sits reasonably low, so all that weight is easy to manage – usually.
My Connie, on the other hand, weighs 675 pounds wet and the 7.5-gallon gas tank sits way up high, making it pretty top-heavy. Especially when it was new, you’d better believe I put a lot of my focus on just keeping it up whenever I was stopping or standing. I’ve had the bike for 22 years now, so I’ve gotten used to it but I still don’t take it for granted. I’ve dropped it a couple times and I know that if it leans a little too far there is nothing in the world I can do to stop it from going all the way over.
Then one summer I had the chance to ride a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic for two days. This bike weighs about 860 pounds. Talk about struggling to keep that thing up at times! On the highway it was a great motorcycle but I hated it in city traffic, and the weight was the biggest part of what made that so unpleasant.
More recently, although we’re talking about eight years ago, I bought a Suzuki V-Strom 650. This bike weighs 490 pounds wet. Compared to my Connie it feels so light and easy to handle that it’s just a kick. Which is to say: Fun!
So it hit me, way back whenever. The more weight, the more focus you have to put on the bike. The less weight, the more you can focus on the ride. And I’ve said many, many times, I’m not into motorcycles, I’m into riding motorcycles. I love it when all of sudden things make such sense.
Biker Quote for Today
What’s sexier than a curvy girl with tattoos and a cute face? A curvy girl with tattoos and a cute face who riders her own motorcycle.
