Look who's talking! :) Someone who was beaten by a Kinetic Nova (110/135) vis-a-vis his 150cc Fiero F2! :D
First of all, just an honest & serious question! How much have you ridden a 90cc+ gearless (I mean variomatic here and not single speed) scooter in heavy traffic to comment? Kailas Shastry R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > This particular post was on BN, but the original thread was on BP and BN as > well, so I guess it's fine to drag it here. > You could continue there as well! > <gliff> > > Lots of power, long wheelbase, gears & clutch to grapple with, feet > busy shifting gears and pressing the rear brake often tend to be > limitations against a simple and adequately powerful T-n-G (Twist & > Go) scooterette in busy traffic situations. > > </gliff> > > I party agree and partly disagree. A longer wheelbase works against you in > city traffic, but every other thing that a motorbike is, is an advantage > even in city riding in my experience. Including the gear + clutch > operations. I don't know about others, but I never have to consciously > *think* of shifting gears. I do it almost by instinct - force of habit. I > prefer the surges of power I can get with a manual shift. Very useful in > city as well. Gear shifts may come naturally to you and to almost everyone else with about a year of geared riding experience. But still it takes some effort, concious or unconscious! It does use some of your brain processing esp in stop-n-go traffic when you need to switch gears often. As for me I absolutely hate to ride the clutch at a halt... no matter how short it is. By this I mean, if I am in traffic and it has pulled to a reasonable stop, I'll not remain in gear and hold the clutch down. I'd rather move to neutral and release that clutch. This means as soon as the traffic moves, I have to re-engage the first gear. Now what if (for whatever reason) you have your left foot down. If you are in neutral you cannot take off without shifting weight to your right foot and then lifting the left. More complicated if you don't have a (working) self start (like in your F2) and your engine has stalled! > If you load a pillion on a scooter and you are up an incline or moving out > of potholes or humps, the scooter is painfully slow. Which scooter? Any riding experience? Most variomatics have extremely good low end pull because of the vario and can pull loads with enormous ease out of stand-still. You can just whack the throttle to hit the max torque rpm and let the centrifugal clutch decide how to engage the rear wheel. You don't have to manually figure out how much to slip the clutch and how much to whack the throttle to get a decent pulling power, not burning your clutch plates and not stalling your engine! In city riding, the only place I have found a lack of power in our scooter (a 110cc, 8 BHP Wave) is when trying to overtake a (relatively) fast moving vehicle when 2 up! > Any bike with gears > will be far more confidence inspiring - knowing that you can move from a > potentially dangerous place (say, crossing intersections) quickly if you > have to. Oh! and not to mention the much better braking that motorbikes > have. Crossing intersections is no pain. To my personal experience (Wave vs. P180 DTS-i (v1)) the Wave can beat the Pulsar anyday. Donno whether it is the poor Pulsar design or MRF Zappers or exxtremely good Wave dynamics. But I have NEVER been able to skid or tail out or fish tail on the Wave. When in panic, just grab both brakes as hard as you can and you can stop in one line! No matter whether there is water or gravel below! Infact I have been able to outbrake several vehicles who have bumped my Wave's rear. Including a Pulsar, cars and an RX. Sunday evening when coming out of the BMTC Big Bazaar parking lot (on the first floor), I managed to do a very nervous fish tail and what not on my Pulsar. Tried both brakes alternately on slippery tiles. Dad who was following had no probs riding the Wave. > > I think people who beat a fast *well ridden* motorbike on scooters > are > plain suicidal or just lucky. > In heavy chaotic traffic? Neither! They just have the right equipment for the job!
