My first ever bike was a 2000 MY cbr600f in red white and blue. Brand new and I loved her, did my first wheelie , my first stoppie my first knee down ...well you get the picture. Spent the last 17 years with suzuki, bmw and Kawasaki but I'm now coming home. An unregistered MY18 blade SP being delivered the middle of next week, dealer took delivery of it in March 2019. I'm really looking forward to it though its snowing at the minute so I doubt I will be taking her out straight away. Not really into mods and changes just tend to leave them straight but roll on the summer. Why the change, well I just couldn't resist the deals on some of the last few kicking about. £16500 on the road with 0% for 3 years on pcp. BARGAIN Some dealers still trying to shift them at £20k...yeah that's not happening with the new one imminent. Those being more savvy offering nice discounts with the 0% and sensible trade in prices. My last 2 sports bikes were zx10r 's but pre electronic gizmos so looking forward to learning to lean on the electronics to try and push even harder. This was something that was always hard to judge with the zx10. Some days you could get hard on the gas without drama and the next day it would spin or buck and weave trying to kill you so mere mortals like me would always have to hold back a little. Anyway I dont need the extra ponies from the new one and I'm happy to save the extra £120pm the new one would have cost me on a like for like basis. Yup it was nearly double the cost on a pcp compared to the deal i got on the old model. Only drawback was the dealer was 250 miles away but hey ho...worth the effort.
Sounds like a great deal; savvy too. Good luck with it and welcome Also remember that pictures are mandatory
Hello and welcome. Sounds like a good deal you got there. As someone mentioned on another thread, maybe Honda should continue with this model as the new bike isn’t going to suit a lot of road goers.
Hi and welcome Paul, look forward to the pictures such a shame they didn’t do hrc paint in the sp/sp2 as everyone knows that’s the fasted colour scheme all the best mate, looking forward to your contributions to our band of brothers (and sisters )
Cheers everyone, thankyou for the welcomes. Pics will be arranged once delivered. I'm sure the 2020 version is awesome but I'm not getting any younger and a proper race seating position does turn me off a bit and when dealers start talking about nudging £300 pm on a pcp I started losing interest until I spotted the outgoing model deals. I last did a track day about 6 years ago and I swore then it would be my last, absolutely knackered after each session, sore wrists and huffing and puffing like an octogenarian. Its def a younger mans game but now I'm thinking maybe one last hoorah later in the season once its fully run in?? Perhaps I'm just getting carried away with the excitement of a new toy as I've just seen my beer belly and it ain't getting any smaller!
Does anyone have any comments on how the electronics have changed the way they ride' if Indeed they have? I'm certainly no club racer but I do like to push on a bit and done several track days usually at the back of the fast group or front of the medium group. Has anyone found adapting to electronics a chore or a saviour? Will they let me be a quicker rider? This is what attracts me more than anything the thought of maybe getting harder on the gas sooner (relying on traction control) and trail braking a bit harder (relying on cornering abs to bail me out). Is this a reality or am I expecting too much? I recall reading an article where the journalist constantly saw a higher top speed on the straights when traction control was on as opposed to when he switched it off, going against what he was expecting. Any comments in favour or against the electronics eagerly awaited.
I got myself my 19 SP as a direct consequence of having some hairy moments on track on my electronic-less RR6 (rear end slides, half a highside etc). I've put about 500 miles on my SP since getting it in November. I can't say that the safety net of the electronics has changed the way I ride on the road - in wintry damp conditions like we've had my worry is that I'm going to lose the front on a roundabout or on some grease round a random bend - and there's not much the electronics are going to do about that. I've had a bit of aquaplane drift on the front in pouring conditions/standing water on track (apex of first corner at Oulton) but generally when that front wheel goes, it goes, and there's not much you or the electronics can do about it. So that's what tended to limit my speed more than the vigorousness of the right wrist on the road so far. Looking forward to getting the bike on track though, as that's what I've got it for. Will probably want to build into it gently though, rather than just banging the throttle wide open before the bike's up on the first corner and hoping the electronics sort it out.
I've seen a few youtube vids where the rider (journalist) have really started to lean on the electronics and rely on them to sort things out which by the way the bike appears to do. Maybe it's a mind thing , I'm not sure yet? I've always believed that if it takes me 2 mins to do a lap then no matter which bike I am on it will still take me 2 mins to do that lap as my mind wont let me go faster as I think I'm going to die! However that was all pre electronic stuff so now thinking that maybe you can try pushing harder now in the belief it wont go wrong so easily as it did with the pre electronic bikes. The last time I thought to myself I CAN take that corner faster I just need to trust in the bike I ended up with a broken collar bone, broken shoulder blade, crushed rotator cuff and 3 cracked ribs plus a grands worth of plastics to replace and a new set of leathers, helmet etc. An expensive mistake at Croft ! My skill levels ran out before my bravery levels or stupidity levels
That's the thing isn't it - if you're a bike racer you're expected to come off occasionally, it's part of the game. But for the rest of us, it's an expensive and dangerous pastime to be pushing past our psychological limits... What happened when you got that corner wrong Paul? Loss of traction / ran wide etc?
I went in a bit faster so had to lean a bit further and it just washed out. Hindsight probably suggests I hadn't reduced the tyre pressures enough or I just had crap body positioning as nothing was touching down (pegs etc) before washing out. It was at this corner on the very next lap after this pic taken. at the last second the bike was sliding it then rolled over and bugged up the left fairing too !!! Lke I said above I think I just ran out of skill It wasnt a normal track day it was like an introductory race school where you would get some 1 on 1 tuition from ex club racers etc
Eesh on the damage! But looking at that picture it does look like you might have just run out of tyre. Was it the front that went? Could have dropped it in a bit too aggressively maybe, too fast to an already edgy high lean angle for the pressure/tyre temp at the time. I had one lowside that was on cold tyres, first (hairpin) corner out of the pitlane at the start of the session. Dropped it in at about 50% speed/lean - still too much for cold tyres and it was eating tarmac before you could say cheese. Electronics aren't saving that!
Your probably right. I just cocked up really. Didnt let the tyres down enough so lowered my contact patch, probably took too much lean angle and my body weight isn't right at all from the pic. Should try to keep at least one set of ribs close to or on the tank even when hanging off, all the pros do. I actually watched a very good youtube clip from an Italian about body positioning by racers I think jonas Folga was involved somewhere, it was a while ago but very interesting. Never mind you live and learn
