CB450DX
Veteran Member
Title says it all, I'm very curious. Tell me! Make the case for your engine/bike.
I'm on the hunt for my first "modern" bike (mainly looking for ABS, great suspension/frame and great engine) and I want to know what kind of engines/engine feel you like and what made you choose X bike for your favorite (and does it have the favorite engine or not?)
Having ridden some more bikes recently while trying to pick one, I've become more aware than ever about how absurdly diffrent engines can feel.
I've ridden quite a bit more my brother's Daytona 675r. The superbike pulls are incredible, and the engine is amazing and high revving as well, but despite how premium everything else is, I'm just not a racing ergonomics kinda guy. Its analog RPM tach is awfully sexy though.if only the speed triples didn't have that awful mosquito headlight.
Rode the modern CB500F (now Hornet 500) which felt pretty similar in power delivery to my CB but just way more refined (with an "eh" stock exhaust note) and quick.
Rode a Z400 twin on a parking lot, and then changed bikes for a Z900 - which I hated the looks but d*mn that bike felt great. MT-07 also felt amazingly flickable and quick although that one I rode far less.
I recently rode a 2019 Triumph T100 (900cc twin, high torque engine) and even if the ergonomics and everything else were pretty much what I'm used to, the engine was just completely different from what I'm used to, much more than the last ones.
Of course, double the torque I'm used to, but also at half the rpms, I'm also pretty sure I was the first person to ever rev her above 5k rpms - Don't really enjoy the 270 twin sound, but the stock exhausts for this bike are LOUD, which kinda makes it sound good.
And at first I thought I just didn't like it, which never happened before as I'm very open minded when it comes to 2 wheels, but after a few more minutes riding, I started understanding how you're supposed to treat her, the bike is VERY punchy and despite the simple suspension, felt very premium. The one I rode was a 2019 black edition model with 12000 kilometers on it so it was pretty much new as well. I later serviced the bike after the ride, cleaning the air filter and inspecting and cleaning everything below the seat/side panels. It's pretty much a japanese bike under the seat, Keihin everywhere.
I kinda missed how linear and how "elastic" my 450 engine is (although on that side, I guess gearing also comes up on the equation), even if it is much less punchier. I missed hearing the RPM climb and the power coming linearly from 4000 to ~6500rpm and then keeping up.
My petrolhead car friends literally went "that's such a honda/vtec thing to say" when I talked to them about it and I guess I maybe am a 4 cylinder kind of guy.
I'll test ride a NC750X this week which should be pretty close to the Triumph (the NC redlines at 6000, its pretty much half of a Honda Fit engine as far as I understand). But then I saw a CB1000R at the last bike meeting I went to.
And man... You might not like how it looks, I myself feel like it's a weird bike that doesn't look too modern or too retro, creating kind of a weird middle ground. But in real person that red tank just screamed at me.
So I decided to raise my budget.
And test ride both the CB650R and the CB1000R. I'm going for the old models with the non-tft dash (and on the CB650R, the older models have the bronze engine covers, newer ones are all black).
I figure I'm probably going to get one of them at the end of the day. The 1000R is a little bit outside of my range, but it isn't a huge bump over the 650R prices... It's less than 10%, so I might go for it to try avoiding buying a bigger bike down the line (when bikes are inevitably even more expensive).
I wish I could also test ride the Hornet 750 but contrary to the rest of the world, Hondas are the most expensive brand around here, and they're also out of stock/waiting list everywhere (and to be fair, so is the new cb650r with the e-clutch, but I'll test ride a 2021 one, same for the CB1000R, it's the old one with the simpler non-tft panel).
The GSX-8S is probably the best bang for the buck over here as its pretty much costs the same price new as a lightly used CB650R, but Suzuki's parts availability is far from great, and despite it having some great things like removable subframe and oil pan design... I expect the GSX-8S to be similar to the MT07 where I feel like its amazing but there's no "falling in love".
I used to judge people who picked their bikes by appearance, and now I'm over here thinking of doing the same.
I of course also thought about older bikes like the fuel injected + ABS Bandit 650/1250s and also of the older modern CB1000R (that had an hydraulic clutch and ABS), but although I share my country of origin with Ayrton Senna, the similiraties end there, I'm not as good as he was in the rain, I'm usually forced to ride on it and although I take pride in not having to lay'erdown yet, I have gone through a couple of scares over the last couple of weeks and have felt like I was "riding a cloud" way too many times, and after testing bikes with premium suspension... I might just be spoiled too. At this point, a rain mode would kind of be welcome, at least traction control.
I still refuse to simply buy a car, though.
I'm on the hunt for my first "modern" bike (mainly looking for ABS, great suspension/frame and great engine) and I want to know what kind of engines/engine feel you like and what made you choose X bike for your favorite (and does it have the favorite engine or not?)
Having ridden some more bikes recently while trying to pick one, I've become more aware than ever about how absurdly diffrent engines can feel.
I've ridden quite a bit more my brother's Daytona 675r. The superbike pulls are incredible, and the engine is amazing and high revving as well, but despite how premium everything else is, I'm just not a racing ergonomics kinda guy. Its analog RPM tach is awfully sexy though.
Rode the modern CB500F (now Hornet 500) which felt pretty similar in power delivery to my CB but just way more refined (with an "eh" stock exhaust note) and quick.
Rode a Z400 twin on a parking lot, and then changed bikes for a Z900 - which I hated the looks but d*mn that bike felt great. MT-07 also felt amazingly flickable and quick although that one I rode far less.
I recently rode a 2019 Triumph T100 (900cc twin, high torque engine) and even if the ergonomics and everything else were pretty much what I'm used to, the engine was just completely different from what I'm used to, much more than the last ones.
Of course, double the torque I'm used to, but also at half the rpms, I'm also pretty sure I was the first person to ever rev her above 5k rpms - Don't really enjoy the 270 twin sound, but the stock exhausts for this bike are LOUD, which kinda makes it sound good.
And at first I thought I just didn't like it, which never happened before as I'm very open minded when it comes to 2 wheels, but after a few more minutes riding, I started understanding how you're supposed to treat her, the bike is VERY punchy and despite the simple suspension, felt very premium. The one I rode was a 2019 black edition model with 12000 kilometers on it so it was pretty much new as well. I later serviced the bike after the ride, cleaning the air filter and inspecting and cleaning everything below the seat/side panels. It's pretty much a japanese bike under the seat, Keihin everywhere.
I kinda missed how linear and how "elastic" my 450 engine is (although on that side, I guess gearing also comes up on the equation), even if it is much less punchier. I missed hearing the RPM climb and the power coming linearly from 4000 to ~6500rpm and then keeping up.
My petrolhead car friends literally went "that's such a honda/vtec thing to say" when I talked to them about it and I guess I maybe am a 4 cylinder kind of guy.
I'll test ride a NC750X this week which should be pretty close to the Triumph (the NC redlines at 6000, its pretty much half of a Honda Fit engine as far as I understand). But then I saw a CB1000R at the last bike meeting I went to.
And man... You might not like how it looks, I myself feel like it's a weird bike that doesn't look too modern or too retro, creating kind of a weird middle ground. But in real person that red tank just screamed at me.
So I decided to raise my budget.
And test ride both the CB650R and the CB1000R. I'm going for the old models with the non-tft dash (and on the CB650R, the older models have the bronze engine covers, newer ones are all black).
I figure I'm probably going to get one of them at the end of the day. The 1000R is a little bit outside of my range, but it isn't a huge bump over the 650R prices... It's less than 10%, so I might go for it to try avoiding buying a bigger bike down the line (when bikes are inevitably even more expensive).
I wish I could also test ride the Hornet 750 but contrary to the rest of the world, Hondas are the most expensive brand around here, and they're also out of stock/waiting list everywhere (and to be fair, so is the new cb650r with the e-clutch, but I'll test ride a 2021 one, same for the CB1000R, it's the old one with the simpler non-tft panel).
The GSX-8S is probably the best bang for the buck over here as its pretty much costs the same price new as a lightly used CB650R, but Suzuki's parts availability is far from great, and despite it having some great things like removable subframe and oil pan design... I expect the GSX-8S to be similar to the MT07 where I feel like its amazing but there's no "falling in love".
I used to judge people who picked their bikes by appearance, and now I'm over here thinking of doing the same.
I of course also thought about older bikes like the fuel injected + ABS Bandit 650/1250s and also of the older modern CB1000R (that had an hydraulic clutch and ABS), but although I share my country of origin with Ayrton Senna, the similiraties end there, I'm not as good as he was in the rain, I'm usually forced to ride on it and although I take pride in not having to lay'erdown yet, I have gone through a couple of scares over the last couple of weeks and have felt like I was "riding a cloud" way too many times, and after testing bikes with premium suspension... I might just be spoiled too. At this point, a rain mode would kind of be welcome, at least traction control.
I still refuse to simply buy a car, though.
But I guess if you wanted into at least some version of a CBX, that's about as inexpensively as you could expect to do it.
