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June 12, 2022 5:28 AM Subscribe

It's Sunday, which means it's time to gear up and hit the twisties! Step inside, we have 99 awesome motorcycles to choose from, ordered by engine displacement. So let's ride! (Our Kickstarter.)

(Warning: some of these feature dangerous street riding.)

(Or, GET A SCOOTER.)

posted by swift (27 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite

Mine is a 2005 BMW R1150R.
posted by whatevernot at 5:55 AM on June 12, 2022

I'm glad the LiveWire exists, but I'd rather have a Zero or a Cake (yeah, I've been window-shopping electric motorcycles lately).
posted by box at 6:49 AM on June 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Mine is a BMW 1150GS
posted by pdoege at 7:19 AM on June 12, 2022

The Cakes are really cool, and I really enjoyed the scooter segment at the end!

I've been eyeballing some kind of motorized two wheel thing for years, but for my personal situation it just never seems like a good idea. In the city, the bicycle can get me around plenty fast, and I can occasionally ignore some traffic rules I'd be more careful to respect if I was riding on something with a motor. At the same time, having a powered two wheel thing wouldn't do the jobs I use a car for - moving material, camping, etc...

But it looks so fun!
posted by jellywerker at 7:22 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mine's an FZ6, though most of the videos I've been watching lately are of mechanical jobs. Rubber side down, friends!
posted by rodlymight at 8:25 AM on June 12, 2022

I live in a city, and would use a motorcycle to do one of three things; quick errands, or get out to the forest (realistically, 60+ miles there, 60+ miles back), or occasional commuting (barring bananas weather). The price point of an electric motorcycle is way, way too high to justify it for just the first two, and limited to not being able to complete the latter.

I think electric motorcycles are really fucking cool, and I've had the chance to ride a Cake, and it was REALLY FUN and a pleasant ride (my only gripe on the few rides I did was the seat kind of sucked) but side by side with like, a Yamaha TW200, which is gets blazingly good mileage (something like almost 70 MPG and has a 2 gallon tank?) I can't justify the purchase for any scenario. Small displacement gas motorcycles and scooters don't contribute to carbon emissions in any signifiant ways when you're looking at the transportation sector.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:27 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've got a Daymak EM3, a really fun electric alternative to a 50cc scooter.
posted by signsofrain at 8:30 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I wish I could ride a motorcycle but I know I can't. I'm the kind of person who would look where I shouldn't be going and end up there, maimed or dead. I guess you have to know your limitations but when I see riders on country roads I am jealous. (Not the effing freeway though, that seems like too much trust in other people to be reasonable.)
posted by Pembquist at 9:04 AM on June 12, 2022

Please keep the electric experiences coming blue friends! Thanks OP.
posted by drowsy at 9:18 AM on June 12, 2022

I've never owned a motorcycle, and likely never will. I'm entranced by the old ones, so I'm thrilled that swift included the '46 Indian Chief.

For me... it's about the art. If I were to get a motorcycle, it would be a '48 Harley EL (61" or 74". I'm not picky.) or maybe an Indian/ACE Four. I like the idea of the 1920s board track racers. The 1928-30 Scouts are way cool, also! (I visited this dealership yesterday. They have a 1933 Indian Four on display (not for sale). I swooned.)

Thank you for posting! Have a fabulous day, everyone!
posted by dfm500 at 9:45 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

More electric window-shopping: Pursang, Tarform.
posted by box at 9:47 AM on June 12, 2022

A motorcycle is a bicycle with pandemonium attachment...

I came to riding later in life, and my only regret is that I didn't start sooner. Have commuted year round in soggy Seattle, and there's no better way to experience the twisty mountain and coastal roads we're blessed with out here.

Looking forward to electrics reaching a price point where it makes sense with my budget. For now though, I love my FJ 09.
posted by calamari kid at 9:48 AM on June 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

Glad to see the Road Glide on the list! Got my first one in 2001 and about to hop on my 2019 model. Of course, I don’t just ride on Sunday; will probably take it to work all week.
posted by TedW at 10:07 AM on June 12, 2022

I ride a Sprint St 955
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 10:58 AM on June 12, 2022

Mine is a Ducati Multistrada 1100S. I'm still in my first year of riding, and it's only the third bike I've ever ridden. I want to try everything on this list (and more), but life is short, and electrics will obsolete them all someday (hopefully).
posted by swift at 11:04 AM on June 12, 2022

Mine's a Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Custom. It's my fourth bike, going on two years with it, and it's the best bike I've ridden.
posted by hanov3r at 11:20 AM on June 12, 2022

I've been seriously considering a new Honda Trail 125, since I used to explore the desert on a Trail 90, and it would also make a good local runabout. And I'm really hankering to go places again that aren't well suited to 4 wheels. Then I saw the Svartpilen, and then the moto-lust starts to bloat quickly.

It's neat to see how alien shifting on the Indian is, compared to modern bikes. And the way the gauge cluster is mounted on the Vincent makes it look as if the bike is about to fall apart. It's amazing how far the technology has come. Even the CBX is kind scary to ride compared to the modern rocket that outclasses it in pretty much every way.
posted by 2N2222 at 11:34 AM on June 12, 2022

I have four motorcycles, and am caretaker of a fifth. This is definitely a danger, the accretion of bikes.

My "daily" (in quotes because I don't ride nearly that often), is a Triumph Sprint ST; which I've comfortably ridden to Bryce and Yellowstone and other fairly distant destinations from here in the Puget Sound area. With the hard pannier bags, it holds a fair amount of stuff, it's sporty enough to be fun, but it doesn't kill your wrists or back like a "real" sportbike would over those kind of distances. It's a good machine, mine now has 40,000 miles.

I have a mid-1950s BSA A10 "Golden Flash", a charming old thing. It doesn't have a swinging arm rear suspension, so take bumpy roads with some caution, but it's fun for putting around on (I think it has all of 35 horsepower), and it was fun to restore from scrap condition.

My next project is a 1970 Triumph Bonneville given to me by a friend who was never going to give it the total rebuild it needs. Once a few other projects are further along I'll get to it.

I also have a 1979 Suzuki 550GS which was acquired as a non-runner. It now runs and rides nicely, but I'm not sure what to do with it. It's a nice enough old bike, but it's not my first choice when thinking about a ride. (It seems like the fate of many of these SJMs (Standard Japanese Motorcycle) is to be turned into "cafe racers" and I should probably sell it along to someone wanting to do that.)

Motorcycling is fun, I encourage anyone who has thought about trying it to give it a shot. There will usually be a local Motorcycle Safety Foundation course near you, if you're in the US. I didn't start riding until I was in my late 20s and it's never too late to give it a shot.
posted by maxwelton at 12:35 PM on June 12, 2022 [3 favorites]

The 1976 KZ400 video was very familiar. I had one of those as my second bike and did a couple of long rides on it that made me decide I needed a bigger bike, which led to me getting a '82 BMW R100S (bought new and still have).
Multiple bikes? Guilty. The two that get the most use are the BMW and a fairly recently acquired '98 Honda VFR 800 Interceptor. A lightly modified '86 Honda XL600R, a likewise lightly modified '79 Yamaha RD400F, and little Honda XR100 round out the stable. I mostly just commute these days, but I've done 600+ mile days on the BMW a time or three. The RD has seen some track-day use, most recently several years back. (I have a second-place trophy for a race in the vintage class on that one, too, from even farther back). I took the BMW to a Total Control riding school, I did a few seasons of indoor flat-track racing on the XR100.
I liked the test ride I took on a Zero, but the price was too big a hurdle for me.
posted by coppertop at 1:24 PM on June 12, 2022

I used to own a ‘79 Suzuki GS550 also! (Now I have a ’94 BMW R1150RS.)
posted by phliar at 1:25 PM on June 12, 2022

I have a Stark Varg on order. They're aiming to do to dirt bikes what Tesla did to petrol cars - be better in every* way: more power, more torque, better handling, more reliable, more fun.

And about bloody time, coz dirt bikes are noisy, delicate, and need far too much maintenance.

The first media reviews came out this weekend. The main conclusion: "game changer".

* - ok, two things electric can't do right now:
1. You can't fill up the tank in thirty seconds, so not for desert racing/rallies/six-hour enduros.
2. Goats don't hear you coming. I'm currently riding an electric Sur-Ron. If I'm hooning around in the bush, I regularly come round a corner and the track is covered in sun-bathing goats. They see me at the last second, panic, jump up and run in random directions. I'm yet to hit one but it's been close.
posted by happyinmotion at 1:52 PM on June 12, 2022

I have two bikes, Honda NC750D and SH150, they're wonderful, and I hardly ride them. I live downtown Toronto, don't commute, can buy anything we need on foot or if it's a Costco run will get a carshare, and it's 30 minutes minimum to get anywhere that isn't totally stop-n-go and still it's all suburbs until you get an hour away. I just don't know how much longer I can justify keeping them. I bought them when we lived in Kitchener and they got constant use, but now they're just getting dusty in the basement garage of our condo. And costing like $1800 a year in insurance and parking fees.

It's sad, really.
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:58 PM on June 12, 2022

I enjoyed the livewire video. I ride a Vespa and electric is the direction I'd like to go. Though I have to admit to being interested in the TW as well. Thanks for this lovely post.
posted by evilDoug at 3:39 PM on June 12, 2022

Sport Tourers are my bag, in my 20s while in Japan I owned a 1985 Honda CBR-400F Endurance (saw it in the corner motorcycle shop on the walk home from the station and I HAD TO HAVE IT) and in my 30s a 2002 BRG Sprint ST.

Sad that nothing out now is like that, good ergos with decent (0 to 60 in 3sec) accel, though the majors are slowly evolving back in this direction I guess.

Would love to get an electric Sport Tourer someday maybe.
posted by Heywood Mogroot III at 6:13 PM on June 12, 2022

Keanu is co-founder of Arch Motorcycle. WIRED article.

I had a CB450 and a CB750 in California but riding in Oregon without being able to lane-split minimized the fun - so much poky traffic to be stuck in day-to-day. I'm thinking of trading in my car for a Vespa for the rare times I can't take public transportation or Lyft though.
posted by bendy at 7:03 PM on June 12, 2022

Zero lost me with their performance-as-DLC antics, so Livewire it will be.

Unfortunately for me I'm mentally incapable of replacing something that still works, and my 2001 Yamaha refuses to die.
posted by The Monster at the End of this Thread at 6:01 AM on June 13, 2022

My present stable is a Ducati 900SS and a Zero SR/F (disclosure, I am an engineer at Zero).

Summertime!
posted by Maxwell's demon at 10:25 AM on June 13, 2022 [1 favorite]

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