MSerfozo

As a former Michelin engineer, I found this very interesting. It's not often I watch an entire 20 min video.

Looks like a dual sport version of the RZ250. With sticky street tires it would be a hoot to ride at the gap. 18" front might be a problem. For $1500 US, it's a good deal if you want a 2 stroke. Those things are getting rarer all the time. I wish I still had my old RD. Too bad about the color though. I'd probably piss off the purists and make a naked hooligan bike out of it for that price.

We were planning to use the 20 ton hoist but the safety guys locked it out before they left for the OSHA class. 😕 Rear tire is on, we'll balance it on afternoon break in about 20 mins.

Yesterday I brought my HF tire changer to work and set it up out of the way in the corner of the shop. At lunchtime I helped a buddy change the front tire on his Ninja 650. He doesn't have a front lift that will work with the fairing so we put a strap around the upper triple and lifted it with the forklift! Should have got a pic... We knew we could get away with it because our two safety guys were at an OSHA class all day!!! 😀 He brought the rear wheel in today and well do that one at morning break.

4.0" x2.9" so pretty much oversquare. Peak torque at 6KRPM so 125hp must happen quite a bit higher up.

Mine has had everything short of cylinder machine work done to it. Holeshot header & slipon, Holeshot stage 2 jet kit, and both GSX-R cams. Here's what Dale Walker's dyno showed on his similarly built Bandit (but no cams on Dale's for this series of pulls) I had mine on a dyno once when the Dynojet guy was at Mid-Ohio for the AMA races. It pulled 115hp (Stage 1 & slipon at the time) but the dyno guy wasn't taking time to attach a spark sensor so no direct RPM and torque measured. However, my hp curve was shapes similar to Dale's and would imply at least 80-90 ft-lbs in that state of tune. I think you were selling your Bandit short. My surprise at the FTR's torque numbers was because I expected they'd put a v-twin tractor motor in it with peak torque at 3KRPM like another US bike maker does. The difference between the FTR's torque & hp numbers implies that it revs more like a Ducati than a Harley. Could be a fun motor.

I searched because I thought I saw a thread about this recently but here's info on the official debut at Intermot. Lots of pics on the "View Gallery" link. Looks like it'll be a GSX-S underneath with vaguely Katanaesque bodywork. Can't say I don't like it, but I was hoping for more... https://newatlas.com/2019-suzuki-katana-launch/56565/

Nope, only 85 ft-lbs @6000 rpm - my 17 year old Bandit does that! And 43o lean angle? I guess it really doesn't need sportbike wheels & tires.

Agree! Lack of 17" wheels is a deal breaker IMO.

Wifey says the door is good now. New spring and cables. Apparently the garage door guy commented on my bike. Her text after: "You would have enjoyed the 5 minute motorcycle discussion more than I did."

I put it safely in the back of my garage so the garage door guy can change the spring today. I would be riding it if I could get the &^%&$(# door open!

I watched 2 friends crash right in front of me from locking up the rear entering a corner, then releasing it and highsiding. ABS would probably have saved both crashes. Would have helped this guy too https://jalopnik.com/racer-who-grabbed-another-riders-brake-lever-could-be-i-1828964861

Got the old tires dismounted from the old wheels so I could weigh them to compare to the new Galespeed wheels. Best scale I have is a digital bathroom scale but it seems to be weighing consistently. Weights are in lbs. Stock B12 Hayabusa Galespeed --------- -------- --------- Front 10.6 11.0 8.8 Rear 14.0 12.0 Cush 4.5 1.2 The biggest difference I notice is the 20% reduction in the front. It feels a lot quicker to turn in and generally more nimble (if you can call just under 500 lb nimble). The rear is a lot lighter at 28% but a big chunk of that is the cush drive. A few more pics - 1st shows how much sleeker the rear hub & cush are, 2nd is where I drank my coffee every morning in Murphy waiting for the fog to lift, 3rd is a 4 day old Michelin Power RS.

Do you seriously need a 10mm socket or was that just an excuse to post the meme? The only piece of Snap-On I own is a 1/4" drive 10mm socket - don't have any idea how it came to live with the Craftsman stuff in my toolbox. If you need it, PM me and you can have it.

I was on the southernmost 10 mi of the BRP on Aug 21st and it had recently been chip-sealed. Road had not been striped at that time and there was not a huge amount of loose stone, but enough for concern. I'm not sure how far north the new paving goes, we turned around at Balsam Mountain picnic area. Have a safe trip.