It’s been a good 3500 miles with the GZ250, but I’ve been itching for more power and better cornering potential. Also, I somehow spent $1000 in maintenance in 10 months for a “beginner” bike. So, I sold my GZ250 to buy this crazy motorcycle. I always wanted a high-revving inline-3 engine, and this bike was a good deal.
What a difference it is! I went from being slower than 99% of cars on the road to faster than 99% of cars on the road. That and the difference in ergonomics make it feel like my first time riding again because I feel like a noob again.
It pulls so crazy hard in lower gears that I don’t think I’ve ever gave it full throttle below 4th gear, and it sounds amazing doing so. And whenever I take a corner, I consistently underestimate just how much I can lean, so I go almost unsatisfyingly slow, and the bike seems to say, “c’mon, chicken. Believe in me. You could’ve gone way faster than that.” I hope to do a track day to remedy this mismatch between me and my motorcycle.
The headlights are a weird point of controversy. I personally don’t have much of an opinion on them, I just like high revving triples. More unique with a wider powerband than an inline-4.
Motodemic makes a headlight conversion kit for them that allows you to relocate your instrument cluster, and put in a single 7" round headlight. You can even get the JB Speaker adaptive headlight if you do a lot of night riding. That’s def. on my list of things to get once i finish parting out my '12 CBR600RR.
I have a pet peeve with 3-cillinder 4-stroke engines… pay you no mind.
I’m curious, why?
It seems unbalanced to me.
If it’s one cylinder… ok, i guess. Two or four… makes sense… but three? Maybe if 2 are on intake/compression and the other on explosion/exhaust but is the other larger?
Dunno… not a mechanical engineer though so meh…
I know for most triples, they fire evenly at 240 degrees of crank rotation. The cylinders should have perfect primary balance in the same way that three-phase alternating current is balanced (please correct me if I’m wrong on this). The secondary balance will be off, but this is relatively minor. Overall, I believe triples have better overall balance than twins, but less than fours.
For a better source, check out this FortNine video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOTz0Ol8fLA
Edit: The above video says triples are very imbalanced, maybe I’m quite wrong here.
Actually, 3 cylinders are quite cool. It’s got more torque than a 4 cylinder and it’s way lower in the rpm’s so it’s more useful (quick jumps in traffic to get out of the way in a hurry), and more horsepower so better top end speed than a 2 cylinder. I think they’re a great balance; unless you do 200mph everywhere you go and need a 4 cylinder, or can’t stop saying “bruuuuther” and need 2 LOL.
Nah I’m cool with very occasionally hitting 200 km/h on my 600cc ~100HP naked FZ6.
My second bike will probably be a FJR or a GTR.
Both great choices! BTW, I was only being a bit tongue in cheek. Personally I love all bikes and actually have just 2 cylinders myself. Although as it’s a Triumph, it’s less “bruuuther” and more “cup o’ tea ol’ chap?” LOL.