04-06-2018, 03:08 AM
Agree with all of the advice. I've only had the bike a few days, but have put some good miles on it riding around in the beautiful sunny SoCal weather. It's a fantastic bike for tooling around town. Ideal really. Still though, I'm not super comfortable with it on the Freeways.
The CB1100 would have been a better match for me all around. But to be honest, for the type of riding that I will be doing when I'm here, the SR400 is actually more fun. So far as my impressions so far, here are a few:
1. The kickstart thing is as everybody else mentions. Easy (and fun). My guess is that the engine naturally stops at the beginning of a compression stroke because every time so far, a single full cycle through the kick starter travel with the compression lever engaged puts the piston at the right spot. I don't even look any more. One kick to position and the next kick to start. You do need to do it with some authority though.
2. Fit and finish are good, but not great. A bit of orange peel on the tank (only noticeable in certain light), but generally everything looks good.
3. I hate the positioning of the turn signal switch. No easy way to get to it if you are using the clutch. You have to reposition your hand to get to it. No big deal, but I like signal use to be second nature, and this gets in the way of that.
4. The thing is hard to get into neutral. Again, no big deal, but it's nearly impossible to go from first to neutral (which is probably a good thing) but it's nearly as hard coming down from second. I don't have all that much of a need for neutral in any case, but I do like to start in neutral at least, and it's usually a few seconds fiddling with it to get it there.
5. In my opinion, anybody who complains about power on this bike bought the wrong bike. It has exactly the power it needs to have for its intended use. Even on the freeway, it's completely fine (my complaint about it on the freeway is just that I still don't like the feel of a small bike at those speeds, which has nothing to do with the bike itself.)
Now I just need to find a reason to get a CB1100 back in Maryland, which is what started all of this in the first place. I can't really justify it though since I really like my current ride...
The CB1100 would have been a better match for me all around. But to be honest, for the type of riding that I will be doing when I'm here, the SR400 is actually more fun. So far as my impressions so far, here are a few:
1. The kickstart thing is as everybody else mentions. Easy (and fun). My guess is that the engine naturally stops at the beginning of a compression stroke because every time so far, a single full cycle through the kick starter travel with the compression lever engaged puts the piston at the right spot. I don't even look any more. One kick to position and the next kick to start. You do need to do it with some authority though.
2. Fit and finish are good, but not great. A bit of orange peel on the tank (only noticeable in certain light), but generally everything looks good.
3. I hate the positioning of the turn signal switch. No easy way to get to it if you are using the clutch. You have to reposition your hand to get to it. No big deal, but I like signal use to be second nature, and this gets in the way of that.
4. The thing is hard to get into neutral. Again, no big deal, but it's nearly impossible to go from first to neutral (which is probably a good thing) but it's nearly as hard coming down from second. I don't have all that much of a need for neutral in any case, but I do like to start in neutral at least, and it's usually a few seconds fiddling with it to get it there.
5. In my opinion, anybody who complains about power on this bike bought the wrong bike. It has exactly the power it needs to have for its intended use. Even on the freeway, it's completely fine (my complaint about it on the freeway is just that I still don't like the feel of a small bike at those speeds, which has nothing to do with the bike itself.)
Now I just need to find a reason to get a CB1100 back in Maryland, which is what started all of this in the first place. I can't really justify it though since I really like my current ride...