When I say “above average for its class”, I mean that my car actually brakes better than its direct competitors.
You’re talking to a guy who drives a ten-year-old Taurus with no thoughts of buying a new car before this one dies. Tedium is a way of life for me and I can’t see going through bikes any faster, though my head could be turned by an XLCR or XR-1000. But used is a good idea.
I know. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Sporties described as girl bikes and I know some of it is true and some of it is lighthearted macho biker posturing, like playing Flinch.
What is “Flinch”?
Check out this interesting report (PDF) about braking on motorbikes. Don’t read the whole thing, just look at page 8:
So, the 364 kilogram Valkyrie stops just as quickly as the 172 kilogram 929R. The first is a heavy cruiser, the second is a thoroughbred racer.
Bottom line: if you build a heavy bike, you fit stronger brakes. Now, if only I could find these Harley stopping distances… strangely, nobody seems to be advertising with them. 
Well, I havent found stopping distance tests that gave actual numbers on the Harley, Goldwing etc. I have found a couple of showdown type tests comparing differant models and they seemed to all say that they all stopped about the same (Of course the nod went toBMW in one for their Anti Lock brakes that they hold a patent on).
So absent in hard data I can just say that I have ridden brand new road kings, Gold Wings, Guzzi’s, tour glides and just about everything else under the sun and the harleys were generally no better or worse than anything else. Modern ones, that is.
And most of the bike mags I have read dont say anything particularly bad about harleys braking…and I’m sure they would if it was such a bad thing.
I’ll keep looking though.
All I’ve found was a passing mention of 168 feet for 60 to 0. Didn’t mention which model though.
I just checked…Goldwing doesnt post a stopping distance for theirs either
That’s 51 meters, so 10 meters (25%) more than the abovementioned Valkyrie. And that’s not even taking into account that 60 MPH is actually 96.5 km/h instead of 100. But fair is fair, that could have been an old test, or an older model. I, too, found road tests that states the brakes on new Harley cruisers were comparable to their competitors.
bdgr, will you at least admit that your comment about comparing stopping distances between bikes of different weights was, shall we say, ill-informed?
The article is from September.
No. I won’t
Because it my real world experiances, most heavy bikes take longer to get stopped. In the articles I have read about touring bikes, they mention this is common, among goldwings, guzzi’s, Harleys etc. I don’t know about valkeries other than around here the Dallas cops dropped using them as cop bikes because of their poor handleing, and went back to Harleys.
Regarding the first sentence quoted: Uh, yeah, I have some “keen insight” into riding. I’ve been doing it for as long as your racer buddy, (and raced as an amatuer in National events) and I’ve actually ridden bikes with brakes that don’t inspire any confidence.
I’ll use this word again: You must have confidence in the machine you are riding, at any level, to get any kind of satisfaction.
Ask your buddy if he would go out and do the 200 on a bike with brakes that he knew were not up to the job. Ask him if he would ride a bike on the street with brakes that weren’t up for the job. You don’t need to “push the envelope” to get killed or hurt on a motorcycle. The only time I have ever scraped hard frame parts on the road was exiting a freeway at about 40 mph on a Harley. (In case you don’t have “keen insight”, scraping hard stuff can lead to prompt high-sides) Hardly "pushing the envelope, and not “confidence” inspiring.
I would suggest that the street, to an even greater degree than the track, is where you need to trust the machine and its capibilities. The track environment is populated by professionals that should be expected to behave in a predictable manner, which allow you to “push the envelope”. The street is full of idiots, that can and many time do totally unexpected things in an attempt to kill you, and you need to know that the bike you are on is capable of emergency manouvers at normal speeds.
You miss your braking zone on the track, you might slide around on your leathers, and hopefully, resume the race. You miss a braking zone on the road, you might slide into oncoming traffic and end up in a casket.
“Keen insight” comes from experiance. Experiance comes from “hazy insight”.
Glad to help.
Fine, be that way. Stick to your irrational belief that it’s somehow OK for a heavy cruiser to have a longer braking distance, even when presented with evidence to the contrary.
Personally, I would consider neither a Valkyrie nor a Harley a good cop bike. They’re too heavy for a decent chase. It’s an interesting topic, perhaps: cop bikes over here include altered BMW K100’s and Honda Sports-tourers: tuned for speed, light enough to throw around the bends, good brakes, and preferably low maintenance (shaft drive).
gatopescado: spot on about track vs. road riding. A track is designed to forgive your errors, and will have run-off areas. It’s also full of professionals going the same direction. The road? The road is full of cars, and people who don’t watch where they’re going.
Still waiting to hear whether booka was talking about me when she spoke of a “keyboard-hugging fuckwad-on-the-street who went to the store and bought a race replica”. If so, she’s obviously never seen a Diversion, for starters.
Guzzi cruiser rider here. No complaints, no whinges about what you ride or what I ride or what anyone rides. There is only a bike, the pavement, the open air, the big sky, the throb between you thighs, the other vehicles on the road and freedom.
Maybe it’s Australia, but we don’t have as much animosity towards the Japanese, US, German or English bikes as you people seem to have. Hell, it’s about getting out on the road and riding for the pure joy of being free on the open road, not about which steed you chose to ride. We all wave to one another, we all have a great chat at roadstops or refueling depots, we all ride in informal groups when we meet up as strangers on the road. It’s about the fellowship and the sharing of the freedom of the wind in your hair, the bugs on your teeth and the expanse of the ground, the sky and the motor between your knees.
Jesus, mates, give this my bike is superior to yours scenario a big miss. Just bloody enjoy!
Looking forward to meeting you on the road.
I’m a he - there goes your fantasy - sorry. And, was I talking about you, Coldfire? Well, actually no, not specifically, unless you fit the description, and then yeah, I was talking about you.
It seemed your remark was aimed at those claiming that some Harleys have poor brakes, with the retort that unless those people have a racing pedigree, they shouldn’t bitch about poor brakes on a Harley, because they would never ride near the limits of any bike anyway, or somesuch shit, to close it off with the pretty wide brush that said riders are fuckwads on racing replicas.
Fact 1: everybody needs to make an emergency stop sooner or later, and you don’t need to ride the bike to its limit in order to get into a situation where hard braking power is needed in spades.
Fact 2: not everyone who insists on good brakes on a bike is a Valentino Rossi wannabe.
Fact 3: This is a Yamaha Diversion
Now, get your head out of your ass, please.
You and a buddy take turns punching each other in the upper arm, each time increasing the force. The first to show an outward reaction to pain loses. It’s a sport for future winners of the Darwin Award.
How the human species has lasted as long as it has is beyond me.
Sheesh. I came all the way back to this thread, and all I got was this limp insult.
Let’s put it this way, Cold-choad: I may have my head up my ass, but you gotta wake up every day with a … Yamaha Diversion.
I tend to park it outside, but whatever tickles yer fancy, mate.