Curve appreciation 101
Have you looked at the power curves of a motorcycle carefully?
From the saddle, you can make one this out. Where the motorcycle has a convex curve or a concave one. For simplicity's sake, we'll assume that means the power curve. Most of our bikes are concave. Even if the curve rises upwards sharply, a concave curve can feel boring. Concaves run smoothly, have no steps in power output and build progressively. These are nice bikes, but not the exciting. On the other hand, there are the conves ones. They absolutely bristle with power and feel strong and urgent. The rapid build up power only smoothens out towards the top-end and make the bikes feel a bit hairy and therefore, a quite exciting. Me? I'd always opt for a Convex.
Now, examples. Er... I think the Pulsar 180 is one of the only Convex bikes. As was the RD350. Almost everything else is Concave. Makes me regret writing this, almost.
DISCLAIMER: Actual shape of curve may vary. This is a thought. It may or may not be true or accurate.
6 comments:
You gotta be kidding dude!? You normally talk a lot of sense, but this post is all yiddish. Yeah, whatever. And how can you mention the RD350 and the Pulsar 180 in the same sentence? Come on now! The RD350 was god. The Pulsar is common-as-muck crap. Phooey!
Yes it is partly yiddish. And I've heard so much of RD350 being above everything else, that I'm almost desensitized to that sort of comment. I agree whole-heartedly that the RD is a league of its own. However, this post isn't about which league the bikes belong to at all. And please don't start about how much character the Yamaha has. I had two RDs, almost three on more than one occassion, and they remain the only two bikes I ever got close to giving names to. My point in the post simply was that no matter how high on the power scale the curves lie, a convex one would thrill you.
You should ride my Yezdi Roadking. Power is almost non existent in the low end and builds up furiously at the top end.
Changing up gears at top end after revving her nuts off makes the front extremely light as if it wants to do a wheelie (sigh...I wish).
PS.It's got a hard chrome plated bore, upjetted, high performance clutch, double clutch chain and a lot more mods that I forgot. Soon to get an extra bore (hope a certain Venu will help in my quest), some nice expansion chambers and an HID xenon light, 6000K color temperature. (I'm paranoid about having a bright headlight on my bikes cuz of my night time highway runs)
I understand what you mean by this post, I have a Pulsar 180 classic (April 2002). Convex curve motorcycles are a bit hard to ride then the concave ones; however the convex curve motorcycles are more fun to ride. A typical example of a concave curve motorcycle would be the Honda Unicorn, it is easy to ride tour and commute on, but it won’t scare the pants off you. This is where the 180 enters especially the classic due to it power curve and short wheel base it can give you a nice pull back every time you whack open the throttle, some thing that is missing in almost every other Indian motorcycle.
Btw can I post this post in the motorcycle section of www.bcmtouring.com/forum/ ? I will mention the source as well as link back to this article.
Thanks for asking Yogesh. Please go ahead and post up!
Ok, I have to disagree. If the RD350 is convex and the others are concave, the 180 is definitely a straight line from 0,0 to maximum whatever.
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