What? That's not how it works. That's always the first thing I do to my bikes to make them go faster.
About a month ago I was in the local KTM dealer just visually inspecting the new 'tards. Salesman comes over and starts dogging on the DRZ SM I rode up on and says "Yeah, we've had several guys trade those in because they won't even keep up with traffic." Are you effing kidding me...?
Wow. Traffic must be really fast in Florida. Other than a sore ass I never had issues with mine. Not even on the interstate.
I should get Lora to chime in. Every bike sold at her dealership goes through her (she is the Finance Manager and handles all the paperwork, titles, registrations, etc). You wouldnt believe some of the bullshit she hears, on a daily basis. Guys come in there trying to impress her. They have no idea that she rides also (street and track) and of course has been involved with my racing from day one. "Yeah, I have been racing for a few years...the 600 was just too slow for me so I had to move up to a 1000". Lora - "Really, which tracks have you raced at?" "Pretty much all of them, i race just about every weekend" Lora - "With who? WERA, CCS, ASRA, AMA?" "Yeah" Just "yeah". Then she will start asking technical stuff like what kind of suspension they plan on putting on it, if they are going to go with Dynojet or Bazzaz etc. She says it gets funnier and funnier the more she digs, because it gets more and more obvious how clueless they are. She says it is like comedy relief damn near every day.
Here are a few of my favorite. From numerous track day guys: "I went with the 750/1K because I didn't want to waste time learning on a 600." From my idiot brother in law: "I used to love running from the cops on my buddy's Kawa-Busa 1300... doin over 200mph around Athens with no helmet." From some random idiot: "How do you like that R6? (Me: It's fun) Them: Yeah, I got tired of my 600 so I sold it for a 1k." From multiple idiots: "How fast is it..." From numerous track day guys: "Why would anyone want to race a 250 or an SV650. Those things suck" From me: "I guess I should service the suspension... it's probably the original fluid from 2006"
In one of the few times i rode the RSV4 on the street, this conversation happened at the gas station... Random asshat - "That is a cool looking bike, what size is it?" Me - "1000" Random asshat - "Oh" (in that disappointed tone)..."I had a 1000 but got bored with it, so i had to get a 1400". I dont know how many times i have heard comments from people like that. Especially the "Oh" when they hear a bike is a 600. When they talk about how slow or bored they got, i have to wonder if they ever actually got the bike above 5000rpm.
I love the guys that have moved up to 1000cc bikes... but don't have leathers or minimal equipment to ride on a closed course!
I can see I've been missing out on some serious horsepower, I need to get one of them stage 3 kits in the race bike. How many seconds will I drop ?
Big difference between experience and pure trust in them. Youngsters believe their Xbox won't break, Rossi knows better