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I daily commuted on a 1300cc sport bike for 6 years (and have owned them for much longer). Only reason I don’t now is that I work from home.

As a taller person I find I feel way safer on a big bike over a small one. Theyre more comfortable (less hunched over, better for my back), more stable, have more grip due to more weight on bigger tyres, yet have the power to punch your way out of a sticky spot or overtake someone in a split second if needed. It’s all personal preference but I’ve ridden everything from 250cc to 1300cc and way prefer the upper end of the scale.

Plus they just put a stupid grin on your face and make the commute a happy part of the day rather than a boring one.

In saying that I’m far from your typical big-cc rider. I’ve never done stupid speeds or raced anyone and just love the feeling of vehicles with some oomph.

> I find I feel way safer on a big bike over a small one

I find I feel way safer [in a car]...

Sure, and any rider will agree with you. But we ride because the fun we have overshadows the dangers. Everyone knows that it is more dangerous, but that doesn't mean you're going to die in an accident necissarily.

Yeah, I'm sure mountain climbers feels safer on the ground, sailors feel safer tied to a dock and pilots feel safer having a cup of tea in the airfield cafe. Maximising safety isn't a very good recipe for a fulfilling life, for most people at least.

I daily commuted on a 300cc for a long time and yeah, the extra power is very handy on US highways. I find at least 70hp is a nice sweet spot, and everything above that is mostly for putting a grin on your face for a solo rider.

I have had daily riders from 125 to 1300cc. The fastest I have gone is 155 on a gsxr-750. I’d love a hybrid bike with a minuscule ice just for maintaining 70-80 on the freeway.

Strange assumption, I know plenty of people that come to HN and are into motorcycles!

Litre bikes are a whole different beast

I'm into HN & have a Litre Bike

I noticed in places I worked pre cloud, the ops guys always rode motorcycles. I figured it was so they could get to the data center quickly despite heavy traffic, in the event that a server needed attention.

Haha, lots of our ops guys ride motorbikes too! Never thought of the connection though. One of those needs further research things for sure.

Electric motorbike rider here (Bonfire X) ... its an absolutely exciting new market, and some of the developments in the lower-end of the scale are really very hacker friendly. Replaceable batteries and upgradeable motors put the motorbike crew into the same kinds of territories that the PC-builders are into .

The Bonfire X (and our UNU, a lesser moped) is definitely a hackers motorbike.

To me, this seems like a no-brainer for any techie to get into ..

In college I had a Yamaha R6 (a 600cc sport bike) that I would take passengers on, down highway 13 leaving Berkeley. I often hit an indicated 150+ and kept it there for as close to 30 seconds as I could stomach. Everyone in jeans and a jacket at best.

I took my guy friends a few times too (and atleast 10 girls over the years), and one interesting thing I noticed was that guys would be shaking enough for me to feel when we hit the stoplight at the top of the 13. Women never did. They almost never thought it was too crazy, while my guy friends thought it was a crazy insane rush and thrill they'd talk about for days.

1000cc really doesn't tell you much. A 300 2-stroke KTM EXC will give you a way more thrilling ride than a 1200 BMW RT.

Can confirm. Going down a single track with the 300, giving a little bit of that 2 stroke throttle action, realizing that you're now suddenly moving seriously fast considering the terrain. Love it!

I mostly ride motorcycles instead of driving and own bikes ranging from 125cc (Thai Honda Scooter) to 1300cc (BMW K1300R). Riding became a bit less since the pandemic increased remote working, and also I ride my bicycle locally (groceries, also commuting etc).

Fastest was/is about 175mph, but that is rare (and really uncomfortable on a naked bike). Most dangerous encounters are inner City during commute times when theres lots of "angry" drivers and the same on highways. When the road is empty, there is less danger. What I am uncomfortable with are tight bends with fear of approaching traffic that may cut corners, lane splitting is also not for the faint of heart and dirt in corners. And "idiots" that try to challenge me.

Edit: Also, my most used bikes (Ducati & KTM dualsports bike) have all the latest electronics, which makes a huge difference in dangerous situations (eg. slippery corner, emergency braking)

Edit2: what helps against fear? For me: Riding more, thoughout the year and security training on a closed track to keep a feeling for edge cases and not lose it when there's e.g. minor slide. After I kissed the tarmac in 2019 I did exactly that (got a new bike with latest electronics and kept riding, took some 3k miles to fully overcome the fear). Also: I only ride in full gear (helmet, gloves, riding suit with full set of protectors and motorcycle boots)

More likely to die in the middle of desert with a BMW R1250GS short of water than smashing into a pylon on a toy racer.

Job wise we spent years and hundreds of millions of kilometres draping the ground at 70 m/s (252 km/hr | 157 m/ph) with ~80 m ground clearance dodging birds and power lines so that's always seemed like a comfortable speed.

I don’t ride on the street anymore (not enough fun to be worth the risk - of death via car or losing my drivers license), but I do regularly take my S1000RR to the track. It is capable of doing just over 90mph in first gear, which is why it’s not much fun on the street at legal speeds. It will quickly get to 150mph and with enough room run out to 195mph, but the length of straights on most tracks keep it down to the 140-175mph range.

The risks of sudden-stop collisions are better controlled on the track than the street. In addition, traction control has greatly reduced the risk of high-side crashes. Airbags inside the leathers have greatly (almost completely) reduced the risk of torso injuries if you do crash. Helmets are a bit safer than they have ever been (FIM certification). Traction control, ABS and cornering ABS have reduced the risk of dumb crashes while learning, probably by 2/3rds. ABS eventually gets disabled when you get more experienced, but at that point it’s not really needed. Traction control is adjustable on the fly and doesn’t really ever get in the way because of that.

High-level racers have many crashes in their pursuit of faster lap times. The airbags have made an incredible difference in injury rates. I’m just a normal middle aged guy with a family and I find the risks to be acceptable with a fast bike on the track. I understand that most people may not, but then again most people don’t seriously consider the risks they take on a daily basis anyway.

Airbags weren’t fully mandatory in Moto2/3/GP until 2018, but you can see from the 2013-2017 data that it was already safer than you would expect given the high number of crashes. To be fair, some riders were using airbags prior to 2018. Also, crash rates while pushing the edge of the envelope racing are vastly higher than crash rates at track days.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8082255/

Fellow sportbike rider (late model R6) - Thank you for sharing that article, even I was surprised to see such a low incidence of fractures.

I was curious what the corresponding data would be for brain injuries, and found the below, which is also surprisingly low.

Musculoskeletal injuries represented the vast majority (88.43%) of the 191 encounters registered in the acute setting, while concussions were diagnosed in only 1.57%. The most common orthopedic motorcycle injuries were upper extremity contusions while the most common anatomical area for fractures was the hand.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09493...

The fear is less about death and more about dropping/knocking it over stupidly and needing ropes/helpers to pick it up

I used to daily commute on a ZX6-R. Used to hit 150mph most days commuting in. Stupid in hindsight.

Sold it as I was becoming increasingly complacent and it was only a matter of time before something serious happened.

I would say that your guess is probably not correct. Liter bikes are expensive, frivolous purchases yet tech people generally have a lot of disposable and at a younger age.

My first purchase as a grad was a sports car, followed a year later by a cbr1000. And I don’t mean first big purchase. I literally took my employment contract with wet ink to the bank for a loan.

Ha! Me too, just this year I brought my first big career contract at 22 to the bank to get a loan for a 2SS Camaro Vert, and will probably get either a CBR or a ZX6R late this year.

Just a guess out of my butt but, I would bet that very few people on this website have ever driven a 1000cc bike.

Indeed - I've had cars with smaller engines.

Thanks for asking.

A Japanese, inline-four that is that smooth, tuned to feel like a torque-y V-twin is unusual. I always wanted a fireblade for similar reasons though I hear Aprilia makes a 400 V-twin which is more to my lightweight expectations for most things.

My purchase of the liter bike was a transitional stage from my dearly-beloved SV650 to my equally dearly-beloved 310cc BMW GS world-beater.

The aside to other MPG commenters here is that indeed, the SV got 60 MPG, while the SX got maybe 40 on a good day.

I'll answer your primary question by chortling gently and saying speed was never the goal. Rather, acceleration was.

The numbers speak volumes: 0-60 MPH ~ 3 seconds, 100 MPH ~ 6 seconds, optic nerve compressed as the eyes approach the PFC, check.

The fun part is that 6 seconds go by quickly when your consciousness is overwhelmed by shifting 3 gears in six seconds without assistance.

Your second question is best answered by saying, "I've been lucky."

LSS: read both David Hough books, take whatever classes you can get cheap (in my state they're underwritten by the state - YMMV). Then, read the David Hough books until you've survived a dissertation committee's murder-board on the details.

Consider the implications of riding full-time with two fingers on the brake lever, and the FPS-downstream implications of that choice's improvement in reaction time to the cage pulling out in front of you, and you have a rough idea why the classes, while good, are not enough, given MPH and survival's inverse relationship in motorcycling.

The subtext is that I'm paradoxically hyper-vigilant, over-trained, and fearless; in other words, I'm a human robot. That included 20 years of urban summer commutes, 80 miles per day. Not the million miles I've traveled by cage, but still.

Be safe out there!