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Originally Posted by RC Fan  I am referring to walking the bike in the garage, not riding it in. I would think less weight would be preferable in that situation, would it not? |
Yes I understood that.
Yes, less weight does make it easier to move bikes in your garage. But with full fairing, you can easily scratch it too, and if you did drop your bike, full fairing bikes will cost you more because of the fairing. Naked bikes will be less damaged.
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Originally Posted by RC Fan When you say your other bike is easier to ride, what specifically do you mean? When you say the Gixxer is harder to turn on the streets, is that because they turn quicker? How is the engine at low rpms? Is it somewhat well-behaved until the higher rpm's Sorry for all the questions, but it helps to hear from another chick. |
"R" rated bikes have less turn angle with the handle bars. So it won't turn corners like you can with your naked bike. You have to maintain traction and turn the bike without relying on turning your handle bars much.
Fortunately Gixxers can move quite smoothly with low rpms but also have a tendency to tuck in (and hence suddenly drop) if you try to turn it at low rpms too. So throttle control to maintain traction and using your rear brake to control speed will become very important.
But it's also important to keep in mind that these bikes were not made to be "an easy bike to move in a garage". You don't want to pay the extra price to do this and it won't do the bike justice if you bought the bike for that purpose.
Naked bikes are much better to learn the basics of motorcycle riding and you can learn much quicker too. I was even riding my naked Kawi on tracks so they do fairly well at speeds you never thought they could handle. I bought my "R" rated bikes because I was getting into a speed and riding style (on tracks, that is) that was beyond what my Kawi was designed to do and my bike shop people warned me that I either buy an "R" rated bike or stop riding on tracks. Otherwise, it was getting too dangerous as my Kawi was not designed to be ridden for sports riding.
I did, however, sell a HD Sportster (1200) earlier as it was way too heavy for me to maneuver. It weighed about 620lbs. But my Kawi with 484 lbs is manageable even with my size. I am, like I said earlier, 4'10" and weigh about 98-99 lbs so I'm really not a big rider at all.
BTW, the pic with my profile shows me riding my naked Kawi on a track ride.