Roadrunner review of Niken GT

[Warren]

It's the answer to a question no one was asking.

Like the others, I give Yamaha points for thinking outside the box. But it's not for me - marginal improvement in function, and a complete FAIL in appearance. And price will reflect the extensive work done in creating it.

They say you learn more from your failures than your successes. If that is true most motorcycle manufactures must be geniuses by now

 

[Phil Tarman]

There was a writer...not your typical hey-dood motorcycle reviewer, but a thoughtful guy...might have been Jack Baruth. But whoever, he went into a story of how little of the adhesive ability on motorcycle tires was used, and how a low-side getoff was many-times better than a high-side getoff, or shooting off the road. The conclusion of his essay was, when you see you be skrood...lean harder, try. You make it or you slide, but either is a win compared to going over that guardrail.

I heartily agree! The only crash I've had in 325K of riding (other than my multiple drops when stopped or nearly stopped) came at night in the mountains. Two friends and I were returning from another friend's funeral and were on the Peak-to-Peak highway between Nederland and Allen's Park. They were riding faster than I felt comfortable with and I slowed down. I entered a series of three linked turns at about 50mph. Then in the last of the three, a right-hander, I felt as if I was going way too fast. I tried trail-braking and that stood the bike up and I went off the left-hand side of the road into fairly deep pea gravel on the shoulder. The bike fish-tailed a couple of times before the front wheel dug in and the bike flipped. The front third of the bike was totaled, but damage to me was limited to bruised ribs and a slight concussion. The next day, one of my friends and I went back to the site of the crash. I couldn't believe that I had crashed on that curve, since I normally rode through it at 65-70mph. Leaning more would have saved my bacon...and my bike...and, as your writer said, a low-side is much preferable to a high-side.