Adjustable throttle/power restrictors - any such thing ?

Hello, aus.moto...

My girlfriend is interested in learning to ride and has until recently
only been giving eyes to retro-style scooters. However, I recently
took her to some quiet back streets on a borrowed FZ6 I have while my
Sprint is being serviced and repaired, and successfully taught her
enough to get some basic riding around (slaloming, U-turns, etc) and
gear changing happening. She's since decided that motorbike gears
aren't so hard after all (clearly my prior explanation of how they
worked sucked) and that a seat low enough to touch the ground easily
and substantially lower dry weight would actually make a "real bike"
"quite livable".

Having also been wringing the FZ6's neck for the last few days
remembering what a nimble. sporty bike (that you actually have to
change gears on) is like to ride, I am also extremely interested in
getting a mid-size weekend toy to take through the twisties .

We live in NSW at the moment, but the GF has a QLD licence, so can thus
use Q-Ride to go straight to an 'R' class. However, she's (admirably)
somewhat concerned about riding a more powerful bike than a 250.
Personally I think she's worrying about nothing, as she's a fairly
quiet lass in her late 20s, not an 18 year old teenage boy who wants an
R1 to look cool doing wheelies.

So, I've been looking into some sporty midweight nakeds - Monster 620,
SV650, FZ6, GSR600. The results:

* While I've been having a ball on the FZ6, the drawbacks that I
spotted within 5 minutes of getting on remain obvious - the clutch is
quite heavy (probable showstopper for the GF), it's very "vibratey" at
mid to high revs, being a 4-banger you need a fair amount of revs to
get anywhere (coming off the 1050cc triple - first set of traffic
lights -> STALL) and the seat is like a wooden plank (the pillion end
is even worse, apparently).

* I couldn't get onto an M620, because they've been discontinued and
none of the dealers in Sydney have any demonstrators (being learner
legal in restricted form, they're quite popular). I did, however, have
a highly entertaining (kept hitting the rev limiter after getting used
to the FZ6's redline) run on the 800cc S2R, which the bloke at Fraser's
assures me is essentially the same only with a bit more power at the
high end. The new M695 hasn't arrived yet, but it would also be a
contender if it was basically the 800 with less grunt. I was
particularly impressed with the relative lightness of the clutch and
the riding posture.

* I also had a spin on a second-hand SV650 (10,000km), which was
disappointing (for the purposes of this project). While most things
about it are good (I can certainly see why people rave about them), the
clutch and throttle were - as I like to say - "binary", making it
difficult to ride smoothly. A mate's GSXR1000 I borrowed for a couple
of weeks had the same "problem" and I could see it being bothersome for
Allison (objective here is a bike that's stupidly easy to ride so she
doesn't decide it's too hard).

* I haven't found a Suzuki GSR600 in Sydney yet (although maybe this
weekend), but I suspect they might have the same issues as the FZ6.
Although, from some reviews I've found on the 'net they're supposed to
have more low-down grunt and a much more comfortable seat. The
dash/instrument panel certainly looks vastly superior, as well, so I'm
hopeful and will definitely have a ride before ruling it out.

So, the standout thus far is theoretically the Monster 620, based on my
ride of the S2R 800. This brings me back to my original question. I
know there is a restricted version of the 620 available (and even the
800 in Europe), but as I understand it that restricted version is only
available new from dealers and isn't something that can be "turned off"
selectively (as that would pretty much make it pointless). The new 695
will not be LAMS compliant and thus probably won't have a restricted
version in Oz. Does anyone know of any devices which could be used as
a temporary way to restrict a bike's power when the GF is riding it,
but be easily disabled when I want to ride it ? I'm thinking it can be
done with either some sort of throttle blocking, or some third party
addon to the engine management - but I can't imagine the market for
such a device is particularly large.

Again, it doesn't need to be legal from a learner/provisional/LAMS
perspective, as she will have an unrestricted licence. We just want
something that can be used to dial the power down a bit for her during
first 6 months or so (while still allowing me something sporty .

Cheers,
CS

 

Next year's GSX-R1000 is going to have a three-way toggle switch which
alters the EFI and ignition mapping between to reduce power for the wet.

Buy her one of those.

....or, seeing how it sounds like you've got some money to spend, get her
onto an ER-6 or an SV650. With not even 70hp at the wheel, neither of
those is going to bite anyone with a clue.

 

Pull off a couple of spark plug wires.

(Seriously: you need to trust her with it and/or she needs to trust
herself. The throttle only lets as much power out as you ask for.
She's got to be a grown-up, or she wouldn't get to play with such a cool
toy. That brake lever there is pretty scary too.)

-----sharks

 

Front or back?

 

Somehow I doubt it'll knock _that_ much off .

Already tried the SV650 and wasn't particularly impressed. Hadn't
considered the ER-6 though, I'll check it out (but ugly, however...)

Cheers,
CS

 

I agree completely. Personally I think she'd be fine on the M800 or
even something like a Firestorm, because she's just not the kind of
person to ride recklessly, and those twins are just so easy to ride
"casually".

However, I thought some way of limiting the power might be a way to
ease her mind for a while, so I'm investigating the possibility.

Cheers,
CS

 

Tell her this bloke you were talking to on the Internet said it was a
dumb idea, and if you'd seen the X-rays you'd know he knows a thing or
two about dumb ideas!

Alternatively, you could futz with the throttle cable adjusters to try
and stop the throttle opening fully. Which is what they do to kiddy
bikes because kiddies can't be trusted to not pin the throttle and flip
the damned thing. I'd not recommend it for grown-ups, though. It's
only a wee 600 anyway.

(I don't believe no-one's used the phrase "power out of trouble" yet
....)

-----sharks

 

Well, either if you're sufficiently determined.

-----sharks

 

...or, seeing how it sounds like you've got some money to spend, get her

You beat me to it with the ER-6 suggestion. It has a low seat..

 

~
Yep; all of 2 hp less than the Kawasaki Mach iv 750 (and 10 MORE than the
much-feared H1 500 Mach iii!)

 

Cut through a couple of frame tubes and the SV650 would be just
as feared!

-----sharks

 

In this circumstance lack of confidence in controlling a powerful bike
is probably a good thing. It's the riders who are overconfident when
riding powerful bikes who are probably the ones who have most to fear.

The problem most 250 riders have when they get on a bigger bike is that
they don't have the same experience with throttle control, which will
require much more finesse than a 250 which you can twist around to the
stopper without getting into any trouble. My advice would be for her to
get accustomed to a bigger bike by riding around 1 or 2 gears higher
than she would normally, and using a self imposed redline say 1/3 - 1/2
of the available revs.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

It would be a very expensive way of getting around a problem that
probably doesn't exist, but I think power commanders allow for multiple
maps, so the EFI could presumably be severely retarded by someone who
knew about programming PCs...

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

Get an 05 onwards R1 rev limit it to 7 or 8 grand (can be done by
adding a power commander, there's probably other ways to rev limit).
Brilliant learner bike - light weight, probably 70 or 80 Hp at 8grand.
You won't do better.

JL
(of course you could just let her get a 250 *she* likes....as opposed
to buying a bike for yourself and pretending it's for her)

 

A 2002 Honda 900 Hornet in Red would be the go for a learner low weight, no
costly faring to repair, Honda reliability and available from your friendly
local motorcycle emporium at only $7,995.

Boxer

 

Oh yes it has, I got to ride Lil's a few weeks back...

big

 

Why would she need to repair fairings?

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

What can I say? Riders must be made of sterner stuff today...

 

A lot more padding in today's riding gear than my first set of Waxed Cotton
bellstaffs, sheepskin lined flying boots and Bell Tourstar Helmet purchased
in 1974.

And not to mention the state of the art "Army Great Coat" cold weather
riding gear, or the Chinese made gloves lined with rabbit fur, that turned
your hands a lovely shade of black when it rained.

Kids of today don't know how easy they have it.

Boxer

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 27 Nov 2006 07:48:50 GMT

But the poor buggers don't get the famous two stroke powerband rush,
or the exciting frame dance either.

Zebee
- whose mid 70s bike has fewer horses than the MachIII but manages
to keep the wheels in line under what power it has.