Blackbird gotchas?

Have my eye on a Blackbird - 2002 - circa 20k miles - ebay item
120109578844

As I understand it they have a very good reliability record. Is there
anything specific I should be looking for / asking the owner about? Is
there a major service coming up around the corner and at what sort of
cost?

Or am I mad even to consider it and stick to the Sprint?

 

You are to Honda what Lozzo is to BMW, right?

 

They are dull. Seriously. They make going fast very boring indeed. I find
the GSXR no better or worse for comfort than a Blackbird.

Dunno, depends what you want.

 

Agreed.

 

Because they fit it to bikes that are likely to do a lot of miles 2-up
with luggage. Under which circumstances it will haul up the bike very
quickly without the pillion smacking their lid on the back of the
rider's lid.

 

Well IME it did tend to make the bike "squat" rather than pitch forwards
quite as much, which probably helps in the not getting nutted by your
pillion stakes.

 

The same reason it's got right-way-up forks, and two silencers, and a
comfy seat, and the world's daftest front mudguard.

It's not a Fireblade.

Kawasaki haven't fitted the bars off a Drifter to the ZX10R, but
that's not to say they don't work on a Drifter. If only to keep the
tank off the ground.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..88203../..24080.../..31896.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 WG*
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 PM#5
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4 YTC#4 two#11
'^' RBR Clues: 00 Pts:0000 Miles:0000

 

Yes, you can. Quite a complicated job, apparently.

 

Fundamentally, there's little difference between braking a bike and
braking a car[1] and nobody mutters about linked brakes on cars.

Nor on old Glodwings, nor (especially) on Guzzis.

I have not had a prob with linked brakes on 'Birds. And I rode a Honda
300cc super-scooter the other day with 'em (and ABS, too) and thought it
worked great.

If Honda has done anything wrong it's to add a little too much
complexity in plumbing the linked system into front and rear controls,
when (IMHO) keeping the linked system attached purely to the front brake
lever and leaving the rear pedal controlling the back brake alone, for
those moments when you're on really slippery surfaces like gravel or
whatever, might have been better.

Braking hard using independent brakes is actually quite an art, which
most of us acquire. A lot of newbies don't acquire it in time for their
first "moment", unfortunately, and there are many more relative newbies
riding big powerful bikes than there used to be.

Think ABS - what that's done is take away from drivers/riders the knack
of braking as hard as feck to the point where the wheels *nearly* lock
up, and give it to the machine, because a lof of humes simply can't do
it. Nobody moans about that - it's a safety aid.

Honda's linked brakes do the same thing: distribute the braking
properly. Add ABS, and you can see *exactly* what Honda is doing.

The brakes are fitted to bikes which,generally, aren't so tiny and light
that riders will regularly stoppie them. They're bikes where both wheels
should be firmly on the ground. Which is one reason why they aren't
fitted to Fireblades, I guess.


[1] Weight transference, braking force, etc - all are broadly similar.

 

That is a problem suffered by other bikes as well, and has *nothing* to
do with linked brakes.

 

Can you expand on that?

 

Good question. "A change" is probably as good an answer as any. I like
the appearance, don't think I want a "sportsbike", like the sports-
tourer compromise. Oodles of power is an obvious attraction.

 

I have a 54 reg VFR800ABS, dont brake any better than either of my
Blade's or SP1, in fact after 10k miles on it its as boring a bike as i have
ever
owned, but its comfy and reliable which is what i need.

But given the choice i would rather have a Blade all day every day.

Alan

 

When I had my Sprint ST I took a blackbird out for an extended test
ride and found it very boring indeed. The extra power was far too high
up the rev range, such that at 'normal' (for the Trumpet) revs it
gave, if anything, less grunt, then it all came in suddenly higher up.
I didn't like that, and the handling also felt somewhat sluggish by
comparison.

The brakes were... umm... just about OK, but I used to drag the rear
into corners a lot in those days, so the linked system pissed me off
by altering the front-end balance whenever I did so.

So if it's more grunt you want, go for a proper sprotsbike like a
gixxer - the extra power is noticeable from tickover and it will
out-accelerate the triumph cleanly from any speed in any gear, IYSWIM.
One ride on Champ's K1 was enough of an eye-opener for me to go out
and buy one.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

<snip>


Thanks, for the real-world comparison. My local Honda dealer is has a BB
in its test fleet, think I'll give it a whirl.

 

I don;'t think insurers worry if someone fits aftermarket brake
calipers, discs or hoses to their machines, so I can't see them
worrying about this either, to be honest.

 

You'll always get people here expounding on bikes they have little or
no experience of, and I'm as guilty as anyone else. This is ukrm,
after all.

I think linked brakes, properly sorted, are rather fine things. The
series of Guzzis I ran 20 years ago, had the simplest system, and it
worked a treat. I can see why it's fitted to bikes like the Bird and
VFR and not the Blade.

(ABS is still a better add-on, mind, but linked + ABS is OK by me)

 

<fx reads rest of thread>

as long as you're not massively fat, you'd be better of with a
Hayabusa, and be done with it.

HTH.