Why so few small displacement street bikes?

[AMink]

With the price of gas going through the roof, I've been poking around for a small displacement (250-400cc) commuter bike. I used to have a Kawasaki Ninja 250 that would have been the ticket. OK, I'm a little bigger now :-laf but a 250 would still get to freeway speeds. I don't need to go far. Honda has a cool "naked bike", the VTR250, but not in the good old USofA. Kawasaki still makes the Ninja. Does anyone else make what I'm looking for? I would think the "bigger than a moped, smaller than a CBR600" market would be hitting it's stride here.

 

[MSicotte]

Buell makes a 500cc bike (the blast I believe). It's an American made bike. I have a Firebolt XB9R, its 984cc, still gets great milage and its been trouble free (2003 model).

 

[WCPoe]

Suzuki DRZ400SM

I had a Suzuki DRZ400SM (the SuperMoto) which was a great bike. Unfortunately, I traded for a larger bike, (2006 Triumph Tiger 955cc), now I wish I had the SUZY back. The DRZ400SM was light and nimble for the around town chores. I ended up trading for the Tiger because I wanted to ride longer distances, which rarely happened.

They make three versions of the DRZ, the "E" model is dirt only, the "S" model is the street trail version and the "SM" has the street oriented tires an excells riding the tight street and corners. Just add a rear rack and your set to go. Always got around 50 mpg even riding hard. I upped the countershaft sprocket one tooth and could run 75 mph all day. The bike could actually push well into the 90 mph range. The 400cc motor is bullet proof as well. It's under 300 pounds dry weight. Go over and surf ThumperTalk.com for info on fourstroke singles.

ThumperTalk

Just my 2 cents.

 

[MickeyMiller]

My '98 Buel S-1 with the 5. 5 gal tank has gone 270 miles on one tank and was still running! Who needs a small bike?

 

[BigPapa]

The Kawasaki EN500 Vulcan sounds like what your looking for. 70-80 MPG and plenty of get up and go for a 1/2 liter bike.



Scott

 

[Forrest Nearing]

just get a "real" bike... 600-750,etc.



you're still going to get insane mileage, but you'll actually be able to accelerate out of trouble when that's the only option

 

[AMink]

I had a Honda Hurricane 600 at one time, too. Another "should of" kept it. My neighbor has one of the Suzuki 400's, but his is the dirt model. I had a Suzuki SP600 too. It was a dual purpose, if you spent 95% of your time on the street. :-laf Had a Goldwing 1500 before the kids came along. The one I really, really wish I still had was a late 60's Yamaha twin 100cc 2-stroke street bike. It had the chrome tank with the rubber knee pads. It was cool! At $145-$150 to fill up, I could pay for a bike pretty quickly.

 

[JFaulkner]

Probably because very few people actually buy bikes for the fuel economy alone, so low power isn't tops on anyones list. (If you want low power buy a Harley or a scooter, both have about the same power. ) I've had both an Yamaha R6 and an R1 and the fuel mileage isn't any different on either of them, both right around 50mpg. It's all on how you ride it. Aprilia makes street bikes in all sizes. All the way from a 50cc, 125cc to 1000cc.



Most Buell bikes are not very good either. The 2 people I've known to have them didn't keep them very long. There used to be a website dedicated to the problems they have "Buell Motorcycles - Where will you break down today" was their motto. Here's one link to a review.

 

[AMink]

I know the bigger bikes still get good mileage, but all I really want is a small bike to commute and ride around town. I guess what bums me out is Europe, Australia, and others get really cool 250's and there are very few here. I don't want a crotch rocket (can't control myself!:-laf) and I'm not a big fan of the quarter and half liter cruisers. I want a naked sport bike, like a Monster, but not so big. A 600 is great, but way more than I'm needing and want to pay insurance on. I'll be checking into all the suggestions to see what's out there. I sometimes forget there are more bikes out there than the big 4 offer.



I'm looking for something like this:

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