Litre Bikes : Should Anyone Ride a Litre Bike?

Him Should You Ride Litre Bikes?

Me:ride whatever yo fat ass fit on😘😂😂

What about touring? The size and weight of the liter bike is better on the freeway with wind and traffic. The 1250cc or now 1300cc GS seems to be best for long distance traveling with some off road capabilities. I love my G310GS and wouldn't part with it but, my 1986 K100 is waaaaay better on the freeway and infinitely better in the wind. I love the K series but taking the touring bikes off road isn't super cool. Done it, do it but, I'd like a 1250GS to put my wife and gear up and go all day. Take the highway out someplace cool then climb the mountain to the hidden lake and enjoy the peace and quiet.

I ride a liter bike, but it's air cooled (Ducati Multistrada 1000.) It makes 83rwhp but LOTS of torque, and I can use all the power on the street!

I disagree with everything in this video. Im 6'4", 280lbs and have had my license for a year. Ive had a liter bike since day 1 and im a better rider than most in my riding group

A friend of a friend bought a vstrom 1000 for his first bike. I could keep up with him on a rebel 250.

I always get super frustrated with people who hammer on about how a 600 or 650 is "too small" or "too underpowered" to do XYZ. Those statements are just garbage. A 250 is generally still as quick or quicker off the line than a lot of cars on the road, so the name of the game is really power to weight ratio. A 650 has plenty of power to be a handful at times for the vast majority of riders.

Now in my twilight years, I and many others of this vintage have enjoyed the golden years of motorcycling, now it isn’t even silver but lead.
In the UK we now ride by numbers and lines, gone are the days when you ride according to your skill set and with electronics you are encouraged not to think of how to ride on the highway but how to effectively steer the thing until you get to the intended destination without mishap.
Many drivers of motorcycles totally rely on ABS, TC and rain mode etc., for their safety and will only buy a motorcycle with such gizmos.
Yes, over the years the one litre plus bikes have been in the garage and my journeys have taken me across Europe countless time, experienced over 150 laps the The Ring and track days; enjoyed every minute and every mile.
Nowadays, despite all mental efforts I cannot imagine how I can use the power output from a 1300cc motorcycle on the highway, except for the odd occasion when I take my life and that of other road users and pull out to execute a suicidal overtake.
Still riding of course but my trusted steed has just a few cc’s below 700, picks up it’s skirt a treat and devoid of electronic gadgets save for ABS, which legislation dictates. I do however switch the thing off.
I ride the motorcycle as progressively as conditions permit, track days are a thing of the past but Europe here I come, yet again.
Motorcycles are, for me, the best way to journey and will take you to places where you will meet the most interesting people, something you won’t get in a metal box.

This video made me unsubscribe and block this channel

Discussion should be about power-to-weight ratio, the only thing that counts. A "litre bike" doesn't yield dangerous acceleration if it weighs 300kg.

When one gets really in to the fast and quick motorcycles there is never the situation of too much power.

What should a 6 cylinder, 1800 cc, Honda Goldwing rider think after watching this video? Or 1237 cc, Honda VFR owner?!

I have a mix of old and new. I have an MT-10, crazy bike, but the electronics allow me to live, i also have a 97 Suzuki TL1000s, now that is scary, but i love it so much. I also have a 98 Kawasaki ZX-9R, not a litre bike by name but 175mph and the quarter mile in 9.99 seconds. So an honorary litre bike. New litre bikes are technically brilliant, old litre bikes are truly terrifying.

z900 is the perfect medium for hooligan activities

I love my litre bike, because it gives me good boost on low revs but also nice support in long distance runs. Having said that, all in all there's a lot of truth in what you say. You exploit better a 600cc on normal roads, in general, and sometimes in the twisties can be even faster.. But a 1000cc kicks better and wheelies easier (don't say that to my mom) 😆

I wish I had seen this video when it first came out. I had a 1000cc and 250cc for years. The 250cc was nice, but lacked power. The 1000cc had power, but lacked control. I fought with those two bikes for years, til recently I kicked them both to the curb and got a SV650.

Going from a 650r to a z1000 was the best move I've made. Both have comfortable upright touring positions.

I can ride the z1000 at 100mph for an hour+ with no real strain on the body or machine. The 650r struggled cruising at higher speeds.

Tank hugger bikes are made for the weekend warriors

Triggered liter bike owner here: you wouldn’t become the best dog trainer by training bears, but you might if you learned to train the most difficult to control dogs. So while I agree that liter bikes are not for beginners in 99% of cases, the inverse of the analogy seems more logically accurate, although in both cases the risk to success ratio is low.

KTM990R is almost a litre bike..... :)

So, once the old petrol engine becomes a museum piece, and the electric ones takes over the road, how will they be classified? Will there be a liter bike in electric units? Today electric bikes are just 1 kind of motorcycle. Will size matter (more killowatts)? Or maybe electric bikes will become a one-size-fits-all product. Will we be hacking capacitors, or batteries? Todays electric motorcycles weight lies mostly on the battery; so if the battery becomes more efficient and therefore weighting less, will we be able to drive them on the highway without having a truck blowing us out of the road? I wonder...

What about a litre bike from 1979? (gs1000)

Dude, this is my childhood neighborhood. I went to Quebec this summer and did the 155 towards La Tuque and was awesome, especially the stretch from 155 going to Lac Edward. That was both scary and spectacular. Try it sometimes if you have a chance, you won't regret it. More fun then tail of the draggon. Not for the corners, but the fact they simply paved a former hiking or 4 wheeler trail. Quite something. The onky time I had vertigo wuthout any cliff. And if you go there, try the Gite Le Presbitere, the folks there throw a wonderful dinner and breakfast. We had great time. Nathalie and Louis are great folks to hang out with.

Honestly I still shit my pants when going full throttle on my "weak" mt-09. To 100km/h I bet it's just as fat as I can manage. After that its fast enough for any crazy overtake. Would I want 80hp more? Hell no. Most roads and windy small roads that I enjoy and I might aswell have an MT-07 but it's just too small for my body.

goldwings make sence if youre putting on thousands of miles

I agree. If u r doing both track and street with owning 1 bike, yes. But every day riding, 80hp is the most you will need. I have a mt-07 and a Cfmoto 450ss and that is all i need on the street and have a blast doing it.

Thats like saying you shouldnt drive a sports car on the street. Its just stupid

I mean they could learn to deal with animals by wrestling bears.

I ride a litre bike.
0.125 litre bike

One law leads to another, leads to another, to another. Until communism takes over. No more regulations.

Laughs on 1290 Super Duke

how did THIS age? lots of 1000cc plus: cruisers et al

.... there are bikes way bigger than a litre that have their place. Mostly on lonely motorways where the Michelins can chew the kilometres like Cookie Monster... or alternatively loaded to the gills on a gravel road to a gorgeous campsite. Neither of these machines will put your knees anywhere near your chin, though.

OTOH, one of the best ways to deal with the pothole-laden urban streets of North America - or the cobblestones of Europe - is a good 300-to-650cc (A2-compatible) adventure bike. With good tyres, they're nimble, torquey, not too heavy, and with the side bags off will slither through the tightest of spots, and with'em on you can treat'em like a single-seat compact pickup truck. Oh, and they don't mind being ridden slow, unlike some heavy-ass four-banger you're gonna be in the friction zone with in every traffic jam. I regret having to part with my F-650...

I ride my K2 Gixxer whenever the weather permits. No safety aids whatsoever. She’s very quick but also very docile too. I love it & it’s going nowhere.

I rode crappy old foo-foo bikes for some years before someone turned me loose one day on a Yamaha XS11. First liter bike and the first four-banger I'd ever swung a leg over. The infatuation was instant - the way it accelerated, the smooth power delivery. There was no turning back, even for a barely average rider, which I still am. I had a Hayabusa for three years, liked the power, handling on long smooth curves, hated the city handling and the police attention it drew. Loved my Suzuki Bandit GSX1250, perfect balance of power and handling for my modest skill level. Now I have a '97 Valkyrie because it was cheap with low mileage, and am quite happy with it everywhere but in a crowded parking lot. So all I can agree with Ryan about on this topic is the practicality aspect. Yes, the Honda 919 Hornet I had for a while should have been enough to sate my lust for zero-to-sixty on-ramp fun, but it wasn't - maybe partly because I'm... not a svelte lad like Ryan anymore. However, I'll cheerfully admit it was the slickest, loveliest handling machine I ever had. But the Valkyrie sounds so much nicer! I wish Ryan would do one of his witty & incisive reviews on these weird old Goldwing-turned-juvenile-delinquent machines.

It's all about psychology.

Some people like living with a bike whose true character they'll never learn
100% - for them, a Litre bike is a source of exhilaration and pleasure.

Others, they need to get to fully learn the bike's temper a.s.a.p.,
or they can't have a ball.

Humans are wildly different - and that diversity is to
be celeCBRated.

What about 1.2L bikes? Like the FTR1200?

I have an xr650l, and it's slow as on road bikes go, but absolutely awesome on a windy road.

Sports tourers are reason number three why there should be litre bikes.

Sports bikes should not be on the road at any cc.

why is it called litre bike?

"Nobody becomes a dog training by wrestling bears." Stealing that. Great quote.

One of the best adult beginners bike i still have: Honda ST1100 PanEuropean. Sweet as scooter if you has maturity. Learned a lot with litre bikes.

riding a 1000 cc vstrom telling all this whisdom, lol

i think the thing which 1k cc bikes have against them, is that they tend to attract the most crap and irresponsible riders like MaxWrist , who think they are amazing, but crash every two weeks.
and if you look at his channel, there is a vast amount of squids who think he is a god at riding and will try to emulate him, killing themselves in the process.
It's these kinds of idiots who skew the statistics and reputation of litre bikes.

Hey I’m from Germany. What is a liter bike? Is it just the 1.000 CC Sports bikes or is a e.g. BMW R 1200 GS also referred as a litre bike (because >1.000 Cc) even though it is an enduro?

Had 3 litre bikes, 2 x VTR1000 and an SV1000S and loved them, but time marches on............prefer my XSR900LC now

Question: is a 1 litre Harley with 60 hp considered a "litre bike" ?

Isn’t that a V-Strom litre bike Ryan is riding?

Wrestling a bear! Yes, my first ride on a 1 litre Kawa found me involuntarily wheelying at STUPIDmph past a bus. 400s and 600s are definitely my thing: lighter, more chuckable and plenty fast enough. The market doesn't seem to agree with me at present.

Man, KTM had to eat their own word recently

splendor best for beginners

Not entirely true… it depends on where you live