How much power before you're uncomfortable?

[Hoover]

What I AM asking:

"how much power in a street bike is required before YOU are uncomfortable?"

 

I came off an R1100RT to move to the K1200S. Major difference in power, and at first I had to keep myself in check. Now it's just the bike I ride. I can/have spin the rear tire on corner exit, but not if I am:

 

a) Riding like I have some sort of sense

b) ensuring that I have a rear tire with good tread (see a)

 

I can pretty reliably power wheelie this bike, but not until around 7000RPM in a lower gear. It's nice to have the power available when I need it. I can ride spritley through the mountain passes out here without too much power loss even when loaded down with a weeks worth of travel gear, and I rather enjoy that. My wife has a 1400cc cruiser, and everytime I ride it in the mountains I want to get off and push. I love the whole crusier idea, but not enough power to travel on IMHO.

 

I have also traded bikes with a family member during rides who had the exact twin of my old RT and I have to say while I think it has plenty of power for an open road ride, I can't fathom how dangerous it was to pass on two lane roads with this bike. What takes me 1 second on the KS takes 4 on the RT (you run into allot of slow moving cars on mountain roads around here). I have watched the owner of this bike have some pretty close calls passing on mountain roads. I still miss my RT sometimes, but I can't imagine having any less power than the K1200S now.

 

In the "too fast for me" category, I rode a friends modified R1 over the summer. This is one of the bikes that is too fast for its own good. This thing would fly, was light (compared to my S) but could not slow the bike fast enough which was one of my major issues with it. It was too easy to overdrive a turn. I suppose if you are one of those knee down on the street kind of riders (he is) a bike like this is fine. But it seems to me you should save those for the track. I am not sure it had more power than my S, but the power/weight ratio is definitley in his favor making the "pucker factor" much higher when you enter too fast into a turn.

 

 

[jackflash]

I've never been in or on a street legal bike or car that made me uncomfortable. Power delivery is the biggest issue with me having to do with "comfort". I really don't ride to be comfortable.

 

The rider/driver is supposed to have control of the power. That doesn't mean the power makes any practical sense or any kind of sense.

 

A Kawi 250 can get one in serious trouble in a turn. FWIW.

[sardineone]

Thats when I learned it was much more fun to override less hp than underride more hp.

 

+1

[sgendler]

I had a GSX-R750 for a while that I thought had "too much power" for me. The throttle had absolutely no play at all and was extremely twitchy. It had instant on power which required a very, very smooth right hand and was very unforgiving of any choppy hand movement.

 

That's more a function of fuel injection setup (or carburetion) than outright power. Poor fueling can make a bike with 70bhp pretty hard to ride, since it can be impossible to roll the throttle on gradually in the turns. The gsxr1000, with 160+bhp had fantastic fueling so it was trivial to give it just a tiny percentage of full throttle, thereby making its full range of power accessible.

[UberXY]

BMW has yet to make the bike that would make me feel uncomtforable, powerwise, to drive. I have owned a 400 HP BMW M5 car as a daily driver for the last 8 years, and wish it had about 250 HP more.

 

I have an SS on order, and I hope it has at least the 190 rumored HP. If it can't lay a long black streak from apex to apex, it's underpowered, IMHO. Life is short, and it might as well be fast.