What bike next?

[richtea]

Randomly H2-related, but it was the TFT diagram that caught my eye:
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/kawasaki-ninja-h2/

I love intimate detail of how a TFT works. Except the one bit they forgot to label is the liquid crystal! Good old MCN.

Oh, and back to bikes - that exhaust is plug ugly. You'll have to get the Akra version, Perbunan.

[Phmode]

That exhaust is plug ugly? The whole bloody thing is plug ugly!

More money than I just spent on a year old Audi S3 and it still has a tubular frame...

[Swindon Andy]

Are there any good looking sit-up bikes?

[Bruno]

Are there any good looking sit-up bikes?

I suppose that beauty is in the eye of the beholder Andy, but I quite like the look of this:

https://www.visordown.com/road-tests-first-rides/launch-test-2018-mv-turismo-veloce-800-scs

[Belco100]

Randomly H2-related, but it was the TFT diagram that caught my eye:
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/kawasaki-ninja-h2/

I love intimate detail of how a TFT works. Except the one bit they forgot to label is the liquid crystal! Good old MCN.

Oh, and back to bikes - that exhaust is plug ugly. You'll have to get the Akra version, Perbunan.

I saw the new BMW TFT display on a GS the other day, and it blew me away - it really adds to the bike. So clean and simple compared to others I have seen and just seems to have moved things on again. I would love to see this on the XR and a few others:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyF0JQqirLU

[raesewell]

I think you can have too much information and having to scroll through lots of screens might be distracting.

[richtea]

I think you can have too much information and having to scroll through lots of screens might be distracting.

Agreed. One reason I'm not a fan of GPS - there's enough to do without another screen.

I've watched another biker* on a rideout weave over the middle line whilst fiddling with his GPS / mounted phone. Twice.
He wasn't the first in line in the rideout - so a needless risk.

And to balance that luddite view, I'd quite like to be able to just plug my phone into the bike at will - ready but not on, and have it voice controlled: 'Where the hell am I?'. Then it can wake up.

*nobody here!

[Phmode]

I agree totally Rae. It is getting to the stage where your car dash has become your Tablet with all sorts of apps becoming available. And what happens on cars today comes to bikes tomorrow.

The previous version of my car, which has selective drive modes, let you display the current mode on the dash, conventional as my dash was. My current version however, has done away with that neat and handy feature and now, when you press the drive mode button, the pop-up bloody sat-nav screen appears as if by magic from the dash top to reveal which mode I am in. By the time it is up I have forgotton what I was doing and promptly put it down again.

Oh, and because the 7 year olds at Audi think that everyone needs 'entertaining' while they are driving, as soon as the sat-nag screen appears, so does the bloody radio and there is no way of getting rid of it. I can turn the volume down but it still has the current station on the dash (where I would love to have my drive mode display) and if I force quit the 'entertainment' system, the sat-nag screen disappears and 'Entertainment Off' appears in place of the radio station (where I would love to have...etc. etc.). It's as if the modern generations can't think for themselves; 'I can't hear my musak, perhaps it's off?'. No! The car has to tell them it is off...

I like to think I am not easily distracted either in the car or on the bike (not many old riders who do get easily distracted methinks) mainly because of the pace I move at, but I find myself spending longer looking at the dash or the bloody 'entertainment' screen than is good for my longevity.

On the bright side however, I invested £20 in an OBDC dongle thingy that allowed me to permanently turn off the irritating Stop/Start system in the car so that is one less thing to bloody infuriate me.

Oh, and also allowed me to stop the DAYtime running lights from coming on with the ignition at NIGHT. Blazing lights ten feet from my 12v powered 'scope doesn't do much for one's night vision or view of the heavens. But why do I meed the bloody ignition on in the first place! Well, it is the 7 seven year olds again because on cars of previous generations I could power my scope (cool box, boombox, kids toys, phone and tablet chargers etc.) with the ignition off. Oh no, not any more! Too many idiots flattening their batteries so instead of sending them to 'Paying Attention' classes, what do the 7 year olds do, they disable the 12v sockets when you turn the ignition off so now my security camera dies while the car is parked...

I have yet to drive the version of my car with the all-singing, all-dancing, fully customisable, TFT 'virtual cockpit' dash but I imagine it has way too many toys and 'features' than I could master in what is left of my lifetime.

Rant over...

[black-k1]

I think you are all confusing the availability of information with simple bad driving/riding. Since the invention of the combustion engine,  no, sorry, since the invention of the horse, there have been people unable to be "in charge" of their mode of transport and avoid getting their concentration pulled away onto something else.

Choosing your moments to take in information is a skill whether the information is the approaching bend, the engine oil pressure,  the current engine/road speed or whether to go left or right at the next junction. The available of more information to support my riding both from a fun perspective and from a utility A to B perspective is, to me, a good thing. I want more, more, more!!!

[Andym535]

I can’t resolve much detail for things less than a few feet away without my reading glasses, so although I have a SatNav it might as well be in a pannier for all the use it is while riding.

[Phmode]

It talks to you doesn't it?

[Phmode]

I think you are all confusing the availability of information with simple bad driving/riding. Since the invention of the combustion engine,  no, sorry, since the invention of the horse, there have been people unable to be "in charge" of their mode of transport and avoid getting their concentration pulled away onto something else.

Choosing your moments to take in information is a skill whether the information is the approaching bend, the engine oil pressure,  the current engine/road speed or whether to go left or right at the next junction. The available of more information to support my riding both from a fun perspective and from a utility A to B perspective is, to me, a good thing. I want more, more, more!!!

I doubt the horse had much in the way of information for the rider/driver to take in and the speed of progress meant nothing would happen for a few miles if you were to read Pilgrim's Progress en route.

It isn't so much how much is available, rather it is how many hoops you have to jump through to get to the screen where it might be lurking.

My car dash has a useless gear indicator. My left hand can tell me what gear I'm in if I have drifted off to sleep and forgotten...the one on the bike is more useful as my left foot can't tell me which gear I'm in.

But, when this boring dual-carriageway turns into a thrilling B road and I need to tighten things up, having to search for the drive mode I am in is just frustrating, especially when I am now thrapping along and the mode determines whether I stay on the black stuff or end up in a ditch.

More information may be good. Badly presented information is not!

[richtea]

It talks to you doesn't it?

No, that's the schizophrenia, Brian. 

[Phmode]

Most of the turns mine gives me are correct...different on the Garmin to the TomTom, but correct most of the time. So, my I imagine my schizowotsit seems to be working in my favour.

[fjtwelve]

Had an idle look round BMW showroom, also Fowlers in Bristol. If I were to need to change to something even more comfy,  I am at a loss to know what.

K1600 is a bit big, perhaps Yam FJR,  but that doesn't inspire.

Or one of the smaller bikes like the z1000sx. Several makes produce these types, but they have chains and limited wind protection. I think the adventure style is fugly.

So it seems there may be nothing around to tempt an old man off his K1300S.

Is there anything out there that ticks all the same boxes but is a little more relaxed position?

More or less at the if ain't broke don't fix it stage. Moving on front fj12 was very difficult. Buy another.  Oh and phmode sounds like a late nineties ally naughties rs4 would suit better than new s3