Diabolus wrote:in my opinion a storm is not an ideal first time bike, my local bike shop has a storm that ended up in a ditch due to it being in the hands of a new rider. please be clear that im not patronising its just my opinion I had an SRAD gsxr 600 for 6 years before going for the storm if you ride it hard its not as forgiving as a 600 you have to be confident in your ability ect. if your in a lower gear than needed and give it a hand full the power to the back wheel is instant and could be messy on a bend or roundabout.
I would wait till you've had your current bike upto full power then consider the storm even if you have to pay more for insurance for a year its better than another storm in a ditch.
I was more intrested in an SV1000 than a storm but after test riding both the storm won hands down for me. one thing that takes some getting used too when going from a revy 600 to a v twin is that on a twin I was regularly going faster than I should be as you feel that your not going as fast cause you can be doing 90mph in 6th and all your hearing is a low rumble from the engine, instead of the buzzing of a whiny 4, quite often I would look at the speedo and think 'this bike is going to lose me my licence'
(then back off a bit)
I have had my storm over a year now and it makes me grin every time I go out on it, im sorting a few things over the next few weeks one thing on the list is the linear springs to the front forks as someone has mentioned it bottoms out quite easily no matter how you adjust the settings. I did the composory R/R and manual ccts as soon as i got it
I understand where you're coming from, but what's probably going to happen is I'm going to spent several nights a week for at least a fortnight in an empty car park at nights just doing manouevres on the storm as well to get used to it. Jumping from a 125 to a 600 was no small step either, so I spent ages in car parks learning the bike and how it reacted to what I did before I even took it out the shed myself. I'm also not a fan of just twisting the throttle fully anyway, I usually twist it slowly and progressively. It's not all about the power and speed and how fast you get there
But if it does turn out that I can't quite control the storm comfortably or something, then it probably will be stowed away for another year being used occasionally by family but not me. I'm not gonna go mental on it, I ride well within my ability (I hope!) and if I didn't feel comfortable cruising at 80 on the motorway or going into roundabouts with a bit more speed than is advised, I won't do it. I'd build my confidence up in my skills before I do anything on it.
Well, my IL4 cruises at about 5000rpm in 6th at 90mph, out of 15000rpm so it's not really that whiney? I suppose it's all down to getting used to the bike, I used to have to stare at my speedo every time I saw a road speed sign and then about every 20 seconds thereafter but once you grow used to the bike you can just feel how fast you're going anyway and so you adjust accordingly..
I'm not a boy racer, I'm not going to use it like a cheaper to insure fireblade ;) I ride how I feel comfortable, the second I feel uncomfortable with what I'm doing I'll stop as soon as safely possible in a layby or service station or whatever and just have a drink and snack for 45 minutes- hour to cool my nerves and think about what I just did
Umm I think that is about it.
More to life than power. I love the look, apart from the headlight, of the VTR and how it feels to sit on 
) now if you were getting something like an Aprilia rsv i'd say thats not a good first bike !, the storm is a soft bike thats easy to get on with although can be made into something much better with a few tweaks and mods. For a relative newby i'd say be carefull on downshifts, do them too early or agresively and the rear wheel will lock up a bit, planned is best. Do the fork springs if nothing else especially if getting an early one as they dip and rise mid corner with only a little throttle causing you to run wide, linear is best imo. the later 19ltr tank model has slightly better forks that you could live with but can still be improved. the cct's are a preventative measure, i've had miy latest one a while now and the cct's are std but i'll be doing a stopper mod before the spring.
