Official Car Thread :: Vol 2 :: Now with More Bikes!

**Bojack** · 17 Mar 2008, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by stormy

The Rotary is not a gimmick at all. It has some characteristics that make driving it great compared to a piston engine. It has some drawbacks too. It shouldn't be dismissed as a gimmick, although I'm not sure if that's what you were getting at exactly.

Aside from high RPM and great power/size/weight attributes there's not much more you can do with a rotary. Even at 1 liter of displacement they still gulp gas and oil. They're fan-fucking-tastic for racing applications IMO and have killer exhaust notes but the fact that Mazda puts in Race cars and RXes and nothing else makes it more of a marketing tool (hence the gimmick comment) than a serious manufacturing/ business tool.

**stormy** · 17 Mar 2008, 06:03 PM

Oil consumption is overblown. Tons of piston engines gulp more oil than the Renesis (hi2 S2000 and lots of VWs). It's just that the Renesis is designed to do it and it's in the user manual, as opposed to piston engines which do it as a side-effect.

+:
power to weight
smoothness
flat torque curve
linear power delivery
high rev
responds great to turbo
fewer moving parts

-:
low torque
gas guzzler
more prone to flooding
pollution
poor turbo tuning makes apex seals go boom!

It just behaves differently, which is a plus or minus depending on the driver. It could get better milage if they didn't have to tune the thing around emissions requirements. It runs incredibly rich at the start to get the cat up to operating temp. The 04's with the first couple engine software flashes could shoot flames out of the exhaust from unburnt gas.

**MarkRyan** · 18 Mar 2008, 01:11 AM

A'ight, today was the day I vowed to bring my bike home, having just completed the MSF course this weekend. I was fucking nervous and anxious and excited all day. My stomach was killing me. Left work at lunch, came home, geared up, and...hopped on the bus for an hour ride downtown.

The dealer was great, went over everything with me and hung out while I twiddled with the controls and tried to leave without stalling (never got to start on any hills at the riders course, but the dealer is on a slight hill so I had some learnin' to do). Bobbled back and forth and stalled it probably ten times before I felt comfortable and took off.

On the road, it felt so natural. As someone who's only ever ridden a motorcycle before during the two days at MSF, I was really surprised how quickly I took to it. Didn't stall or have any problems whatsoever once I left the dealer. When I was riding along the ocean, I was a bit surprised by how much I could feel the wind pushing me, but it was totally manageable and felt awesome. Here's the route I took home and to the office--I planned to stop by home to get myself ready to go back to the office but decided to just cruise past the apartment and go straight for work.

The bike is awesome and really not at all frightening. I already put on 40 miles just today (more than double what I did on the bike at MSF) and feel really good on it. Here are some photos I snapped in the garage. I'll try to get real shots later. Maybe with me on it if you're lucky.

Click for full size

Click for full size

On the way home I decided to stop by the Pontiac dealer to see if they had a G8 on the lot. I started to pull into an open spot and, low and behold, directly behind the spot was a G8. So I pulled right in front of the G8 and scoped it out--they had a V6 model (said a sister dealer sold their V8 and so they got the V6 in return). It's a great looking car. The wheel arches are great, the stance is solid, and it doesn't look as big as it probably is. I didn't sit in the car 'cause I didn't want to disrobe (taking off and putting on motorcycle gear and a backpack is a pain in the ass) but I did look inside and feel the materials. Top notch, a step above my GTO. Seems like a fantastic car at a fantastic price--they just need the manuals to come out.

**Tones** · 18 Mar 2008, 01:30 AM

That's a great looking bike. My dad's 2005 Ninja 500 is fun and all, but it definitely looks dated. I'm glad Kawasaki finally updated its styling.

I'm glad that you waited until you took your MSF course before riding; it definitely sounds like you have the right attitude towards motorcycling. If more people took the same outlook before jumping on, especially a 600 supersport or bigger, ride2die.com wouldn't be so frequently updated (WARNING NSFW)

**MarkRyan** · 18 Mar 2008, 02:07 AM

Originally Posted by Tones

That's a great looking bike. My dad's 2005 Ninja 500 is fun and all, but it definitely looks dated. I'm glad Kawasaki finally updated its styling.

It really is pretty striking, though, how decently modern the old design looks considering it's over 20 years old, virtually unchanged--it's now long in the tooth, but the 250s at least are, I think, still a sharp looking cycle. Kawasaki had some good foresight with the design--here's hoping the new one looks mildly modern 20 years from now.

I'm glad that you waited until you took your MSF course before riding; it definitely sounds like you have the right attitude towards motorcycling. If more people took the same outlook before jumping on, especially a 600 supersport or bigger, ride2die.com wouldn't be so frequently updated (WARNING NSFW)

I'm not sure if I wanna follow that link..I'm bad with gore.

I appreciate the encouragement, too. I really have been trying to take on the moto thing as responsibly as I can while having fun with it. Having been around some of the other new riders at MSF, I feel that a good portion of the motorcycle horror stories have got to come from some of those folks--there were a couple of pieces of work there.

I should also say that my old cycling survival senses came back instinctively. I commuted on city streets on my mountain bike for about three years and learned to be very defensive and assume no one sees me. I apply that a bit to my car driving but much moreso to the motorcycle. Assume and prepare for the worst and you'll get the best.

**Rumpy** · 18 Mar 2008, 02:13 AM

Love the color of your bike Mark, looks awesome.

**Tones** · 18 Mar 2008, 02:18 AM

Yeah, you just have to remember that no mistake goes unpunished on a motorcycle. Heck, even on a bicycle... Last year, some guy slammed on the brakes and turned right in front of me (I was in the bike lane), causing me to hit his front right fender. I hit my chin on the pavement, and then my temple. Thankfully I was wearing my helmet. I got 5 stitches in my chin, though.

**Wildkat** · 18 Mar 2008, 10:13 AM

Originally Posted by Bojack

Also patent rights etc. For their size nothing else compares however. I've considered the idea of whether or not one can hitch a turbo rotary up to a beetle rear transaxle in a Ford Festiva to haul tons of ass.

Pretty much every major car company paid for the right to develop rotaries, some even had pre-production engines built. Heck, there was a concept Corvette with a rotary in it, and the AMC Pacer was supposed to have a rotary engine sourced from GM.

The benefits simply don't outweight the problems. The simplicity of the engine itself is overrun by the complexity of the emmisions systems.