New moto article from AE86

StroppyChops · Post by **StroppyChops** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:10 am

OrangeDragon wrote:i'm on the other side. i still loved my phantom when i was there. almost never had to do any work on it (in fact only 1 time when the starter went out), cops got out of it's way, and it had good pickup speeds for accelerating out of messy situations. and a super comfy ride compared to the scooters, especially for a passenger.

and i always have preferred a low center of gravity on a bike. tall bikes freak me out.

No arguments with any of that - but the point was that it's not a good starter bike for someone new to lowriders wanting to learn in PP.

OrangeDragon · Post by **OrangeDragon** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:27 am

i can't think of one much better... with the highly limited power of a 200cc motor. Most better built bikes of that style are going to have a lot more power, so be a lot more likely to get you in trouble on cambodian roads.

I guess maybe a yamaha v-star or such, down in the 600-650 range. But you'd never find one here. Also, I happen to know that clippy is a SHV guy, not a PP one. Or at least was as of a few months ago. A lot less traffic to contend with most times and a lot of open road opportunities without going too far out of town (like the road to otres or down past the port, or even a day cruise out to kep/kampot). The most disappointing part of living in SHV for me was that i'd already sold my phantom.

AE86 · Post by **AE86** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 8:37 am

Agree that the Phantom is a very tame bike compared to almost anything bigger, but on the contrary, if you're starting out completely on motorbikes (most expats are), then anything than a 50cc scooter is too much for people to handle in my opinion.

In SHV, Kampot or anywhere outside Phnom Penh that has roads, the Phantom would make a nice long distance "cruiser", although vibrations above 4500 rpm are really quite bad honestly.

Then again, $1000-1600, not bad.

ExPenhMan · Post by **ExPenhMan** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:56 am

I have ridden quite a few bikes: Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda and BMW. I once rode a Harley Sportster (I think that's the name). It felt like the back-end and front-end parts had never met before.

But just looking at the Phantom and I get what Stroppy and AE86 are saying about it not being such a good starter bike. But my bias is toward tall bikes for vision and bump absorption purposes.

ExPenhMan · Post by **ExPenhMan** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 11:16 am

A great informative feature.

I've often looked at Suzukis around the parking lots and thought, meh. They don't exactly shout look at me. Whereas I really like the look of the Dreams and Cubs. After this article, I will look at Suzukis more closely. I have had a 2009 AirBlade for about a year now. Have nothing to complain about. Except: Why does the centre-stand block the kickstarter? This mystifies me. Maybe it's a poor aftermarket installation.

Sir_Quality_U_Feel · Post by **Sir_Quality_U_Feel** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 11:56 am

ExPenhMan wrote:A great informative feature.

I've often looked at Suzukis around the parking lots and thought, meh. They don't exactly shout look at me. Whereas I really like the look of the Dreams and Cubs. After this article, I will look at Suzukis more closely. I have had a 2009 AirBlade for about a year now. Have nothing to complain about. Except: Why does the centre-stand block the kickstarter? This mystifies me. Maybe it's a poor aftermarket installation.

Because on most automatics you must first put the bike up on the C Stand to kick-start ANYWAYS (think ground clearance)... So even if the one were not blocking the other, you'd have to still use the center stand.

clippy · Post by **clippy** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 1:54 pm

StroppyChops wrote:I know you were asking AE86 specifically, but a comment from the sideline. The Phantom is a 230cc copy of the Honda VT250C which has the lowest legal seat height in Australia. If you are not familiar with low-riders, I would not start out with this one, you'll do yourself a mischief in the first decent pothole you encounter. The centre of gravity is too low, and therefore the turning circle is too large, to be able to respond to the traffic here quickly enough to stay out of trouble. Just my 100r worth.

Edit: you have to get these bikes up to a reasonable cruise before the handling stabilises, not something that happens too frequently in PP.

I've rented phantoms for a couple of days, rode one from shv to kampot once, and up to bokor.

never had a problem with potholes, not sure what you mean by that, but I can agree about the turning circle. I always had a feeling that if i really HAD to swerve around something i wouldnt be able to. the low center of gravity eh? i can see that

its a good bike out on the highway. i was asking more about the reliability, and i dont live in phnom penh so not much traffic problems

New moto article from AE86

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