R6 Swirlie

Hi there, I'm Swirlie, new to this board, I've got an '06 R6 that I've had for not quite a year now, been riding for over 3 years total and put close to 40k miles on the odometers in my saddle time. Yep, I ride... ALOT. My bikes have been my main forms of transport as well as my main forms of recreation since I started riding. I'm in Panama City, Florida, US, I was a cop for 6 years, and I just joined the army infantry under the 18x SpecForce pipeline. Nice to meet ya'll! Any other questions? And before anyone asks, no, the bike isn't modded or tricked or anything, it's bone stock, and it's more than enough to go get crazy and have an awesome time on!

I was a cop for 6 years, and have been a rider for 3. I can tell you, having been on BOTH sides of this thing, that no statistic will ever tell you how many riders caused their own fatal wrecks, how many other cars caused the fatal wrecks, or what. Unless you're there to watch, and see with your own eyes, what happened leading up to a serious or fatal wreck, there is no way at all to truly know what went on and what the contributing factors were. No bean counter in any government office compiling statistics for a living will ever be able to give accurate numbers. Suffice it to say that if you are aware of your surroundings, you ride safely as you were taught in an MSF course, and you wear the proper gear, you drastically reduce your chances of injury or death in the event of a wreck. You might even say that you reduce your chances of a wreck at all. However, none of that is completely foolproof. You might be riding around and not see that scattering of sand in the corner, low-side at a slow speed, slide to the outside of the corner and just happen to hit a pole with your head or something like that. You never know. You could be hauling ass down the road, have someone pull out in front of you, and you're just lucky enough that their car is lower than your bike and you just get flung over the car and slide down the road for a ways, avoiding all injury. Buy a bike, go have the limitless fun that all of us riders enjoy, but be safe and responsible about it. No one out there is looking out for you but you. Drive knowing that everyone else is going to wreck you if they get a chance. No matter how paranoid you are, you can still have tons of fun. I do. btw, I'm new to the boards, I'm Swirlie, nice to meet you all!

I ride ContiAttacks on mine, and they do awesome. Never had so much as a wiggle where traction is concerned. Last tires were a set of Dunlops and I frequently had traction issues... right up until I burned them off doing a burnout and replaced them with the Conti's I tried burning my Conti's and the traction's so good it was hard to get them turning! btw, hi, new to the boards, I'm Swirlie!

Heh, 1st post, but I saw the topic name and had to throw in my $.02... I've been riding for 3 years now, ultimately I would love to get into racing, and I've read alot of stuff, been out and done alot of stuff, and one of my good buddies was a pro racer in Cali before he moved to Florida and we've talked ALOT about this debate. As a new rider with only a year in the saddle, you need to realize that an R1 has WAY more power than you are comfortable enough with or even know how to handle at this point. It's the kind of thing you should say to yourself "Have I really approached the limits of what my R6 can do? Am I ready to upgrade to that much power, and do I have the respect and responsiblity to handle it in all situations?" Like I said, I've done ALOT on my bikes in my time in the saddle, including some impromptu races with my ex-racer buddy. I ride an '06 R6 and I can tell you that I've not even gotten close to the bike's limits, though I've exceeded my own limits on a few occasions and was just lucky to not have wadded it up. However, if you only use your bike for casual street riding and don't ever do any sort of performance riding, then it's just a question of preference, style, and comfort. IMHO the '09 R1 is horrendously ugly (right alongside the newer Ninjas... just UGLY things) and I wouldn't take one if it was given to me. But I agree with all the above posts about how mechanically untouchable they are. Second to none. Ultimately it's your choice, just be responsible. I was a cop for 6 years and I have literally walked down the highway picking up pieces and parts of the bike AND the guy who was riding it when people rode bikes they didn't have the respect or ability to use.