There are many people who feel it is a badge of honor to log a thousand miles in 24 hours on a motorcycle. However, close examination shows this to be a rather dubious claim to fame.
To make the required mileage, the rider has to ride at excessive speeds for sustained lengths of time. High-speed highway riding is always high-risk riding, especially at night. Riding at high speed cuts time and distance to react, even in daylight. At night, by the time something breaks the headlight beam, there is no time to avoid it. This is called overriding the headlight. When the object is a deer, a vehicle, or the side of a boxcar, the results are never in the rider’s favor.
A rider who pauses only long enough to refill the tank does not take time to mentally refresh himself or to check his bike. His only focus is to get back on the road. He fails to notice a bubble in a tire or a drop in tire inflation. His taillight might have burnt out, or the chain may be loose. A sudden failure, especially at high speed, may result in a potentially fatal fall.
Add to that rider fatigue and you have a formula for a fatality. A fatigued rider’s senses begin to dull, impeding judgement and slowing reaction time. Droopy eyes don’t search the road effectively. Depth perception diminishes. White line fever develops and the rider’s attention strays. Coffee and caffeine pills wear off suddenly, leaving the rider suddenly overcome with the need for sleep.These factors combine to make a deadly and often fatal mix. Is it worth the risk for a little pin? I think not
Custom Search
Showing posts with label VEHICLES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VEHICLES. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Are you Sporty enough for a KIA Sportage
Close your eyes and try for a moment to picture the Kia Sportage. Tough isnt it? I write about cars for a living and my recall is patchy. Its like trying to remember how an old song goes with a different track playing in the background. Try as I might, I keep coming up with either a previous generation Toyota RAV-4 or a Suzuki Grand Vitara.
The Sportage itself slips from the memory as if it were coated with so much Teflon. In a bid to make the Sportage more memorable, Kia went back to the drawing board and returned with the current facelifted version.The underpinnings of the Sportage are the same as those of Hyundais Tucson 4x4 which is no great handicap. In fact, the Kia inherited a decent tarmac biased chassis with either two-wheel-drive or part time four-wheel-drive and some modest off road ability - a perfect set-up, in other words, for the target market. Kias credibility when it comes to building 4x4s has been boosted enormously by the excellent Sorento family 4x4 and the smaller Sportage augments this reputation. Its a vehicle with a very different focus to its predecessor. That car was surprisingly capable off-road but felt unsophisticated on it. The current car is at its best on the tarmac with a modicum of ruggedness thrown in for light off-road jaunts, which is just how like their compact 4x4s. With tweaks to the styling introduced on the latest car, it looks well capable of making an impact. Power is supplied by one of three engines. The overwhelming majority of buyers will pick either the 2.0-litre petrol engine or the 2.0-litre CRDi diesel but there is also a 2.7-litre V6 petrol alternative for those with deeper pockets and a hunger for extra power. Of the two 2.0-litre units, the petrol has fractionally more horsepower with 140bhp to the CRDis 138bhp but its the oil-burner that feels more forceful with 305Nm of torque between 1,800rpm and 2,500rpm. This slug of pulling power arrives all at once so smoothness and flexibility arent particular strong points of the CRDi engine but it feels significantly more muscular than the petrol which delivers 184Nm at 4,500rpm. The V6 has 173bhp and is the only engine that makes the Sportage anything approaching quick.
Show the Sportage a straight, well-surfaced road and it serves up a good standard of ride comfort and refinement. In the past, the problems tended to start when the going got twisty or the surface deteriorated. The recent facelift aimed to address this however and the current models feature revised dampers as well as a tweaked power steering system. The ride has grown firmer and that helps the Sportage resist body roll when cornered vigorously its also less liable to become unsettled over bumps in the road.
The Sportage adopts a few MPV-style practicality features. The rear seat cushion and the backrest are a case in point, adopting Kia’s Fold and Dive system. Whilst it may sound like a tactic taught by Argentinean football coaches, it is in fact a method of creating a spacious, square-sided and completely flat cargo area. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to house extra long loads and at the back there’s even a flip-up rear window which means that items can be dropped into the luggage area without having to open the tailgate.
The compact 4x4 sector has exploded of late with virtually every mainstream manufacturer having cobbled together an entrant of some description. Despite the improvements made, the Sportage still campaigns at the lower end of this market offering value for money and lots of equipment in a competently engineered package. With most of the entrants into this sector aiming quite a bit higher than the Sportage, it could easily carve out a profitable niche for itself by undercutting the major players and appealing to family buyers on a budget. Sportage diesel buyers expecting to recoup the extra outlay they’ve made to upgrade from the 2.
With other mainstream compact 4x4s growing progressively bigger and more expensive, the Kia Sportage has remained close to its roots at the lower end of the market sector. Even the latest facelift has done little to enliven its appearance but the Kia appeals on a different level to the fashionable offerings at the opposite end of the compact 4x4 spectrum and there’s something to be said for keeping things low key in the current anti-4x4 climate. With its industry-leading warranty and strong value proposition, the Sportage is an uncomplicated sort. It should prove that there’s a ready market out there for an average compact 4x4 at an eye-catching price.
The Sportage itself slips from the memory as if it were coated with so much Teflon. In a bid to make the Sportage more memorable, Kia went back to the drawing board and returned with the current facelifted version.The underpinnings of the Sportage are the same as those of Hyundais Tucson 4x4 which is no great handicap. In fact, the Kia inherited a decent tarmac biased chassis with either two-wheel-drive or part time four-wheel-drive and some modest off road ability - a perfect set-up, in other words, for the target market. Kias credibility when it comes to building 4x4s has been boosted enormously by the excellent Sorento family 4x4 and the smaller Sportage augments this reputation. Its a vehicle with a very different focus to its predecessor. That car was surprisingly capable off-road but felt unsophisticated on it. The current car is at its best on the tarmac with a modicum of ruggedness thrown in for light off-road jaunts, which is just how like their compact 4x4s. With tweaks to the styling introduced on the latest car, it looks well capable of making an impact. Power is supplied by one of three engines. The overwhelming majority of buyers will pick either the 2.0-litre petrol engine or the 2.0-litre CRDi diesel but there is also a 2.7-litre V6 petrol alternative for those with deeper pockets and a hunger for extra power. Of the two 2.0-litre units, the petrol has fractionally more horsepower with 140bhp to the CRDis 138bhp but its the oil-burner that feels more forceful with 305Nm of torque between 1,800rpm and 2,500rpm. This slug of pulling power arrives all at once so smoothness and flexibility arent particular strong points of the CRDi engine but it feels significantly more muscular than the petrol which delivers 184Nm at 4,500rpm. The V6 has 173bhp and is the only engine that makes the Sportage anything approaching quick.
Show the Sportage a straight, well-surfaced road and it serves up a good standard of ride comfort and refinement. In the past, the problems tended to start when the going got twisty or the surface deteriorated. The recent facelift aimed to address this however and the current models feature revised dampers as well as a tweaked power steering system. The ride has grown firmer and that helps the Sportage resist body roll when cornered vigorously its also less liable to become unsettled over bumps in the road.
The Sportage adopts a few MPV-style practicality features. The rear seat cushion and the backrest are a case in point, adopting Kia’s Fold and Dive system. Whilst it may sound like a tactic taught by Argentinean football coaches, it is in fact a method of creating a spacious, square-sided and completely flat cargo area. The front passenger seat backrest can also be folded flat to house extra long loads and at the back there’s even a flip-up rear window which means that items can be dropped into the luggage area without having to open the tailgate.
The compact 4x4 sector has exploded of late with virtually every mainstream manufacturer having cobbled together an entrant of some description. Despite the improvements made, the Sportage still campaigns at the lower end of this market offering value for money and lots of equipment in a competently engineered package. With most of the entrants into this sector aiming quite a bit higher than the Sportage, it could easily carve out a profitable niche for itself by undercutting the major players and appealing to family buyers on a budget. Sportage diesel buyers expecting to recoup the extra outlay they’ve made to upgrade from the 2.
With other mainstream compact 4x4s growing progressively bigger and more expensive, the Kia Sportage has remained close to its roots at the lower end of the market sector. Even the latest facelift has done little to enliven its appearance but the Kia appeals on a different level to the fashionable offerings at the opposite end of the compact 4x4 spectrum and there’s something to be said for keeping things low key in the current anti-4x4 climate. With its industry-leading warranty and strong value proposition, the Sportage is an uncomplicated sort. It should prove that there’s a ready market out there for an average compact 4x4 at an eye-catching price.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
