LAMS THING..

Can someone bring me up to speed on this LAMS thing.
I see jay has a nice LAMS Suzuki 650 Which has restricted power.IF its restricted what the advantage over buying 250 which i'm guessing
is about the same power.(is it).The price of the 250 would have to be lower.

In QLD you could do a one day course and obtain a full licence.(What a joke)Has that ended?

gus wrote:IF its restricted what the advantage over buying 250 which i'm guessing
is about the same power.(is it)

It's a power to weight thing., which the qld gumbyment decided that they would like to ban bikes such as the GSX650FU and the SV650 lams versions, as they're too easy to derestrict to full power. Bullshit, Suzuki Au wont allow it and once you de restrict a LAMS bike, legally you have to re register it and it is not a 2 way process. Once it's de restricted, that's it. Of course, it's a case of your milage may vary.

Some people managed to pick up full powered ECU's for a good price, but even with a Power Commander, it was a PITA to tune it to full power. I left my 650 as is and it was my trade in for the bandit. Didn't stay too long at the shop either.

As for buy a 650 over a 250, I for one am grateful for the choice. I would have gone mad on a tiny 250. The GSX650FU is a great bike for commuting and doing long rides, sure it lacked a bit when you need to over take but EFI is bliss. The KLE 500 wasn't too bad, but it worked to get up to speed.

The beauty of LAMS (without the B) is you're daling with a full sized bike with propper suspension and brakes.
Most LAMS are detuned full version engines and this can make some even more ridable and less snappy etc.
I tought my ex wife to ride on a ZZR250 and that was a fantastic bike but something more roomier would have had us doing longer trips.

ACT has a variation on the rules but how long this will last I don't know. The variation is that, whilst we still have the same power to weight limit, there is no 660cc limit, making bikes like the VZ800 Boulevard and even the Triumph Rocket III learner legal!! At 6ft 2in that really worked for me as there are no 250cc machines that I felt comfortable on. As it turned out the VZ was a great buy because Canberra Motorcycle centre wanted to buy it off me when I was ready to trade up and I couldn't complain about the trade-in deal. So that really worked in my favour. When I bought the VZ in 2007 there were no 650cc leaner legal bikes (they all came out afterwards) so I'd have been stuffed if it wasn't for our unique laws. It's all about height, seat height, footpeg placements, etc - that's what makes most 250cc machines unsuitable for people like me, and the manufacturuers are probably hoping the 650cc LL machines help us - whether they do or not I can't comment because I've never sat on one.

In NSW its a max 660cc with a power to weight ratio of 150 per tonne.

How does that work, for example a KTM 520 EXC has real potential to spit you off pretty quick, and the Suzuki TS400 Apache was almost evil There's lots of bikes on the list I would not let a learner even sit on

Ewok1958 wrote:Triumph Rocket III learner legal!!

Thats a scary thought! WTF

To me there are 2 advantages of a LAMS bike over a 250.

The first is pretty obvious, that's the physical size of the bike. Our son was over 6' when he started riding, and quite frankly he looked ridiculous, not to mention very uncomfortable on a 250. We bought him a '96 KLR650.

The second is that a 'good' LAMS bike, like the KLR, DR, GS500, ER5 etc etc is that while there's not a real lot of power there is, compared to a 250, bucket loads of torque. This means that the learner doesn't have to rev the tits of a bike to get forward movement. This is an added bonus when they step up to a full powered bike.

I've seen too many learners that had only ridden high revving 250's get spat of the back of 600cc sport bike because they just reefed on the throttle like they did on the 250.

b12mick wrote:I've seen too many learners that had only ridden high revving 250's get spat of the back of 600cc sport bike because they just reefed on the throttle like they did on the 250.

I loved going for a fang on our ZZR250. I dont reckon I could ride it to its limit

2wheelsagain wrote:

Ewok1958 wrote:Triumph Rocket III learner legal!!

Thats a scary thought! WTF

Dead right (maybe that's a bad way of phrasing it!). I guess it will be sooner rather than later that ACT adopts the 660cc limit like other States have. In the meantime .....

Do the math, at 150 per tonne. Almost every Harley is lams approved except for the cc limit. Can't you just see lams tags hanging on all the bikes in the shops .

b12mick wrote:To me there are 2 advantages of a LAMS bike over a 250.

The first is pretty obvious, that's the physical size of the bike. Our son was over 6' when he started riding, and quite frankly he looked ridiculous, not to mention very uncomfortable on a 250. We bought him a '96 KLR650.

The second is that a 'good' LAMS bike, like the KLR, DR, GS500, ER5 etc etc is that while there's not a real lot of power there is, compared to a 250, bucket loads of torque. This means that the learner doesn't have to rev the tits of a bike to get forward movement. This is an added bonus when they step up to a full powered bike.

I've seen too many learners that had only ridden high revving 250's get spat of the back of 600cc sport bike because they just reefed on the throttle like they did on the 250.

At 6'5" these are the exact reasons I went for the 650 over a 250 such as a Ninja. If it wasn't for the fact of already having sat on my bike prior, I probably wouldn't have continued riding immediately after having sat on those baby bikes at my Rider Safe course, i've never had cramp in my hips for so long, so often lol.
My understanding from the many bike reviews and readers comments is that difference in the power between the LAMS and standard 650F only becomes noticable at around 6000-8000 rpm. 6000 rpm on this bike equates to around 120kph (well above the max speed limit for a Learner). And also since I bought this brand new i'm still running this bike in as per Suzuki's instructions and can't do above 6000 rpm for the first 1000km's etc.

aussiejay wrote:from the many bike reviews and readers comments is that difference in the power between the LAMS and standard 650F only becomes noticable at around 6000-8000 rpm. 6000 rpm on this bike equates to around 120kph (well above the max speed limit for a Learner). And also since I bought this brand new i'm still running this bike in as per Suzuki's instructions and can't do above 6000 rpm for the first 1000km's etc.

That is true for the restrictions. How long have you have your bike for? Should have clocked the 1000ks by now So far my best is 6 days. Slack I know but soooo enjoyable.

Haha, got my bike mid November have done a shade over 700km's but since I work up north on a two week on two week off roster and with such an abundance of riding days when I have been home (Read continual raining cats and dogs!)LOL. Figuring i've been doing well