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My 1st Bike and 1st Ride Report!
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May 17, 2010 at 4:34 am #3968gitchy42Participant
Sorry, only one right now, I was having too much fun riding, and couldn’t find another good place to pull off.
About the bike:
2007 SV650
Fender Eliminator Kit
Stubby Turn Signals (up front)
Bar End Mirrors
Belly Mat/Tank Protector
Two-Brothers Slip-On ExhaustI got it last Thursday, they loaded it into by truck for me. When I got home there was no good way to unload it, so the bike rode in the back of the truck to work with me. Everyone there oooo’d and ahh’d over it and then helped me get it down, and into the warehouse it went. I was camping over the weekend, so I had to wait to today before I could bring it home properly.
About the ride!!!
So, got a ride over to work today from my dad and got my bike out of the warehouse. Felt out the friction zone, and rode around the parking lot at work. Practiced a few quick-stops, and starting on a hill. This bike has a little more power than the one in the training class, so that took a little getting used to. After about a half hour of riding the parking lot, I went over to the next parking lot over. It is a lot bigger, so I was able to get some speed up, and the only other person there was a trucker waiting to make his delivery tomorrow. Got some shifting and blinker practice in. Then to zipping up and down the rode behind work for a little while. Only killed it two or three times during the time I was over by work.
I got fairly comfortable riding with the traffic, and decided it was time to go home. Most of it went well, it was mostly 25/35 for the first few miles, there was 1 set of rails to cross, I was a little nervous about that but I got over it fine. Made it over to a back-country road, and up to a 45mph speed limit. The wind was pushing me a bit, so I hunched a little lower, I looked down and was going 70 (sh*t), oops, rolled off the throttle and got down to a more reasonable 50ish.
Got back into town, my tail (dad) caught up to me, good thing too. I came up on a light, and it changed. Hit the brakes, and slid a bit. Then I thought I was in 1st, but was in Neutral, so when the light turned all I got was a rev-up, with no go (shi*t twice). Good thing dad was behind me, or else I might have been run over. Popped it into 1st, and was on my way again. It was pretty uneventful from there. Got home, stretched out a little and went out again to play show and tell. Took the long was over to my friends house, a nice back road, with some decent twisties and a couple of linked turns. My friend has a gravel driveway, so I made sure to slow WAY down before turning in. After a little oggling of my new ride, it was time to go. I took a longer way home, a different back road with some good straights and some nice linked turns, even a couple good sweepers. Stopped to take a photo, and then back to home.
All totaled I put 40-50 miles on my bike today. When I started today there were a few times when I found neutral instead of 2nd, but by the end of the day I was going through the gears well. I never got above 4th, it seemed happy running around 50-60 in 4th, going up to 5th seemed to bog it down a bit, maybe I wasn’t counting right, or not remembering right though. I passed a few other bikes along the way today, only got snubbed a couple times on waves, lol. I found myself with a death grip on my handlebar a couple times, and had to remind myself to relax. All in all I had a good first ride I think. Need to work a little on throttle control at low speeds, and letting the clutch out slower when going up through the gears, I got a bit of a jolt a couple times. The bike seems a little jumpy when at low RPM, but seems to mellow out around 2-3k RPM, and starts to pull again around 6k, but really happy between.
Unfortunately I need to replace the mirror on the left side. When I try to adjust the set screw it ended up either way too loose or completely locked up, I couldn’t get it to where I could move the mirror a little and have it stay put. For the ride I borrowed dad’s jacket, it really does not fit well, so I hope my jacket from cycle gear comes in soon. For some reason it takes longer for them to ship it to the store than it would have to ship it do me directly…something to remember.
My Alpinestar SP2 gloves are almost broken in, they feel great on. Unfortunately, they are a bit difficult to get on. I think I’m going to get a different pair for every-day riding, and keep these one’s for longer rides.
My 707 Vendetta II helmet is fairly comfortable, but the ventilation isn’t so great, but putting the visor up 1 or 2 clicks provides enough air to keep me cool, but not too much.
The Alpinestar Tech 2 boots were a little awkward at first, and took some getting used to. At first finding the shifter was a little difficult, because of the hard plastic on the boots, but I got the hang of it after a while.
Umm, I think that is it, more photos later when I get another opportunity to take the bike out. If the weather forecasts are to be believed that could be a while. 1 question, anyone have a good way to get bugs off of helmets??
Nate
May 17, 2010 at 6:12 pm #26502MunchParticipantWarm water and soap….then apply a decent wax on the helmet…. there’s a bike legend about Pledge…..but that’s another debate for some. I just use warm water with less then a dab of dish soap on a rag. Comes right off, follow up with a good decent liquid wax and the bugs stay easy to come off. For my visor.. I use Aqua Pel… RainX on steroids. Helps limit the need for a finger squeegee during wet rides.
Congrats on the bike and the first ride!
May 18, 2010 at 1:30 am #26521gitchy42Participantfor the tip!
May 19, 2010 at 5:45 am #26541gitchy42ParticipantSorry for the quality of the photo, it was taken with my phone….
Had to turn in my ballot for the primaries before the polls closed today, and the weather was pretty good, so I thought it would be a good time to get a second ride in. I put in another 40 miles this evening, and had a great time. Started by heading over to the county elections office, then I had to fill up the bike. I planned on getting some parking lot practice in, but when I got to the parking there are a bunch of bumps now, from all of the big trees growing under the pavement….so I need to find a new parking lot.
So, off I went!! I had a brief encounter with wildlife shortly after I took the photo. There was a young deer on the road when I came up a hill. Slowed way down, and it bounded off into the forest. Kept going slow up to the stop sign that was on the down side of the hill. About that time the back end started to feel a little light, I think my mind was playing tricks on me, because it seemed to corner the same.
My route was mostly country roads through pasture land, until I started heading back home. Then it dropped down into a canyon, across a creek, then back up the other side. Unfortunately there were cars in front of me that had me a little distracted. I’ve been sticking to roads I know fairly well, so I’m not surprised too much by what the road does. Though, the roads feel a bit rougher on the bike than in the truck.
I need to work on being smooth through corners, I was sawing a little on some corners. I really noticed it in a 25 mph zone with a couple sets of back-to-back s-curves. Good thing it that it is easy to change line on my bike without upsetting it….at least at the speeds I was going.
Before my ride, I picked up a pair of Tourmaster overpants, and a pair of Shift Chaos gloves. The overpants are pretty good. The knee armor fits well, and doesn’t float around to where it shouldn’t be. I’m not a big fan of the hip padding, not affixed to the pants well, but at least it is there. The price wasn’t that much more than kevlar reinforced jeans, so I think they’re a decent deal. The person at the shop had suggested some kevlar reinficed jeans and wearing some strap-on armor under it for warm days, wondering what everyone thinks about that.
The new gloves are shorty gloves which are a lot easier to get on and off than my alpinestars, but I don’t think they fit as well. They seem to let enough air in to keep my hands cool, cold tonight. There is hard rubber over the knuckles for the ring and pinky finger, foam padding for the fore and middle finger knuckles, with some foam and accordion stretch panels on the fingers proper. The palm is leather and faux suede, with some foam padding under the suede. The padding feels a little weird, but it isn’t uncomfortable. One thing that I really like about the gloves is that they actually go over the wrist and don’t just stop right at the wrist like many other shorty gloves I tried on. For the price (about $40), I think they are a great product.
So that’s 80-90 total so far…..
NateMay 19, 2010 at 11:33 am #26544IBA270ParticipantBecause you’re not looking through the turn. Don’t look at the lines, rather a pick a reference point through the turn and ride to it. Your arc should then be smooth…
Good looking bike! Sounds like you’re enjoying it!
May 22, 2010 at 12:36 am #26641owlieParticipantCongrats on the new bike. It sounds like you have some beautiful country to ride through. I agree that it is really strange how different familiar roads feel between the bike and a car.
May 28, 2010 at 12:51 am #26773gitchy42ParticipantOK, so I’m trying to remember from Monday (been busy), so forgive me if this doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Actually had decent weather on Monday, so I was able to get a good long ride in. 1st part of the ride was about 60 miles, around 1:45 hrs. First I went down a couple of familiar roads (on the bike), then on to some roads that I have travelled in my truck a lot, but were new on the bike. Got to a rural highway (zzzz) and was surprised by passing 3 or 4 cops, also freaked me out a little. Too much driving too fast when I was younger, lol. So I turned off the highway onto a back road that drops down by a stream.
After a while, I turned up another road that followed a different stream. Got a couple hundred yards up it before I realized that it was an oiled-gravel road, not asphalt. That got me a little nervous, I KNOW in my head that it is very similar to asphalt, but I still didn’t feel comfortable. Unfortunately I had to go about a mile before I could find a safe spot to turn around (a lot of curves). I made it back down to the ‘main’ road, and tried to find the back way up into town.
I missed the turn to go up into town, and followed the road further out to BFE. Got up to an intersection that the road I was on changed names and decided it was better to turn around than to keep going. On my way back down the hill, I drove past someone that looked familiar, turned around and went back. Turns out that it was someone that I met last summer. He told me that if I had just kept going, I would have gotten back to the road I was on, it’s all a big circle. Something to remember for next time. Also on my way back down, I saw a horse that was saddled, bridled, with a lead rope dangling from the bridle. That was a little creepy. Anyways, finally got to the road I had missed earlier, it’s a pretty nice road with a 1-mile ish stretch of 15-25 mph turns (suggested speed), including a few switchbacks. I got to work on linking turns, and waiting until I can see the exit before turning into the apex. I need some more work on that. Got back into town, and then went on home. I ended up with a car tailgating a bit, which made me nervous, but didn’t screw me up really.
I got home, made dinner, then I was off to a meeting. About 12-14 miles there, all went pretty smooth, but I was 5 mins late to the meeting. Luckily just about everyone else was 10 mins late, so it worked out, lol. After the meeting I took the long way home. Got on it a little hard a couple of times, and the front end got light (oops), luckily it didn’t come off the ground. In the last couple of miles of the ride I started getting fatigued and I wasn’t making my shifts properly. I found neutral instead of second a couple of times. Also ended up with a car behind me that ended up making me ride a little faster than I should have been.
I really enjoyed all that riding, but it was a bit of a relief to get off the bike. My knees and butt were a little sore after the time in the saddle. All together I ended up putting in about 90 miles, in about 2 1/2 hours of saddle time. There was one time going through a turn that I had to dodge an obstacle, I was able to change lanes pretty easily without upsetting the bike, or myself. On another corner I came in a little hot, and had to go a little deep into the corner before turning in. I need to work on getting everything done BEFORE the corner. I was still doing some sawing in the corner, but it is getting better. Thanks Allen for the tip. Much more riding this weekend, we’re supposed to have nice weather!
May 28, 2010 at 12:53 am #26774gitchy42ParticipantI’m lucky to live near a lot of back roads that go right into the foothills of the cascades. Makes for some pretty drives on fun roads
May 30, 2010 at 11:18 pm #26830gitchy42ParticipantSo, I decided to head out for a long ride yesterday. There was some fun riding in the first few miles, and more near the end, but the middle consisted of me finding some long, straight, boring roads. I started with a 2-exit hop on the freeway, eeks, that was a lot of cars. On my way back home I encountered a chicken in the middle of the road. It took a little coaxing to get it to move out of my way. This part ended up being about 140mi.
Got home, feed the animals, ate dinner, watched some TV and thought that it was time to go do some riding that was a little more interesting. I headed out to Troutdale, and took Hwy 30 out to Multnomah Falls, with stop at the Portland Women’s Forum viewpoint and Crown Point. I know that it is a cliche ride here in Portland, but it was fun. There and back was about 70 miles. Slow twisties with some back-to-back-to-back switchbacks, I got a lot more comfortable in the turns.
The whole day together ended up being about 210 miles, and 6ish hours on the bike, with a few stops.
June 15, 2010 at 12:22 am #27023gitchy42ParticipantAfter getting new skins on Thursday, I got about 500 miles in. Saturday I went out Scenic Highway 30, up to Larch Mountain, out to Cascade Locks (about 5 miles of slab after the end of the HWY). I gassed up in Cascade Locks, bombed it to Bonneville Dam, hung out there for a little while, had a snack, realized I was runniong a little late for a party and took the Freeway all the way back to Tigard, that’s about 43 miles of straight Freeway. I know, not a lot for some, but that much freeway after the morning was very fatiguing. Here’s a photo from the Gorge:
On Sunday I met up with a couple people from Work. We were planning on going up the east-side of Mt St Helens, unfortunately all of the roads going where we wanted to go were closed, supposedly blocked by snow. We hit some rough roads, and I scared myself around one corner, dragging a toe a little. We ended up following the Lewis river down into Cougar and stopped for lunch. After lunch we came the rest of the way down into Woodland, went freeway to Kelso, stopped for gas (53 mpg), crossed the Columbia and came back on HWY 30, till we turned up what is basically a paved logging road, then zipped back into Portland on Skyline, a ridge-line road with a lot of good twisties. It ended up being 300+ miles for the day, with about 5 miles of gravel traveled. Here a view of Mt St Helens from one of the viewpoints on Forest Service Rd 30:
Now that gives me about 1400 miles on the bike, even with the soreness, loving every mile of it
June 15, 2010 at 3:09 am #27031madjak30ParticipantMakes me miss living in Castlegar, BC, Canada. The country around there is similar…in Alberta all of the roads were designed with a straight edge…and if there was a forest in the way, they knocked it down…makes for some boring rides with wheat, barley and canola fields in all directions…nice to look at, but boring to ride…until you hit the foothills…
Once I figure out how to post pictures, I will put some up of the foothill area west of Rocky Mountain House, AB.
I bet your butt is killing you, along with the muscles in your face…lol
Again, nice pics of the scenery and the bike.
June 15, 2010 at 4:01 am #27032eonParticipantI got to get down that way sometime soon. Actually have an invitation to go down there this weekend but can’t really make it. Had to pass on a tour of Oregon next week which really depressed me. Was REALLY looking forward to that. So for now I will just have to live through your pictures. Keep em coming.
June 16, 2010 at 1:09 am #27045gitchy42ParticipantButt, back, wrists, shoulders…..everything. I’ve just about recovered enough to start commuting on the bike again. I need to wash my gear too….bugs galore…It was a great ride, but I think it will be a while before I do that many miles in a day again.
As for including photos, I have mine on photobucket and use the HTML tags when including them in a post, looking forward to photos from your rides.
June 16, 2010 at 1:14 am #27047gitchy42ParticipantNext I need to get a video camera or two, so I can start posting some great vids like yours. I’ll keep the photos of Oregon and SW Washington coming, if you keep posting vids and reports from your rides up there…
June 16, 2010 at 3:23 am #27049eonParticipantWell, I’ll just hijack your thread and post my video from last Saturday. Not a very exciting video as I just had the one camera going as I explored some old back roads, but I had a great time as I had no idea what would be round the next corner. Once I compress it for online viewing it loses a lot of the detail which is a shame. Need to play with the settings to see if I can fix that. Anyway, here it is.
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