Forum Replies Created
5 Common Wear and Tear Items on Motorcycles
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AmorylParticipant
I think Kawasaki made the eliminator, a little 125cc thumper, the VStar 250 used to be the Virago 250
AmorylParticipantone thing I’ve really noticed since I’ve started researching motorcycles, and became a member of forums such as here, is that I’ve really REALLY started noticing motorcycles more. I much more actively look for them, and I give them more room than I may otherwise have given them in the past.
there are things that you can do to change the way you drive and interact that you simply never would have thought of without looking at it from the perspective of the other side
AmorylParticipantwell since I still havn’t managed to get my bike…I can’t say that I’ve improved my driving due to my riding. but for the past 4 years I’ve had to drive a cargo van to and from customer’s houses as part of my job, and prior to that I spent a good 2 years driving a security vehicle on mobile patrol. but the cargo van has DEFINATELY affected how I drive. It corners like a pregnant cow, it’s slow on the uptake, it’s slow to stop, and it’s so huge that sudden lane changes are difficult. I had a trainee stop playing the “bet you a dollar that suv’s going to cut me off” after he owed me about $15 in less than an hour. now when I’m riding with a co-worker or a supervisor I constantly get “how come you never get cut off like everyone else?” well…it’s because I can tell when someone’s going to cut them off and react long before they do, usually by giving them enough space that they don’t HAVE to cut me off. oh there’s still the occasional idiot out there that comes out of NOWHERE, but it’s rare. in my cage I drive much like I’m in my van, except I’m a bit more likely to make a sudden lane change.
I think what I’m trying to say is that for me, driving the van as much as I have, and do, will instead make me a much safer rider. I have a very well developed sense of situational awareness, much better, I’d argue, than most cagers. and really when you learn that a huge white van with red and blue lettering all over it is invisible to these SUV soccer moms, you learn that you’re invisible no matter WHAT you’re on/in.
AmorylParticipantit seems to me that a lot of smokers have become considerably ruder about smoking. maybe it’s their reaction to the various places limiting smoking areas or something, but it seems that there’s a lot more angry smokers, and a lot more just purely thoughtless smokers.
seriously, when I was younger I remember people actually used their ashtrays, now most cars I’ve seen with smokers have completely empty ashtrays (or they store random crap like coins or chapstick or something in em) because they just ash and flick the butt out the window. I’ve also noticed that far far fewer people anymore step on their butts when they’re walking down the street. they used to drop the butt and then crush it so it wouldn’t still be burning, now it seems everyone just finishes and flicks it as far from themselves as they can. I’ve often almost been hit by flying butts from people who didn’t even bother to glance around before flicking it.
I’ve had cigarette butts fly INTO my cage by other cagers flicking it out the window. it pisses me off.
AmorylParticipantdoesn’t riding on ANY surface cause Tire wear?
AmorylParticipantfrom everything I read, there doesn’t seem to be anything implying the drop damage being what caused the squidlysenses to start tingling. if nothing else it seemed to confirm them after other evidence was brought before the judge.
AmorylParticipantsomething thats always seemed to work for my cage, that’d likely work for a bike…try parking father away?
I drive a cargo van for work, and trying to get anything reasonably close to the front is a hopeless pipe dream, everything’s crowded and hazardous, and people open their doors and bang my van. THEN they get pissy at me! just because my van’s ugly and beat to crap doesn’t mean that you have the right to be mad because you damaged your nice new door by flinging it open and hitting my ugly already beaten up van.
so I just automatically park way out in the boonies where I’m pretty much the only thing out there.
AmorylParticipantreally? where are you at? a ninja 250’ll do 90mph according to most, 70 at the min, which is about the top speed of a smart car…there really shouldn’t be anything keeping it from being freeway legal, heck there’s a decent number of people who’ve done the 1000mile in 24 hours Iron Butt challenge on a ninja 250.
AmorylParticipantalso the V-Star 250’s a darn nice lookin bike.
also keep in mind, especially now, that those 250’s have great trade in value. you’ll likely get 70-80% what you paid easy, sometimes getting more like 90+%
AmorylParticipantthere’s nothing sexy about road rash, or paying off a bike thats already totaled because you skipped the learning how to ride before showing off to the ladies.
lets face it, none of us are sexy on a moving bike the first few weeks/months of learning to ride. get yourself a busa, or a Vrod, or any of those and you’ll look damn sexy in your gear, with your helmet on your hip, straddling the thing, maybe even revving it and hearing that deep throaty purr between your legs. you’ll look damn sexy to those women, no doubt…till you actually start moving. then they’ll see the shakey handling caused by white knuckled grips on the handlebars as you realize you’re on something with a metric crapton of power, and you’ve no idea how to handle it. they’ll see the nervous cornering, how slow you ride, the over corrections and sudden breaking when you start getting it up to speed…meanwhile that A’Hole on the ninja 250’ll be smoking you on the street, running laps around you, cornering like he’s on rails, and running off with all those hotties because he MAKES the 250 look blinding fast….oh, did we mention the ninja’s red? those are faster ya know
cut your teef on something smaller and less likely to get you in a body bag, when you can toss that thing around like it’s a kid’s 10speed THEN you’ll look sexy on a faster bike…at least while it’s moving
July 15, 2009 at 8:22 am in reply to: Just licensed female– new to riding, which bike do I pick?! #20635AmorylParticipantyou might also want to look at the hyosung GV250
AmorylParticipantman I hope the dude at the 3:48ish mark pulled it together…
I loved the begining where it looked like he was peeling off the protective covering of a new helmet
AmorylParticipantalso with cruisers moving up means a heavier bike as much as more power. I’m not sure on the specs of the Vulcan, but if I recall, the Yamaha Vstar 650 only has like a handful more HP than the Vstar 250 and nothing close to the hp of a lot of sportbikes.
you ARE taking the MSF? IMO thats the first step to seeing if riding is for you. they’ll likely start you off on the rebel or something similer (looking through I think the MSF in San Fransisco says they use Kawasaki Eliminators instead) so first off, you’ll get an idea of how cramped or not some of the beginner bikes are, and when you butt test larger bikes while looking for your ride, you’ll note the difference in weight between the two.
I mention SF not because I’ve any idea where you are, but because thats where I’ll be taking my msf course (not specifically inside the city, but around somewhere) and also because they’re the only one’s I’ve seen so far that use the eliminator. but that thing’s a 125 thumper, and TINY. I’ve never sat on one, but I think someone at the local cop shop rode one to work, because I always saw it parked outside. and man it looked tiny.
the hyosung is DEFINATELY my current favorite, and fortunately for me, there’s several dealerships to choose from. I like the looks, the size (for a 250) that it’s oil cooled, that it’s got a good guarantee. but I also plan to butt test a few before I commit to one or the other.
AmorylParticipant$22grand for a motorcycle that weighs almost as much as a civic and gets less MPG’s than one… they’re great for eating the highway, but if you’re doing a quick commute to and from work they’re not going to help you out much. maybe on the weekend trips it’ll be better, once you finally learn to control that beast of a bike. liter sports bikes are like a rocket strapped to unicycle wheels, goldwings are like elephants and all you’ve got is a little stick to direct them with. I’ve seen those expert elephant handlers turn one of them on a dime just swishing around their ears…but it takes a LONG time to develop that skill. I’ve seen people on goldwings turn on a di…er…quar…er…maybe a buck fifty….once they’ve had it for a long time. but most of those’ve been riding forever and worked their way up from other bikes.
elwood started on a sportster 883, and if I recall he’s over 6′ and he had a fair amount of trouble with that. won’t say it CAN’T be done, but the chances of either getting spooked and quitting riding altogether or it being a much longer, slower, and more painful and unenjoyable learning curve is certainly much higher on such a large bike as your first bike.
if you get a 650, you’ll have plenty of money left over for some nice hard cases, a windshield, and heck you could even have a custom made aftermarket seat hand made, and still come out cheaper than a goldwing.
AmorylParticipantI could describe what I do in great detail, but I think a picture can be worth a thousand words…
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