[briderdt]

Clean and lube chain — 10 minutes.
Lube cables — 5 minutes.
Tire pressure — 3 minutes. Maybe 4 if they’re using a hand pump.
Retorquing bolts… 15 minutes if they check pretty much every one that’s visible.

That must have been one complicated oil change.

[briderdt]

Renton Motorcycles (southeast of Seattle), and they had 2 new and one used (08) Ninja 250, along with a Ninja 500, a couple TU250’s, a Rebel…

[briderdt]

On the SVRider.com forum there’s a whole section dedicated to the Gladius. Might be worth a look.

[briderdt]

After reading the above post, I went out on Friday and bought some. Used it on Sunday after my morning ride. Simple, easy, non-toxic. As the directions say, do NOT use paper towels. But after 10 minutes, my bike is shiny again!

[briderdt]

It’ll do more of what the 250 does, and will require a bit more vigilance on the throttle than the 250, but it’s not a bad choice for starting out. Make sure you can flat foot (or nearly so) both sides at the same time (shouldn’t be a problem at your height unless you’re all torso and no legs).

[briderdt]

…you might want to take a look at the GS500F. Much the same look, but not race tuned.

Which bike are you thinking of riding south? If it’s the Ninja 250, then you’d be getting something like 60 mpg… Let’s say you pay an average of $3 a gallon. For the same $550, you could go 11,000 miles… It isn’t that far? Okay, so let’s say it’s 2000 miles (I have no idea how far it really is). That’s $100 in gas. Covering 300 miles a day (not too hard, especially if you’re slabbing it), you’d take a week to get there. How much would a cheap hotel be for 6 nights? You think it would be $450? Or load up a tent and sleeping bag and camp it (it’s not that hard to do). Eating? It wouldn’t cost that much more to eat on the road than at student housing, so that’s pretty much a wash.

Just some food for thought.

[briderdt]

When I bought my SV off craigslist, what I did was the usual inquiries about the condition of the bike, maintenance, etc, but also asked about the person selling it. I got a good feel for just what kind of a person he was, and developed a good amount of trust (both ways). Also, he was willing to ride it to a location where I could take a look at it, and we could close the deal if everything looked good.

[briderdt]

I’ve got some AlpineStars riding overpants with cargo pockets. Unfortunately I don’t know the particular model.

Also, on warmer days, I wear Riggs Wear Ranger pants — double cordura thigh/knee, gusseted crotch; durable stuff, and the same material that is used in riding pants/jackets. I wear some knee/shin armor underneath (velcro straps hold them in place), and they work well. And… Only $33 at denimexpress.com… Hard to beat that.

[briderdt]

Why, with the CBR250 Hornet, do they not import them to the US? They just HAND that whole market segment to Kawasaki on a platter…

[briderdt]

A 650 in any skin is a whole-lotta-bike. I went into an SV650 as my first ever motorcycle experience (even before taking the MSF class). I’d read a lot here, and still decided that I was up to the task. I had a LOT of road experience on road bicycles (raced for a lot of years), so I had the traffic situational awareness down, it was just a matter of dealing with the bike itself. But still, that throttle controls a pretty powerful beast, and if it’s allowed to run, it will. The Ninja 650 is the same. Some 7 months into it, I still find it a hand full at times.

[briderdt]

“Jojo, the world is not going to end in a terrible nuclear winter if you get a GXR 600…”

Neither will it end in a terrible nuclear winter if he kills himself riding said gixxer…

[briderdt]

I still call troll BS.

[briderdt]

Signed. I see the same thing with bicycles all the time — if the person had been on foot, the driver would have gotten the book. But since the victim was on only 2 wheels (motor or not), they’re fair game.

[briderdt]

…the bike will have a tool kit stashed in some crevice, so that’s mostly covered. I have a small Joe Rocket tank bag that I’ll use to carry an extra pair of gloves (if I think the temp will change enough to warrant it), a multi-hex wrench, a calendar that I use to track mileage and gas consumption, a cloth to clean off my visor… And sometimes I’ll add a little food if the ride will be longer. I have a pair of sunglasses in one jacket pocket, and clear safety glasses in the other, along with ear plugs.

My registration and proof of insurance is in a zip-lock bag under the rear seat cowl.

[briderdt]

He took the BRC two months ago. He wants to buy a bike, is afraid to buy used, thinks that new bikes are too expensive, and won’t even go sit on them.

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