[briderdt]

I’d almost call BS on this post and call you a troll, you’re so obviously against everything that this site preaches. Of your two posts, this is the only one I’ve read, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and shut up.

[briderdt]

FZ-6.

[briderdt]

…but then again, temps haven’t been above, say, 53 degrees. So when it gets hot (yeah, around here 80 is considered “hot”), I’ll be doing the mesh jacket and jeans. But I’ve got a couple pair of Icon jeans with the reinforcements, and others are Rigg’s Workwear Ranger pants (ripstop Cordura with double layer over the thigh/knee). And I’ll be wearing shin/knee armor underneath. I’m pretty non-aggressive in traffic, though, and ride about as close to 100% backroads as possible.

[briderdt]

Can’t even get the kids to ride with me when I go running…

My solution — a tandem. Then she won’t have to worry about not keeping up.

[briderdt]

…then leathers, in some form, are what you need. There are such things as two-piece suits that zip together that would probably serve your purpose well.

[briderdt]

My two-wheels-and-a-motor journey is still underway, and hasn’t been a long ride yet.

It actually started long ago, when I was maybe 12. Mind you, my parents were (and still are, to some extent) very anti-motorcycle. My oldest sister was getting married, and her husband-to-be was storing his motorcycle (“it’s only a 350” he said) in my parents’ shed until he could sell it. Several times I went out there and sat on it when no one else was around. This was about 1976 or so (I guess that would make me 13 at the time)… I couldn’t tell you more about the bike other than it was black and chrome and I loved the feel of sitting on it and feeling the brake levers in my hand (it wasn’t until MANY years later that I realized they weren’t both brake levers).

Now fast forward to college. I was doing a lot of road bicycling. After college, it became a lot MORE road bicycling — I raced on a team for many years, as well as doing triathlon at a high level. I was very comfortable on the road in traffic on two wheels, and am happy to say that I have NEVER hit pavement because of a car (I have due to other bikes, but that’s another deal). So I have a pretty good radar built for seeing potential problems with cars when I’m on two wheels, and know just how vulnerable I am to damage from two-ton hulks of steel, aluminum and plastic at the hands of the clueless.

Fast forward again, to 2008… My wife made a comment about how she’s always wanted to ride a motorcycle, but in her previous relationships (we’re both on our third go-around), she would never have been allowed to… I said “why not?” She was a little more than shocked, especially when I said it was something we could do together. And I still had all those thoughts of the 13 year old boy sitting on that shiny black and chrome motorcycle.

So we started looking at motorcycles, gear, looked into classes… I got on this site and PNWRider. Read a ton. She wanted a cruiser. I wanted a sport bike (I’m comfortable in that position, much like I’m comfortable on a road bicycle). We laughed about our disparate styles, but were always supportive and never told each other that we should do anything different. I told my wife that we’d get her outfitted first, because she was the one that first brought it up. So… We go to a few dealers, sit on bikes. At one point she says she’s found a Harley she wants to look at. We go to the dealer, and she sits on the bike while it’s running. Nope. The vibration is too much for her (she’s got some history of arthritis, and had a cervical fusion done just over a year ago). So she goes back to the drawing board and researches. Settles on the Suzuki S50. We find a used one a short drive away (she’s dead-set on getting one from a dealer out of fear of buying some one else’s problems). She sits on it, looks… And we end up buying a new one that’s outfitted for touring (screen and floor boards).

I had spent my time looking as well, and had settled on 3 bikes I would have been happy with — Suzuki SV650, Kawasaki Ninja 650, or Yamaha FZ6. Happily, I found a used SV650s really close to where we’d just gotten my wifes bike (and only about a week later), convinced the guy to drive it in the back of his truck to my house (I filled up his gas tank for the trouble).

We got our gear, signed up for the MSF Basic class (in the same week, but not at the same class), and did some parking lot practice. We both went to the DMV and took the written test so we’d be legal to practice. I passed my MSF class, and then waited ’til my wife passed hers to get my endorsement. Well, she didn’t pass her class, and then within a month sprained her right wrist badly (she’s still recovering and can’t ride yet). I did get my endorsement, and am doing fine on the road (though I did do a no-speed set-down of my bike at an intersection once when I killed the engine — fortunately no damage at all).

I’m a rider for life now. And also have a pretty strong “mod” bug to go with it. Had the same thing with my bicycles (I have 8 bikes, and there’s always at least one of them in a state of “project”). Only having one motorcycle to work on, I have to make my mods fairly minor so it’s always ready to ride…

[briderdt]

I have a sport bike and a bar-end mirror in the left side that sticks up a ways. So I have to really move my hand around it to drop down for the wave.

I never thought I was that much of a dork on the bike…. I’m not cool anymore… Oh, the horror…

[briderdt]

Check the Kelly Blue Book site just to make sure:

http://www.kbb.com/KBB/OtherVehicles/PriceType.aspx?VehicleClass=Motorcycle

Also, make sure the seller has clear title, and not a bank. 10K miles is nothing as long as the bike has been maintained properly.

[briderdt]

“Then the first time I rode it to work people kept telling me these horrible stories about accidents and people they know who died on their bikes.”

Not that those people dying is funny (it’s not at all), but it’s funny how people will always bring this up. AND YET… How many people die each year in CAR accidents? Are these same people who are trying to warn you off your bike still driving their cars?

Hyprocrites…

[briderdt]

I put Cycra Stealth hand guards in my bike, and quite frankly they made a bigger difference than the heated grips. And they’re easy to remove and put on the “next” bike…

[briderdt]

Most of my rides (commutes) are less than a half hour, and speeds under 45 mph. But after my ride on Saturday (1:15 each way or so, but still at lowish speeds), I’m going to start.

[briderdt]

The ultimate winning combination in keeping the hands warm.

[briderdt]

…would be that the oil was added without soaking the filter, and that your level dropped as a result of the oil that gets trapped in the filter as a result of normal operation. But still, with a bike that only has 20 miles on the odo, and set up by the dealer, it’s something they should be addressing.

[briderdt]

Aside from the TPS adjustment on my SV, the Crampbuster went a long way towards progressing my throttle control. Others may have differing opinions (see above). For the money, though, even if you find you don’t like it, it’s a relatively cheap experiment.

But I would definitely get that one-finger thing checked out. Reynauld’s syndrome (if I didn’t butcher the spelling that’s a miracle) comes to mind.

[briderdt]

There are times that I can’t wave — waiting at a stop when I need to have the clutch lever pulled in, in a corner. At those times I’ll look straight at the other rider and give a definite nod.

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