[Clay Dowling]

I get the appeal of the bigger bikes. I always look longingly at the CBRs as I walk by at the dealership, but I keep walking.

The point here is that it’s hard to beat the cool factor of you and your brother having matched bikes. If you’re leaving him behind in the dust, it’s gonna stop being fun for him, and that kills the joy.

[Clay Dowling]

The email thing is handled by a module called “notifications.” I’ve got it on a site I run, where posting will be sporadic by design and you need to be told that someone has made an update. You might get annoyed by it here, but typically you’re allowed to choose whether you want to be notified or not in the account settings page.

I wouldn’t make the avatars bigger, but I’d love it if we could link it to a bigger picture. That’s definitely not something that Drupal does by default though. Possibly add user profiles (there’s a Profiles module Ben), with a field for homepage or picks of your ride.

Signatures, they’re okay, but inlined pictures in the signature is a bad idea. There’s a bike-specific forum where I go sometimes and there’s way too much visual clutter from oversized signatures with pictures of bikes. A 640×480 picture in the signature is overkill, but unfortunately common. Moderately annoying too, since we all obviously ride the same model of bike.

[Clay Dowling]

I don’t see the 750 Vulcan as being a real problem. I’m riding one of the fastest cruisers you can get (Honda Magna), and the bike does not try to launch me into space. For the skilled rider, the power is there, but typically on a cruiser you won’t tap into that power by accident. Certainly on my bike if you want to ride it like you stole it, you need to know what you’re doing.

[Clay Dowling]

I owned a Saturn SL, and one of its features was that the horn would suddenly go off and stay on. Nothing to be done about it other than to replace the horn. You might have a similar deal, and you should definitely talk to your dealer.

[Clay Dowling]

Would be especially cool. Although read some of the articles here. You’ll live longer and have more fun riding with your brother if you start out on the Ninja 500, rather than going for the bigger bikes.

There might be some value in both starting on the 250, so one doesn’t outpace the other. And they’re all over the used market, so you can get them on the cheap.

[Clay Dowling]

Caught my one year old nephew climbing the bike last weekend. Fortunately we snagged him before he could do something unfortunate. But way scary because he was climbing on the kickstand side of the bike.

[Clay Dowling]

It happens. I did it last weekend. No bid deal, just tap it down into position.

And with a little practice you can take off from second. A couple weeks back I pulled a slow u-turn and didn’t realize until it was headed back the way I came that I’d done it in second.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m riding a third generation magna and love it.

[Clay Dowling]

The front end on a Honda is a single piece. If you damage a little of it, you have to replace all of it. I might have needed to replace the headlight assembly as well.

Believe it or not, the most damage done to my car was by a rabbit. It leaped directly in front of my car, smashed through the grill (which is under and behind the bumper, and really flimsy) and broke the seal on my air conditioner radiator. That time was also when I was reminded that the good mechanics are at private garages, not dealerships.

[Clay Dowling]

The Virago is a pretty nice looking bike all around, no matter what the size.

[Clay Dowling]

I like quality tools, guns included. But I don’t carry and don’t really want to. I own a Beretta FS92, which I enjoy shooting, but which I haven’t shot in several years, owing to lack of time. Shooting is fun, but I’d rather ride or build something.

[Clay Dowling]

A route free of coffee shops? Mostly on the weekend I ride down to the coffee shop to rent a little office space.

[Clay Dowling]

My car got hit by a teenage driver doing that. And she pulled a hard enough left out of the parking lot that if there had been a car parked at the curb, she would have crashed into it. I was not amused.

[Clay Dowling]

1. Install “This car protected by Smith & Wesson” bumper sticker.

2. Pack Smith & Wesson (substitute other makes as appropriate).

3. Keep an eye on the car.

[Clay Dowling]

in the cold. 5 to 10 minutes when the weather is near freezing to get to the point where it can take any load. And that sadly is a trait of the third generation magnas. But yes, once it can take the load, it responds much better to being in motion than to idling and warming.

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