[Clay Dowling]

For the most part, I find highway riding to be fairly gentle. Fewer deer and there’s a median between me and the opposing traffic. I mostly ride back roads, and I see deer on the roads every day. This morning it was a pair of them racing down the road, zig-zagging back and forth from one shoulder to the other.

[Clay Dowling]

That skateboard has rubber wheels and a gasoline engine, so it’s really cool.

A buddy picked up an electric dirt bike for his kid on the cheap, on account of it needed some pretty simple repair work that he knew how to do. We have tons of fun on that thing running it around his yard. Of course, dragging me up a hill hurts the charge a lot.

[Clay Dowling]

The actual machines are kind of expensive, but the car washes where you drive into the bay and wash your bike with a high pressure wand are power washers too. They work really well for getting into those awkward places. Kind of spendy, but worth it if you’re trying to make your bike look nice.

I also use a rubbed on chrome polish to shine the bike up, since I have an abundance of chrome. I swear Honda just wanted to show up HD in a chrome-based dick measuring contest. So far, Honda wins.

Here’s an inexpensive power washer, BTW: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=99741

But I suspect that as usual with Harbor Freight, you get what you pay for. Some of their stuff is decent though. Sanders from there are good, so far I like the motorcycle jack I bought, and their pneumatic equipment seems decent for budget priced tools.

[Clay Dowling]

You might want to limit your search to water cooled bikes in that climate. Air cooled bikes have been known to overheat.

A friend recently picked up a CB750 out in Arizona. And had to call a buddy when the bike wouldn’t start because it had overheated. Letting the bike cool down for a while solved the problem, but it wasn’t a lot of fun.

[Clay Dowling]

Are listening to their bike trying to figure out which part is going to fall off next.

For the record, I always try to wave to them from the gas station, where I’m refilling my minuscule tank.

[Clay Dowling]

Well, you know, you can always gloat in the superior knowledge that you’ll be riding while they’re coping with the unique features of Italian engineering

[Clay Dowling]

After following a friend home one night and noticing that his black jacket and grey helmet disappeared even in the headlights until I got really close, I pointed that fact out to him. I figured he’d get some of the dark reflective tape some people here had talked about. He went with this instead:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=97562

I expected it would look ghetto, but I didn’t even notice it there until he pointed it out. Having something reflective on the helmet is just so natural that I didn’t take notice of it.

[Clay Dowling]

doing a u-turn. Went right over. To compound the stupidity, it tried to snatch the bike from the fall with my hands, which given my bike’s weight wasn’t going to work.

[Clay Dowling]

I’m more likely to get a wave returned from a bicycle than a scooter. But most of the scooters I see running around are clearly being ridden by somebody new who is trying to save money, not be part of the two-wheeled community.

I dunno, maybe scooters save money. Motorcycles certainly don’t, once you factor in costs for tires and the fact that you need gear.

[Clay Dowling]

The vehicle has been involved in a crash. The damage hasn’t been repaired. Given a market flooded with Ninja 250s, that makes the bike unsalable. You’re doing him a favor by offering any money at all, and he knows it. He wouldn’t admit it under torture, but he knows it’s the truth.

You don’t even begin to talk price until a qualified mechanic of your choosing has looked it over, taken it for a test ride and given it a clean bill of health. Any funkiness, any hesitation from the mechanic, it stays on the lot.

As for the cracked fairing, if that isn’t fixed the price stays at $1500.

If he take that price, look somewhere else. For $3k I was able to buy a bigger, faster bike with 6,000 miles on it and no work needed. You shouldn’t pay that for smaller, slower and needing work.

[Clay Dowling]

It’s $25. The state subsidizes the classes to encourage people to get training. The savings comes down the line with fewer emergency calls and hospital bills that ultimately wind up coming out of state funds. Because sadly motorcycles, especially in the hands of untrained, underequipped riders, lead the pack as a cause for quadriplegics. And unless they had bundles of money beforehand, they always wind up on state assistance complete with 24 hour in home care.

[Clay Dowling]

While they’re in the parking lot than while they’re shooting down the highway at 120mph. And any cop worth his donut is going to realize that’s what they’re planning to do. Since public safety is their job, that makes sense.

[Clay Dowling]

“Does anyone make comfortable after-market seats for these?”

http://www.corbin.com/kawasaki/ninjamenu.shtml

I don’t know how different they are from the stock seat. A co-worker replaced his stock Magna seat with a gunfighter and he says it gives him several more hours in the saddle. I’d get one for myself, but they aren’t cheap.

[Clay Dowling]

Around me, it’s cruisers at the biker bar. But we also have a drive in A&W (original, not a retro remodel), and that gets the cruisers and the classic car crowd.

The coffee shop at the other end of town gets a fair amount too, but it isn’t so much hanging out in the parking lot. Mostly middle aged guys who go in to talk with the owner, who is a preacher and a biker.

[Clay Dowling]

Usually the only issues with size have to do with egos. A 250 will haul you up and over that hill without any problems, at the necessary speed. As always is the case with a manual transmission, if your highest gear doesn’t have the power to take you over, the one beneath does.

With the length of your ride though, you need to think seriously about the comfort of the riding position and of the seat. Unless you buy a touring or sport touring bike, stock seats are going to be a little rough on your kiester. The upside is that you can find older Honda ST1100s for $3k. The downside is that the bike is probably a little heavy for a new rider.

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