[eon]

I would also wait till after the course. It’s the only sensible thing to do, unless you are okay spending thousands on something you may never use. Not sure if you are planning buying new or used but I think buying your first bike without an experienced rider to help you is hard, especially going the used route. Having your license at least helps. I would also take course with an open mind as to what type of bike is for you. You may like the image of cruisers but find them uncomfortable to ride. Everyone is different. Personally I could not make up my mind what style of bike I wanted at first. In the end buying convenience had a lot to do what I bought.

[eon]

When you are talking about steep downhill hairpin turns then I think you need to consider what speed you will be doing before advising ‘hanging off’. Your body weight is used to counter balance the bike. At slow speeds (~<10mph) it wants to fall into the corner, therefore you shift your weight to the outside. Above that speed the bike wants continue on a straight line therefore you shift your weight to the inside (hang off) to counteract that.

I have a steep hairpin bend near me that I struggle with. Going up isn’t so bad but going down I struggle with it. I’m certainly not going fast enough to hang off (though that might be part of my problem).

[eon]

I’m probably 50/50 on buying stuff local compared to online. I like to support local shops as I like to try stuff on but there is just no way they can have the same stock or prices as the large warehouse places. If a local shop has what I want at a reasonable price then I will buy from them. Too much of a mark up and I will look elsewhere. It’s hard for my local shops (Seattle) to be competitive as the local sales tax is near 10%. Motorcycle Superstore is just down the road in Portland with zero tax and free delivery on most orders. Being so close that’s 2nd day delivery. Still, I buy local when I can.

As to what online stores to buy from, I’ve not really heard of any bad ones. Other than the ones mentioned above, I’ve also bought from sportbiketrackgear.com and revzilla.com.

[eon]

At least you got dropped off at school. In my day I had to walk there, rain or shine (mostly rain). I also had the additional pleasure of having to walk though the enemy school (enemy being those who had the misfortune of being educated in the wrong religion). Character building I tell ya!

Never had to worry about BMWs in the parking lot though. Leaky British pieces of crap at best. Apart from Miss Moore, the leggy blond PE teacher who turned up in full leathers on her motorcycle (Honda I think, my attention was elsewhere at the time).

[eon]

Driving these Jeeps sounds like fun to me, though Atlanta is not exactly the best place for an off road vehicle (occasional storms aside). Once you start riding though be careful of Atlanta traffic, especially on the freeways. I lived there for 3 years and probably saw more accidents there than anywhere else I’ve lived. Eight lanes of inattentive drivers doing 85mph is quite an experience.

On the plus side you have great riding roads a few hours to the north of you in north GA. Although I never liked the town of Helen that area has some great roads. Sadly I was not riding back then, only driving. If you go even further north to places like the Blue Ridge Parkway you have some of the best roads in the country (outside of the north west )

[eon]

My vote he met a Chilean Chica and is now setting up a business importing bowler hats from England for the locals. Only Englishman and Inca women wear such silly hats (and apparently, most of the wild west cowboys back in the day. the things you learn from wikipedia)

[eon]

LOL…the guy looked kind of happy afterward. Although why he decided after pushing the car out of the way to jump BACK across the tracks I dunno. Major kudos to him though.

[eon]

Whatever happened to Paul?
He went on this trip some time ago. Did his tires pop and leave him stranded on a Chilean road in the middle of nowhere? We want to know!

[eon]

I think you are arguing over the definition of the word panic, but I am with lexcapade on this one. Panic to me implies loss of rational thinking. You may have been taken by surprise by the events that happened but you did not panic. “panic stop” bad connotations for me, in the same way that “accident” implies an lack of responsibility.

[eon]

Varies a lot from state to state. Subsidized cost in WA is I think around $120, but there are unsubsidized courses available. Costs more but availability is better. Can’t you do a search to see what is available in your area? Doesn’t matter much what your friend told you if there are no classes available at that price.

[eon]

That looks fun, if exhausting. Remember to post up pictures.

[eon]

Looks like you wil enjoy that new movie that’s out. Trailer looks good and lots of good actors in it.

[eon]

On the standard GoPro a 2Gb card will get you about 55 minutes of video. You can use an 8Gb card and get 2x4Gb files (it stops recording after 4Gb and you have start a new recording). At least that’s what I have read. It gets a bit confusing as you will also read 2Gb is the maximum card size you can use, but they upgraded the firmware to allow 8Gb cards. I have an 8Gb card coming this week so I will let you know if it does not work.

The HD version will obviously use more memory per minute but I cannot give you the specs on that. Not sure if it uses more power than the standard.

I believe I have lithium rechargeables but I will double check when I get home. 75 minutes is not that great. I might need to look into hooking up a power supply but given I want to move the camera around that’s not much of an option. Starting to think the camera might be great for short bursts where you go out with the purpose of making a movie, but not so great for continuous shooting where you are just riding along.

[eon]

I just double checked the specs of the MP3 and it has a dry weight of 538lbs, so I guess with battery and stuff it’s real life weight must be close to 550lbs (not exactly sure what the difference between dry and wet weight is). While you can lock the suspension at <5mph and/or 1800rpm, once moving it will fall over the same as a 2 wheel bike. The 3 wheel stance though helps enormously with low speed stability. Riding at a walking pace is very easy. Strangely enough I suspect that stability makes it easy to drop if you are not careful. Lean the bike just a little bit and the offset wheels provide stability. Lean it a little more and *suddenly* you've got all that weight tipping over. The seat height (31") and wide seat does not help either. I have a 32" inseam and sitting on the front of the seat I can just get my toes on the ground.

At speed it can lean over to 43′. That’s as much as most sport bikes I believe. And with twice as much grip up front you have less chance of low siding. At least that is the theory. I believe it as experienced riders have reported having more confidence leaning into bends in low grip conditions.

As far as dual sports go, I cannot make up my mind on which bike to get. I would love the BMW F800GS but I’m not sure I would do it justice. Getting a Versys and then possibly a smaller more off road oriented bike later is my current plan. We will see what I feel like once I have money in my pocket and walk by the BMW dealer

Might need to start a GoPro thread to learn about folks experiences with it. I have one and am still learning how to use it. I have a couple of trips planned for this year and I would love to get some cool video from them. I’m trying to work out all the wrinkles now before then. I actually had the GoPro onboard on Saturday but the batteries died on me after about 75 minutes of video. They were fully charged rechargeables. I’m thinking they must be kaput as I’m sure I got much more than that before. Of course they died before I got to the interesting part of the day

[eon]

LOL…it will be a while yet before I get any chrome. I just don’t like falling off. Tried it once, didn’t much like it. When I am riding ‘fast’ I focus more on taking a corner smoothly. Speed I don’t worry about so much. But as soon as the road gets damp I become a puss wad. A hangover from my fall that I still have not completely exorcised.

But riding that road I was torn between riding ‘fast’ and enjoying the views. I’m glad I stopped to take the pictures as they are the best ones I have taken so far on the bike. Now that I think about it I guess I do have a ‘cruiser guy’ mentality, but a cruising the back roads (and off roads) exploring type of cruising. I just need to get something a little more suited to those types of journeys.

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