[eon]

Love the color coordination. Looks good
If you want to free up some garage space you can store your two bikes at my place. I will look after them for you.

[eon]

That drama will be an everyday occurrence but you are already anticipating it and thinking of ways to avoid it. Soon you will barely notice these things as you are avoiding them before they develop into a potential situation.

Welcome to the world of 2 wheels

[eon]

Well, like Owlie says there are more important factors than if he likes bikes are not. But, for what it’s worth, from reading bike forums for the past year I can tell you most guys would be delighted to have a partner who rides.

[eon]

Sweet job. Now you are making me ashamed of my dirty exhaust

[eon]

I vote he hooks them up to a modulator
sounds like that would be legal

[eon]

“I fought the law and the…” no wait a minute.
Congrats.

[eon]

I made it through my first year and 9000 miles before my first crash but I made plenty of mistakes before then, and in my book a crash is just a mistake that hurts a lot more! Analyzing your mistakes is where you really learn so that hopefully you don’t do it again. Some are easy to understand, like inattentiveness, some are more subtle and require some thought and maybe advice from more experienced riders. You and I will be learning (and making mistakes) for a long time to come but hopefully the crashes are at an end

+1 on Owlie’s comments on the hubby thing. If riding with your hubby makes you ride outside your comfort zone then it’s better if you delay that excursion. But 30 miles sounds like a nice distance. It will be over in a flash and you will be wanting more.

[eon]

My scoot came with its optional windshield fitted (a father/son team were buying a scooter each but the father backed out at the last minute, they were still in the shop when I snapped it up). I barely get a breeze behind that thing and that is the way I have been riding all this time. But I took it off last month when we were getting 100′ temperatures and wow, what a difference. At speeds above 60mph I found it extremely hard on the neck muscles and the lower back. To counteract the pressure on my chest I had to either work my lower back muscles more, have a death grip on the handlebars or crouch forward. This was all distracting me from actually riding so I put the screen back on as soon as I got home.

I have heard of people who after years of riding get a full faired bike say they could never go back. My one brief attempt at going the opposite direction has convinced me a naked bike is not for me. So if you are regularly riding above 60mph in an upright position I would heartily recommend looking at windshields/fairings. Unless you just love that wind in your chest feeling

[eon]

I’m really glad to hear you are still on 2 wheels and by the sounds of it, enjoying yourself. It only gets better as your confidence grows.

I will add one observation to the looking through the curve thing. Only recently did I realize that while I’ve always been looking through the curve I couldn’t honestly say that’s where all my attention was. I only noticed this when I started giving 100% attention to where I was looking. Things suddenly became a lot smoother and easier as I had plenty of time to pick my line and speed. I guess it takes time to trust in your decisions to NOT be glancing directly in front of you. At least it did for me. It was another of those a-ha moments that makes this all so fun.

I still have not ridden much on gravel and get nervous when I do. But the folks over at advrider do this all the time (dual sport crowd) so I read what they have to say with interest. It may help you out to.

This thread talks about hitting gravel in corners and what to do (basically ignore it).

And this one talks about what bikes are better on real gravel roads. It quickly becomes obvious the rider is the most imortant factor and how you should be riding these roads.

Hope these help.

[eon]

Get a haircut and you will get down to 2:10

Curious how you know your laptimes. Is that something you have to do yourself (which I would think would be tricky) or does the track record that for everyone?

[eon]

http://sharp.direct.gov.uk/

Is that Motorcyclist Magazine article online at all? I would be interested in reading that. SNELL recently announced their new 2010 standard and their press release had a condescending tone towards ECE standards.
“Europeans street riders do not have access to Snell levels of protective performance. Like it or not, they must wear helmets meeting the ECE 22-05 standard, even though the ECE 22-05 standard may, in some regards, offer less protection than even the DOT standard.”

The gist of the new SNELL standard is that it encompasses both SNELL and ECE standards. If your helmet passes the new standard then you can sell it worldwide, something not possible today. It’s easy to see they are aiming for world domination here. I don’t have a problem with that but I just wish they were less snooty about it.

[eon]

Can’t make any meaningful comment on which bike to get but this thread did bring back happy memories of putting around on my brothers CB200 back in the late 70s (I was about 10). He nearly had heart failure when I took off up the road in the abandoned quarry we were playing in. I nearly had heart failure when a 40 ton truck came up that not so abandoned quarry road. Ah, the good ole days

[eon]

It’s the kind you try to talk yourself into liking (without ever being successful). The inner squid in you is rebelling against riding a little 250 twin when it really wants to be on a 600 inline 4. You practice stoppies on it but it throws you off. You are embarrassed when an I4 comes up behind you so you ride outside your limits and almost crash.

It may not be the bike of your dreams but it’s touted as the best beginner bike out there. If need be go to Squids Annoymous to get this addiction with 600 I4s out of your system.

What kind of bike is it? It’s the bike you have. Enjoy it, learn from it.

[eon]

Loved the “Simulated stop, Closed Course” message. Noticed it didn’t say “Professional Driver”

[eon]

I am a bit late coming to this discussion and there is not a whole lot more I can add to what has been said (but I’ll try anyway!). You should only continue riding if you enjoy it, not through some bloody mindedness. But it sounds like you have set yourself a steeper challenge than most of us did. You have a heavy bike and you have gravel roads, that’s a tough combination for anyone to start learning on. It sounds like you are being too hard on yourself over a couple of low speed drops (and I mean drop, not crash). It is much harder to ride at 5mph than 50mph. Those of us who managed to avoid dropping our bikes in the early stages certainly came close. It mostly boils down to luck, not skill. By practicing you build your skill levels but you run the risk of dropping it. Double edged sword but you need to build your skills somehow. It took me close to 4 months of PLP before I could do the box easily and even now, if I do not practice, I get rusty.

You seem like a thoughtful person who has taken the time to learn what needs to be done. Now it just takes time for it all to come together. I wish you all the best in your endeavors but I honestly feel you are just down after some bad moments. Hang in there and I think it will all come together. Good luck!

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