[Gary856]

oh yeah since every accident is different I don’t think there one universally correct answer. I don’t have anything against having hard knuckle armors – 3 of my 4 gloves have them, but not for the most expensive pair (Helimot Buffalo Pro 360) – so I’m only trying to discuss the “possible” theory behind the different armor design philosophy.

[Gary856]

What’s interesting is when it comes to back protector, I’d choose the hard-shell Dainese type over the soft T-Pro Forcefield type. I figure if I slid and hit a rock or the curb with my back, I’d want a hardshell back protector to spread out the “point” impact force. That’s a different consideration from glove armoring where I’m ok with soft armor (usually a combo of hi-density foam padding and an extra layer of leather).

[Gary856]

I’ve been riding for 14 months, almost 13k miles. I ride pretty much 6 days a week, but on 3 different bikes (now 4). If I don’t ride my SV650 for a few days, and just go for a 1/2 hr ride (commute), it feels a little jerky and abrupt. It usually takes about an hour or riding for me to get used to the SV again. You have to be very smooth on the SV, because of its sensitive throttle and the strong engine braking in lower gear. The same traits make the SV a brilliant bike for a more experienced rider. On the other hand, I never have any difficulty on the GS500, because with the lower power it’s simply an easier and more forgiving bike to ride, especially for a beginner.

[Gary856]

But even then the point is you’re not stiff-arming superman style so your hand/knuckle get knocked backward which cushions the impact. Like eon wrote (he said it better than I did) there is generally no weight behind the hand/knuckle. I think this is why a lot of high-end gloves use soft armor (padding) in the knuckle area, even though they’re at a price point where they could use hard armor if they needed to. You’re more likely to have broken wrists than knuckles. in a head-on or T-bone your head/shoulder are likely to take the brunt of the impact.

[Gary856]

My theory on glove protection is that hands and fingers are “soft parts” that are knocked out of the way upon impact, so soft armor is enough to cushion the initial impact and protect againt the subsequent light abrasion force. On the other hand, “hard parts / pivot joints” such as elbows/hips/knees tend to stay in place and grind against pavement, so hard armor is needed for heavy abrasion force.

[Gary856]

Below 70 mph wind on a naked bike is not a problem for me; above that it’s nice to have some sort of wind protection.

With a naked bike, you can still get a handlebar-mounted aftermarket windscreen that you can put on and remove easily. An aftermarket windscreen helps, but you may have to experiment with the size/height/shape/angle to get the level of protection, noise, buffeting that’s acceptable to you. Even with a factory faired bike, some times people play with aftermarket windscreens for better protection or appearance.

[Gary856]

The guy in the first video looks pretty crossed-up – hip and knee out, but upper-body and head pretty centered to the bike. To me that’s the classic look of someone trying to go fast, but scared of committing to a corner – that makes it worse. (I know some well-know racers are infamous for riding crossed-up but that’s a different story from the much less experienced street riders.) Problems with the body crossed-up like that –

– Hard to see deep into the turn because the crossed-up body angles your head/eyes away from the turn.
– The wrong body angle makes counter-steering (pushing the inside bar) unnatural because the inside elbow is kind of jammed up, out of alignment between the body and the handlebar.
– A centered/high upper-body makes you need to lean the bike more at a given speed.

When the eyes and body position are not right, everything goes downhill from there.

It didn’t look that fast from the way he slid (a short distance) – maybe a 35 mph crash? Gravel/debris/oil could have made it worse, but they’re generally not the primary factor. Hundreds of riders go thru the same road, only a few crash, so the problem is usually with the crashed riders, not the road.

[Gary856]

Some carbureted bikes are more “cold blooded” than others due to lean factory jetting for emission reasons. GS500 is one example. My ’01 is not as bad as what owners of older models (slightly different carburetor design) describe, but even with temp in the high 50s, the engine would spit and buck at low rpm (not pretty) if you don’t let it warm up for a few minutes. Re-jetting the pilot jet to make it richer would cure this problem; I haven’t bothered w/ rejetting.

During my weekend rides I often go from sea level to close to 4,000 ft of elevation. No problem felt with my 2 carbureted bikes. I thought maybe you’d start to feel the power difference in a carbureted bike with something like 6,000 ft of elevation change. I ride with ambient temp from the 40s to over 100F and haven’t had the need to make any adjustment to the carburetors in my bikes.

FI is nice, but I wouldn’t hesitate buying a good carbureted bike.

[Gary856]

– ’99 was the first year the “first generation” of SV650, w/ carburetor.
– ’03 was the first year of the “second generation” of SV650, with fuel injection, new body style, silver frame.
– Starting in ’04 the sub-frame was a little lower, so ’03 is the only second gen w/ a slightly different sub-frame
– starting in ’05 the frame went from silver to black.
– starting in ’07, ABS became available, I believe.
– I think in ’09 the SV got discontinued (or was that the last year?), replaced by Gladius.

The half-fairing model is the “S” model – SVS; comes w/ low clip-ons, more bend-over riding position, higher rear sets, and slightly higher gearing than the naked version. The naked model is often referred to as SV650″N”; comes w/ tubular handlebar, more upright riding position, lower rear sets, and slightly lower gearing.

The SV is very torquey and has very strong engine braking. If you open and abruptly close the throttle in first gear, the engine braking makes it feel like slamming on the brakes, but you get used to that after a few mess ups and learn to be smooth with the throttle. The stock suspension is crap. I just came back from a 5 hr, 180 mi ride w/ many very narrow, twisty, hilly roads. I was bouncing all over the place on rough roads, not good, but the SV is brilliant in carving turns in the hills (very flickable) and the engine is super sweet in the hills. I just purchased Ricor Intiminator front fork by-pass valves, and a fully adjustable rear shock from ’06-’07 ZX-10R – about $350 in parts. After I get these put in (about $250 labor) my SV’s suspension should be much better. If your weight is over 180 lb you may need to buy and put in stiffer front springs (about $90-$110, plus labor).

http://www.svrider.com is the home site of SV650 owners.

[Gary856]

I just put my laptop in my backpack. I think a lot of people do. In a crash there’s no way to predict how the bike would bounce and hit so I’m not sure if the laptop would be any safer on the bike instead of on you. Some people even feel in a crash the lap top worn in the backpack might help protect your back, but again that’s hard to predict in an uncontrolled event like a crash.

I will say this – I wear a backpack because I have no luggage case on my bikes. If I had luggage cases on my bikes, then I’d be happy not to have the weight of the backpack on me. Still, not a big deal, unless the backpack is really full then it feels kind of bulky on the back.

[Gary856]

Not sure what you mean by “pull slack out of the chain” – you mean straighten/unkink the chain physically or adjust the chain slack adjusting nut? But if you have to mess with it after every ride, that’s absolutely not normal. I have 3 bikes and all I do is to clean/lube the chain once in a while (typically people say do this every 600 miles but it depends on your riding condition), never had to mess with adjustment over thousands of miles. Check your manual for proper chain slack – normally the mid section of the chain should have about 1 inch of total up/down movement (when you push with your fingers) for proper slack. If I were you I’d take it to a shop. Maybe something is worn out (chain, front/rear sprocket) from mis-adjustment; If you have that much trouble, I even wonder if you have the right number of links in your chain.

[Gary856]

I bought my GS500 before I knew how to operate a motorcycle or registered for MSF class. I had been looking for a used GS500 for a long time (about 2 years – can you believe it?) and a clean one with a good price came along, and I didn’t want to loose that bike. I didn’t know anything about motorcycles and didn’t ask for a test ride. I just spoke with the seller, and felt comfortable with him and the bike. The seller rode it to my garage and parked it there. A week later I did a walk-in to a MSF class; there were two no-shows so I got right in. I didn’t touch my GS500 until the evening when I finished my MSF class. Luckily, it worked out well for me. Nevertheless, normally it’d be much better to buy after you’ve taken the MSF class.

Those Rebels are awfully small and low, even for someone with 28” inseam, but that’s just a personal opinion. I was totally underwhelmed by the 250cc Rebels and Nighthawks even during the MSF class. Ever considered a 500cc Vulcan?

[Gary856]

eternal, if you read my first two posts, all I meant to talk about was “pre-position” the body. I only used the words “even hang off” to emphasize a point. Then you started with the worrying about going fast into blind corners and the scary lean angle thing, which couldn’t be farther from what I started. At this point I don’t even know how I got dragged into this “hang off” definition and track riding discussion. Again, a technique is just a technique. How fast or slow you want to ride is a separate issue.

Finally, I’m really never interested in a point by point debate on the internet. I try to keep my points and response as general as possible in an effort to clarify, and only hope everyone can extract the essence of it.

[Gary856]

A street bike should handle a smooth, graded gravel/dirt road reasonably well at a sane speed. It’ll just get dirty. Since you’ve ridden dirtbikes a lot I’m sure you’re comfortable with low traction situations. I’ve ridden my GS500 on dirt/gravel roads and it was really fun; I just didn’t trust the suspension to take the bigger bumps, so I didn’t go that fast. I say “lucky you” because where I live (San Jose, CA) there’s hardly any unpaved roads/trails that we could ride on within 100 miles… I’ve been wanting to get a dual sport but riding pavement 99% of the time (due to the lack off legal off pavement roads/trails) really wouldn’t do a dual sport justice. sigh…

Would you consider something like a DR-Z400sm instead of the Ninja 250? Too bad the SM version of the DRZ would cost more…

[Gary856]

Seems like no matter how I write someone will read it differently from what I intended. I guess it’s normal because you’re not in my head, and we don’t have the same point of reference. I said this before and I’ll say it again – I’m a street rider, not a track rider, and my main focus is on street riding technique, maximizing control/traction in a safe manner. I’m a strong advocate of never riding faster than your sight line, and I cringe whenever I see guys diving into blind corners. With that in mind, allow me to respond:

– Hanging off is a totally different and separate issue from dragging knee, or even high speed, for that matter. I used “hanging off” as a way to describe “extremely weighting the inside” during a turn. You could be hanging off with the bike nearly vertical going merely 15 mph around a treacherous turn. The point is to minimize lean angle and maximize traction. This will result in a higher, and safer, speed, but the speed is a result of better control, not necessarily the goal.

– When you’re doing tight parking lot u-turns, which is generally at constant speed, pushing the bike under you (counter-lean), dirt-bike style, with your body upright, maximizes bike lean angle, and minimizes the turning radius. However, It’s different in a steep downhill hairpin turn. See next bullet.

– In a steep downhill hairpin turn (let’s say 15 mph going in), you’re loosing elevation and gaining speed very quickly during and after the turn. For example, elevation-wise, you could be dropping 15 ft in 15 ft of forward movement. [Edit: Maybe that’s exaggerating a little bit – maybe 15 ft drop in 25-30 ft of forward movement in a severe downhill hairpin – but hopefully you get the point I’m trying to illustrate.] If you kept your body upright and pushed the bike under, like you do in a parking lot u-turn, as the bike drops down the slope and gained speed, your body would be lagging behind the bike, i.e., you’d be out of position and playing catch up to the bike. By leaning your body down and into the turn, you’d be ahead of the bike, and in position for the next move. Think about skiing or snowboarding – how do you take a steep downhill corner – body first or feet first?

There are all sorts of variables – your own skill level, the type of bike, road camber, steepness, tightness of the turn, duration of the turn and the nature of the transitions, surface texture and cleanliness – so no matter what you read it’s not one-size-fits-all. Whatever you read, you should extract the essence, experiment on your own, and adapt it for your own use.

[edit: maybe I shouldn’t have used the term “hanging off”. Maybe “kissing the mirror and getting a cheek off the seat” is closer to what I was trying to describe in terms of body position for street riding. But the point and the goal are the same – pre-positioning and strongly weighting the inside BEFORE the turn.]

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