[Gary856]

I haven’t stopped thinking about the next bike for a moment over the last 17 months that I’ve been riding.

A big guy like you looks good on a heavy cruiser. I’m not a cruiser person, but I like the looks of the Harley Nightsters a lot – trim and understated.

The knee pain – I get that after a couple hours of riding, to the point of not being able to straight my leg for a few seconds. Only my right knee’s like this; my left knee is totally pain free through out a typical weekend ride lasting 4-8 hours. This happens even when riding the DRZ, which has a bolt upright position, and plenty of leg room. The only way to deal with it is to straighten my right leg periodically while riding. I suppose a foot-forward riding position would not give me knee problem, but I’ve heard some people say the cruiser riding position is hard on the back. Not being able to weigh the foot pegs means you can’t dance with the bike for high performance cornering.

[Gary856]

I’m in San Jose, CA. I’ve bought 4 bikes so far and I’m sort of looking for bike #5, and I haven’t used either KBB or NADA. I just search Craigslist long enough (many, many months) to get a feel for pricing. I just checked NADA on several bikes I’m pretty familiar with and found NADA pricing in line with what I expect for a normal deal, so it’s good reference. Note that in the real world used bike pricing varies greatly based on:

– season (right now it’s peak riding season – peaking asking prices; prices go down significantly in the winter)
– popularity of the bike
– mileage and condition of the bike
– economy and seller motivation (it’s been a buyer’s market the last couples of years)

On Craigslist you see them all – many unrealistically high prices, some reasonable deals, occasionally crazy good deals, and some scams. I wouldn’t worry about making offer using, or below, NADA pricing. You do need to consider how seriously and how bad you want a particular bike. It’s not worth it to low ball a buyer too much and end up loosing a fair deal on a bike you like. Another bike and a better deal may come around eventually, but it could be a long wait. I’m still kicking myself for loosing an awesome deal on a DR650 6 months ago because I hesitated just one day too long.

[Gary856]

OEM spec is just a best “compromise”. I weigh 170 lbs so I’d think the best tire pressure for me would be different from you. If I weighed 260, I’d certainly bump up my tire pressure by a couple of psi, at least.

But what does “the best” tire pressure mean – best for what? Touring guys and commuters up the tire pressure to high 30s front/ low 40s rear for longer tire wear and better fuel economy. Canyon carvers lower the tire pressure to low 30s for better traction but more wear. For off road people go even lower, below 20 psi even. For people who care about the details and want to adjust for specific missions/conditions (or just anal), tire pressure is a tunable feature; others just go by the best compromise (factory specs) and forget about it.

[Gary856]

That well known South Park episode will answer your question.

[Gary856]

Having dirt bike experience would make all the difference. Graded dirt/gravel roads are considered “easy” by dirt riders, but you need to know what you’re doing, how to position your body/bike and manage traction in turns to not wash out. It’s pretty different from pavement riding.

I took my GS500 on a dirt/gravel road, hilly and twisty, about 10 miles long, that would have been easy for a dual-sport or dirt rider, but difficult for a sportbike rider. I rode mountain bike a lot and love dirt, but on a motorcycle (way heavier) with street tires it’s a whole different ball game. I was practically crawling in the beginning, going 15-25 mph, where a real dirt rider could easily go twice that speed. I was a little scared the whole time, but I liked that. My biggest worry was the GS not having enough suspension to deal with the big bumps, but that wasn’t too bad on a graded road.

I rode the same road on my DRZ400sm, thinking it would be easier, but not really because that time they laid down some deep gravels in some sections of the road. Again, it’s a matter of learning how to ride dirt.

[Gary856]

But you were AGATT so you were still nowhere near the no-guts-no-glory level of those squids. lol.

Seriously, don’t confuse lack of judgment and lack of maturity with skills. Weaving in and out of traffic is a stupid high risk behavior, but it doesn’t take much skills. Most squids have very little skills and many pay a high price for what they do.

[Gary856]

I have the same bike – an ’07 SV650 – and I recently changed my OEM Dunlop to Dunlop Road Smart, a sport touring tire. Lots of people on svrider.com like the Road Smart. Another tire I considered was the newly designed Perilli Angel ST, but they cost a little more. I have Bridgestone BT-021, which are a little cheaper, on my YZF600R, and they work pretty well. The bottom line is I feel all the major brand sport touring tires are more than good enough for general street riding, so it comes down to cost and personal preference.

Most people feel the new generation sport touring tires can handle anything you do on the street, even beginner track days, and they’ll last 8-10k miles. Sport touring tires may actually have the advantage in bad weather riding – including cold and rain. For people who ride very hard on the street and do more track days, a stickier sport tire, such as Michelin Pilot Power, would have more grip, but they may last only 3-5k miles.

Do a “tire” search on svrider.com and you’ll have a lot to read about.

[Gary856]

What kind of bike is that?

[Gary856]

My naked GS500 would normally cruise easily at 85 mph (indicated) and go over 100 mph, but one time going against a stiff headwind, it topped out at a steady 6,500 rpm in 6th gear, 75 mph, with the throttle wide open. Wouldn’t go any faster. That gave me a real lesson on aerodynamics, wind resistance and horsepower. I never expected or experienced drag-limited top speed at only 75 mph before that. But think of it this way – if the headwind was blowing at 30 mph, my effective air speed was 105 mph.

It felt so weird to top out at 75 mph w/ WOT I didn’t even think of down shifting to go faster. A guy at work told me he thought he had engine trouble that day when his cruiser (Honda VTX 1300) reacted very sluggishly to the throttle but it was the strong wind.

[Gary856]

Many sportbikes don’t have rear grab rails on their tails, presumably for cleaner styling. A passenger should really hold onto the rider. To move the bike, most people would grab the handlebar with one hand, and place the other hand flat on the seat.

[Gary856]

For around town and back country roads, especially for people with easy access to dirt trails, and occassional passenger carrying, a dual sport like a Suzuki DR650 would be very nice. Cheap, simple, reliable, robust, light and nimble; pure joy of riding.

If you want more power, more pavement than off pavement, longer distance touring and carrying a passener more, a Suzuki DL650 (Vstrom) is a highly rated as a sport-adventrue bike.

[Gary856]

There’s a local shop I like and trust, and I’ve had 3 sets (pairs) of tires changed there. They charge $30/tire to mount tires purchased thru them, $45/tire if I brought in my own tires, with the wheels/tires on the bike. Their initial tire quotes are usually high (by $30-40), but when I tell them the price I can get from motorcyclesuperstore, they’d get within about $10-20 of motorcyclesuperstore’s prices, so that becomes a wash when factoring in the installation price differences. I ended up ordering all the tires thru them to save the trouble. Plus it makes me feel good to support a good local business.

There are other local stores (including Cycle Gear) that would mount tires for free if you bought from them, but the wheels must be off the bike. That little bit of extra saving is not worth my trouble to take off and put back on tire/wheels myself.

[Gary856]

Heavy crosswind is not pleasant during the day, and it can get tense at night. The sensation I get is swinging side to side like a pendelum – suspended at the top (head/shoulder/arms), while the bottom (tires) swung sideways in an arc. Quite a few people told me this sensation is normal. What’s really happening is the path of the bike moves a couple of feet sideways while the bike automatically leans against the wind pressure. The technique is to stay loose, isolate your body from your arms/hands. It’s ok to let your upperbody move around a bit; just keep the arms/hands loose and steady to avoid unintended steering input.

I had this discussion in another forum and got some good feedback; below is the link:

http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=333388

[Gary856]

When I started riding on a GS500 w/ a small Givi windscreen and Shoei RF-1000 helmet the wind roar became deafening above 45-50 mph, so I’ve always worn ear plugs which make a huge difference in riding comfort. Much later I found a lot of that wind roar was from the windscreen directing high pressure air at the helmet level. When I removed the windscreen the wind noise was significantly less, bearable even up to 60-70 mph for a short time. But by then I was so used to wearing ear plugs and want to protect my hearing, I wouldn’t go on the freeway without them.

It does seem many people are less sensitive to wind noise, and/or are less concerned about hearing protection. A friend rides a FJR with a full face helmet, another rides a Honda VTX with either a full face or beanie helmet, and these two guys aren’t too worried about the wind noise. They tell me that it’s pretty quiet behind their big touring screens. The VTX riding guy tells me wearing a beanie helmet lets him hear and yell at people (drivers, pedestrians, etc.) while riding; that’s a strange concept to me

[Gary856]

It adjusts the reach (distance between the brake lever and the throttle) for different hand sizes.

’02 GS500 w/ 14k miles for $500 is really cheap. What condition was it in, and what work did you have to do? Where are you located (city, state)?

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