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5 Common Wear and Tear Items on Motorcycles
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jsan08Participant
Actually before I even got my motorcycle a friend and I had just started rebuilding a small block mopar 360 to swap out for the V6. But things got off to a slow start and it would have took all summer. I had big plans for my dakota but I decided to settle on what mods I have on the truck already, focus on preventive maintenance, and try something new. So I decided to put the truck money elsewhere and wahla now I have a motorcycle. I have to say I’m glad I went the motorcycle route…much more fun.
Just googled the Versys, I don’t think I have ever seen one of those on the road but I have to say it does look damn sexy.
jsan08ParticipantI still have my truck and I have been thinking of selling her but I don’t think I want to be carless. Plus I love that truck…and she comes in so handy. It’s kind of become my little beater truck lol. Plus I figured I could use her to transport my bike if I ever needed to. The paint on the roof and hood is all faded and ruined from the elements and the drop in bed liner is all broken off where the liner goes over the side. I had it gorilla taped for a while but one on one side piece flew off going over the coronado bridge one day and then about 1 years later I was going over a bridge here in dc and the other piece on the other side finally broke and flew off haha. So she’s not much to look at but I try to take good care of her internals, the things that will keep her running for a long time.
So what kind of real motorcycle do you have?
jsan08ParticipantEon, it sounds like that you don’t have a cage to drive and only use a motorcycle for transportation?
Nice link, btw. Very useful. I compared my exo-700 with a top of the line shoei. Everything was pretty much the same except the shoei had slightly better left and rear side impact ratings (exo 700 was in the orange, shoei was one up in the yellow) Those shoei paint jobs sure are sweet tho…
I got a pair of those shift knee pads along with some scorpion reflective stickers to put on my helmet, a darker tinted visor for sunny days, and a green mohawk. lol
I know, I know, you either love or hate the mohawk. Personally I have always thought they were pretty cool and kinda funny. They could also help with visibility and other drivers around notice you better…though it may be to notice you and think you are either stupid or cool for sportin’ the hawk. But hell I could care less, as long as they see me haha.
jsan08ParticipantI really like that video, very informative and definitely serves as a warning. And he was only going 15-20mph.
I actually saw those same shift knee/shin guards last night on motorcyclesuperstore.com…cheap yet effective and they got really good reviews. Since I only have jeans I think I will invest in a pair.
jsan08ParticipantYa…now that is one distraction I wouldn’t mind crashing over lol (jk/*knocks on wood*) haha
jsan08ParticipantDang, that sounds painful…luckiily I have age on my side (20) lol. I understand why you would want it after that tho.
Obviously the more armor you have on the better during a crash. But it seems it would get to a point where it’s just not convenient to wear so much. Especially if you are commuting or getting on/off your bike to run errands/do things a lot. I am sticking to the ATGATT rule. Right now I have a full face helmet (duh) shift torque jeans, a shift mesh/textile jacket, shift gloves, and tourmaster sc boots. That’s all I can afford since I’m starting out but I wear all of it whenever I plan to ride. The jacket has good armor in the shoulders and elbows and has a back pad. The gloves arent full gauntlet (not really a fan of the full gauntlet look either) but cover the wrist bone and have hard armor. I couldn’t afford armored over pants so I got the jeans. I am thinking that getting a pair of knee/shin guards to go along with the jeans would be the next best thing?
For you guys who have been riding for a little bit I assume you have picked up various pieces of protective gear. What do you guys normally wear if you are commuting? Spirited riding on the highway or backroads? Going down the street real quick? Riding to work/run errands? Cold days? Hot days?
Im trying to get an idea of the gear I might want to pick up on in the future. So far I know I want a pair of armored over pants and a full textile jacket…and eventually I would like to get leathers. Also would like to upgrade my helmet to a nice Shoei in the future. All of this takes time and money tho. Any thoughts?
jsan08ParticipantWell looks like I’m goin back to the parking lot for a little bit to break the habit of putting my brake foot down!
jsan08ParticipantArmored underwear? Do you really need that for everyday riding? I didn’t know that existed. I’ll have to check it out. I could use a pair of summer socks tho, its real hot now and my feet are gettin heated. I just got a pair of tourmaster sc roadboots (low cut) and I love em.
Dang those are some expensive suits/leathers!
Is there a certain foot you should put down when stopped? I put my brake side down and hold the front brake…is that bad?
On stop signs I use engine and both brakes to come to a stop. I scan upcoming intersection, come to complete stop, brake side foot down, scan again, and accelerate. While stopped I hold the front brake.
On hills I put the clutch side down and hold the rear brake because I noticed it was a lot easier to accelerate out of a hill with the rear brake pressed instead of the front. But usually I will come to a stop, use the front brake to hold the bike, then put both feet down and theeen put my brake foot back on the rear brake and release the front brake. I realize it would be easier if I just put clutch side down from the beginning but I’m in the habit of putting my brake side down first.
jsan08ParticipantI’ve seen that video a couple of times, it’s videos like that which assure myself that I will never get that stupid on a public road.
What are some of the best leathers you can buy as far as brands,quality, and protection? I heard Dainese makes some really good stuff but I really wouldn’t know for sure.
jsan08ParticipantThat going into that turn with the clutch pulled in was a mistake, if nothing else. lol
So far the little city riding that I have been doing has helped me with cornering, turning and counter steering. I already feel more confident on the bike. Braking before the turn, then rolling on the throttle through the turn, like eon said, definitely inspires confidence between me and the bike. I feel like I can really get a good lean and feel planted. And yes about the suspension, I can really feel it start to “press” down I guess you could say during leaning and its a good confident feeling. Have also been getting good practice starting on hills in real world traffic and remembering following distance. One thing I need to work on are the escape plans. Reflecting on some of the rides I realized there were a couple times I stopped at a stop light and didn’t really think about watching my rear…I was just kind of watching the light. A bad habit no doubt developed by driving my truck, where it may be ok, but not on a motorcycle.
Oh and it’s gettin’ hot here! Those afternoon rides sure do get warm but a little bit of speed + wind gives a good cool down. I have a scorpion exo 700 helmet that breathes very well, and keeps my face cool, a shift mesh “backdraft” jacket that also breathes very nicely. As for pants and gloves I got a pair of those shift torque jeans which i love and shift chaos gloves. Shift makes some good stuff! Got a smokin deal for that jacket ($99) and helmet ($125)
I’ll have to grab me a copy of that book you guys are talkin’ about.
jsan08ParticipantI know, I know, that’s why I didn’t want to come off as an a-hole in my last post.
Born in dirt, gotcha.
I thank you for the constructive criticism though. You are right, I should stay off the highway until after the BRC at which point I plan to be proficient enough to be safer on the highway. This is good…it will give me another goal to work towards. In the mean time I will keep my riding on base and those short city rides back to work after lunch, when traffic is low. That should give me good practice at a lot of things. Just put up a post-it with big bold letters, “STAY OFF HIGHWAY UNTIL AFTER BRC!” lol. I live my life through post-its now haha.
jsan08ParticipantWhat about my posts makes for scary stories and why does it seem that I am bent on learning to run before I can walk? To me that would be like if I had just learned the bare minimums in a parking lot and then decided to go on a freeway… I have just simply been documenting my practice sessions in this thread and trying to critique myself…nothing super scary has really happened(knock on wood) and I have practiced a bunch. First in a small parking lot doing laps in first gear, then on a big black top practicing with my clutch, slow speed maneuvering, turning/cornering and shifting for about a week, then around a couple of large parking lots with stop signs and small intersections for about 2 days. After I felt confident enough I took it out on the road just to get gas and ride back (5 min ride to the gas station with a few stop signs/lights). That built my confidence enough so the next day I rode it around base even more which gave me a lot of practice at stop signs/lights, intersections, shifting and keeping my situational awareness up. I also did a bunch of practice starting on some steep hills. After doing a lot of that for about 3 days I felt confident enough for a short freeway ride. My buddy led the ride and everything went pretty smoothly except the last part which was a minor scare for me. That’s how experience is gained though. I feel I have been taking this pretty slow, but if you feel otherwise I would sincerely be interested in why you feel that way.
And as for leaning. I was incorrect in saying that I “should have done that” of course I leaned around that turn, if I hadn’t I would have run off the road. What I was really thinking when I wrote that was maybe I should have leaned more to make up for coming in too fast but instead I pulled the clutch and used the brakes (which I now realize is a big no-no). Now that I have that experience I am confident that I will do the correct thing next time.
Anyway…I must have some sense of counter steering because it’s not like I haven’t turned my bike while at speed. Thinking about it confuses me, but today when I was riding I was thinking about it then at a turn did it and it just felt automatic.
Before I left to go ride (it was a city ride, on my way back to work) I watched this video about 3 times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVa2Ax-Dins
It confused me at first but when I did it on the road it made sense. It’s a hard concept to actually understand and grasp because it’s counter intuitive. However, I am reading that it is automatic for mostly everybody who has been on anything with just 2 wheels. I’ll accept it for what it is, even though it may not make any sense at first thought.
Here’s another good video I found.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8IdTq3_3WI
And a wiki article explaining the physics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countersteering
To turn right you would need to push the right bar to the left (or pull the left bar right). Then all of these forces happen and cause you and the bike to lean to the right, so you then achieve your right turn…in a simple explanation.
That first you tube video makes a good point about how counter-steering initiates a turn and leaning sustains it.
But perhaps you guys are right about staying off the highway until I am fully licensed. It’s probably best…I’ll make a promise to myself to stick to base and riding to and from work in the noon time. It is a short 10 min city ride with stop signs/lights and makes for good practice. Plus traffic is low around those times. I take a shuttle in the morning because traffic is bad in the mornings.
jsan08ParticipantYes, it was a big psychological milestone for me as well. Now I’m not going to want to ride around on base because I’ll just be bored haha.
Counter-steering…I’ve heard that term thrown out a lot on Cpt. Crash’s videos but I’m still unsure what it is or how you even do it or how I can practice it. And as for leaning, yeah I should have done that as well. I’m still having issues trusting the bike lol. I need to get out in that parking lot and just focus on leaning. Even though riding there on the freeway there was a point with a pretty good turn and it kind of caught me off guard and I ended up leaning a good bit and it felt pretty cool…idk it just spooks me a little. I’m taking the MSF course next month around this time. Do they teach leaning and counter-steering as well?
And yeah I usually try to avoid that junction. From now on this one will be one I refuse to use while riding a motorcycle.
Thanks for all of the advice!
jsan08ParticipantWell I just got back from my first freeway ride and it was great! I had a huge smile on my face the whole time (while maintaining my s.a. of course)!
It was about 10 minutes of freeway and 10 minutes of city driving. We started out around 7:30pm and traffic was low. Our destination was a rocky shore down by the water. We got there and it was a great view with the sun setting over the city. Chilled for a couple minutes, took in the view, and joked about popping my freeway cherry (haha). Then we rode back.
Merging on the freeway I was a little nervous, but once I got used to it I relaxed a little bit. First thing I noticed was being pushed around by the wind and other cars a little bit. Other than that I got in my usual rhythm of checking my mirrors and my surrounding regualrly…and watching for pot holes. Reminded myself to stay loose on top, tight on bottom and keep the ankles in. I would say I only got up to about 65mph going there.
Riding back I got up to about 85mph at one point My little Ninja 250 was screamin down the freeway haha. I felt out that tuck position and that was pretty cool! I did get a little spooked exiting off of the freeway to base. This exit even makes me nervous when driving my truck. I think I would just confuse you guys trying to explain it so I made a illustration of it…check out my paint skills lol.
So as you can imagine cars merging almost never compltely obey the yield sign, and this is one exit where that can get dangerous. Approaching that exit is also a blind corner, so you really don’t see cars that are coming on the freeway until the last second. Often times in my truck a few cars will pop out of nowhere, not yielding of course, and I will have to kind of floor it to over take them and get in my exit lane and then brake hard before that twisty off ramp surrounded by woods and gravel…and is bumpy as shit (as pictured haha). In these situations I find myself braking hard before that twisty off ramp.
Luckily there were no cars this time to spook me even more but I still had to slow down fairly quick and that twisty off ramp spooked me. I ended up coming in a little too hot at like 50mph, had a little “oh shit” moment then I pulled in the clutch, click, click, click, etc etc all the way down from 6th to like 2nd and kept on the brakes as smooth as possible as I went around the twisty exit. I held the clutch in the whole time around the exit. All of this made me forget about my entry point into the turn, I came in too much to the inside so I was all over the place as I was trying to slow down and get back in the middle of the lane and keep up with the turn….I just realized that I was braking during a turn…a big no-no.
Ok so that last part of the ride was a bit bumpy (literally lol) but overall the rest of the ride went very smoothly and I had a great time…I think were going to go out again tomorrow.
Thanks for reading…any comments and advice are greatly encouraged/appreciated
jsan08Participantlol…that was great. I bet those moments suck. …but then you’re happy to be alive hahaha
And yeah I am not taking this whole motorcycle thing lightly…I plan on living lol. After watching youtube videos, reading stories,hearing stories,and watching stories unfold haha like seeing some of my buddies lay down there bikes, and even see my own mom crash on a bike (she was a passenger on a harley, it was a really tight 10mph turn on a back road…there was gravel and the bike slid out and they slid and got trapped under a barrier where a car preceded to almost run them both over. She had no injuries luckily, the pilot however sustained a nice deep gash in his left shin and some road rash. The bike was done-skie. I was a little spooked by motorcycles after all that, but I still wanted one…I mean how could I not, they are damn sexy haha. Now that I finally buckled and got one I want to learn to do it right and as safely as possible…but still have fun ya know I realize yeah riding is inherintley dangerous, but so are a lot of other things, like skydiving (an addiction of mine…and it’s actually a lot safer than riding a motorcycle!)…it’s all about being smrt (simpsons anybody? lol)
Rab, thanks for your thoughts and answering my questions.
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