Forum Replies Created
5 Common Wear and Tear Items on Motorcycles
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MadCowParticipant
I’ve got a black 2007, and it’s no trouble to keep clean. I think that for a girl, anything goes. But for a guy, I gotta say black all the way.
MadCowParticipantIt’s kinda stupid, and probably a bit unsafe, but I gotta say that it’s freaking hilarious.
The guys revs his engine and looks at you… you rev back and give him the nod… you see everyone around your roll their eyes in unison.
When the other guy takes off like a rocket and you pull away nice and mellow, everybody gets a good laugh out of it.
I probably won’t do it again, but damn was it funny.
MadCowParticipantseriously! Who are these freaking idiots?
I ride a Ninja 250 also. I only live 5 miles from work, and one time no less than 5 different people all tried to race me. Mind you, I lane split up the front, but I don’t race. Period.
Guy number one (in a huge raised up truck) takes off at full speed with tires screeching and everything, but he failed to realize that there was another red light only 40 yards up the street. He had to swerve across three lanes to avoid cars waiting at the light.
Pretty much the same stupid crap from guys/ girls two through four. But guy number five actually took off, and drove down the street looking over his shoulder the whole way to make sure that he blocked me from passing him. A car could have pulled out in front of him and he’d have never seen it coming.
The funny thing is that after all that, I lane split up to the last light… right next to a Ferrari. I’m sitting there thinking, “great now this idiot’s gonna try to race me too”. But nothing. He just drove along like normal.
The guy in the huge truck, the business lady in the BMW, the businessman in the Hyundai… they all wanted to race me, but the guy in the Ferrari couldn’t have cared less. Ha ha.
Maybe it’s an insecurity thing. Or maybe they’re pissed off because they feel like lane splitting is “cutting” in line. I dunno. But I figure that with all the stupid squids on bikes out there, there are probably just as many stupid squids in cars.
It makes me really appreciate all the decent, normal people who frequent this website.
P.S. Sorry about the rant. I’m a very angry person.
MadCowParticipantPersonally, I have a mortal fear of high siding. I know two guys who high sided, and the results are not pretty. So for that reason, I haven’t bothered to train myself to use the two finger method properly. I just don’t think that the risk of instinctively braking before you roll off the gas is the worth the reaction time you save reaching for the brake. I’m not saying that others shouldn’t do it; I’m just saying that it’s not for me.
On a side note, how many people hang off the bike on turns? That is one racing technique that I believe a lot of people agree is good to use for street riding. The reason being that you want to keep your bike as upright as possible for stability and for a bigger contact patch.
MadCowParticipantBut when they put the bull in a field with a cruiser and a sportbike, the cruiser got it every time. Must be the huge windscreen.
MadCowParticipantActually, my A-stars cover my ankle. They call them “shoes” and I call them shoes because they’re basically beefed up high tops, but I suppose that someone could technically call them boots since they cover the ankle.
I like them a lot, but I always wonder if they’ll hold up in a crash. Hopefully, I can continue to just wonder without ever finding out.
http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/36/7519/ITEM/Alpinestars-Octane-Riding-Shoes.aspx
MadCowParticipantI had a long rant prepared, but instead I’ll just say:
Thanks for the posting. It’s been interesting to read everyone’s responses.
My take is that fear = a desire to keep yourself and others out of harm’s way, and that’s a good thing.
Elias, if your fear is so great that it’s preventing you from riding a motorcycle, then that’s fine. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I honestly wish that there were more people like you in the world who are responsible and mature enough to put safety ahead of thrills.
My pregnant wife commutes 2 and a half hours a day. If some rider caused her to get into an accident because they were behaving like a squid… well let’s just say that I honestly believe that there is a place in hell for people like that… and for people like me because I’d have to kill them.
MadCowParticipantI’m 5’5″ and I can’t get both feet down completely flat on my 250 without thick soled boots, but I wish that I could.
I know that you’ve already sat on all 3, but try it again and lean the bike about 10-20 degrees to either side. You’ll see a huge difference in stability. Then try the same thing while at the same time manipulating the controls.
I live in a somewhat hilly area, and I have to stop at stop signs and intersections on hills all the time. It’s a huge pain when you can’t get your feet flat. The worst is when you stop on a hill with the upslope on your left and the downslope on your right… and you failed to put the bike into first gear before coming to a stop. All your weight is on your left leg, so you have no way to down shift, you can’t get momentum to get your feet up since you’re in second gear, and if you even think about trying to put your right foot down you can kiss your showroom finish goodbye.
MadCowParticipantAwesome. It looks 10x better than my ’07.
MadCowParticipantIn case it helps, I’ll throw my two cents in.
I’m a Ninja 250 rider in Los Angeles where typical freeways speeds (when it’s not rush hour) are in the 65-80 range. I’ve gotten up to about 95 on my bike (only to keep up with particularly fast moving traffic one day), and it was ok, but not the best situation to be in. The bike’s stability is fine at 65-75 but gets shakey above that. Also, once you hit about 75, you can really tell that you’re running out of juice. I would much rather have a little more power at my disposal if needed. Without getting into the whole accelerate vs. brake debate, there are some situations where I would rather accelerate into an open lane rather than brake and potentially get rear ended.
As for the wind thing, it never really bothered me. Granted, I’m not a big guy with a lot of surface area to catch wind, but I will typically only encounter two or three pockets of strong wind in the course of an hour’s ride. In those cases. I’ll just crouch down near the tank. Honestly sports bikes (even the 250) are designed to be ridden in at least somewhat of a crouch. So when people complain about the windscreen blowing wind into their chests, it’s probably because they’re going fast enough (80 mph) that they should be crouching a bit more. If you want to ride upright at higher speeds, then you may want to get a bike that’s designed for it like a cruiser.
So in short, I think that a 250 is perfectly fine for highway riding anywhere that doesn’t require you to go much above 70-ish on a regular basis. But for places like LA, I’d probably go for something a little bigger. I love my 250 and I’ve been riding it on and off the highway for the past year. But, I’m probably going to look into getting a bigger bike.
MadCowParticipant$40 bucks for a can of cleaner? Maybe I’m missing something, but I got a pack of soft clothes for less than $10, a plastic bucket for $4, and an $8 bottle of wet/dry spray wax from Turtle Wax or Armorall or something. It takes me all of 5 minutes to wipe down my bike with a wet cloth, spray it with the wax, and then dry it with a second cloth. It’s so easy that I do it almost every week and my bike always looks brand spanking new.
Seriously, it’s so fast and easy that I actually enjoy doing it… and I’m super lazy. Also, since I do it so frequently, I don’t even use soap anymore. The wax helps to keep the dirt from sticking, so it’s easy to wipe right off.
MadCowParticipantYou know it sounds lame, but sometimes the nod really makes my day. The other day I was out for a ride in West Los Angeles, and two different drivers intentionally tried to block me from lane splitting. And when I say intentionally I mean that they were looking over their shoulders at me while driving to make sure that they blocked me effectively. One even threw up her hands in a “victory” motion when she managed to block me all the way to the stop light.
Even though I think that they were just trying to get back at motorcycle riders in general and not me in particular, I was pretty PO’ed since I’m a pretty cautious and conservative rider. So I would have been really pissed and aggressive the rest of the way home except for the waves from the 6 or 7 bikers I passed. It made me feel like there were others out there who know what it’s like, and we’re all sort of pulling for one another.
MadCowParticipant“get’s his waving hand ready” ha ha, that’s funny. I assume that would be his left.
MadCowParticipantGlad to hear that your daughter’s ankle is ok.
I have a question, though: Was she wearing riding shoes or just regular tennis shoes? They look like tennis shoes. I have Alpinestars “riding shoes” which seem ok, but I always wonder exactly how much better a real boot is.
MadCowParticipantThanks!
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