[Matt]

A friend did just that. He took the last OSC gearing up course (late september) and then didn’t ride until the spring when he bought his bike.

When I took the experienced rider’s course (first one of the season, end of april / start of may) there were several guys who had taken their gearing up course in september, gotten their bikes and ridden for a month.

The experienced rider’s course was a good chance to get back into the swing of things for the new season.

[Matt]

(my reply button doesn’t work properly at work, so out-of-line reply it is)

Curious… I was heavily warned against steel toed boots by both my instructors and my parents.

The instructors said what I said above, and my parents because they knew ferry workers in BC who’d had toes amputated by steel toe caps when run over by trucks.

Apparently (I have nothing factual to back ANY of this up) B.C. Ferries requires all deck hands to wear steel toed boots. But (at least back 30 years ago) a number of guys had their feet run over, and in the process had their toes amputated. Guys who don’t/didn’t have the steel cap simply had their toes crushed. The difference being the crushed toes required less surgery and had significantly less blood loss than the amputations. So, lost of deck hands simply would not wear steel toed boots. Last time I was on a ferry I didn’t ask the guy directing me… maybe I’ll remember next time I’m out west…

Regardless, if you want the best protection, get a set of adventure or sport boots. They have proper ankle bracing and armor.

[Matt]

DO NOT WEAR STEEL TOED BOOTS!

Seriously.

Steel toe caps can amputate your toes in a violent crash.

There are other issues (less shifter feel) but really, the fact that they cut off toes is reason enough.

I wear laced boots, jsut double the not at the top, no problems there. The combat boots may be an issue depending on how far down the laces go on the top of the foot. My boots have laces that go all the way to the shifter, and so I have to have a leather band placed over that area (I was wearing through my laces).

Protection wise, an adventure, dirt, or sport boot will have armour in it, but a “cruiser” style boot is no safer than a combat boot to the best of my knoweldge.

[Matt]

Hey Tango,
I’m also from Ottawa, so I might be able to help.

I would avoid Powersports. I bought my bike there, and when their mechanic screwed up (in truth, the bike they sold me should never have been put on sale, it had seen too much previous damage) they did NOT stand behind their product or work. They told me I had a “paper weight”… a paper weight _they_ sold me. I am not pleased with the experience at all.

We actually have a fair number of dealerships around. Gearhead in the west end, Wheelsport in the east end, and Motorsport World near Powersports and OGTC.

You have a couple of options for bikes smaller than the 650s.

You can buy a used ZZR-250 (what I ride, it is a really good bike in my biased opinion). I think powersports may still have one or two. I know OGTC had a few 07s at huge discounts in May, no idea if they’ve sold them yet or not.

You can buy either a used or a new CBR125. While it looks small sitting beside another bike, it doesn’t look too small under a rider when in motion. And if you don’t plan on riding the queensway or 416, then it is a really good bike. I took my experienced rider’s course with a few guys on them. They loved thier CBR125s, and they could really throw the bikes around.

You can buy a Hyosung 250 from gearhead. Truthfully, I’m not 100% convinced these are stellar bikes. If they were cheaper, then I think they’d be good deals, but right now a Ninja 250 (if you can find one) or a ZZR-250 seem like better deals.

You can also get a Ninja 500. I know OGTC had a couple of 07s recently that they were selling with a steep discount. The Ninja 500 is a really good bike. Faster than the 250s (so perhaps not as great to learn on) but more forgiving than the 650s. Really, the only downside to them is the dated look – which is only apparent when they are sitting still. Moving with a rider on them, they look pretty sharp.

As a final note about the “powering out of a situation”. When I did avoidance in both the “gearing up” Ottawa Safety Council (OSC) course (MSF equivilant) and the experienced rider’s course with them (I highly recommend OCS, great instructors!) we never practiced “speed up to get out of trouble”.
Basically, no matter how fast the bike, it is faster and safer to decelerate one car length than to accelerate one car length (ie fall behind the car instead of jumping ahead of the car). If you are in a situation where you can’t brake safely (and emergency braking is actually pretty rare), you can do an emergency avoidance (which happens much more often on the real road). Emergency avoidance (swerving around an object and straightening out again afterwards) is very fast on a bike, any bike (even a huge cruiser) and is independant of horsepower. If you are in a situation where you are boxed in on both sides and behind, and your only option is to accelerate forward, then you’ve already made so many mistakes you’re pretty boned no matter what you do.

The logic that a faster bike is a safer bike seems to be an excuse to justify a want for a faster bike.

Take care

[Matt]

Obviously, how much someone falls depends on great deal on that person and how much they push themselves. Most my MSF instructors do a great deal of track work, and while none of them have ever dropped a bike on the road, they said that most people dropped a bike at least once every two trips to the track.

Track bikes are often salvage bikes. If you see those safety wires, I’d stay REALLY clear of that bike. Around here a bike that normally goes for $6-8k is $3k as a track bike…

If I ever see a really good deal on a CBR125, I’ll pick that up for a track bike (Not that I can afford track days, but I can dream right?)

[Matt]

Budd: That line isn’t ironic at all, he’s a track-day racer. Out on the track, you fall. That is why track day bikes don’t have the mirrors on them, and have frame sliders installed, why the tracks have long safe run outs, and why full racing leathers are required.
Knowing how to fall properly is important at that level of riding and in those conditions.

In mountain biking, some people say the first thing you learn how to do is how not to fall. Good riders say the first thing you learn is how to fall. If you’re not falling, you’re not riding your limits.

As for the mileage, I’ve read some other posts, seems his reason for his abysmal mpg, he was running wide open throttle almost the entire time. 43mpg isn’t bad for pure WOT. Hell, a Ferrari F430 gets 1.7mpg at full on track throttling…

[Matt]

A lot of people dream of riding a motorcycle, but never give it any indepth thought. They simply think “I couldn’t do that, it isn’t safe” or some version thereof. They never get far enough along the process to even know that MSF courses exist.
And then there are the plenty of people (squids) who jump onto a bike half-cocked and don’t bother with any of the prep or learning. Despite the fact that they are out there riding, they haven’t given it significantly deeper thought than the first group of people.

When you do go through the process and then talk to people about it, you guide them through that deeper thought. They’d never given any thought to the differences between different bikes beyond “big loud bike and little fast loud bike”, let alone thing like full faced vs shorty helmets, wearing gear, or taking courses.

Just by going out and getting a bike you are providing insipration to others who like teh dream of being on a bike. By going through the steps, and sharing those steps with people, you show them that it isn’t just a dream, but a surprisingly easily achieved goal.
By being a responsible conservative person you break down the “rebel” mental barriers.

Congratulations, you are now a Good Role-Model (TM).

[Matt]

Oliver!
Hopefully your Oliver has better luck with water and subsequently electrical systems than Hammond’s.

Good luck!

P.S.
Oliver is being professionally restored for filming of “something” starting July 14th… I’m curious to see what becomes of that.

[Matt]

Yes it will have plenty of power to haul you around. It’ll still easily cruise freeway speeds with you on it, and your acceleration will still be more than enough to keep you ahead of most traffic out there.

[Matt]

Budd, there is a good lesson in that.

For the record, I take 180 mile day trips most weekends on my 250 (about 50km freeway, rest is back country roads)… I’m glad you liek your ninja, eventually riding in the wind stops being a pain… I’m not sure when it happened, but somewhere between 1600 and 2000 kms I stopped fighting the wind and my body took over do all the gentle corrections… now it takes a pretty windy day for me to even notice my bike moving about underneath me. I figured I’d never get passed trying to fight the wind…

[Matt]

I believe the yamaha WR-250 series has a digital bar type tach. I’m not sure about any of the 650s.
Aftermarket tachs are an option for just about every other bike.

Cruisers make do without a tach… given the type of engine in dual sports, you’ll probably think you are torturing it long before it reaches red-line. They aren’t what one would call smooth at high rpm.

All that said, I look at my tach more often than my speedo, so I understand the want for one.

[Matt]

I really don’t think the VLX will be over anyones head so long as the can manage the weight (the weight is only an issue in low speed maneuvering).

The gearing is really tall (only 4 gears). It makes for a good bike to spend a few hours on.

I’ve read reviews that say the vulcan is the nicest small-to-mid sized cruiser for long trip comfort. It also has a different feeling power delivery from the other cruisers. Other cruisers (like the VLX) will develop a good push a low rpm, but it will peter down as the revs climb. The Vulcan (having a Ninja engine) will need to be revved a bit, and the higher the rpm, the faster you’ll accelerate.

My mom has the VLX, she loves it. A co-worker has the Vulcan, his only complaint is that it is a titch small for him (tall guy). Go with whichever you find more comfortable, they are both good bikes.

[Matt]

I have a deep seated love for yellow cars and motorcycles, but the only yellow I’ve seen on the 500R comes with (in my strictly peanut gallery opinion) lame red decals that just totally spoils the awesome-yellow-ness of it all (Ducati didn’t need red decals on its yellow Monster… kawi should have saved itself a few dollars and skipped the decals)

If it is decal free, yellow all the way. If it has decals, black.

So says this member of the peanut gallery

[Matt]

Mechanically they are identical.
The only difference between the years is the paint!

The 08 has the advantage that when you sell it, it will sound newer. Though, honestly, the odometer is far more telling to any moderately informed buyer.

If they are both fresh from the dealer (near zero odometer) then go for whichever one you like the look of better. You can justify it as “getting the better deal” if you like the color of the 07, or you can justify it as “will have more resale value” if you like the color of the 08.

[Matt]

Take her to an empty parking lot and do what they do with the MSF courses. Set up an obstacle (road cone, what have you) and have her ride right at it slowly. Have her push in the direction she wants to go, then steady up with a push in the other direction. Let her do this slowly building up speed (at her own pace). It’ll help.

[Author]

Posts