[owlie]

I didn’t even notice the antlers until you pointed them out. It looks like they the biggest pain about them is that if you ever laid the bike down they would either impale you or shatter…

Wild.

[owlie]

The truth is my cat has a thing for cardboard boxes. I had to bribe her to investigate the helmet.

I love to play with my cat with the laser pointer. The “hey! where’d it go!” look followed by the scowl in my direction is my favorite part.

[owlie]

Welcome back. Looking forward to the surprises you have up your sleeve for us!

[owlie]

That was someone else (she was originally from Alaksa, but I haven’t seen her here in a few weeks).

I’m in Alaska. The riding season will probably go on until mid-october or so, but after the first snow (which could happen anytime after Labor Day), I would hesitate to ride, especially as a new rider. Between now and then, the weather will be unpredicatably rainy (sort of Seattle-ish with less fog).

[owlie]

The kitties are darling.

Elwood, are those actually riding googles for your dog? Wow. I’m in the wrong business…

Here is my kitty, Holley.

[owlie]

Glad that she made it out and will recover. That is a hard thing to have to go through. We’ll keep you both in mind.

[owlie]

The troopers up here regularly drag crap out of the road. Even if you don’t stop, you can always put in a call.

[owlie]

Here is the link to Eternal’s cool beginner bikes spec sheet.

[owlie]

Welcome to the forum!

Good to see another Okie (even if I am far from my roots).

As for what kind of bike, go to the dealerships and sit on a few. The difference between the bikes can be eye-opening.

[owlie]

I have to agree on the “experience” part. The dealership has the kind of feel where they would be happy to have you just come in and hang out, have a cup of coffee and sit on bikes for a while. The other places I have gone are friendly, but not quite as laid back.

As for the Sporty, I think that if I hadn’t sat on that Suzuki S40, I probably would have loved it. But like most of the other V-twins that I have sat on, it just feels big and heavy (though not nearly so much as the V-Star). It felt easier to stand up, so I think it must have a lower CoG than the V-Star or the Vulcan. The other thing was that I was distracted by the other women around me so I didn’t really get to focus on the bikes as much as I would have liked to. I’ll definitely try it again after I have a couple years of riding under my butt.

I will say that I really didn’t care for the Dynas. The two that they had for us to look at had forward pegs, and there was something about the position of the air intake in relationship to my knee that was awkward. I felt off balance because my left leg was differently positioned relative to the bike than my right. Might be fixable with the mid pegs.

[owlie]

Wow! That is fantastic. I’m glad to hear that you have found something that works for you and are keeping up with it. Losing weight is a huge commitment. Keep it up!

[owlie]

Road Snake – The tar stripes that occur wherever they have sealed cracks in the asphalt. Alaskan roads look like quilts in some places…

[owlie]

Congratulations to both of you!

It sounds like you both had a great time.

[owlie]

Our instructor had the same comment about the one Nighthawk that was in their fleet. He said that he thought it was actually a feature of the bike.

[owlie]

I’ve been looking at Suzuki’s S40 which is a single cylinder 650cc. Not to sure how heavy the Virago is, but the S40 only weighs about 340lbs. It is really the lightest 650cc cruiser that I have sat on.

You might look at this comparison sheet that Eternal put together to get some other ideas.

[Author]

Posts