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This law seems unworkable to me. What about people with vintage or even 10 year old bikes where stock exhaust systems may no longer be available?

That said, if it weren’t for the few selfish dipsticks with obnoxiously loud roaring pipes, this wouldn’t be an issue.

You can help by joining the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) who are constantly fighting anti-motorcycle legislation.

http://www.amadirectlink.com

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Megaspaz said:

“Being safe and being fast are not mutually exclusive, imo”.

Not mutually exclusive, but more of the latter reduces the former; no doubt about it.

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Been there, done that. Last week was the last time actually.

Riding along 101 through South San Francisco in the dark at ~75 mph in the fast lane when this idiot in a big van decides to pull out from the suddenly slowed middle lane, into my path at about 5-10 mph.

Shit !!! Full on with the brakes, I hear the rubber screeching and feel the back end slide out a little and that van’s getting very, very close.

I’m going to hit it, no doubt in my mind (like you, not scared, just resigned to it). Fortunately, the back wheel came back in line at which point, auto-pilot kicked-in and without thinking, I swerved around him on the left side (between the van and the concrete wall).

Lesson learned, slow down when you’re in a clear lane and the lane next to you is slow or stopped as they won’t be able to resist coming into your clear lane and will (a) not look properly (or at all) to see if the lane is clear before moving in (b) see you and underestimate your speed or (c) see you and not give a shit ‘coz they’re in a big safe SUV or truck.

I’m a fairly experienced rider now and commute year round by motorcycle. I don’t know it all, but I know that although we can learn to ride defensively (although not many of us do in my experience of watching others), there is always the possibility of some stupid shit trying to kill you and there may be nothing you can do about avoiding such experiences.

Fortunately, I’ve only been in that situation a handful of times, and the more experience I get, the fewer surprises I get.

For the motorcycle commuters amongst us out there, be safe, not fast, you’re only going to work after all…

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http://www.chuckhawks.com/bonneville_sportster_w650.htm

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Modern Triumph motorcycles are as reliable as any and if you’re in any doubt, they come with a *two* year unlimited mileage warranty.

The Bonneville family are thoroughly modern motorcycles, they just look retro. They are switching to EFI (for the 2009 model year in the USA) to meet the new Euro emissions standards, although personally, I like carbs.

I put 25,000 trouble free miles on a Bonneville. They’re great, high-quality bikes and, like a Harley, are an experience, not just a motorcycle.

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Gorgeous little bikes and as another poster said, a true 1950s motorcycling experience (Hmm…).

I’d love to have one as a second bike if I could justify another bike (which I can’t what with everything else…). That is, if they were available in CA, which they’re not as they’re not emissions certified for CA.

From what I’ve seen on the internet though, you wouldn’t want to use it as freeway transport or for daily commuting as they’re barely fast enough for the former and too maintenance intensive for the latter. Lots of fun though and a real head-turner.

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I did my MSF BRC at Two Wheel Safety Training in Newark, California too; about 4 years ago.

‘ Sounds like things haven’t changed much, as I remember that on “graduating”, I said (and wrote on their feedback form), that they should give out diagrams of the courses as I didn’t always know what was expected of me (and I’m a native English speaker).

Re. “the box” (S-turn), I was congratulated by the instructors for doing it perfectly with “perfect head turns” the first time.

The second time I did it ? Well… you can’t please all of the people all of the time

On my test day, I had to re-do the swerve (after the box) as the instructor said I wasn’t going fast enough. Probably something to do with the fact that the speedo didn’t work on my bike. That and the fact that I was kicking myself for having gone outside of the inner line of the box immediately prior.

Some of the bikes were pretty crappy as I remember. I started on a 125 c.c. Kawasaki Eliminator, but that got stuck in gear and I had to swap to another one (I really wanted a “big” Nighthawk like most everybody else, grr…).

Anyhoo… Congratulations, and yes, the BRC was a fun experience for me too. I’d never ridden a motorcycle prior to the course.

Everyone that completed my course passed, but a few never came back for the second week-end and one was, I think, asked to leave due to being unsafe. Only saw a bike dropped once.

Dagger: Yes, I too felt (and told them) that I’d have liked more practice time on each of the exercises.

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I currently get Motorcycle Consumer News (MCN), Rider, Motorcyclist, Cycle World and American Rider (the AMA Magazine). Oh yes, I pick up the freebie “Urban Moto”, “City Bike” and another one who’s name escapes me when I go to my local “Cycle Gear” store or m/c dealer.

So! I *was* going to drop a few as it’s getting a bit much. First one to drop would be the expensive MCN I thought. That was, until I got the next one and realized that I read it pretty much from cover to cover whereas most of the others get quickly scanned through and discarded.

I’m keeping MCN, Cycle World and American Rider; the latter by default as I don’t much like the mag but want to continue my support and membership of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). Rider is a decent magazine, but too many touring stories and pictures. The first few are interesting, but they get a bit samey after a while. I don’t like Motorcyclist much as there’s way too much advertising, including advertising that I wouldn’t want my kids to see.

P.S. MCN has *no* advertising, it’s entirely reader supported; that’s why it’s more expensive. This of course means that they don’t have to be nice to any advertisers when they do reviews. You do get what you pay for in this case.

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Nikwax make a number of waterproofing products that seem to be well rated.

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I commute year-round (CA) and find that a motorcycle backpack is the easiest way to carry stuff around.

You don’t have to mess around when you get on or off the bike and you never have to worry that it’s going to fall off.

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You didn’t turn your key all the way past “off” to “parking light” did you?

Don’t try to push start the bike, you’ll just look and feel silly and it probably won’t start anyway (been there done that); you might drop the bike as well.

If you don’t have a battery charger, buy or borrow a set of inexpensive jumper cables (most folks have some for their car) and start the bike from your car battery (car engine NOT running). Connect car battery red (+) terminal to Motorcycle battery red (+) terminal and Car Black (-) to Motorcycle Black (-). Don’t cross them over or you’ll blow a fuse (been there, done that too).

With the battery only being a year or so old, it shouldn’t have failed, so it might be loose battery connections, an accessory draining the battery, or a problem with your charging system.

Do check that the battery connections are tight on your bike first though, as if they’re loose, the battery won’t have been getting charged properly.

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As someone said, once you get a feel for how much your tank holds, you’ll probably never need to switch to reserve as you’ll reset your tripmeter with every fill-up and when you reach a certain number of miles travelled, you’ll know to go fill up.

That said, do practice switching the petcock over though; just in case.

I had my last bike for two years and never switched to reserve once (3.9 gallon tank and 40 mpg).

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I agree with everything Dagger said.

Only thing I would add is to start slowing sooner to let the tailgaters get used to the idea. You can start by flashing your brake light and then gradually slowing. More than likely, they’ll get pissed-off and overtake you before you get to the turn.

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I don’t really see the point of your post.

If, as you seem to think, you know better than the advice that is generally given out here, then good luck to you. Why are you still hanging around here unless it’s just to say that we’re full of it and you know better?

Different people have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. A tall, skinny, seventeen year old newbie has a whole different set of issues to deal with than a short, overweight, fifty something returning rider. This being the case, we tend to err on the side of caution, and rightly so in my opinion. This is life and death.

I hope you go from strength to strength and in safety but I have my doubts given your pushing of the envelope and apparent disregard for riding advice given out by more experienced riders.

When will your scare happen? Who knows, but I’d been driving a car for 30 years then riding a 250 for a year followed by an 800 c.c. standard for a year when I had an unscheduled get-off (at around 18,000 motorcycle miles ridden).

In fact, statistically, the 2-3 year’s experience mark shows a peak in motorcycle accidents as riders by then think they know it all and drop their guard. Looks like you’re there already…

As you get older, you will learn not to tempt fate.

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You’re probably right about the headlight assembly; I never thought that one through

Hooligan bikes were originally, cheap to buy, well-used bikes with busted fairings so I guess they pulled-off the bits that were damaged and left the bits that served a purpose. Probably not a practical solution for a new bike after all (unless you rigged-up a separate headlamp, which you probably don’t want to get into with a new bike).

Depending on your traffic situation over there, you might very well get by on a 250 for a while (Honda Nighthawk 250, Suzuki TU250, Kawasaki Ninja 250 or one of the 250 cruisers). The first two are good for about 75 mph max. and the Ninja, probably about 95-100. Definitely ideal for learning on and completely practical if you won’t spend much time on freeways (Ninja could cope better than the others), but you’re in a difficult situation over there for selling-on or trading up if / when you get more confident / ambitious.

How about a Suzuki 400 c.c. dual sport or a 650 dual sport from any of the jap manufacturers? You can get lowering kits if the seat hight is too high and being single cylinder, they’re light, simple, reliable, rugged and not very fast.

Read back through the posts where your questions on what bike to choose have been answered many times, but I think the general consensus is that you can learn on any bike (to a greater or lesser extent) but lighter and less powerful is a good thing at the beginning.

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