Forum Replies Created
Vespa USA/Canada 2016 – Scooter Sales Brochure
-
AuthorPosts
-
RabParticipant
At first, I used to use that white slant-lined area next to the handicapped spaces too, until I realized that those white-lined areas are there to allow space for the handicapped to get their wheel chairs out of their cars and set-up without worrying about some yayhoo (as Festus calls them) pulling into the next space.
Best to avoid those spaces, but yes, don’t bury your bike where no-one can see it and do park towards the front of the space for visibility.
RabParticipantSide stand is preferable, as Andrew said. The bike is more stable leaning on it that than on a center stand. This is especially important in the S.F. Bay area which is prone to earth tremors/quakes.
The center stand is, however, really useful for doing chain and other bike maintenance. An alternative if you have a sport-bike is to use a paddock stand (a.k.a. race stand, a.k.a. swing-arm stand) for bike maintenance.
If using a center stand, once you’ve put the bike on the center stand, make sure you lift the side-stand up as it could cause complications when taking the bike off the center stand.
In taking the bike off the center stand, you should first be straddling the bike, then push off the stand with your feet and legs and arms (push on the bars). Don’t take it off the stand if you’re not straddling the bike to steady it.
RabParticipantThe sportster is IMO, not a cruiser or a sport-bike (although it used to be/still is? used for flat-track racing).
Like a Triumph Bonneville, it’s just “a motorcycle” or to use an anachronistic title, a “roadster” (which they now call a “standard”). The terms cruiser (in this sense) and sport-bike, didn’t, I think, exist back in 1957 when the original was designed.
I tend to think of cruisers as having your feet out in front of you, the sportster has them mostly underneath you I believe (yes, know, that’s just one thing).
RabParticipantI have a Xena disk lock/alarm; ‘ got it cheap on eBay a while ago. Make sure you get the right size though.
The lock appears to be very strong (they’re heavy) and the alarm works good. The button cell batteries last for ages (they also supply a spare set and a storage pouch with the lock ).
‘ Only problem is that the alarm goes off for no reason sometimes (common to all of them I believe). If that becomes a problem for you, you can actually remove the alarm mechanism from the lock and use the lock on its own.
The alarm has actually saved me a couple of times, from riding off with the lock still on the wheel (which could really have ruined my day). To be extra safe though, you should get one of those orange coiled string things to remind you that the disk lock is on the wheel.
If you have a bike with front drum brakes (vintage bikes or the current Honda Nighthawk 250), you could use a bicycle U-Lock.
Better security might be a chain or thick cable so that you can attach the bike to something immovable as even disk locked bikes can be lifted onto a trailer. A real pain to carry around though.
Bottom line, if they really want it, they’ll get it, but if you’ve taken at least some precautions, they might move on to the next guy’s bike instead.
Always set your fork lock whatever you do, even at the gas station if you have to go into the kiosk. It only takes a minute to run the bike up a ramp and into a waiting van.
RabParticipantI used to know a bar owner that would park his very expensive sport bike in a corner of his bar with mood lighting trained on it.
It wasn’t so much for security though, he was just an incurable flash b******
RabParticipantIf the lining’s removable, take it out and look inside.
Sometimes the DOT notice is inside the helmet shell (although it should also have a sticker on the back I would think).
Re. companies spending time, money and resources making non-approved helmets, in some cases, that’s not what they set out to do. They design and manufacture a helmet (quite possibly for markets other than the U.S.A. primarily) but it fails the DOT testing when they import them into the U.S.A. They sell it anyway, to those not savvy enough to know to check (no offence intended).
Some helmets of course are joke helmets e.g. those little shiny black numbers favored by some cruiser riders, you know, the ones who have skull tattoos and wear “Bonanza” style leather vests. Those are not much better than wearing a do-rag, but they wear them as a kind of protest because the law says they have to. Those often *do* have DOT stickers, but it’s just a sticker, they’re often not actually DOT approved.
RabParticipantNight:
1. Try to avoid riding at all at night. If you must, avoid unlit roads, as motorcycle headlights are typically poor (especially the ones on beginner bikes) and our (typically single) tail lights, don’t show much of a presence to following car drivers.
2. Wear brightly colored gear w/ reflective piping or tape. You can buy reflective tape and sticker sets. It makes a big difference.
3. Be especially alert for drunk drivers.
4. Slow down.
Rain:
1. Slow down, especially going round corners and bends (minimize lean) and don’t make sudden moves (swerves). Also, tires can hydroplane at speeds above ~60 m.p.h.
2. Wear brightly colored, appropriate rain gear (again with reflective piping or tape) and gore-tex (or similar) lined boots/gloves.
3. Avoid riding during the first 30 minutes of rain as the oil and grease rise to the surface then (before being washed away).
4. Watch out for “dry” or rainbow colored patches of road (oil or fluid spills). Avoid puddles (you don’t know how deep they are). Avoid the painted lines, arrows, words, etc. on the road (they’re slippery). Avoid metal plates and don’t brake on them (they’re slippery too).
5. Use an anti-fog treatment on inside of your visor and Rain-X on the outside.
6. Apply the brakes gingerly and double your two second stopping distance (between you and the car in front) to four seconds.
Buy some books like “Proficient Motorcycling” or borrow them from your local library. Check online, many libraries are computerized these days and are part of a network of libraries. They might be able to get you a copy from another library if they don’t have it. Check Amazon, eBay or Half.com for bargains in used books.
RabParticipantYes, that glass-only warning put me off initally too, but it also says that using it on plastic is okay if the manufacturer says it is.
I have an HJC helmet and they say that Rain-X is okay. From the HJC web site:
~~~~~~~
Anti-Fog Inserts: After market anti-fog inserts such as Fog City and HJTech Anti-Fog can work very well with HJC flat (2D) shields. These inserts are not recommended for use with standard HJC 3 dimensional (3D) shields due to their double curvature shape which could cause a distortion in vision. Follow the installation instructions diligently.Rain-X & Other Products: Applying RainX or other water dispersing type chemicals work well on HJC shields (except RST mirrored shields) if applied on new shields and if the chemical companies directions are followed diligently. Always use extremely soft and clean cloths for applications.
~~~~~~~BTW: It works just fine on “old” shields’ (visors) too.
Check your helmet manufacturer’s web site FAQ or shoot them an email if Rain-X is not referenced.
Mine is a yellow 3.5 fluid oz. bottle called “Rain-X Original”.
I re-apply it after every rain-soaking; ‘ don’t know if I need to, but a small bottle goes a long way, so why not do it and be prepared.
RabParticipantMost gas pumps in this area have a rubber sheathed springy jacket around the actual gas filler nozzle. The purpose of this is to suck up the gas *fumes* while you’re filling. This means that there’s less chance of an explosion and also helps in reducing air pollution. That’s all well and good but…
It’s set up so that the gas won’t pump when you pull the lever unless the filler nozzle is pushed all the way into the gas tank, thus compressing the springy sheath which surrounds the filler nozzle.
This works fine on a car (which has a long filler neck), but not on some bikes as they may have an obstruction in the tank (e.g. around a frame tube) which prevents you being able to push the nozzle all the way into the tank. Even if you can push the nozzle all the way into the tank, it means that you’ll only be able to half fill it before the blow-back cut-off kicks-in (i.e. when the level of fuel in the tank reaches the gas pump nozzle, falsely indicating to the pump that your tank’s full).
For such pumps, you have to hold the fingers of your left hand in a V-sign (sport biker’s wave) while holding the pump hose trigger with your right.
With your left hand V-sign (one finger on each side of the filler nozzle), you pull the sheath back (thus over-riding the sheath cut-off switch) so that it’ll pump gas. In doing this, *you* can decide how far you want to push the filler nozzle into the gas tank filler neck.
I know this sounds awkward, but it’s not difficult and you’ll have to learn to do it if you want to fill your gas tank using these types of pumps.
RabParticipantIf you know you’ll be coming to a complete stop fairly abruptly (e.g. at a stop sign), then there’s no need to shift down through the gears letting the clutch out each time. In fact, as you’ve found, it can be counter-productive.
When you’re approaching the stop sign or whatever, just pull in the clutch, holding it there, and click, click, click down through the gears while braking, until you get into first gear just before you stop.
Then you can either hold it there in first gear with the clutch still pulled-in (e.g. at a stop sign) or you can put it into neutral and let out the clutch once you’ve stopped (e.g. at a traffic light).
Some people advise to always keep it in first gear with the clutch pulled-in at a stop. That’s so that you can quickly get out of the way if a madman in another vehicle is approaching too rapidly from behind and looks like he might ram into you.
For traffic lights, you can modify this slightly because the light might change to green during your approach.
So! For red traffic lights, do as above, but instead of just click, click, clicking down through all the gears one immediately after the other, instead, hold in the clutch for the duration of your slow-down (as above), but only click down into the next lower gear when you have slowed to a speed which is appropriate for that lower gear (you’re also braking at the same time remember). That way, if the light changes to green at any time during your slowing down phase, you’ll be in the correct gear to proceed, in which case, you just let off the brakes and slowly let out the clutch as you give it a little throttle. Voila!
RabParticipantI think you made a wise decision.
RabParticipantI read this on the web somewhere and it’s almost certainly crap but you might find it amusing.
Some guy said that the term was coined by paramedics attending the scene of motorcycle accidents.
He said that when they found the accident ravaged bodies (sometimes in pieces), that with the guts hanging out, they looked like squids!
RabParticipantIn some European and also Antipodean (I think) countries, they have a tiered licensing system. You have to start on a 125, then progress to a 250 or something like that. This is what fuels the sales of smaller bikes there.
Another factor is that in Europe, there is often a lot more traffic and congestion, so smaller bikes are more practical.
Another factor is the “bigger is better” attitude here in the U.S.A.
A great many Americans are pre-occupied with “image” and are suckers for doing what the media tells them they should do and buy what the media tells them they should buy; that’s why there are so many huge motorcycles (bigger bikes = more profits for the manufacturers).
RabParticipantAh Megaspaz…
As I tell my kids, making fun of the aged is a short-lived endulgence.
You’ll be there too before you know it
RabParticipant1. First when doing my preride inspection the brake light does not come on when I use the front brake but it does when I use the rear.
That’s not right; get it checked.
2. I’m not sure if my throttle is closing fast enough, when I let go It just moves a bit and then stops I would have to push it forward to hear it click.
Might just need to lubricate the cable (you can buy a cable-lubing kit), or might need a new return spring.
3. The previous owner put these flush mount turn signals on the front and for some reason the left turn signal blinks twice as fast then (sic) the right.
When it blinks twice as fast on one side, it usually means that one of the bulbs on that side is out. Check that the back turn signal works on that side.
3. When riding and coming to a stop I pull the clutch in to downshift and after I let the clutch out the bike will jurk (sic).
It’s normal for a bike to slow down when you let the clutch out when down-shifting if you haven’t attempted to match the engine speed to the lower gear before letting the clutch out. You could be downshifting too early.
I would definitely have a private sale used bike inspected.
-
AuthorPosts