[Rab]

If you don’t get any joy here, I suggest you try here:

http://www.gstwin.com

[Rab]

I wouldn’t worry about it if it goes away after a few minutes. It’s probably just water vapor.

[Rab]

I know where you’re coming from.

My Wife was involved in her first car accident last year (was rear-ended) while driving through the local Mexican ghetto while I was at work.

She went to pieces and called me from the scene. I tried to calm her down and told her what she needed to do. She took down his (if it was his) driver’s license number and he supposedly wrote down his other details, however, she’s sure that he snatched the paper with his details back when she gave her details to him though, so all we had to go on was his driver’s license number. Needless to say, he never got in touch with us or the police or our insurance company; despite having our full contact details.

Having heard nothing, we went to report the incident to the police and they said they had had no report of the accident from him. I later went to the local address given to me by the police and found an apartment with about 12 Mexicans in it, none of whom could speak English. When shown the guy’s name (again given to us by the police), they shook their heads mumbling in Spanish like they had no idea who he was; I don’t know, maybe they didn’t but I could hardly discuss it with them as I don’t speak foreign languages.

We do have Uninsured/Underinsured coverage as is a virtual necessity here in California, largely due to all the illegals, so it didn’t cost us (directly anyway) to get our car fixed as they treated our mystery driver as uninsured.

Like you however, I learned a lesson.

[Rab]

It’s great that you had the presence of mind to get out of the way.

I hope you reported the incident to the police though, as she deserves to be prosecuted; and as a warning to the other mobile texters out there.

Shameless plug follows:

I would encourage all readers to join the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). They may not be perfect, but they are one of a very few organizations who are lobbying on our behalf.

Pressing for tougher sentences for “distracted drivers” who kill motorcyclists is one of their current initiatives.

The AMA also offer free roadside assistance/recovery on all of your vehicles (motorcycles, cars, trucks) with the auto-renewal option.

[Rab]

The guy on the V-Strom could have had hi-intensity bulbs and/or poorly aimed main beam. V-Strom and KLR650 etc. riders often buy all that adventure accessory stuff even if the only off-roading they do is on Safeways parking lot.

That aside, when riding behind someone for an extended length of time like that, it’s just plain common sense to dip the headlamp. Isn’t it?

On your other point, no, full beams should not be shining out in all directions.

If they are aimed too high, then you light up all the freeway signs for miles ahead, but there’s very little light going onto the road in front of you. I know, I’ve seen this on my current bike before I adjusted the aim downward (a vast improvement).

On modern faired motorcycles they can (and should be) adjusted both laterally and vertically so that at some point, the beam ends on the road (not off into the horizon). On all bikes (even old ones), you’ve got at least an up/down adjustment. I’ll bet if you look in your user manual, it’ll show you how to adjust your headlamps low and high beams.

I remember seeing cars in Europe with a headlamp beam adjuster on the dash to allow the driver to re-aim the headlamps when carrying heavy loads in the trunk.

Anyway, this has always been a controvertial point (full beams during the day or not), so I guess we can agree to disagree.

[Rab]

I’m a full time motorcycle commuter in the SF Bay Area too.

I think the main down-side to motorcycle commuting is in depreciation of the bike; especially if you buy new. You’re going to put a lot of miles on that bike in a relatively short time and here in the U.S.A. where motorcycles are largely considered toys, that matters a lot in resale value.

So! You either replace the bike in two years at, say, 25K miles and take the depreciation hit for a new one, or, you keep it and run it into the ground, because if you keep it for another couple of years and put, say 50K on it, you might find it difficult to sell at all; even though it’ll probably run to over 100K if well maintained (and not written-off of course). Just don’t tell your insurance company that you do anything more than pleasure ride a couple of thousand miles a year or they’ll crucify you. They don’t consider the mileage when you make a claim anyway in my experience.

I too mainly do it because it’s fun and quicker and if I weren’t commuting by motorcycle I’d be riding BART (it’s a train folks!), so depreciation wouldn’t be a part of that equation.

These are just my musings on the subject and I may be wrong, but it’s the way I currently see it.

I think the take-away from this is not to commute on an expensive new motorcycle.

[Rab]

Thanks for the comparo but like I said, the fit of the Scarab (glove thumbs too short when gripping the grips) just wouldn’t work for me and I don’t think a bigger size (than large) would have helped as then they would have been too loose.

Like you, one of my main criteria in selecting these was waterproofness as well as hard armor and a wrist closure that hopefully tightens around my wrist. Some gloves have a wrist closure but not enough velcro to tighten them up sufficiently (like my current Olympia Ultimas).

Re. the temperature in the SF Bay area there are times in the year when on my morning high-speed commute I need both grip heaters and heated gloves together to prevent frostbite turning my fingers black (okay, I exaggerate a little). I don’t think there are any non-heated gloves on the market that will truly keep your hands warm at low temps for any length of time, so I’m hoping that the ThermoSport together with my heated grips will cover most situations. My heated gloves (Firstgear Carbon) are a pain in the proverbial to plug-in and out; especially if you want to change jackets and have to move the jacket wiring harness.

[Rab]

I don’t agree that a properly adjusted full beam blinds other road users; not during the day anyway.

If I’m lane splitting behind another motorcyclist, I’ll dip the light (use low beam). If I’m sitting (static) in traffic behind another road user, I’ll dip the beam. If I’m going through a tunnel I’ll dip the beam.

Otherwise, it’s on full time.

My life is far more important than someone else having a slight inconvenience.

[Rab]

Yes, you can indeed switch to low beam (dipped headlight) which disables the flashing, but on low beam you’re also diminishing your visibility quite a bit versus high beam.

Alternatively, you can wire them to modulate the low beam and disable by switching to high beam. That’s probably preferable, but after having used a modulator daily for some months, I felt I was safer without it.

I actually installed it and uninstalled it twice as I thought I’d give it another chance, but I came to the same conclusion the second time.

[Rab]

I thought about doing the same thing but never got around to trying it out.

As I understand it, to be legal, they have to flash at a certain rate and have to have a photo-electric switch which disables the flashing at night. Additionally though, like you said, it would be nice to have a switch so that you could manually over-ride this default day/night behavior.

Like I said, for lane-splitting, it was great as they probably thought I was a cop; woe betide any other motorcyclist lane-splitting in another lane though as they could quite easily have been knocked-of as the car drivers swerved out of my way. That said, most seasoned motorcyclists here in California know that you should really only be lane-splitting in the left-most “lane” or working your way over there to lane-split.

[Rab]

All very good ideas, but I’d be wary about the headlight modulator.

I commuted with one for a while and here in California, it was great for lane-splitting (was like Moses parting the Red Sea), however, on more than a couple of occasions, I’m convinced that some drivers, catching a momentary glimpse of the flashing headlamp, thought I was signaling them to pull out in front of me; regardless of how impractical it was at those speeds.

I eventually took it off and now ride with full beam during the day.

[Rab]

This is kinda timely for me as I just spent the last few days on the internet and at my local dealers evaluating Winter motorcycle gloves. I bought the Cortech Scarab Winter Gloves which seemed to fit great in the store, but on riding home in them I discovered that the fit didn’t work for me once my hands were on the bars for an extended period.

Anyway, I returned those to the dealer and ended up ordering the British Motorcycle Gear ThermoSports Winter Gloves. Whereas most of the other Winter Gloves I looked at had some of the features I wanted, the ThermoSports seem to offer all of the qualities I was looking for; and at a “reasonable” price.

As the entire BMG staff was at the Daytona Bike Week Races last week, I haven’t received the gloves yet, so the jury’s still out on them.

http://www.britishmotorcyclegear.com/thermosport-gloves.asp

[Rab]

Tourmaster/Cortech make decent gear for good prices.

HJC make highly rated (DoT & Snell) inexpensive helmets; look for a CL-15 on close-out.

Gloves? I’ve had two unscheduled get-offs. On the first, the hard knuckle protector on my gloves was dented leaving my own knuckle unharmed. On the second, I was wearing Winter Gloves with no hard armour and injured my finger. I’d go with the hard armour.

[Rab]

Most people move-up from a 250 for the reasons you’ve stated, so don’t feel bad about that. It was a learning experience on a docile machine which you’ve now progressed beyond. You’re now ready to leave the beginner’s class.

The 250 Nighthawk I started on could haul my 180-200 lbs plus my (slim) Wife’s weight as a passenger almost as easily as it could carry me on my own (with the suspension pre-load adjusted appropriately) so I don’t think your 260 lbs is a *very* significant factor regarding engine size although it will of course have some effect.

So! My advice (like others have said) would be to go sit on some to check out the ergonomics and suspension sag (bearing in mind that it’s almost certainly pre-load adjustable); test ride if they’ll let you (most don’t).

Having completed an MSF course and having had some experience on the 250, you should be ready for a 650 (but not a supersport!!) or even something bigger with a less sporty engine (e.g. a cruiser or a Triumph Bonneville, etc). The only reason (with your experience) to go for the 500 would be initial cost and/or fuel economy because like I said, I think you can probably move on to a bigger engined motorcycle now.

At your weight, an inline 4 cylinder (I-4) engined bike like the FZ6 might not be the best for you as they usually make power higher up in the rev range at the expense of torque lower down. Unless you’re a boy racer type, the “more torque lower in the rev range” thing is more practical. Mid-sized I-4 exceptions to that would be the FZ6R and the Suzuki GSX650F which, although I-4s, have twin-cylinder like torque and predictable power bands (no arm-pulling surges when you hit a certain RPM).

Most (all?) twin cylinder bikes have good torque lower in the rev range and predictable power bands; especially V or L twins.

[Rab]

I’ve had bikes with carbs and with EFI.

The warm-up is a non-issue for me as I would simply start the bike with choke full-out, immediately push it about half-way in (until revs just start to drop a little), put my gloves on, check the lights and then take-off. A mile or so down the road (depending on outside temperature), I’d push the choke all the way in and be done with it. Not a problem.

A drawback with EFI though (which is apparently quite common) is that when “coasting” (in gear), they can have an on/off feeling from the throttle (a.k.a. surging). This is difficult to describe, but it can be uncomfortable and annoying. Bikes with carbs don’t have this surging.

EFI bikes are definitely more fuel efficient though and it’s only a matter of time before carbs are phased-out completely on motorcycles due to ever more stringent air quality laws which carbureter fuelled engines will be unable to meet. In fact on the pre-EFI (carburetted) Bonnevilles, Triumph had to graft on secondary air injection in order to meet pollution regulations.

[Author]

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