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Review of the Genuine Blur
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Sean_DParticipant
… but even here in Colorado winter, with altitude as a factor as well as the cold. I would say 3-5 is more accurate, at least for my bike. As others have already mentioned, by the time I check my bike over and get geared up the bike is ready to go when I am. I haven’t found myself sitting around thinking “Damn I wish this thing would warm up faster,” or thinking .. “Man.. I absolutely have to have FI on my next bike.” I would just as likely buy one with FI as I would without it if the bike was what I wanted.
I suppose if maybe I was regularly riding from Kansas City (740 feet) to say Breckenridge (9,600 feet) I might think otherwise, but it really has been a non-issue so far.
Sean_DParticipant… both for protection from a fall and for protection from rain etc. But no matter what you decide to carry it in adding something along the lines of the STM Turtle Hard Shell Laptop Sleeve from RadTech would probably help increase the odds of the laptop surviving. If you have a 17″ though, they won’t work for you.
Sean_DParticipantI am a mid-40’s newbie rider as well, so you definitely are not alone. I am not sure why I never did it earlier. I always wanted to learn to ride, I guess I just wasn’t ready until now.
So yeah.. as SantaCruzRider suggests.. tell us about your bike.
Sean_DParticipant… of online purchases is to check out their rating with Resellerratings.com. Not all of the stores people mentioned are listed and you have to read their ratings with a skeptical eye as some folks just like to whine, but it can help in making an informed decision. Also it definitely pays to fully understand the resellers return policy. Some have a full money back satisfaction guarantee, others only a store credit. Number of days in which you can return, shipping charges, restocking fees if any can all vary greatly. I am sure most people know to do this, but I admittedly learned an expensive lesson or two in learning to fully read the policies.
And to share a good online buying experience…
I just placed an order from Kisan Technologies last week, for a Vectralight license plate frame. They sent the wrong item. I wanted the euro-version for my Triumph (amber signal lights) , they sent the US version (red). I called them up and they immediately sent out a replacement. They didn’t bill me for the replacement (the we will bill your card and credit you back once we receive the wrong item routine) and are trusting me to ship the wrong item back using a label *they* provided. Talk about a good buying experience even though I did initially receive the wrong item. Mistakes like that can happen. It is how a seller deals with the mistakes that make a difference. Just wanted to give a shout out to them for resolving this well.
Sean_DParticipant… the places near me almost *never* have a bargain. But I do at least give them first shot. I go to the store, see it, touch it, try it on. IF they have a halfway reasonable price I will buy from them, but often places like Motorcycle Superstore, Jafrum, New Enough etc. will have the same item at a *significantly* lower price. So much lower, in fact, that I would have to be blindly loyal or just plain foolish to buy local from them in every case. This is particularly true if they don’t have a style, size or color I want on their shelves. The local shop offers *NO* returns on special order items, for which they charge you *upfront.* The online places mentioned above will allow me to return the item if it doesn’t fit, I don’t like the color, style etc. No offense to the local guys, they have great people and great customer service as a whole, but if I am spending $200, $300, $400 or more on an item I sure want the option to return it if I find I don’t like it.
Allen mentions that some stuff is only sold on line. Some of that is as good if not better than what is sold in stores . Often at a better prices as it is part of how they keep their prices down I suppose. Aerostich, as he mentions in one example, British Motorcycle Gear is another. I recently purchased a couple of pairs of the Thermosport Gloves for my wife and I. They cost only $8 or $9 more than the Joe Rocket Nitrogen Gloves that I had purchased from the local shop, they are at least twice the glove and don’t leak like the JR’s. I purchased them after reading many positive reviews on a number of forums and I am very pleased with them. Hood Jeans was another online purchase. Far and away I find them better than the Draggin Jeans I had purchased locally.
For myself, I will continue to shop online. I have already been burned once on a special order from the local shop. I just don’t see the risks of buying online as being any greater.
Sean_DParticipantThere is definitely some marketing hype involved by manufacturers in order to advertise certain specs where they will say a vehicle “requires” a certain Octane fuel. The truth is that most don’t really “require” it unless you need to get every last ounce of performance out of the vehicle. Generally the differences are not nearly as great as they would lead you to believe and the percentage of performance gain not as great as the percentage of price increase.
My bike “requires” mid-grade (89), but I have never been able to tell any appreciable difference between 87 and 89 in terms of performance. I know there isn’t that big a price difference between regular and mid (about .10) when you are only putting in 3.5-4 gallons on average. But why pay for it when you don’t need to?
Putting in higher octane than your vehicle requires can at best have no affect whatsoever and in some instances can actually cause adverse performance. But if your bike requires 87 and your putting in premium chances are your just pissing away .20 a gallon.
USA Today had a good article on fuel octane and performance many years ago…
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-07-30-premiumgas_x.htmSean_DParticipantFrom some reading I had done there is a bit of a “problem” with the “fog free” visors. Problem may not be a good word, but lets say marketing hype. The fog free coating only lasts about 6 months and then you have to treat them like any other visor. But the trouble is that sometimes the fact that they were factory treated makes them harder to deal with than those that were never treated. The other option is to replace the visor and deal with it in another 6 months. Webbike world did a little experimenting with that in one of their articles. A lot of the manufacturers decided not to go that route since *hopefully* you will have your helmet 4-5 years. I guess they figure it is better to not treat it rather than have a fog free helmet for 6 months that may be harder to deal with for the next 3.5-4.5.
My first helmet was a KBC VR-2R. That had a fog free visor, which admittedly never fogged, but I only owned it a couple months. It also had no real ventilation to speak of. As soon as I would stop moving my glasses would fog up like I walked into a steam room. The Shoei RF-1100 has 6 vents on the top, the front vent, and a visor mode that actually pushes the bottom front of the visor away from the gasket to allow air flow without actually raising it up. It seems to vent really well.
Arai, Shoei, KBC and a couple others can use the Pinlock System. That actually works very well other with a couple of caveats. There is a little edge around the visor not covered so it can be slightly distracting until you get used to it, and the inserts are softer so can scratch more easily than the visor itself. But it does keep it fog free.
I have tried Cat Crap (also based on a webbikeworld review) and the Clarity DeFog. Both seem to work well on visors, neither seem great on my glasses. Clarity DeFog works the better of the two. But I think the issue may be the coatings on the glasses. The anti-glare, UV, scratch resistant.. something. It just seems like it only minimizes the effect.
The issue that I have with my glasses is warm air gets up behind them causing them to fog really bad at stops, and also since it is behind the glasses it takes a little while to clear. I have found the air mask seems to work well at controlling this. It goes up over the nose and has a metal pinch strip like a surgical mast. It forces my breath down and out the bottom of the mask so it can’t get up under the glasses.
Until I can find a product that really keeps the back of my glasses clear, I think the air mask is going to be permanent part of my helmet.
Sean_DParticipant“hopefully a helmet company can make shields that have prescription lenses built in”
I doubt that we will see that in the near future. but the Pinlock type system may be the way they can go about doing that. I have kind of gotten used to the air mask. At first I found it distracting, but the more I use it the more I get used to wearing it.
I currently only have a generic one that is made for the HJC helmets as they didn’t have one for the Shoei RF1100 at the time. It is OK, but it bunches up a little at times since uses velcro to attach to the cheek pads. Shoei claims they have the accessories for the RF-1100 now, but you have to call them. I will probably do that. Another option that looks nice, and much more flexible at least than the HJC is the Respro Foggy Mask http://www.respro.com/products/urban-commuting/motorcycling/foggy_mask/
I will get some photos posted this weekend if I can.
Sean_DParticipant… I took the MSF course at the end of September and purchased my bike end of November (November 30th). My wife took the course with me and she purchased her bike in October, so I rode it once or twice before buying my own, but really I probably had maybe 10 miles outside of the MSF course at the time I purchased it.
I really wanted a classic bike as well or in this case a “modern classic” as Triumph calls them. Probably in a large part due to the fact I spent some years living in Ireland (outside of Dublin) and Triumph was what I was familiar with.
I haven’t had it out on the highway yet, Santa Fe is the closest I have come to highway riding with a span that is 55MPH. I had it up to 60’ish there, but mostly the riding I have been doing is on roads with 45MPH limits.
The bike has had 258 miles put on it since I purchased it. My wife put on about 30 of those taking it for a ride. Sooo…. I guess my experience outside of the MSF amounts to about 2 months and 228 miles.
The biggest problem I have been having is due to the fact I need to wear glasses. Contacts drive me nuts after about 2 hours max. I have been having issues with the glasses fogging up at lights. I have tried Cat Crap, Fogtech and a few other products, and at best the minimize the fogging. I have finally found that the only thing that seems to work is putting a breath box in the helmet.
I would be happy to post a picture. I keep meaning to take one. I always forget to put the camera in my pocket before heading out. I will try to remember to do that this weekend.
February 5, 2010 at 2:34 am in reply to: Trying to convince the “BOSS” that bikes aren’t as scary and dangerous as she thinks!! #24402Sean_DParticipant… except it was her that really wanted to learn to ride. She convinced me to go to the MSF course with her. We both had a blast, learned to ride and had a good time shopping/test riding bikes together. We actually went into it with the idea of purchasing scooters. The Piaggio MP3 was one of the ones we had our eye on. Since it leans much like a motorcycle we figured we would do the course on a motorcycle instead of a scooter and really decided that we prefer the motorcycle. She purchased her bike in October, me in November. Its been a blast learning together.
Sean_DParticipantI would tend to agree with your comments on not buying used safety gear when it comes to helmets. I don’t have any issue with buying other used safety gear such as jackets. You can examine them and tell if they have any damage. If you don’t know if you can trust the armor in the garment it is easy enough to replace and far cheaper than the cost of the garment new. I recently picked up a Vanson ProPerf Drifter (retail $459) for $250 and it looks new. I really don’t feel I have any reason not to trust it’s integrity as safety gear. Guy “outgrew” it and decided it wasn’t worth just keeping in his closet in the hopes it would one day fit again. His “gain” was my gain
Sean_DParticipantThe one advantage of the Wheel Jockey over the Harbor Freight model would be portability. The wheel jockey is heavy for it size, but if you were going to be doing some cross country touring it *could* be packed and brought with you for chain maintenance. But likely not necessary for most folks needs.
Sean_DParticipantYes, it is flat on the bottom and has a non-skid pad attached. It is more solid and heavier than it looks in the photos as well. I don’t think it will slide out from under the bike.
If you don’t line up the rollers under the tires properly it can shift a little side to side. I saw a video on it where the dude had it a little diagonal to the tire instead of straight underneath it and of course the tire shifted left and right as he rolled the tire forward and back. I think if you are a little more careful about how you line it up and at least get it fairly straight it could work well.
Alternately, I have seen some folks post comments to the reviews and have mentioned the Harbor Freight Tools Motorcycle Stand. It looks like it could do the job as well and is cheaper than the Wheel Jockey. The Harbor Freight Tools stand only has a 500lb capacity though while the Wheel Jockey claims 700lbs. But it is $30 vs $50 for the Wheel Jockey.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=98800I am guessing your friend probably just figures its $15 worth of parts in a $50 package. But thats kind of true of anything you buy retail. If you have a friend who has the gear to weld you up one I am sure that will be a much cheaper option.
Sean_DParticipant… because she liked my Hood jeans much better than her Draggin’ Jean’s. I found out the the Concept 6, which is the one I had purchased, is still available in some sizes even though they don’t offer it on the site.
The Concept 6 uses a military grade knitted para-aramid fiber, which is actually really soft and breathable. So very comfortable for extended wear.
Alternately, Hood Jeans, under their Kyrano-uk – Para-aramid name makes a set of para-aramid long johns for neck to ankle protection under whatever pants you like to wear. They have the option for inserting CE approved armor in the hips and knees of these long johns.
http://www.kyrano-uk.com/html/k8_legs.htmlSean_DParticipant… and is a mostly stock ’07 Bonnie. I purchased it used with about 2300 miles on it. I added a center stand, some luggage spools and couple small things, but not much.
I find it a great beginner bike. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend one. My wife went the cruiser route and picked her bike about 1 month before I did. I just really never felt all that comfortable on her bike. I didn’t like the riding position etc. I really prefer sitting on the bike rather than in the bike.
The dealership set me up on a test drive route. I felt immediately comfortable with the Bonnie, much more so than I had on my wife’s bike. It was a real confidence booster.
I got turned on to the Bonnie after reading a review on Webbikeworld by an MSF rider coach by the name of Ken Stamp. He was going on about how the Bonnie was the easiest bike to ride he had ever ridden and went on about how he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them as a first bike. I had to try it for myself and glad that I did. It handles well, does exactly what is expected when you expect it, no surprises. It is a very user friendly bike.
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