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TrialsRiderParticipant
2010 Honda Shadow RS has the H-D 883 look down pat, but it’s still large for a beginner at 45 cubic inch. (Owlie is gonna love this:) Check out the Suzuki S40 at 40ci. it makes for a perfect entry level cruiser engine. Has been around forever so there should be lots to choose from used.
TrialsRiderParticipantThey make me ride my K100RS at the slow races now, last time after three run offs, I still beat a guy on a vintage Bultaco trials bike, he was not pleased. You’re not allowed to stand up, but I was heating up the clutch and transferring my weight to the pegs like crazy.
My buddy Josh didn’t let on he was a champion rider when he did his BRC and grabbed the only dual sport bike when the class started, when they said walking next to your bike turn it around 180, he pulled on the front brake, pushed on the bars to lift the rear wheel into the air and let the back end flip around on the spot. The instructor was impressed but had him walk it around in a circle anyway. After winning the fist slow race they started him half way up the field, after the second they started him 3 feet from the finish line, finally the instructor rode up next to him and pushed him over. That’s when one of the riders said “what are you a feakin Trials Rider” lol He really enjoyed the course and was teaching half the class skills by the end of the week. …only disappoint was they wouldn’t let him ride up on top of the garbage dumpster.
TrialsRiderParticipantAt the risk of stating the obvious; swing out wide on the turn like you’re driving a long semi-trailer, make the turn later and tighter where you still have the clear pavement, straighten up the bike completely before you enter the gravel (if possible) and from that point exercise extremely smoother throttle control, engine or no braking at all while on the loose gravel corners.
Street bikes always feel ‘twitchy’ on thick gravel but it doesn’t mean you are going down, resist the urge to over-react, pucker up those butt cheeks, transfer your weight as low as you can and ride with it.On my drivers test I was riding a full knobby dirt bike at the time and I wrote on the edge of the test paper, “wooHooo, roll on the throttle and do a big cat walk” …along with the correct answer. …The government really has no sense of humor, do they !
I just thought of another oops! … reaching down to put your spark plug cap back on at high speed in the pouring rain
TrialsRiderParticipant…Trees that just barely clip your handlebar, guy does a nose wheelie in front of you, frost coming out of the ground, flip turns on the floating dock.
Hey …this is way cooler than doing it
…full knobby tires on a manhole cover, that black tar they put on road cracks, stray dog, cow over the blind hill when you are in a mid air jump, getting rear ended by a truck with monster mudder tires.
Ouch that’s a bad memory, I think I’ll stop nowTrialsRiderParticipant…have collected a lot of rally trophies for slow race but never against a tripod. Maybe if you ride my trials bike and I ride my K100RS, normal rules you can’t stand up
TrialsRiderParticipantCruiser bikes are cool, don’t get me wrong, I would love to have an S40 for tooling around town, but I would buy it fully aware it was not intended for comfort or high speed.
Pegs are either forward, central or rear set and as a rider that spends 90% of the time standing to keep a low center of gravity, central offers by far the greatest control on bumps (specially over the 3 foot high bumps If you look at a photo of a rider on the s40 see: http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/photos/2005models/2005-Suzuki-BoulevardS40.jpg two things are immediately apparent. You can’t stand up on the pegs or even transfer much of your weight onto them, without lifting yourself by the bars. Secondly when you hit a bump with the back tire, the force is transfered directly into your spine.
Rear sets offer the best crouch for speed, but again if you hit a bump, you tend to rag doll and hit your chin on the tank.TrialsRiderParticipantExcellent suggestion, my apologies for continually relating things back to Trials, but on long steep mud hills or big slippery rock climbs, I can often foretell that a rider is going to get stuck, (or need a catcher) just by the sound of their throttle control. Four strokes are particularly vulnerable to ‘blipping’ the engine, it’s a really bad habit that inexperienced riders adopt and it results in less engine performance and loss of overall traction control.
Sidenote: on that ‘clunk’ between acceleration and deceleration, many bikes have chain primary drives, instead of gears. That clunk is highly destructive to the primary chain and is a significant item to consider when you inspect a used bike.
March 24, 2010 at 10:21 pm in reply to: 108 lb female, new rider, trying to choose between a ninja and suzuki! #25146TrialsRiderParticipantWhen choosing between almost identical bikes and assuming you have no predisposition toward a particular brand. I would offer the following tie-breaker criteria; Disk brakes beat Drum brakes, Liquid cooled beats Air cooled, Fuel Injection beats Carburetors, Shaft Drive beats Chains and Rubber Belts. If they still tie, good Dealer Support is very important and if you still can’t decide, buy the Red one …or your favorite color.
At 108 many here are going to urge you to consider the Ninja 250, if you have zero bike experience, myself included.
TrialsRiderParticipantThat’s one varied shopping list Mike ! No question the S40 would be the tamest, maybe not the friendliest riding position to learn on though. Classic Scrambler is an interesting choice, you might also check out Royal Enfield, seeing as the distributor is out your way and it’s a thumper like the S40. Now for the classica Exotica. Mmmmmm Moto Guzzi …shaft drive is very cool. At 750cc’ that’s a big first bike though. If you go with that one price in the engine crash guards, it’s nasty to fall over on your head.
Jeff raised a valid point with the insurance question, test the water before you buy. Best of luck with Calgary Classic Motors start-up, keep us posted, …maybe CCM could offer a BBM discount
TrialsRiderParticipantI also strongly recommend motorcycle mechanics evening courses such as offered in community colleges. I attended in one years ago and even though I was experienced with my own motorcycle maintenance by that time, the class offered a great opportunity to take my bike in and have the instructor available for assistance while I worked on it.
I heavily rely on exploded parts diagrams and the factory service manuals for my bikes. If you don’t have them yet, go on-line and find them for your own bikes, many are available totally free. Competition bikes are great for including a full service manual from new. If I was buying a new regular bike and the dealer insists there is no room to bargain on the price, I would ask them to throw in a service manual for free. (at least a photocopy)
Speaking of forks, I’ve said this elsewhere on BBM, fork service is possibly the most ignored maintenance item on average. On my competition bike I remove, completely disassemble, clean and refill my forks with fresh fluid annually. Have also done fork rebuilds for a few friends because they are intimidated by the task. I will say it’s messy and if the forks have been inadequately serviced smelly, but it’s certainly not rocket science. Shiny specs suspended in the old fork oil is a sure sign that material is being worn away from the inside of your fork legs, ignored long enough your forks will become garbage. There is a lot more to replace than just the top seals and if the seals are leaking, it’s the result of worn guides deeper inside, or pits and scratches on the stanchion tubes. I’ll reserve comment on those UpSide Down forks other than to say, Trials bikes tried them for a few years and went back to the older design for good reason.
TrialsRiderParticipantI rode a couple cb750’s back when, …wouldn’t be surprised if the one friend still has his. One was a stock bike but with a windjammer frame mounted fairing that made it very heavy feeling in the front end. Like driving a fast train, it took a while to wind up and to slow down. The second one I rode was punched out to 810cc’s and had koni shocks. Insanely fast for the suspension and brakes of the time, riding two up, it sat so low and wide that when you leaned into a corner the passenger footpegs would pop up and the exhaust would grind on the pavement.
Some would argue that the Kawasaki 750 2-stroke triple was the first real superbike, similarly ill handling it was far more single purpose, go fast & uncontrollable wheelies.
March 23, 2010 at 2:24 pm in reply to: Where does one go who isnt a fan of cruisers or sport bikes? #25095TrialsRiderParticipantTrialsRiderParticipant…including the safety test and maybe a new chain. If the tires are bad that could push the numbers up.
When you are looking, grab the rear tire at the back and give it a slow strong wiggle left and right, if the chain goes from loose to tight as you move it each way, that indicates that the swing arm bushings/bearings are worn, might drop the price another 200.
Also look for any signs of oil leakage from the front forks. If the rear swing arm wiggles and the front forks are leakin, walk away.TrialsRiderParticipant…maybe someone at Honda will read this and smarten up
Watch out for frame cracks on that Elsinore, right down below the countershaft sprocket.TrialsRiderParticipantWould this be the first bike you ever rode. At around 430 lbs. these are both really big bikes, even for a guy twice my size! Great brakes, you can even get ABS on the Honda in some parts. They’re not quite the crotch rocket racers that the inline 4’s are. If you’ve never rode anything else, most would urge you to consider the 500cc variants as being the largest possible bike to learn on.
Or put it this way; if you got on the back of either of these bikes with me driving, I think I could scare the crap out of you with their power. -
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