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Fair enough

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Hanging off: aka putting a knee down

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A few more. I’m not sure if they’re all really slang. Some are just terms.

ATGATT: all the gear all the time. The idea that a person should wear a full set of safety gear every time they ride, regardless of what they feel the chances are of getting into a wreck.

Lane splitting: riding on the dashed white line between two lanes of cars. Usually done during heavy traffic to get somewhere quicker. Currently only legal in California, but it has been my experience that it’s acceptable in very heavy traffic in cities (not legal, but perhaps acceptable).

Sweeper: the last rider in a group ride. Usually the most experienced.

Gixxer: the Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle.

Sporty: the Harley Davidson Sportster motorcycle.

Sissy bar: a backrest for the passenger. As far as I know, it’s never found on sport bikes.

Pillion: a passenger seat on a motorcycle, or the passenger him/herself.

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For squid, I’ve also heard:

Stupidly quick, underdressed, imminently dead

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Frame sliders: designed to prevent damage to the frame in the case of a high speed drop, but often desired to prevent damage to fairings in low speed or stationary drops.

Brain bucket: could be used to refer to any helmet, but I’ve mostly heard it in referring to half helmets that don’t give protection and are just used to get around helmet laws.

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I think the guy saying “don’t even give it gas” should have been a bit more vocal

These other 2 aren’t about being too powerful, but just lack of instruction.

Target fixation much?

Riding without knowing where the brakes are?

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It’s not really about the amount of light (the brightness of the bulb), but the direction of the light. So I don’t really buy the argument that a single high beam is the same as two car headlights in low beam.

I use my high beam all day, but at night, I rarely use it. That’s just because there are usually cars with me in the areas that I ride at night. There’s also a lot of street lighting in town, so it doesn’t give me that much extra visibility.

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Haha, I get the same feeling for cruisers.

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If you do end up looking into new bikes, make sure that the Ninja 650R is on your radar. A lot of these real sport bikes (600s and 1000s) have ergonomics that are not ideal for long trips. You’re leaned over all the way, all the time. On the Ninja 650 (which is what I ride), you’re more upright, but you want easily lean over to escape the wind or just for a change. It’s also heavier than the 250 and more powerful, so highways are easier. 70 mph in 6th gear is around 5000 rpm.

Disclaimer: I’ve never ridden the Ninja 250, so I don’t really know how they compare.

Also, I’ve heard that pair of bike shorts (bicycling shorts) with the padding can do wonders for long trips. I have a pair, but I haven’t thought to use them.

I second what someone said about carrying as little at possible on my body. I hate bringing a backpack. I have a tank bag (highly recommended), and I’ll get a tail bag before I take any long trips, but I hope to avoid a backpack. I’ll get saddlebags before I wear a backpack.

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To undo a point, you have to click the undo button a whole bunch of times. It considers every little curve to be a point, even if you didn’t click for each of them. That’s definitely one of its drawbacks though.

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Yeah, I brought it in around 700, but close enough. It’s good to get them to give it a once over and change the oil. From everything I hear, it’s the most important service. And it’s possible that not getting it done could void a warranty, but I think that’s somewhat unlikely.

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I enjoyed these Fifth Gear “car vs. bike” tests too.

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Hahaha, that’s awesome.

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I don’t even understand how the wreck in the second one happened. It’s not like they were deep in a curve. Why couldn’t he just countersteer to the right? Was it just target fixation? And the second guy was just blindly following? It’s not like they weren’t expecting curves at deal’s gap.

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Also, it would be helpful to have a way to turn that feature off if we don’t want an email anytime someone responds. Just saying, it’s a cool feature, but I’ll rarely want to use it.

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I don’t really follow your blip technique when I downshift. I roll off the throttle, pull the clutch, and downshift all the same as you. But then I roll on the throttle so the rpms get to about where they need to be, and I release the clutch (relatively slowly). I don’t really understand the point of the blip. It seems like you should just rev less hard and leave it there. Any insight?

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