The Motorcycle Thread

Discussion in 'Cars, Motorcycles, Boats, Airplanes Talk' started by OJneg, Feb 12, 2016.

  1. Tyll Hertsens

    Tyll Hertsens Grandpappy of the hobby - Special Friend

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    Well, I'm just sitting' here eating diner and surfing the web. Why not?

    Motorcycle pic dump coming. This is from a one week ride around the PN West meeting up with folks on the advrider.com forum. So I'll include pictures that don't have the motor bike in it because it's indicative of all the cool shit you find traveling around on a bike. OJ, advrider.com is great place to go and ask questions just like you're asking. Hell of a fun forum!

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    Here's a tip for you: Never ride through the mountains at dawn or dusk.

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    Funny story about the next one: The Indian girl in the sexy pose is Sakagawia (or however you want to spell it; there's about 20 different ways I've seen) on Conover's store in the middle of nowhere in Wisdom MT situated in the remote Big Hole valley. It slowly but surely became too controversial---friggen cowboys probably beat-off to it---and last year the store front was redone into a baby shit brown. I'll miss her when I gas up there---not another gas station for 50 miles or so in any direction.

    The dowgies were coming through that day.

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    Whelp, done with dinner. Off to shoot some pool downtown. Hope you enjoyed the pix. Motorcycling around is awesome.

    And how!

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  2. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    Another perspective to consider.

    Commuting on a bike is WAY less expensive than any other form except for a bicycle.
    Unless/until things (including you) go crunch.

    Then the tables turn.
    As my brother put it 'you don't have 1-2 tons of road hugging weight to protect you'.

    So if commuting is your primary motivation for riding, be aware that it probably isn't going to be enough to sustain your desire to continue to ride.

    But as Tyll said if it gets into (or is already there) your 'blood' then commuting is merely an excuse to get started.
    If this is the case then it will 'blossom' and much like tunes there is no known cure.

    IOW riding is a commitment, and you'll figure out just what that means for you as you gain more experience.
    There are lots of different types and venues for riding of which commuting is but one, and it may be one of the more 'dangerous'.

    Just my 2¢

    JJ
     
  3. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    [​IMG]

    Ah…

    THE ADV salute, and with a smile,
    and all the trimmings…

    JJ
     
  4. beemerphile

    beemerphile Friend

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    Ride to live, live to ride. Here are my three...

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  5. Tyll Hertsens

    Tyll Hertsens Grandpappy of the hobby - Special Friend

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    Nice. How's the final drive doing?
     
  6. velvetx

    velvetx Gear Master West/Vendor Spotlight Moderator

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    Tyll, don't know if you have been to Colorado but doing a ride from Denver to Telluride onto Silverton was absolutely beautiful. No police just straight mountain areas and beauty.

    Funny thing is I wasn't riding a motorcycle doing this but a road bike for the Death Ride Tour.

    If you haven't been to Silverton you are in for a treat as it's a beautiful town.
     
  7. Tyll Hertsens

    Tyll Hertsens Grandpappy of the hobby - Special Friend

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    Not sure if I've been through there, but have done a good bit of riding in Colorado. It's glorious. Up here in Montana mountain ranges are spread out so most roads are built around the mountains. In Colorado they're butt-to-muzzle so they had to build roads over them. Just beautiful. Too much traffic for this Montana boy, though.
     
  8. beemerphile

    beemerphile Friend

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    No problems. I had to put seals in the final drive after the trip to Deadhorse and Inuvik. In fact, every seal and bearing on it, I think.
     
  9. TheloniuSnoop

    TheloniuSnoop Friend

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    If you haven't heard of this guy, or his findings, you shouldn't get on a bike (even if you're experienced) until you do.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurt_Report#Findings

    Yah, I know. Weird name for a guy who does an in depth study on motorcycle accidents.

    Although Tyll's advice that cage drivers are out to get you is a great way to look at things, it's not entirely accurate.
    As Hurt discovered, most collisions between cars/trucks and bikes occurs when the car either pulls out in front of,
    or turns left in front of the bike. When waiting to turn, the driver is looking for a threat to him/her that prevents them
    from turning. A motorcycle is small enough that it doesn't present that threat, so the driver's brain doesn't register
    its presence. This explains why the bike riders (the ones that survive the 'encounters') swear that the cage driver looked
    directly at them, but made the turn anyway. I was directly behind a biker when this occurred, though, thankfully it
    was in a small town at a very low speed, so no injuries. The driver stood there and swore that he didn't see the
    bike, even though it was directly in front of him when he made his left turn.

    I must echo the sentiments of others here, that a Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider course should be considered
    mandatory, not optional. Let's face it. It's your ass that's on the line. There are plenty of bikers with cavalier, rebel
    attitudes that are presently employed as daisy pushers.

    I would dearly love to start riding again, but today's drivers are way too distracted.

    Here's a little quiz question for you.
    True or False: At a speed above 5 mph, to make a left turn on a bike, you turn the handlebars to the right.
    If you don't know the answer, as well as the 'why', don't get back on a bike until you do. (Hint: it has to do with
    a thing called 'gyroscopic precession').

    Bottom line when riding bikes: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
     
  10. Bigferret

    Bigferret Friend

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    True! And that answer drives people nuts that haven't ridden a bike. The weird thing though is how many "bikers" I know who don't believe it to be true.

    Great post.
     
  11. Tyll Hertsens

    Tyll Hertsens Grandpappy of the hobby - Special Friend

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    It's pretty easy to do it right without knowing you're doing it. Works on a bicycle too.

    Knowing about it makes you a better rider though.
     
  12. TheloniuSnoop

    TheloniuSnoop Friend

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    Yah, after you've ridden a while it becomes instinctual. I have heard, though, of riders who, when a car pulled out in front of them,
    turned the bars away from the car, thus putting them right into the side of the car.
     
  13. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    Countersteering was/is taught in even the basic riders course and in more depth in the experienced riders course, at least it used to be.

    That is what I was aiming at when I said to practice in a vacant parking lot and aim for a spot and steer away at the last moment, and then shorten the distance before you veer away.
    That exercise will teach you countersteering.

    Another exercise is to practice punching the horn button, without looking, enough so that it becomes 2nd nature.
    This ability to use the horn is also linked to adding additional horn(s) to your bike.

    My favorite horn story is my brother had added horns from a cadillac to his bike.
    We were stopped at a light along with a car full of little 'ol ladies when he jabbed the horn button.

    I never thought that they could swivel their heads that quick as they were on the lookout for a cadillac in close proximity…

    I was amazed. o_O

    JJ :)
     
  14. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    I was a cocky young smeg-head …

    Some might say I still am (they’d omit the “young” part).

    And, before I go farther, note that I’m English (can you tell, yet?). I’ve been living in the US for the last 20 years. Should probably post on the “Tea Thread” … but I digress …

    I had access to some extended “quiet” time at Silverstone (not really a bike-track, but right where I lived at the time), for reasons that aren’t likely to become apparent in the near future (okay, okay, my sister was an event coordinator there), and rode mostly on the track.

    Despite not having my street license, I was “reasonably handy” (my personal evaluation) on two wheels and, upon my friend receiving “his” first-in-the-county Yamaha 750 (I think it was a YZF 750 R), and with him having to travel that weekend, I was asked if I’d like to “borrow” his bike and “maybe get it run in properly”.

    Who was I to say “no”?

    With “him” (we’ll call him “Gary”, on account of that being his name) having all of 42 miles on his new ride, handing over the keys to me, the single biggest lesson in abject humility of my life rapidly unfolds.

    Two hours in the saddle … feeling completely indestructible …

    And I was the lucky kind of nobber that had full race-level track-gear, with thick Kevlar knee-pads (with little titanium screws embedded in them, so they threw a trail of sparks when you got your knee down) …

    Not that I was wearing it for safety reasons … it looked the BOLLOCKS … and was far more of a misguided “girls will really dig this” thing than any nod towards sensibility.

    Anyway … 150 miles in … a sweeping, but blind, 110 mph right hander, leaned hard over, scraping my knee … and suddenly I’m airborne, doing the “Hannah-Barbera” thing through a big, thick, hedge (think arms-and-legs-out-full-body-silhouette) and into a freshly plowed field, rolling to a stop, bruised but otherwise unhurt …

    You know … other than some underdetermined period of unconsciousness.

    I walked away … another 200 yards and my “off” would have plastered me, jam-like, all over the stone walls of the local village Post-Office …

    And not before having enough presence of mind to find the license plate and frame number (the bike was in hundreds of pieces all up the road), before I “buggered off sharply” and got the train back home.

    So, feeling rather lucky to be alive … and rather sorry for the impending state of my bank account (no insurance, so had to buy “Gary” a new bike), I shuffled my sorry arse on home.

    Somewhat wiser.

    Rather sorer.

    Very much poorer.

    And then we spin on about 20 years …

    Because that’s how long it was between my first “off” (boooooooooost!) and me getting on a bike again (my ex-wife had her input into that as well … but, still, it made me re-evaluate a LOT).

    I went into my local MSF course with more bravado than I really felt. And I fully intended, upon getting my WA 2-wheel endorsement, on going straight to the local Ducati dealership and picking up a nice, shiny, new Panigale.

    Less than an hour into that course the Ducati idea was off the table.

    Imminent, inevitable, obvious, and fairly messy death really took a bite out of my plan.

    When I finished the class, severely humbled after two days on a little Honda Grom, I still bought a bike the moment my endorsement was acquired, but instead of a nice litre+ Panigale I found myself astride a Kawasaki Ninja 300.

    On the highway I wanted more power – it really was not comfortable there. But anywhere else and it was as much as I need and a lot more fun than I expected. I’d buy differently, in hindsight, maybe one of the non-supersport 650-class “sport-style” bikes … but it wasn’t a bad choice by any means.

    A year on that and I got my Ducati, although I opted for a Monster 821 with a promise to my girlfriend that I‘d ride that for two years before “upgrading”.

    And then a year into my 821, and now running it with the throttle in “sport” mode and the safety aids backed off, I’m anxious, but cautiously so, for my new Panigale R. Which is crazy, because my better half wants a Vespa and that mostly terrifies me (and not just because her vision of that riding that involves leather mini skirts and 6” heels …).

    I ride, today, because there’s an inexorable, imperative, freeing calling to it.

    And almost every day I ride there’s a “WTF” moment, that, had I let my guard down for a moment, the inattention, latte-focus, or phone-obsessed-text-wittering idiocy of some clueless cage driver would have me melded nicely with the pavement …

    ATGATT!

    And both wheels down!

    There’s really nothing like it (I fly, gliders, single props and rotorcraft … and it’s not NEARLY the visceral, physical, thrill that a motorcycle is)!
     
  15. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    Nice post!

    This part "… and suddenly I’m airborne, doing the “Hannah-Barbera” thing through a big, thick, hedge (think arms-and-legs-out-full-body-silhouette) and into a freshly plowed field, rolling to a stop, bruised but otherwise unhurt …

    You know … other than some undetermined period of unconsciousness."


    We called it, SKY-EARTH-SKY-EARTH-SKY…:eek:

    And did time slow down starting with the flying W, and ending during the 'returning awareness' portion of the 'adventure'? :confused:


    And this part "I ride, today, because there’s an inexorable, imperative, freeing calling to it.", is what either gets in your blood, and you MUST ride, or it doesn't and the bike, sits, more or less ignored, until sold or…

    There is a function of riding which is akin to being in the NOW, and remaining in that Zone.
    It is magical and somewhat infrequent, but when it manifests there is no other feeling quite like it.

    Everything just flows and all you want to do is not ever let it stop…
    Only it does…

    But the memories are everlasting, as are the stories like yours and many others.

    I suppose you could think of stories such as yours, along with the sense of adventure, as a counterbalance to the risks and danger…

    Because once the hook is set, much like this hobby, there is no cure, nor, I suspect, would we really want one…

    JJ
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016
  16. TwoEars

    TwoEars Friend

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  17. Torq

    Torq MOT: Headphone.com

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    So, I said this was my "first off" ... and before I comment further I should clarify that it was my first (and so far only ... JINX!) "off" on public roads. I'd come off the bike on the track a number of times prior to this ... and there I'd definitely experienced the "SKY-EARTH-SKY-EARTH" thing, though mostly it was undignified slides, with much scuffing of leather, into the bales or tires.

    In this case, oddly, I recall no tumbling (though this does not mean that there wasn't any!) I do remember being jerked sideways so forcefully that in hindsight I'd describe it is as being like the bike had dropped an anchor. And then I remember being airborne and that I felt like I was almost flying in star-shaped manner as I hit the hedge (there really was a shape like that in it afterwards!). And then I don't remember much at all until the light slowly returned.


    And yes, time slowed down almost instantly and the whole conscious part of the event seemed to take place in extreme slow-motion. Normal time until I was actually out of the saddle and off the bike, then instantly slowing, almost to a stop ... and then what seemed like an eternity of flight, with more than enough time to think "Well ... shit ..." ... and then not much of anything.



    I gave it up once ... I don't think I could do that again. Not voluntarily.

    I've flown planes, jumped out of them even, climbed some of the highest peaks in the world, dived the ocean depths, raced cars, exposed myself recklessly on the stock market, even got kissed by Joan Collins once (a far more innocent event than I'd like it to sound) and none of these things has had quite the visceral thrill of a perfectly executed reducing-radius corner taken at speed, on two wheels.

    ...

    BTW, any one here do "Oyster Run" in WA?

    Did it last year and it was a blast, and definitely going again this year.
     
  18. johnjen

    johnjen Doesn’t want to be here but keeps posting anyways

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    Yeah that "well shit!'" may just be a universal exclamation, along with the fascination of watching the small details in ones near proximity as they 'dance' along with us in our view of the circumstance.

    It sorta lets us know there is WAY more to our life and existence than what passes for 'normal'.
    A pause for contemplation if you will. ;)

    There are times when 'in the zone' where the flow is just sublime and can last seemingly for forever, even though it may only be for tens of minutes.

    There was this road in northern California we were traveling upon at an accelerated rate, which had just been re-paved with fresh asphault and only 'markers' for the centerline etc. It was getting close to dusk but the sun was still high enough in the sky that it wasn't in our face and the angle was perfect for 'reading' the road ahead.

    It was like 30 miles long and we just fell into this grove at about 65-85, back and forth and forth and back, seemingly endlessly.
    When we reached the end we both just wanted to turn around and go over it again in both directions, but alas the rest of our group just caught up with us so we continued on towards our destination for the night.

    That experience is indelibly etched into my memory, along with a few others of a similar type, kind and impact.

    Yes the pull is strong and while there can be periods of 'inactivity', the pull remains,
    along with the memories and all their associated impressions and feelings. :thumb

    JJ
     
  19. BrettMatthews

    BrettMatthews Friend

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    Well I am a bit late to the party here, but I have been riding dirt bikes as a kid and was into downhill mountain biking more recently until about two years I got my first street bike. Up here in Canada insurance is insane! So I had to wait until I was close to my 25th birthday until rates were a bit more reasonable. I started out on a Ninja 400R (sleeved 650R) for insurance purposes, but I am a bit of a big guy (6'2 220lbs) and if insurance wasn't crazy I would have started on either the SV650 or a Ninja 650R, but with the way insurance is up here I would have paid more for insurance in the first year than I did for the bike. However if I was a smaller guy I would have definitely started on a smaller bike (Ninja 250 or 300). If you have some experience or are a big guy I would definitely look at a SV650 or Ninja 650, but if you are a smaller or less experienced rider I would look into a smaller bike.

    I believe in learning to ride the bike, and the best way to do that is experience and coaching. Also that it's more fun to ride a ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow. I believe it's important to develop yourself as a rider especially before you get a bigger bike. As of current I have a 2014 Triumph Street Triple R (675cc 3 cyl.) and can't ever see my self needing something bigger than this for the street (fantastic bike btw!). I HIGHLY recommend taking a riding course to start out, and then taking more as you continue to ride. I took the Total Control Advanced riding course developed by Lee Parks (there is a book as well), and I highly recommend it, was a fantastic course and I learned a lot! There was riders of all types of bikes there and from newer riders to riders that had been riding for more than 20 years and we all learned something.

    Either way, start with your MSF course, get some good gear, and go from there. Then ride, ride lots, and have a blast!

    On a bit of a different note I am happy that the weather is finally getting a bit better up here and I will be able to get out riding soon!
     
  20. StandUp713

    StandUp713 Friend

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    MSF is a must. Hang out with responsible riders. Do not buy a race bike for the street(crotch rocket). That said, I race at chuckwalla/ willow springs/ button willow. I live in LA, and will not ride on the street. Way to dangerous. http://imgur.com/PPULp8I
     

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