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magiccarpet posted:What are the best places to buy gear (specifically jackets and helmets) online? Stock is tough on a lot of things and there are a lot of sketch sites with low prices. HenryJLittlefinger posted:Revzilla Some others: Motorcyclegear.com is also decent (formerly NewEnough.com) Fortnine.ca if you're Canadian There are some sites in Europe that stock different brands that you can get here in the US, the pricing is decent, and they will ship here without issue, but returns are a bitch so you'd best know for sure what you want fc-moto.de is an example
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Jun 13, 2021 23:13
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 02:38 |
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As a Canadian I can also endorse GP Bikes (gpbikes.com) and Royal Distributing (royaldistributing.com) though these are both based out of Ontario.
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Jun 13, 2021 23:29
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Rad thank you
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Jun 14, 2021 01:36
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Motorcyclegear.com doesn't charge tax if you're outside Texas which can be a decent discount if you're dropping 1 to 1.5k on gear.
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Jun 14, 2021 05:29
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ordered some stuff from cycle gear last month but its either lost or stuck in customs 
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Jun 15, 2021 21:02
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I got a second bike coming in, just a Chinese Grom clone. From what I can tell they are ok. I am probably going to replace the sprocket on it, adjust the carb, check all the bolts. I sorta want something to wrench on and not feel bad about loving something up. A bunch of friends have been eyeing my Versys. I think a few of them will tool around side streets with me if I get a second bike. The permit test is online now. Ha. I am not sure if it is everyone's experience, but the bike thing caused a chain reaction here. I got one because someone else did. Other people are seriously looking because of me. One guy I know just got a Katana 750. He's not new to bikes, but hasn't had one for a while. It's comfy. Also like - if I am in the middle lane it is a bit discomforting to pass someone on the right. So I have been like sorta pacing them as if I was behind them. I just suspect that they don't see me and if I am slowly passing I don't want to be merged in to. That's why I was asking about dropping gears earlier. That said, dropping to 5th and pinning it is actually totally fine. The bike accelerates at highway speeds somewhere between my old Ford focus and current Ecoboost ford escape. It's really not bad at all. I don't feel comfortable passing any other way, I want to minimize the time spent next to other cars when I can? That said, I don't have a pressing need to pass. I am mostly trying to go the flow of traffic, but if I notice traffic building up behind me because of that....probably better to get a move on? My thought process on the bike is totally different than how I drive a car...it's kind of weird. It is rooted in paranoia and self defense. Also kinda weird but my MPG and the bikes power seem to be increasing. I don't know if it's because I am riding better or because the bikes engine is breaking in and I'm getting better compression. SSH IT ZOMBIE fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jun 18, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 17:39
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cycle gear is sending me out more cycle gear, and crediting me $35 USD which im going to put towards this to get the controls where i want on my n650 https://www.cyclegear.com/parts/woodcraft-clip-on-risers-w-adapter-plate-kawasaki-ninja-650-r-2006-2016?sku_id=1037378 regarding mpg my bike sipped gas when on the highway this weekend when i went to visit my aunt, took all the back roads, mid day and barely any traffic it was an great mix of highway cruise and side road corners. i got substantially better mileage on the highway than city so maybe thats whats going on.
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Jun 18, 2021 07:56
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I had a small fall over today. Went out to practice u turns, figure 8s and emergency braking at a local office park. We used to hold a bicycle race there, but since development happened, no longer the case. The nice thing is there are a bunch of bollards so that square of road isn't accessible to cars unless they drive over some curbs. Minor scratches:  Fender took most of it, looks like I can get a replacement for like $30. Where it happened:  What happened: It's hard to tell from the pic, but the road slants slightly towards the curb near where my bike is, so u turns towards the curb are downhill ever so slightly. I had done a handful of u turns already in that spot, but this time I think I let the clutch out too fast and/or too much throttle, which put my tire into the curb and i fell over into the dirt to my right. The passenger peg assembly fell on my lower leg, WEAR A TALL BOOT yall. I'm unscathed thanks to my SMX6s. For a few moments I felt really upset about crashing while practicing, but I've been watching a lot of the MotoJitsu videos on youtube and remembered what fast Eddie said "not crashing doesn't make you a good rider" and did a bunch more emergency stops and stops and starts. I was able to stop from 30mph consistently within 25 feet, half the time I did it in 20. I even once did a little stoppie at the protest of the front ABS.
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Jun 19, 2021 03:26
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ahhh that sucks. i went through similar feelings when i did my low side, except it was in the wild and not practicing but i definitely had a learning experience. reminds me i should do some emergency braking practice this weekend. on the bright side now its fully your bike. i bet you could buff a lot of that out. i scratched the paint right to the plastic on my fairing but even still i used Maguire's Ultimate Compound to take out the other scratches and then put a crappy layer of clear coat over and then buffed it again with scratch x and it uhhh still looks like i dumped the bike but doesnt stand out and most people dont even notice unless i tell them. yours looks like you could just buff it out, especially since the plastic is black any ways. might be problematic with the matt finish though, and like you said the part is cheap any ways.
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Jun 19, 2021 03:41
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My coworker let me on his Harley Sportster 883. The gear lever and brakes are shifted way up so your legs are out. It handles so different haha. My friends CBR500R I was able to get on and ride without a problem. The sportster is weighted very different. Took a minute. SSH IT ZOMBIE fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jun 19, 2021 |
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Jun 19, 2021 18:56
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Russian Bear posted:I had a small fall over today. This is fine and it's good for you to learn and do this on a small capacity bike. Don't worry about it and those 300CC bikes are basically for learning on. A scratch or two is irrelevant, and you'll grow out of that bike in a year and the tiny scratch shown won't even affect it's resale value. Keep practicing.
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Jun 19, 2021 20:37
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SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:My coworker let me on his Harley Sportster 883. The gear lever and brakes are shifted way up so your legs are out. It handles so different haha. I found my Sportster weirdly topheavy compared to bikes I rode after, especially comparing it to my friend's Honda Shadow. Your average Harley jackass will call them girls' bikes or learner bikes, but I wouldn't really say they're good for either. They're great motorcycles, just not great for learning.
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Jun 19, 2021 23:04
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Sportsters are top- and front-heavy compared to most cruisers out there yeah, that's not even getting into most metric cruisers just being normal bikes distorted into a stupid shape.
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Jun 19, 2021 23:42
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I recently crossed the mille miglia mark and decided this was a good time to check the old expense spreadsheet. It looks like I've spent about $6730 on motorcycling so far. That includes the bike itself, a full year of insurance, the $300 MSF course I took last year, apparel, parts, and service. It also includes gas, but it's just an estimate based on my average mpg and average gas prices (I haven't bothered to track gas closely, but I have a detailed breakdown of the specific items I bought, service records, etc. if anyone is interested). On balance, I think this was a good decision, and I wish I started sooner. I found learning and applying skills to be rewarding. I look forward to riding my motorcycle, even on grocery runs, in a way I never really looked forward to driving (I still get joy out of riding a bicycle, but that's a separate kind of thrill). I've been taking longer trips, but I'm starting to run into fatigue as a limiting factor, both physical and mental. Riding on the highway still makes me nervous because of how much I've been blown around, but I power through it now. I've had a couple close calls with cars, a couple times with someone in an oncoming lane drifting over the center line and a couple of times with people pulling into the street from blind driveways. As for my own mistakes, I did run wide on a turn early on and have been far more conservative about speed ever since. The closest I've come to dropping the bike happened when I put my foot down on wet leaves or slippery asphalt at a stop. I still forget to cancel my turn signals and occasionally sound the horn when trying. I've also been rigorous about ATGATT, with the exception being that I'll wear my normal street jeans or pants when running errands around town. Otherwise, it's always jacket, helmet, gloves, boots, ear plugs. Not gonna lie, it's been tempting to forgo the jacket as it gets hot and I see a lot of other riders around here squidding in t-shirts. Skill development: I go to a parking lot about once a week and practice emergency braking. I've been using trail braking in turns more and that's helped boost my confidence. I still run a bit wide doing tight figure 8s in four parking spaces. I need more practice doing swerves at speed. I also still need to get better at finessing the throttle and the clutch. My bike seems to have a choppy throttle and lurches a lot even if I roll off the throttle gently, mainly in first and second gear. In terms of the bike itself, a 2013 Honda CBR250, I've been pretty happy with it. I don't feel like it needs more power but it does feel a bit floaty on the highway, as though it's gliding, and the wind certainly doesn't help. The bike doesn't have ABS and I have locked the back wheel a couple times, but the bike is forgiving. My interest in other bikes stems solely from curiosity about what else is out there. I'm not looking to buy a different bike for a while, but I'm thinking about something with larger displacement and ABS. For this bike, I'm thinking about getting saddle bags or a top case so I don't always have to wear my backpack and so I can take longer trips. Thank you to the fine folks here (and other online and IRL bike people) for coaching me through this. Sorry for the long post, but I figured it would be better to contain it to one post.
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Jun 21, 2021 02:31
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Re: the floating feeling, checking your tyre pressures (you probably already do) and have a look at where the rear shock preload collar is set to. If you're heavy (85kg+) it should be on the top or second from the top setting, if you're super light (sub 60kg) it should be on the bottom or close to. The floating sensation can come from tyres and suspension but it's usually a question of fore-aft balance. Tweaking this may result in more wind-resistant stability as well.
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Jun 21, 2021 03:41
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Tire pressure is fine, but the suspension is already on 2nd lowest/softest setting out of 5 notches. I'll try turning it up a notch. (I weigh about 150 lbs). Maybe the front shocks are the issue.
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Jun 21, 2021 23:43
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T Zero posted:Tire pressure is fine, but the suspension is already on 2nd lowest/softest setting out of 5 notches. I'll try turning it up a notch. (I weigh about 150 lbs). Maybe the front shocks are the issue. The fork is almost never the issue but it doesn't stop people from playing with theirs and making everything worse. The fork has almost nothing to say about anything unless you're braking or leaning; overall bike behaviors like wobbling out vagueness or instability are always the result of the frame's geometry being out of it's operating range, and the rear shock is by far the most influential thing on the bike as far as geometry is concerned. One thing that can cause all sorts of unpleasant effects is loose/binding steering head bearings. Usually that makes it so the bike can't quite ride straight and you're constantly doing a low amplitude weave as you go down the road. Get the front wheel off the ground with the bars free to turn, grab the axle and try turning the steering slowly side to side, it should be smooth with a light drag, any notchiness or tendency for the bars to self-center means they're hosed. If that checks out, try moving the axle fore-aft and check for any clicking or play. If present, it means the head bearings are loose and need adjusting. Slavvy fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jun 21, 2021 |
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Jun 21, 2021 23:52
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Thanks for reminding me, I kept meaning to ask; how do I know if I should be adjusting my preload on my bike’s rear suspension? I’m a heavy guy but I haven’t really noticed any issues while riding. However, the only other bike I can compare my Scrambler to for any appreciable amount of riding is an Indian Scout which had what felt like a lovely suspension setup. When I ride two-up we start to notice bumps a lot more but I don’t really know what to look for. Edit: Slavvy I just looked a few posts up, I’ll go make some changes and report back because I think my bike suspension is currently set up for a little tiny person
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Jun 21, 2021 23:54
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Ok there's a couple of things to really bear in mind here: 1. there is no 'correct' setup. There's lots of wrong and bad ones yeah, but 'good' is subjective because the safe operating ranges of tyres and chassis' are much broader than the average human comfort zone. If you can quantify a particular behavior in a particular phase of the corner that you feel is holding you back, it's time to fiddle. If you can't narrow it down specifically, your skill isn't at the point of being able to make meaningful setup improvements and you're just as likely to make things worse as you are better. That said, setup knowledge and riding skill grow together, one feeds into the other. The best setup is one that lets you get the most out of the bike without destroying yourself. 2. lots of stuff gets blamed on suspension when it's really the result of tyres and architecture. If your mate's bike rides great but yours doesn't, the first thing to look at is the tyres. If the tyres aren't the problem, look at the bikes themselves and ask yourself if the limitation is fundamental to the design or merely setup/skill 3. different bikes are built to different philosophies that are the result of corporate culture, marketing, the individuals on the test and development teams etc etc and it's often a waste of time trying to make a bike ride really differently instead of just doing what the machine wants, bikes are holistic devices where every individual part has to work in concert with all the others eg you can't just bung a Yamaha motor into a Ducati frame like you can with cars (I mean you can but you'll just end up with garbage) and one of the biggest most important parts is the rider. Identifying if the problem is a matter of setup, circumstance, adaptation or design is part of 1 and 2. Slavvy fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Jun 22, 2021 |
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Jun 22, 2021 00:05
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I don’t have any shame saying I don’t notice any performance issues in corners holding me back other than my own skill, it’s mostly about trying to make the bike a little less bouncy for my 120kg body on top and for when my partner jumps on the back and adds another 50kg onto the poor bike. Coming from offroad hobbies I have no issue using my legs to absorb bumps or just standing up entirely for a bit but that’s just a solo thing. I know this just isn’t really the bike for comfy two-up riding but until we get a 2nd bike I wouldn’t mind making it a little nicer for us to scoot around on while sacrificing some *~*performance*~* since I’m not really a street Rossi or whatever.  Looks like there’s a lot of play to stiffen up the coil (three or four notches up) but with my lizard brain I probably wouldn’t notice the difference or would just get a placebo effect. Jcam fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Jun 22, 2021 |
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Jun 22, 2021 00:28
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Rear preload is the most noticable and 'coarsest' adjustment you can make, you have to be pretty bad to not notice the difference. If you're running a passenger you'll really want at least two more notches on that. 'bounciness' is a question of damping, not springing, and is basically irrelevant from a performance/grip perspective (unless it's like 80's level bad). Literally just ride smoother and take it cause the only way to fix that is lots of $$$$ on custom suspension if the bike has no damping adjustment and iirc the scrambler doesn't. Also, some light off-road capability demands damping suboptimal for the road and you may just be feeling that engineered limitation.
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Jun 22, 2021 01:32
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I went ahead and adjusted the preload and I guess the person that had it before had bumped it up a point to four. I bumped it up a point to five and could tell the difference pretty quick. I want to bump it up to six, but for some reason I cannot get the spanner to get enough clearance to go from 5 -> 6 without bumping into either where the brake reservoir sits or the mud flap between the wheel/suspension. Looks like I'll just have to lose my 'roni weight till it handles like I want it to.
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Jun 22, 2021 02:22
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After a year or so of riding I finally bumped my rear preload from 4 to 6 and it was a marked improvement when riding upright over bumpy pavement, with my goony body aboard. I absolutely couldn't tell you if the cornering changed at all but the preload did what I wanted it to and I noticed.
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Jun 22, 2021 02:32
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Spiggy posted:I went ahead and adjusted the preload and I guess the person that had it before had bumped it up a point to four. I bumped it up a point to five and could tell the difference pretty quick. I want to bump it up to six, but for some reason I cannot get the spanner to get enough clearance to go from 5 -> 6 without bumping into either where the brake reservoir sits or the mud flap between the wheel/suspension. Yeah being able to actually access the adjuster with the tool is, seemingly, not high on anyone's priorities in the design room. It's a crapshoot. You can use.... alternative methods but I won't speak of them here.
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Jun 22, 2021 02:52
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I’m a fat lad on my Fat Bob. It’s preload can be set from 1 to 6. Easy to adjust via a dial knob to the side. The manual says my preload should be set to 4 or thereabouts, given my weight. 4 is way too harsh. I keep the preload at 1.25 and it feels great. I dial it up to 1.75 or 2 when the missus is riding pillion and it’s fine.
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Jun 22, 2021 05:48
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Slavvy posted:Yeah being able to actually access the adjuster with the tool is, seemingly, not high on anyone's priorities in the design room. It's a crapshoot. You can use.... alternative methods but I won't speak of them here. I will. Grab that thing with a set of channellocks and go to town
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Jun 22, 2021 13:15
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I got acrobatic and fought with the chain guard a bit and got it to firmed up another notch. It feels a touch too stiff now when driving through my apartment complex's terrible streets and speedbumps, but I'll adjust it back down after a few rides to/from work. It's still crazy to me how much of a difference a tiny change made.
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Jun 23, 2021 02:48
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When I bought my Aprilia the rear was pre loaded at the softest, lowest position because the previous owner was a shorter woman. I am much heavier and taller so I put it more towards the middle of the range. Big mistake. I should have known better because of course the thing is designed for smoother twisty Italian roads and not my local barely paved bullshit. Back to the softest setting for my COVID bloated rear end.
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Jun 23, 2021 09:55
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Heh, the joke is the road quality in Italy is atrocious
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Jun 23, 2021 16:29
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Carth Dookie posted:When I bought my Aprilia the rear was pre loaded at the softest, lowest position because the previous owner was a shorter woman. I am much heavier and taller so I put it more towards the middle of the range. Big mistake. I should have known better because of course the thing is designed for smoother twisty Italian roads and not my local barely paved bullshit. Back to the softest setting for my COVID bloated rear end. What Aprilia did you get ?. Currently looking at the RS660 as a possible future buy.
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Jun 23, 2021 17:44
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My local Italian bike dealer has a 2018 dorsoduro still sitting around, maybe it'll still be there in a couple years for me to low ball them.
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Jun 23, 2021 20:59
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ImplicitAssembler posted:What Aprilia did you get ?. Currently looking at the RS660 as a possible future buy. Shiver 750
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Jun 23, 2021 21:52
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ImplicitAssembler posted:What Aprilia did you get ?. Currently looking at the RS660 as a possible future buy. The best aprilia is a ducati, sad but true.
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Jun 23, 2021 23:19
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Slavvy posted:The best aprilia is a ducati, sad but true. Well, the 950 is also on the 'list'.
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Jun 24, 2021 02:01
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Ducati: questionable electrical system, questionable design decisions, can be tricky to work on, tend to have lots of random  poo poo go wrong, fit and finish is garbage compared to japanese bike, really fun to ride, look amazingAprilia: all of the above, minus the looks and parts availability
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Jun 24, 2021 02:09
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Slavvy posted:Ducati: questionable electrical system, questionable design decisions, can be tricky to work on, tend to have lots of random Ouch, right on the money (though I think aprilias look ok, even if they aren't extra pretty like a lot of Ducatis). I still have to order a stupidly designed rear brake pad pin/fixer thingy from somewhere.
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Jun 24, 2021 04:39
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Carth Dookie posted:Ouch, right on the money (though I think aprilias look ok, even if they aren't extra pretty like a lot of Ducatis). I think the Aprilia's are *almost* as pretty as the Ducati's. I wish Moto Guzzi would make a sportier bike, but it's clear that Piaggio wants Aprilia to do the sports bikes and leave the 'legacy' stuff to Moto Guzzi. Modern Japanese bikes does nothing for me.
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Jun 24, 2021 06:00
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We won’t kinkshame you, don’t worry
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Jun 24, 2021 12:55
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Even if I get a MV Augusta?
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Jun 24, 2021 21:19
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MV Agustas are loving sexy. No judgment here except positive judgment!
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Jun 24, 2021 21:50
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