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TapTheForwardAssist posted:At the risk of inviting bragging and bullshit: anyone offered a cute girl/guy a ride out of the blue and had them accept? I never carry a second helmet around on the bike, so thats normally a no go. However, it has sparked a conversation or two, which led to rides later on. I'm sure it would lead to a ride if I had a second helmet though. Most people, expecially college people, are very down to doing whatever and I don't mind riding 2 up that much. Also don't worry. You consciously ride slower when 2 up, and I personally ride alot safer because its not just my life I'm putting on the line if I ride dumb. But 2 up riding is very simple, after the first 20 feet youre used to it.
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Mar 12, 2009 07:15
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| # ? May 17, 2024 11:30 |
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:At the risk of this turning up in my next Helldump callout: Paging Morphix to CA, Morphix report to CA please.
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Mar 12, 2009 07:19
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:At the risk of this turning up in my next Helldump callout: No and no. Take a lesson from morphix on this one. You'll get the clap and it will be some serious Crying Game poo poo.
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Mar 12, 2009 15:37
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I've had women tell me they like bikes, and that I should stop by if I ever want a passenger, but I doubt MY GIRLFRIEND would appreciate it very much, so I just kind of go "Oh, yeah sure..." However, I do get random people coming up wanting to talk about the Valkyrie. People ask me where I got it, and if I see another Valkyrie rider, they usually gush about how much they want an Interstate. The best one though, was some homeless guy. I was waiting in traffic and he was walking down the sidewalk, saw me and started walking towards me. I just started whispering "go away, go away, go away" but he he started yelling something that I couldn't hear. I decided to be nice, and raised my visor. He goes "IS THAT A CAR ENGINE?" I replied, "No, but it is a 6 cylinder." He looks at the bike a moment, pumps a fist and goes "That's loving AWESOME!" and walks away. It was pretty funny.
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Mar 12, 2009 16:42
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I find that bikes really tend to attract dudes more than anything.
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Mar 12, 2009 17:00
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Phat_Albert posted:I find that bikes really tend to attract dudes more than anything. This. Oh sure, I've had a few random friends of friends of friends  ask for a ride, but I never usually have a second helmet with me, so it's never spontaneous.Riding with a pillion is pretty fun, as long as you coach them well enough before taking off into traffic. Oh, and provided they don't panic when you touch a peg down mid corner (note to self, having a passenger on the back compresses the suspension more, meaning that you can't charge quite as hard through the twisty poo poo).
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Mar 12, 2009 17:07
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I was riding with a passenger. Right after I put on a new exhaust on the '80. That exhaust isn't so new anymore.
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Mar 12, 2009 18:27
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I guess this is probably going to come across as bragging, oh well. I was pulling my bike out of my garage(which is in an alley), and a couple of girls turned the corner and stopped. I ended up talking to them for a bit, and they asked me for a ride. I was actually going to take one of them for a bit, since they were hot and my garage with spare helmets was right there, but then I watched them not quite succeed in standing upright the whole time and decided I didn't really want a drunk girl falling off the back of my bike. I would have stayed and talked to them, but I was getting the bike out to go take another girl I was seeing for a ride. Also had random drunk girl ask me for a ride while I was stopped at a light, and the friends of friends thing as well.
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Mar 12, 2009 19:17
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Phat_Albert posted:I find that bikes really tend to attract dudes more than anything. This is very very true. But since I go to an art school its ok, because there aren't many people into the automotive scene here it helps me meet riding/talk car buddys. I've found a lot of girls actually strongly dislike motorcycles do to the whole "You're an idiot for riding one it is a death machine" stigma. Riding 2 up is fun, but on the 500 the power loss due to extra weight is certainly felt under acceleration.
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Mar 12, 2009 20:34
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Trintintin posted:This is very very true. But since I go to an art school its ok, because there aren't many people into the automotive scene here it helps me meet riding/talk car buddys. It's even worse on my 400. The power peak is really late, and passengers get somewhat worried when they hear the engine screaming like that for long periods of time.
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Mar 12, 2009 21:24
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Couldn't help myself today, had to see if the bike started :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2jiWciVw4 Finally got it inside yesterday. Were cleaning the workshop at work the other day, and when I was done I realized my bike would fit in along one of the walls just fine. Took a few kicks, but as soon as I got the spark plug wire back on it started right up  Here is how it looked when I finished today. 
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Mar 12, 2009 22:05
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You kick like a fairy, and put your kickstand down like one too. What are the grey boxes on the shelves behind the bike?
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Mar 12, 2009 22:30
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mutt2jeff posted:What are the grey boxes on the shelves behind the bike?
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Mar 12, 2009 22:59
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I was talking to a random guy at a bar who had ridden his vrod about his bike. After a bit of chatting he offered to let me ride his bike. I'm pretty sure he wasn't hitting on me, but I refused because I don't drink and ride. I thought he was joking because who the gently caress would let a stranger ride your bike, let alone at a bar.
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Mar 12, 2009 23:15
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It's alright, I'm sure he would have been gentle. 
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Mar 12, 2009 23:43
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I thought that disk brake setups were simple, but after taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling the drum on an 88 CB450, I'm of a different opinion. There's like 3 bloody moving parts inside of the drum, and two of those are the shoes. 
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Mar 13, 2009 07:53
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Spring is trickling in, one degree at a time. Took the bike out around the island, was nice and comfy inside the leathers. Tried dicking with different suspension settings. Front end was harsh on straight bumps but a bit vague, wallow-y and nervous in the corners. Before I've always thought stiffer is better, cause that's how the racers roll right? Wrong. Set the damping to softest (4 settings), preload still on hardest (2 settings), much better. More comfy on the bumps, still vague and wallow-y but no more nervousness. Yay! Nerobro's tip on cleaning some excess oil off the air cleaner helped cure my mid range flat spot, got even better as the engine heated up. A bit too cold and a bit too slow roads to get it up to normal operating temps, I assume it's even better there. Not going to bother with a carb sync tool yet, it is loving smooooooth. Forgot my cam, so some crummy cellphone snaps will have to do.  A narrow bridge.  Same bridge, different vantage point. You can barely make out the towers in the middle of the sound.    Fishy community.  Memorial to WW2 fallen in the village of Telavåg. A great tragedy happened here during the war. Two German officers were killed in a skirmish with the resistance, the retribution was severe. All the houses blown up, all the boats sunk, all the cattle slaughtered and all the men sent to Sachsenhausen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telav%C3%A5g  A plaque of apology from a German monastery.   The fields are all bumpy because of sheep grazing. Soon they will be filled with cute lambs bouncing around in blissful ignorance of their impending doom. They are quite tasty.  I tried to find a good view of the open ocean, but have to ride a bit further north for that. Not far at all, but couldn't be bothered! Yay spring!
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Mar 13, 2009 13:02
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^^^Every time you post pictures I think you're located in some magical, mystical part of New England that miraculously has decent pavement. Then I see the signs and sigh.
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Mar 13, 2009 13:54
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If it's any consolation, the road surface is crap in many places. In one corner there was a ridiculously sharp bump, almost like a crease after bending. Didn't go over it thankfully, but I'm pretty sure it would have upset the bike enough to ruin my day.
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Mar 13, 2009 13:59
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Trintintin posted:I've found a lot of girls actually strongly dislike motorcycles do to the whole "You're an idiot for riding one it is a death machine" stigma. Riding 2 up is fun, but on the 500 the power loss due to extra weight is certainly felt under acceleration. Haha, you should see me on my 250 two stroke with a passenger. I have to ring it up to 8500 rpm every shift complete with smoke show and popping. My fiance likes to ride on her dads Goldwing when we go out because of this 
8ender fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Mar 13, 2009 |
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Mar 13, 2009 14:21
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Ola posted:Tried dicking with different suspension settings. Front end was harsh on straight bumps but a bit vague, wallow-y and nervous in the corners. Before I've always thought stiffer is better, cause that's how the racers roll right? Wrong. Set the damping to softest (4 settings), preload still on hardest (2 settings), much better. More comfy on the bumps, still vague and wallow-y but no more nervousness. Yay! That bit about the harder you can set your suspension the better, is a really common misconception. The harder you set your suspension, the faster you need to be riding to get it into the ideal working range (the middle 2/3rds of the travel). So for most people, stiff suspension just means it never works right. It's wallowing because you don't have enough compression damping, and it feels vauge because of the bike's inability to stick with the road due to the lack of sufficient compression and rebound damping. It probably feels better with the damping on softest due to it matching the compression feel the best, so the bike doesn't feel great but it's consistant, and there's feedback in consistancy too. If you feel like making it better, go find some 10w fork oil, and dump the old poo poo out and put the new stuff in. I bet your fork oil's never been changed. You run into problems like what you describe when the fork oil is so worn out it's like water...You can't get enough compression to prevent the bike from wallowing, and you can't get enough rebound to prevent it from springing back up after bumps. What damping adjustments do you have (compression, rebound)? How much fork travel are you using?
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Mar 13, 2009 16:47
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Ola posted:You live in a mystical land, that I will one day either travel or move to. It's a toss up between Norway and Scotland - do you have fair haired lasses, many castles, and a rich lore of alcohol production? These are the deciding factors.
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Mar 13, 2009 17:02
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Simkin posted:You live in a mystical land, that I will one day either travel or move to. They both have sheep.  Edit: I love Ola's pictures as well. It really is a beautiful country.
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Mar 13, 2009 17:33
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Z3n posted:If you feel like making it better, go find some 10w fork oil*snip* Before you have him go about fiddling. Ola, when was the last time you checked your fork oil level? And do you have your forks aired up? I'm fairly sure the GS750 you're running has air forks, what pressure are you running?
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Mar 13, 2009 17:41
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Nerobro posted:Before you have him go about fiddling. Oh god air forks.
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Mar 13, 2009 17:44
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They work, and work well. :-) Damnit. There's a really good reason rear shocks are pressurized. The only reason they were abandoned is that they require a certain amount of maintenance.
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Mar 13, 2009 17:52
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I changed my fork oil last year, the old one was milky grey digusting stuff. Used 10w. There is likely a small imbalance now, as one seal leaked for a while, then quit. I don't really notice that from corner to corner. There's no air valve on them, thank goodness. The front has a two way preload setting via a nut with cams on the top of the forks and four way knob for damping on the bottom. I suppose it does both compression and rebound, or maybe just compression and rebound is fixed? Rear has preload on a dial and a four way damping setting. It didn't do much when I twisted it and upon opening it appears the driven gears on the cable are chewed up. I posted a little help-me here: http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=138553 So now my rear damping is fixed setting until I fix it.  Maybe I'll go for some aftermarket stuff, but to be honest I feel the whole thing is perfectly ridable. I might also be using the terms in the wrong way.By nervous, I meant the steering felt loose and the bike felt like falling into the turn when cornering hard. This is gone now. By wallowing, I mean undulations in the road will change the radius of the turn noticably, so I have to correct. And by vague, I mean doing the same type of muscle-memory motion for a turn that looks identical to another results in a different line than I expected, so I have to correct. The last one might very well be rider skill, I've been a bit of a pussy so far. And from reading about other people's experience with handling issues, it's very likely to change a lot when replacing tires. My tires are from '03 and '04, both quite flattened at the top. I'm changing them as soon as my wallet is in better shape, hopefully within the month. Later on in the year, the most I'll consider in suspension upgrades is $3-400 on a rear shock and whatever it was for those cartridge emulators. I'll try balancing fluid levels with some clever piping asap. Thanks for the input guys. As for Norway v Scotland - we have prettier girls with WAY better teeth, we're severly limited in the way of castles and our legacy of alcohol production is limited to methanol-riddled moonshine which tends to set our gloomy minds and wooden houses on fire.
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Mar 13, 2009 18:12
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loving ouch http://jalopnik.com/5168730/stop+motion-motorcycle-collision-on-tail-of-the-dragon Anyone else see that?
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Mar 13, 2009 18:13
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dietcokefiend posted:loving ouch In the picture thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2032191&pagenumber=76#post357799832 I put up a gif a few posts afterwards.
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Mar 13, 2009 18:21
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Ola posted:I changed my fork oil last year, the old one was milky grey digusting stuff. Used 10w. There is likely a small imbalance now, as one seal leaked for a while, then quit. I don't really notice that from corner to corner. There's no air valve on them, thank goodness. Ahh, yeah, I'd go with replacing the tires first then. I'll take good tires with poo poo suspension over the reverse any day. The nervousness is probably you rolling over the "lip" of the flat spot on the tires. Wallowing is probably a suspension issue that won't be too easily sorted with basic suspension work, as you're dealing with an old, heavy bike with spindly forks. You've already started to learn to ride around it, so keep doing that and I'm sure you'll be fine Then when you do the real upgrades, it'll be night and day. Nothing like learning on lovely suspension to make you appreciate the real stuff.
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Mar 13, 2009 18:27
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Yup, I think I'm in good shape all things considered. Thanks again.
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Mar 13, 2009 18:36
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I'm back on 2 wheels after a brief winter hiatus, feels fantastic. I think I'll go for a ride this weekend, maybe get some pics up here to compete with Ola  . I'm planning on doing a multi-day trip around Wales later this spring or early summer, and trip down to Cornwall might be in the cards. Plus some continental touring when I can. I love booting around on my Peg, as nice as my VFR was, it just wasn't as fun as the Pegaso. It's not that great for extended high-speed motorway stuff but makes up for it on the B roads.
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Mar 13, 2009 19:09
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Linedance posted:. . . I'm planning on doing a multi-day trip around Wales later this spring or early summer, and trip down to Cornwall might be in the cards. Plus some continental touring when I can . . . Is it bad that I want to drive down to Cornwall from the Midlands and back, purely for a decent cornish pasty? For those with a less than stellar grasp of British geography, that's a 4 and a half hour journey there. Even worse, I'm considering taking the friend on the 125 who can't use the motorways, that bumps it up to about 7 and a half hours there. They do make the best drat Cornish Pasties in Port Isaac though.
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Mar 13, 2009 20:03
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Orange Someone posted:Is it bad that I want to drive down to Cornwall from the Midlands and back, purely for a decent cornish pasty? For those with a less than stellar grasp of British geography, that's a 4 and a half hour journey there. Even worse, I'm considering taking the friend on the 125 who can't use the motorways, that bumps it up to about 7 and a half hours there. not too much further than me, meet you in Bristol!
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Mar 13, 2009 21:21
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Orange Someone posted:Is it bad that I want to drive down to Cornwall from the Midlands and back, purely for a decent cornish pasty? For those with a less than stellar grasp of British geography, that's a 4 and a half hour journey there. Even worse, I'm considering taking the friend on the 125 who can't use the motorways, that bumps it up to about 7 and a half hours there. This is definitely a good idea. My Goldwing-riding friends rode about 1000 miles in a day to eat at a particular burger joint in the next state over. Of course, they were riding Goldwings.
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Mar 14, 2009 03:45
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Zenaida posted:This is definitely a good idea. My Goldwing-riding friends rode about 1000 miles in a day to eat at a particular burger joint in the next state over. Of course, they were riding Goldwings. They had to stop for food? Didn't the bikes have the kitchenette option?
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Mar 14, 2009 15:46
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Maybe they bought the pre-2008 models, and thus were unable to option a deep fryer. Edit: Holy poo poo, I love my boots. Coming home from the bike shop, on the cb450, and I was just putting it through its paces - nothing too harsh, just a quick boot up to 110km/h, and then a nice looooong off-ramp - albeit right after the first rain in a good long while. :/ Nearing the end of the turn, the off-ramp meets up with a fairly major intersection, and I have to slow down, change direction, and merge with the major road. Normally, this isn't too much of a problem, except that the tyres on this bike are of unknown vintage (they look alright, but I think after this, I'll see if I can't find some more acceptable rubber), and they apparently don't have any sort of agreement with the tarmac, regarding acceptable forces. Soooo.... the front locks up, probably at ~40km/h, and over I go ... well, not quite. Somehow, I managed to get my right foot down, and prop the bike back up, all while the front end is desperately trying to make fast friends with terra firma. I guess I also had the presence of mind to immediately let off the front brake, as I stood it back up, got it pointed forwards, and reapplied the brake (so that I didn't slide across 3 lanes of traffic). There was some guy standing at a bus stop, about 10m away, and I'm pretty sure he saw the whole incident, from the way that he looked at me, afterwards. Pretty sure, that if I hadn't been wearing proper boots (especially with sliders), my foot would have just been pinned under the bike, instead of allowing me to pull of some crazy-rear end save. Simkin fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Mar 15, 2009 |
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Mar 14, 2009 18:02
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Simkin posted:There was some guy standing at a bus stop, about 10m away, and I'm pretty sure he saw the whole incident, from the way that he looked at me, afterwards. You're thinking "Oh poo poo I'm going in shriek like a schoolgirl oh no!!" and the guy watching is like "Holy crap that guy is a diety among men, I was not worthy to watch such a display of skill". For those watching this at home who don't have the mad riding skills and the magical riding boots-keep in mind that saving yourself from a lowside can turn into a highside. You start to slide out, you keep the bike upright-ish, the wheels suddenly hook up and the bike catapults you over the other side. I'm not saying give in and fall down but try to remember the possible downside. If our hero hadn't let go of the front brake, poo poo could have got real.
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Mar 15, 2009 01:56
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Yeah, post-near-catastrophic-ooops, I did kind of reflect on the fact that it probably wasn't the safest way to handle the situation. Then again, I was also facing the very real possibility of hitting a small concrete island, or sliding across three lanes of traffic.  It did feel pretty badass, although I was more happy for not wrecking a bike that is a)not really mine, and b)wearing plates from my other bike - the one that is registered. Note to self - shakedown rides should be done on ideal days, and always close to home. I've been lucky, thus far, in my riding career. Four lowsides, and not a single highside. Also, nothing broken (other than brake levers, handlebars, fairings, ...  ).
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Mar 15, 2009 02:31
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Weird, I had a similar situation today and my awesome boots saved me as well. I was riding though the local park (it has a through road) and figured I'd park the bike and check out a bridge that had been washed out by flooding. Stupid me I forgot that spring=really loving soft ground and rode down a grass embankment on an angle. The rear tire immediately slipped out and I started to low side. I stuck my foot out and saved the bike but at the same time accidentally gunned the throttle while the bike was still at a 45 degree angle. The bike started spinning around throwing mud in all directions with my leg as the pivot and me holding on for dear life. I finally figured out the problem and pulled the front brake while letting off the throttle. Somehow I came to a stop upright at the bottom of the embankment. The only thing broken was my pride. A family was in the park watching this and the dad clapped when he saw I was alright. 
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Mar 15, 2009 03:33
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