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Double-posting from last month. I realized today that my commute is directly away from the sun in both directions, so I get to watch my shadow. My Sena headset makes my shadow look like a Borg.
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Aug 15, 2013 02:50
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Safety Dance posted:Double-posting from last month. I realized today that my commute is directly away from the sun in both directions, so I get to watch my shadow. My Sena headset makes my shadow look like a Borg. Mine is the exact opposite. I get to squint like clint eastwood if I time my commute even a few minutes incorrectly on a sunny day.
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Aug 15, 2013 03:41
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Safety Dance posted:Double-posting from last month. I realized today that my commute is directly away from the sun in both directions, so I get to watch my shadow. My Sena headset makes my shadow look like a Borg.  I don't have a BorgCam but I, too, love my shadow on both ends of my commute. Even at 5'11" I still look huge on the Ninjette! 
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Aug 15, 2013 04:16
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Slavvy posted:Mine is the exact opposite. I get to squint like clint eastwood if I time my commute even a few minutes incorrectly on a sunny day. I realised this week that I picked my holiday base incorrectly for this exact reason. Hooning back west through the cornish hills and valleys, suddenly not being able to see due to a giant blazing ball of fusion a few million miles away is not fun.
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Aug 15, 2013 21:27
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I put squares of black duct tape in intervals across the top of my helmet visor - I can position my head in such a way that the sun is occluded. It's pretty low-tech but it works well enough, especially for seeing traffic lights when the sun is low.
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Aug 15, 2013 21:33
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clutchpuck posted:I put squares of black duct tape in intervals across the top of my helmet visor - I can position my head in such a way that the sun is occluded. It's pretty low-tech but it works well enough, especially for seeing traffic lights when the sun is low. I did that on my last helmet with some window tint film from Autozone. Just cut a strip and ran it along the top inch or two of the visor. Worked great and I've been meaning to do it on my new lid.
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Aug 15, 2013 22:36
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Finding my route to work backed up for several hundred meters because a bus had a breakdown in the middle of an intersection, coasting past the 50+ stuck cars, smoothly navigating past the stranded bus and arriving to work no later than usual. 
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Aug 16, 2013 23:25
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LifeSizePotato posted:I did that on my last helmet with some window tint film from Autozone. Just cut a strip and ran it along the top inch or two of the visor. Worked great and I've been meaning to do it on my new lid. Some (all?) modern Shark helmets have refracting prisms cast into the upper edge of the visor which bend sunlight away from your eyes. Meanwhile, I'm looking for a transparent non-UV blocking visor for my shoei so my tinting spectacles actually work 
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Aug 17, 2013 22:03
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Saw a great-grandmother sitting outside with her great-grandson waving at passing by cars, so I waved at her and she started to wave happily at me. Adorable as hell.
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Aug 17, 2013 22:16
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Slavvy posted:Some (all?) modern Shark helmets have refracting prisms cast into the upper edge of the visor which bend sunlight away from your eyes. I think you'll struggle because almost all visors will have some form of UV coating to protect the visor itself (polycarbonate yellows with exposure to UV) and the antiscratch and antifog coatings if it has them.
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Aug 17, 2013 23:31
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Slavvy posted:Some (all?) modern Shark helmets have refracting prisms cast into the upper edge of the visor which bend sunlight away from your eyes. I had the same problem with my first helmet, and I used prescription sunglasses for a while, but the depth perception was slightly off, so it wasn't a good idea. When I eventually replaced that helmet, I got the AFX FX-140 (http://www.webbikeworld.com/r2/motorcycle-helmet/afx-fx-140/review.htm) which has a flip down tinted visor like fighter pilot helmets. It's also modular and has a quick-release chin strap, which is nice too. I don't know what your budget is, but they're on sale for $100 right now.
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Aug 18, 2013 20:24
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Clear road and sunset on the commute home after a busy day, and not a single other muppet on the road. Coming home to delicious food and a hot bath.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:47
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1. Pulling into the busiest parking lot at my college 10 minutes before class while weaving around lines of gridlocked cars waiting for a spot to free up. 2. Pulling into the huge motorcycle-only parking space in the same parking lot where there's only 2-3 bikes parked.  3. Walking past those same lines of cars on my way to class trying hard not to grin ear-to-ear. 4. Being able to lane-split past the traffic backed up through 3 intersections on the way home. 5. Being on the receiving end of the wave and returning it. Last year I seriously spent 30-40 minutes some days just putting around looking for a parking spot in my car (In California during August, with a broken A/C). My motorcycle has made my commute about 100x more pleasant.
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Aug 19, 2013 22:44
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Riding to another city an hour away (country roads  ) yesterday evening, some music going on my headphones, which would periodically fade out to have my phone's artificial lady voice give me turn-by-turn directions right in my ear. Flipping my helmet's sun visor up/down as forests/direction of travel necessitated, was hard not to feel like Master Chief or something. Stayed overnight and rode straight to work this morning, I beat the navigation app's estimate of my travel time by 15% without really even doing that much speeding (I think most of it was being able to split to the front through long pileups of commuters at red lights). Finally saw a wild boar on the way back to my city this morning, albeit in the form of roadkill 
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Aug 21, 2013 01:09
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-Having the guy on his porch drinking coffee on his porch give a wave as I rode by -Feeling gnats hitting my chest and face between my helmet and goggles -Smelling everything on roads I've driven a car down thousands of times, fresh grass to horse poo poo -Just the satisfaction of pulling through corners on a bike that didn't run when I bought it
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Aug 22, 2013 03:56
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- The wave To me it is like a secret handshake that you can't use unless you are on a bike - VIP Parking There is always great parking right up front most places I go - My 15 minute car commute is usually 1 - 2 hours on my bike not due to traffic, due to me taking ridiculously long routes - Cleaning dead bugs off my face shied Not sure why I like this... - Temperature changes from city to country to suburb to whatever it just feels awesome
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Aug 23, 2013 19:35
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Sitting at a stoplight in 101-degree Texas heat, geared up in textiles, the sweat pouring out of every inch of you - and then the light turns and traffic starts moving and the breeze through your mask's open visor and the vents in your jacket just feel soooo good. Like when you hold off on scratching an itch and then finally let loose. Ahhh.
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Aug 23, 2013 19:59
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Splitting through traffic at a red light, having the light go green right as I get to the front and just blasting out into the intersection in first/second (after a quick check to make sure nobody's running the red).  Today I made a detour after work to stop by a buddy's place and pick up my other mesh jacket (had been on indefinite loan to him for the last year), since I'm supposed to be taking a pillion on Saturday. Was a 2 hour ride home on local roads (would have been about 90 minutes if I'd taken the expressway, but 60 of that would have been horrifically boring suburbs, plus it costs money), so I opted for some unexplored mountain passes and was not disappointed. I normally try to avoid riding at night, but in this case I didn't really have a choice. Having to navigate an unfamiliar mountain road in the dark was challenging, but I really enjoyed watching the evening fade to night, see stars come out, and some good music going on my headphones/navigation app steering me homeward. Earlier in the ride a Mercedes was actually nice enough to chuck his hazards on and pull over so I could pass him, I evened out the road-karma by letting a dude go around me in one of the darker/hairier bits where I was taking the corners slowly. I really enjoy riding, which is good since my car's tranny poo poo the bed last month and I think I'm just not gonna bother replacing it. Only got 11 months left here. Still so much I wanna explore. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 13:53
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The other day I stopped at a light next to a 50-something guy on a v-max. He flipped up his visor and we started talking poo poo about our bikes and how he's a Kawasaki man at heart and got the v-max because he's always wanted one. Then the light turned green and he flipped down his visor and went into war mode and raced me full-throttle to the next light. I remember thinking his bike wasn't as fast as I expected.  Then at the next light we stopped and talked poo poo again, and it turned out he has his vboost on a manual switch that he can activate and deactivate whenever. He flipped it on, looked at me and said 'watch this!'. V-max' sound amazing when they're screaming off into the distance 
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Sep 12, 2013 21:03
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It's kind of silly to have a manual vboost switch. The idea is that the engine eventually spins too fast for the carburetors to keep up so it opens a passage between front and rear intakes or something like that and pulls supplementary charge from the carb whose intake valve is closed. You gain nothing by switching it on at low rpm besides probably some gurgly rich sound. Contributing to the topic: I love warm rain. We don't get much of it around here; warm months in Washington lowlands are typically dry so when it's rainy, the rain is cold and pretty much borderline fog. Hitting a high plains shower on a 100 degree day and feeling the bath-warm water evaporate and cool me down is one of the greatest things. With the drought conditions in the west these past couple years, I've been missing it. clutchpuck fucked around with this message at 22:05 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 21:53
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clutchpuck posted:It's kind of silly to have a manual vboost switch. The idea is that the engine eventually spins too fast for the carburetors to keep up so it opens a passage between front and rear intakes or something like that and pulls supplementary charge from the carb whose intake valve is closed. You gain nothing by switching it on at low rpm besides probably some gurgly rich sound. No it wasn't manual in that sense, the switch disabled the vboost entirely. So with the switch ON the vboost behaved like normal, with it switched OFF it never activated the vboost at all, presumably for economy.
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Sep 12, 2013 22:12
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Those switches are dumb but they are hugely popular. Most flip between engaging at 3k or stock at 6k. Others disable it entirely. Popular reasons being: For the hell of it. Mpg boost. Tuning stage 7 jet kits. The sound of vboost hitting the engine remains my favorite thing about the bike. There's plenty of faster bikes these days, but the power delivery of the bike puts a smile on my face every time.
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Sep 12, 2013 23:59
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I love my "Pass" trigger. That poo poo makes me feel like a winner.
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Sep 16, 2013 21:15
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PadreScout posted:I love my "Pass" trigger. I tell everybody it's a nitrous switch.
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Sep 17, 2013 03:14
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I now cast a shadow with a bright orange bit since I fitted the OEM orange windscreen. It looks awesome.
KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 12:25
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Orange and black are the two best motorcycle colors. 
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Sep 30, 2013 13:55
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Wasn't sure the best place to put this but I was sat at traffic lights this morning when a a 2-up Honda VFR 800 pulled up alongside. I look over and notice that the pillion is wearing TINY boots and I realise it's a girl of no more than 12. She takes the opportunity to cuddle the rider, which I thought was cute as, but then the rider turns and flips up their helmet and I realise it's her mum. Dunno why, but I just thought it was the coolest, sweetest thing ever. They both looked so happy, too - like there was nothing else going on in the world.
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Oct 3, 2013 09:51
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That is fantastic.
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Oct 3, 2013 14:16
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Yep, mom riders are the best. I passed a mom and her son (maybe 12-13) on an old Honda cruiser and gave the son a big thumbs-up. He had a big smile on his face the entire time they were in my sight. Wish they were wearing more gear, though. 
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Oct 3, 2013 14:24
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hermand posted:Wasn't sure the best place to put this but I was sat at traffic lights this morning when a a 2-up Honda VFR 800 pulled up alongside. I look over and notice that the pillion is wearing TINY boots and I realise it's a girl of no more than 12. She takes the opportunity to cuddle the rider, which I thought was cute as, but then the rider turns and flips up their helmet and I realise it's her mum. That is awesome. I've seen some people with their kids on bikes too, rarely do the kids have any gear. Two guys I know from another m/c board have their kids on the back and bought full gear for them.
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Oct 3, 2013 17:32
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A small boy on his BMX bike has delared me a motorcycle man while giving an enormous thumbs up. His mom nodded approvingly. This is the best thing. As a pretty new rider, here's my 5. Most have been widely covered but oh well: 1)Hopping on the bike with the intention of a quick errand and blowing a day actually getting to know the area I live in. SO many streets! 2)Holy poo poo, there are so many smells in the world! Conversely. Holy poo poo, what *is* that!? 3)Stil being new enough that even getting the bike over a few degrees more makes you feel like a pro. As an addendum, finally figuring out a corner you've parked it on for weeks. 4)Always having something to work on, and noticing your own improvement. I love that when I hop on the bike I can say "ok, let's work on X" today and the list will always be endless. 5)The gear. What can I say I feel badass suiting up before heading out.
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Oct 3, 2013 22:07
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Kids make you feel like a god. I love kids. I had a terrible day yesterday. Today I caught up with a guy with his kid on the back that were both fully geared and he gave me room to the left at a stoplight. I rolled up in my mirrored reaper helmet with a nod and his kid absolutely flipped the hell out. Fumbled his visor open with wide eyes and gave me a thumbs-up excitedly while pointing from toe to head at his own gear. I gave the kid an approving nod, leaned over and extended my fist. For a moment in time, the kid and I were the biggest badasses on the face of the planet and his father was the best dad ever. Today was a good day.
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Oct 4, 2013 05:48
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Since I've switched from a '01 KLR to a '13 WR250R.. 1:Wheelies 2:Being able to ride over anything 3:Free parking...everywhere 4:Nearly twice the mileage of my KLR 5:More wheelies
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Oct 4, 2013 06:22
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1) Not riding a KLR. 2) Not riding a KLR. 3) Not riding a KLR. 4) Not riding a KLR. 5) Not riding a KLR.
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Oct 4, 2013 23:08
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I liked MotoMind's KLR. A lot of it was the "not giving a gently caress" factor that comes with riding a giant lead dongcopter though. 1. passing people 20-over with the twist of a wrist 2. making lots of noise 3. ??? 4. in N out 5. the south will rise again
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Oct 5, 2013 00:10
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Z3n posted:1) Not riding a KLR. I didn't think it was possible to be this wrong in a single post. (I love 80-odd hp and not riding a big thumper, but the KLR is tops when it comes to goofy don't-give-a-poo poo fun).
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Oct 5, 2013 01:20
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Z3n posted:1) Not riding a KLR. Look how wrong you are. The KLR is awesome. not a KLR owner
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Oct 5, 2013 01:24
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slidebite posted:Look how wrong you are. The KLR is awesome. I knew I liked you.
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Oct 5, 2013 01:49
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slidebite posted:Look how wrong you are. The KLR is awesome. Klr owners are like civic ricers with a PVC obsession.
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Oct 5, 2013 04:38
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Z3n posted:Not riding a KLR. I'll admit I loved my KLR, but I had a long list of repairs after an accident I chose to sell it for parts than fixing it. Mine, pre-accident, was modified about as much as I could without boring the motor out. Two brothers pipe, more aggressive cam, header, carb and airbox work, suspension and other things I know I'm forgetting. It was punchy as a KLR can get. But, it was older, and I had to be pretty aggressive with my maintenance on it. I look back on it with rose tinted goggles I suppose, I had a blast with it and I learned a lot from the 45,000 odd miles I put on it. But the WR250R is loving awesome. It's a scalpel compared to the KLR, which was more of a cudgel.
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Oct 5, 2013 04:38
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