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Rode home in a dense fog last night. The water was on both sides of my visor so I've flipped it up. And then had to wipe down my glasses every 20 seconds just to see something. Any source of light was blinding as well. Is there a way to deal with something like that? I kinda miss 50 degree dry weather we had for a total of 3 weeks 
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May 10, 2014 13:24
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| # ? May 10, 2024 00:49 |
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Best bet would be some rain-x, heavy fog is always going to be crap and dangerous to ride through though.
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May 10, 2014 13:36
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Nitrox posted:Rode home in a dense fog last night. The water was on both sides of my visor so I've flipped it up. And then had to wipe down my glasses every 20 seconds just to see something. Any source of light was blinding as well. Is there a way to deal with something like that? I kinda miss 50 degree dry weather we had for a total of 3 weeks Rain repellent outside the visor, pinlock inside, and a vee-wipe or similar on your glove (ghetto option - microfibre towel secured to your left arm by rubber bands). Be careful with Rain-X that you get the stuff for visors, not the normal stuff for windscreens, which can eat certain coatings and make the situation even worse.
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May 10, 2014 14:54
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Where are you that you are still dealing with snow? I hate it when I filter to the front of a light, and one or both cars decide to launch to deny me the opening. Even though I'm clearly sitting there in the middle in full view. Sure, I get it filtering is not quite kosher but it's not like I wait around when it goes green. Most of my focus is on getting moving the second it turns so that I don't hold anyone up. Today, this BMW 5 series to the right of me launched just as I started moving, which spooked me because he was really close, which resulted in my snapping the clutch closed while rolling on the throttle faster. I completely botched it, and the front end really wanted to go to the sky. I shifted my weight forward so what happened instead was the front getting a half inch off, dropping back down, the engine hesitating for a millisecond, then shooting forward away from the pack like a bullet. My fault I guess but it felt really clumsy and I wish people wouldn't act like I stepped all over their ego when I do that.
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May 14, 2014 06:24
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Don't you have an SV650? Unless you live in monaco I don't see why this is a common problem for you. You don't need to be donging on an SV to absolutely demolish everything short of a supercar off the line.
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May 14, 2014 08:20
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Yeah, dude, just, don't even worry about them and just give it a squirt. When I filter to the front of traffic lights it's about 40% of the time someone tries to outrun me and I either don't even realise or just destroy them by taking off normally anyway.
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May 14, 2014 08:47
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Shimrod posted:Yeah, dude, just, don't even worry about them and just give it a squirt. When I filter to the front of traffic lights it's about 40% of the time someone tries to outrun me and I either don't even realise or just destroy them by taking off normally anyway. This is what I was too tired and distracted to articulate properly. The one time I 'raced' someone in a car on my SV I remember thinking I was only at 2/3rds throttle and he was falling behind badly. And that was against a relatively sporty sort of car.
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May 14, 2014 09:23
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I got surprised by a Mercedes B class that turned out to be some sort of tuned sleeper once, maybe something from Brabus. He baited me into overtaking him by doing 10 under the limit on the coast road and took off as I got alongside. I still won. On a 65bhp thumper.
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May 14, 2014 09:54
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I wish I had a reason to ride more. I live too close to work for it to be worthwhile to commute on the bike, so I don't ride during weekdays unless I have to be somewhere after work (that doesn't involve alcohol). I'm a weekend warrior.
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May 14, 2014 12:26
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Collateral Damage posted:I wish I had a reason to ride more. I live too close to work for it to be worthwhile to commute on the bike, so I don't ride during weekdays unless I have to be somewhere after work (that doesn't involve alcohol). You and me both. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bus to catch.
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May 14, 2014 14:03
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Coydog posted:Where are you that you are still dealing with snow? We got a few inches in Denver on Sat/Sun. Hell, I was riding Saturday morning and got the bike in the garage right as it started raining.
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May 14, 2014 17:34
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Oh yeah that makes sense. The last time I was through there it was absurdly colder than the surroundong states and area. Still, it's May. And yeah, I'm still not quite used to the power. I still get that feeling like cars are going to overtake me, then look back to see them almost out of sight. I'll focus more on staying smooth with the confidence that I'll come out ahead. I'd give good money to see the look on that guys face when a thumper out paced him at his own game.
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May 14, 2014 18:53
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ReelBigLizard posted:I got surprised by a Mercedes B class that turned out to be some sort of tuned sleeper once, maybe something from Brabus. He baited me into overtaking him by doing 10 under the limit on the coast road and took off as I got alongside. 90% chance he wasn't trying to race and was just too busy yakking on his cell phone to realize he was going so slow until he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, at which point, he did what every not-paying-attention asshat does when you try to pass them and speeds up to 20 mph over the limit as if that will somehow compensate for not paying attention and cockblocking everyone behind him by going so slow.
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May 14, 2014 20:34
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Collateral Damage posted:I wish I had a reason to ride more. I live too close to work for it to be worthwhile to commute on the bike, so I don't ride during weekdays unless I have to be somewhere after work (that doesn't involve alcohol). That's where a small displacement standard Collateral Damage posted:I wish I had a reason to ride more. I live too close to work for it to be worthwhile to commute on the bike, so I don't ride during weekdays unless I have to be somewhere after work (that doesn't involve alcohol). I have the opposite problem. I ride a lot but it's only back and forth to work. During the weekend I just walk to the bar or the market or the liquor store or the bar or whatever. I put that FZR together so I could maybe go on fun rides or track days but I just don't feel like going anywhere on the weekends.
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May 14, 2014 20:38
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It's great when you're riding down a twisty road and get stuck behind some car pootling along and slowing down to 10 miles an hour for every turn, but once they notice you're there, they start flooring it on the straighter parts like they're doing you a favor by speeding up, still creeping around every turn, but now it's also less safe to try and pass them. Wait, no. That isn't great at all. When that happens to me and there's no way to get around, though, I like to see if I can ride the total opposite of the way the car's driving -- maintaining the exact same speed on the turns and straights, never touching the brakes and barely adjusting the throttle, just cruising along evenly and smoothly. Makes me feel real smug when I drop back 500 feet on the straights and then end up right behind them again after every turn. Collateral Damage posted:I wish I had a reason to ride more. I live too close to work for it to be worthwhile to commute on the bike, so I don't ride during weekdays unless I have to be somewhere after work (that doesn't involve alcohol). Me too. I wouldn't even get my engine warmed up in the time it would take me to get to work, and with the gear, the stoplights, and the parking, it would probably take me longer door-to-door than my current bicycle ride too. I ride basically on weekends and Fridays when I can leave earlier and go hit up some fun spot before it gets dark. Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 20:46 on May 14, 2014 |
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May 14, 2014 20:43
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Bugdrvr posted:I have the opposite problem. I ride a lot but it's only back and forth to work. During the weekend I just walk to the bar or the market or the liquor store or the bar or whatever. I put that FZR together so I could maybe go on fun rides or track days but I just don't feel like going anywhere on the weekends. yeah, that's me too. I'm a commuter warrior. Days off I've either got poo poo going on, or no real reason to endure the traffic and weather. Now that it's getting nicer though I'll probably go on a few more jaunts. Or at least I'll think about going on a few more jaunts.
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May 14, 2014 20:58
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Sagebrush posted:It's great when you're riding down a twisty road and get stuck behind some car pootling along and slowing down to 10 miles an hour for every turn, but once they notice you're there, they start flooring it on the straighter parts like they're doing you a favor by speeding up, still creeping around every turn, but now it's also less safe to try and pass them. This is So. loving. Annoying. The worst is when they keep speeding up when you're across the dashed yellow and passing them, it's not a race, and driving like that is pretty likely to get someone killed. I rode 450 miles down highway 101 in WA and OR on the SV last week, and this same poo poo happened 75% of the time, whether it was one of those uphill truck passing lanes, or a long straight, by far the worst offender seemed to be huge lifted bro trucks. Luckily I got around most of these guys without incident, although there was one, passing on an uphill passing lane, accelerate to go by some SUV that had been idling around turns, and the guy must have thought I wanted to race, or that letting someone pass made his dick shrink two sizes, because by the time I was actually ahead of him I looked down at my cluster and realized I was doing over a 100, with him going slightly slower. I just cut the throttle and let him go ahead again, didn't feel safe with someone like that behind me, so I just puttered along after him as he lit up his brakes the entire way through turn, until he turned off in a town. That being said, there were still a number of people that actually tapped the brakes and moved to the right side of their lane as soon as they saw a passing area to let me by, I always wave at these guys to try and say 'thanks'. Being on a literbike really helps with this situation, you're usually past them before they can make the brain-foot-gas pedal connection to try and pull something like this. On another note, I love following a fully loaded semi crawling through the mountains and thinking "oh great, stuck behind a truck" until they pull out and you realize you AND the semi have been stuck behind a minivan going 10 miles an hour under whatever the lowest recommended speed is. I realize minivans don't handle very well, but if a gravel truck can go through that turn at 50, so can your car. At my last job I lived 20 miles from work through crappy traffic both ways, and discovered I never want to have a commute like that again. It was almost worth it though, when it was 70 degrees out and I could turn it into a 40 mile commute through twisty country backroads though XD
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May 14, 2014 21:57
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Elviscat posted:by far the worst offender seemed to be huge lifted bro trucks. Brodozers are always the worst offenders, for everything, everywhere.
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May 14, 2014 22:23
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clutchpuck posted:Brodozers are always the worst offenders, for everything, everywhere. Yeah but what else could they drive that would properly show off their Truck Nutz.
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May 14, 2014 22:38
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Challenge accepted: affix truck nutz to Buell.
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May 14, 2014 22:39
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clutchpuck posted:Challenge accepted: affix truck nutz to Buell. Please do this and have someone follow you with a gopro for the day.
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May 14, 2014 22:40
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clutchpuck posted:Brodozers are always the worst offenders, for everything, everywhere. I don't know, Prius's fight for the honor pretty hard. I shudder to think of what a liftup bro-prius would be like.
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May 14, 2014 23:57
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Elviscat posted:and the guy must have thought I wanted to race In the same vein, I'll sometimes WOT for a second to get out of a car's blind spot on the highway. Half the time it'll flip some "omg biek wants 2 race" switch in the lizard brain of whoever's driving, and they'll speed up too, putting me squarely back in their blind spot.
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May 15, 2014 00:55
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M42 posted:In the same vein, I'll sometimes WOT for a second to get out of a car's blind spot on the highway. Half the time it'll flip some "omg biek wants 2 race" switch in the lizard brain of whoever's driving, and they'll speed up too, putting me squarely back in their blind spot. That's not a very impressive WOT then  Riding on the weekend I got trapped behind cars a few times. When I'm just loping along behind them at 2800 or so the bike is just quietly going "blatblatblatblat" so they don't pay a lot of attention. But one of the cars was a convertible with the top down, and when I went to pass I kicked it down a gear and went WOT at 5500 and the engine turns into this tremendous hollow roar and I scooted by and was back in my lane in about 2.5 seconds and as I looked in the mirrors I saw both the occupants wobbling back and forth and rubbernecking and jabbering and pointing. It was the best. And that's just on a bike that makes maybe 50, 55 horsepower. So awesome
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May 15, 2014 01:24
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Sagebrush posted:That's not a very impressive WOT then Two fiddy
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May 15, 2014 01:27
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M42 posted:Two fiddy You're about due for a big girl bike
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May 15, 2014 03:14
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M42 posted:In the same vein, I'll sometimes WOT for a second to get out of a car's blind spot on the highway. Half the time it'll flip some "omg biek wants 2 race" switch in the lizard brain of whoever's driving, and they'll speed up too, putting me squarely back in their blind spot. I really hate that. Nobody ever tries to race/block me when I'm in my old Explorer, but it happens constantly when I'm on my bike. I even had a dude in an almost-bro truck almost crash in a turn trying to race me before I realized what he was doing.
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May 15, 2014 03:26
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People always try to speed up when they see a bike coming up. I have no idea why but the idea of getting passed on two wheels really pisses people off subconsciously which causes them to stomp the gas regardless of the situation. I even have people who drat near rear end the person in front of them because they automatically smash on the gas when they see me coming by. Problem is sometimes I'm lane splitting and you aren't so you're not going to be able to keep pace because, you know, there is a car three feet in front of you.
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May 15, 2014 04:28
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I took the spark arrestor out of the Yosh RS2 on the DRZ. It sounds loving hilarious. It's not really any louder, just now it sounds like a giant angry bee instead of the longest fart. Loud pipes don't save lives they just make me laugh inside my helmet.
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May 15, 2014 06:14
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Bugdrvr posted:People always try to speed up when they see a bike coming up. I have no idea why but the idea of getting passed on two wheels really pisses people off subconsciously which causes them to stomp the gas regardless of the situation. Maybe it's just a California thing but I find that for every idiot who tries to race and every zombie who thinks they're helping by speeding up, there's another person who knows how to use the pullouts or moves over in the lane and waves me by. I assume it has to do with penises.
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May 15, 2014 07:26
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Sagebrush posted:Maybe it's just a California thing but I find that for every idiot who tries to race and every zombie who thinks they're helping by speeding up, there's another person who knows how to use the pullouts or moves over in the lane and waves me by. I assume it has to do with penises. I've seen vids of San Fran street festivals so I agree, the pullouts and waving are definitely from experience with penises Probably amplified if you're wearing leathers
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May 15, 2014 08:06
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Brodozers aren't a thing in lower Fairfield, Connecticut. Waspy soccer moms in an Audi S8. That's a thing.
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May 15, 2014 21:31
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Covert Ops Wizard posted:You're about due for a big girl bike 
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May 15, 2014 22:20
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So just after posting about people not using the pullouts and blocking your way on the road, today I had totally the opposite experience. I was riding along on a decently twisty road but just taking it easy -- capable of going faster than traffic but not feeling the need to. Immediately ahead of me was a guy on an R6 or R1 who was really antsy and not having any of this slowness, though. After tailgating the cars for a few minutes he gunned it past them across the double-yellow in a turn and shot on ahead. Whatever. I kept on going, staying a reasonable distance behind the car in front of me, since she was going about 35-40 miles an hour and that was fine by me. Yet at every point that the road widened, she would start to move way over to the side and dip her wheels into the shoulder. I didn't attempt to pass (illegally -- this was a divided two-lane road with a concrete barrier in the middle, so it would be lane-sharing) when she would do this, and after a few seconds she would move back into her lane. She did this four or five times before coming across a long straightaway. At that point she pulled right over into the shoulder and stayed there, still driving, but halfway off the edge o the road. I tried to wave her back into the road but she wasn't having it and wouldn't leave the shoulder. I shrugged and blazed past and slowed back down to basically the same speed she was going anyway. She stayed within sight of my mirrors the rest of the road. Weird people.
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May 16, 2014 09:23
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Sagebrush posted:So just after posting about people not using the pullouts and blocking your way on the road, today I had totally the opposite experience. I was riding along on a decently twisty road but just taking it easy -- capable of going faster than traffic but not feeling the need to. Immediately ahead of me was a guy on an R6 or R1 who was really antsy and not having any of this slowness, though. After tailgating the cars for a few minutes he gunned it past them across the double-yellow in a turn and shot on ahead. Whatever. I get this a fair bit and it always seems to be when I'm on a really slow bike. I find myself wishing there was a way I could make an "It's ok dude don't worry about it!" gesture.
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May 16, 2014 09:55
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Welp we've gone full circle if we're now complaining about cars courteously letting us pass.
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May 16, 2014 12:59
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Yeah if someone does that I'd say you're almost obligated to pass so you don't spoil the person doing it in the future. My own pullout story. I was at Deals Gap in my 240sx. Compared to the bikes going thru there I might have well been in an SUV, the speed differential was that crazy. However I was still able to drive fast enough for me to have fun. I catch sight of 3 three guys on sport bikes a few curves behind me coming up quick. I go thru a sharp left hander losing line of sight of the bikes and then see a hairpin with a pullout space in it. I was able to pull over fairly quickly, so much so that when the sport bikes came by one or two of the riders did double takes that 1) I was watching my mirrors enough to spot them and 2) actually got the hell out of the way. Got a thumbs up as they went by. Felt pretty pleased with myself after that.
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May 16, 2014 13:53
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Well I wasn't complaining about it, per se. It was just that what she was doing was unnecessary and sort of dangerous. This is the section of road I'm talking about, and as you can see it's really not safe for her to be going into the shoulder like that. She was also traveling at what I thought was a perfectly fine speed, so I was happy to stay behind and wasn't tailgating, and there were several cars ahead of her going roughly the same speed anyway. It was a nice gesture, yeah, but not needed.
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May 16, 2014 17:58
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Yeah if she wasnt a woman i bet she would know how to drive right sagebrusch
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May 16, 2014 18:46
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Dude showing the road doesn't help your case really. I was picturing a skinny road with a dirt/gravel shoulder but that road is literally 2 lanes wide. Look back at the car behind. You should have just passed her.
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May 16, 2014 18:50
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