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Slavvy posted:What the gently caress is a water crossing doing on a road? Build a fucken bridge or maybe not build the road in the middle of a stream or gently caress I don't know anything else besides that. Lol if you think rural US road departments are going to spend any more money than they have to for a crossing that gets maybe 30 cars a week when keeping the concrete fresh every few years will do just fine. Low water bridges and wet crossings are a super common thing in the south. They’re just part of life. I love em, though they’re pretty poo poo for fish passage, and I lobby for bridges wherever possible.
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Jul 7, 2020 02:32
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| # ? May 22, 2024 07:39 |
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Here they're called Fords (not to be confused with fjords or the automobile) and they're pretty common in rural UK. My dad used to have an anecdote about driving his TR3 through one with a friend in the 70s and getting stuck. The passenger saw water in the footwell and said, "I'll let it out" and obviously the entire river flowed in. They walked to the pub to use the phone and got trashed.
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Jul 7, 2020 16:42
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Riding motorcycles in the rural US:
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Jul 7, 2020 17:23
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1 every single time. only the strong survive
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Jul 7, 2020 17:30
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So, after a long while of getting a new job, moving, and settling into a new place I'm looking at motorcycles again. The dr650 or drz400 were highly suggested over the klr 650 I was looking at. I recall that someone had mentioned you could lower them without aftermarket hardware, is that the case ot would lowering links be better, as I'm a bit short in the leg.
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Jul 7, 2020 17:32
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Pine Cone Jones posted:So, after a long while of getting a new job, moving, and settling into a new place I'm looking at motorcycles again. The dr650 or drz400 were highly suggested over the klr 650 I was looking at. I recall that someone had mentioned you could lower them without aftermarket hardware, is that the case ot would lowering links be better, as I'm a bit short in the leg. The DR650 is going to be the lowest of those stock (low seat helps), and IIRC has a lowering link you can just flip over to lower the back. Forks can, of course, be dropped.
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Jul 7, 2020 18:04
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Coydog posted:The DR650 is going to be the lowest of those stock (low seat helps), and IIRC has a lowering link you can just flip over to lower the back. Forks can, of course, be dropped. There’s also a manufacturer approved reorganization of the fork internals that lowers it about 2”. Mine is lowered now and at 5’10” in boots I can nearly flatfoot it. Or one flat, one on the ball of my foot.
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Jul 7, 2020 19:57
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After doing a bit of reading, I'm uncertain if it'd be better to just get lowering links and a shortened kickstand or go through the trouble of messing with the suspension.
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Jul 7, 2020 20:13
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If you haven't bought it yet, consider a shorter bike that doesn't need such adjustment?
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Jul 7, 2020 20:16
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I haven't purchased anything yet, had thought about getting a Himalayan too
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Jul 7, 2020 20:20
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Pine Cone Jones posted:I haven't purchased anything yet, had thought about getting a Himalayan too Do you dislike motorcycles that work properly?
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Jul 7, 2020 21:41
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Well I do drive a vw.
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Jul 7, 2020 21:48
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Pine Cone Jones posted:After doing a bit of reading, I'm uncertain if it'd be better to just get lowering links and a shortened kickstand or go through the trouble of messing with the suspension. Getting lowering links would be more work than using the factory lowering settings on the rear shocks, and that still only takes care of the rear. If you want the front lowered to maintain stance/rake/trail, you still have to dig into the fork one way or the other.
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Jul 7, 2020 21:51
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Pine Cone Jones posted:Well I do drive a vw. Royal enfields are like a perfect two wheeled match for air cooled vw's, they are the same in every way.
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Jul 7, 2020 22:15
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Haha, I would imagine. In all honesty I'm going to look at some dr650's later in the week or so, neither is lowered and neither has the neutral sending unit fixed. Thankfully my husband said he'd take care of that and lowering the bike.
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Jul 7, 2020 22:26
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Pine Cone Jones posted:Haha, I would imagine. In all honesty I'm going to look at some dr650's later in the week or so, neither is lowered and neither has the neutral sending unit fixed. Thankfully my husband said he'd take care of that and lowering the bike. If you’re into the idea of dual sports, don’t sweat seat height too much, pick one for rideability and ability to do what you want it to do. There are plenty of options out there to lower things, and cutting foam out of the seat plus the DR650s stock lowering options are all free, they just take some work. People will say all kinds of things about how flat footing a bike is an unnecessary concern, but it can really be critical for your comfort with a bike early on, and it can all be reset to stock heights later on when you’re comfortable riding it and handling it at low speed and stopped. Do practice moving the bike around with only one foot on the ground, climbing on and off while it’s on the sidestand, and otherwise building muscle memory around the weight and CG though, it makes riding other bikes easier, and most dedicated dirt/dual sport bikes are taller than the DR.
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Jul 8, 2020 04:17
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The guy was going to sell me the DR said he'd booked the roadworthy check for monday and would let me know what happened, and has now gone completely silent and isn't answering his phone. Gonna give him another couple days and then resume looking elsewhere. gently caress's sake.
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Jul 8, 2020 09:29
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If the seat height on a DR650 is too tall, I would definitely recommend a trials bike. I mean, it's basically the same thing but except the seat is in a sensible position. This is excellent advice. Plate a montesa cota and take it on the highway.
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Jul 10, 2020 00:51
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Fully tucked, redlining top gear (fourth), searching for that breeze to push you over the 70km mark.
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Jul 10, 2020 01:48
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Pine Cone Jones posted:So, after a long while of getting a new job, moving, and settling into a new place I'm looking at motorcycles again. The dr650 or drz400 were highly suggested over the klr 650 I was looking at. I recall that someone had mentioned you could lower them without aftermarket hardware, is that the case ot would lowering links be better, as I'm a bit short in the leg. One of the things that will be very helpful for you is getting used to kind of scooting over to one side or the other of the seat and then putting only one foot down. Fortunately, with a dr/drz it doesn't matter if you drop the bike when doing this. My bike's seat height is 38 inches. I absolutely cannot flat foot it as I am not 7' 2" but just sling yourself over to the side and put one leg down and voila!
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Jul 10, 2020 23:17
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Yeah, depending on your inseam it just takes a little time to adapt. I'm 5'7 with a 30" inseam and the 2020 ktm 690 (35ish inch seat height) has been perfectly comfortable.
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Jul 11, 2020 05:29
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Not being able to put both feet down is mostly a thing only people who can't really ride get wound up about. As soon as they've spent a week riding basically anything it stops being a problem, usually when they unclench enough to work out that just one foot down is perfectly fine.
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Jul 11, 2020 05:52
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Only being able to get one foot down is a non-issue 99.999% of the time. That .001 percent is stopping on an uphill turn where the ground slopes away quickly.
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Jul 11, 2020 06:39
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Picked my DR up today. They're about 9500 here new, I paid 7000 for a 2015 with <3000kms on it, new front and rear procycle springs (fattiest mcfatman version apparently - dude was bigger than me), extended mirrors, steel bash plate, luggage rack, 20l acerbis tank and brand new shinko 712s, most of which I wanted to do anyway. Also bar risers which I'm not sure about, they kinda push the bars back towards me and it's not super comfortable. There's not a mark on it apart from a bar end scrape where he leaned it against the garage wall. Oh and I got it in the van, mirrors needed to come off.   It's got the stock exhaust on it, but came with an "MC performance" slip on. I don't know anything about them but I'll have a look round the internet tonight because it was dark and pissing down rain by the time I got home.
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Jul 11, 2020 11:16
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Nice get! That is really clean
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Jul 11, 2020 14:05
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Drrrrr Nice! Bit of a steal with the springs too. Enjoy destroying that bush
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Jul 11, 2020 19:57
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Having poo poo luck with bikes getting sold before I can look at them, there are a number above 4.5k usd that have stayed on the market, but I'd rather not spend that much yet.
Pine Cone Jones fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Jul 12, 2020 |
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Jul 12, 2020 01:02
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Picked my DR up today. Dang dude that is exactly the bike you shop for when you’re in the market for a DR.
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Jul 12, 2020 03:58
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Checked the whole bike over, found some loose nuts and bolts and fixed them up, chain was waaaay too loose so sorted that out and cleaned and lubed it while I was there, then I went for a 15 minute ride and got back an hour later. Took it on a mixture of highway, damp sand, and gravel road. Seemed great on the gravel despite the highway tires, like it barely felt different from the road. Sand was a problem but I have no idea what I'm doing on sand anyway, so I'm sure I'll get there. Gonna ride these tires off it before I think about changing them. Slow speed circles and figures 8s are somehow easier on this bike - despite feeling way less stable it just goes round where I point it. Within the first 5 minutes I hosed up shifting to second, dumped the clutch with the throttle on, and popped the front wheel a little bit off the ground, so there's that to watch out for, but also I think I could replicate it if I wanted. Maybe I didn't have the cap on properly but the fuel tank had the tiniest bit of fuel on the outside of it after the ride. The breather hose thing popped off at the start but I don' t think that was it (are there tank caps that don't have a weird long tube sticking out of them, or is that just how there things are?) Also gonna have to do something about the bars. They're fine I guess but the risers push them towards me and make me sit in a weird posture, and I think they'd be way too low without those. Pegs are real high too but I saw a lowering kit for 40 bucks so I'll try that out. For whatever reason the wind blast is way worse than on the intruder, don't know if that'll be a problem on longer trips - but like the seat (yeah, not comfortable) I'll ride it in different conditions for a bit and see how I feel in a month or two. Weather and adult responsibilities permitting, I'm gonna do a couple hundred km tomorrow. TL;DR gently caress yeah this thing rules.
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Jul 12, 2020 05:59
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wrt loose chain, did you check it at the tightest place in the suspension travel? Would be bad to snap it while doing sick jumps or whatever.
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Jul 12, 2020 08:43
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Mirconium posted:wrt loose chain, did you check it at the tightest place in the suspension travel? Would be bad to snap it while doing sick jumps or whatever. Love to know how you think this would be achieved. The chain slack on any bike is enough to account for suspension travel, in road bikes the tension difference from lowest to highest is very small, on dirty bikes they just have a looser spec.
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Jul 12, 2020 08:58
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Yeah, I checked it with the bike on the side stand, which is what it says to do in the manual and what I did on the other bike. I did have a question about the chain though. The manual says to use an endless chain and that changing it requires removing the swingarm. Can I use a master link chain, or am I really gonna have to pull the whole poo poo apart back there?
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Jul 12, 2020 09:35
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Yeah nah normal master link chain is done, that's just factory zaniness you can ignore.
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Jul 12, 2020 11:14
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Even if you use an endless chain, you cut the old one off with an angle grinder and install the new one with a master link tool. Taking the swing arm off is like a worst case scenario. Both the angle grinder and the master link tool can be had for cheap at harbor freight and if chain changes are the only time you use the angle grinder it will last forever. So there is that option, and also, yes you can just run a master link after you take a hacksaw to your old chain if that’s more your speed
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Jul 12, 2020 15:23
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Yeah, I checked it with the bike on the side stand, which is what it says to do in the manual I have a question about this: is there a reason to not use a rear stand for making chain adjustments if you have one? I know the owner manual says have the bike on the side stand, but I am assuming that is because your bike doesn’t come with a rear stand. I found it a lot easier to make adjustments on a rear stand, but I suppose I should double check I’m not doing something wrong.
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Jul 12, 2020 16:30
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the chain measurements in the manual likely account for the travel of the suspension absorbed by the weight of the bike itself on the sidestand is why but really as long as you're not running it hilariously tight / loose, you'll be fine
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Jul 12, 2020 16:32
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Even if you use an endless chain, you cut the old one off with an angle grinder and install the new one with a master link tool. Taking the swing arm off is like a worst case scenario. You need youre clothes youre boots youre meres youre angle grinder and youre motorcycle
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Jul 12, 2020 17:24
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Even if you use an endless chain, you cut the old one off with an angle grinder and install the new one with a master link tool. Taking the swing arm off is like a worst case scenario. You're confused here, you can't buy an endless chain anywhere afaik. A rivet type is still a master link, endless means it literally has no master link so if you somehow got one of those you really would need to take the swingarm out to replace it.
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Jul 12, 2020 20:14
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Oh, I forgot those exist because I never buy them. Don’t buy those unless tire ready to take your swingarm off
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Jul 12, 2020 21:58
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Phew, I’ve been practicing taking corners at higher speed — as in, turn right at this corner, not long twisty road cornering — and it’s been working well up until today. I’ve been slowly taking corners a little faster and leaning the bike more, but today for some reason I just took a left onto a street way too early, fast, and not nearly leaned over enough which equated to a super wide turn. I cut across the opposing lane on my way in. I mean it was a quiet street and there was no one coming but if there had been a car oncoming that would have been a bad situation. Kind of sapped my momentum for the rest of the day and I found myself back at square one, scared to take corners at anything higher than putt-putt speed. I ended up riding around a little more but found I was really hesitant so I headed home rather than get more rattled and make another dumb mistake. My goal for this week, if the weather cooperates, is going to be taking the 250 to a parking lot and just doing some more turn drills until I’m tired of them, or the bike is too scraped up to go on.
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Jul 13, 2020 02:03
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