Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

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Dog Case: Oct 7, 2003; Heeelp meee... prevent wildfires

Slide Hammer posted:

Spare parts aren't milk. They won't go bad. Keep that old carburetor forever. Frame that circumspect air filter purchase. Hang it up on the wall.

Save the spectacularly destroyed parts, too. The sprocket with the nearly non-existent teeth, or the engine case and ejected kickstart parts. My brother still has the shattered rocker arm from the old Chevy he doesn't even have any more hanging on the garage wall

# ? Mar 3, 2022 21:20

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 12:13

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

That's how you wind up with a drawer full of chinese scooter parts like me

# ? Mar 3, 2022 21:21

Supradog: Sep 1, 2004; A POOOST!?!??! YEEAAAAHHHH

ca 2.48 euro / 2.70 $ pr liter for normal gas.
Fun times ahead.

# ? Mar 8, 2022 13:34

Ola: Jul 19, 2004

Supradog posted:

ca 2.48 euro / 2.70 $ pr liter for normal gas.
Fun times ahead.

Expect it to get worse before it gets better. US is banning Russian oil and gas import. I expect Europe will follow soon.

# ? Mar 8, 2022 14:23

helno: Jun 19, 2003; hmm now were did I leave that plane

Ola posted:

Expect it to get worse before it gets better. US is banning Russian oil and gas import. I expect Europe will follow soon.

Are people going to replace Biden with Putin on those "I did that" stickers?

# ? Mar 8, 2022 15:09

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

helno posted:

Are people going to replace Biden with Putin on those "I did that" stickers?

Oh they were already doing that. I had a nice discussion this morning with a friend of a friend on Facebook who blamed it on Trudeau up here and the local NDP government.
For raising the minimum wage.

# ? Mar 8, 2022 16:21

Finger Prince: Jan 5, 2007

Opopanax posted:

Oh they were already doing that. I had a nice discussion this morning with a friend of a friend on Facebook who blamed it on Trudeau up here and the local NDP government.
For raising the minimum wage.

Mount Garibaldi could erupt and those people would blame Trudeau for it.

# ? Mar 8, 2022 21:03

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

Well that's a new one. Went to go wake my bike up for the season here so I can tune it up and get it ready, and once I got it running a whole bunch of gas started gushing out of the side cover where the stator is. I'm pretty sure it's gas and not oil, but it sure isn't anywhere close to where gas is supposed to be in this thing. This should be fun

E: false alarm, it was a carb drain line that was tucked in behind some stuff. Still a big pain in the rear end but not a blown head gasket at least

Opopanax fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Mar 10, 2022

# ? Mar 9, 2022 23:37

HenryJLittlefinger: Jan 31, 2010; stomp clap

Opopanax posted:

Well that's a new one. Went to go wake my bike up for the season here so I can tune it up and get it ready, and once I got it running a whole bunch of gas started gushing out of the side cover where the stator is. I'm pretty sure it's gas and not oil, but it sure isn't anywhere close to where gas is supposed to be in this thing. This should be fun

E: false alarm, it was a carb drain line that was tucked in behind some stuff. Still a big pain in the rear end but not a blown head gasket at least

You probably have a stuck float valve.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 00:07

Geekboy: Aug 21, 2005; Now that's what I call a geekMAN!

Riding around on a Harley and getting out of the city to enjoy gorgeous views of the Columbia River Gorge and then riding my Royal Alloy scooter to meetings and the grocery store is a wonderful juxtaposition and I can see how people own 400 different motorcycles now.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 00:30

Slide Hammer: May 15, 2009

Opopanax posted:

E: false alarm, it was a carb drain line that was tucked in behind some stuff. Still a big pain in the rear end but not a blown head gasket at least

HenryJLittlefinger posted:

You probably have a stuck float valve.

You can even try tapping the float bowl or shaking the bike. Sometimes they're stuck just from the tension of gravity on the float pin when it happened to be at a weird angle, or a single piece of whatever holding the needle open by 1 micrometer or something.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 01:21

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

At first you try to resolve the conflict between the bike you need and the bike you want. This can go either way, you might just end up with a really poo poo compromise model like a versys or something, or you end up with two bikes; one for fun and one for transport.

Then you find that your fun bike is fun in a particular range of corner speed. This is great for your local twisty haunts, but going further afield has made you realize that something with longer legs and a bit more comfort might be handy. So now you have a utility bike, a fun bike, and a long trip bike. At this point again, you can backslide, try to combine them all and end up with something really dumb like a big GS. But three bikes is ok.

Then you discover dirt riding so you need a fourth bike for that purpose. Now you have four bikes.

Then, on a fun ride on your fun bike with your fun mates, you have a turn on a different fun bike to yours. Surprisingly, it's just as fun, but in a completely different way, which is strange cause they're so similar and might even be competing models. So you start to seriously think about what you want out of a fun bike, really dig into the details, and realise you want a twin, a four, and a single. Now you have seven bikes.

Then you start to get really deviant and esoteric cause normal 'fun' riding barely even moves the needle anymore. You get a literbike just to feel something, but that gets old cause power is just power and you always get used to it. So you get a motard to scratch that itch, you start seriously thinking about building a flat tracker, you start looking at Harleys and thinking 'if I made this thing really fucken tall and put some night dragons on it...'. You now have 6-8 bikes.

Then you discover the crumbling, vine covered pagan temple of the two stroke. You suddenly realize every one of your eight bikes has a two stroke equivalent; it's like playing NG+, everything is pretty much the same but much harder and funner and more intense. At this point you've got approximately twenty bikes but you'd have to sit down and list them for an exact count.

Then you get even more twisted. At this point backing it in on a turbo sportster routine. It's all just too easy. You go to a bike meet and some punishing wounder rolls up on something ancient like a cb750 or gpz900 and you have a turn. The tires are the wrong size, the chassis parts are garbage, random breakdowns are a constant threat, a totally different riding style is required - hard difficulty! So you decide it would be cool to have a classic project. But what kind? There's so many different kinds of classic bike, you're now exactly where you started but looking at 40yo wrecks while your thirty other bikes languish and you just ride the scooter most days.

How far you get along this track depends on only three factors: space, money, enthusiasm. If you have all three you will literally never stop and eventually you end up with a paddock covered in tents filled with hundreds of dirt bikes maintained by your servants that you occasionally ride between posing for romance novel covers.

Bicycles seem to work the same way, I'm currently in the 'spiralling out of control' phase and it's only been like six months. They are cheaper and take up less space, I currently have reduced my count to just seven.

Slavvy fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Mar 10, 2022

# ? Mar 10, 2022 01:24

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

Slide Hammer posted:

You can even try tapping the float bowl or shaking the bike. Sometimes they're stuck just from the tension of gravity on the float pin when it happened to be at a weird angle, or a single piece of whatever holding the needle open by 1 micrometer or something.

Yeah that was it, just leveled the bike and did some percussive maintenance and it seems to have stopped now. Just needed the shock of a torrent of gas coming out of what appeared to be my bottom case to wear off

# ? Mar 10, 2022 02:43

HenryJLittlefinger: Jan 31, 2010; stomp clap

Slavvy posted:

At first you try to resolve the conflict between the bike you need and the bike you want. This can go either way, you might just end up with a really poo poo compromise model like a versys or something, or you end up with two bikes; one for fun and one for transport.

Then you find that your fun bike is fun in a particular range of corner speed. This is great for your local twisty haunts, but going further afield has made you realize that something with longer legs and a bit more comfort might be handy. So now you have a utility bike, a fun bike, and a long trip bike. At this point again, you can backslide, try to combine them all and end up with something really dumb like a big GS. But three bikes is ok.

Then you discover dirt riding so you need a fourth bike for that purpose. Now you have four bikes.

Then, on a fun ride on your fun bike with your fun mates, you have a turn on a different fun bike to yours. Surprisingly, it's just as fun, but in a completely different way, which is strange cause they're so similar and might even be competing models. So you start to seriously think about what you want out of a fun bike, really dig into the details, and realise you want a twin, a four, and a single. Now you have seven bikes.

Then you start to get really deviant and esoteric cause normal 'fun' riding barely even moves the needle anymore. You get a literbike just to feel something, but that gets old cause power is just power and you always get used to it. So you get a motard to scratch that itch, you start seriously thinking about building a flat tracker, you start looking at Harleys and thinking 'if I made this thing really fucken tall and put some night dragons on it...'. You now have 6-8 bikes.

Then you discover the crumbling, vine covered pagan temple of the two stroke. You suddenly realize every one of your eight bikes has a two stroke equivalent; it's like playing NG+, everything is pretty much the same but much harder and funner and more intense. At this point you've got approximately twenty bikes but you'd have to sit down and list them for an exact count.

Then you get even more twisted. At this point backing it in on a turbo sportster routine. It's all just too easy. You go to a bike meet and some punishing wounder rolls up on something ancient like a cb750 or gpz900 and you have a turn. The tires are the wrong size, the chassis parts are garbage, random breakdowns are a constant threat, a totally different riding style is required - hard difficulty! So you decide it would be cool to have a classic project. But what kind? There's so many different kinds of classic bike, you're now exactly where you started but looking at 40yo wrecks while your thirty other bikes languish and you just ride the scooter most days.

How far you get along this track depends on only three factors: space, money, enthusiasm. If you have all three you will literally never stop and eventually you end up with a paddock covered in tents filled with hundreds of dirt bikes maintained by your servants that you occasionally ride between posing for romance novel covers.

Bicycles seem to work the same way, I'm currently in the 'spiralling out of control' phase and it's only been like six months. They are cheaper and take up less space, I currently have reduced my count to just seven.

Yeah I just got home and smoked a bowl too.

E: lol I remember Fabio�s stable every now and then

HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Mar 10, 2022

# ? Mar 10, 2022 03:10

Midjack: Dec 24, 2007

Slavvy posted:

At first you try to resolve the conflict between the bike you need and the bike you want. This can go either way, you might just end up with a really poo poo compromise model like a versys or something, or you end up with two bikes; one for fun and one for transport.

Then you find that your fun bike is fun in a particular range of corner speed. This is great for your local twisty haunts, but going further afield has made you realize that something with longer legs and a bit more comfort might be handy. So now you have a utility bike, a fun bike, and a long trip bike. At this point again, you can backslide, try to combine them all and end up with something really dumb like a big GS. But three bikes is ok.

Then you discover dirt riding so you need a fourth bike for that purpose. Now you have four bikes.

Then, on a fun ride on your fun bike with your fun mates, you have a turn on a different fun bike to yours. Surprisingly, it's just as fun, but in a completely different way, which is strange cause they're so similar and might even be competing models. So you start to seriously think about what you want out of a fun bike, really dig into the details, and realise you want a twin, a four, and a single. Now you have seven bikes.

Then you start to get really deviant and esoteric cause normal 'fun' riding barely even moves the needle anymore. You get a literbike just to feel something, but that gets old cause power is just power and you always get used to it. So you get a motard to scratch that itch, you start seriously thinking about building a flat tracker, you start looking at Harleys and thinking 'if I made this thing really fucken tall and put some night dragons on it...'. You now have 6-8 bikes.

Then you discover the crumbling, vine covered pagan temple of the two stroke. You suddenly realize every one of your eight bikes has a two stroke equivalent; it's like playing NG+, everything is pretty much the same but much harder and funner and more intense. At this point you've got approximately twenty bikes but you'd have to sit down and list them for an exact count.

Then you get even more twisted. At this point backing it in on a turbo sportster routine. It's all just too easy. You go to a bike meet and some punishing wounder rolls up on something ancient like a cb750 or gpz900 and you have a turn. The tires are the wrong size, the chassis parts are garbage, random breakdowns are a constant threat, a totally different riding style is required - hard difficulty! So you decide it would be cool to have a classic project. But what kind? There's so many different kinds of classic bike, you're now exactly where you started but looking at 40yo wrecks while your thirty other bikes languish and you just ride the scooter most days.

How far you get along this track depends on only three factors: space, money, enthusiasm. If you have all three you will literally never stop and eventually you end up with a paddock covered in tents filled with hundreds of dirt bikes maintained by your servants that you occasionally ride between posing for romance novel covers.

Bicycles seem to work the same way, I'm currently in the 'spiralling out of control' phase and it's only been like six months. They are cheaper and take up less space, I currently have reduced my count to just seven.

This was me with a different sort of non transportation hardware and yes I ended up with fifty distinct examples, each great in their own way.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 03:18

Russian Bear: Dec 26, 2007

Slavvy posted:

At first you try to resolve the conflict between the bike you need and the bike you want. This can go either way, you might just end up with a really poo poo compromise model like a versys or something, or you end up with two bikes; one for fun and one for transport.

Then you find that your fun bike is fun in a particular range of corner speed. This is great for your local twisty haunts, but going further afield has made you realize that something with longer legs and a bit more comfort might be handy. So now you have a utility bike, a fun bike, and a long trip bike. At this point again, you can backslide, try to combine them all and end up with something really dumb like a big GS. But three bikes is ok.

Then you discover dirt riding so you need a fourth bike for that purpose. Now you have four bikes.

Then, on a fun ride on your fun bike with your fun mates, you have a turn on a different fun bike to yours. Surprisingly, it's just as fun, but in a completely different way, which is strange cause they're so similar and might even be competing models. So you start to seriously think about what you want out of a fun bike, really dig into the details, and realise you want a twin, a four, and a single. Now you have seven bikes.

Then you start to get really deviant and esoteric cause normal 'fun' riding barely even moves the needle anymore. You get a literbike just to feel something, but that gets old cause power is just power and you always get used to it. So you get a motard to scratch that itch, you start seriously thinking about building a flat tracker, you start looking at Harleys and thinking 'if I made this thing really fucken tall and put some night dragons on it...'. You now have 6-8 bikes.

Then you discover the crumbling, vine covered pagan temple of the two stroke. You suddenly realize every one of your eight bikes has a two stroke equivalent; it's like playing NG+, everything is pretty much the same but much harder and funner and more intense. At this point you've got approximately twenty bikes but you'd have to sit down and list them for an exact count.

Then you get even more twisted. At this point backing it in on a turbo sportster routine. It's all just too easy. You go to a bike meet and some punishing wounder rolls up on something ancient like a cb750 or gpz900 and you have a turn. The tires are the wrong size, the chassis parts are garbage, random breakdowns are a constant threat, a totally different riding style is required - hard difficulty! So you decide it would be cool to have a classic project. But what kind? There's so many different kinds of classic bike, you're now exactly where you started but looking at 40yo wrecks while your thirty other bikes languish and you just ride the scooter most days.

How far you get along this track depends on only three factors: space, money, enthusiasm. If you have all three you will literally never stop and eventually you end up with a paddock covered in tents filled with hundreds of dirt bikes maintained by your servants that you occasionally ride between posing for romance novel covers.

Bicycles seem to work the same way, I'm currently in the 'spiralling out of control' phase and it's only been like six months. They are cheaper and take up less space, I currently have reduced my count to just seven.

Tale old as time :allears:

My current bicycling situation is covered by my gravel bike and a rowdy trail bike; but additional BS bikes i want that i don't need:
single speed 29+ hardtail MTB for the bikepacking i will never do or just for when i don't feel like pedaling 160mm of suspension around the easier trails

cargo e-bike to replace my car use as much as possible

a mini velo because weird bikes are fun

Then on the motorcycle front
small dual sport like honda 300l rally
supermoto because it's a little different
not too big adv bike because you can't escape 80mph highways here in between the good riding or if you want to tour (T7 or maybe an africa twin)
probably still want a big naked or a hypermotard right?

# ? Mar 10, 2022 03:40

helno: Jun 19, 2003; hmm now were did I leave that plane

Opopanax posted:

Oh they were already doing that. I had a nice discussion this morning with a friend of a friend on Facebook who blamed it on Trudeau up here and the local NDP government.
For raising the minimum wage.

Yeah those idiots would order the spicy mcnuggets and then blame Trudeau for their arseholes being hot the next day.

I did the math and it turns out the CT90 can actually be cheaper than my PHEV on EV mode to commute to work. Taking a bike path around the gate of a gated community gives it the edge.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 03:58

Finger Prince: Jan 5, 2007

I just took my partner's ebike out today for the first time. Wow, yeah that's the future of transportation right there, at least where there's decent cycling infrastructure. Getting one of my own is gonna eat in to the motorcycle budget, but it makes getting around so much easier.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 04:42

Geekboy: Aug 21, 2005; Now that's what I call a geekMAN!

Our household owns a bicycle shop too, so we currently have � 7 bicycles (?), 2 scooters, and 2 motorcycles. Down from considerably more bicycles than that.

It�s like we traded one 2 wheeled addiction for another.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 08:51

right arm: Oct 30, 2011

Finger Prince posted:

I just took my partner's ebike out today for the first time. Wow, yeah that's the future of transportation right there, at least where there's decent cycling infrastructure. Getting one of my own is gonna eat in to the motorcycle budget, but it makes getting around so much easier.

yeah they own. biking to work without breaking a sweat is lovely

# ? Mar 10, 2022 14:47

Russian Bear: Dec 26, 2007

Finger Prince posted:

I just took my partner's ebike out today for the first time. Wow, yeah that's the future of transportation right there, at least where there's decent cycling infrastructure. Getting one of my own is gonna eat in to the motorcycle budget, but it makes getting around so much easier.

Check out the ebike thread in The Great Outdoors when you start looking or feel free to PM me.

# ? Mar 10, 2022 16:50

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

Ok here's another fun one. I realized my brake light wasn't work right and dug into that. the taillight comes on with the key; if I pull the front brake the light dims, and if I hit the rear brake nothing at all happens. checked the wiring with my multimeter, I get 12v in on both the running wire and the one attached to the brakes, but when I pull either brake that one drops to 5/6v (running one stays at 12v), both exactly the same, even though it only dims with the front and doesn't change at all with the rear. Gotta to love electrical problems

# ? Mar 11, 2022 21:31

goddamnedtwisto: Dec 31, 2004; If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you; Fun Shoe

Opopanax posted:

Ok here's another fun one. I realized my brake light wasn't work right and dug into that. the taillight comes on with the key; if I pull the front brake the light dims, and if I hit the rear brake nothing at all happens. checked the wiring with my multimeter, I get 12v in on both the running wire and the one attached to the brakes, but when I pull either brake that one drops to 5/6v (running one stays at 12v), both exactly the same, even though it only dims with the front and doesn't change at all with the rear. Gotta to love electrical problems

Change the bulb and clean the contacts before you go digging any further. Otherwise I'd guess a short in the wiring from the front brake.

# ? Mar 11, 2022 21:46

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

It's an old bike so the wiring isn't insanely complex or anything, at least. I could change the bulb but I'm testing with my meter at the pigtail just before the bulb so it shouldn't be. Certainly looks like a short somewhere though.

E: pulled the headlight off and unhooked the front brake light and now the rear is working properly and the voltage isn't dropping so it's definitely a short between the front and the back. The hunt begins. Got to love electrical, takes 10 minutes to fix but three hours to find

Opopanax fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Mar 11, 2022

# ? Mar 11, 2022 21:54

Nidhg00670000: Mar 26, 2010; We're in the pipe, five by five.; Grimey Drawer

Opopanax posted:

the front brake light

The what now?

# ? Mar 12, 2022 10:51

Sagebrush: Feb 26, 2012

I assume he means the connector to the front brake lever switch.

# ? Mar 12, 2022 19:26

Here4DaGangBang: Dec 3, 2004; I beat my dick like it owes me money!

Midjack posted:

This was me with a different sort of non transportation hardware and yes I ended up with fifty distinct examples, each great in their own way.

Guns. It�s guns, right?

# ? Mar 13, 2022 01:01

Opopanax: Aug 8, 2007; I HEX YE!!!

Nidhg00670000 posted:

The what now?

Look man, I just fix stuff, I don't get paid to word good

Sagebrush posted:

I assume he means the connector to the front brake lever switch.

But yeah this

# ? Mar 13, 2022 01:10

some kinda jackal: Feb 25, 2003; �
�

I love the way a Thruxton looks

And then I sat on one again today and I'm like "there's no way on god's green earth I am riding this for more than five minutes". Always sit on bikes when I go pick up stuff from the local bike shop though. Super fun just to see how other things feel.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 17:57

Finger Prince: Jan 5, 2007

some kinda jackal posted:

I love the way a Thruxton looks

And then I sat on one again today and I'm like "there's no way on god's green earth I am riding this for more than five minutes". Always sit on bikes when I go pick up stuff from the local bike shop though. Super fun just to see how other things feel.

Oh yeah, 100%. And it's apparently kinda a dog. But I did see one with a very fruity 'zorst blast down Upper Thames street near London Bridge once, and that's still enough for me to every once in a while think, hmm, but what about a Thruxton though?

# ? Mar 16, 2022 18:46

Toe Rag: Aug 29, 2005

some kinda jackal posted:

I love the way a Thruxton looks

And then I sat on one again today and I'm like "there's no way on god's green earth I am riding this for more than five minutes". Always sit on bikes when I go pick up stuff from the local bike shop though. Super fun just to see how other things feel.

I can't get over the fender under the rear cowl. I don't mind OEM rear fenders as much as most, but this would absolutely have to go.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 21:20

Strife: Apr 20, 2001; What the hell are YOU?

Here4DaGangBang posted:

Guns. It�s guns, right?

The problem there is that they all take different kinds of ammunition. It'd be like instead of having to use metric sockets on most bikes, and imperial (loving and metric) on American bikes, you'd have to buy a different kind of socket set for nearly every single motorcycle you had. Beyond that it's basically 1:1 with Slavvy's analogy. Sometimes people try getting a 5.7 pistol because it shoots rifle ammo, or a conversion kit for a 9mm Glock so they can pretend it's a rifle, but you're really trying to cram something into the wrong use-case. Before you know it you've spent tens of thousands of dollars on various weird niche firearms that are mostly taking up space, that you're disinclined to shoot because you can't find a store that reliably stocks 10mm ammo or .577 Tyrannosaur or some other wild poo poo that you only bought because you were there, you just got paid, and it was available.

And maybe you're into motorcycles, firearms, bourbon, and cars, and you don't receive paychecks so much as watch them float past you twice a month.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 21:29

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

Russian Bear posted:

Tale old as time

My current bicycling situation is covered by my gravel bike and a rowdy trail bike; but additional BS bikes i want that i don't need:
single speed 29+ hardtail MTB for the bikepacking i will never do or just for when i don't feel like pedaling 160mm of suspension around the easier trails

cargo e-bike to replace my car use as much as possible

a mini velo because weird bikes are fun

Then on the motorcycle front
small dual sport like honda 300l rally
supermoto because it's a little different
not too big adv bike because you can't escape 80mph highways here in between the good riding or if you want to tour (T7 or maybe an africa twin)
probably still want a big naked or a hypermotard right?

One day I'll have a surly :sigh:

Strife posted:

The problem there is that they all take different kinds of ammunition. It'd be like instead of having to use metric sockets on most bikes, and imperial (loving and metric) on American bikes, you'd have to buy a different kind of socket set for nearly every single motorcycle you had. Beyond that it's basically 1:1 with Slavvy's analogy. Sometimes people try getting a 5.7 pistol because it shoots rifle ammo, or a conversion kit for a 9mm Glock so they can pretend it's a rifle, but you're really trying to cram something into the wrong use-case. Before you know it you've spent tens of thousands of dollars on various weird niche firearms that are mostly taking up space, that you're disinclined to shoot because you can't find a store that reliably stocks 10mm ammo or .577 Tyrannosaur or some other wild poo poo that you only bought because you were there, you just got paid, and it was available.

And maybe you're into motorcycles, firearms, bourbon, and cars, and you don't receive paychecks so much as watch them float past you twice a month.

I've never handled a gun but I know enough about them to know that they're extremely similar to bikes philosophically - there are long periods where next to nothing changes and there's just a shitload of refinement and gradual design convergence, then a technological jump happens (eg smokeless powder or radial tires) and you get a brief flurry of total insanity, followed by a long period of consolidation as the good ideas and actual improvements are distilled out of the garbage. Meat-machine interface and quality of life factors are always much more important than raw performance, but that doesn't stop the engineers from trying! Often there's a fixation on individual sacred solutions (eg ZTL brakes, bullpup layouts) at the expense of the package as a whole. The novel solutions that actually work become the new norm when they're adopted by everyone, like telescopic forks or box magazines, to the point it becomes hard to imagine things being any other way.

Heard a gun guy say once 'you wouldn't believe how much work it took to get to those parts that look so simple and obvious now' and that is motorbikes 100%. Think you're Honda's generic standardized switchgear is a bit lame? Have a go on a 60's BSA and let me know what you think. Also, guns and bikes have developmental pressure on their evolution that's largely independent of market trends because of war and racing (aka friendly colorful war where nobody usually gets hurt).

They are just very similar devices in a lot of ways and it makes me sad I live in a sane country that won't sell me an assault rifle fifteen at Kmart.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 22:05

Steakandchips: Apr 30, 2009

Tell me Slavvy, is there oil under the hills around you?

# ? Mar 16, 2022 22:09

Finger Prince: Jan 5, 2007

A while back I got in to watching Forgotten Weapons on YouTube. What a treasure trove of cool engineering. I'm not a gun owner or gun person and don't live in freedom-land, but I'm addicted to that channel for the historical and engineering stuff that he goes in to depth about. So much about gun design seems to come about from a guy with a machine shop and half a good idea, like the entire industry is just dozens of Eric Buells.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 22:58

Strife: Apr 20, 2001; What the hell are YOU?

Slavvy posted:

I've never handled a gun but I know enough about them to know that they're extremely similar to bikes philosophically - there are long periods where next to nothing changes and there's just a shitload of refinement and gradual design convergence, then a technological jump happens (eg smokeless powder or radial tires) and you get a brief flurry of total insanity, followed by a long period of consolidation as the good ideas and actual improvements are distilled out of the garbage.

This is extremely accurate as my favorite pistol has basically been in service since 1911. Not much improvement has been needed since then. And a lot of what's proposed, similar to motorcycles, is unnecessary technological bullshit that does more harm than good to the operator, the machine, and the wallet.

# ? Mar 16, 2022 23:03

Slavvy: Dec 11, 2012

Finger Prince posted:

A while back I got in to watching Forgotten Weapons on YouTube. What a treasure trove of cool engineering. I'm not a gun owner or gun person and don't live in freedom-land, but I'm addicted to that channel for the historical and engineering stuff that he goes in to depth about. So much about gun design seems to come about from a guy with a machine shop and half a good idea, like the entire industry is just dozens of Eric Buells.

If I had motivation and charisma (or at least, inoffensiveness), forgotten weapons but for bikes is what I'd be doing with my life.

Strife posted:

This is extremely accurate as my favorite pistol has basically been in service since 1911. Not much improvement has been needed since then. And a lot of what's proposed, similar to motorcycles, is unnecessary technological bullshit that does more harm than good to the operator, the machine, and the wallet.

Fwiw imo the closest thing to Harleys in the gun world are AK's and 1911's. What would gun Ducati be? H&K?

What's a gun Honda? Glock?

# ? Mar 16, 2022 23:09

RightClickSaveAs: Mar 1, 2001; Tiny animals under glass... Smaller than sand...

Glock's a weird case in that an engineer with no previous firearms design experience who spent most his life making things like doorknobs and curtain rods redesigned a gun from scratch and came up with something that ended up working incredibly well and seeing wide adoption. He didn't come on the scene until like 1980 though, I believe. A rare case of someone re-engineering and landing on really simple (for an automatic handgun), functional, and reliable redesign. So maybe Honda in that it's (arguably) boring, reliable, and simple, but a much shorter design and experience history!

# ? Mar 16, 2022 23:47

right arm: Oct 30, 2011

Slavvy posted:

If I had motivation and charisma (or at least, inoffensiveness), forgotten weapons but for bikes is what I'd be doing with my life.

Fwiw imo the closest thing to Harleys in the gun world are AK's and 1911's. What would gun Ducati be? H&K?

What's a gun Honda? Glock?

harleys would be like some boutique 1911 since the only reason its a new manufacture gun using an old platform is due to ~heritage~

Honda is glock because they�re terribly boring but Just Work

MV Augusta would be pardini (also italian and complicated)

old HK is pre-2012 KTM for using odd designs (roller delayed blowback that doesn�t need to exist when browning�s short recoil operation was perfected ages ago, but is still supremely cool (950 super enduro)

modern HK is modern BMW

I�d say ducati would be something like benelli when they used to make weird pistols like the B76 that I love, but odd, unnecessary, and less reliable

# ? Mar 17, 2022 01:30

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# ? Jun 3, 2024 12:13

TheBacon: Feb 8, 2012; #essereFerrari

What�s a Sig motorcycle? That�s the next bike I need to buy.

# ? Mar 17, 2022 02:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

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