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Remy Marathe posted:Sounds fun! I find motorcycle miles to be about equivalent to city driving on a strange route; the increased vigilance and keeping myself on task scanning the road tires me out as much in an hour as an easier 2-3 hour drive. I bet you’re happily pooped when you get back. Pretty much. Just got back home and sat down. Did a touch over 200 miles all said and done. Had an awesome time. Though I did learn that after a while that seat gets very uncomfortable. Going to have to invest in some sore of cushion to put on it for longer rides. Edit: On the side note the Blue Ridge Parkway is beautiful and I think riding the whole thing is now going to be one of my bucket list rides. Also tunnels are freaking awesome on a bike, holy crap. katka fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Apr 15, 2022 |
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Apr 15, 2022 23:16
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Bead seat.
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Apr 16, 2022 01:15
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First time had someone try to reverse into me in a turn lane because they were obstructing a ped crosswalk and someone was coming across. The good: was positioned properly far left in the lane with easy escape to in between cars if needed; no one behind me so waddling backwards was also an option The bad: i froze up and said "woah" out loud instead of reacting right away and doing something because i wasn't expecting this Outcome: the driver saw me (thanks to good lane positioning) and stopped reversing pretty quickly, probably had another 3-4 feet of space left before contact Lesson: expect the unexpected threat and react with action quicker
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Apr 17, 2022 19:10
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Does your bike have a horn?
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Apr 18, 2022 09:42
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I'm going to buy a new set of tires this spring for my bike and am pretty happy with what I've been running. I was going to try and save a few bucks by ordering them on FortNine, but I'm a little confused about what I see and can't find an answer online. I've got Pirelli MT 60 RS front and rear, and FortNine has a SKU for both the MT 60 RS and the MT 60 RS Sport Corsa. The normal tire doesn't have my sizes in stock but the Sport Corsa does; what's the difference? Is that just the same thing but the newer name for the tire or something? They look identical.
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Apr 18, 2022 15:25
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knox_harrington posted:Does your bike have a horn? I've been reversed into (in my car) at a light before, here's how it went: car in front: throws it into reverse and starts rolling backward me: oh poo poo I have no room to back up, better hit the horn *hoooooonk* crunch on a bike, I think he made the right call to get out of the way first and honk later, especially given most bike horns are about as loud as an anemic fart
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Apr 18, 2022 15:36
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A few years ago I was working on my bike in the street all morning. The 16-year-old girl directly across the street had been sitting on the lawn also all morning talking to someone on her phone. After like 2 hours of talking, facing me working on the bike the whole time, she got into her car, backed out of her driveway, and directly across the street into my motorcycle as I was standing next to it. I jumped out of the way when I realized what was happening and started pounding on her trunk and shouting but she hit it anyway. She knocked it over and busted the pegs and levers. Granted she was just a teenager but yeah, car drivers are absolutely clueless by and large. Always anticipate that the cars around you are going to do something stupid and proactively give yourself exits and backup plans. Later that night her parents came over, extremely apologetic, and offered to pay for the damage. The dad had this extremely pained expression and said "you know I've been teaching her and I've been telling her so, so many times to look backwards when she's backing up, but...". I ended up accepting 200 bucks and they said I was a good man. I hope it was a valuable learning experience for her about pointing your head in the direction you're going, instead of reversing with the rear view mirror like you're a tank driver. Far too many people do that poo poo
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Apr 18, 2022 15:52
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Jcam posted:I'm going to buy a new set of tires this spring for my bike and am pretty happy with what I've been running. I was going to try and save a few bucks by ordering them on FortNine, but I'm a little confused about what I see and can't find an answer online. You have a Scrambler, right? It looks like the "Sport Corsa" is the version that Pirelli sells to Ducati for installationat the factory. This is pretty common, lots of bikes come out of the factory with brand name tires that are actually a special (read: cheaper) version of that tire model. IDK anything about these MT 60s specifically but generally speaking, the "regular" version will be a more well-made and better-performing tire than the special factory version.
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Apr 18, 2022 16:16
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Ahh that makes perfect sense, thank you so much.
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Apr 18, 2022 16:24
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Noob drivetrain question. I've just adjusted the train and I'm noting the rear sprocket is getting towards shark tooth territory so I'll need to change that soon. Which brings me to the numbers on it; 37, 428. I'm assuming 37 tooth because that makes sense looking at it. The 428 refers to the width of the chain, correct? It's a 6 bolt fitment. I'm going to swap out the lot because the chain has stretched a fair amount at this point. So I'm looking for a decent replacement and I understand motorcycle chains have even more options than mountain bikes at this point. What makes a decent chain?
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Apr 18, 2022 16:36
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Noob drivetrain question. I've just adjusted the train and I'm noting the rear sprocket is getting towards shark tooth territory so I'll need to change that soon. Typically you have 3 types of chain, standard roller, o-ring, and x-ring, from cheapest to most expensive. Standard chains are not as common anymore on street bikes, but if your bike came with one you can run it. You can also replace a standard chain with an o-ring or x-ring. The advantage of the "ring" chains is they have increased life span because they hold lubrication in better, but a chain that isn't maintained is going to poo poo out early regardless of the type and eat the sprockets at the same time. It's just that in general you have to maintain a standard chain more often to keep it in good condition. Standard chains do have the advantage of better power transfer to the rear wheel, not enough for the average rider to tell. Then you have master link vs clip, this is just the way the chain is installed and removed. With master link you don't necessarily need (but probably should have) a chain tool while the clip ones you do not. Clip vs master link reliablility is a  subject.If you go up or down in sprocket teeth you may need to add or subtract links. Unless ordering direct from the dealership most chains don't come with the correct number of links, but you can remove them with an angle grinder by grinding off the mushroomed part of the link and driving it out. The two go-to chain manufacturers are RK and DID.
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Apr 18, 2022 17:53
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Correct, 428 is the chain dimension, and 37 would be tooth number. What differs on cheap/ more expensive brands of chain is usually how long the rubber seals last in them to keep the grease in and road dust/water out. And a little how good metals/tolerances are used vs stretching over time(which is also a function of missing grease as far as I'm aware). x-ring chains is the default new standard, o-ring is the older/cheaper variant. With chains and sprockets you really usually get what you pay for. Go for known brands, and x-ring chains. Look up your bike at a local bike parts site. check for a chain + sprocket kit, DiD has a ton usually combined with JT sprockets. JT Sprockets works fine. Use the kits to see what is default sprockets sizes. and see options up/down on front and rear if your bike is of a non obscure brand and type. I stick to DiD vx3 chains and JT sprockets usually, but there are a ton of other manufacturers. Also, post pictures, a worn rear sprocket might not be as bad, and aren't usually changed solo. if rear is actually worn then the chain and front sprocket may also be getting worn. edit: do not let your front sprocket look like this.. 
Supradog fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 18, 2022 |
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Apr 18, 2022 17:55
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Sagebrush posted:I hope it was a valuable learning experience for her about pointing your head in the direction you're going, instead of reversing with the rear view mirror like you're a tank driver. Far too many people do that poo poo I was kind of shocked to learn how big the blind spots are on my Tacoma, even being really careful about using all three mirrors plus my little wide angle inserts when I back up. The other day I was cleaning the truck and my kid was putzing around in the driveway behind the truck on her bike, so I got in and closed the door and just watched her to see where I lost sight of her. Naturally it's a pretty long blind spot immediately behind the bed, but even with side mirrors adjusted right it was pretty eye opening. I've started doing a walkaround my truck every time I leave my driveway just because there are so many kids that play in my front yard and driveway between mine and neighbors. One of the neighbor kids is the kind who just sits silently in a quiet spot on the sidewalk for hours playing by herself a lot, too.
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Apr 18, 2022 19:01
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Gorson posted:Typically you have 3 types of chain, standard roller, o-ring, and x-ring, from cheapest to most expensive. Standard chains are not as common anymore on street bikes, but if your bike came with one you can run it. You can also replace a standard chain with an o-ring or x-ring. The advantage of the "ring" chains is they have increased life span because they hold lubrication in better, but a chain that isn't maintained is going to poo poo out early regardless of the type and eat the sprockets at the same time. It's just that in general you have to maintain a standard chain more often to keep it in good condition. Standard chains do have the advantage of better power transfer to the rear wheel, not enough for the average rider to tell. Supradog posted:Correct, 428 is the chain dimension, and 37 would be tooth number. Thank for this, I'll do some digging on the PCD/inner diameter so I can see what I can get for the rear, I was going to replace the lot anyway to get something better than the cheap OEM 'just there so we can sell it as a complete bike' stuff it's currently wearing. And that front sprocket is toast, yeesh. Mine are definitely not that bad but noticeably worn.
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Apr 19, 2022 17:15
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Last night, while I was riding my Rebel 500 home from work, I was passing a truck and felt my engine sort of "catch" for a moment, like it had stopped, and the bike slowed down before re-engaging and smoothly accelerating again. No other problems rest of the ride. I checked everything I could think to check when I got home (Oil level, any obvious obstructions, any apparent mechanical damage or loose seals), and everything looked fine. How worried should I be? My best guess at this point is maybe some water got in somewhere it wasn't supposed to?
unimportantguy fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Apr 21, 2022 |
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Apr 21, 2022 20:04
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unimportantguy posted:Last night, while I was riding home from work, I was passing a truck and felt my engine sort of "catch" for a moment, like it had stopped, and the bike slowed down before re-engaging and smoothly accelerating again. No other problems rest of the ride. I checked everything I could think to check when I got home (Oil level, any obvious obstructions, any apparent mechanical damage or loose seals), and everything looked fine. How worried should I be? My best guess at this point is maybe some water got in somewhere it wasn't supposed to? This sounds like a borderline side stand safety switch or similar. Unfortunately, unless it's something really obvious like a bad connector, you have to wait for it to fault again to test what the problem is. Also, in future state what kind of bike you have as the causes and solutions to a problem like this are wildly different if your have eg a 390 vs a ninja 250. It might be possible to just Be Prepared and ride around with a jumper wire, waiting for a failure so you can short the switch and see if it fixes it; otoh the exact same problem for the exact same reason might not be rectifiable without dealer assistance. Really need to know what the bike is. Slavvy fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Apr 21, 2022 |
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Apr 21, 2022 20:18
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Slavvy posted:This sounds like a borderline side stand safety switch or similar. Unfortunately, unless it's something really obvious like a bad connector, you have to wait for it to fault again to test what the problem is. Whoops! Sorry. Honda Rebel 500. I'll edit it into the post as well. Edit: Thank you, Slaavy! Time to go stare at my stand. unimportantguy fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Apr 21, 2022 |
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Apr 21, 2022 20:20
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Ok so that's easy. The bike has a side stand interlock system that kills the engine if you try to let the clutch out while in gear with the stand down. First I would ensure the stand isn't loose or damaged, and the switch is being engaged when it's up. A dangling stand can create a problem every time you go over a bump. If that checks out I would locate the connector, it should have two pins. Find a piece of wire you can use to short the two pins together (this is simulating the stand being up). Go for a ride and try to provoke the problem, if it happens, bridge the terminals and see if it fixes it. You can do the same for the clutch switch which is up on the lever perch somewhere. Your problem could be a few other things but you have no hope of diagnosing those so there's no point worrying about it.
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Apr 21, 2022 20:31
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Did your foot bump the sidestand?
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Apr 21, 2022 22:14
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On examining my bike, the side stand locks into place fine and doesn't appear to be loose, but the connector that plugs into the switch seemed to wiggle a little bit. I reseated it and made sure it was secure and hopefully that'll fix things but I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks again!
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Apr 21, 2022 22:51
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Supradog posted:Correct, 428 is the chain dimension, and 37 would be tooth number. Regina has a new and interesting "z-ring" design that is totally better than x-ring and not at all marketing fluff as well.
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Apr 22, 2022 05:15
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A further question about chains, I'm looking at a site which has a billion of them but this specifically: "Motorcycle Chain DID X-Ring Gold 428 VX 130 (FJ)" 428 is the pitch, I'm assuming the 130 is the amount of links? There's a load on the site which seem to be the same thing but they run 128 to 146 stepping up 2 at a time so my Sherlock skills suggest that's the length of the thing. Does the (FJ) mean anything in particular while I'm here? Their non x-ring, 'standard' chains are (RJ), is this something to do with how the chain's made, material or finish perhaps? Thank you.
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Apr 22, 2022 10:35
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It denotes the type of master link in the kit. see https://didchain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-Chain-Spec-Chart.pdf RJ is non o ring, no special tool. FJ is normal style clip master link which is easiest fitted with a chain tool. and correct, 130 is the lenght.
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Apr 22, 2022 10:47
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Thank you, much appreciated. *edit: ordered a nice DID X-ring chain, new front sprocket, new ZF dual alloy/steel rear sprocket. Oh and a chain tool, I don't think my MTB ones are up to the job  Reasonably spendy day but if the X-ring chains are that good then maybe I won't have to adjust chain tension quite as often and that's probably worth the money right there over the cheap chain the bike currently has.
Olympic Mathlete fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Apr 22, 2022 |
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Apr 22, 2022 12:18
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Thank you, much appreciated. The amount of tensioning you do is directly proportional to how much you lube the chain, o ring vs x ring is a tiny difference compared to lube vs no lube.
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Apr 22, 2022 18:30
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My wife recently had her first moto lesson. She has absolutely no previous experience at all, so they started her out on a 50cc scooter on the gokart track and doing brake drills after which she learned to start and stop on an orange 125. I'm no riding teacher but this seems like a sensible progression to me. I don't know what will come of this project but she says she wants to ride too and while I'm not pushing her to do anything I'm surely not going to discourage this ambition. On a personal note I'm still very happy with my decision to get a small and light and weak learner bike. I got all of last week off work because teacher/easter break and the weather was fine so I rode twisties for hours every day I could and this really drove home just how capable my bike is compared to my skills and how little need I have for anything faster. Unless my wife takes it from me I'm unlikely to replace it anytime soon. I've managed to ride it about 4000km since mid august last year and this isn't nearly enough to bore me yet. Still I've been consciously working on becoming more precise and smooth with the throttle since I might one day end up on a bike where this will matter a whole lot more that it does now. Also brake drills. I think I'm finally starting to figure out what to do with the pedal, though I still trigger the rear ABS once the front is fully loaded more often than I should.
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Apr 23, 2022 06:48
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My adult riding career started on a 50cc a few years ago and I have zero regrets. Great way to build confidence and skill.
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Apr 23, 2022 07:41
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I put 7 years and 17,000 miles on a 45hp/500cc "starter" bike, and still had room for improvement when I stopped. While it's true that all beginners should start on tamer bikes, it's not true that all future use cases call for more powerful bikes. I downsized when I started riding again after thinking back, because for commuting and short errands, a 200cc bike is more nimble, flexible, and frankly fun to ride on the streets. It's not an economy or skill thing, on the way to work I can either wring out a VanVan while it does what it was made to do, or practice restraint and low-speed crawls on a Triumph between stoplights. Russian Bear posted:General rule I follow, especially with blind corners is that you never get back on the throttle (a touch of maintenance throttle is fine) until 2 things: you can see through to the corner exit to where you’re going and you start taking away lean angle.
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Apr 24, 2022 04:27
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Yeah accelerating through the turn is nonsense, is basically what you get when people misinterpret 'get on the throttle as early as possible'. That doesn't mean you need to accelerate immediately, it's just a question of unloading the front tire and getting the weight onto the rear asap, you only actually accelerate when your line permits.
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Apr 24, 2022 04:55
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Thank you, much appreciated. Is this for the 125 you bought a few months ago? That's extremely fast wear if the bike has trashed a rear sprocket already.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:08
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But also extremely normal on Chinese 125's, they usually come with an unsealed chain made of string cheese and sprockets I suspect aren't always hardened.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:10
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Lol OK then!
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Apr 24, 2022 07:19
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Had a moment today where I was leaning into a corner and the quality of the road went to absolute poo poo part of the way through. I saw it, I backed off a little, and backed off more when I hit it and the tires bounced around a little. It really wasn’t a close call because I did everything right before I hit that rough patch, but it could have been if I hadn’t been paying attention. It was a nice feeling to nail it but also a good reminder to stay vigilant.
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Apr 24, 2022 07:51
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Slavvy posted:But also extremely normal on Chinese 125's, they usually come with an unsealed chain made of string cheese and sprockets I suspect aren't always hardened. Aye there was a certain level of shonk I was expecting with a bike this cheap; the chain and sprockets being one of them after seeing video of a streetside 'factory' pressing the parts out of scrap metal The chain is the worst bit, it has stretched a lot more than I was expecting and that obviously puts a lot more wear on the sprockets prematurely. It'll be interesting to see the difference.
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Apr 24, 2022 11:02
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The weather finally stayed nice these last couple of weekends so I've gone out a couple of hours each Sunday. Today I ran my first errand on the bike to pick something up, a microSD card which I could just about squeeze under the seat of the CB300R. Compared to where I was in November when I paused for the winter I'm more confident leaning over and applying power in turns though there's still work to do. I'm staying off the 55 limit/70 actual speed limited access freeways for a while but have been going on the 50mph four lanes punctuated by stop lights and smaller roads in my area. I collected my first bug splat that was big enough I had to pull over and wipe it off while I was out so there's that milestone passed as well.
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Apr 24, 2022 23:36
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I have cleaned off my visor twice today, so far. A bug that hit my shoulder was so big it hurt through my armored jacket. Dudes with their face in the breeze confuse me.
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Apr 24, 2022 23:48
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There's a point around 50mph or so where a larger bug really smarts if it hits your face, and a low but omnipresent risk at all speeds of a random bug getting into your helmet and flapping around by your ear, which is a good reason to mentally prepare in advance to NOT FREAK OUT when that happens and pull over ASAP. Having earplugs in when it happens also contributes to peace of mind.
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Apr 25, 2022 00:56
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Remy Marathe posted:There's a point around 50mph or so where a larger bug really smarts if it hits your face, and a low but omnipresent risk at all speeds of a random bug getting into your helmet and flapping around by your ear, which is a good reason to mentally prepare in advance to NOT FREAK OUT when that happens and pull over ASAP. Having earplugs in when it happens also contributes to peace of mind. I've had a rock kicked up by a car hit me on the inside of the forearm, ricochet off and into my chest and bounce off AGAIN and hit the inside of my opposite thigh and leave a red mark on all three spots. I'll keep my helmet closed at speed
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Apr 25, 2022 01:00
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I always see people riding here in the summer in tshirt and no helmet and not only are they losing their hearing but also getting skin cancer from the UV index in the teens. Bonus benefit of being geared up.
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Apr 25, 2022 04:43
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| # ? May 15, 2024 13:03 |
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I'm an ATGATT dude so I'm not the best person to understand this mindset but Jesus riding without hearing protection sounds like hell.
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Apr 25, 2022 07:23
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