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I think the plate down on the side like that is already technically illegal in a lot of places so whether or not there's a reflector isn't going to matter anyway Edit: it might just be when they're mounted vertically, but i thought the whole plastic stinger fender thing was because they had to be within some distance of the rear-most part of the bike Dog Case fucked around with this message at 19:10 on May 25, 2022 |
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May 25, 2022 19:07
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Dog Case posted:I think the plate down on the side like that is already technically illegal in a lot of places so whether or not there's a reflector isn't going to matter anyway yeah if the plate mounted on the side is illegal in north america H-D has been selling noncompliant poo poo out of dealerships for at least a decade. That's the only way you can buy a sportster here
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May 25, 2022 23:24
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Don't worry, it's the USA, nothing matters here unless the cop doesn't like your skin tone.
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May 26, 2022 00:42
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The only time a cop hasn't let me go is when one tried to smash me into a guardrail with his tahoe. I was literally just existing, going the speed limit, but I was existing on a "dirtbike". As soon as I removed the helmet and he saw I was *White in Johns Creek Georgia* hooo boy did the conversation instantly turn to his cool harley ultra bagger glide whatever the gently caress before he let me go. Oh wait they let me go then too. Only trust your fists, etc etc
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May 26, 2022 01:38
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Lets assume this was 2015 or onwards; if the dirtbike had a nice MAGA bumper sticker on it, would you have been stopped/attempted to be smashed into a guardrail? What I'm saying is, is there a way you can telegraph your whiteness to cops without exposing actual skin to the dangers of roadrash? Steakandchips fucked around with this message at 15:55 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 14:33
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Sophie's Choice: Road Rash or Road Fash?
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May 26, 2022 15:20
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Steakandchips posted:Lets assume this was 2015 or onwards; if the dirtbike had a nice MAGA bumper sticker on it, would you have been stopped/attempted to be smashed into a guardrail?
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May 26, 2022 19:30
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May 26, 2022 22:37
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ok day 1 of the motorcycle course complete had a lot of fun, instructors are great. really knowledgeable and know how to deliver the content things i noticed; tight turns - u turns are hard... im having trouble getting over the mind gently caress of 'looking way over your shoulder' and trusting that the bike won't tip, using friction point control and rear brake i was able to get one successful mind you not perfect tight turn after about 10 tries, after hitting cones and going off the path, and yelled 'I GOT IT' like a 5 year old also, my hands were NUMB by the end of the final lesson, i assume its a grip thing, as in I need to not grip hard on the handle bars otherwise learned a lot, great time, everyone was super friendly, and looking forward to sleeping like a baby tonight even managed to get a good sunburn going
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May 26, 2022 22:39
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You are doing fine. All learners do all the things you mentioned. You will do fine and soon it will all be 100% natural and you won’t death grip the controls and your hands won’t hurt.
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May 26, 2022 23:14
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Has anyone here done the MSF "BASIC RIDERCOURSE 2"? I'm curious what the exercises are like, they just resumed them here post-covid and I'm seriously considering it with the T120. I've only done the BRC back when I started and I felt a lot cockier at the idea of dropping one of their little beater bikes.
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May 27, 2022 03:20
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It's like msf 1 but longer, more expensive and one of the bad guys comes back as a good guy
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May 27, 2022 04:03
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Coydog posted:Sophie's Choice: Road Rash or Road Fash? You dress for the crash or you dress for the fash
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May 27, 2022 12:42
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Slavvy posted:It's like msf 1 but longer, more expensive and one of the bad guys comes back as a good guy Lol
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May 27, 2022 15:12
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Remy Marathe posted:Has anyone here done the MSF "BASIC RIDERCOURSE 2"? I'm curious what the exercises are like, they just resumed them here post-covid and I'm seriously considering it with the T120. Every place has different definitions of how they break this stuff up, but here, it's the same as BRC1 but you get to use your own bike and I think there's no classroom section?
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May 27, 2022 18:12
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well trip report, course was awesome the lead instructor was just amazing, one of the best courses i've ever taken due to his instruction, be it civilian or military everyone passed and i think the most demerits anyone had was 3, max of 12 for a fail. everyone else had 0 or 1 demerit (i stalled off the line after a stop boo) now onto the hard part, learning how to actually ride on the street with scary people around... i'm going to spend a lot of time in the parking lot for sure before that
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May 27, 2022 20:35
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Blue On Blue posted:well trip report, course was awesome the lead instructor was just amazing, one of the best courses i've ever taken due to his instruction, be it civilian or military Remember to just start slow. Begin just in your neighborhood and ride around until your start stops become more natural. Then find a slow 2 lane road to get onto, then busier roads etc. No need to immediately try to go on a 50+mph stroad. You can also just do parking lot drills in your neighborhood road, obviously watch for cars passing but it's easier than potentially have to ride farther away to find a parking lot.
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May 27, 2022 20:55
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I went and checked out the MT-03 and got extremely lucky. The guy that was selling it was an old dude that rode it around the neighborhood on the weekends. There were some light scuffs from where he tipped over at a stop, but everything else is in really good shape. $4k later and I'm the new owner. I can't wait to put a few thousand miles on this thing for sure.
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May 28, 2022 18:28
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You done good. Congratulations! Now go ride the thing!
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May 28, 2022 19:15
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Went to an open "cone camp" today and it was lot of fun. It's a group of riders who do competition riding on cruisers who meet up on weekends to practice riding. I was told this was one of their smaller sessions because of the holiday weekend. I was on the tiniest bike there but the turns and maneuvers were still really tough. I struggled with a couple of the very tight circles they laid out. I still have a lot of room for improvement on finessing the clutch, but I think my throttle is also pretty snatchy at low revs. It was interesting because the competitive folks were absolutely shameless about scraping floorboards and tipping their bikes over. The rider who walked me through the course first asked me what kind of protection I had on my bike. "We drop bikes here all the time." One of the more advanced riders did the course without using his brakes at all (he rode through it with a cone balanced over his foot to prove it). The only issue though is that the riders were all doing their own thing -- I didn't receive much in the way of coaching, although I'm guessing the Harley and Indian riders didn't have much insight into a low cc sportbike. They did warn me to take breaks to let my clutch cool off after such aggressive use, though I dunno how applicable that is to me. I still need to take a proper intermediate/advanced riding class, but I definitely want to try it again.
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May 30, 2022 00:09
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T Zero posted:Went to an open "cone camp" today and it was lot of fun. It's a group of riders who do competition riding on cruisers who meet up on weekends to practice riding. I was told this was one of their smaller sessions because of the holiday weekend. I was on the tiniest bike there but the turns and maneuvers were still really tough. I struggled with a couple of the very tight circles they laid out. I still have a lot of room for improvement on finessing the clutch, but I think my throttle is also pretty snatchy at low revs. There's a bunch near me that does a similar thing. I open every weekend afternoon ride with 10-15 minutes of low speed turning drills in a school parking lot near my house but I'm nowhere near ready to go at that level yet. Today I went past a parking lot that had a BRC running in it; almost exactly a year ago that was me!
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May 30, 2022 00:41
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Geekboy posted:I’ve come to hate this fender extension aesthetically. I think I want to put on a round reflector on, but … much improved.  I apparently signed up to be in a class action lawsuit against Facebook when I lived in Illinois, so I’m using that money to order a Le Pera Daytona Daddy Long Legs seat. If I’m right about a few things, it’ll be one step closer to me getting 2 or 3 years out of this bike before I trade it for something radically different. If not, I only spent about $5 over what I got from Facebook for a thing I forgot about to get it.
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May 30, 2022 01:28
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I went to my regular lot to practice at the end of my ride and when turning around I felt my front tire push wide that kind of surprised me. The whole pavement is freshly resprayed but turns out I didn’t see a tar line that has been cooking all day. Went through same spot a couple times doing the same thing to feel it and ride it out. Just 100f/38c things. Also noticed that when I was doing emergency stops after that I was leaving black marks on the pavement while clearly not locking up.
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May 30, 2022 01:36
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I still think I need some different pegs to get my feet just a tad lower, but I can not believe how much better this bike handles with my new seat. I expected to be more comfortable. I expected it to look a whole hell of a lot better. I did not expect to have it make me a better rider.
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Jun 4, 2022 01:05
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Last week I took the MT-03 and pointed it north for about an hour then drove back home to brush off the rust some. I could tell the preload was off but it didn't feel that bad. Today I bopped around town and it felt like crap when taking corners. I remembered when I got home to adjust the suspension some and the thing was on the second softest setting. I'm a sweat goblin right now so no more riding today, but I'm excited to have an excuse for hitting the road again tomorrow.
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Jun 4, 2022 22:08
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Hmm. When I started riding like a year ago I used to just upshift to 6th as early as the bike would tolerate comfortably and cruise around. Do you have notably better traction in lower gears? I am finding myself downshifting lately if roads are in poor condition or if there's a crosswind. Both bikes I have just feel better doing that. Is it my imagination? And maybe traction isn't the right word. There's definitely more torque. Maybe the bike recovers quicker from being upset and it feels like traction. SSH IT ZOMBIE fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Jun 5, 2022 |
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Jun 5, 2022 05:08
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a longer (heavier?) gear (ie 6th or the mythical 7th) is going to have less of an effect on the engine because of well the gearing i like to get into a big gear for downhills and just let gravity do the work this might be what you are experiencing i could probably bring my er6 to a stop with engine braking alone, its got very heavy engine brake characteristics numberoneposter fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Jun 5, 2022 |
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Jun 5, 2022 05:38
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SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:Hmm. When I started riding like a year ago I used to just upshift to 6th as early as the bike would tolerate comfortably and cruise around. The bike's geometry and suspension will be designed to operate properly when the engine is in the meaty part of it's torque curve. If you ride around barely revving the bike, you're never getting the geometry working for you or affecting much weight transfer onto the rear tyre.
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Jun 5, 2022 06:37
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Slavvy posted:The bike's geometry and suspension will be designed to operate properly when the engine is in the meaty part of it's torque curve. If you ride around barely revving the bike, you're never getting the geometry working for you or affecting much weight transfer onto the rear tyre. Ok, that makes sense. The rear tire feels like it's biting into the ground more at higher rpms regardless of speed, it literally is then.
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Jun 5, 2022 20:43
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SSH IT ZOMBIE posted:Ok, that makes sense. The rear tire feels like it's biting into the ground more at higher rpms regardless of speed, it literally is then. What you're really feeling is the bike squatting down and compressing the tyre carcass, you can't actually perceive the amount of friction on the rear directly, your can only very closely judge/approximate it by being familiar with how your bike loads the tyre and knowing when it's going to break loose. You can control slides after it's started spinning but that's a different thing.
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Jun 5, 2022 23:31
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Are there any good/recommended books out there about motorcycle geometry. Plenty of articles discuss basics, but as an engineer by education I'd love to read a bit more in depth about the physics. It might even drag me out of sub par riding skills(doubtful).
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Jun 6, 2022 02:51
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Every time I read a Slavvy post about motorcycle geometry I suddenly feel like I actually know nothing. It's a pretty cool feeling.
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Jun 6, 2022 03:14
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Motorcycle dynamics by vittore cossalter is a good start. Imo everyone who 'gets' bike geometry has a different cognitive model of what's going on that's unique to them, and it's hard to put that across to other people, and a lot of it you can only understand through your own riding or by hanging out with very, very skilled riders. This is why crew chiefs have setup notebooks which you would think would be a priceless trove of valuable knowledge, but are instead just incomprehensible gobbledygook, totally useless unless you're the guy who took the notes in the first place.
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Jun 6, 2022 03:30
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Slavvy posted:Motorcycle dynamics by vittore cossalter is a good start. Imo everyone who 'gets' bike geometry has a different cognitive model of what's going on that's unique to them, and it's hard to put that across to other people, and a lot of it you can only understand through your own riding or by hanging out with very, very skilled riders. This is why crew chiefs have setup notebooks which you would think would be a priceless trove of valuable knowledge, but are instead just incomprehensible gobbledygook, totally useless unless you're the guy who took the notes in the first place. Hmm, well I ordered the book, so let's hope Vittore and I are on communicative wavelengths! For what it's worth, I appreciated the write up you did awhile back about coasting vs braking vs throttle. It got me thinking about what exactly is happening as I ride, but also raised a bunch of questions that I can't really see myself solving personally without buying a poo poo ton of bikes and putting each through nearly identical circumstances while taking notes... Not super realistic, but super "the dream" I guess. Books will have to do.
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Jun 6, 2022 09:05
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Fluffs McCloud posted:Hmm, well I ordered the book, so let's hope Vittore and I are on communicative wavelengths! For what it's worth, I appreciated the write up you did awhile back about coasting vs braking vs throttle. It got me thinking about what exactly is happening as I ride, but also raised a bunch of questions that I can't really see myself solving personally without buying a poo poo ton of bikes and putting each through nearly identical circumstances while taking notes... Not super realistic, but super "the dream" I guess. Books will have to do. If you really want to understand I think a realistic starting point is a reasonably powerful naked bike with 'good enough' suspension. What I mean by good enough is adjusters front and rear that do something, spring rates close enough to do the job. You can change the bike pretty drastically with settings alone and definitely learn stuff.
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Jun 6, 2022 09:25
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Had a really nice group ride the other day. We had someone completely new to riding. I was in back keeping an eye on them, other friend was in front. That setup felt really good with a new rider. I have done 1:1 rides and it's not as nice - leading the way as well as keeping an eye on my rearview mirror. Feels way safer with three. He had a lot of offroad experience and picked it up quick. I had a ride that kinda got weird the other day. Individually I have ridden with two other people, no issues. We rode together, they started screwing around kill switching eachother and me at stop lights. Ha ha. Funny, not that dangerous. They started weaving a bit to make it happen and I am like hmm. The energy continued to ramp up till we were in the city, they started cutting up the wrong way on one way streets. At that point I wasn't going to follow, got separated, and the ride was about over anyway so I dipped. The facebook group ride group looks incredibly suspicious for my town. There's a lot of MCs but that's probably not my thing. I love group rides but seriously have to know and trust the people you are with. Sometimes I feel I am kinda uptight but eh. Better safe than sorry. SSH IT ZOMBIE fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Jun 9, 2022 |
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Jun 9, 2022 17:49
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That's a reasonable response! I did one group ride ever, and immediately one rider ran out of gas, then right after that another lost their clutch lever. So much time that could have been spent riding was lost and it was already baking hot. I haven't done it since.
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Jun 9, 2022 18:00
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I've been looking at bikes on Craigslist here lately (newer rider with some offroad experience) and all of the ~400cc sports are old or ridiculously over-priced. Is it that unreasonable to buy a "first street bike" from a dealer? I understand that it goes a bit against the grain of general thread advice.
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Jun 9, 2022 21:18
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Wickerman posted:I've been looking at bikes on Craigslist here lately (newer rider with some offroad experience) and all of the ~400cc sports are old or ridiculously over-priced. Is it that unreasonable to buy a "first street bike" from a dealer? I understand that it goes a bit against the grain of general thread advice. Supply line stuff has made prices insane in the membrane. Also all those people asking a ton of money probably won't get that and you can talk em down I bet. I lucked into a bike that was basically new from a private seller, but I was ready to go to the dealer to get an MT03. It's not a bad idea now because the options are slim. You probably don't want a sports bike anyway since in small displacement bikes, the position isn't actually that sporty and it's just a bunch of fairings to deal with. Look at a Z400 at your local kawi dealer!
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Jun 9, 2022 21:23
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No company on earth currently makes a road legal sportbike with less than 600cc. It is a thing that no longer exists.
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Jun 9, 2022 21:32
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