Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

I liked 'em both. Long Way Down really sucked until they got to about central Africa. The drama over Ewan's wife tagging along was lame, but they had some interesting interactions with the locals later on in the trip. The first half of the series was all pretty lame though, except for the visit to the Moto Guzzi factory, that was cool.

Also, there are definitely ADVrider threads that beat LWD and LWR in every respect.

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Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

bung posted:

John Britten

I'm so confused by this. I guess I can understand not having a frame, but how does the rear suspension being in the front help? How does it even work? And what's going on with the front suspension? Is that a telelever?

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Nerobro posted:

it does have a frame. The frame just happens to be the shape of a motorcycle engine. The fairing, tank, and tail are bolted to the top of the cylinder heads. They're one piece IIRC, and also contain the radiator.

The front suspension is called hossak. In essence it's a double a arm suspension pointing out the front of the bike. BMW uses a bastaradization of it as the telelever, and on the K1200 bikes it's now a true hossak design.

The rear shock up front is done for cooling. Shocks get hot as they do their job. Putting the shock there both keeps it cool, and moves the weight somewhere benificial to the bike. Weight low, and up front helps keep the front end down. the arrangement was managed with a few bellcranks and pushrods.

Hmmm...After reading about this Norman Hossack guy, and looking up "bell crank" on wikipedia, my question is if this stuff is so great, why isn't it on more bikes? Especially racing bikes? Is it just that people at the big four, BMW and Ducati are not willing to try something radical that may be a flop? Or is the success of the Britten bike a fluke and not repeatable today? Or is it a matter of patents and red tape?

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

I got pulled over for the first time on the bike today. I had just watched "Busted" on youtube last night, so I was feeling ready to assert my constitutional rights. The cop tried to get me to play "The question game" asking me if I knew what the speed limit was and how fast I was going. I told him I didn't know and wound up with just a warning after he said he clocked me at 72 in a 55. I dunno if any of that made a difference in getting or not getting a ticket. There were a fuckload of cops out today though, it was a bit ridiculous.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Whoa. Wife Turds posted:

We'll see. It was near a couple of banks so hopefully a camera picked something up.

The worst part about this is a bit I heard from my friend upon leaving the ER. Apparently after the bike was ALREADY PARKED one of the cops on the scene managed to knock my bike over on the other side and bend the bar end, etc. What a loving rear end. Didn't even have the balls to own up to it.

As a sidenote: how do bar ends on a bike work exactly? Are they the same on every bike? Like, how is it threaded, what is the screw bonded to (if anything). Basically I'm trying to find out what I need to fix the bent bar ends on each side of my handlebars without taking them off to see only to find I can't put them back on again.

On my SV650N, the screw tightens a nut against a rubber bushing, which expands and holds the thing inside the handlebar tube. On my SV650S, it's just a threaded hole in the clipon that the screw goes into.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

TheFonz posted:

My 650S has the bushings in the clipons...

Second gen? Mine's first.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Z3n posted:

Are there even any scoots under 50ccs that people would refer to as scooters and not as mopeds or something like that?

I brings the Ruckus to the ladies.

Click here for the full 1280x772 image.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Z3n posted:

Wow, I could have sworn the ruckus was a 75-125cc bike. No wonder I always see them riding up the shoulder on the faster roads.

There's a 50cc and a 125cc version. The story of Wan takes place on the 50.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Whoa. Wife Turds posted:

Maybe it's all the time I've spent on advrider but I fail to see why this Wan guy is a big deal unless you have a ruckus and read only that forum.

I mean, aside from the patience necessary to traverse the country on a 50cc scooter.

edit: I guess the big deal is that he's Korean and doesn't speak great English? Still doesn't seem that remarkable compared to crossing Angola or most of Asia as a white dude or whatever. That site and the community is cute, anyway, I guess.

What made it for me was how the community came together for him. When he lost his camera and they bought him a new one, all the people that put him up, the way his scoot kept collecting stickers and little flags and that alligator head.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

EDIT: Oh, and what's CA's preferred site to purchase Honda parts? As mentioned, need to get new peg, passenger peg, and clutch for my Nighthawk.

My Goldwing-riding homies like https://www.servicehonda.com

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

TapTheForwardAssist posted:

UPDATE: weather was bad anyway, so just took my car. But when I went back I went for an evening ride up into the Hill Country west of Austin for a few hours. Got some really good practice on sharp turns and steep hills, some practically vertigo inducing.

It did, however, really hammer home the limitations of the bike. I hasten to point out that this little 250cc is totally fine for all urban tasks I forsee ever doing, but it took most of my throttle to get up some of those really steep little hills on the backroads. On a good straightaway I can hit 65 reasonably quickly, but to hit the 80mph nominal top speed I'd need a pretty good stretch of clear road.

Further, as mentioned above, right around 60mph the wind resistance really starts affecting me, it feels like someone is just steadily pushing on my head and chest. Tucking helps a fair bit, but not perfect. The lightness of the bike is probably a factor there.

More reasons to get something with a little more guts when I upgrade, though again it is 100% acceptable for "drive down to campus, then hop on I-35 and go five exits south to visit a buddy" urban-type stuff.

You can get a windscreen to help with the pushing feeling. Here's some for the Nighthawk: http://www.twistedthrottle.com/trade/productlist/322/ (scroll down)

I put one on my naked SV and was pretty happy with it for the short time I had it.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Doctor Zero posted:

Don't bring yourself down to their level. gently caress the "culture rift." Wave at everyone. We're all bikers. Maybe if more people did this, there wouldn't be a rift.

I wave at everyone and everything on <4 wheels. I got my first wave back from a scooter on Sunday, and I'm still waiting for a bicyclist to wave back. Sometimes I feel a little dickish waving to bicyclists though, it almost feels like I'm saying, "Ha ha, I don't have to pedal and you do."

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Uthor posted:

Out in the country, I wave at pretty much everyone but cars. People walking, cops, cyclists, horseback riders, and even the occasional person out mowing their law.

I always wave at cops/firefighters/la migra. I figure it's good karma.

pr0zac posted:

I always wave to bicyclists but kind of have the opposite thought, that they are thinking "Haha, I'm getting more exercise than you." Seeing as we both share the "likely to get runover by an SUV on the backroads" characteristic I don't think waving is THAT weird.

There is a certain camaraderie in the shared experience of looking over your shoulder for soccer moms on cell-phones.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Orange Someone posted:

Is it bad that I want to drive down to Cornwall from the Midlands and back, purely for a decent cornish pasty? For those with a less than stellar grasp of British geography, that's a 4 and a half hour journey there. Even worse, I'm considering taking the friend on the 125 who can't use the motorways, that bumps it up to about 7 and a half hours there.

They do make the best drat Cornish Pasties in Port Isaac though.

This is definitely a good idea. My Goldwing-riding friends rode about 1000 miles in a day to eat at a particular burger joint in the next state over. Of course, they were riding Goldwings.

Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Z3n posted:

The V-strom is actually functional though. And while it's oddball, it's not boring. The V-strom is like that weird kid down the street who's always covered in dirt from going somewhere, the NT700 is like the old man who walks up and down the block.

And the VFR was actually a proper sport touring bike. This just looks like a sort of ho-hum commuter.

It sounds like the Pacific Coast.

edit: bwahahaha lookit this fukken commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6MkkdxjDro

Zenaida fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Sep 10, 2009

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Zenaida · Zenaida Nov 13, 2004

Z3n posted:

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2009/01/12/ducati-v-one-twin-to-supercharged-single-conversion/

Just saw that...that's pretty kickass. Using the rear cylinder as a supercharger for the front cylinder, and getting a boost in power. I wonder how well it'd work on a 4.

I love that the french word for gasoline is "essence." They don't have the strongest gearhead tradition in the world, but every once in a while they do things really right.