The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

[Karoug]

Originally Posted by Peter3hg

I bought the tyres myself then just dropped the wheels off at a local garage. They could have done them in about 20 minutes but I actually picked them up the following day.

Or change the tires yourself.. It's like changing the tires on you regular bike.. Just apply a bit more violence..

[KaJuN]

It seems we have quite a lot of new motorcyclists here so I thought I'd pass along a nice series of videos I've found:

Gear

+ YouTube Video

I won't bore everyone with a huge post of Youtube videos but that guy has a lot of them that are good for beginners. He puts stuff in simple language and he's not boring like most people who do these things.

[Blind_Io]

I don't like the Icon denim, it only has Kevlar in the knees, not the ass where you do most your sliding.

[Jon]

So, it was raining yesterday and guess what.. I nearly came off on those shit tyres. I was going around an island and the back slid and i dropped on my knee, i sort of kicked myself upright as the back was sliding but i let go of the handlebars. The front wheel went into the kerb of the island and kicked the handlebars straight-ish so i just managed to grab them. There was an old Renault Clio right behind me up my ass aswell who JUST braked enough not to hit me. Had i come off theres a fair chance i would have gone underneath the car. I was pretty shaken up.. It's only by fluke that i didn't come off. There's not much damage to the bike, just some scratches that i've managed to hide. But seriously you were right, i'll be changing those bastards asap.

I've lost all confidence to ride in the rain now. I wasn't going that fast at all. It's quite terrifying going at such a speed and not being in the slightest bit of control. When i let go of the handlebars i felt helpless and really thought i'd be in a big accident. Someone was looking over me yesterday!

[tigger]

Originally Posted by Jon

I've lost all confidence to ride in the rain now. I wasn't going that fast at all. It's quite terrifying going at such a speed and not being in the slightest bit of control. When i let go of the handlebars i felt helpless and really thought i'd be in a big accident. Someone was looking over me yesterday!

Glad to hear you escaped that fairly unscathed. The only time I laid my Yamaha down on pavement was last fall, making a 15mph turn onto a brick road ... in the rain ... on knobby motocross tires I was asking for it.

Anyway, get some new rubber and try it again. Try to get comfortable with riding in the rain on your own time, that way if you get put in a situation were you have to, hopefully you won't be thinking about laying down in a roundabout and getting run over by a Renault.

[Peter3hg]

Originally Posted by Jon

I've lost all confidence to ride in the rain now. I wasn't going that fast at all. It's quite terrifying going at such a speed and not being in the slightest bit of control. When i let go of the handlebars i felt helpless and really thought i'd be in a big accident. Someone was looking over me yesterday!

It's all experience. It's just important for you to know what went wrong so you can avoid that situation next time.
The way I've always been told is to think of it as having two glasses. One is full of "luck" and the other is "skill" but starts empty. What you have to try and do is fill up the "skill" glass before the "luck" all evaporates.

[Karoug]

^I usually recommend beginners to borrow a dirtbike.. 1 hour on one of those is worth 50 hours on a streetbike...

[Jon]

Originally Posted by tigger

Glad to hear you escaped that fairly unscathed. The only time I laid my Yamaha down on pavement was last fall, making a 15mph turn onto a brick road ... in the rain ... on knobby motocross tires I was asking for it.

Anyway, get some new rubber and try it again. Try to get comfortable with riding in the rain on your own time, that way if you get put in a situation were you have to, hopefully you won't be thinking about laying down in a roundabout and getting run over by a Renault.

It's hard to get comfortable when you really didn't THINK you were on your limits of adhesion.

Originally Posted by Peter3hg

It's all experience. It's just important for you to know what went wrong so you can avoid that situation next time.
The way I've always been told is to think of it as having two glasses. One is full of "luck" and the other is "skill" but starts empty. What you have to try and do is fill up the "skill" glass before the "luck" all evaporates.

It's difficult to try to learn from this because i was going so very slowly and didn't think in the slightest that the speed i was going was my limit. If i use the same metaphor.. It's like trying to fill up the skill glass but finding there is very little to pour into it around at the moment, and also trying to pour too much may result in spillage. MANY forums/review websites also inform me that my current tyres are trying to knock my glass over!

Must get better glass..

Thank you all for your advice though.

[mautzel]

Originally Posted by Jon

So, it was raining yesterday and guess what.. I nearly came off on those shit tyres. I was going around an island and the back slid and i dropped on my knee, i sort of kicked myself upright as the back was sliding but i let go of the handlebars. The front wheel went into the kerb of the island and kicked the handlebars straight-ish so i just managed to grab them. There was an old Renault Clio right behind me up my ass aswell who JUST braked enough not to hit me. Had i come off theres a fair chance i would have gone underneath the car. I was pretty shaken up.. It's only by fluke that i didn't come off. There's not much damage to the bike, just some scratches that i've managed to hide. But seriously you were right, i'll be changing those bastards asap.

I've lost all confidence to ride in the rain now. I wasn't going that fast at all. It's quite terrifying going at such a speed and not being in the slightest bit of control. When i let go of the handlebars i felt helpless and really thought i'd be in a big accident. Someone was looking over me yesterday!

Sure the tarmac was fine and you really didn't go that fast? If so, I swear I'll never go for China tires. Luckily, I've never ever been in such a situation but that's the thing that I'm always frightened of when I ride along.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

After selling my Yamaha to my dad a while back, I've been jonesing for another bike. I came across a V45 Magna that looks to be abandoned near my GF's parents place and I might just track down the owner and see what I can get it for. Anyone had any experience with those bikes? Same displacement as my last bike but I assume it delivers power quite differently.

[Blind_Io]

What was your last bike?

The V4 does have a different power delivery than V-Twins and even inline 4s from what I'm told (never ridden an inline 4).

They don't have much in the way of low end torque, but a nice long mid-range and a strong high-end. I can cruise at 30 mph in 3rd gear at about 2,700 RPM on my 3rd gen Magna. If I open the taps I can get it up close to 90 MPH before hitting 4th gear and I still have one more gear to go.

The V45 is a fantastic bike, shaft drive, OD transmission, dual front brakes. It's compact, fast and very nimble. If you get it up and running I'm sure you will love it, I know I loved my '82 Magna.

[Jon]

Originally Posted by mautzel

Sure the tarmac was fine and you really didn't go that fast? If so, I swear I'll never go for China tires. Luckily, I've never ever been in such a situation but that's the thing that I'm always frightened of when I ride along.

Indoodly..

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Originally Posted by Blind_Io

What was your last bike?

The V4 does have a different power delivery than V-Twins and even inline 4s from what I'm told (never ridden an inline 4).

They don't have much in the way of low end torque, but a nice long mid-range and a strong high-end. I can cruise at 30 mph in 3rd gear at about 2,700 RPM on my 3rd gen Magna. If I open the taps I can get it up close to 90 MPH before hitting 4th gear and I still have one more gear to go.

The V45 is a fantastic bike, shaft drive, OD transmission, dual front brakes. It's compact, fast and very nimble. If you get it up and running I'm sure you will love it, I know I loved my '82 Magna.

Yeah, that's about what I figured. I had a Virago 750, it had lots of low-end but the power delivery wasn't very smooth and it could have used another gear for highway cruising.

Well, I'm going to see if I can track down the owner and give the bike the attention it needs.

[mmap]

Me happy

Finally found a bike that was both cheap enough and in decent enough condition (there are some minor cosmic faults, but hey, it was dirt cheap). So this morning I went and bought it!!!

Been driving hte whole day now (completely forgot about F1 as well) and I'm knackered.

It's a Suzuki VX 800 and I'll post pics as soon as I can get them out of my phone...

That's my summer well and truly palnned right there. Plenty of riding and cursing about the ridicilous fuel prices!

[KaJuN]

Yeah sometimes my Yamaha causes Jupiter and Saturn to go out of alignment a tad. Glad to see another motorcyclist here! Our numbers are growing stronger every day.

[BlaRo]

Met a guy today who had a Triumph bobber in his backyard, whitewall tires and heatwrapped pipes and everything. He also had a Kawasaki 750, another Triumph with a Harley hardtail, a Honda Scrambler (super rare!), and a pair of Honda 750s. I'll definitely try to keep in touch with him later.

[KaJuN]

This is for everyone who so desperately wanted me to take that sissy bar off.





I think it looks a lot better with the new seat cover and cheap eBay saddle bags. So far they're very very good for being $40 including shipping. Although I think those little tassel things are coming off. I finally fixed the unsightly battery problem without having to spend almost 1/5 of the bike's purchase price on a beat up old plastic cover. A little bit of Krylon can work wonders.

[BlaRo]

You're missing a side cover!

But seriously, isn't that much better? It looks far meaner now, it's less of an Easy Rider wannabe and more of a power cruiser. I think you ought to install some drag bars and bar end mirrors next, then you'll be in the business.

[KaJuN]

I've been toying with that idea both for the looks and because I'd like to have a bit more of a leaned forward stance. It seems like a cheap and easy mod to make. Maybe next year since I'm tired of tooling on the bike and I just want to enjoy riding it now.

[mautzel]

Originally Posted by KaJuN

I think it looks a lot better with the new seat cover and saddle bags.

You're 100% right there!