The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

They dont have Carpool lanes in TX?

In CA, they are trying to make all the carpool lanes toll road. Its still free for motorcycles and cars with 2+ people, but you have to have a toll meter in your car and it actually costs money to rent the meter every month.
 
Spectre said:
Sometimes, yes.
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Handz said:
In Los Angeles, Yes.
The weird thing about LA is that the traffic is either dead stop gridlock, or moving 85-90MPH. In CA, most motorcycles ride in the carpool, which is to the left of the fast lane. If you are on a slow bike and not moving fast enough, a Porsche 911 or a Tesla Model-S will come blasting up behind you and it can be a bit frightening if you cant keep up with the traffic. Now that Tesla cars can drive in the carpool lane solo, the traffic in that lane moves at a very fast pace. Much faster than it did 10 years ago.

If you have a 250 and cant keep up with carpool traffic, you are forced to ride in the slow lane of the freeway, where the horrible Prius drivers hang out and people are consistently merging, which IMO is way scarier and borderline unsafe.
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Der Stig said:
Exactly this, minus the carpool bit and instead of Teslas, it's 3/4 ton diesel trucks.
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:?

I stand corrected.
Around here a 250cc or even the ubiquitous 125cc is enough for the highways because there is always a lane with people keeping 50-60mph.
 
Yeah, this is why SportBikes are so popular in California. Honest, Sportbikes are so unpractical, but on the freeways they rock. The only place a 250cc would work great in CA would be San Francisco.
 
Handz said:
They dont have Carpool lanes in TX?

In CA, they are trying to make all the carpool lanes toll road. Its still free for motorcycles and cars with 2+ people, but you have to have a toll meter in your car and it actually costs money to rent the meter every month.
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We do, but they're not like CA. We have "Express" highways and lots of toll roads. Car pool/HOV lanes are more of Houston thing.
 
They are converting our HOV lanes to HOT - high occupancy toll - because, let's be fair, about nobody uses them and they're just a lane sitting empty unless they can figure out some other use for them. Even letting hybrids use them hasn't actually helped that much per statistics, even in CA.

Actual untouched HOV lanes are an endangered species in Texas. There's only three untolled HOV lane swaths left in Dallas.
 
So if you have more than 1 person in a texas HOT lane, do they still charge you?
 
Handz said:
So if you have more than 1 person in a texas HOT lane, do they still charge you?
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Yup. CA is probably going to do the same thing in the next few years - they don't have the money to do otherwise, but they'll dig themselves an even deeper financial hole before they admit it. Texas is trying to avoid getting into the hole in the first place, since the Feds are refusing to pay enough to maintain the Federal highways and they keep dumping highway money into idiocy like the CA train to nowhere.
 
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In cali they dont charge 2+ cars and bikes because its not a true toll road. They are testing it on the 110 freeway in LA, but its not working to well because most people dont get transponder and then the lanes are just super empty.
 
Handz said:
In cali they dont charge 2+ cars and bikes because its not a true toll road. They are testing it on the 110 freeway in LA, but its not working to well because most people dont get transponder and then the lanes are just super empty.
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Yup. They're almost going to have to adopt a similar system as we have here if they want anything like that to work.

Oh, and our system doesn't require transponders. You get a discount for using them, but you don't have to have one if you don't want to.
 
Rode the Gutsy for the first time today in three months.

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The exhaust note sounded a little...different than before the crash. I can't place my ear on it. (Literally, as I would burn myself.) But it sounds a little flatter and duller?or maybe that's my imagination? All I know is that the valves are screamingly loud, and that still worries me.

The engine seemed to run relatively smoothly, but the front end felt wobbly and loose. You know what? It felt like my old-assed Honda CB550F?that is, it felt older than it even looks.

I rode about a mile and a half, to go transfer my AAA membership. And when I came out after about 40 minutes, I went to start it.

The bike would rev way up past its idle, to around 2,500k or so, and then die. I started it a few times. It was certainly difficult, but I managed to get it revving up and then down, up and down, until it stalled again. I think it's a fail-safe from the ECU. Took about 10 minutes, but I finally got it idling normally, and limped it back home.

I'm going to schedule an appointment with the big Guzzi dealer here, which I'm looking forward to, for once?I've been ordering parts from them for the last few months. They have awesome reviews and, as I found firsthand, really good email communication.

Gonna ask them to do a general tune-up, a valve adjustment, and a front end alignment. After the crash, and with the bike acting like this, I won't feel confident riding it for a long time. And there are so many places here in Hill Country to explore.

(Oh, and I got a free membership upgrade from AAA: 100-mile tows and motorcycle assistance :mrgreen:)
 
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The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

The steering head bearings could have been damaged either in the accident or in transit from CA to TX. Have the dealer look at that when they're tracking down your EFI issues. Also ask them to check your battery - it may be on the way out.

In the meantime, we have bikes to lend and roads to ride up here in DFW. You should come on up one weekend - not this one, though.
 
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Holy shit, Blaro moved to TX.

Got another motovlog going. Talking about Motorcycle gear.

 
BlaRo. Let us know if you want to do some Hill Country riding. I'll actually be in Austin this weekend for a wedding and wouldn't mind farting around on Sunday. I'm trying to bring the 919, but that depends on if I get the side racks on. PM me if you've got the time.
 
Spectre said:
The steering head bearings could have been damaged either in the accident or in transit from CA to TX. Have the dealer look at that when they're tracking down your EFI issues. Also ask them to check your battery - it may be on the way out.

In the meantime, we have bikes to lend and roads to ride up here in DFW. You should come on up one weekend - not this one, though.
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First weekend in October is bad for me, otherwise I'm pretty open. I figured I should chime in some I'm the one with the extra running bikes :mrgreen:

The GL1000 makes the best noise ever, and needs to be experienced by everyone.
 
After reading how little blaro rides his bike and how much he complains is broken, I am making the logical conclusion that Guzzi bikes are BS lol.
 
:roll: It's not broken!

I just gotta get it tuned up :p
 
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