The General Motorbikers Discussion Thread

^ I'm pretty sure that's the one that came with mine - except in gloss black and 2 sizes too big for me. Anyway I'm wary of buying a helmet online without trying one on first, for obvious reasons.

Just bought a trickle charger for my dead battery - 4 volts and counting, woo hoo! The guy who helped me out is a member of the SOHC4 Forums I'm on, is 19, owns a CB550 like mine with Clubman bars and an oil cooler, and rode the dang thing from his home in Arizona around the country until he ran out of money. He's living the exact dream I have, that lucky bastard.
 
Many stores don't carry the CL-SP, but the CL-15 fits pretty much the same way. I tried out the CL-15 in a local store, found out that the XL one fit, and ordered the SP in XL. Worked perfectly.
 
So, I'm sore as hell right now.

I was riding through The People's Republic of Berkeley (no shit, a guy was selling that shirt with the Hammer and Sickle emblem on the street corner). Anyway, pedestrians there have a death wish, crossing against the light, mid-block or just creating a human train so no cars can get through. They also step off the curb and expect all traffic to magically stop for them because they are The Almighty Pedestrian with the God-Given Right of Way.

Well, some jackass freshman decided to jaywalk against the light backwards while having a conversation with his friends. As he stepped in front of the bike (I was about 12 feet away doing about 30 MPH) I grabbed a fistfull of clutch and rev'd the engine to get his attention while jamming on the brakes. The problem is that Berkeley will actually repave the crosswalks but not the roads - I shit you not! I hit a bad patch of pavement and the front end locked up and went into a skid, sliding right towards the little shit. I let off, the front end snapped back and I slapped my left foot down to get control back. My left wrist and shoulder hurt and so does my left shin from the foot dab.

Goddamned monkey-fucking Berkeley asshats! I swear, I'm mounting spikes on all my vehicles Deathrace 2000 style and going hunting! That little shit almost caused me to dump my bike.
 
Good thing you didn't dump it. You also appear to have discovered that loud pipes don't actually save lives. :p


I like the spikes idea - but have you considered mounting a lance instead?
 
And to think if you had hit someone because of their illegal action the accident would still probably be your fault. :rolleyes:
 
Good thing you didn't dump it. You also appear to have discovered that loud pipes don't actually save lives. :p


I like the spikes idea - but have you considered mounting a lance instead?

My bike doesn't have loud pipes. The '94 did, but the '00 is stock.

I'm sore as hell today. The shoulder is doing better but it hurts like hell to raise my toes on the left leg.
 
My bike doesn't have loud pipes. The '94 did, but the '00 is stock.

I'm sore as hell today. The shoulder is doing better but it hurts like hell to raise my toes on the left leg.
Half the reason I haven't fixed the rust-riddled exhaust on my car is that it's loud as hell. No one steps out in front of me, which is good; because my brakes suck.

Glad to hear you're all right and that you didn't kill the idiot ... even if he did deserve it. Maybe Death Race inspired spikes and machine guns wouldn't be a bad idea.

These guys would approve:
road%20warrior%20pic.jpg
 
So I've hooked up the trickle charger to the battery, and everything's going smoothly.

T-minus 12 hours until the moment of truth...

loading.gif
 
So I'm guess it either worked and you have been riding the wheels off it all day or the trickle charger blew up and you're now dead. :unsure:
 
I've died and gone to hell and am now speaking to you from beyooooond theee grrrrrraaaaave...

WhiteGhostCostume-main_Full.jpg


Anyway, it's charged halfway now and turns over, woot! :dance: I need to finish charging it however before I can fully ride it.
 
I like stalling, makes life more interesting
 
Man, I have about had it with American engineering and I've just about had it with Harley Davidson service.

I've got an '01 Buell Blast; I normally do all my work on cars but the stuff that breaks on this piece is way too hard to fix for my current skill. Completely unrelated parts fail at the same time and the bike sits at the shop for literally a month while they sit and wait on the parts. They don't answer my calls, they walk all over me and I'm starting to think this bike is designed to break just so I can bring it back and give them more of my money. I have rode it 4,000 miles, babying it because I depend on it for transportation and this is what has happened. Mind you, I rarely wind it up, I have never taken it above 75, I have never taken the front wheel off the ground, and it only tipped over once parked during a windstorm.

All the gaskets went, including the rocker box, cylinder head, o-rings, "gas leaking from carb boot through air cleaner". Turn signal relay as well. All of this cost me $700.
Intake boot went, stranded on road. Charged me just $10.
Front motor mount broke in half - $150
Studs broken on motor mounts three times, had to be extracted. Free the first time, $30 the second time, $50 the third time.
Front and rear isolaters went, had to wait a month for the parts, then charged $250 to install.
Noticed a small oil weep from around the shifter. Apparently the gasket in there went, "Yeah, it'll be fine for now. Whenever you have, like, five hundred bucks, just bring it back in."

After waiting a month on the parts, they charged me $250 and I had it for a week before the intake boot went again. Waited week-and-a-half for parts, charged $40, they gave me the bike. Took it out, let it warm up. Was disgusted; the whole thing was vibrating as if the motor mounts broke again, but I checked that and it did not. They have yet to even admit anything was wrong with it.

Needless to say, I intend to sell this P.O.S and get an older bike that I can actually work on myself. The '75 Kawasaki Triple we own is more reliable than this '01 model.
 
Man, I have about had it with American engineering and I've just about had it with Harley Davidson service.

I've got an '01 Buell Blast; I normally do all my work on cars but the stuff that breaks on this piece is way too hard to fix for my current skill. Completely unrelated parts fail at the same time and the bike sits at the shop for literally a month while they sit and wait on the parts. They don't answer my calls, they walk all over me and I'm starting to think this bike is designed to break just so I can bring it back and give them more of my money. I have rode it 4,000 miles, babying it because I depend on it for transportation and this is what has happened. Mind you, I rarely wind it up, I have never taken it above 75, I have never taken the front wheel off the ground, and it only tipped over once parked during a windstorm.

{litany of disaster snipped}

Hmmmmm.....

http://forums.finalgear.com/general...s-discussion-thread-26892/page-35/#post756507

http://forums.finalgear.com/general...s-discussion-thread-26892/page-35/#post756565

I've got an '01 Buell Blast that I ride almost every day, even through a hailstorm last week. It's proven to be quite thrifty (70-76mpg) and a fun corner carver to boot. For the most part it's been reliable, but it is far from a comfortable long-distance machine. The 500cc thumper provides plenty of power but far from enough torque or top speed to do anything stupid. Luckily, it came with a Vance&Hines sport exhaust so it doesn't sound quite as lawn mower-ish as the stock Blast.
{snip}

But for now, the Buell is a great bike.

I'm not going to say it, but you know what I'm thinking about now....

Thing is... you bought a Harley product. Basically, you bought something like an 80s car in the 80s from a domestic maker. They're arrogant, they don't care about what you want, and once they have your money you're on your own.

Can't say I'm surprised. Sorry about your luck there; maybe you will have better luck when selling it, I certainly hope so. Just make sure you don't sell it to anyone you know...


Needless to say, I intend to sell this P.O.S and get an older bike that I can actually work on myself. The '75 Kawasaki Triple we own is more reliable than this '01 model.

You don't need to buy an older bike. You just need to buy a bike that's not assembled and sold by Neanderthals. You need to realize that the rest of us with Hondas and the like don't have problems like that. We just *don't*. Motorcycling has been an ever increasingly low-maintenance activity since the 1969 CB750 kicked over the industry.

Buy something that's made by a company that doesn't think that keeping everything the same as it was in the 1930s is a good idea. And never buy anything made by an American union.
 
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Needless to say, I intend to sell this P.O.S and get an older bike that I can actually work on myself. The '75 Kawasaki Triple we own is more reliable than this '01 model.
Wow, that's kind of frightening considering I was looking at one myself. How did all the gaskets go if it's only 7 years old? :?


Anyway, I finished charging the bike today, and tried to start it up. (Man, when I sit on that thing I just feel right.) It turned over and started...but when I revved the throttle it died again. I tried it again and I had to hold the start button down after it turned over, but had to keep it held while the engine was half-idling, half-still trying to get a spark, apparently. So, dead battery, and I'll have to shell out some cash and a ride to the nearest Advance Auto Parts for a new one...unless you guys think it's something else.

God, I hope it's not the starter...
 
Nah, just sounds like an old/bad battery. Most of the post 70s four cylinders don't start charging their batteries until 2500+ RPM anyway.

Also, I would suggest going to WalMart and getting the battery there, they should be cheaper and just as good as an auto parts store battery. And you can get something better than a trickle charger while you're there. :D
 
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Nah, just sounds like an old/bad battery. Most of the post 70s four cylinders don't start charging their batteries until 2500+ RPM anyway.

This is on my '97 Yammy. ;)

Yeah, I figured it would be a bad battery, I don't even know where the nearest Wal-Mart/Sears Auto Center/etc. is around here, though.
 
Walmart has a store locator function on their web site. :D

And yes, I know it's for the Yamaha. I'm saying that four cylinders bikes in general, after the 70s, need to be revved above 2500 to charge the battery.
 
I can vouch for cheap batteries working. Mine was about $20 from Meijer and it's been great for two years now. If nothing else getting a new battery is good for peace of mind because you have no idea how long that old battery has been in there.
 
Hmmmmm.....
(quoted from above)

Yeah, that post commending the bike's reliability was typed a matter of miles before the problems started rolling in. I was skeptical about buying an American built bike, especially one tied in with Harley Davidson, but despite my worries it seemed like a great bike so I bought it. I've learned from that mistake; never again. Those Harley shop guys are lousy, they never take your phone calls and they just look for more opportunities to take your money. Now I'm going to attempt to sell it and get a nice older Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki or whatever other decent bikes I can find for a fraction of the cost of the Buell, something I can wrench on myself and should give me years of trouble-free riding. Screw American bikes, I gave it a chance.
 
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