Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

May want to start out on the old GL500 Silverwings. Alot like the goldwings, just lighter, and more beginner friendly.

Truth be told I look at touring bikes inquisitively, not for Honduras of course since if some moron on a Prado doesn't kill me bike thieves will but going by your post it seems riding a bike isn't as nearly as easy as I thought.
 
Then my idea of Bike == Bicycle but heavier and quite a bit faster is the single most stupid thought when it comes to learning to ride in one?
 
It's not just a larger and heavier bicycle, no. And there are other skills one needs other than how to make it go and stop, too. :p Check out the GenMoto thread and look for "beginner" as a search term.
 
The most experience I have with biking is a 80cc dirt bike that I has for a while, I imagine that would be a good starting point to get into biking. Right?
 
Actually, yeah, a small, agile and non-threatening dirt bike is a great way to get started.
 
*looks on thread.

Ah well, so much for biking then.

*goes back to oogling black Audi S4's on eBay.
 
Yeah perhaps later...much later.

Crazyjeeper said:
1985 Jeep CJ7 | 1997 Ford F150 | 1984 Honda VF500F Interceptor (crashed) | 1993 CB750 Nighthawk | 1976 GL1000 Goldwing | 1978 GL1000 Goldwing

You lucky bastard.

On a completely unrelated note: OH GOD!
 
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Yeah perhaps later...much later.



You lucky bastard.

OH GOD!

Umm that Audi isn't a Goldwing.

1975-honda-gl-1000-gold-wing-1.jpg


Pride of Ohio. Err was.
 
I stand corrected. Ohio still has Jeep at least. Well and Goodyear.
 
Blame the lamers buying ecoboxen - Honda removed motorcycle production from Marysville... to make more capacity for cars.
 
Nope. Despite being state of fluffy liberalness they don't give a shit about hybrids or anything like that.
They would rather you drive multiple vehicles so you have to pay for multiple stickers. The only people who get special spots are handicapped ones, honestly though I think 15 spaces is excessive when I have seen maybe three filled.

Also, I believe I complained earlier in this thread about the overflow lot and it's pointy fist sized gravel? I don't think you would have to walk a motorcycle in and even if you could you could never get it to stand up, which means a motorcyclist would get screwed out of what I think are the most convenient spaces on south campus.

That's easy. Just carry a 4"x4"x1" block of wood in your saddle bags. It'll keep the kickstand from sinking into the mud. Works for pretty much anything below the heavyweight tourer class.



Underground parking structure. Problem solved.

A 4x4 block? Spectre fail. I 1x4xlength of battery (because it will fit there), or any peice that will fit under your seat will normally do the trick. But what I use for normal, keep kickstand from sinking into pavement peice, is a couple of tops from soup/tuna etc. cans spotwelded together. Just the right size and is more than enough to do the job.
 
Nope, I don't fail. Much smaller and it just sifts through the big gravel - and the bike falls over onto the rocks. Been there, done that.

Also, a 4x4 block is useful for other things than just flooring the kickstand. :D
 
found this from the web today


?Drifting? kills woman, 81; boy charged

By Bonnie L. Cook and Katie Eder
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

A 17-year-old Willow Grove boy was taken into custody this morning and accused of killing an elderly pedestrian while practicing a dangerous driving maneuver called "drifting."

The practice, in which the driver pulls on the emergency brake and turns the wheel to slide the car sideways, surfaced in the 2006 action movie, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Drifting has become a daredevil trend among local teens, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Upper Moreland Township Police Chief Thomas J. Nestel III at a news conference today.

"What we have here is life imitating art. The kids want the thrill of driving fast and acting like their favorite movie actors - and with tragic consequences," Nestel said.

The boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was speeding southbound on Old York Road on Oct. 12. His car reached speeds of at least 79 m.p.h. when he attempted to make the left turn onto Reed Street by drifting, Ferman said.

The boy lost control of his 2000 Volkswagen Passat, which struck Zita Egitto. Egitto, 81, was walking on the sidewalk on Reed Street on her way to meet a friend, Ferman said.

The car struck Egitto was such force that she was catapulted onto the porch of a home. She died of multiple injuries Oct. 15 at Abington Memorial Hospital, said First Asst. District Attorney Kevin R. Steele

Ferman described Egitto as "a picture of wonderful health" who volunteered at the public library and stayed active well into her latter years.

"This woman was simply walking down the street and was run over by a car that lost control," Ferman said.

Ferman and Nestel said they believe that drifting has been a national trend among the nation's teens, but this was the first case they knew about locally.

"Although we spend a great deal of time with driver's education in high school, this wasn't on our radar," Ferman said. Nestel said police will be actively looking for it, going forward.

The 17-year-old is charged as a juvenile, and was being processed at the Montgomery County Youth Center in Audubon this afternoon. He was charged with vehicular homicide and related counts. There will be no formal arraignment, as in adult criminal cases, and the boy will be held at the center as the charges are adjudicated.

Ferman and Nestel referred reporters to video clips of drifting posted on YouTube. In one such clip, a driver operating a small, silver car on a nameless winding mountain road begins drifting, only to have the car overturn and crash into the mountain, while watching teenagers cheer.

It was not clear from the video clip if the driver emerged alive.

The movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift starred Lucas Black as Sean Boswell, a loser who heads to Tokyo and gets caught up in the underground world of drift racing.

There are scenes in which Black's character races an opponent by drifting his souped-up car down a spiral ramp of a Tokyo parking garage, with much screeching and smoking of tires. Other scenes feature his character drifting along a dangerous mountain road.

In the end, he masters the technique and gets the girl.

Chief Nestel said such driving belongs only on the big screen. He said locally, drifting is moving from use in parking lots to use on public roadways.

"The streets are not racetracks or movie sets," Nestel said. "This kind of activity is a disaster waiting to happen, and it happened on Oct. 12th."

Ferman said she had never heard of the term drifting before the fatal accident, but she now realizes that teenagers having been practicing it for a while.

To adults, she said, "it's a new trend."

"It's important to let parents know about this," she said.

Ferman said the boy, who was alone in the car, told authorities he was practicing in a parking lot the day before the accident.


........ .. .. ... . . . .
 
There is just so much wrong with this article. Not that I promote drifting on the streets, but how is this case different from all the other people that die every day in car accidents?

Whether it is a drunk driver, lousy driver texting, street racer...it makes no difference - the end result is that someone dies. There is no need to target street racers in particular and label them as a disease.
 
I?ve never claimed to be a bike man-child. In fact I think I can safely say that I?m unequivocally the least bike-interested person in the entire history of the universe. but somehow this bike catches my attention every time I see it.

One can tell, because that's not a bike at all.




It's a battleship.
 
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