Motorcycle Thread

Malinatar

Malinatar

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Wow this thread has been inactive of late. So planning on my first 200+ mile trip (1 way) to visit some buddies weather permitting in a couple of weeks mostly highway/interstate and it will be my longest ride ever. Any tips/tricks? I think the hardest part will be the monotony, but I do plan to stop a few times.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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Make sure to take even 5 minute rest breaks. Last week did my first mountain trip, 3hours 180 miles. At end of 3 hrs I was resting my arm on tank and laying on it basically. Ass dead, clutch hand painful and a little swollen, and shoulder on fire.


Seat was good for 2 hours. My cheap scoprion claw 2 gloves i love but for the very solid palm pads that at an hour induce hand pain, might be alleviated by new or adjusted bars. Shoulder I think mainly from having a backpack on too.


Return trip 2-3 breaks certainly helped a lot.
 
Lejina

Lejina

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Wear ear plugs (the road/wind noise is physically tiring), drink a lot of water, a camel back you can use while riding helps (the wind and sun can take their toll), some tools to tighten bolts or minor things can't hurt. I always have a plug kit and a small compressor.

Some people will cut you off, tailgate or do something aggravating at some point. Let them thru and be a bother to someone else.

200 miles isn't that big of a trip. Have a stretch half way and you'll be fine.

Edit

Oh yah forgot, get a wrist saver. It's like 5 bucks but it's god damn amazing for highway riding.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
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Crampbusters are great, they also have ones that will physically lock the throttle so you can take your hand away but I've never felt the urge to try that out quite yet, if ever. I was fairly surprised to find lots of new bikes now come with cruise control built in even.
 
Lejina

Lejina

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Sludig

Sludig

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Yeah, I forgot to mention mine. I think of the 2 sizes from the main company I went with the thinner one so it doesnt get in the way. Took a little fine tuning to get it where I wanted. (If it's in wrong spot can whiskey throttle it or accidentally be at like 5% throttle)

I have wrap around grip heaters, so sadly come winter I will probably have to lose it for my commute, even the small one takes up like 2 inches out of 5 inch bar.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
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WTF is this?

Harley-Davidson announces new Pan America 1250 adventure bike | Canada Moto Guide

qY0s5wJ.png
 
Lejina

Lejina

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That looks desperate but the fun bit is when the stats and price will be available. There's all kinds of cruisers on the market but no one else makes blinged stuff like HD with absurd cc engine all tuned for torque and poor HP. So it's always hard to make a direct comparison.

The adventure segment is something else and with their likely price bracket they willbe compared with the likes of BMW GS and KTM has an adventure bike with a vtwin of that size. I've got the feeling HD's engine won't compare well to KTM's 160HP/100lbs power plant let alone all the high tech shit it comes with.

Their new street fighter will also be compared with the dozens of naked bikes on the market. They are going to face real competition and they can't botch this.

HD needs new markets, bad. Problem is the gen x and millennials want value for their money. A $10000 makeup just for the brand doesn't work with em. So they better make quality products for the right prices.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
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Hasn't Harley been in a big sales decline these past few years? Moving into to different markets makes sense, just they are moving into markets with some heavy hitters Like Lejina is saying so they better be bringing there A game.
 
lurker

lurker

Vyemm Raider
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I just finished sprucing this up. Not a restoration, just a big clean-up. Rebuilt the top end (lapped valves, honed cylinder) painted front fork and fender, rebuilt carb., new cables, sealed a leaky gas tank and generally just got a lot of dirt off. Runs great and it's just about the most fun you can have at 20mph.

Ladies and Gentleman, I present my 1968 Honda CT90 K0 otherwise known as a Trail 90. She looks good for a 50 year old.

P1020068.JPG

P1020069.JPG


I still need to source a new tank sticker and headlight bulb.
 
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Sludig

Sludig

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You might enjoy the new fortnine video "$400 400km bike"
 
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Sludig

Sludig

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So near my 1 year riding mark , 5k miles and I jacked my versys 1000 up a bit.


Dry parking lot, i was turning from driveway into some spaces under a huge tree to park under since storm coming maybe.... big sheet of micro dried slippery leaves from recent hailstorm and a dozen or so scattered not quite golf ball sized rocks. Not sure which did it but one second im turning at like 4mph then it just is sliding out from under me and im on the side.


Luckily easier to get back up than expected. Scraped up side case, a bit of the bar end. (File flst and primer?) Handguard had one screw pop loose with a knob of plastic. Has a channel mounting bar rests in and thinking i can plastic epoxy it since rest is fine. Inner side non painted fairing a small crack. Top side fairing looks fine but lost one side of a clip so is a centimeter out from where it should be.
Biggest thing is lower side fairing, the crap ugly oem turn signal punched a big hole in it. $200 fairing but light seems fine, think it will be fine to remount.

And here i was thinking of trading in on a concourse 1400 soon, but probably killed a lot of my trade in value.
 
Lejina

Lejina

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That sucks man. The front signals on that bike are super vulnerable and anyone dropping that bike without bars ends up with the signal punching through the fairing.

When I picked my crash bars I made sure the model I chose would keep the signals off the ground if I droped the bike. With the amount of damage you're looking at even if the bike is laid very gently on the ground, the bars pay for itself the first time they are put to use.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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Ya, they had been on my to do, like within the next few weeks finally had the spare scratch. Though I'm nervous thst they eouldnt bybe wise enough for those stock signals so swap those too.

Id felt less urgent sense i have a pretty bland easy but long commute. So still funny a few idiot cagers and bad weather no biggie but just some big loose rocks and leaf litter gets me.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
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Little things like that are annoying, I dropped my last bike more than a few times on silly stuff like that. Thankfully haven't had anything happen with the Triumph yet.

Have a quick shifter on the way someone needed to sell. Never had one of those so will be something new to me. Looking at the instructions tho, I'm not sure it is something I should be installing myself.
 
Sludig

Sludig

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I would say not. From what I've seen a wide variety of quality of quick shifters. Quite a few upshift only, vs nicer bmw's with the auto blip downs would be sweet. If anything I think I'd prefer the auto down, and save the quick upshifts for me.

Looking at the bars for the versys, ya looks like most wouldnt be wide enough, if they were, imo would look retarded. So light shopping it is.
 
Lejina

Lejina

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First time I dropped a road bike I reported it in this thread a couple weeks ago. Jumped over concrete edge and down another, which turned out way higher than expected: bottomed out on my manifold. Bent the pipe but no further damage thanks to crash bar. Dropped it again the very next week while pushing my bike around my trailer in my garage. I was in an awkward position and I downed the bike verrrrrry gently on the other side. Given how they designed them, even that gentle of a drop would have had the signal punch through the fairing.

Needless to say I'm pretty damn happy I installed those crash bars. Turns a potentially expensive mistake into a minor embarrassment.

They also allowed me to goof around trails, jump over stuff and other things I wouldn't risk doing without em.
 
jooka

jooka

marco esquandolas
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The quick shifter I am getting is the OEM Triumph that comes on the RS and will do up and down. I'm pretty curious to see how much I'll use it.
 
Lejina

Lejina

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How do those work anyway? Is it just like doing clutchless shifting except the ECU does the throttle blip for you? I would assume it's a bit more than just a bolt on.
 
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