Motorcycles

[SeaCat]

I had to laugh today. I overheard some of the comments directed at my wife when she was talking with a co-worker who rode with her husband. The Co-Worker was all for my wife riding with me, then this other stepped in.

She told my wife she was stupid for even thinking about riding. She told my wife that it was suicidal and that there were easier and less painful ways to commit suicide. She went on like this for several minutes before my wife asked her if she had ever been on the back of a bike. She then told my wife she had never ridden and never would. My wife thanked her for her input and walked away. (Oh and the co-worker who rode? She told my wife to go for it but to make sure we always wore leathers and helmets, and for me to take a safe riding course.)

Cat

 

[SeaCat]

Well my wife announced today that she wanted me to get a bike. (Yahoo)

Now comes the fun part. I'll start by checking the class schedules for the Safe Riders Course. I'll also start keeping my eyes open for a bike in my price range locally.

The Bike I'm looking at? Honda Shadow 750. After looking at a lot of different bikes I found that this one is the most comfortable for me. (Not to mention it has enough power for my wife and I to do some cruising without being too heavy for around town.)

Cat

 

[rgraham666]

Very cool, Cat.

 

[SeaCat]

OKay, let's see if I can do this. If it works you'll see the kind of bike I'm looking at getting.

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/344763?

Cat

 

[rgraham666]

Sweet!

 

[R. Richard]

One thing you would do well to research before you buy a bike is to find a good shop that can repair your bike. Some shops specialize in building choppers and/or custom bikes and they are expensive and not too good on the maintenance aspect. Other shops specialize in specific applications such as off-road, race bikes, harleys, etc. You need to find a shop that does repairs at friendly prices.

 

[SeaCat]

One thing you would do well to research before you buy a bike is to find a good shop that can repair your bike. Some shops specialize in building choppers and/or custom bikes and they are expensive and not too good on the maintenance aspect. Other shops specialize in specific applications such as off-road, race bikes, harleys, etc. You need to find a shop that does repairs at friendly prices.

I habe already talked to two of them in my local area. One is the local Hinda Dealership, (which is a bit pricey,) and the other is a privatley owned shop that comes highly recomended.

It is from both of these that I have been able to get a lot of information on this type of bike.

Cat

 

[Amun_RA]

Bikers in France

Most definately I would... Well don't know much about S Florida, but here in France I have had no poblems riding through Paris and Lyons; French drivers seem very aware of bikes and move out of the way...

 

[Chantilyvamp]

If you lived in a place like southern Florida would you ride a Motorcycle?

I know the inherent risks in riding, I know the dangers. Yet I am more than tempted to buy myself a bike,

Now tell me, if you lived in a place like this with roughly three hundred days a year of riding weather would you own and ride a bike?

Cat

Hell yes, sides I'd make a great biker chick

 

[Lost Cause]

So motorists can understand us~

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd119/fireforeffect49/motorcyclehandsignals.jpg

 

[R. Richard]

I habe already talked to two of them in my local area. One is the local Hinda Dealership, (which is a bit pricey,) and the other is a privatley owned shop that comes highly recomended.

It is from both of these that I have been able to get a lot of information on this type of bike.

Cat

You will find that dealer shops are ususally pretty good, and pretty expensive. The trick is to find a privately owned shop that is good. One of the problems with a good, privately owned shop is that the owner is often quite old and may retire soon. Thus, the search never ends.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Hi Cat.

Here's a few things I've heard from bike riders. Like R.Richard said find several privately owned shops, so you have a list, dealers are for those with big money and really nice bikes. Add to your list places that sell parts fairly cheap, again get several, as any part might not be in stock at a particular location. The parts places are because you are going to do most minor repairs yourself on a used low-priced motorcycle.

Use your new DSL for this, as soon as you get your bike you want every repair manual ever printed for that make/model. You don't want the pretty illustrated pricey one from the dealership. You want several stapled together ones that you printed up, because some will have oil and grease splattered on the section you need. And you will prolly be sweaty and greasy as you are looking through it cussing.

Make sure you get a bike you can push fairly far, its important as hell when, not if, your bike breaks down, to get to a lighted safe area to wait. Ask a friend with a pick-up truck if you can store a few things in his garage. You might want to be vague about why. A long fairly wide board that you can use to push the bike into the bed of the truck and lots of tie-downs to protect it as you transport. Make sure you get your friends home and work phone numbers and cell phone and always have them with you.

If you ever break down and leave your bike, don't waste your time going back to get it, just report it as stolen, it has been.

And this part is serious Cat, not a joke, choose your weapons. You saw where someone posted how a tire-iron fell off thier bike in the nick of time, to accidentally crash into a windshield alerting the car driver of a motorcycle being in his death-path. You need some things that can fall off your bike, and marbles or ball-bearings that can fall out of your pockets. If a huge SUV gets 6 inches off your rear tire doing 40mph and refuses to back off or go around, while the driver is screaming at his kids on his cell phone, you need the option to do something to save your life, or to save you and your wife. Hope you never have to use them, but have them.

Oh, and have fun.

JMO

 

[oggbashan]

Motorcycle combinations/sidecars

Please do not buy a motorcycle with a sidecar unless you have a real reason for the choice.

The riding experience is totally different and very difficult to master at first compared with the instinctive movements that come with riding a solo. Unlike leaning a solo into a corner, you have to deliberately steer into the corner AND manually reproduce the effect of a differential. If the motorcycle is on the left, as it should be in the US, when turning right the bike has to be accelerated around the sidecar. When turning left, the bike has to be braked to allow the sidecar to travel in the larger arc. Misjudging either manoeuvre means that the outfit travels straight on and doesn't make the bend.

If the sidecar and passenger(s) are light, there can be occasions when the sidecar wheel is way off the ground. That can be disconcerting to the passenger and difficult for the rider to handle AND steer/brake.

A motorcycle combination is more difficult to drive than a car, requiring deliberation and active control; takes up as much room on the room as a car; has to be parked like a car; but is usually slower and much more uncomfortable for the passengers than a car. Once the art of driving a combination is mastered then there are compensations if the outfit is fast and sporty. A people-carrying combination used to be a cheap, uncomfortable alternative to a car. Compact cars killed the family combination. The cheapest tin box is much more comfortable for everyone than a combination with a double adult sidecar.

A solo motorcycle can weave through traffic, is fast, feels more like an extension of the rider's body and is fun.

Stick to two wheels, not three.

Og - who has used both.

 

[R. Richard]

Please do not buy a motorcycle with a sidecar unless you have a real reason for the choice.

On the other hand, Eric Oliver lives!

 

[R. Richard]

Here's a few things I've heard from bike riders. Like R.Richard said find several privately owned shops, so you have a list, dealers are for those with big money and really nice bikes. Add to your list places that sell parts fairly cheap, again get several, as any part might not be in stock at a particular location. The parts places are because you are going to do most minor repairs yourself on a used low-priced motorcycle.

As to parts. Truly it is written, "Never steal a part off a moving bike!"

 

[SeaCat]

Thanks all, some good advice here.

Ogg, I currently have no intention or interest in getting a side rig. I have no need for one and know their limitations. My father on the other hand,,,,,,,,,

As for the tailgaters. A handfull of large Hex nuts has been reported to work wonders. (As does pulling over and letting the idiot cager past.) On the other hand we seem to have fairly few true tailgaters here. (This from talking to a lot of riders over the years.) I have yet to hear of a good reason why this is.

I have located five shops around me that service the type of bike I'm looking at. One of them is a dealership, the rest are privately owned.

Cat

 

[R. Richard]

As for the tailgaters. A handfull of large Hex nuts has been reported to work wonders. (As does pulling over and letting the idiot cager past.) On the other hand we seem to have fairly few true tailgaters here. (This from talking to a lot of riders over the years.) I have yet to hear of a good reason why this is.
Cat

The problem is directly traceable to the matter of multiple fathers and a commercial [streetwalking] mother for each of the idiots.

 

[keeblercrumb]

It has been years since I have ridden.... so anything I say should be considered as ... mmmmm.... "dated".

I loved my motorcycles....... At one juncture while in the service of LBJ on Okinawa, I even raced them. There was nothing better in the world to me than riding at sunset along the Northern California Coast Road up to the Russian River with the arms of my true love (of that time) wrapped tightly around me.....Such are the sweet memories of youth..

But the advice you may wholly reject... at your own peril, although I find it hard anyone will argue with most of it...

1. Paying attention. I know you "pay attention" while driving your car... but all those times when you were fiddling with your radio and had to slam your brakes on? On your m/c, you will be sliding under the car ahead of you..... if you are lucky. Pay attention. All the time. There is no such thing as a fender bender on a m/c.

2. I do not subscribe to dropping things, flipping off and/or otherwise pissing off the guy in the Ford Humongous SUV six inches from your bumper.... Never forget they are much, much bigger than you are. They will ALWAYS win, push come to shove. I hate being tailgated... (I love driving in England... even on the wrong side of the road.... Great drivers! )(Except on the M-25 Orbital Car Park.).... but you cannot afford to piss those or any other car/truck people off. Overall the best solution is to just accelerate away from them and do your best to hide from them.

3. Don't get drunk and race Harley's out in the countryside. This is why I have not ridden for many years.

As you might surmise from the above trip down memory lane, I am all about riding two on a bike.... but having been a "rider" on some long trips, etc., I can understand why your wife might desire her "own". I just always thought it was a great excuse to rub your body against someone you desired to.

But those rides in the sunset..... I will envy you.....

-KC