swmnkdinthervr

Nice bike, the addiction begins!...I'll post a couple of mine now that I'm finished...(for now)

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swmnkdinthervr

Here are the pics:

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pixelbend

Friggin' awesome!

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pixelbend

I have a riding question. Do any of you carry "audio equipment" with you while you ride? i.e. iPod, Zen, walkman, ghetto blaster...etc.

I would like to slap on my headphone and jam out to my iPod while I ride on long trips. Is this a good idea? Is it legal?

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swmnkdinthervr

Thanks for the compliment...

On the headphones, if you really must listen to tunes while riding get small ear buds as it's illegal in some areas...I suggest not using them when in town or heavy traffic as any sound could be an indication of impending danger and ya wanna stay aware!!! I would use ear plugs of some kind when on the highway, it's the wind and not your exhaust that'll damage your hearing...

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rockogre

My 72 Norton Commando with the Combat engine. Totally restored, daily driver. Motorcycle of the year in 1972. The original Superbike. Fastest thing you could by off the show room floor in 72. Each one hand assembled and hand fitted. A high performance racing derived lady of yesteryear. The handling equivilent of a Jaguar or Ferrari of the same vintage.

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Jesus Christ and the American G. I.
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wisj2

The Norton is nice. I have a friend here who has took some old Norton parts, engine and a frame, and created something that never existed before. Yet people tell him they used to have one just like it!

That is impossible, this is a commando engine in a wrecked featherbed frame.

My local shop can work wonders with not much to build on!

pixelbend

Another question: My front tire has some dry cracking. I would like to wait until this fall to replace the tires. Will it be ok to ride on this summer?

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PayUp

REPLACE TIRE NOW!

Do not risk your lfe over couple hundred bucks. Front tire blow out on the interstae or anywhere for that matter is not a pretty picture.

Summer temps are creeping up and your tires generate heat of their own could cause some of those smaller cracks to open up. BOOM. Don't risk it.

If you replace both right away, stick with the same brand front and rear.

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swmnkdinthervr

Beautiful bike...I owned a Commando back in the 70's

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rockogre

Thanks swmnkdinthervr, I had my first one in 75, never got interested in anything else, well maybe a Harley, but they shift on the wrong side

And pixelbend, I agree with biljan, CHANGE THAT TIRE, and do it yesterday. Think about how much you like road rash, or worse.

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Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom

billege

Here's my baby.

1986 Yamaha XJ700-x, aka the Maxim-X. Round 15k on that there bike.
4cyl, water cooled, 5 valve DOHC, 4 carb, shaft driven, 5 speed. She scoots.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/billege/79477322/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/39/79477322_a90fdcdbf4_o.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="1986 Yamaha XJ-700" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/billege/79477300/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/39/79477300_02bc202c73_o.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="1986 Yamaha XJ-700" /></a>

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pixelbend

My father-in-law has a Maxim, albeit not in such great condition. That thing will fly.

And rest assured, I am in the process of changing that front tire.

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Cycler

04 R1. Haven't been on here for awhile keep safe everyone.

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"I assure you we're open."

shalafi

Here is my SV1000S and my friend's ZX-14. I got mine just under a week ago and his is about 2 weeks. We have both always had cruisers before this so still kinda getting used to the sportbikes. I'm thinking about getting a set of convertibars for mine to move the posture to a more comfortable upright position. Im also gonna need a new undertail to get rid of that "snowshovel" in the back. Maybe some Yoshimura cans as well. I think the carbonfiber would look good with the black and blue color scheme.

neddy65

I just bought an '84 Yamaha FJ1100 in "like new" condition.
It has 51k km on it and runs like a dream.
I wish I knew how to post pictures so I could show you but alas I am not very technically minded.

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My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die!

Drink Dickens' Hard Cider because nothing makes a girl smile like a Hard DIckens' Cider!

swmnkdinthervr

Pretty bikes but for the life of me I don't get it...just went from a cruiser to a sport bike and now ya wanna turn it into a cruiser...still nice bikes though...

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catback

Glad I'm not the only one that was thinking that...Also the SV1000S looks naked without the fairing.

shalafi

after getting a few hundred miles on it i've decided to leave the handlebars the way they are. The first few times riding it i wanted to die when i got off. Takes a little getting used to riding in that posture.

Charlatan

I love that bike Rockogre... isn't that the kind of bike Steve McQueen used to race?

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- Old Man Luedecke

shalafi

Rockogre: is that the bike you had all stripped down and were rebuilding in a thread a while back?

rockogre

Steve McQueen used to run a Triumph. Both are English. And thanks.



And yes, this is the bike I dismantled and restored. It was worth every dollar and every minute I spent on it.The thread is around here somewhere but all of my site is still available at http://www.mc2home.com/html/norton/

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Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you,
Jesus Christ and the American G. I.
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom

bluepolaski

2000 Harley Sportster. Got her when I was 17, I've had it for 3 years now. I love riding, and I'm out rain or shine so long as it's safe. Surprisingly I haven't gone on any long trips yet, hopefully this summer I'll be going out to Chicago and Souix Falls. Next summer, hopefully cross-country.

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pixelbend

Ah, yes! It's late March and time to dust off the leathers!

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cadre

Oh wow, a biker thread. How cool.

Anywho, I just bought my first street bike. I currently have three dirtbikes though (I've been ridin' and doin motocross for a while). I bought a Buell Blast for a small starter. When I get that paid off it will probably be time for me to move up. I plan to move up to a real sport bike that I can track. I'm thinkin about a Ducati Monster. (they make me drool hahaha). Here's my current ride. It's small, but hey I'm small too.

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Swirlie

I started riding last year - '04 KLR650. LOVE it. Will ride it this year, and look to trade next year. Still debating whether to go with the 08 KLR650 or move WAY up to the Ducati HyperMotard 1100... I do like the ability to head "off the beaten trail" while I am out and about, and the KLR is very capable.

Unfortunately, I just had ankle surgery, and won't be able to even THINK about riding for another 4 weeks... <SIGH> And the weather is BEAUTIFUL here right now!!!

snicka

1985 V65 Magna 1100cc, it isn't in the best of shape but its a great bike to learn on.

nightshade000

I just got my '99 Suzuki GSXR-600 fired up the other day after laying in pieces in my garage all winter. Took it for a ride around the block but it's going to need new brakes and a new battery before I can put any real seat time into it.

I've been seriously thinking about getting an '07 Triumph Daytona 675... that's the sex right there...

cadre

Ah, I'd offer to buy that gixxer from ya but I'm not getting any gixxers since my boyfriend's friend died on one and it bothers him.

Triumph huh? Not one of my favorites but it seems like people who get them are always satisfied.

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wisj2

Cadre, did your boyfriend's friend have any real rider training before he died?

My own son lost his best friend when they were 19. His friend went out and bought a 600cc Ninja, and within 2 months rode it up under the back of a semi trailer at something over 100 mph.

He had zero training and zero experience before the dealer sold him that bike.

My son, sadly on drugs at the time, decided that all motorcycles were "murder cycles" and that I was endangering the lives of his aunt and his cousins because I took them all for rides.

It took him a lot of years to A: Get off Drugs, and B: realize that while riding motorcycles is not totally without risks, but when the risks are managed it can be relatively safe to ride a motorcycle.

I ride a 1200cc Goldwing, it's not as fast as a sport bike, but has more than enough power to get a person in trouble if not handled and managed right.

I have more than 40 years experience riding on the streets, only a few very minor get-offs in that time, and no serious injuries. By that, I mean I've never been to the ER over anything that happened to me on a bike.

Do a Google search for Motorcycle Safety Foundation, find a course in your area and give you BF a link.

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Me and my 1985 Goldwing. 293,000 miles and counting!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y24...1200Asmall.jpg

cadre

My boyfriend and his friend were in the process of teaching Seb to ride when he died. He just bought a bike one day so the most they could get him to do was let them teach him. He was wearing a helmet but twisted the throttle too much and ended up hitting one wall and being thrown head first into another as my boyfriend and another kid watched. He was dead before they got him on the helicopter.
The thing was, he had told me that his friend got the bike and we were saying how he was going to get hurt or killed. That added to his guilt a lot too.

He knows that motorcycles don't have to be dangerous and I took the MSF course a while ago so he's okay with me riding. Gixxers just bring back bad memories for him.

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waltert

its amazing how many kids think they need a 600cc race bike when they've never been on two wheels before.... kind of sad really.

anyway, another rider here.

cadre

Yes it is, I call it Darwin's theory at work.

What do you ride?

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nightshade000

Cadre: Sorry about the bad memories..I have great memories on my gixxer.
News since my last post:

I went out and bought that Triumph Daytona 675. I have no pics yet, but they're pretty easy to google if you don't know what they look like

The gixxer has (more or less) been passed to the g/f now.

I had the 675 broken in on a dyno..110hp at the wheel. The greatest thing about the bike isn't it's handling, or it's power though... it has a really nice, easy to read clock in the guage cluster..

Seems stupid, but I have a time problem

waltert

I have a ninja 650R now and Its definetely my favorite bike yet.

catback

You bought a bike for it's clock, what's the world coming too...hope you (or anyone else) don't start buying helmets because of their reflection of you or gear based on how well it fits in a suitcase.

Cadre: You'd never think that someone would get injured or more so killed learning to ride a motorcycle until you see it happen or have the MSF instructors telling you all the horror stories that they witnessed. Surely before I became a rider by taking the MSF, I didn't think one did have the possibility of getting injured just learning so long as they didn't get stupid. The injury and death waiver as well as the lecture about past MSF beginner injuries definitely changed my mind as did seeing beginners having "get off's" on 125 and 250 cc bikes at slow speed. Sadly the non-motorcycling public doesn't realize that learning to ride has it's risks just as actual riding does.

cadre

Well, I can't say I felt the same way you did going into MSF but maybe that's because I grew up around motorcycles and my uncles and my father do a lot of stupid stuff. I've also been riding and racing dirtbikes for years, I know how it works and Joe has been around enough to know too. But what you know and what you feel are two different things and that's where the issue is with gixxers. It's all good though cause I'm actually leaning towards an r6 as my next bike since they stopped making the Ducati I wanted. There are plenty of alternatives to gixxers out there.

Nightshade: Congrats on the new bike, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I think having a clock would be kind of nice actually because I lose track of time when I'm up on those back roads.
Just remember that your old gixxer is not a beginner bike, I hope your girlfriend has some experience.

Walter: Oh..that's a nice bike too. I have to say that I hate the small Ninjas because of the styling but that one is sweet.

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catback

Well there you go, you have prior background but for beginners that are new to bikes most don't realize that you can get seriously hurt just learning in the parking lot, especially if it's a powerful or heavy bike. I've seen beginners have some pretty painful mess ups and I'm sure most of the people there didn't think what they saw would be seen there or could happen to them while learning there. Actually from my experience most beginners i've seen go into learning to ride with the assumption that they could drop the bike and at worse it could fall on them until they get on the street where they could have a collision with a car, none seem to expect that they roll a wheelie or a stoppie or that they crash into a wall 50' away. That's all I'm saying, beginners never really know the possible bad things that could happen while learning.

waltert

I think that what makes things harder is that alot of people are trying to learn how to operate a manual transmission, and learn to ride a bike at the same time.

when I first took the MSF, I had no previous motorcycle/moped experience, though I had always wanted to. and when I went to the class, everything came very naturally.

I had been driving a manual transmission car for a few years at that point, so I could concentrate on learning to ride, not how to shift, etc.

some people just get overwhelmed trying to learn it. I was watching a MSF class one saturday, and one of the ladies was having trouble. she kept getting worse and worse, and more panicked. one one of the stop and go excercises, she pegged the throttle, dumped the clutch, and the bike stood up. then she mashed the brake, the bike came down, and she fell over with the bike.

from the looks of it, she would have cracked her head pretty good on the lot if she hadnt had her helmet.

catback

I didn't get to witness this one but my instructor told us of an incident where a lady brought her young son to the class with her and the kid was playing around on the outside of the practice area while she was learning/riding. She was doing one of the exercises where you have to do it some speed and the instructor tells her to do it again but faster because shes too slow. Well she does it faster the next time but too fast and she's heading straight towards her kid on the outside of the track, instead of stopping any number of ways she panicks. And you know when you panick your muscles tense up well she panicked and her grip on the throttle tightened and increased her speed a bit while she froze up. She ended up running over her son and later tried suing the school and instructors.