[NA] Motorcycle Riders

dmccormack said:
Rob -- be careful. You're in a fairly congested part of PA and you have little ones depending on you.

I rode alot when I was young and gave it up for a while. Have a Liter bike now (FZ1) but our kids are all grown.
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Actually, there's a lot of good, empty country roads to enjoy out there. That's how I finally got comfortable with the purchase. You can easily avoid the congested stuff. Ride smart, live long.
 
Turboz1r said:
One more for your taste buds.
1972 Kawasaki H2 750cc three cylinder two stroke.

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That's enough for now,
Mike
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Wow! Deja vu! My brother had one of those. It would pass anything on the road except a gas station!! It normally got about 18 miles to the gallon.....on it's 4 gallon tank. Best he ever saw riding it reeeeal easy was 27 to the gallon! :D:D:D
 
Had a Honda 90 for a few years, then got a CL-175. Stopped a 1968 Ford Mustang with it (guy ran a stop sign, hit us broadside and put my wife and me in the hospital, put his radiator in his fan) and my wife hasn't been on a bike since (and that was December 1973). I sold the 175 when we graduated from college in 1975. Best of luck to you all, I rode for 5 years and have the screws in my left ankle to prove it.

But you can bet I don't have any trouble spotting bikes on the road. You're not going to get hit by my Jeep.
 
flyersfan31 said:
Actually, there's a lot of good, empty country roads to enjoy out there. That's how I finally got comfortable with the purchase. You can easily avoid the congested stuff. Ride smart, live long.
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Thanks Dan and Andrew. I'm definitely going to take my time. I'll enjoy early morning rides to my parents up around Lake Nockamixon or some of the country roads over to Perkiomen Airport. I bought a cruiser, for exactly that, 55 mph or less enjoying the ride.

Now when I'm practicing I ride before Lansdale people really get out of the house and doing their errands, which seems to be 9:30-10am when the roads start to get a fair amount of traffic on them.

Thanks everyone for sharing those pics,... some of those bikes look like they are rockets!
 
bigred177 said:
Congrats on the bike. They're tons o fun. Shadows are nice riding as well.

1993 Honda VFR 750


And the main reason for buying her, other than sporty but comfortable and the sexy, sexy white color: the single-sided swing arm :D
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Is that the V-4 like they used in the V-45 Magna? (The V-65 Magna cranked on fairly well, had one of those for a bit.)
 
flyersfan31 said:
Actually, there's a lot of good, empty country roads to enjoy out there. That's how I finally got comfortable with the purchase. You can easily avoid the congested stuff. Ride smart, live long.
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Trick is not to let those country roads lull you because they are pock marked with "oh s-t"s as well. You always need to be on your toes regardless where you ride or at what speed. "None of the Gear, None of the Time" tends to keep me on my toes.
 
Good morning,

Pic of the day, Honda Goldwing long distance weapon. Rode the wing cross country in 2007 with two friends. Not one problem during the trip. Gas and go for 6500 miles in 28 days, including a stop at KOSH.

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Mike in NJ
 
Henning said:
Trick is not to let those country roads lull you because they are pock marked with "oh s-t"s as well. You always need to be on your toes regardless where you ride or at what speed. "None of the Gear, None of the Time" tends to keep me on my toes.
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Oh absolutely. But it's a matter of removing variables from the equation.

A windy road can hide a broken-down car, or deer, around the bend. Or a pothole. Caution is always the watchword. It's just a lot easier to focus on that stuff when you don't have the old geezers driving their Fleetwoods half over the white line looming up behind you. There are A LOT of drivers like that in Rob's area. BTDT.
 
bigred177 said:
And that is moving for a road trip. I'm impressed, no tickets?
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Not a one. There weren't a ton of cops, and it wasn't hard to find someone going 90+ to follow about a 1/2 mile back. The only problem was that the VTX gets about 30 mpg and only has a 5 gallon tank, so I had to stop every 120 miles or so.
 
steingar said:
Cruisers can be very uncomfortable at high speeds due to the wind blast. A windshield can help, but cuts down the mileage (and acceleration, to a degree).
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I have an 07 Shadow Spirit (750) that I put a small Memphis Shades windshield on. Keeps the wind blast off the body and neck (so no lifting of the helmet) but only a small penalty in drag. It's quick release, you can dismount it in seconds, and I'm thinking of getting a bigger one for cold weather, and then I can swap among no windshield, small, or large depending on the weather.

I got back into cycling a couple of years ago after a 25 year hiatus. In the late 70s took a six-week trip from Wisconsin to New Orleans to Los Angeles to Seattle to Wisconsin with a buddy. I had a Honda 750K with a Vetter fairing and he had one of the early Goldwings. What a great adventure!!

Also had one of the first Honda V45 Magnas. That was lot of fun, but the tranny was a little hinky going from first to second. It liked to drop back to neutral, with terrible results when you were doing some stoplight racing.
 
This is our 1982 Kawasaki KZ1100. It's fun and plently powerful for us. I'm hunting for a sissy bar right now so Beth can lean back and relax a bit. I may have to just go ahead and buy a bike that comes with one, huh? :ihih:


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OtisAir said:
This is our 1982 Kawasaki KZ1100. It's fun and plently powerful for us. I'm hunting for a sissy bar right now so Beth can lean back and relax a bit. I may have to just go ahead and buy a bike that comes with one, huh? :ihih:
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I had a girl that did several thousand miles on the back of my XS Eleven Special, she'd lay against my back and fall asleep.
 
Henning said:
I had a girl that did several thousand miles on the back of my XS Eleven Special, she'd lay against my back and fall asleep.
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I had a girl that did several thousand miles on the back of my Magna. She'd either eat all the doughnuts or drink all the rum, depending on whether the sun was coming up or going down.
 
I must be the only one here dumb enough to buy an Italian bike. I ride a 2002 Moto Guzzi California, and she's a sweetie.
I don't have a pic, which is good for everybody else because you'd all be driven mad with jealous longing.
 
Here's mine, 2005 Sportster 1200 Custom.
 

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Started off with a Yamaha twin jet 100CC when I was 15. I forget what year it was but I got it 15th hand!:D After that was a new Honda 175cc, then a new Honda CJ360. Then a used Honda 750K, followed by a new Honda Gold Wing Interstate. That was followed by a new Honda Goldwing Aspencade. The current bike is a new HD Heritage Softtail Classic.

The bikes change as the mission changes. You couldn't beat the Goldwings for coast to coast trips but for local runs to the doughnut shop you can't beat the HD.
 
Henning said:
Is that the V-4 like they used in the V-45 Magna? (The V-65 Magna cranked on fairly well, had one of those for a bit.)
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Yes, they took the engine from the VF/VFR line for the V-45. The V-65 had a bigger engine with mo' power.
 
Telemakhos said:
I must be the only one here dumb enough to buy an Italian bike. I ride a 2002 Moto Guzzi California, and she's a sweetie.
I don't have a pic, which is good for everybody else because you'd all be driven mad with jealous longing.
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I've had a couple of old Guzzes over the years, they were decent enough bikes and rode really nice. The downside is on a road trip, getting parts was a lot trickier and would put you down longer.
 
Henning said:
I've had a couple of old Guzzes over the years, they were decent enough bikes and rode really nice. The downside is on a road trip, getting parts was a lot trickier and would put you down longer.
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That's about my experience. When it breaks, good luck finding someone to fix it. And the parts are shipped from Italy.
I love how it rides and looks, though.
 
Henning said:
I had a girl that did several thousand miles on the back of my XS Eleven Special, she'd lay against my back and fall asleep.
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My wife used to knit on the back of our Goldwing. It was like sitting in a Barca-lounger... :wink2:
 
Telemakhos said:
That's about my experience. When it breaks, good luck finding someone to fix it. And the parts are shipped from Italy.
I love how it rides and looks, though.
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Working on it's not an issue for me as I do my own work, it's just getting parts. A lot of times you can find a Gusse guy around who has some parts, and if you live in an area where there's a lot of people, there's normally a stocking dealer shop around. It was just the road trips that were a hassle, though it only screwed me once and DHL had the parts to me in 3 days, so all in all not too bad.
 
That's highly dependent on location. When I was in college in Indiana I was the only Jaguar mechanic within a 70 mile radius (closest next one was Indianapolis). Virtually all of the parts I used were ordered. After my first year of dealing with a Jag as my only car there I bought my Chevy truck that broke more often, but parts could be obtained from the AdvanceAuto down the street. I could walk there if needed.

Of course, up until my current motorcycle I've never bought anything more than spark plugs, air filters, and oil filters for my motorcycles. Typically I sell them before anything breaks.
 
I have an 07 Shadow Spirit and as of yesterday, an 06 Nomad. The 750 is fun, esp. for short runs, but I get tired of it after 100 miles or so. The Nomad is the upgrade replacement for my trusted Suzuki Boulevard. 4 years and a ton of miles ended when a car pulled out in front of me last month.
 
Reading over this thread makes me want a bike even more...threewheelers are fun, but there's not much practicality to them. My dad would shoot me though...
 
Arbiter419 said:
Reading over this thread makes me want a bike even more...threewheelers are fun, but there's not much practicality to them. My dad would shoot me though...
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He'd have to catch you first. Three wheelers combine all the disadvantages of a car and a motorcycle.
 
Halfway through the classes with the MSF, and I'm having a ball of fun and learning a lot. Ride Safe Everyone!
 
1982 Honda CB650
It regularly takes me into and out of places that that most people don't think a street bike can go and does it reliably. The stories it could tell about the Adventures we went on this summer...
Next summer, dualsport tires. Street tires suck to no end.
 

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gprellwitz said:
:goofy::goofy::goofy:
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I'm glad someone got the joke!

Arbiter419 said:
Reading over this thread makes me want a bike even more...threewheelers are fun, but there's not much practicality to them. My dad would shoot me though...
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While not wanting to be a bad example, my mom didn't know about my first motorcycle. I bought it when I was off at college, 800 miles away from home, and I maintain a good lack of communication with my family that such things weren't known about. I did the same thing with flying. My mom told me if I ever started taking flying lessons not to tell her. So I wait until after my first solo, I figured at that point I had to tell her. Once I got my instrument rating, she decided that automatically made me a good pilot since JFK died due to lack of an instrument rating (so says the Today show, so it must be true).

Anyway, point being: college years are some of the best times to ride a motorcycle, and where you live has some of the best roads for motorcycling this side of the Rockies. If nothing else, I'd be willing to mentor you on it since you live nearby and because I think it's a lot of fun and very worth doing. It provides a freedom similar to flying, just significantly less expensive and less practical for actual transport. This weekend I was riding the Seca II and the RC51 around and loving it. I wished that I didn't have to drive back up to Boston yesterdya, or I would have spent more time just riding around for the sheer joy of doing so. Doubly so now that I finally got the RC51 working!
 
RC51 is a nice bike. If you need someone to ride it for you while you're away rescuing puppies, do let me know. Easily the best of the Vtwin superbikes.
 
steingar said:
RC51 is a nice bike. If you need someone to ride it for you while you're away rescuing puppies, do let me know. Easily the best of the Vtwin superbikes.
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If you ever need anyone to keep that RC51 broken in for you, give me a call . That's what I'd have if I didn't love my VFR so much.
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I WIN!!!! :wink2: :D
 
I don't like those terms. You have 250cc more and about 500 lbs less. Let's do a cross country race for it. How long can you keep yourself in a little ball on a hard seat?
 
Well, this is simple.

Neither of you can ride my motorcycle. Problem solved. :D
 
bigred177 said:
I don't like those terms. You have 250cc more and about 500 lbs less. Let's do a cross country race for it. How long can you keep yourself in a little ball on a hard seat?
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How 'bout we do the cross country thing between the VFR and my Goldwing? You might actually win, the Wing is a bit of a fossil and could easily break down.

I could keep myself in the Corbin seat on my 954 for a very, very long time. i might emerge from the experience crippled, but I could do it...
 
steingar said:
Oh well, if I wanted to that much I would go buy one. Just sounded like a fun jibe. Mine's faster anyway.
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Of course, but as we've discussed when I first got the RC51, my purchase decision was on fun not fast and I like the way V-twins ride.
 
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