bigred177
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What year is your Wing? Pre 1993?
Either way, they're Hondas, little effers will run forever.
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[NA] Motorcycle Riders
- Thread starter Rob Schaffer
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What year is your Wing? Pre 1993?
Either way, they're Hondas, little effers will run forever.
Ted
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iFlyNothing
Ain't that the truth. The VFR I bought had about 35,000 miles on it. It looked and rode like brand new.
My RC51, even after having been laid down a few times still rides like new, it just looks like crap. It has 32,000 miles on it. Although when I change the rear tire on it I'll probably also go ahead and change out the chain just for fun.
bigred177
Cleared for Takeoff
And now you're changing again. You wanted to race me out of my element, so you can't change your bike to a better suited one for mine.
steingar
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Mine's an '83, last year of the 1100's. It's old and used, with 84K miles. Been crashed twice by yours truly to boot. I do have to admit though, now that I've had the carburetors reconstructed it runs quite well.
RogerT
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flyersfan31
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Funny.
I'm done.
Wrecked last week. Shot a golden bullet through the crank case (actually ground it down on belgian block curbing) - picked up the bike and it pi$$d oil all over the ground. I was on a hillside, no cell coverage. Had to coast a mile downhill to get coverage and call for a towtruck. Obviously, once I ran out of gravity I wasn't gettin' any farther. Will find out about insurance tomorrow, but that's it for me. All the gear, all the caution, and I still wipe out. That wouldn't be such a big deal, but I could easily have broken my leg in what was not a really big accident. I'm surprised I didn't.
That kinda took the fun out of it for me. I really like riding, but I'll stick to the Jeep for open-road thrills.
I'm done.
Wrecked last week. Shot a golden bullet through the crank case (actually ground it down on belgian block curbing) - picked up the bike and it pi$$d oil all over the ground. I was on a hillside, no cell coverage. Had to coast a mile downhill to get coverage and call for a towtruck. Obviously, once I ran out of gravity I wasn't gettin' any farther. Will find out about insurance tomorrow, but that's it for me. All the gear, all the caution, and I still wipe out. That wouldn't be such a big deal, but I could easily have broken my leg in what was not a really big accident. I'm surprised I didn't.
That kinda took the fun out of it for me. I really like riding, but I'll stick to the Jeep for open-road thrills.
RogerT
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Stuff happens. Every ache and pain I have is from crashing dirt bikes
in my younger days. Oh well.
RT
flyersfan31
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Yeah. I'm not younger. I don't have the time to be laid up by a broken leg or worse. It's fun, but not that fun.
Ted
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iFlyNothing
Sorry you dropped the bike, Andrew. There are three kinds of motorcyclists:
1) Those who drop their bike in the first 6 months of ownership
2) Those who kept their bike in the garage for the 6 months of ownership
3) Those who lied
You and I are both members of the #1 club. I've dropped every bike I own at some point except my VTX (ironic since it was the most likely to drop). If you walked away from it but are a bit bruised then your first drop was pretty typical. Another 5 years of riding later, I'm still at it, even though I claimed I was done about 3 or 4 times in there.
1) Those who drop their bike in the first 6 months of ownership
2) Those who kept their bike in the garage for the 6 months of ownership
3) Those who lied
You and I are both members of the #1 club. I've dropped every bike I own at some point except my VTX (ironic since it was the most likely to drop). If you walked away from it but are a bit bruised then your first drop was pretty typical. Another 5 years of riding later, I'm still at it, even though I claimed I was done about 3 or 4 times in there.
flyersfan31
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Yeah, I hear you. Every time I think about the bike I think, ehh, I don't really want to quit, do I? Then I think about the broken leg. Or worse. My heart just isn't in it enough to keep it. I don't know. Mebbe. Mrs. Flyersfan would not be sorry to see it go.....maybe I'll swap the bike for a SuperCub
astanley
En-Route
I'm in the #1 club as well. But I hear Andrew's points. ATGATT and all; it's only a matter of time before you do something dumb.
Cheers,
-Andrew
Ted
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I agree, and I understand his points also. It comes down to a personal choice.
Of course, a SuperCub would be fun.
NBPD336
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For what its worth I would say keep the bike and enjoy it. As stated two types of riders: Those that have gone down and those that will. I have been on a bike either as a passenger or a driver since I was three years old. I cannot imagine not having one. It does come down to personal choice, life is full of risks you just have to decide which ones you want to take.
I always tell people when they start riding they have 3 wrecks coming their way...
steingar
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Sorry to hear about the get off. I don't now and never have ridden a bike for thrills. Enjoyment, dah, but not adrenaline. Same for the airplane. If it rally gets my heart pumping I'm doing something I ought not too. Might make me a chicken****, but my first crash came after 25 years of riding, and wouldn't have happened if I'd done the brakes on the Wing sooner.
Ted
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iFlyNothing
I never heard that one, just the first wreck is imminent within 6 months.
And even then, I've never "wrecked" a bike. Worst damage I ever had was actually when it was in the back of my pickup truck and I hadn't strapped it down properly.
Andrew had the first newbie bike drop. Everyone does it, and if he didn't end up in the hospital he did pretty well with it. I rode my first motorcycle in the snow, did fine with it. I've got a picture somewhere of it with about 6" of snow on it. I called it the KZcicle (it was a 1984 Kawasaki KZ700).
flyersfan31
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Oh that hole in the case pretty much wrecked it! If it weren't for that I wouldn't even submit an insurance claim. New fairings can't cost much more than the deductible. I was all set to hop up and drive away, then I heard that funny sound and saw all that oil flooding out. Waaaaah!
What bugs me is that, as best as I can recall, I froze. Everything kinda went gray. How far away from the curve did I know I wouldn't make it? I'm not really sure, but once I did realize it I did nothing (other than brace for impact) to mitigate. No braking. No closing the throttle. No additional leaning. That really bothers me.
What bugs me is that, as best as I can recall, I froze. Everything kinda went gray. How far away from the curve did I know I wouldn't make it? I'm not really sure, but once I did realize it I did nothing (other than brace for impact) to mitigate. No braking. No closing the throttle. No additional leaning. That really bothers me.
Ted
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The one problem with the Jap bikes is that the fairings can turn even the slightest drop into something very expensive. If you actually busted a hole in the case, then the bike will likely be considered a total loss, you'll get your insurance money out of it, and then it'll get sold to some kid for a fraction of its purchase price who will put a new motor in it. This is why I advise people not to buy new for their first bike.
Think back to your early days of flying. There was probably one or two times with your instructor, even if very early on, when you either froze or didn't know what to do. I'd bet that you did the same thing in a car at some point, too. The reality is that on a motorcycle you frequently have even less time to react, because either a car is coming right at you or (just as likely) a tree is coming right at you. In a plane there's usually not much to hit. It's reactions that you have to learn and a conscious mental decision you have to make to not freeze and to always react. Really not unlike flying, but it doesn't translate directly.
In the past 10 years I've done something on the order of 300,000 miles in ground based vehicles (I think closer to 350,000, actually), of which about 5-10% has been motorcycles. After doing that enough, the most I get anymore is a slight increase in heart rate when someone really tries to kill me, but normally I just keep on going with the flow. It was a mental decision I made that I wasn't going to panic because panicing never helps. Seems to have served me well. There are a lot of situations that I wouldn't have made it out of otherwise.
Ken Ibold
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Yeah, back in college I was in the middle of a 50-mph turn. My passenger later said, "I knew we were going to crash so I jumped off before we did." She was my best friend's girlfriend, but obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I slid 100 feet and hit a concrete lane divider, breaking the case and totaling the bike. I had a little scratch on my hand. She fared somewhat worse.
Other than that, a couple little tiny spills 30 years ago. You're right. Mine add up to three. Three is the number to be counted, and the number to be counted shall be three.
RogerT
Cleared for Takeoff
It's called reflexes. You only get that by developing them. Buy a cheap
dirt bike and go ride around in the toolies dodging stuff all the time with
constant maneuvering. It's a 20 mile ride out in the country to the airport
I base at. I frequently get everything from possum to deer running in
front of me. The reflex action is what's saved my butt a bunch of times.
You may be able to develop some of it with cones and manmade obstacles in a parking lot .. but that lacks the surprise factor.
Rt
steingar
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Oh that hole in the case pretty much wrecked it! If it weren't for that I wouldn't even submit an insurance claim. New fairings can't cost much more than the deductible. I was all set to hop up and drive away, then I heard that funny sound and saw all that oil flooding out. Waaaaah
Welcome to the world of being a human bean.
fgcason
En-Route
Sometimes caution is the last thing you need. When things go bad, you have to be aggressive. You have to instinctively know what to do next and do it. If you're not going to make the turn, turn tighter even though you think you can't...or stand it up and stop much quicker than you think possible. And always always look where you want to go, not where you're going. If you don't like what you're seeing, look somewhere else - seriously. A motorcycle is often way more capable than the rider will let it do. Worst case scenario, fly it all the way into the crash to a full stop...or at least until it pitches you off.
Most people think I'm silly because I go to an open parking lot for about two hours a month to do slow school work and emergency maneuvering and stopping skills then I go find some dirt to play in for a while. The practice does two things: 1. It gives me the proficiency to handle the motorcycle near the limits of it's capabilities instead of being a passenger and 2. I drop it and have enough oh crapola moments to get over the fear of falling off so I can think my way through the near crash scenario like it's a normal run of the mill stop or turn. Once you stop fearing the results of an imagined crash, you can use all that extra available brain power to do something useful to prevent it.
It's seriously time for me to get a light dualsport. After 2000+ miles this summer on very questionable dirt/sand roads and paths with a street bike/street tires turned me into one heck of a lot better rider. Things that use to scare me to leaking don't even slow me down now.
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flyersfan31
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Funny, I was just thinking about that same comparison a few minutes ago.
We shall see. I go back and forth on it. If the bike is, indeed, totalled, that certainly makes the decision not to ride again easier, since I won't have a nice, repaired bike staring me in the face! And yet.....
steingar
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I've had all that happen to me just avoiding murder on city streets. Of course, I doubt I could ride anywhere near the limits of my bike outside a race track.
flyersfan31
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Ted
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iFlyNothing
Bah, that's some touch-up paint and a new oil pan. Really not bad.
Frank's idea is a good one. When I was in college, I used to do that more. It's a lot of fun, and helps you in proficiency. Now I should do it more, but don't. I have had enough almost bad things happen that I suppose I'm pretty comfortable with my instincts at this point. Locked up the rear wheel on the RC51 the other day. Unlocked it, kept on riding. I've had understeer and oversteer happen on motorcycles, never dropped. I don't think it's anything special, just a result of riding enough.
Think on it some and make your decision. Right after dropping is usually not the best time to do it. Although the first time I dropped a motorcycle, I picked it back up, hopped right on it, and rode it to school with a busted turn signal (the only damage - advantage of no fairings). I'm a get back on the horse kinda guy. The times I decided I was going to give it up were for other reasons. But I keep on coming back to it. Despite steingar's frequent assertions that I either do things fully or I don't do them at all (which is true for most things), the motorcycle world I suppose is a little bit of a gray area.
Frank's idea is a good one. When I was in college, I used to do that more. It's a lot of fun, and helps you in proficiency. Now I should do it more, but don't. I have had enough almost bad things happen that I suppose I'm pretty comfortable with my instincts at this point. Locked up the rear wheel on the RC51 the other day. Unlocked it, kept on riding. I've had understeer and oversteer happen on motorcycles, never dropped. I don't think it's anything special, just a result of riding enough.
Think on it some and make your decision. Right after dropping is usually not the best time to do it. Although the first time I dropped a motorcycle, I picked it back up, hopped right on it, and rode it to school with a busted turn signal (the only damage - advantage of no fairings). I'm a get back on the horse kinda guy. The times I decided I was going to give it up were for other reasons. But I keep on coming back to it. Despite steingar's frequent assertions that I either do things fully or I don't do them at all (which is true for most things), the motorcycle world I suppose is a little bit of a gray area.
steingar
Taxi to Parking
Careful, that RC51 is a full bred race bike, and should command some respect. It will bite, hard.
Ted
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Oh, I agree with that fully. I've also gone out and taken it on some practice runs. And it may be a full-bred race bike, but I don't ride it as such.
Rob Schaffer
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jesse
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Looks like the oil pan to me. If so it's not totaled and oil pans are generally only a few hundred or less.
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That bothers me too...
jesse
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The most amazing should-have-been-an-accident but wasn't was when I was 16 years old on my Honda Nighthawk 700S. I went into a corner that I hadn't been on before way too fast (stupid move on my part). I kept pushing harder and harder to try and make it through the corner. First the peg started grinding on the road followed by the center stand and exhaust. Sparks were flying and there was still no way I was going to complete the turn. I went off the road, through a ditch, and into someones yard. Somehow I stayed on the machine and road it out of there yard, up the ditch, and back onto the road. I attribute that save to my 11 years of dirt bike experience prior. I wish it would have been on video.
I'm still not sure how I did it. I went off the road with the exhaust grinding and sparks flying.
I'm still not sure how I did it. I went off the road with the exhaust grinding and sparks flying.
flyersfan31
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Yup, upon further review, oil pan.
Ted
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Spend enough time around vehicles and you acquire several of these stories. I certainly have my share, although not any so harrowing on a motorcycle.
The answer to how I survived as far as I can tell is that my guardian angel must have actually been driving.
steingar
Taxi to Parking
I've survived a quarter century of near continuous motorcycle usage by being a complete and utter chicken****. I recommend it to everyone. If everyone were like me bikes like mine would be a lot cheaper to insure.
astanley
En-Route
Andrew,
A few confidence builders, if you're interested:
+ Try a track day. Find a local group (I have a number of acquaintances in E. PA, NJ, and NYC who ride heavily) who can get you to a local track day, where you can learn just how far you can push the bike. Many "grey outs" are when you think you can't push any farther to prevent a situation.
+ Get some parking lot practice. Head out to a local, empty parking lot over a weekend. Set up some tennis balls (cut in half, of course) as miniature obstacle courses. Play for about an hour, varying speed and entry angle. Rinse, repeat once a month.
+ Pick up a copy of "Proficient Motorcycling", and google around for a copy of "The Pace". Outstanding reads.
One last comment... at least it was ATGATT on the motorcycle versus spandex and fingerless gloves on the bicycle!
Cheers,
-Andrew
too many scars from infernal two wheeled machines
A few confidence builders, if you're interested:
+ Try a track day. Find a local group (I have a number of acquaintances in E. PA, NJ, and NYC who ride heavily) who can get you to a local track day, where you can learn just how far you can push the bike. Many "grey outs" are when you think you can't push any farther to prevent a situation.
+ Get some parking lot practice. Head out to a local, empty parking lot over a weekend. Set up some tennis balls (cut in half, of course) as miniature obstacle courses. Play for about an hour, varying speed and entry angle. Rinse, repeat once a month.
+ Pick up a copy of "Proficient Motorcycling", and google around for a copy of "The Pace". Outstanding reads.
One last comment... at least it was ATGATT on the motorcycle versus spandex and fingerless gloves on the bicycle!
Cheers,
-Andrew
too many scars from infernal two wheeled machines
I'm not sure I'd be encouraging him to keep riding.
flyersfan31
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F you very much! :wink2:
It is a learning process. Frankly, things happened quickly -- maybe it was a split second, maybe it was 2? Given the aftermath, I have to think I braked, because things would have been far worse at full speed, even at the low speed I was going. Like I said, it was quick. It is a gray zone to me now. But I'm alive, unhurt.
One strike and I'm out. Hmm.
flyersfan31
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BTW, props to Progressive. Fantastic customer service. Like no other insurance company I've ever had experience with. Friendly, fast response. They are fixing that thing to within an inch of its life. Very impressive. Now, the premium increase might be a kick in the face, but I wouldn't hold that against them. They are way underwater on this policy.