motorcycles caused me strife

[kiya]

Agreed, there's no way that twisted piece is going to hold up, i'd bed that even after a few hundred miles it wouldn't be straight any more leading to either a very bad accident or a severely damaged swing-arm and rear wheel.

[zissou]

i need some inputs on the color pls

what about Army tan, with a white star on the tank? (0)

[Dead_Wizard]

Registered for the MSF in June, any tips/tricks/hints? Also, looks like Sym's US distro might be non-existent in the near future which bodes poorly for the classic 150. Any good ~250cc bikes out there anyone can recommend? Was looking at the Suzuki TU250. Mainly for tooling around town, nothing too extreme.

[MyAcademy]

Registered for the MSF in June, any tips/tricks/hints?....

(1) If you get a bike that idles shittily, get a different bike.

(2) REALLY figure out the clutch's friction zone ASAP.

(3) Don't drop your bike. At all.

(4) Don't sweat it. At all.

The written is a joke, and unless you royally fuck up on the ridden, you'll be fine.

And as for bikes, CBs/CLs go for pretty cheap on CraigsList.

I got a '73 CL450 for $500, dumped another $500 into it, and it runs (and looks) like a champ now.

Oh, and try out a bunch of bikes before you settle on any one model. My friend got a Rebel 250 because he wanted something small too, now hes psyched on my other friend's R6.

[wild style]

Ninja 250.

[renski]

(1) If you get a bike that idles shittily, get a different bike.

(2) REALLY figure out the clutch's friction zone ASAP.

(3) Don't drop your bike. At all.

(4) Don't sweat it. At all.

The written is a joke, and unless you royally fuck up on the ridden, you'll be fine.

And as for bikes, CBs/CLs go for pretty cheap on CraigsList.

I got a '73 CL450 for $500, dumped another $500 into it, and it runs (and looks) like a champ now.

Oh, and try out a bunch of bikes before you settle on any one model. My friend got a Rebel 250 because he wanted something small too, now hes psyched on my other friend's R6.

1) all the bikes atleast for San Diego were shitty. fucked up idles and banged up already.

2) if you drive stick you should pick this up quickly.

3) the bikes are usually already destroyed and atleast 2 people will drop a bike, infact the kid in my class highsided it on a ninja 250.

4) the u turn / figure 8 thing for the driving test don't really count for that many points, so don't stress that part. and the written is easy. I missed one because I completely skipped it.

try to ride the bike you want in the class that you want to buy. they usually have a mix of standard, cruiser, dirt, and sport bikes.

[MyAcademy]

...try to ride the bike you want in the class that you want to buy. they usually have a mix of standard, cruiser, dirt, and sport bikes.

This too!

...although in NJ everything with the exception of 4 bikes were Suzuki GN125s.

And with regard to not dropping your bike - if you drop it on the first day, you'll catch shit for it, but its fine. If you drop it during the test, you automatically fail.

So yeah, just get in the habit of not dropping it.

[andrewexd]

Registered for the MSF in June, any tips/tricks/hints? Also, looks like Sym's US distro might be non-existent in the near future which bodes poorly for the classic 150. Any good ~250cc bikes out there anyone can recommend? Was looking at the Suzuki TU250. Mainly for tooling around town, nothing too extreme.

it was easy, everyone in our class passed even though I thought some of them were not that good.... just remember not to brake in a turn, this old guy fell.

When I took the class most of them were cruisers, with 1 dirtbike and 2 ninja 250s.

[edmond]

details

[raWorkshop]

Registered for the MSF in June, any tips/tricks/hints? Also, looks like Sym's US distro might be non-existent in the near future which bodes poorly for the classic 150. Any good ~250cc bikes out there anyone can recommend? Was looking at the Suzuki TU250. Mainly for tooling around town, nothing too extreme.

MSF and motorcycling are like any other physical activity, keep your head up and your nerves calm. If you're looking 5 feet in front of the bike A)it's too late to respond to anything and You'd already have been seeing it seconds ago if you had your head up. The bikes aren't going to do anything crazy but they're usually kinda beat so it's hard to be precise in shifting, especially to neutral.

I'd read David Hugh's Proficient Motorcycling series if you haven't already (anyone reading this that is).

In other news, I'm quitting the internet until this 1972 LeManns is no longer for sale.

Posted on ADVRider

[freecat]

my mom's bf's got one but it doesn't look that new.

[Guest]

you guys have some sick bikes., that t-100 is smoking.

excuse the brokeback mountain outfit. just took delivery of a 1098s - what a machine. totally different to the r1. can't wait to hit the twisties.

[murdered out]

^

[renski]

took a spill today. took the supermoto out and shifted into a lower gear which somehow caused the rear to lock up...went straight into a dirt pile, high sided, and bike flipped over me. not sure why the rear locked up but man, my bike looks beat...time to start finding replacement parts.

[octo]

^

What he said

[sweapea]

Just browsed through this thread! Wonderful bikes here. Hope you are ok renski

Here's mine, pics from a couple of years ago,,,

[Ma Junior]

My new shit.

2010 Bonneville T-100

Almost soiled my panties riding it home from the dealer, i've never ridden anything this fast before. I guess that's what happens when you're used to cruisers and you sit on a 900cc bike that's not a cruiser.

Congrats Man, I got my Thruxton last year. Fantastic bikes. I know what you mean about the change in speed. I went from a 50cc Honda ruckus o my Triumph. Enjoy!

[ADDIC]

anyone here have/rode a honda cm400t before? thinking about possibly buying this one:

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/mcy/1724265277.html

sound like good deal or nah?

ive been wanting a bike for a couple of years now. i was saving up for an iron 883 but maybe next year. this honda can probably be a good starter and project bike.

[kiya]

I had a 1980 CM400 for a year, that bike sucked.

Handled like crap and i couldn't have picked a more terrible bike to learn on.

[renski]

you might be better off with a cb500/750

also. insurance took a look at my bike and declared it as totalled.

ffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuu. I was hoping it was fixable.

[bones.]

Love that 1098S. So it's been a week now, how are you liking it?

[andrewexd]

thinking of selling my GSXR600 for a smaller bike since i'm moving out of LA... maybe a honda cb350-500 or a dual sport (?)

[Denim Phenom]

Why sell it?

[renski]

dual sports are fun especially supermotos. i'm considering a ducati hypermotard as my next bike, though it might be too much bike for me i guess i can start a pre-mid life crisis.

[andrewexd]

Why am I selling it ? technically because I can't afford 2 bikes but it's mostly comfort, it's a pain in the ass to ride that thing around the city because I'm too short to put both feet down so I have to be bent over to reach the handlebars at stop lights or I have to put it in neutral and put one foot on the peg to sit up straight. Sounds stupid, but it really is annoying and a sportbike is kind of overkill for me since I'll be doing mostly city riding (for the next 4 years) and I end up being in 1st gear all the time... and it's not comfortable for long rides either, it really was meant for the canyons/track. not to mention insurance costs and gas mileage. I just want to try something different (and cheaper).

The ducati hypermotard is nice but way too expensive for me some bikes i'm looking at are the drz400, KTM (several), sv650, monster, cb350-550, etc. If I can't sell the gsxr for a decent price I'll probably just keep it.

[renski]

man...i loved my drz400sm, im about to buy another one after the insurance takes care of all this paperwork. i would pass on the KTM as they tend to need a lot of work (maintenance) during the break in period. I wanted to buy a sv originally but something about the hooligan aspect of supermoto brought me that route. the only downside i heard from the sv is that it lacks power.

[andrewexd]

really ? I don't know much about KTM's I usually end up buying japanse anyways. Supermotos look cool but i'll probably end up with a honda cb 350 since i've been eyeing them for a while now. Too bad they are mostly overpriced on craigslist... I saw a decent one on ebay but it had 50k miles :/ no one bid at $1400

Is 50k too much ? I probably wouldn't have bought it anyways since I should sell my bike first.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1974-Honda-CB350F-/320526335210?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item4aa0dbbcea

[kiya]

The new Kestrel from Falcon:

http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2010/05/world-exclusive-first-ride-on-kestrel.html

[Osmosis Jones]

really ? I don't know much about KTM's I usually end up buying japanse anyways. Supermotos look cool but i'll probably end up with a honda cb 350 since i've been eyeing them for a while now. Too bad they are mostly overpriced on craigslist... I saw a decent one on ebay but it had 50k miles :/ no one bid at $1400

Is 50k too much ? I probably wouldn't have bought it anyways since I should sell my bike first.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1974-Honda-CB350F-/320526335210?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item4aa0dbbcea

Mileage doesn't really mean much on older hondas. It's just how they were maintained that's really important. I've had a 70k honda that rode smoother than one with just 13k. If anything, higher mileage means it hasn't been sitting around rotting away.

On another note, anybody in the Bay Area want a 1985 Honda Spree?

[Guest]

Love that 1098S. So it's been a week now, how are you liking it?

Absolutely loving it compared to the R1. There's just this distinctive twin feel to the 1098s and the way it launches off the lights is a lot of fun. I'm 50kg on a good day and I look like a jockey on it and it constantly wants to lift the front wheel skywards. Feel of the brakes are phenomenal and the seating position isn't as bad as I thought it would be when I initially started riding it. It's quiet with the stock exhaust though - looking forward to getting some invoices paid so I can get a new exhaust and carbon fibre bellypan.

I hardly take it out of first on the road and to be honest I haven't even properly opened the bike up yet. Looking forward to a few track days coming up though and I'll have a better idea of it's ridiculousness then I think!