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2 wheel GAF UNITE!
- Thread starter Flo_Evans
- Start date
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
daw840 said:
I hope so!
Now I just need to order my gear so I can start practicing. Hopefully in the next week or two.Edit: I've got a question for jackets that have a pocket for a back protector, do they only fit the protector that is the same brand that the jacket is? I'm looking at a Joe Rocket Jacket but the dainese back guard is a lot better looking for the same price.
SnakeswithLasers
Member
Nice bike man! Have fun practicing with the friction zone... Hope you get your gear soon. New Enough is a great site which can't be recommended enough.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
SnakeswithLasers said:
What's the friction zone?
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
kylej said:
Ah, never heard it called that. I've got that down pretty well yesterday when I was practicing in my grandparents driveway. It's not that bad at all after only driving manual cars. It just took at little bit until I found where the clutch catches. I can't believe the MSF isn't for a little over a month yet. This is going to be torture. :lol
thesoapster
Member
In general I would not think back protectors are easily swappable (though to be honest I've never tried...Spidi makes good spine guards). Just make sure the Joe Rocket one is CE rated. If you have no protector in the pocket to begin with, you could also buy a back protector that is a bit more beefy and straps on you with a harness.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
thesoapster said:
Ya, the Joe Rocket one is CE rated but the Dainese one is so better looking and they're like exactly the same price.
ClassyPenguin
Banned
The Joe Rocket textile jacket is going for $69 at New Enough, it's pretty good and has CE rated armor. Just ordered one myself.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
doitlive said:
Leather 4 lyfe?
Edit: One question I do have about newenough, how are they about exchanging sizes if the one you order happens to be wrong.
thesoapster
Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
New Enough is a good company. I have dealt with them in the past and returned some leathers once. I didn't have any problems with them.
edit: And why do you care what a spine guard looks like? You'll never see the damn thing. (especially since they are both built to the same armor spec/rating)
2nd edit: Don't let looks play into your safety judgment too much. Dainese uses impressive materials much of the time in their gloves, but I've heard enough reports of the stitching failing in a single get off to make me stay away. Held gloves, for example, have been reported to be crashed in multiple times and still be good to use. I had my accident with my less protective Spidi Race Vent gloves on. They did well. Scraped up some of the carbon fiber knuckle armor, but otherwise they're fine. Actually wore them today as one of my Pentas is having a...shall we say...wardrobe malfunction (stitching.....)
opticalmace
Member
Thanks. It would be fall 2011. After this semester I'll start thinking about it. Thanks for the input.thesoapster said:Very nice! Post up some pictures
When you say next fall you mean 2010 or 2011?
Road and dirt riding are different in a number of very important ways from what I understand (I've only ever ridden sport ATVs). So, if your ultimate goal is to be on the road, then you should get a street bike. However, if it's not until fall 2011 at earliest that you will be free from the parents, I can see your point. If you still would rather do street riding, you should see if there are any tracks around your area that you could do track days on. That would make you into an awesome rider
Lolz, after looking through this thread, I dont think anyone in the americas rides a bike below 200cc. I, living in India, and having a low budget, coupled with heavy duty usage requirements, bought a 150cc bike last year. And that is around the mid range bikes sold around here. I dont have pics of my bike, but its the Honda Unicorn and it looks like this:
I'm getting around 65km per litre of petrol, which is pretty damn awesome mileage!
I'm getting around 65km per litre of petrol, which is pretty damn awesome mileage!
opticalmace
Member
Thanks for the idea. My car is a toyota matrix. It has a 1.25" hitch on it, but I don't think it would be able to handle the weight of a dirt bike?Flo_Evans said:
thesoapster
Member
Karud said:
I have not used Dainese gear, but for other companies to look at for gloves, Held make some of the best. Alpinestars, Spidi, RS Taichi also have some very good stuff.
opticalmace said:
Nah, dirt bikes are pretty light. The trailer would be the thing to watch weight-wise. Though your car should really have no problem.
My brother just bought a helmet camera. I had to test it out on the way home from work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjOSskxYnYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjOSskxYnYs
thesoapster
Member
Sweet! Is it a GoPro by chance?
Gorechylde
Member
Flo_Evans said:
This depends heavily on your age, type of bike(Cruiser, Sportbike, Etc...), and driving record.
I bought a 97 Honda CBR 600F3 on my 19th birthday and the quotes were all over the place. I ended up going with Progressive for around $900/year. Most other insurers wanted 2 to 3 times as much as that.
One company, I can't quite remember the name(They only insure bikes, my dad has his bike insurance through them) wanted over $4k / year to insure me. This was due to my age and the type of bike.
As a rule of thumb, sportbikes, A.K.A. "crotchrockets" are usually prohibitively expensive to ensure. We checked minimal coverage for my dad on the same bike and it was over $1,500/year from the same people.
thesoapster
Member
Gorechylde said:
As you had mentioned it's 100% dependent upon who you check with. Geico (fuckers) would charge me multiple thousands of dollars (I think it was close to 6 grand) per year to insure my R1 with full coverage less collision. State Farm, on the other hand, charges me about 1700/year. I have no points on my license (and have never had points), but then again I'm a 21 year old male, so I get fucked at least somewhat no matter where I go as all insurance operates the same way in that regard.
edit: I should mention my bike is 1 year old (bought it new), and the R1 is a 998cc ("1000") i4 sportbike.
ClassyPenguin
Banned
I just bought my first bike, a 05' Ninja 250 for $1600 and only 770 miles or so.
I just got the insurance and still have to register or else I'd be outside riding it. Kinda freaking out though, because I'm not going to have my car since I live on my university's on-campus apartments and I'm not sure I can live with only a bike, although I only used my car for short trips to the store/public library, that sort of thing. Right now, I'm still in the scared shitless phase like I was when I first got my driver's license. That and I have no idea how I'm going to take the bike 70 miles to the campus.:lol
I just got the insurance and still have to register or else I'd be outside riding it. Kinda freaking out though, because I'm not going to have my car since I live on my university's on-campus apartments and I'm not sure I can live with only a bike, although I only used my car for short trips to the store/public library, that sort of thing. Right now, I'm still in the scared shitless phase like I was when I first got my driver's license. That and I have no idea how I'm going to take the bike 70 miles to the campus.:lol
thesoapster
Member
So I did some basic maintenance on the bike today. I don't think I've mentioned it, but a week ago, while cleaning rust off my chain, decided I needed to ride my bike. With my broken replacement fairing at the dealer, I only had my cracked/broken original. So I gorilla taped it. I put everything back together and got it road-worthy. Great idea. Should have my new fairing sometime this coming week.
I'm at around 7800 miles, so I wanted to get my spark plugs changed (supposed to be done at 8000). I know what's involved in doing the change, and I don't want to do it. So yesterday at work I called some the dealer I bought it from as well as the tuning shop I go to from time to time. Both are pretty much fully booked up service-wise for a little while. So I call another Yamaha dealer that's a little ways away from here. They had a cancellation today at 1:00 and said they could do the spark plug change. Great! I head off, taking what should've been a more fun route...but wow it turned out to be a lot colder than I thought! No matter, I'd be sitting indoors for a while, anyway. I finally get there and am greeted by the service personnel. This dealership actually has a pretty good reputation from what I understand. I have not bought much from them, but I fell there shouldn't be much trouble. In fact when you search for their name in Google, the first hit the comes up is the page on their site for customer testimonials saying how GREAT their dealership is and how people travel extra distance for the service. Well fuck them.
I'm at the service counter. Keep in mind they took note of my bike model/year and the work to be done the day prior. The service guy comes out and says, "uh...I'm sorry but...we don't have spark plugs for your bike. We can order them, though." Really...really? REALLY!? "...And that's not something you checked on before you had me come out here?" No real answer. Just another "sorry" in there I think. One of the service techs says "we'll see you later!" "Probably not." So I called them up a little later from home and see when their next appointment is. Surprise, next available appointment is just as late or later than any other dealer around here. And they won't change the cost of service or anything. Fuck Twigg Cycles.
I'm at around 7800 miles, so I wanted to get my spark plugs changed (supposed to be done at 8000). I know what's involved in doing the change, and I don't want to do it. So yesterday at work I called some the dealer I bought it from as well as the tuning shop I go to from time to time. Both are pretty much fully booked up service-wise for a little while. So I call another Yamaha dealer that's a little ways away from here. They had a cancellation today at 1:00 and said they could do the spark plug change. Great! I head off, taking what should've been a more fun route...but wow it turned out to be a lot colder than I thought! No matter, I'd be sitting indoors for a while, anyway. I finally get there and am greeted by the service personnel. This dealership actually has a pretty good reputation from what I understand. I have not bought much from them, but I fell there shouldn't be much trouble. In fact when you search for their name in Google, the first hit the comes up is the page on their site for customer testimonials saying how GREAT their dealership is and how people travel extra distance for the service. Well fuck them.
I'm at the service counter. Keep in mind they took note of my bike model/year and the work to be done the day prior. The service guy comes out and says, "uh...I'm sorry but...we don't have spark plugs for your bike. We can order them, though." Really...really? REALLY!? "...And that's not something you checked on before you had me come out here?" No real answer. Just another "sorry" in there I think. One of the service techs says "we'll see you later!" "Probably not." So I called them up a little later from home and see when their next appointment is. Surprise, next available appointment is just as late or later than any other dealer around here. And they won't change the cost of service or anything. Fuck Twigg Cycles.
Dahellisdat
Member
2 more weeks until my MSF class. I'm excited to finally join the club.
thesoapster
Member
Dahellisdat said:
Congrats! Hope you enjoy the class.
thesoapster
Member
Flo_Evans said:They didn't have the spark plug for a year old bike there? I would of just ordered it online and put it in myself. You have 4 though I only have one.
Found out no dealership really has them. The spark plug is different from all the past models, I guess. And yes, I'm not going to deal with the bullshit. I'm going to be learning how to do this (I've never changed a spark plug before). It's also a giant pain in the ass to get to them. Fuel tank cover lifted, remove fuel tank, remove airbox cover and the airbox itself (plus some fairing in the process if I am to believe the manual).
Good thread. I like to see you young'uns riding. You're the future of motorcycling, no doubt about it, and I think motorcycling will be more popular in the very near future for many reasons.
Will post photos soon. Wanted to get on here and offer to answer any questions (or dispell any rumours!) about Harley-Davidson motorcycles that y'all might want to ask. Currently, I ride a 2005 Springer Softail, the end Harley from a long chain of 'em. I'm not a hater, and started out with Japanese bikes (still love 'em), did the crotch-rocket thing (in my youth), and still lived to ride today...so I'd really rather not start any this brand vs. that brand shenanigans. Ask away!
Will post photos soon. Wanted to get on here and offer to answer any questions (or dispell any rumours!) about Harley-Davidson motorcycles that y'all might want to ask. Currently, I ride a 2005 Springer Softail, the end Harley from a long chain of 'em. I'm not a hater, and started out with Japanese bikes (still love 'em), did the crotch-rocket thing (in my youth), and still lived to ride today...so I'd really rather not start any this brand vs. that brand shenanigans. Ask away!
Gorechylde said:
Completely depends on the insurance company. State Farm for example does not take into account the model of the bike. They only look at raw CCs. It's a little funny that my 400lb, 900cc sportbike is less to insure than a 1,000lb 1300cc tourer, but that's the way they do it. Makes for a cheap insurance. I think I pay around $400 a year full coverage for my sportbike.
Also, just had my bike detailed. Worth every penny!
thesoapster
Member
Very nice Ninja
State Farm told me they do actually take model into consideration now (fairly recent thing they're doing). My rates didn't change at all from that, though. I do pay a hefty bit compared to many motorcyclists, but it'll keep going down significantly as I approach the age of 25.
State Farm told me they do actually take model into consideration now (fairly recent thing they're doing). My rates didn't change at all from that, though. I do pay a hefty bit compared to many motorcyclists, but it'll keep going down significantly as I approach the age of 25.
Dahellisdat
Member
Any of you guys have insurance through AAA? I've got home and auto insurance through them right now and havent talked to anyone there yet about insuring a motorcycle when I get one in the next couple months.
thesoapster said:Very nice Ninja
State Farm told me they do actually take model into consideration now (fairly recent thing they're doing). My rates didn't change at all from that, though. I do pay a hefty bit compared to many motorcyclists, but it'll keep going down significantly as I approach the age of 25.
Interesting. Well fortunately my insurance hasn't changed. Then again I am 32 with no tickets ever and have car, bike and house on the same policy. It SHOULD be cheap.
thesoapster
Member
Wooooo. Got my 2nd (non-faulty this time I think!) replacement fairing, got it all installed, and things look great. Also got my HID wiring fixed now so that the relay trigger wiring is spliced into my marker light wiring, so now the lights come on with the ignition. No more chance of a failed headlight start when the bike is turned on! (Normally the headlights turn on with the bike, but the HID power draw is quite high to turn them on, so sometimes my right HID used to not light up on the first start of the bike. No more!)
New spark plugs are in transit somewhere, so I should be installing those pretty soon, too. Rode some today (very nice day), and tomorrow is looking great as well. So long winter
New spark plugs are in transit somewhere, so I should be installing those pretty soon, too. Rode some today (very nice day), and tomorrow is looking great as well. So long winter
I'll just say I'm not a bike person up front, but I do respect riders.
Anyways, just wanted to say that I raced my friends turbo 'Busa today (317whp) in my R32 Skyline (475whp). Needless to say I lost horribly, but man it was fun. Should have a video of the incident soon!
That bike is scary, REALLY scary. I'm afraid to even sit on it haha. Much respect to everyone who has the balls to ride bikes like that. :lol
Anyways, just wanted to say that I raced my friends turbo 'Busa today (317whp) in my R32 Skyline (475whp). Needless to say I lost horribly, but man it was fun. Should have a video of the incident soon!
That bike is scary, REALLY scary. I'm afraid to even sit on it haha. Much respect to everyone who has the balls to ride bikes like that. :lol
SnakeswithLasers
Member
I dropped my bike today. Needed to u-turn on a road and ran out of room; I was going super slow, but I grabbed the brake too hard when I was close to the end of the asphalt (it is one of those two lane roads where the asphalt just ends and then there's a ditch) and the bike just fell over. Totally my fault. =/
On the bright side, I've got sliders and my saddlebag had my boxing gloves in it, so there is pretty much zero damage to the bike--just a scratch on the side mirror's casing--slider is a bit tore up though. :lol I was wearing full gear (as I always do! and now I'm happy about it!), so I didn't get hurt at all...wrist is a bit sore from catching myself though.
I guess all things considered, I'm happy it worked out--two kinds of riders and all... If I'm lucky, now I can put myself in the latter camp.
On the bright side, I've got sliders and my saddlebag had my boxing gloves in it, so there is pretty much zero damage to the bike--just a scratch on the side mirror's casing--slider is a bit tore up though. :lol I was wearing full gear (as I always do! and now I'm happy about it!), so I didn't get hurt at all...wrist is a bit sore from catching myself though.
I guess all things considered, I'm happy it worked out--two kinds of riders and all... If I'm lucky, now I can put myself in the latter camp.
thesoapster
Member
Conceited said:I'll just say I'm not a bike person up front, but I do respect riders.
Anyways, just wanted to say that I raced my friends turbo 'Busa today (317whp) in my R32 Skyline (475whp). Needless to say I lost horribly, but man it was fun. Should have a video of the incident soon!
That bike is scary, REALLY scary. I'm afraid to even sit on it haha. Much respect to everyone who has the balls to ride bikes like that. :lol
Hayabusas are so damn big. Total rocket bike. The closest thing to your car I've messed around with was a Nissan GT-R (no idea if it was modded or not). I was definitely faster, but he was braver/more of an asshole and willing to weave from one side of the highway to the other through moderate to heavy traffic. I was not (didn't want to follow him and end up dead), so I backed off. You might like these two videos, though:
Hayabusas and ZX12 vs Viper - Part 1
Part 2
SnakeswithLasers said:
Glad to hear you are fine and that the bike is as well! If I run out of room on a U-turn (usually only happens on two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere) I just stop and back up a bit. If in a heavy traffic area I'd probably do the same if there were no cars coming. Best to stick to the outside of the corner and move out a ways before you make the turnaround. Trying to cut into the corner too soon will often have you running out of room later on in the turn.
Funky Functionality
Member
Would love to see this!Conceited said:
SnakeswithLasers
Member
I honestly don't know why I didn't just think to stop and back up...derp a derp. :lol :lolthesoapster said:
Holy crap. Thats such genius.Flo_Evans said:
Thanks guys!
thesoapster
Member
That is pretty great
Today I took another mechanical leap (I suppose). I have never installed/removed a single spark plug of any kind in my life. My coworker helped me out/guided me a bit as he's actually done it before on his R6.
-Remove seats
-Remove panels on either side of the gas tank, along with all hardware holding the tank down
-Remove plastic front cover of the gas tank
-Pivot the tank back: It must be held back. I couldn't find any rope to tie it back, but I did find a nice, long coax cable that worked wonderfully :lol :lol
-There are 10 Phillips-head screws on the upper air filter case. These must be removed, as well as the fuel line: Most of these screws came out fine. However it was clear a few of them had been overtightened by whoever worked on that section of the bike last (possibly the person who installed my Power Commander). In fact one of the screws had been mildly stripped already. Trying to get the over-tightened screws out, I stripped two of them. FFFFUUUU!!!$&)*!@#. So began the hunt for a power drill and a suitable bit. This took longer than it should have. I drilled out these two screws and then we go to remove the piece, but oh...oh. The fuel line. So we cannot figure out how to disconnect this bitch. Finally after I removed the safety clip and was pushing in on these blue tabs and wiggling it around, it comes off suddenly, squirting a little bit of the residual gasoline in the line on my hands. Had to wipe that up. Finally, we remove this top piece (for more screws we had to go to Home Depot later on).
-Removal of the intake funnel: Not too bad, though there are some allen bolts deep in there to remove, which was kind of fun. The intake funnels actually pivot to be more in line with the cylinders. I thought this was kind of odd. I turned the ignition and discovered what makes that cool noise right as the key is turned - it's the funnels moving into place above the cylinders! Riveting.
-Remove the lower airbox/filter case: Not too much has to be done once the bolts are out of the intake funnels. My air filter was pretty sweet. There were so many dead bees in that thing that I scraped out. Surprised a swarm didn't catch me in the act and attack.
-Removal of annoying plastic piece that funnels the air in from the intakes in the front of the bike into the airbox (clever name, I know)
-Disconnecting/removal of ignition coil packs: Looked at the diagrams and saw no torque spec and it looked unthreadead. Still, called the service desk at the dealer to ask if I just pull them out. "Yep." Cool. Couldn't get them out by hand, though. Had to use vice grips (a wonderful tool).
-Removal of existing spark plugs (fucking finally): The two center plugs I could get without much problem with just some extensions on the ratchet. The corner ones happen to be close to the frame, so to actually get to these I had to find some pivot extensions for the ratchet. Couldn't be too short (had no room to twist thanks to shit like the fucking PAIR valve), and if too long it would hit the frame.
-Reverse
So, definitely a learning process for me. All said and done, taking it apart, doing all the work, Home Depot run, break for juice (it got hot), I spent about 6.5 hours. This included hunting for that goddamn safety clip for the fuel line when putting it back together, as in my excitement of getting squirted with gasoline I dropped it (found it near my shock/chain). I had already reconnected the fuel line, as the bike doesn't need the safety clip as the hose already clips into place. That said, I was in the mood to get squirted with fuel again, so I put the clip back on. Proceeded to go on nice test ride after. All is well (and I installed my replacement fairing and fixed my HID wiring for good a couple days prior).
Today I took another mechanical leap (I suppose). I have never installed/removed a single spark plug of any kind in my life. My coworker helped me out/guided me a bit as he's actually done it before on his R6.
-Remove seats
-Remove panels on either side of the gas tank, along with all hardware holding the tank down
-Remove plastic front cover of the gas tank
-Pivot the tank back: It must be held back. I couldn't find any rope to tie it back, but I did find a nice, long coax cable that worked wonderfully :lol :lol
-There are 10 Phillips-head screws on the upper air filter case. These must be removed, as well as the fuel line: Most of these screws came out fine. However it was clear a few of them had been overtightened by whoever worked on that section of the bike last (possibly the person who installed my Power Commander). In fact one of the screws had been mildly stripped already. Trying to get the over-tightened screws out, I stripped two of them. FFFFUUUU!!!$&)*!@#. So began the hunt for a power drill and a suitable bit. This took longer than it should have. I drilled out these two screws and then we go to remove the piece, but oh...oh. The fuel line. So we cannot figure out how to disconnect this bitch. Finally after I removed the safety clip and was pushing in on these blue tabs and wiggling it around, it comes off suddenly, squirting a little bit of the residual gasoline in the line on my hands. Had to wipe that up. Finally, we remove this top piece (for more screws we had to go to Home Depot later on).
-Removal of the intake funnel: Not too bad, though there are some allen bolts deep in there to remove, which was kind of fun. The intake funnels actually pivot to be more in line with the cylinders. I thought this was kind of odd. I turned the ignition and discovered what makes that cool noise right as the key is turned - it's the funnels moving into place above the cylinders! Riveting.
-Remove the lower airbox/filter case: Not too much has to be done once the bolts are out of the intake funnels. My air filter was pretty sweet. There were so many dead bees in that thing that I scraped out. Surprised a swarm didn't catch me in the act and attack.
-Removal of annoying plastic piece that funnels the air in from the intakes in the front of the bike into the airbox (clever name, I know)
-Disconnecting/removal of ignition coil packs: Looked at the diagrams and saw no torque spec and it looked unthreadead. Still, called the service desk at the dealer to ask if I just pull them out. "Yep." Cool. Couldn't get them out by hand, though. Had to use vice grips (a wonderful tool).
-Removal of existing spark plugs (fucking finally): The two center plugs I could get without much problem with just some extensions on the ratchet. The corner ones happen to be close to the frame, so to actually get to these I had to find some pivot extensions for the ratchet. Couldn't be too short (had no room to twist thanks to shit like the fucking PAIR valve), and if too long it would hit the frame.
-Reverse
So, definitely a learning process for me. All said and done, taking it apart, doing all the work, Home Depot run, break for juice (it got hot), I spent about 6.5 hours. This included hunting for that goddamn safety clip for the fuel line when putting it back together, as in my excitement of getting squirted with gasoline I dropped it (found it near my shock/chain). I had already reconnected the fuel line, as the bike doesn't need the safety clip as the hose already clips into place. That said, I was in the mood to get squirted with fuel again, so I put the clip back on. Proceeded to go on nice test ride after. All is well (and I installed my replacement fairing and fixed my HID wiring for good a couple days prior).
thesoapster said:That is pretty great
Today I took another mechanical leap (I suppose). I have never installed/removed a single spark plug of any kind in my life. My coworker helped me out/guided me a bit as he's actually done it before on his R6.
Don't you just love modern vehicle design/manufacturing? :lol
In the old days it was:
1.pull on plug wire
2.take out sparkplug
3.reverse
Sometimes I think the engineers try and make it hard to do simple stuff on purpose so you have to go to the dealer.