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Thread: Did we never make a motorcycle thread?

  1. #991
    High Plains Luddite George's Avatar
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    I need to get one of those Russian dashcams.

    Today I was driving my car in rush-hour traffic on a five-lane wide interstate highway. Traffic suddenly slowed, as it often does, rubber-band style. You guys know the drill - speed up, slow down, crawl for a while, then speed up again, only to have your hopes and dreams of efficient travel be dashed against the blacktop as traffic slows down yet again.

    We had just come to a near stop again when I was scared half to death by a guy on a dual-sport motorcycle who blew by my passenger side window with just inches to spare.

    Almost immediately, traffic in my lane and the next one over came to a complete stop and turn signals came on up ahead. We all had to merge over one or two lanes, since shit-for-brains caused a four-car accident just a few car lengths ahead of me. I was too busy trying to get around the wreck to study the positions of the cars that were directly involved to guess how it went down, but I hope that jerk gets what he deserves from the long arm of the law. His selfish behavior affected dozens...no, hundreds of motorists this morning by blocking 40% of the northbound lanes on I-25 during rush hour traffic.

    While some things are legal in Colorado, lane splitting is not.

  2. #992
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    Legal or not, it’s something were you need to use skill and good judgement - things often lacking from many road users.
    And even if the law doesn’t get him, his insurance surely will.

  3. #993
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    Quote Originally Posted by George View Post
    I need to get one of those Russian dashcams.

    Today I was driving my car in rush-hour traffic on a five-lane wide interstate highway. Traffic suddenly slowed, as it often does, rubber-band style. You guys know the drill - speed up, slow down, crawl for a while, then speed up again, only to have your hopes and dreams of efficient travel be dashed against the blacktop as traffic slows down yet again.

    We had just come to a near stop again when I was scared half to death by a guy on a dual-sport motorcycle who blew by my passenger side window with just inches to spare.

    Almost immediately, traffic in my lane and the next one over came to a complete stop and turn signals came on up ahead. We all had to merge over one or two lanes, since shit-for-brains caused a four-car accident just a few car lengths ahead of me. I was too busy trying to get around the wreck to study the positions of the cars that were directly involved to guess how it went down, but I hope that jerk gets what he deserves from the long arm of the law. His selfish behavior affected dozens...no, hundreds of motorists this morning by blocking 40% of the northbound lanes on I-25 during rush hour traffic.

    While some things are legal in Colorado, lane splitting is not.
    It ain't legal, but you drivers tend to think of it from only your perspective, in your car, than look at the bigger picture.
    There was a study that was done that concluded that if 10% of drivers rode a motorcycle or took public transport, congestion would decrease by 40%/. Think about that for a minute. Imagine a picture of a clogged freeway, then magically, make random cars disappear in a poof of nothingness until you've taken 10% of them off. Suddenly there's a lot more space, no? Less congestion. Higher average speeds. That's effectively what motorcycles do.

    Lanesplitting takes cars off the road; i'm literally one less car driving to work every morning. Not only that, it's easy to see around most bikes meaning you can respond to the traffic ahead of the bike because you can see their brake lights around the rider. And, by lane splitting, i'm taking up and utilising "unusable space" (space that's there but otherwise not available to cars) making/meaning even more room on the road. And getting 50mpg.

    I have coworkers who comment that they see me passing them on the road every day, but it hasn't "clicked" yet for them, that they could do the same thing. They start work AFTER me but have to leave home before me because of traffic. I work before them but can leave home after them and still get to work on time because of lane splitting.

    Sure, the lane splitter was breaking the law. I am not arguing that. But if you hate sitting in traffic you should think about having your legislators legalise lane splitting. That would take some drivers off the road and give you a little more space. Lotsa riders on advrider.com who abhor lane splitting. And quite a few who've been in that same camp, then were in California and tried it and are now believers.

    Done properly, you see cars in the carpool and number 1 lane edge over a few inches to let the bikes by. Happens everyday on my commute. That's inches, not feet, and they remain in the lane for the most part. Some go all the way out of the way. And each bike that passes every car on the 405 is one less car on the road.

    Edited to add this screed I posted on a motorcycle forum somewhere else. On a post about possibly legalising lane splitting in AZ.

    Quote Originally Posted by neanderthal
    Those of you residing in AZ should be contacting your representatives regularly. And telling your fellow riders, friends and neighbours to advocate on your behalf as well.
    Tout the benefits;
    * each bike is one less car on the road.
    * lane splitting allows a vehicle (bike) to use non usable space on the road
    * both the above reduce congestion
    * all the above reduce tailpipe emissions; more vehicular traffic actually moving rather than crawling or idling
    * bikes occupy less space on the road, ie; two bikes next to each other in the same lane use the same space as one car (I don't really advocate that myself, but the lawmaker needs to see as many pluses as possible!)
    * you can easily see around motorcycles at the traffic ahead
    * rear end crashes constitute the 2nd highest accident type involving more than one vehicle.
    * fewer fatalities if motorcyclists can filter to the front of the traffic at lights and stop signs.
    * if passed, more people might be more inclined to ride, reducing pressure on the road systems, while allowing the same number of commuters to use it.
    * that ^ more efficient use of the roads is like adding a lane of traffic to the roads, but without the construction, the delays and especially the costs of actually adding a lane to the roads
    * etc etc etc

    Sure, drivers aren't expecting bikes to pop up between them, but then again, lane splitting only really requires that drivers stay in the center of their lane, and the biker can squeeze in between the cars if they feel comfortable doing so. In other words, done properly, lane splitting doesn't require anything extra from the drivers, just that they do what they should already be doing.
    Last edited by neanderthal; May 12th, 2018 at 12:14 PM.

  4. #994
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    Once I start lane splitting, I can never look back.

    Usually because I'm dodging mirrors in traffic, which come from in front.

  5. #995
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    Nothing to report other than crossing 20000 miles on the second AT last week. Had it since Aug 25 2017.

    Fantastic bloody bike. Last week I went to Perris (March Air force Base environs for an aircraft museum) there's a railway museum thereabouts too that I went to, then I headed to Borrego Springs too see the sculptures. Lovely road from Temecula to Borrego Springs, cross a mountain road and come over the crest to see the desert laid out before you. Magnificent magnificent sight.

    IMG_20180505_161202589.jpg

    Took a few pics of the rusty iron

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    IMG_20180505_165751043_HDR.jpg

    IMG_20180505_165343468.jpg

    IMG_20180505_170034688.jpg

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    IMG_20180505_171902567.jpg

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    IMG_20180505_165040450_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg


    then headed to Mecca which is one of my destinations in my "around the world in the USA" tour

    IMG_20180505_183241347.jpg

    then came home. Right around 12 hours of saddle time. Incredible day.
    Last edited by neanderthal; May 12th, 2018 at 12:26 PM.

  6. #996
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    Got off work Sunday night and rode my bike to Phoenix arriving at 02:30AM. Spent a few hours catching a few winks at mums. Left at 5:45am Monday morning to ride to Dallas. Got to Dallas at 01:45 am on Tuesday morning (03:45 Dallas time.) I was knackered. 1500 miles total from LA.

    The Africa Twin is definitely not a touring bike, but it does touring bike duty quite bloody well. My initial load out was way too heavy and behind the rear wheel axle that it affected the handling quite remarkably. I stopped at a big multi line motorcycle dealer and wanted to buy the factory panniers off their Africa Twin floor model but they didn't want to do that. I bought a $500 less on a set of panniers/ side cases, went to my cousins, redistributed my load, drastically lowered the center of gravity, and set off for Phoenix.

    The sunrise over the desert plain is a beautiful thing to behold. Blasting the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill, Tupac, D'Angelo, plus the early start meant I made great time and was in El Paso in time for lunch. I stopped there for two hours to rest my eyes and get out of the burning sun.
    Parts of west Texas have an 80mph speed limit and drivers were blatantly ignoring that. Laden, going slightly uphill, vicious sidewind, the best she could do was 100mph. That was an awful 27mpg. But, it was worth it to minimise time on the saddle. But that also meant gassing up every 100 miles. When you've been riding through Texas for 6 hours and find you still have another 7 ahead of you, that can be despiriting.
    I can recommend flying if you want to go from LA to Dallas. If you want to go by bike, take the most scenic route and stay a couple of nights in small motels on route 66 or something.
    But if you absolutely want to cross a continent in one go, a liter plus bike with great ergos is the way to do it. The AT suits the bill to a T.
    ----------

    Flew home Wednesday evening. Left LA Thursday evening in my car and was trying to get to Dallas (moving) in one shot. Got to about 30 miles west of Abilene and my serpentine belt gave up the ghost. Got a tow to Abilene, left it at a garage (they're booked through this week and next) rented a car and drove the rest of the way. The Nissan Sentra I got was such a contrast to the old Benz. Sure, it had ice cold AC, but that was the only positive. Steering was probably the worst i've encountered, needing constant corrections and input to go vaguely straight. Gutless. Ergos not quite right. But, it did the job. Cheaply. And i was terribly tired when I finally picked it up. I still had to go to my car, unload my stuff, then go to my cousins in Dallas. I can attribute some of it's horribleness to the sheer contrast between a rock solid, heavy freeway munching Benz, and the extreme fatigue I was feeling at that time. I had already been up for 28 hours when I picked it up.

    ----------

    Went to my nephew's football soccer game today and managed to lose my phone.

    Yes, it's been a fun week.

  7. #997
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    This bike. This fucking bike. Oh my god.

    Right, so… I’ll tell you a little story.

    A woman was sucking nearly $200 a week out of me, because she was sick and couldn’t earn enough to pay her bills. I put off buying a new bike for three years for this woman, but now she has fucked off and is not my problem anymore. At first it hurt like hell but I’m now seeing the benefits.

    The very same week that I got a new housemate in to help pay the rent I started looking seriously at Tuonos on Bikesales. That was four weeks ago. I started out with a keen interest in a well looked after, but well used 2011 model that had 75,000 km on the clock for just shy of $7000. It was black and had a pipe and everything was shiny. But while looking, I spotted a similar model with only 23,000 km, for $9,000. I figured why not spend $2000 more than the $7000 bike, otherwise I’d regret it later, and get the one with less mileage (kilomerterage?), so I went up to Brisbane and actually test rode it. Turns out it was pretty rough, I suspected that it had been ditched into a gravel trap and then fixed up with cheap eBay versions of nicer bits (RSV4 belly pan, tail, and knockoff bar-end mirrors that are supposed to look like Rizoma jobbies but much lower quality). The presence of two GoPro mounts stuck on the bodywork didn’t give me much confidence; why else would you need two GoPros other than to show off your shitty riding videos on Facebook? But I decided to make an offer, pending my inspection of the cheaper one.

    I never looked at the $7000 bike. I figured, if I’m prepared to spend the extra, how much would it hurt if I spent (really, financed) $7000 more than the $9000 bike, otherwise I’d regret it later, and look at a nice, silver, low kms 2015 Tuono RR that was advertised at the Aprilia dealership near me? It is an updated model with better reliability and more horsepower and better looks. It is also completely standard, which is a bonus if you’re looking at a crazy Italian weapon of desire. $16,000 with 7200kms was the deal, plus on-roads. I stopped by the dealership late on a Monday afternoon in July and said I was interested, and promised I’d be back Friday for a closer look and a test ride. It rode just fine, it looked hot, and I really wanted to buy it, so I made an offer.

    But as you can see by the photo above, I don’t now own a Tuono 1100 RR. That is a Tuono 1100 Factory. A 2015 model. I got it from a private seller for $17,500. I figured, why not spend the $1500 more than the $16,000 bike, otherwise I’d regret it later, and get one that had the Öhlins suspension and the sexy tail and the Akra pipe?

    As you can see, my budget blew out a little bit.

    And I don’t regret it one bit.

    Among the things I’ve regretted recently, this is not one of them.

    As part of the sale, the bike comes with ‘bar risers (which I will change back to standard), frame sliders, radiator guard, tail tidy, two genuine Aprilia tank bags, a rear luggage rack, that Akrapović pipe and the delicious little exhaust mount to attach it to the rear body (although, even with the pipe I’m still thinking that I want something more svelte, like an SC Project Red Bull-can-sized can), plus a brand new front tyre which it needs right now and all of the standard bits to put on it should I choose to do so.

    As for the riding experience, the Tuono is a manic and thunderous show of force. I can’t fucking ride it at all. It is way more capable than I am and I embarrass it with my inability to let it stretch its legs. I haven’t opened it to full throttle yet, because even half throttle scares me. It is razor sharp and agile in corners, and brutally quick on the way to the next one. Its brakes are phenomenal. The mirrors are completely pointless. The Öhlins equipment is more than up to the task of smoothing out the punishment that the Queen’s highways deliver unto it, while also allowing a skilled rider (not me) the freedom of complete accuracy when negotiating a twisty road. It also has the word ‘race’ stickered on it six times. The bike truly means business.

    I felt bad about taking another man’s motorcycle so cheaply, but he wanted money and I gave it to him. Well, the bank did, and I’m giving money to the bank. The Tuono now sits in my garage, snugly next to my GSX-R, which I will never sell. No regerts. The end.

    Last edited by Rare White Ape; August 6th, 2018 at 04:19 AM.

  8. #998
    Administrator dodint's Avatar
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  9. #999
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    Dude. When you crack the engine full, , don't hit a sign.

  10. #1000
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    I’ll make sure that I’m not pointing at any obstacles while attempting anything silly

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