Who rides motorcycles?

[Grumpycat]

I was give the liability excuse. What frosted me was that the parts counter guys knew I wanted the new tires mounted and the bearings replaced. Which I could have just bought on line for far less. And it wasn't till I had made an extra trip, bringing in the perfectly cleaned and waxed rims that, the mechanic then called me to say his manager would not let him mount the tires or change out the bearings on anything older than 10 years! And this was the only Yamaha dealership in town. It was a hard lesson. But I did figure out how to do the work my self and get the wheel weights right and torqued the bolts to the correct values using a service manual.
The strangest part is that the 2021 SR 400, which they had one on the show room floor, was basically the same as my SR 500. And I had to needle the mechanic as to if he would work on a 2010 SR. He said, no, they will not let him work on any thing older than 10 years. Even though the 2010 SRs and, the one they were selling in 2021, were the same exact spec bike.

Lie to them, they deserve it. “This is a 2019 model!”

OTOH I believe you are better off mounting and balancing your own tires, installing your own bearings.

 

[Bocephous]

I just don't get the current rage of wimpy bikes. Never owned a bike below 1,000 cc or 150HP.

Below are 3 of my Italian bikes. No electronic nannies. The MV and 1198R are tuned >200HP. I ride the Ducati 998S Final Edition when I feel nostalgic

View attachment 4618603

Nice bikes, and I get the desire for horsepower. When I lived in Florida that philosophy pertaining to motorcycles made a lot of sense, but here in NEPA it doesn't. I moved up here with an R1, and over time, the motorcycles that followed it slowly reduced in horsepower and gained in suspension plushness. Me on my former T7 and an identical twin on my former R1 probably wouldn't differ in the pace I ride on the road to work. The me riding the T7 would have far more control and comfort, however.

 

[The Gaul]

Nice bikes, and I get the desire for horsepower. When I lived in Florida that philosophy pertaining to motorcycles made a lot of sense, but here in NEPA it doesn't. I moved up here with an R1, and over time, the motorcycles that followed it slowly reduced in horsepower and gained in suspension plushness. Me on my former T7 and an identical twin on my former R1 probably wouldn't differ in the pace I ride on the road to work. The me riding the T7 would have far more control and comfort, however.

I hear ya. I spent 5 years of my career in your neck of the woods (Morristown, NJ with office in NYC). I was petrified to take out my bikes (both condition of the roads and the local's driving style) and my Porsche stayed in the garage since i was afraid to destroy my rims in the numerous potholes.

 

[The Gaul]

Independent shops would do the work I assume

I have 4 Italian bikes and perform all the maintenance myself. In addition to 3 Porsches. It's a nice hobby during retirement and I honestly cannot stand the stealerships anymore. The bikes are all pre-electronic nannies era and as such can be maintained without access to the official dealership software. Furthermore, living in the middle of nowhere and being several hours away from the stealership, it also saves me from a logistical nightmare.

I've got a dedicated shop on my ranch with 2 bays : one bay for the bikes and the other one for the cars. Each got lifts, pretty amazing experience. In view of all the 'masculine smells' (oils, etc), it also turned out to be a safe space from the wife

 

[scootr]

Rim locks for adventure bikes? I'm putting new tires on my dual sport. Adding rim locks. My old XT250 had them. I notice my new CRF300L Rally does not. I figure the manufacturer was just saving money...like they did on the mostly street tires.

 

[deserteagle71]

Rim locks for adventure bikes? I'm putting new tires on my dual sport. Adding rim locks. My old XT250 had them. I notice my new CRF300L Rally does not. I figure the manufacturer was just saving money...like they did on the mostly street tires.

Absolutely. Having rim locks has allowed me to ride back to camp after slicing a tire so bad it couldn't be repaired. I stuffed sagebrush into the tire and that gave the tire enough "body" to stay on the rim and keep the rim from being destroyed also. I've made sure every bike I owned had them - including my BMW road bike.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Agree with deserteagle. For off road trail riding, absolutely.
My rear tire decided to go flat near the top of Pearl Pass in Colorado.

I'm not sure what I hit. I was able to ride it back down the mountain scooting all the way forward and sitting on the tank.

Google Maps

 

[not2old]

Rim locks for adventure bikes? I'm putting new tires on my dual sport. Adding rim locks. My old XT250 had them. I notice my new CRF300L Rally does not. I figure the manufacturer was just saving money...like they did on the mostly street tires.

My first serious dirt bike was a 1974 Husky 250WR and common practice at the time was to remove the rim locks and install sheet metal screws through the lip of the rim and into the tire bead a little more than 1/4 inch. We ran low tire pressure and when you needed to remove the tire, you could see that the tire had moved anywhere from 3/4" to about 1 1/4". Valve stems ripped out of the tube ,while not real common, did happen. I ride slower now, with higher tire pressure as I'm too old for riding home on a flat from pinching the tube between the tire and rim. We used to call that "snake bit" as the two holes looked like a snake bite.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Pearl pass between Crested Butte and Aspen. It was frozen in July when we unsuccessfully attempted on motorcycles. If we would have had an army trench shovel and the ability to make a 150 yard long trench, we could've crossed it.

Google Maps

 

[Bocephous]

I have 4 Italian bikes and perform all the maintenance myself. In addition to 3 Porsches. It's a nice hobby during retirement and I honestly cannot stand the stealerships anymore. The bikes are all pre-electronic nannies era and as such can be maintained without access to the official dealership software. Furthermore, living in the middle of nowhere and being several hours away from the stealership, it also saves me from a logistical nightmare.

I've got a dedicated shop on my ranch with 2 bays : one bay for the bikes and the other one for the cars. Each got lifts, pretty amazing experience. In view of all the 'masculine smells' (oils, etc), it also turned out to be a safe space from the wife

View attachment 4641117

View attachment 4641118

Wow. That garage is something else. Well done, Gaul.

 

[Bocephous]

I couldn't get my new Seat Concepts low seat to mount with the Nomadic rack my XR came with; not enough room. Taking advice from someone over at ADVrider I cut a bit off the front of it last evening and got both mounted. I'll put some electrical tape over the cut edge next time the seat is removed.

 

[scootr]

Modern technology is a blessing and a curse. I'm trying to make route maps in the Zumo XT2 and it's kicking my ash between the app and the helmet pairing.....grrr. Finally got out for a ride. The GPS works great, looks good, screen very visible. Route kept sending me back to start -wtf? finally just turned the helmet off...shhh*t.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I really enjoy helmet comms when off road riding. Its nice to pass along terrain and hazard information to riders behind, and to know when they are hung up

 

[deserteagle71]

Modern technology is a blessing and a curse. I'm trying to make route maps in the Zumo XT2 and it's kicking my ash between the app and the helmet pairing.....grrr. Finally got out for a ride. The GPS works great, looks good, screen very visible. Route kept sending me back to start -wtf? finally just turned the helmet off...shhh.

I gave up on using Routes on a GPS years ago because of all the problems. Occasional problems when using good paved roads - and totally useless on dirt roads. Now I use Tracks exclusively - just a highlighted road or trail on the map and its up to me to stay on that highlighted road. But that won't work if you want spoken turn by turn instructions.

 

[Grumpycat]

Modern technology is a blessing and a curse. I'm trying to make route maps in the Zumo XT2 and it's kicking my ash between the app and the helmet pairing.....grrr. Finally got out for a ride. The GPS works great, looks good, screen very visible. Route kept sending me back to start -wtf? finally just turned the helmet off...shhh*t.

Haven’t tried on anything newer than the Garmin 595, but editing a route on that GPS was for masochists. Still not trivial but much easier on Mac with Basecamp.

Stupid GPS had to have auto recalculation turned off else one slight deviation off route could throw it all away. Force restart of route from saved routes to get ones desired waypoints back.

On-GPS I could set a destination and let it pick the way, then simply go the way I wanted and let it auto reroute.

 

[scootr]

There is a way to import GPX maps (not sure of that is the right letters) from a PC to the Garmin. But I haven't tried that. I simply selected 2 points then made 'shaping' changes and then added a 3rd point, shaping again, then a 4th point, shaping etc. until the new route was complete on the Garmin itself. I will try this route today. Garmin has a few phone apps (some suggest TREAD is the best one) that they want you to use for creating routes. Honestly I could drive there as fast as I could create a map to go there so far. There is definitely a learning curve

 

[3930dave]

There is a way to import GPX maps (not sure of that is the right letters) from a PC to the Garmin. But I haven't tried that. I simply selected 2 points then made 'shaping' changes and then added a 3rd point, shaping again, then a 4th point, shaping etc. until the new route was complete on the Garmin itself. I will try this route today. Garmin has a few phone apps (some suggest TREAD is the best one) that they want you to use for creating routes. Honestly I could drive there as fast as I could create a map to go there so far. There is definitely a learning curve

Agreed, learning curve w. any new device ! Just needs more playtime....

I suspect ^ you are referring to the Steps to Transfer GPX. Tribe here may be able to answer if you are stuck; if not, folks on adv will.

GPS Tracks - West & PNW

You may be on there already. Lots of tracks posted. No $ needed to hangout, last I knew.

Rgds, D.

 

[scootr]

January riding in southern CA today at 63º

 

[scootr]

Offered the XT250 for sale today. Cool little bike. Here's a picture I found

 

[deserteagle71]

January riding in southern CA today at 63º

So what's your first impression of the Honda...power, handling, etc. - compared to the XT250?