B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

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RhadamYgg
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#201 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Wrider wrote:Haha no problem bud. I'll admit I've never owned a set of riding pants. I always wear steel-toed leather boots, almost always wear a jacket (takes too long when you're on flat-rate), always wear gloves, and always wear a helmet. (Except when I was trying to hear a faint ticking sound coming from the rear end of a bike that the owner swore was there and no one else could hear.) And you're right, you feel raw and exposed, and the wind noise is unbelievable without a helmet.
I haven't had a set of steel-toed boots since I was in aircraft maintenance in the military. They were a really good pair too - especially for free - well being a 'volunteer' in the nj air national guard.

Maybe one day - off road or something I'll try without a helmet. Definitely need gloves.
RhadamYgg / Skydiver / Motorbike Rider / Mountain Climber
FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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jstark47
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#202 Unread post by jstark47 »

RhadamYgg wrote:I haven't had a set of steel-toed boots since I was in aircraft maintenance in the military. They were a really good pair too - especially for free - well being a 'volunteer' in the nj air national guard.
What unit were you in? My stepdaughter used to be in the 108th Air Refueling Wing.
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RhadamYgg
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#203 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

jstark47 wrote:
RhadamYgg wrote:I haven't had a set of steel-toed boots since I was in aircraft maintenance in the military. They were a really good pair too - especially for free - well being a 'volunteer' in the nj air national guard.
What unit were you in? My stepdaughter used to be in the 108th Air Refueling Wing.
Hah, that's too funny. I was in the 170th starting 1989 back when we had a strategic air command.... (SAC) always makes me proud to have been a part of SAC. :)

Then the cold war ended and they restructured and eventually they folded the 170th and the 108th in to one unit. So, then I was 108th. Then I moved down to North Carolina and was briefly in a unit in South Carolina. I was in NDI in aircraft maintenance and I remember when Big Blue was Big Blue and not Big Beige... Or whatever color it is now.
RhadamYgg / Skydiver / Motorbike Rider / Mountain Climber
FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#204 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Got the new bike inspected today. It took forever and I was out in the heat and direct sun in full gear waiting in a big-assed line. Eventually, they separated myself and 4 other bikers and moved us up to the front of the line.

But somehow, we ended up not getting done until all the cars were gone (place stops taking new vehicles for inspection at 12:00).

Got to talk to them for a while. Two cruisers - a valk and I'm not sure what the other one was, an Indian guy on a Speed Triple and a guy on a Big BMW K1200S. That bike is so impressive in person, but in talking with the owner it seems it has the slow speed big heavy bike problems that I didn't really like much on the B-King. That was some seat, though.

That Valk was huge and the guy didn't seem to have any problems moving it around in slow speeds. All the bikes passed inspection although the tail light on the Valkyrie wasn't working at all. The BMW sport bike rider lent his philips head screwdriver to the Valk guy, he opened up his tail light and ran across the street to the auto parts store replaced the light and he was all good.

The headlight mod I did to have both headlights on didn't cause any problems. The DMV guy that helped us out was a long time rider as well.

He was a cruiser rider, but he said he started on Kawasaki, went to HD for a couple of bikes and then went back to Kawasaki and isn't going to change again. He had a bunch of reasons but since I don't want to start a flame war we can leave it there. He was pretty convincing.

The Indian guy on the Speed Triple, liked the bike, but he said the japanese bikes have the best gearing and then the Germans and then the English. The guy on the K1200S agreed. Apparently the gear boxes are a little clunky or noisy on those bikes.

I mentioned my issue with the Suzuki with first gear and the Indian guy seemed to feel it was a safety thing to have it hard to get in to first from neutral. I dunno, I'm not convinced, but I like going in to neutral and not having a problem getting in to first again - so I'll probably stay away from Suzuki for a little while. Not that I can get another bike in the near future anyway.

The BMW guy and I both shared a desire to get the S1000RR. The light weight with the high HP would be like all the good things in his big beemer in a smaller light easy to handle package.

It was good talking with a bunch of real bikers. Most I'm sure had many more years experience than I do riding - the Indian guy at the very least had 24 years of experience. He didn't look much older than me, but he was already talking about maybe stopping riding - because of being capable enough to ride. Seems a bit early for that. But he also had issues with finding time to ride. Apparently, he only rode 1000 miles in the past year. Not good for keeping the skills up.

Anyway, off to the twins first birthday party.
RhadamYgg / Skydiver / Motorbike Rider / Mountain Climber
FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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RhadamYgg
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#205 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Well, got my first joy ride - not much time, just a few miles, but it was something. Worked on an on-ramp that is fairly difficult, but chickened out a bit. Still, it was at night, and perhaps I'll give it a try again sometime.

131A North GSP On-Ramp

I slowed down to 37 mph when the first portion of the turn tightens up just before the straightaway. I'm pretty sure my wife goes through the entire sequence at 45 mph in her minivan, or me in my car. Before I straightened up and lowered the throttle I was actually getting a decent amount of lean. Even when I straightened out I leaned back in and pushed the throttle again.

Ahh, if I had my camera mounted that would have been great. Maybe next time.
RhadamYgg / Skydiver / Motorbike Rider / Mountain Climber
FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#206 Unread post by HYPERR »

RhadamYgg wrote: The Indian guy on the Speed Triple, liked the bike, but he said the japanese bikes have the best gearing and then the Germans and then the English. The guy on the K1200S agreed. Apparently the gear boxes are a little clunky or noisy on those bikes.
Japanese use unit construction with wet clutch. And the tranny, the engine, and the clutch all live inside the same housing.

The BMWs have the same setup as a car complete with an automotive type dry clutch. Ducati is unique in that it is unit construction but has a motorcyle type dry clutch.
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RhadamYgg
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#207 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Thanks Hyperr. So, I guess the question is (just thinking to myself) does it make much of a difference? Other than noise when you shift, that is. If it prevents the bike from going in to gear that's another problem altogether, but it didn't sound like either of them experienced that kind of problem.
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FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#208 Unread post by HYPERR »

RhadamYgg wrote:Thanks Hyperr. So, I guess the question is (just thinking to myself) does it make much of a difference? Other than noise when you shift, that is. If it prevents the bike from going in to gear that's another problem altogether, but it didn't sound like either of them experienced that kind of problem.
Probably not. I think it's more of the nature of the manufacturer. Even in their cars, German cars have rubbery and notchy shifters. One car rag once describned it as feeling like a bucket of bolts. Honda can't build a good automatic if their life depended on it but they have built masterpieces of a manual tranny in the past. Primo examples are the S2000, NSX, Integra GS-R, & the first generation Legend.
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RhadamYgg
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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#209 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Damn, my Honda Accord automatic and my civic manual transmission resemble that remark! Kinda wish I could get my hands on an S2000 or NSX. There was a backdoor warranty on my Accord and I had the transmission replaced. The Civic I had no problems with for over 200,000 miles. The auto transmission in our 1997 Honda CRV - was more like a manual transmission, right down to sliding backwards on hills.
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Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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Re: B-King - An Odd bike's Journey

#210 Unread post by RhadamYgg »

Another day - another commute. Won against some of the percentages and almost lost on some of the percentages.

Won against the chances of rain. 30% of isolated thunderstorms. It rained (apparently very hard) on my house near the time I was getting ready to commute home. Nearly lost in regular riding conditions. The rear brake pedal I think is just very easy to push down with little feedback. I've never locked the rear brake on my previous bikes, I did lock the rear brake in quick stop exercises during the BRC. While I was hopping off the rear brake and stopping the lock - I panics a little as I was approaching the cars ahead and locked the "poo poo" up again. Then I came to my senses and used the front brake but I left the clutch out and stalled the bike. Not too bad in this case as restarting this bike is cake.

The whole rest of the way home I ended up using mostly the front brake and just a touch of rear brake. Annoying that I should have this problem on my third bike, but not on any of my previous bikes. I blew it off for the ride home. Missed the rains and it was uneventful, if boring stop and go traffic for most of the 60 or so miles.

My wife canned the idea of me riding out to Vegas for an SAP Tech-Ed. Damn. Could have been up to 6000 miles in a single round trip. Maybe I'll rent a bike when I'm out there, but that means toting all my gear through a plane trip.

I could wear my helmet while I'm sitting in the plane, but somehow I don't think I want to meet and get close to TSA employees.

"Who is Kafka?"
RhadamYgg / Skydiver / Motorbike Rider / Mountain Climber
FZ6/11302 mi|Suzuki B-King/5178 mi|Ninja 250cc/5300 mi| (rented)ST1300 850 mi
Hoping my kids don't hate me too much in the future.
Random 2003/Corwin 2006/Cordelia and Morrigan 2009

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