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Worked five days, rode to work all five days this week. Counting side trips, about 350 miles on the bike since last weekend. Life is good.

(Lest I incur the wrath of snow-bound Canadians, there's gotta be some compensation for living in this flat, brown, overcrowded state!)

Awesome, i rode 286 miles this week. Weather has realy improved

jstark47 wrote:Worked five days, rode to work all five days this week. Counting side trips, about 350 miles on the bike since last weekend. Life is good.

(Lest I incur the wrath of snow-bound Canadians, there's gotta be some compensation for living in this flat, brown, overcrowded state!)

This Canadian will let you off easy.... I love this time of year when everyone is pulling the bikes out. I rolled mine from the shed to the garage just tonight....blast off on Sunday! Woot!

ridden about 120 miles this week so far. Rode to work 3 days this week.

Rode 30 miles this week. I know this may not sound like much, but it was my first 30 miles on a motorcycle and I loved every minute of it. I stayed pretty close to home, just trying to get use to the bike, with my wife following behind me in her mini ute. Good thing too, she had so many cars riding her bumper, if it wasn't for her they would have been on mine.

All in all things went well, I need to practice pulling away on an incline, stalled it twice at a stop sign. One thing I have to ask though, how does everyone remember what gear they are in? I've noticed a few times coming to a stop and acclerating of not being sure of the gear. Is this something that I will pick up on with more seat time?

Have to work all weekend, and it's nice out too.....that sucks! But it's supposed to be nice on Monday, so I think I'll go for another spin before I goto work that night. Maybe I'll try a little farther this time.

Terry

Well, you should be tapping down on the shift lever as you pull up to a stop, so you should always be in first when you're stopped.

As for knowing what gear you are in. I just count, though there are other ways be checking your rpm vs your speed. EG 6000 rpm in first is about 60kmh for me 6000rpm in 6th is about 140kmh.

I do the tapping coming to a stop, I just thought I was being a total newb by not knowing when to stop tapping.

Thanks Sev, I did try counting, but sometimes I forget to do it. I'll try to keep an eye on the tack and speedo.

Tap down till you run out of gears. (On my bike, the neutral light will flicker passinng between 2nd and 1st, gives you a clue you're there.)

After a while you'll get a good sense, from sound and from vibration through the seat of the pants, what gear you're in. My bike has no tach, and I've gotten pretty good at this in 10 months.

But you really don't need to know. If the engine is lugging, downshift. If it's screaming, upshift. If it's screaming, and you're already in top gear....... you're a better rider than me, dude, and you don't need this advice!

Precisely what jstark said.

Lugging, downshift, screaming, upshift.

Not sure how many miles this week, but I filled up three times so thats at least 300. My motorcycle has been my only form of transportation for about two weeks now. I have a car, two of them actually, but I much prefer the bike.

Although today, when I got caught in a huge, cold downpour with a passenger and no raingear, I can't say I had too much fun. It also doesnt help then the rain seems to aim right for my crotch in my particular riding position...glad it wasnt hale.