|
I thought prices would go down right now as everyone was out of work, but apparently everyone decided to pick up a new hobby and a lot of people chose motorcycles
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2020 06:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:16 |
|
|
And here I was thinking I could impulse buy at least a KLR this month.
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2020 06:51
|
|
|
I got to do my favorite thing today: catch a person riding a sport bike (well........600 katana with a can on it) on the freeway in a full tuck and pass them sitting bolt upright. Dude was full tuck, chin on the tank on that katana like he was doing 180mph. In reality he was doing the speed limit on the freeway so I caught him on the Goldwing of all things and rode next to him sitting straight up for a while. The take-the-wind-out-of-your-sails admission of “ok, yeah, I guess” when they finally sit upright is hilarious.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 22:35
|
|
|
This sounds hilarious. But I will admit to doing full tuck on the XSR for periods on the motorways because after a while I start to wonder what’s going to be worse, however long of being slowly beaten to death by the wind, or a leisurely B-road ride home and missing dinner with the family. A tuck makes things a bit comfortable for a period.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 22:50
|
|
|
Yeah there’s a difference though between tucking down to get in the bubble and full on “I AM A MOTOGP RACER” lay down on the tank tuck. To add extra spice to it I’m pretty sure he was in 3rd or 4th gear on the freeway to keep the bike at “GUYS THIS IS A CROTCH ROCKET LISTEN TO THIS BIKE” volume levels. On a Katana 600 
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 23:34
|
|
|
Is tucking frowned upon or what? Because I tuck to the tank all the time on the freeway, and it’s just comfortable if I’ve been riding for a while. E: Sorry I realize that came across as snarky — no snark intended 
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 23:34
|
|
|
That's the only way I could do 100+ mile trips on the R1, just relax with my chest on the tank.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2020 23:51
|
|
|
Like I said there is a difference between tucking to get in the bubble and relax a bit and tucking because you need everyone to know how fast you are on your fast bike which is also loud and fast I realize I’m veering hard into old man yelling at cloud territory here, old Goldwing notwithstanding
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 00:12
|
|
|
The real issue is people buying the wrong bike, good bikes don't demand pointless tucking in just to go in a straight line without getting tired. They either hold you up with a manly cushion of air pressure (correct), or let you cower behind a safety fence (incorrect but allowed), depending on how big a wuss you are.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 00:21
|
|
|
I've always owned upright nakeds and done loads of touring/k's, but I don't understand why that would be occurring - what speeds are we talking about? Wind buffeting on nakeds typically only gets irritating at 200 KP/H ish/120 MP/H. With racer ergos, wouldn't the higher speeds actually improve the comfort of the lean forward forced by the clip-ons? Air pressure on the chest reducing strain on your core and weight bearing on your wrists? Sounds like some weird cargo culting the guy was doing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 00:51
|
|
|
You're 100% right, the air cushion effect on sportbikes happens at like 200kmh. Your nakeds give your more assistance than you'd think, I was shocked the first time I rode a dadfaired bike and realised how much wind blast was helping me without me being aware of it. At anything near traffic speeds, sportbikes are just a sore back and cramped knees, you basically can't do more than a few minutes without bracing one hand on the tank. Hence, buying the wrong bike.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 00:59
|
|
|
If a person wants to full tuck on the highway and pretend they are a motogp racer going 200mph, while also going sane speeds, I don't see why we should shame them. Live the fantasy. It's the squads ripping 150+ around 285 with it's patchy potholed pavement at 10pm I worry about. Lane splitting traffic at 120mph, outriding any semblance of a headlight.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 02:01
|
|
|
I'm gonna buy a comfy leather cushion and magnet it onto my tank for 3 hour highway snorefests to NYC, just to gently caress with people.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 02:30
|
|
|
I was at the local motorcycle/atv/canam dealer today to get some pinch bolts that I sheared off first thing on my fork seal job, and the place was packed, with like 3 or 4 people sitting on or looking at showroom bikes. Noticed getting looks: a triumph cafe racer thing, a bmw f850 gsa rallye, and a couple of people looking at used harleys in the lot. I had to stand in line at the parts counter! This is texas, so you wouldn’t be surprised if no one was wearing a mask, but everyone was, and there was also a giant yellow sign up saying MASKS REQUIRED. Also, the ADV rider group I’m in on Facebook has what seems like hundreds of posts of people just going everywhere. I want to get out there too, but I’m really torn on in. I always travel like a hermit, cowboy camp or pitch a tent, stay away from tourists destinations and people in general, but I still have to go to gas stations and supermarkets and REIs or Walmarts every once in a while. I have been extremely loving careful so far, and I’ve already killed my ride to alaska this year, so what do y’all think about motorcycle trips in the time of coronavirus?
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 04:28
|
|
|
If you stay out of areas with high numbers of cases entirely, minimize your exposure to other people elsewhere, stay on top of your hand washing/mask wearing, yada yada, chances are you'll be fine. There's always going to be a non-zero chance you catch the plague though. My nightmare is staying in a hotel somewhere where another guest or someone on the staff has it but is asymptomatic, or are sick but working b/c they can't afford not to. Camping might be safer, but the state parks around here have all closed their bathroom and shower facilities so hygiene is tough unless you're carting extra water around.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2020 05:31
|
|
|
Carth Dookie posted:All things considered, it was a success and I got 3 out of the 5 things I needed done so I'm not too salty, just tired and achey from bending over and yelling at Italian bolts. The brakes and oil can wait till the weekend though. Servicing saga continues. I went through the process of bleeding the brakes and changing the brake pads... sort of. The front brake caliper wasn't too bad and changing the actual pads was pretty straightforward. Bleeding the system was somewhat of a trial because the garage manual I have failed to point out there is a 3rd brake bleed point behind the master brake reservoir that you need to deal with and if you don't, it doesn't matter how much you bleed the actual caliper points, you're going to get air bubbles. The rear was an absolute pain in the arse and effectively had to be abandoned. The pads were fine in the end so its ok for now, but the bolt holding the pads in is completely stripped and will not move for love nor money. I had to order a replacement bit off ebay. The pulling off of the entire caliper, rear tyre and reinstallation was the first time I'd done it and it was a pain due to the clearances. It wasn't until I worked out that ziptying the chain to the chain guard gives adequate clearance to get the rear tyre back on and the chain in place that things got a little easier. Also the master reservior cap for the rear brake can't be taken off without loosening the bolt holding the entire reservoir on. This bolt is not held in a captive nut and thus you need to get a spanner on the nut behind the fixing point (very awkward) so you can tighten the fucker up again. JustApriliaThings.  So in the end the brakes became the sole job for that day since afterwards I was tired and cranky and didn't want to gently caress anything up due to trying to rush through stuff while annoyed. The followinging weekend I did the oil change and that was a blessedly simple process... sort of. I had to take it for a bit of a ride to get the oil up to temperature. The brakes were all good which was pleasing, but the engine kept getting temperature spikes resulting in multiple stops to cool down on the way home. Clearly the coolant flush from the previous work hadn't been effective. After hours of aggro and internet research and some blind luck fiddling with the radiator cap and secondary tank cap the air bubble finally started working its way through. The coolant is supposed to be 1.8 litres worth but judging by how much coolant got sucked in by heat cycling there must have only about 1 litre of coolant in there, the rest was all just drat air bubble. The oil change itself was a doddle by comparison. Emptied the sump, pulled the oil filter off (and despite the ABS unit taking up extra space the oil filter could still be taken off and on with a strap wrench) refilled everything and bob's your uncle. The change revealed a small oil weep on the head gaskets but nothing of immediate concern. I've gone online and bought replacement gaskets and some rubber grommits as well as the recommended cam lock pin and valve shims since the bike has 40K kilometres on it and would probably benefit from a valve clearance check, and if I'm going to check the clearances, I might as well have the bits in case I actually need to do an adjustment. That said, I don't intend to actually dig into it any further for now since the bike seems to be running properly as is. I'm just going to keep an eye on the coolant to make sure its solved (and I'm 99% certain it is). Valve checks/adjustment can be done later if needed when the rear brake gets done again when the pads eventually wear out. Only thing left to do really is put the fairings back on which I'll do later today. All things considered it took way more time and effort than I anticipated but I learned a lot and didn't have to send it to a dealer who would have charged me an arm and a leg to do it and probably wouldn't have taken as much care as I did. It didn't help that the service manual was pretty vague in a lot of places. Future maintenance should be much easier given what I have learned and I only did the larger extra steps (brake bleed and radiator fluid swap) because I didn't know what the PO had or hadn't done. Future maintenance aside from the valve clearance checks should be far less intensive (hopefully).
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 01:24
|
|
|
Dealers in my area seem particularly poo poo. Did a search for new KTM Duke 690's on a whim and while other dealers around the country seem to be able to list the price no problem the major dealer near me has a "call for price" listed.  I don't want to talk to some dealer scumbag on the phone who's just going to jerk me around. I did do the "email for price" button from a burmer email but so far have only gotten a form email that says, "call us or give us your number", replied back to that with my same question, "hey how much is duke 690 you got" so they know I'm a human who will reply. The major junkyards in the area also do the "call for price" for used parts when I search car-part.com when I can see other states don't have a problem with putting a price down. smh.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 18:15
|
|
|
Coredump posted:Dealers in my area seem particularly poo poo. Did a search for new KTM Duke 690's on a whim and while other dealers around the country seem to be able to list the price no problem the major dealer near me has a "call for price" listed. I hate that poo poo. There is a car dealer near me that does it. I've inquired on a couple cars and have actually gotten a price from them, albeit a high one. If you call or email they are just going to give you the 'gently caress you' price to see if you'll bite on it so I don't see why they don't just put that price on their websites. Like if I get on the phone with them I'll all of a sudden be too excited to realize their 7 year old car with average miles is priced about $5k more than it's worth?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 22:39
|
|
|
bigbillystyle posted:I hate that poo poo. There is a car dealer near me that does it. I've inquired on a couple cars and have actually gotten a price from them, albeit a high one. If you call or email they are just going to give you the 'gently caress you' price to see if you'll bite on it so I don't see why they don't just put that price on their websites. Like if I get on the phone with them I'll all of a sudden be too excited to realize their 7 year old car with average miles is priced about $5k more than it's worth? I bought a new Jeep back in December (yeah I know - I'm waiting to see how quickly it falls apart). The dealer literally around the corner from my house had a couple with the features that I wanted, so I went over and test drove. Sales guy was actually decent about not giving me the run around when I asked for an out-the-door price, but the price he provided was ridiculously high. Found another example at a dealer an hour and a half away that was actually a good price, called and talked to sales guy over the phone, got a quote via email. I took that quote to the local guy, who would not move off of his price. Ended up buying from the dealer who quoted me via email. Back in early spring right as the COVID thing was starting to accelerate, I was stopped at a light, driving said new Jeep, and the guy next to me honks his horn a couple of times. I look, and it's the sales guy from the local dealership. He motions to get me to roll down my window. "Why didn't you buy from me?" "Because you were asking $4k more and refused to negotiate?" "You didn't give me a chance!" Minus the conversation at the red light, the exact same poo poo happened when I bought my FZ-09 a couple years back. How in the gently caress, in TYOL 2020, have car/powersports dealers not adapted to the fact that the internet exists? Who has time for this poo poo?
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 23:11
|
|
|
Jazzzzz posted:I bought a new Jeep back in December (yeah I know - I'm waiting to see how quickly it falls apart). The dealer literally around the corner from my house had a couple with the features that I wanted, so I went over and test drove. Sales guy was actually decent about not giving me the run around when I asked for an out-the-door price, but the price he provided was ridiculously high. Found another example at a dealer an hour and a half away that was actually a good price, called and talked to sales guy over the phone, got a quote via email. I took that quote to the local guy, who would not move off of his price. Ended up buying from the dealer who quoted me via email. lol I drove about 2hr to the dalles from my place in portland to buy my forester just because the subaru dealership out there gave me an actual quote via email instead of loving me around like the other dealerships in town I hate salespeople so much
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 23:16
|
|
|
Jazzzzz posted:Minus the conversation at the red light, the exact same poo poo happened when I bought my FZ-09 a couple years back. How in the gently caress, in TYOL 2020, have car/powersports dealers not adapted to the fact that the internet exists? Who has time for this poo poo? With you 100% on this. Another example: I recently needed to buy a bunch of BMW maintenance parts. The model specific stuff that I couldn’t get on amazon requires a dealer. So the dealerships here in Houston (4th largest city in the nation) all need you to call it in, or send an email with the parts numbers. Instead, I ordered from some dealership in San Francisco that has free shipping and direct links to the BMW model-specific schematics with a one-click “add to cart” button next to the schematics with part numbers. This may even be a centralized BMW thing, because a few other dealerships that I looked at had the same setup. It’s baffling that the local dealers don’t want $400 in parts orders, but convenience is king.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2020 23:23
|
|
|
I think that's actually not a centralized BMW thing, although I'm not entirely sure now that I've seen the fiches on many websites. My understanding from talking to the parts people at Max BMW was that they basically wrote that system and they sell about 13% of BMW motorcycle parts worldwide.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 00:46
|
|
|
Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:I think that's actually not a centralized BMW thing, although I'm not entirely sure now that I've seen the fiches on many websites. My understanding from talking to the parts people at Max BMW was that they basically wrote that system and they sell about 13% of BMW motorcycle parts worldwide. Wow, that’s amazing! I actually started my order on BMW motorcycles of San Francisco’s website, but couldn’t find a particular diagram, so for my second search, I used Max as reference. But look at for example: https://parts.gatewaybmw.com/BMW_2017_F850GS/Electrical-System.html There’s no add to cart link, but it’s the same setup I used before.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 00:59
|
|
|
I feel like in 2020 I should be able to go on the manufacturer's website and click a buy now button and then choose a pickup location or whatever during checkout.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 09:43
|
|
|
Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I feel like in 2020 I should be able to go on the manufacturer's website and click a buy now button and then choose a pickup location or whatever during checkout.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 10:08
|
|
|
Nothing preventing me from doing that at my local motorcycle dealer which also has somewhat decent prices: http://www.morvenmotorcycles.co.uk/ Ring em up (prices on the site), bank transfer, they'll deliver it. No muss, no fuss.  
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 11:58
|
|
|
Steakandchips posted:Nothing preventing me from doing that at my local motorcycle dealer which also has somewhat decent prices: http://www.morvenmotorcycles.co.uk/ Certain dealers here in the USofA do that as well, especially now we're in "covid world". A lot of the online car places/dealers are jumping on that bandwagon. I know a few folks that have used CarMax (UGH) that way for decades as well. I completely forgot, 8 or 9 years ago I got wrecked off my bike by some lady changing lanes, the bike I wanted was at a dealership over 80 miles away, I hit the reserve button on their website, called em up, wired money, and had the bike delivered to my garage as I still had 3 broken ribs. This was in the backward podunk area of Iowa too. The law just specifically prohibits sale directly from the manufacturer to the end user, we can order from dealers all we want. Skreemer fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Jun 30, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 13:04
|
|
|
I'm curious how much hassle and cost it would be to ship a bike cross country from a dealer and doing all the paperwork etc. thru email/phone. Out in California there's a couple of dealers that have left over 2018 models listed under $6000 and I'm in Georgia. The dealer in my area replied with this: "I can knock a thousand off that bike, but today only. The month ends today and I have no idea what rebates will be available tomorrow." and still won't give an actual number of how much they're asking for the bike. Edit: Got a number out of him finally. $7999 
Coredump fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jun 30, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 17:07
|
|
|
Coredump posted:I'm curious how much hassle and cost it would be to ship a bike cross country from a dealer and doing all the paperwork etc. thru email/phone. Out in California there's a couple of dealers that have left over 2018 models listed under $6000 and I'm in Georgia. The dealer in my area replied with this: "I can knock a thousand off that bike, but today only. The month ends today and I have no idea what rebates will be available tomorrow." and still won't give an actual number of how much they're asking for the bike. I’m in NYC. I bought a bike from Texas. It was easy. Had to get the plates myself but the dealer gave me everything I needed. Also had to pick it up in a crate and put on the front tire and handlebars myself. Also not difficult.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 18:12
|
|
|
Coredump posted:I'm curious how much hassle and cost it would be to ship a bike cross country from a dealer and doing all the paperwork etc. thru email/phone. Out in California there's a couple of dealers that have left over 2018 models listed under $6000 and I'm in Georgia. The dealer in my area replied with this: "I can knock a thousand off that bike, but today only. The month ends today and I have no idea what rebates will be available tomorrow." and still won't give an actual number of how much they're asking for the bike. I live in Ohio, purchased a used motorcycle from a dealer in PA. Dealer faxed (yes faxed) some paperwork, I signed and FedExed back along with a certified check, they FedExed the title and bill of sale. I had to arrange for shipping, which I did through uShip. Three days later my bike showed up in the back of a covered trailer. I was going to do this again when I bought my FZ-09, but the dealers with ridiculously low prices listed on CycleTrader were using those prices to catfish you and then added ridiculous fees to bring the sale price higher than just buying locally.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 19:55
|
|
|
It’s time to be irritated over how difficult it is to try out any specific bike you’re interested in!
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 20:22
|
|
|
Steakandchips posted:Nothing preventing me from doing that at my local motorcycle dealer which also has somewhat decent prices: http://www.morvenmotorcycles.co.uk/ I can respect the 1999 web design, but why does it look like they've just photoshopped their sign onto that photo?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2020 20:41
|
|
|
Carth Dookie posted:The pads were fine in the end so its ok for now, but the bolt holding the pads in is completely stripped and will not move for love nor money. It's not a hex headed pin retained with an R clip is it? I've spent way too long turning one of those before realising.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2020 03:29
|
|
|
tzam posted:It's not a hex headed pin retained with an R clip is it? I've spent way too long turning one of those before realising. I'm not 100% certain what you mean, but there was a retaining clip that I removed before trying to unscrew it, so that wasn't the issue. A picture of the replacement part shows that it is a threaded screw. It's definitely just had the head rounded off.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2020 03:36
|
|
|
goddamnedtwisto posted:I can respect the 1999 web design, but why does it look like they've just photoshopped their sign onto that photo? It's just one old guy who maintains the site and the shop full time. It probably wasn't Photoshop, rather, probably paint.exe from windows XP.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2020 13:15
|
|
|
Collateral Damage posted:Isn't that what Tesla was originally doing and car dealers threw a collective tantrum about and pointed to some archaic law making it illegal for car manufacturers to sell directly to the end user?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2020 19:51
|
|
|
I've been trying to avoid calling Bike Bandit on the phone to cancel my May 30 order, but they are completely non-responsive through email now. However, their order update emails say if you need a timely resolution, feel free to use Facebook or Instagram (in addition to calling or using live chat). How does it make more sense for a company to handle customer service issues through Instagram versus email? I know they've had some issues, but after I call them today I can't see a situation where I'd ever consider ordering from them again. In gixxer news, I noticed the front brake fluid reservoir is empty (still haven't tried to ride the bike as I need to get the wheels off to get new tires). The smart thing to do would be to figure out why it was empty and go from there, but I was going to put steel brake lines on anyway so I ordered those. Now I'm wondering if I should just preemptively order a caliper seal set and refresh everything while I'm at it. I need to order a new windscreen and bolts because it came with those horrible spiked bolts and a messed up windscreen. Current color is rattle can black, original color is yellow. I was surprised to find I like the blue windscreens when the bike is that Suzuki blue, but I wonder if that's a bad idea for any other color of bike. I'm currently not sure what is going to happen color wise with the bike in the long term. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2020 19:50
|
|
|
If you're not in a hurry this sounds like absolutely the right thing to do. A compromised MS (especially front) would be a horrible thing to discover on your shakedown ride. Or worse, not discover until later 
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2020 20:04
|
|
|
I ended up going with the OEM Suzuki set(s). Brake Crafters had a set that would have been a little cheaper and also included new bleed nipples, but the price difference was minimal enough and front brakes are important enough that I just went OEM. I've never rebuilt a caliper before but I understand the concept behind it and it doesn't seem very tricky, so between this and the new brake lines I should be set unless the fluid leak was from the master cylinder.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2020 17:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 05:16 |
|
|
here's a rant: it's too loving hot out
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2020 22:54
|
|
