This sub-forum is deader than the eyes of a sleestack

I left last Thursday from weather where I could do this....

Went to this:

Took an extra day routing thru 16hrs of travel home to clear this just to get my truck out...

... only to see the last post here was pretty much the same one as the day I left. What is wrong with you people? Are you broken? Why is no one talking about motorcycles? The riding is going to be sketchy for another week or two of thaw/freeze cycles while this disaster takes turns laying black ice all over as it slowly melts. What else could possibly be occupying your thoughts while you are trapped in the house worrying that the deck will collapse?

Pissed off because I insured my bikes when we had a few days of nice weather and it's been horrible for the last two weeks.

Can't wait for a nice couple of days when I can pack my gear on the Stelvio and just disappear for a while.

Cabin fever is kicking my ass this year.

That being said, my Ducati project is moving forward rapidly.

No worries about deck collapse here on the West Coast, our only worry is a continuous rain+snowmelt-induced landslide taking out the entire hillside!

Warmish rain is not too bad for riding with the right gear. I've been lucky enough to have use of a '16 Husky 701 the past month or so, and it is a really impressive bike! Here's a pic from a coffee stop on a recent non-rainy day.

In reply to ae86andkp61:

I am not familiar with the new Huskies... It looks like like a big thumper with a lot of clearance for rocky trails or hooning mall curbs like a boss in that pic. In fact, It looks like a KTM 690. Off to google for deets!

If you want the big picture, since Husqvarna is owned by KTM, it is rebadged KTM 690. If you are into details, the differences include different suspension F+R with more travel, a tiny bit bigger gas tank, more steering sweep, a few tweaks to the engine, slightly different styling, and a frame designed to fit the new engine (which the '17 701 has.)

I could really get used to EFI and an adjustable throttle after my funky old carbed bikes! What impresses me the most is how streetable it is; minimal vibrations and rev-happy for a huge ol' thumper, plenty of passing power for highway use, decent brakes (with ABS) for stops from higher speed, etc. The ABS can be switched off for off-roading. I know the hardcore KTM guys gripe that it is sooooo heavy at 320ish pounds, but I don't buy that nonsense. If you are coming off a 250cc two-stroke trail bike, it might feel heavy (but you can also ride the 701 on the street! ) If you are coming off any sort of ADV bike or mid-sized or bigger dual sport, it is fine, if not light. It is within about ten pounds of my trusty old DR350 complete with oversize tank.

My buddy who owns it has been recovering from surgery and is about ready to ride again, so I'll have to give it back soon, but it has been fun!

In reply to ae86andkp61:

The big question is: Will you buy your own now that you have had a lengthy test ride?

That mid-size DS segment is interesting but every time I think I want "one bike to rule them all" I ride what is out there and think "meh". The compromises are too great and the jobs are too polar opposite to really pull off so you either get a road bike with ground clearance or a dirt bike with amenities.

I looked at how/where I ride and bought the road bike with longer travel. It can do mixed surface/gravel pretty well and aside from the fragility of the plastics in a drop and the less flexible alloy wheels that can crack - it will go anywhere a heavier ADV or middle weight scrambler type bike would - tires being it's limits. Having previously lived down a poorly maintained farm road with an unreliable car let me in on a secret a lot of guys apparently don't know ... you can ride any bike pretty much anywhere if you have to. An FZR1000 might not be at home in deep gravel but it will do it right up to dragging plastics. So, when I sold the GSA I didn't bother looking for a swiss army knife again. I bought a hooligan road bike that can do long distance, big speed, track days and I'll deal with the more severe compromises on the trail end of the business as they arise.

If I crave the deep woods I have an old Honda XR250R that I can lift into a pickup or get a VT or MT plate for. At least that's my logic for now. Until a friend gives me a mid-size thumper dirt bike with a plate to borrow free for a couple weeks

My 1975 CB750F sits in the basement with new plugs resting on the gas tank. My priorities have been seriously mismanaged. The picture of foxtrapper offroading his dresser stands as a testimonial to "doing it right".

I rode my FJ9 to get stuff for my Miata yesterday... does that count?

Our weather has really turned nice in the last couple of weeks, and I want to goof off and ride, but I really need to get the Miata finished. Plus I wasted a day last week on internet issues, and today will be wasted on getting our taxes done. Then back to work tomorrow. Grrr...

Side from a couple weeks of commuting with the Civic just to try to get used to it (and try to warm up to it, which is not going so well) I've still been riding every day. Nothing really to talk about. Nothing I want to improve, no glaring faults and no desire to replace it with anything else.

I guess a quite me is a happily content me.

In reply to Rodan:

As you can see from the last pic in my 1st post ... I do not have the weather on my side to tempt me so lots of productive stuff is getting done. But I want to ride. Right now.

I've been riding here and there when the weather has been nice enough. Been wet or cold quite a bit lately, so I haven't ridden as much as I would like to.

Went out and gave the old Honda a few kicks. No joy. Knew I shoulda drained the tank for winter. Yay carb cleaning

In reply to Huckleberry:

Will I buy my own? Not right now, for two reasons: I'm unemployed at the moment, and demand is too high. I'm not prepared to call around, leave deposits at multiple dealers, and try to elbow other guys out of the way to buy a '17. I'm also not going to haunt every Craigslist within 500 miles for a few weeks/months to find a used '16 for $1000-$1500 less than a new '17. It has helped open my eyes to the performance potential of a newish bike in that category.

Although I'm dubious of the value for me right now in the $10K-$12K price range, riding it has made me aware of how big the performance/refinement gap is to an older bike. My old way of thinking was buy a trusty old DR/XR/KLR workhorse, then hop it up a bit, farkle it, build a second wheelset with street tires and a slightly smaller sprocket, and conquer the world with no regrets. Once you have the knowledge of the newer bike riding experience and start tallying up the cost of the old bike plus USD fork, the carb/airbox/pipe, the projector headlight upgrade, the bigger brakes, the rebuild small parts, etc. the regrets surface. You realize that you are into it for a bit North of $5K, and you've only expanded the performance envelope a little bit, and probably lost reliability. The end result isn't any more versatile, it is just more schizophrenic and temperamental.

If I'm brutally honest, my riding these days is 70% ripping around the city on daily errands, 20% ripping around the twistiest paved backroads in the foothills, 7% exploring the darkest depths of the unpaved backwoods and trails, and 3% long-distance road trips. My goals include gaining experience off-road, and riding the TAT someday soonish with the buddy who owns the Husky. I love, love, love riding supermoto...it is just ridiculous fun!

The idea of switching back and forth between supermoto and enduro setups on one bike is appealing, but the reality is that laziness often wins, and shop time cuts into riding time. With that in mind, I think I need a fire-breathing EFI supermoto for most of my day-to-day and keep my farkled DR350 as a slow and reliable cheap dual sport/flyweight ADV bike for off-road adventure and poke-along-and-smell-the-roses road trips.

Once I get a new job, I'll start saving, and once I have $5Kish, I'll start shopping for a used Aprilia SXV550, Husqvarna SMR511, KTM SMC, or similar.

So you bought the S1000XR? Wasn't that a bike you test rode on a whim with no strong intention of buying? How many rides did you get in before the snow hit?

Currently have a line on a CB500. It's on eBay, but I know the owner. We'll see where that goes..

Back tire is wasted. Any moisture and I'll eat E36 M3. No thanks, I've already been there. Need to get off my ass,and finish the transformation of the Murdercycle.

I have two working motorcycles and one more being built but to be honest, the area I live in is terrible for riding bikes. There are no curvy roads, no elevation changes, random potholes and debris on the road and we will have ice and snow for another month or more. Having said that, I have a goal of putting at least 1000 miles on each of my bikes this year and that will be harder to do than you think. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/loosecannon/media/Motorcycle/IMG_7954_zpsbxmjg5zo.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/loosecannon/media/Motorcycle/Facebook-MarkCB750-9_zpsc9286fb1.jpg.html][/URL]

ae86andkp61 wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Will I buy my own? Not right now, for two reasons: I'm unemployed at the moment, and demand is too high. I'm not prepared to call around, leave deposits at multiple dealers, and try to elbow other guys out of the way to buy a '17. I'm also not going to haunt every Craigslist within 500 miles for a few weeks/months to find a used '16 for $1000-$1500 less than a new '17. It has helped open my eyes to the performance potential of a newish bike in that category. Although I'm dubious of the value for me right now in the $10K-$12K price range, riding it has made me aware of how big the performance/refinement gap is to an older bike. My old way of thinking was buy a trusty old DR/XR/KLR workhorse, then hop it up a bit, farkle it, build a second wheelset with street tires and a slightly smaller sprocket, and conquer the world with no regrets. Once you have the knowledge of the newer bike riding experience and start tallying up the cost of the old bike plus USD fork, the carb/airbox/pipe, the projector headlight upgrade, the bigger brakes, the rebuild small parts, etc. the regrets surface. You realize that you are into it for a bit North of $5K, and you've only expanded the performance envelope a little bit, and probably lost reliability. The end result isn't any more versatile, it is just more schizophrenic and temperamental. If I'm brutally honest, my riding these days is 70% ripping around the city on daily errands, 20% ripping around the twistiest paved backroads in the foothills, 7% exploring the darkest depths of the unpaved backwoods and trails, and 3% long-distance road trips. My goals include gaining experience off-road, and riding the TAT someday soonish with the buddy who owns the Husky. I love, love, love riding supermoto...it is just ridiculous fun! The idea of switching back and forth between supermoto and enduro setups on one bike is appealing, but the reality is that laziness often wins, and shop time cuts into riding time. With that in mind, I think I need a fire-breathing EFI supermoto for most of my day-to-day and keep my farkled DR350 as a slow and reliable cheap dual sport/flyweight ADV bike for off-road adventure and poke-along-and-smell-the-roses road trips. Once I get a new job, I'll start saving, and once I have $5Kish, I'll start shopping for a used Aprilia SXV550, Husqvarna SMR511, KTM SMC, or similar. So you bought the S1000XR? Wasn't that a bike you test rode on a whim with no strong intention of buying? How many rides did you get in before the snow hit?

I hear you on the "new bike" thing. I like the idea of an old, simple bike. I have a couple I bought to fix and ride languishing in my basement. My GSA was the last revision of new tech ('07)- so a comfortably fuel injected twin with ABS but no traction control or other magic. Light years ahead of the previous bikes though. I thought it was the last bike I'd ever need. And... it really was. Except for the part where the things I couldn't know because of the things I thought I knew... were wrong. A single test ride berkeleyed up my world view. No kidding. The magic they are using now is crazy.

When I rode the XR I expected it to be a normal motorcycle with tech added on. It is not. It's tech emedded in it. It's reactive suspension reads the road and adjusts in milliseconds in such a way that bombing a potholed road and ripping smooth asphalt are nearly the same as far as control goes (maybe not ride quality ... but contact patch). It uses the front dampers to control dive under severe braking. The ABS understands lean angle so you can use them all the way to the apex without being a god. They systems work together and don't interfere with what you want except at the level you choose. The traction control is so smooth you can't really feel it working except that depending on how you set it... you can't roost or stoppie or wheelie beyond a point. And you can turn every bit of it off but you don't need to. It's not bothering you - it's improving you unless you are already a god. With so much power on tap that you can wheelie in 5 gears... I'm happy to have it engaged at some level (I can choose from 4) anywhere but the track. It is so far ahead of anything I've ridden before and so accessible and seamless that I was literally floored. Like the difference between old time skinny long skis and "modern parabolic with variable rocker" floored (If you ski, you got it, otherwise... just remember the word "HUGE/Massive/Earth shattering").

So, yeah. I bought it. I got to ride it 600 miles before snowpocalypsemagheddon. It's insane and practical at the same time. If the 701 is really 12k I feel like the XR was a bargain of technology and power at $15k. I would wait until the typical KTM depreciation makes it a $6k bike like I did with the XR... it was $24k new for someone (HFS!)... and I got it with less than 3k mi on it for $15k with luggage included. With my trade I wrote a check for $7k tax tags on the street. A E36 M3load of money for a bike for sure but ... no regrets. Yet.

Ok, rode my LeMans to the coffee shop this morning.

Froze my ass but was a worthwhile trip. Can't wait for dry roads and warm tires. :D

Took a nice long ride today, 6 hours/200 miles worth. Rode up to Suches, GA, hung out a bit, rode down 180 and back, then headed home. Nice to get out and clear the mind after this past week (a bit of a rough week). Feeling it a bit, but worth it.

Still salt & ice on the roads here in MI. Wake me up in mid-April.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Wow! I can't believe that your bike was only $15K! It is nice to hear that the electronic nannies are effective without being a problem...it sounds awesome.

ae86andkp61 wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Wow! I can't believe that your bike was only $15K! It is nice to hear that the electronic nannies are effective without being a problem...it sounds awesome.

LOL @ "only"

I've bought 12 cars that didn't add up to that number combined

I must be insane.

Sleestack...LOL

I'm feeling defeated by the issues with the EFI on my VFR. Haven't ridden it in I don't know how long, maybe two years. Garage at the place I'm in now needs help getting electrified and having tools put away better. Going to try and crack into that thing in the next couple weeks, couple things going on first. Once that happens I will try and be as annoying as possible about the dumb thing. Cross my heart.

EDIT: p.s. can't believe I left KS for CT. In this case I'm talking about the shiny happy drivers, the weather, the sand, the drivers, and the weather. It was 90 there yesterday and we've still got snow on the ground here.

In reply to pres589:

Yes... but when the weather is good you have all of New England to ride in. Rural Upstate NY, CT, MA, VT and NH are chock full of awesome. And you are close to water. A drive across MO & KS was something I had to endure once. I can't see how you can regret the change for motorcycling unless you went somewhere warmer like WV, NC or TN. Or... well, you were closer to CO once.