Did you ride your bike today?

[Sheepdog]

I rode the Beemer, the Piaggio, and the Vintage today. I'd have ridden the Triumph too, but the battery needed a charge. It sure was a pretty day in St Tammany Parish...

[Lannis]

Fay and I are taking off tomorrow and Wednesday to ride the Virginia and West Virginia mountains, and hang out with my cousins Tuesday night.    Should be a couple of cool, pretty days.   Fay's got her electric vest ready if she needs it!

This retirement gig is hard to beat ....

Lannis

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Yes and my new jacket was tasty warm.  My bare knees however were not.  I still wear cargo shorts just cause I like them.  58 degrees F.

[Rich M]

Little chilly in the lower Hudson valley today, but was itching to get out on the roads.




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[wavedog]

My health decided to give me a break this morning so while the getting was good I took off early and got in 220+ miles on the old Jackal. I will pay a heavy price for a few days but it was worth it.

[MikeLemon]

Certainly did :)

[Lannis]

Fay and I are taking off tomorrow and Wednesday to ride the Virginia and West Virginia mountains, and hang out with my cousins Tuesday night.    Should be a couple of cool, pretty days.   Fay's got her electric vest ready if she needs it!

This retirement gig is hard to beat ....

Lannis

Four hundred miles and beautiful weather, Fay didn't need to plug in the vest.    Fun and familiar roads, me best gal up behind, friends to meet, and just beat a thunderstorm home.   

Doesn't get better than this!

Lannis

[tazio]

You are LIVIN' IT my man!!
Got in a sweet 120 myself. Turned 12k flawless miles on the mighty GRiSO.

[radguzzi]

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone...





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[Tom]

To work and back.  The commute goes way faster than by car. 

[Lannis]

To work and back.  The commute goes way faster than by car. 

I wish it had worked that way for me, but my commute (24 miles, 33 minutes) was way faster in the car.

If I was taking my Festiva:

1) Walk out to the shed (40 seconds)

2) Open car door and sit down (10 seconds)

3) Crank it up and put it in reverse (5 seconds)

4) Buckle seat belt while rolling down driveway (0 seconds)

5) Drive to work (33 minutes) and park.

6) Open door, get out of car (5 seconds). 

So 33 minutes of driving and 60 seconds of overhead.

For the bike"

1) Walk out to shed (40 seconds).

2) Roll bike out of shed (15 seconds).

3) Put in earplugs (20 seconds).

4) Pull on jacket, adjust cuffs and collar, adjust vents/velcro (120 seconds)

5) Pull on gloves and tuck cuffs under gauntlet (60 seconds).

6) Give visor a quick wipe of previous day's bugs, pull on and adjust (60 seconds).

7) Start bike and quick checklist (sidestand, tires) (10 seconds).

8) Ride to work (33 minutes, no lanesplitting here)

9) Park bike at work and swing off (10 seconds)

10) Pull helmet off and store in top box (30 seconds).

11) Pull jacket and gloves off and store in pannier (30 seconds).

So as you can see, it takes about 5 minutes longer to commute on the bike than it does in the car.   8 or 10 minutes longer if it's raining.   

So in today's world of $200 motorcycle tires that last 6000 miles, equal gas mileage, and half the engine life, riding the bike to work every day is a losing proposition compared to a car both from an operating cost and a time-efficiency standpoint.

But I did it every day anyway .... !!!

Lannis

[Tom]

I live 9 miles from the office.  2 lanes going into 4 into town.  Most times the weather is dry and sunny.  Vented jacket.  Boots and long pants.  No gloves or helmet. 

[Shorty]

I got to ride to work a couple times last week. Been nursemaiding Miss Ava. (Illness and surgery) Had to miss Cedar Vale. Then we had a tornado. Maybe next week. 

[tazio]

Another sweet ride. Perks of living just north of Hotlanta on the doorsteps of the Chattahoochee National Forest. 190miles.
Took picture of a pretty slick mailbox I saw...

[LowRyter]

I've been putting the Greenie through some paces and took it for 3 rides in the last week.  Got it down Hogback road today and around Lake Arcadia- not that anyone here is familiar with that.   She's running pretty good and no leaks. 

[Chuck in Indiana]

She's running pretty good and no leaks.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 I decided it was time to exercise the Rokon.  I had planned on a fairly extensive ride but this 1950 technology was not to let me.  After about 2 miles There was a terrible chain and sprocket noise so I immediately stopped.  I could see that the front chain from the miter gear at the steering head to the front swingarm was off track.  I had a reasonably full tool kit so I got to work and took off the forward chain cover.  The upper sprocket was off the shaft.  The roll pins that secured it had worked out and one was broken.  The only tool I lacked was a hammer but a car stopped and loaned me one.  I was able to remount the sprocket and chain and tap one of the roll pins into place.  At low speed, ( even slower than normal Rokon speed I nursed it home only to have the sprocket dismount as I got there.  I removed the sprocket and punched out the remains of the roll pins.  I took the sprocket in to the Ace hardware and bought 2 of the correct roll pins.  Back home I remounted the sprocket and tapped in the two roll pins until they met in the middle as they were supposed to.  I figured I should probably add some spare roll pins to my repair kit so off to the hardware I started.  At about 1 mile, I heard the start of that dreadful noise again and stopped in the middle of town and dismounted my wheelchair and dug out my pin punch and hammer. ( I had brought a hammer from home) and put it back together again.  I left off the chain cover so that I could watch it as I rode the last 4 blocks to the hardware.  I could visibly the roll pins coming out after only 2 blocks.  I stopped and tapped them back into place, and went on.  2 blocks later as I parked at the hardware, the roll pins were again out of pace and the sprocket off.
  In the hardware I selected a grade 8 bolt and a unlock nut.  Remounting the sprocket, I secured it this time with the bolt and nut.  I rode home with the chain cover off and was happy to see that it had held together this time.
  This machine has only a total of about 200 miles since new and was totally disabled by the sprocket falling off because when this happens it jambs up the front wheel so that it cannot rotate.
  Tomorrow I will telephone the Rokon designer and discuss his ancestry, IQ, sexual habits and those of his mother and what ever she practices them with.   Rokon is a ripoff.  I have ongoing head shake problems and a speedometer that failed at 90 miles.  Now this.  I cannot understand how they have stayed in business for nearly 60 years with this kind of lack of quality.  I guess they haven't run out of new buyers because I seriously doubt anyone would buy a second one.

[Yukonica]

   "So in today's world of $200 motorcycle tires that last 6000 miles, equal gas mileage, and half the engine life, riding the bike to work every day is a losing proposition compared to a car both from an operating cost and a time-efficiency standpoint.
But I did it every day anyway .... !!!
Lannis"

Seems to me you need to upgrade to an inefficient SUV to balance the equation a little better. Don't forget to factor the seasonal change over in tires....

[Northern Bill]

I found the car vs bike commuting comparison more than interesting.  Up here in Ontario where it is often really cold in the early spring and fall and really hot (for us) in the summer the lure of heating and air conditioning often wins out. 

I am usually on a vintage bike and I think that also adds to the time with all those extra checks to be made.

[tazio]

No longer subscribe to the "commute to work" thing. Did it on a 1971BMW R75/5, 600 miles a week for 3 yrs. Just wore down a cool old bike that I wasn't eager to jump on for a weekend ride.
Dicing with the "late for work" crowd in the dark on the same route, rinse/repeat...
"Crap Miles" I call it.
YMMV

[Muzz]

  Tomorrow I will telephone the Rokon designer and discuss his ancestry, IQ, sexual habits and those of his mother and what ever she practices them with. 

Can I watch?

I must admit it annoys me no end when even a klutz like me can see a design flaw as big as a barn door, and yet a product was put in to being with that flaw in it. Give 'em hell Jim!

[Tom]

I wonder how Randy's held up on the cross country trip or did he modify it too.  Reminds me of how the rear sprocket on a XLCH '72 was pop riveted onto the backing plate.  A friend replaced them with small machine screws & nylocks.  Fortunately, he did the repair before it self-destructed.

[Muzz]

Many years ago Yamaha brought out a (I think) 750 twin. Built like a brick outhouse BUT, the cam chain tensioner had a nut welded to the TENSION side of the spring. The nut of course sooner or later let go, and if you were barrelling along and couldn't hear the noise the motor quickly self destructed as all the aluminium dust from the camchain tunnel seized the motor. A friend made good coin by hiring my gas plant and putting the nut on the other side of the spring so it actually pulled against the spring itself. The spring already had a hole in it for the bolt to go through. He had customers queuing up. Bulletproof, and so basic.

[Lannis]

   "So in today's world of $200 motorcycle tires that last 6000 miles, equal gas mileage, and half the engine life, riding the bike to work every day is a losing proposition compared to a car both from an operating cost and a time-efficiency standpoint.
But I did it every day anyway .... !!!
Lannis"

Seems to me you need to upgrade to an inefficient SUV to balance the equation a little better. Don't forget to factor the seasonal change over in tires....

The sort-of-point was that it's not totally a question of economics.    And the first 2/3 of my commute in (and, therefore, the last 2/3 coming home) was a pleasant motorcycle ride, worth doing for its own sake ....

Lannis

[Sasquatch Jim]

  If you have to think up a reason to ride,  you do not have a bikers mindset.

[Triple Jim]

I had a great ride on the H2 yesterday, with my daughter following on the Ninja 250.  New tires, some front suspension work, and a brake upgrade, and the old H2 is handling better than the Mille.  Not a lot, but it is 100 lbs lighter, after all.

[Tom]

  If you have to think up a reason to ride,  you do not have a bikers mindset.

:1:  My option for transportation is a car/4 wheels.

[tazio]

Yes
19°f  when I left the house for
 a 2-1/2hr ride.
22°f when I got home.
Brisk but exhilarating!

[Gino]

Christmas Eve in Scotland, the snow and ice had briefly disappeared  so my wife and I got the 650 single BMWs out for a 70:mile run, the weather was cold and wet but as always worth it for the escape from life motorcycling always brings. The Guzzi’s are tucked up for Winter. Happy Christmas to all 

[Tom]

Y'ep, went to the only store open.  Union store open for Christmas.  Holiday pay for workers.  Light traffic.  Dry.  Clear & sunny 80/82F.  I had my lightest summer weight jacket on.