the_Wife wants me to buy a bike (advice)

Yakima 728
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I'm cautiously optimistic my first ride will go better than this...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX4Zxsf5ic0]YouTube - First Motorcycle Ride Goes Poorly[/ame]
 
the_bird said:
Grr. Arr.

Just found out that I can't ride in Vermont with a MA permit. Makes sense, I suppose. OUGHT to obey the laws, I suppose... the bike's in Bennington, if I buy it I'm bug Evan into riding it up to my folks, then I guess I'll either have to borrow a pickup or wait for my brother to ride it back to MA for me. I'm pretty sure he won't mind... ;)
Click to expand...


I not sure I remember the Silverwings all that well, but I *think* it might be a bit too big for a pickup. You might try to find someone with a trailer.........
 
Well, that's where fully-licensed Big Brother comes in! It's about a 45-minute drive from my folks' to my house, so I'm not going to want to do THAT before I get a little bit of road time (some of it is 55-MPH highway). I'll get it registered and insured and ask him to drive it back.

Now, there's also the Suzie here in town that I could probably get the guy to ride up to the house, so I wouldn't have to futz around. I'm wondering how much better is an '83 GL650 Silverwing versus an '81 Suzi GS550 (that's got an asking price of $650 versus $1,400?)

Now, I suspect that if the Honda's too big for a pickup, it may be a little too big for me... I'll have to see in the morn.
 
the_bird said:
Well, that's where fully-licensed Big Brother comes in! It's about a 45-minute drive from my folks' to my house, so I'm not going to want to do THAT before I get a little bit of road time (some of it is 55-MPH highway). I'll get it registered and insured and ask him to drive it back.

Now, there's also the Suzie here in town that I could probably get the guy to ride up to the house, so I wouldn't have to futz around. I'm wondering how much better is an '83 GL650 Silverwing versus an '81 Suzi GS550 (that's got an asking price of $650 versus $1,400?)

Now, I suspect that if the Honda's too big for a pickup, it may be a little too big for me... I'll have to see in the morn.
Click to expand...

depending on the condition of either bike i will say that the gs550's were a great bike back then. parts arnt too bad if you need them. its not that the bike is too big for a pickup more like difficult to put it in and out unless your brother is used to pulling up into beds like a couple buddies of mine. but the trailer is the way to go if you need to trailer it. bring a camara and snap some pics and post em up. let us be another set of eyeballs.
 
The guy with the Silverwing just called, he's got someone else coming to look at it in the afternoon after me - so unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to say "yea" or "neigh" before I get a chance to see the Suzie (which can't be until Sunday, he's unavailable tomorrow).
 
the_bird said:
I'm cautiously optimistic my first ride will go better than this...

YouTube - First Motorcycle Ride Goes Poorly
Click to expand...

I like the jazz.. The dude in grey is lucky he didn't get plowed over..

If you can drive a stick and ride a bicycle, you got the 'go' part down, you just need to practice the 'stop' part.:D Odd as it may seem, the stop part does take some practice.
 
the_bird said:
The guy with the Silverwing just called, he's got someone else coming to look at it in the afternoon after me - so unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to say "yea" or "neigh" before I get a chance to see the Suzie (which can't be until Sunday, he's unavailable tomorrow).
Click to expand...

From a negotiation standpoint, it seems odd he would tell you that..
 
Well, he was just calling to make sure I was still coming up, so that he knew when to be around. I'm not reading any more into it than that.
 
I've been watching this guy's videos, Cap'n Crash!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzq-mljZH8Y&feature=related]YouTube - Howzit Done? The Apex Files[/ame]

Seems to be pretty good info, and interesting.
 
Chimone said:
Mordeth 13 makes some good vids
Click to expand...




Wow. Just wow. By "good" I hope you mean tutorials on how NOT to ride a motorcycle. What a jackass. He shouldn't bother wearing any gear at all because nothing is going to protect him from the crash that is eventually headed his way. I'm amazed that he actually sopped at the stoplights.
 
Bernie Brewer said:
Wow. Just wow. By "good" I hope you mean tutorials on how NOT to ride a motorcycle. What a jackass. He shouldn't bother wearing any gear at all because nothing is going to protect him from the crash that is eventually headed his way. I'm amazed that he actually sopped at the stoplights.
Click to expand...

Dude are you kidding me? This guy knows how to ride a bike. Im sure he is well aware of the risks he takes, but some people push their love of riding to the extremes.

Now if you do a search for ghost rider on you tube......that dude is nuts
 
Here we go.

Ghost Rider has an actual film crew follow him around cities while he has police chase him. Awesome rider as well, but nuckin futs

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1CkPcICaY]YouTube - Ghost Rider - **** Police[/ame]
 
Chimone said:
Dude are you kidding me? This guy knows how to ride a bike. Im sure he is well aware of the risks he takes, but some people push their love of riding to the extremes.

Now if you do a search for ghost rider on you tube......that dude is nuts
Click to expand...


Are YOU kidding ME???? If you think that guy is a safe rider then you are nuckin' futz. I don't care if he is aware of the risks he takes- he is endangering everyone else on the road-cars and bikes. If he wants to ride like that he can go rent time on a track somehwerre.

And you guys scold me for not wearing a helmet. Yikes.
 
Bernie Brewer said:
Are YOU kidding ME???? If you think that guy is a safe rider then you are nuckin' futz. I don't care if he is aware of the risks he takes- he is endangering everyone else on the road-cars and bikes. If he wants to ride like that he can go rent time on a track somehwerre.

And you guys scold me for not wearing a helmet. Yikes.
Click to expand...

Who said anything about him being safe? I only said he's good.
 
So......

Bought the Silverwing. No new pictures, it's up to my folks' house and I didn't have a camera with me. Evan rode it up for me, he says that it rides REALLY smooth (when I was on it, not quite so smooth but that's mostly because I'm still learning how to ride!)

One issue; it'll need a starter motor. He warned me about that, and it started right up when we were there - but by the time we were at my folks, and I had to start it up quite a few times (uh... again, that whole "how much throttle/how smooth on the clutch dyanamic means a lot of stalls without a lot of time for the battery to recharge), it was giving me trouble. My old man's going to throw the tickle charger on it, and he'll help install the starter I'm sure. How much are we talking? Looked quickly like $100 or so for aftermarket, that about right?
 
EDIT: oops, my response was too late, need to learn how to read entire thread..

But, I would recommend a one-time addition of a can of Techron concentrate gas additive- removes some of the gumminess at carbs.
 
beergears said:
EDIT: oops, my response was too late, need to learn how to read entire thread..

But, I would recommend a one-time addition of a can of Techron concentrate gas additive- removes some of the gumminess at carbs.
Click to expand...

Techron is good stuff.

I toss in an ouce or two every tank full.

But for a thorough cleaning...get a can of "Sea Foam". Strange name to be sure...but every marine craft, motorcycle and ATV technician swears it's a miracle elixir and will quick clean out the worst gum in your engines.
 
He did clean the carbs not too long ago, and from Evan's report, it rides like a dream (seemed OK to me, but I wasn't going very far). He drove it up to my folks, so he did get it out on the highway for a little bit as well.

I gotta check with my old man, I'm seeing some used starter motors on ebay for $40 - $50.
 
forget techron. sea foam is what you want to use. seafoam rocks. i run it every spring basicly half bottle to 1 gallon. burn through it and just normal fuel until the last tank and i run the same to finish off with winterizer.
 
Sean said:
congrats, sounds like you got a solid reliable bike. BTW, what's a "tickle charger"?:D
Click to expand...

you dont have one? it tickels it to full charge and it laughs. just watch it so it doesnt pee all over the frame ;-)
 
It might be nice to know a local mechanic that likes home brew, and doesn't mind sharing his knowledge.
 
If I didn't post a picture before, here's the bike (from the listing photo):

!BTf)44gBGk~$(KGrHgoOKigEjlLm,etkBKI)eof-7!~~_1.jpg
 
I'm not familiar with the Silverwing engine design. Some bikes are built with the starter in the cases. If this is so with this bike, the part is not the cost you should worry about. Splitting the cases on any bike is fairly expensive, and not something to be undertaken by the uninitiated. If it is an external mounted starter, your daughter could probably do it, no problem. In the event that it is an internal starter be prepared for other costs such as complete gasket set, crank seals, and other possible damage or wear you might want to repair during teardown. If I had to guess though I would say it has high starter wear due to frequent short trips and there would be no other parts needed other than the gaskets and seals.
Another thing you will discover is that left side parts are more expensive than right side parts. Make sure your kickstand is fully engaged and it wont roll on you before walking away from a parked bike.
 
beerthirty said:
I'm not familiar with the Silverwing engine design. Some bikes are built with the starter in the cases. If this is so with this bike, the part is not the cost you should worry about. Splitting the cases on any bike is fairly expensive, and not something to be undertaken by the uninitiated. If it is an external mounted starter, your daughter could probably do it, no problem. In the event that it is an internal starter be prepared for other costs such as complete gasket set, crank seals, and other possible damage or wear you might want to repair during teardown. If I had to guess though I would say it has high starter wear due to frequent short trips and there would be no other parts needed other than the gaskets and seals.
Another thing you will discover is that left side parts are more expensive than right side parts. Make sure your kickstand is fully engaged and it wont roll on you before walking away from a parked bike.
Click to expand...


Here is a link to the schematic for the starter. I'm no expert, but i'm guessing it's external.

STARTER MOTOR - 1983 Honda GL650
 
I've got a PDF of a generic service manual for all old Hondas on my office 'puter; I'll take a look-see at that today and get an idea.
 
Congrats! You're going to have a pile of fun with that bike...even if it turns out to be a mechanical disaster (most probably not). Working on a bike is *almost* as fun as riding it.
 
I once considered buying a GL500 (was painted pink..!), and I can vaguely recall a jnown minor problem with it, maybe carbs.

There is a GL club on the net somewhere and they had the info on the fixes. I may have that on one of my archive hard drives in an older pc...

The GL500 also has a nickname, forget what it is.
 
interesting survey on gear. Now I know the vast majority of the people surveyed are not you're average rider.(92% on the surveyed riders wear a full face) It's more of your I ride every day of the year regardless of weather type person and is aimed at giving information to manufacturers. Still I think it's interesting.

http://www.gearupproject.org/survey/results.html
 
What have I done? I feel so dirty and comforming.......


It's bike night tonight, and before I gave it any thought I washed my VStrom. I feel like one of those pansy ass pirate cruiser guys right now polishing their chrome up before bike night even though they only put 10 miles on it last week.


God....I need to take the bike back to the mountains and put a nice coat of mud back on it. Its too clean!

I am seriously the anti-chrome
 

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