saddlebum

You forgot to mention Direction will change ..........usually 180 degrees .......

I love my Gen one despite that it is top heavy but yu do have to learn to ride it a little differently. 1st you don't lean with the bike as much as you would with a bike that has a lower center of gravity. and the slower you go the less you lean with the bike. Its almost closer to riding an off road bike than a highway machine. EG: on a slow tight turn in a parking lot or a U turn in the the street (affectionately known as the Marcarl maneuver ),let the bike lean under you while you yourself remain almost vertical in order to counter balance the top heaviness of the bike. Now of course the faster you corner the more you will lean with the bike but not so much as you would with other bikes you need to maintain a certian amount of counter balance. 2nd You do need to brake a tad sooner with this bike than others due to its added wieght. The bike has a linked brake system in that the right front brake is connected to the handle bar brake and used alone does not have a lot of stopping power. The left front brake is proportionately, linked to the rear foot brake, so when you apply the foot brake only the left front and rear brake apply. The thing to be aware of here is that when in loose gravel 0r 0n a paved road that is either covered with loose sand or gravel or is wet, if you apply to much rear brake the front will lock up and could slide out from under you. On another note apply both hand and foot brake on say dry pavement the front wheel will lock up and do a nose stand (found this out the first summer I got my venture and I was cut off with no place to go. the front wheel left a 3 foot skid mark before catapulting me over the handle bars). I also found out about the linked front brake the hard way when riding in the country and could not understand why I almost lost control of the front end when applying only the foot brake on a sand covered road. I came to a stop sign saw the sand and applied just the rear brake when my front wheel proccedded to slide out to the side. I quickly released the brake and made a second gentler attempt with the same result. That was when I 1st realized The bike had linked brakes. This also became an issue if I pulled off the road on to a soft shoulder really had to pay attention to your braking. Since then I have de-linked the brakes and now both font brakes function from the handlebar while the rear is fully independent. I find this gives me better control overall specially on gravel (beware though too much rear brake on gravel could cause the back wheel to slide side ways). Also with both front brakes linked to the handle bar lever the front wheel has greater independent stopping power. Some like myself love this modification others not so much. 3rd although the bike has amazing stability at highway speeds standing still at a stop sign with a fair cross wind definitely requires two feet on the ground as the bike feels like it could blow over other times I have no issue with only one foot down while holding the foot brake with my right foot to keep from rolling backwards on an incline. But you need long enough legs for this bike. I have a 32 inch inseam and I can quite comfortably place both feet flat on the ground with my knees still slightly bent. Once you get the hang of this bike and learn how to co-exist with it though I cannot think of a nicer bike to ride. I even prefer my 1989 to the 2019 which I road tested in WNY last year.

2 of my computers still have XP. one has windows 10 because I need it for work related stuff.

Thanks for keeping us updated Tom. Marita and my hearts go out to Becky and we continue to pray for Bob.

As Carl said today's doctors can do wonders but even they can use a bit of extra help so prayers for both the doctors and you father for a successful surgery.

Realy was hoping. for better news than this. I hope and pray he pulls through this ordeal.

I'm off work this week for some well deserved R&R. No one to deal with but me my dog (and my wife if I don,t find a good enough hiding spot ).

So why stop there a real improvement would be to go back to XP You make that sound like a bad thing

That's OK Robbin we will just continue refining our hugging techniques While Carl continues his Yakkity Yak . And he wonders why he only came second in the best-est hugger category.

I kinda thought that was the case but wanted to be sure since its getting hard to trust anything that comes up. Yesterday I got a pop up notice presumably from microsoft stating that come Nov 2019 my version of windows 10 will no longer be suported and wanted me to run the update. I do not know whether to trust it or not even though it seems legit. In any case Don, as always thank you for your steadfast commitment and hard work to keep this site as safe as possible. On the hair issue if you show the same tenacity I am sure you will find a solution. BTW I expect regular updates on that as well

Its a strange one. its kinda like saying I got a guy in California freezing, A guy in the Arctic suffering from heat stroke and a guy in the middle of a fresh water spring suffering from thirst and all at the same time and only when the sun shines on the praires and it is scorching hot. As soon as it clouds over everybody is happy again.

Still praying and hoping for Bobby to recover. My heart also goes out to Becky because of what all this must be putting her through.

@Freebird This thing called privacy - terms comes up in the bottom right of my screen but only when I am on the VR site. I use fire fox normally but it still comes up if I use chrome and IE. If I move the mouse over it expands and say's "protected by reCAPTCHA"

As Long as Marcarl stays quiet long enough for us to tell them that is. Heck even @tooch has a hard time getting a word in once Carl gets going .

Now Marcarl you know :backinmyday:I was declared #1 hugger As you well know, its against regulations for family to enter a contest . Since Moped is married to Yama Mama and the love of her life he is not allowed to compete If he were I would be bumped to Number 2, You would be bumped to number 3, and poor old cowpuc would be out of the top three altogether.

Still praying for both Bob and Becky. PS I check this post 3 times a day always hoping for uplifting news. If I only have time to go on site to check one post this is it. Keep fighting Bob I'm watching and hoping the father will bless us with your company for bit longer.

Sorry to hear about your loss and condolences to the family. Having just been through the same thing I can feel your pain and share in your sorrow.

I have not noticed any yet and hope I never do. This spam is getting to be real anoying at work we have had to take training seasion on detecting and avoiding getting traped by hackeers. These internet terroists can cause major issues and sadly they are getting better at it all the time. Never fails how good things always have to be ruined by someone.

Thanks for the update Carl. Still Praying for a healthy recovery for Bob and strength for Becky

Carl you look a little bamboozled . Well let me explain it to you since you can't figure it out for yourself Your in a Merry-go-round with the love of your life celebrating your birthday.

Actually there times when after finally manipulating it into neutral that even though it is in neutral the neutral light fails to come on and when you put the kickstand down at that time the engine will quit because it thinks it's in gear also it does not show 2nd gear on the display and occasionly 1st gear. But if you sit and wait for the bike to cool down suddenly the green light for neutral will come on as well as the bike becoming normal in both clutch operation and shifting through the gears.

Actually I have always felt it normally ran too cool. Even replaced the thermostat to try and bring it up a bit. But it does of course heat up in stop and go traffic or while tied up at the border at which point the fan will kick on for a bit to bring it down. No the line is routed well clear of any heat source.

Carl

This week I lost a very dear and close friend who I have known since high school and had the honor of being one of his pol bearers . Martin would have been 66 this Sept but a case of cancer took him before he could celebrate that birthday. Martin and I met while working part time for Canadian tire during our high school years and though I did not make friends easily during that time of my life, the two of us just hit it of instantly. Over the years together we worked on cars, motorcycles worked as bouncers in a bar frequented by bike and street gangs and chased girls (him having better luck than me most times). He had a tendency to come up with crazy ideas many of which he roped me into helping him with. Things like planting a 440 into a Volkswagen beetle or 383 into a triumph TR6 and replacing the square 4 in an Ariel with a Volkswagen engine which required cutting and stretching the frame (for which his Dad raked him over the coals for). Many times we worked in a freezing cold shack in the middle of winter that didn't even keep the wind out and when he needed the use of a pit he simply dug a hole in the dirt floor and parked the car over top of it. He eventually started his own little one man body shop where as well as doing work for others he continued his personal projects. Two of his projects took first price at the motion and speed sport car shows in Toronto. One day a women approached him about restoring an old Austin Healey which he refused saying that the car was junk and not worth the time or effort. But she persisted and eventually he took it on. He ended up doing such a superior job that other Healey owners started showing up and eventually he built his business not only specializing in restoring Healey's but literally resurrecting them from from total rusted out junk heaps. One issue he had with the first Healey was the frame as Healeys do was so rotted out it could not be salvaged so he proceeded to construct a replacement frame which he later began producing and selling all over the continent. The replacement frame was so well constructed that it became a major part of his business. He once told me not so long ago that over the past some 30 years he restored about 400 cars. He has also restored some classic motorcycles including an Ariel square four which I believe he eventually sold to some motorcycle museum somewhere. Here are a couple web sites worth checking out. http://www.jule-enterprises.com/ http://www.jule-enterprises.com/projects/100-4-v12-supercharged Rest in Peace Martin You will be missed.

Brand new stainless lines already installed I always use fresh brake fluid. I never keep an opened bottle around. Being a Mechanic for the past 42 years I have seen the downside of old brake fluid all to often. For the minor cost its just not worth saving. BTW I think I have come up with a temporary solution. I installed a manual engine fan over ride switch so I can run the fan a little sooner or longer as needed. The idea being that I can drop the engine temp to a point were clutch etc are workable for the times when I need it. Time will see how this works out. Anything to avoid downing the bike until the end of the riding season.