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Showing results for tags 'riding'.
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We are in the process of rebuilding our VR Assistance List. If you can and are willing to offer assistance to a member who is riding through your area, please edit your profile to include that information. Simply click on "Settings" at the upper right of the page and then scroll down to "Edit Profile". Near the bottom you will find a place to select "yes or no" in regards to offering local assistance and then a place to select services that you may be able to offer. Cowpuc just mentioned in another thread another, and maybe easier, way to get to it. Click "forum actions" in the small menu at the top. Select edit profile. Scroll down and you'll see where to select your information.
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This will be our 4th annual Maintenance Day here at our place, The date is June 27th and anybody that wants to come and camp is wellcome there are motels 6 miles away in Viroqua if you are not into camping. We start it out on Thursday and go till Sunday, I will have rides planed out for Friday and Saturday cant have a bunch of cycle riders here and not take them out and show them the great riding roads we have around here. Its been a great time each each year and look forward to many more. I will be getting it on the calendar so you can go on there and RSVP and I will put the list motels on there also. It will be good to see our old friends and get to make some new ones. Orlin and Sharon
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Looking forward to playing with the Venture I just got. 100% complete and it runs on ether. Looks like it's been leaking from several spot's for awhile and after this cup of coffee is done I'm gonna get back at making it roll. Trying to get it out a bit to see if the tranny is OK and whether or not it obviously is too far gone overall. If it's worth doing, I'll have the best running 500 dollar (purchase price) Venture out there by the end of the winter! Been wrenching a long time and enjoy the tinkering, cleaning stuff up, polishing and overall fun of not having to worry about riding ten miles down a dirt road that turns into a two track to find a cool camping spot. Have owned every Japanese make over the years as well as HD, the Yamaha's I've played with have always turned out to be the best ones. Rehabbed an 82 Virago 920 this summer and have that on the road still, a fun street fighter but not what I need to hit the interstate for a serious trip. At 52 this is my first ever bagger, I'm too burned out on the Then Came Bronson fantasy and as long as I aint wearing a sweat suit and riding a Goldwing my cred should still be good.
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Got the bike loaded on the trailer and in a few days the wife and I will be headed to florida for 12 days of riding. ready for some warmer weather and riding.
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It is time for me to ride SOUTH. I was supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning, but...as we all know too well...weather at this time of year dictates when we can ride. Finding that we have a perfect window of clear, dry weather for the next several hours, we have decided to leave Washington state now, and make it down to Eugene, OR., and stop for the night. We could easily go farther, but we have a large hill to go over at the Oregon/California border, and there is usually lots of snow and ice on the road this time of year. We want to do that hill in the daylight, after some sun has hit it. Have an appointment in Redding to have our tires changed out, for the ride down to much warmer/hot weather down in South America. We will leave our winter tires at this shop, as well as most (not all) of our heated clothing. Then on the way back north, we will have the same shop take off our summer tires, and re-install our winter tires, and give us back our heated clothing that we left with them. Total ride down to Bolivia/Chile' should be about 15,000 round trip. We plan to do some sight seeing in Bolivia, retrace the steps of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and then take in day # 10 of the Dakar Rally in Chile'. I will be riding my 2012 Super Tenere', and my riding partner is riding a 2005 R12GS. We are well prepped and planned for this ride, but..."IF" anything goes wrong, well...my friends, it has been lovely getting to know many of you. Hope to be back on here in 4 weeks. Stay safe, and be nice to one another while I am gone. Adios,
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Wishing all VR members here a safe & happy New Year. Hope to see many of you this coming riding season at various events. Larry
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Is there a place here that I can find out who is from Colorado? I would like to find some riding buddies for the upcoming riding season. I am in Denver. Dave
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Now for the next 100k. Brought my 05 RSV Midnight on 12-28-08, with 15k on it from PO. It has been a blast riding this past 4 years. Hope to keep it going for 4 more.
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Motorcycle journalist from a French magazine test riding a new bike...................:bang head:
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Okay, I'm home. The first thing I did was to strip off all my clothes , and then jump into the hot tub for about 45 minutes. That is a lot longer than normal use, but I needed to melt some of the Alaska ice I brought home with me. Ride was interesting, and an experience. The BMW sidecar rigs were fun, and it makes me think about conversion of one of my bikes. Fairbanks was colder than ^$#@*, and Prudhoe Bay was about 30 degrees warmer than Fairbanks, due to drier weather. It will be some time before I ride to Alaska again in the late Fall, just before Winter sets in. Have done it three previous times, but those were all in the Summer. Now I can say I have scratched that itch. If you want pictures, which I know is one of the first things some of you ask for... ... ...are you still waiting? Well, my brilliant riding partner on the R12GS had his camera in his tank bag, rather than his jacket. And, since he made certain that it was fully charged up before he left, he did not bother to bring his charger. By the time we got to Prudhoe Bay, his camera was almost frozen...to digital death...and would not function at all. We waited until the next morning to leave, and hoped the camera would be thawed out, but when he did try it the next morning, the battery was below functioning level. No way possible to charge his battery, so he...literally...threw his camera into the Arctic Ocean...he was so mad. Say goodbye to one Sony Cyber-shot. I did not take a camera with me, because he said he would bring his. The Super Tenere' again worked excellent, as did his (my old bike) R12GS. BTW, the total trip was 5120 miles, and was done in just under 8 days of riding. Close to half of the riding was done in the dark, meaning...at night, because it gets dark really early up there. Now time to get ready for Christmas. So, what have you folks been up to? Eh ?
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Howdy to all. I am asking for suggestions. I am planning a 2 week ride with my brother next September. We have been talking about riding southern UT. for a few years. We need some suggestions for roads, lodging, eateries.... We want to include Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand canyon north, Glen canyon, Canyonlands, Arches... We plan on having to do some camping along the way. we want to avoid dirt roads. Thanks!!
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Ok I haven't been riding the bike since I fell off a ladder the 1st of last month and broke my hip. Doc says no walking, wheel chair or toe touch walker only. What a pisser. Any how one of my favorite things is taking pictures when riding. So I had the camera along the other day on the return from the Doc's. I got a lot of shots of this guy when we stopped at Starbucks for some coffee. Mike Red Tail Hawk on Light Post [ATTACH]72787[/ATTACH]
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Yo, does anyone know of any VR meets, MD's, or gatherings of anykind, anywhere in the next few weeks or month????? I am tired of sitting around, and want to go out riding a distance. Rather than simply going riding in my local area for the day, I always need a purpose and a destination. Otherwise I just sit home...typing on this forum. So, the best way to shut me up...typing wise...is to tell me there is a ride happening, a maintenance day happening, a nice dinner happening, and it is...1000 or more miles away. I leave in about 7 weeks to ride down to Bolivia, but I need something before then. Help?????
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The last two sunday mornings while flipping the channels I have found a show title LA Rider. Wondering if anyone else has seen this. It's a female named TW riding a harley and touring Louisiana. I think I saw a midnight venture in the commercial for the show. Anyone know?
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Does anyone know where I could obtain a free Harley Service Manuel for a 05 Harley Roadglide? Want to do some re-caming. After riding the 06 Venture like too have the same sensation of speed on the Roadglide.
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How about some of you AZ riders. Tell me how the weather is all year in Phonex and South. Tombstone,Serria Vista,Bisbee areas is riding all year pretty much good to go?? Whats your thought's.
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Now first I want to make it very clear that my knowledge when it comes to electircity is pretty much limited with the fact that I know it hurts to touch it and it takes a plus and a minus to make the light come on. But my Royal Star Tour Classic 1998 in Iceland has started to flicker the headlights. They don´t go off completely, they just kind of go low and high when riding the bike. When idling they are quite o.k. I don´t know if it has anything to do with it but last night (yes, there is still riding season in Iceland) I pulled into a gas station and filled the bike up, and when I tried to start it up again the batteri was almost dead and did not manage to turn the motor over enough to start it. The battery is four years old so that is shot for sure. Could any of the following be the reason: Maybe some loose connections ? Switch to be cleaned ? Stator going bad? If any of you guys have experienced this or have any idea what could cause this then please chime in. Jonas - who is scared sh#*!#ess of electricity after peeing on an electric fence in his youth - NO !!! I don´t wanna talk about it)
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I have ridden in a ton of charity rides, I always keep the same safe distance that I do while riding in traffic, because thats exactly what you are doing.http://www.tmz.com/2012/10/23/jay-leno-motorcycle-crash-accident/
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From Nashville home... GORGEOUS ride, colors were beautiful, perfect day to ride. We started out eating at the Loveless Cafe and then hitting the road.we had a heavy coat then went light jacket, then Short sleeve. It was so NICE!!! Kinda funny I've ridden the trace many times both ways, but saw things I've never seen . I told my wife it was almost like riding it for the 1st time.
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I need info on seat mod by butler.....Getting sore riding long miles...will this help?
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Part One: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=73786 In part one, linked above, we looked briefly at the motivation one might have for getting involved in "longer than your average ride". Self-satisfaction, friendly rivalry, exploring your own limits ... fun! They all play a part. However, remember back when you learned to ride? If it went smoothly for you, it is likely that before you learned how to make a motorcycle go forwards, you were first shown how to stop it. Logical really. Cover the clutch at all times. The minute you are unsure, pull in the clutch and start to brake. Sure you develop from that with experience, but knowing when to stop is just as important to LD Riders as it is to those taking their first tentative steps on two wheels. There is no shame in abandoning an attempted ride. There is nothing wrong with realising that what you might be attempting is not within your grasp this time. Your wife and family want you home, safe and sound and in a position to try again at some future time. When you abandon a ride, you do not "fail" ... you simply learn one way that it cannot be completed. More than that, you demonstrate a maturity of judgement that you can be rightly proud of because you just demonstrated your ability to ride safely, even when every instinct was screaming disappointment. I am not speaking theoretically. This year I have failed to finish a rally (DNF) when I simply considered it unsafe to continue. I tried ... I even tried to get two hours sleep and maybe that would help. It didn't help, but six hours sleep helped enormously and I safely rode the 500 miles home next day. Equally, I abandoned an BBG attempt (1500 miles in 24 hours) when the time slipped so badly that completing the ride would have required speeds I was simply not prepared to ride at ... even on the Interstate. I did complete 1700+ miles in 32 hours, which is a different Certificate. Sure I was disappointed yet I am still alive, still happy and I am now better placed to make future attempts because I know what I have to do, and how to accomplish it. These things are not easy. If they were easy no one would bother. We do it because it is a very hard thing to do. That is the point. Knowing when to stop is not easy. It is very easy to stop because you want to stop. I always want to stop My hips cramp up after about 700 miles. My back and shoulders sometimes ache a bit (I'm working on that). I want to chat to my wife, have a meal, a drink, a cigarette. I'd give anything to stop. That isn't the "stopping" I am talking about. I am talking about knowing when to stop because to continue would be unsafe. You have reached the threshold below which you are not comfortable continuing. This differs for all of us. Our thresholds vary and what we must do is work out when our bodies, or riding is telling us that fatigue is beginning to negatively affect performance. Remember this is an endurance event, so you do actually have to "endure". That is a hard thing to do but it only becomes an unsafe thing to do if we ignore the signs. So what are they? Well the Iron Butt Association has a very handy "Archive of Wisdom" which lists 28 tips from Iron Butt Rally finishers. Number 12 says: "As soon as you are tempted to close an eye, even "for just a second", find the nearest safe place to pull over and take nap! Other symptoms to watch for: Inability to maintain a desired speed. If you find yourself slowing down and constantly having to speed back up, you are ready to fall asleep! Forgetting to turn high beams down for oncoming traffic. Indecision. Can't decide to stop for gas or continue? Can't decide what turn to take? These are all a result of fatigue." You generally wouldn't start with a BBG attempt, or any of the other extreme rides. Indeed the IBA will not ratify such a ride unless you have first completed one of the easier ones. I use the term "easier" advisedly. So start shorter. Develop the techniques and self-knowledge that will stand you in good stead when the pressure is really on. Learn for yourself the signs you should NEVER ignore. Don't think that because you are fatigued and need to stop that you cannot complete the task. Sometimes pulling into a rest area and grabbing 30 minutes sleep on a park bench, or even on your motorcycle is quite sufficient for you to safely continue. But if you must stop, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and other road users to stop immediately. You will gain a great deal from taking this point on board. Inappropriate speed kills. All Iron Butt Rides can be completed within the posted speed limits. You just have to be savvy about route planning for some of them is all. Riding much quicker than the prevailing traffic is tiring; riding faster than the prevailing conditions permit is downright dangerous. When you are out trying for that first SS1000, or bonus hunting on a Rally, you are simply a road user. You are not special, nor are you doing anything that has a special dispensation to play fast and loose with the laws. Do it too often and the local Sheriff will no doubt remind you The real key to covering the distance is to prepare your mind and body, to prepare your motorcycle and to plan an efficient route .... THEN KEEP THE WHEELS TURNING! The example I gave the other day was to imagine you are out riding with a buddy. You are cruising the interstate at a steady 60 mph. You stop for 10 minutes and he continues. It will take you ONE HOUR at 70 mph to catch him. You can easily see how this can work against you and it is why I have struggled to develop a routine that means I can gas up the bike in 3 1/2 minutes, ramp to ramp, if I need to. Generally I don't actually need to, but I practised just in case. Have at the safety aspects in the thread. Thjs stuff is important and we need to hammer it out before we move on to the mechanics of how we bring this all together for a successful ride. Part Three: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74050 -
From the invention of the motorcycle there have been two areas of riding that can be considered to be the extremes of the pastime. Those who want to ride them faster, and those who want to ride them farther. The way motorcycles are used in day to day activities varies from place to place. In the UK, and in much of Europe, the motorcycle was often the primary form of transport for working men and working class families. When I was a child we didn't have a car, our houses did not have garages. My Dad had an elderly BSA 650 with a Canterbury Double-adult sidecar. He went to work on it, took Mum to the stores, and we would use it for vacations traveling from the north of England to the South to visit with family. That was a journey of nearly two hundred and fifty miles. Dad on the bike, Mum and kids in the sidecar and it could take upwards of ten hours including driving right through central London. I guess my introduction to long journeys on motorcycles started at an early age. My first recollection of riding my own bike a long way was at age 17. I had a BSA Bantam D175. Even then that bike was older than me. I once rode it 450 miles in about sixteen hours ... maybe eighteen. Top speed was close to sixty miles an hour. Compared with what I ride now, that journey was tougher than any Bun Burner Gold or SaddleSore 1000, but I was young, and more than a little foolish. In the US motorcycles have pretty much always been leisure vehicles. Yes there are people who use them as transport, but in the UK they were principally transport and it led to different development paths for both bike and riders. I have friends who think little of riding eleven thousand miles in eleven days, and others who love their motorcycles just as much, but who wouldn't dream of riding more than a couple of hundred miles in one go ... a distance that wouldn't even come close to emptying my gas tanks, yet each is as valuable to the sport as the other. It would be a grey world if we were all the same. There are those who think that riding 1500 miles in under 24 hours is foolish, even dangerous, and others who can't comprehend what it takes to do such a thing but would like to hear more about it. To deal with the safety aspects briefly, because it is a subject we will come back to. Riding a motorcycle is not the safest way to get from A to B. That is reserved for aircraft We all ride, and we know the risks yet choose to accept them. We live in a risk-averse society, yet we also realise that life is a continual balance between risk and reward. We could quit riding motorcycles and take the truck, or SUV, but the price we would pay for that is too much for most to accept. On the other hand, let's not get stupid about it. I have a wife and lots of kids and wherever I roam, they want me back in one piece. So we are going to be looking at not simply how to ride a long distance, but how to do so in as safe a manner as possible. It is notable that the accident statistics for LD Riders are about the same as for all motorcycles. The accident severity is generally less because of the insistence upon All The Gear, All The Time (ATGATT). The other thing that should be said upfront is that LD Riding is not about speed. Every Certificate Ride on the IBA website can be completed within the posted speed limits in the US. Indeed, it makes sense to keep your speed at a moderate level because the stopped time for gas outweighs the time gained by speeding once the speed creeps up to 80mph and beyond. "Performance Awards" from State Troopers are unwelcome expenses and many Rally Masters will disqualify riders who pick up too many tickets. The safest, and least tiring way to make progress is to ride at the speed that has you doing the least work in terms of over-taking and being passed. On most roads that trends towards the speed limit plus a few mph. It varies from place to place. The real secret is not to ride fast, but to keep the wheels turning as much as you can. If you are riding with a friend at a steady sixty miles per hour and you stop for ten minutes, it will take you one hour at seventy miles an hour to catch up with him ... You see how that can work against you? On this site we have broadly two kinds of bikes. The "slow but new" and the "slightly faster but old". We have the first and second generation Yamaha Ventures. The first thing to note is that they are all quite capable of doing anything and everything I will describe in these articles. When we look at buying and choosing a bike, the Venture might not be the first or best choice, but they are the bikes we have, and they are quite capable. Before we get ahead of ourselves though, we need to look at why anyone would do this at all. It is part of the human condition to explore our environments and our personal limits. People choose to do that in any number of ways. Some seek maximum financial gain as a measure. I once heard a billionaire say that the money was irrelevant other than a way of keeping score! Folk run marathons, play sports, write books or find some other hobby in which they strive to excel. Endurance has long played a part in our make-up, and I choose to explore my own limits on a motorcycle. What I am sure of is that many of us need to do "something", because forever sitting on the sofa is simply akin to "waiting for God". There may be readers who do not wish to ride long distances, but simply came here looking for tips on how to make their chosen journeys more efficient or more comfortable. I hope we can help you too. Riding for Certificates, or simply bragging rights is a solitary pastime. It brings it's own rewards. I well remember watching my GPS tick over 1000 miles. I was on a 1977 Yamaha XS750. It was raining hard and about 40F. I was thoroughly wet, very cold and I was into hour 20. The mixture of misery and elation I felt as I counted down the last mile, in tenths, would earn me a fortune if I could bottle and sell it. http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i418/twigg2324/IBA%20Saddle%20Sore%201000/IMG_0421.jpg Arriving home at end of Saddle Sore 1000 - March 2010 Beyond Certificate riding is a whole world of Rallying. These are like scavenger hunts on crack. The bonus is that you will get to meet many folk from all over the country in a spirit of fun and friendly rivalry. Again, the only prize is satisfaction. We will look at both. The principles are the same even for those simply going on vacation. You still have to manage the miles. You still want to be comfortable, well-hydrated and free of pain. The main difference is that generally the time pressure is removed and you are free to relax and stop where and when you fancy. ** I may edit this. A limitation of the Forum is that I can't save a draft so if it appears to grow in length, or sprout pictures you might want to scan through for stuff I added Part Two: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=73853 Part Three: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74050
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As many of you are aware, I have a 1986 Venture Royale. I use it for personal daily transport (yeah, it goes to Walmart), for pleasure rides with my wife on the back, and for Long Distance Riding. I am not alone in this, not even on this Forum where there are several contributors who do the same or similar. It occurred to me that there must also be many who think "Mad sods! Catch me doing that!", and others who actually like the idea but are not sure what is involved. LD Riding is not for everyone but there may be some wondering what it is like, and how they can dip their toes in the water. If there is any interest I would be very happy to write a series of articles describing what is involved .... the bike, the planning, the execution and other stuff folk are interested in. If that would be welcomed, please reply below and if the articles are to be useful, then some idea of the concerns that need to be addressed would be helpful. LD Riding isn't just about Certificates and Rallies, sometimes it is just that two-week vacation you are planning, and want to acheive in an enjoyable way rather that a painful one.
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Saw on the news there was an accident involving a 50 year old riding an '83 Yamaha on the south side of Milwaukee (and no, he wasn't wearing a helmet - it doesn't look good for the rider). Hope it wasn't any of us. Anybody have an update? RR
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I will be gone for a couple weeks. Okay, many of you are thinking...whew...it will finally be quieter around here with me gone riding. I and a riding friend are taking off this afternoon for...Goose bay/Happy Valley, Labrador, Canada. We are leaving from Western Washington/Seattle area. The ride should be about 10,000 miles round trip. We will see. I will be riding my 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere' 1200, and the riding partner will be riding my old bike that I sold to him, a 2005 BMW R1200GS. If any of you have ever been to Goose Bay/Happy Valley, Labrador, then...you already know what we are getting ourselves into. Gulp! See ya'all down the road.
