wantahertzdonut

I'm heading out Saturday morning. Not my choice but nothing I haven't done before. My friend will be able to make it whether his bike gets up and running or not. If I can't get his bike started, he'll ride my SV in N and I'll take my Tuono in I. I'll make sure to stop by.

Reminds me of this

I've commuted on my SV650 for 4 years now. It has Givi saddle bags, one of which is half full with my rain suit. Most of my driving is congested interstate, the rest is bombed out ghetto streets. I average 53mpg with my 05, I understand the 07+ bikes with dual ignition are better yet. There's more than enough power for the drive and it runs on 87. Lots of aftermarket, lots of room to customize if you wish. It's an overally great bike for commuting. Oh, get the N version with handlebars. It'll be much better for visibility. I ride without windshields because I hate them. You may feel otherwise.

I'm planning on signing up when I get home tonight since the stupid work sever blocks Motoseries' page. A buddy of mine should be coming too for his 2nd day out. I'll be in I, he'll be in N.

Does it have working a/c and cruise?

My vacation time is spoken for for this year. I'd love to go if I could.

I've done the drive at least a dozen times in my life, and no, there isn't much of interest between here and the foothills. I usually take 80 and it isn't much better. The only thing worth seeing is downtown Chicago. Once you get into the mountains, you'll never want to leave.

Fixed. We have our share of braindead idiots up here in Cleveland too. I assume it's standard practice to turn your brain off when you turn your engine on around here. In any case, I'm glad to see this isn't an "I got hit" thread.

I've wanted to do one of these for some time now, and have run in I for 3 seasons at Nelsons and BR. But I've hesitated since I haven't been to MO since my very first track day back in spring of 08. Is there anyone at these twilight events that can show me the line or would I be doing everyone a disservice by showing up and possibly running slower than I should be while trying to learn the course?

I'm 5'10" and about 180. I'm hoping to drop that down closer to 170 but I haven't been that light in 10 years. Not much fat, just lots of leg muscle since I've been skiing/snowboarding since I was 3 and bicycling regularly since I was 7. I spent my teenage years racing mountain bikes, so I'm in pretty good shape in terms of endurance. Any more I just get out and spin for an hour on my bike as often as I can. I'm fortunate to be riding distance to the Cleveland metroparks, so I have paved and dirt trails along with hills right there. I'm slacking right now but I try to do 3-4 days a week. Because of this, I rarely get tired at track days unless I get a bad night's sleep the night before. Even then I can take a 2 minute nap at lunch and I'm good to go for the rest of the day. I go to the gym a fair bit through the winter but I hate going there in the summer. If anything I do pushups and situps at home. I also try to stretch a bit. I watch my diet to an extent. I don't eat much fast food and I cook 90% of what I eat myself. I don't stuff myself, or I try not to anyway. I limit pop and took up drinking club soda to get away from the calories, it helps and tastes way better than any diet pop. I'm trying to drink more milk these days too. It's made a surprising difference.

Well, he can keep it in that case!

I didn't think it would be all that bad, but he's a novice rider so there is that confidence issue. I'm hoping to get him out to Beaverun at the end of the month with some working brakes so hopefully that will smooth things out.

I have a friend with an 88 Honda VTR250 and he wants to track it on occation, maybe 2-3 times a season. He came out to Nelson last year for one day and pretty much blew out the brakes, so we're looking for ways to make this bike a little more track usable. The biggest problem is it has 16" wheels f/r. Can you get decent tires in that size? The next problem is the brakes. The 88/89 models have this stooopid internal front disc brake that is puny and doesn't appear to be all that good at cooling itself since it's not out in the air. I think it fades and apparently won't last too long. I know he can get better brake pads, but I wonder if they'll be sufficient. Seeing as they went from usable to shot in one day, we're trying to figure out of it's worth hunting down a 1990 model front end that has a 17" wheel and a larger single external brake rotor. If anyone has tracked one of these before, I'd like to know your experience. And yes, the next step is a better bike, but he's got to scrape up some funds first.

I'd laugh at you for seeing that movie, but then I know exactly what you're talking about! There was a Bol d'Or for a while, but this one has been around a while too http://cleveland.craigslist.org/mcy/3000358167.html

I actually rode mine to work yesterday so I could take the long way home through the metroparks, and had a wonderful ride. It was the first time I've had it out in over a month. My girlfriend likes to ride with me and my Tuono just isn't too passenger friendly, so my SV gets most of the miles.

My first first bike a Kuwahara scooter that I stuck a go-kart engine on along with bicycle apehangers and a banana seat over a boring winter in 1997. I had it through college and had plenty of fun ripping around from house party to house party. I only recently got rid of it when it was sitting outside and my neighbor spotted it and wanted it for drunken drag racing. I figure his fat ass cruising at 30 drunk out of his mind ought to be good entertainment. My first real bike was a 1996 Suzuki Bandit 600 that I picked up in spring of 2004. Great bike, I had lots of fun on it. I sold it to a friend after I bought my first SV, then he sold it to another friend, so it was both their first bike too. About 3 weeks ago my friend got rear ended on it by a fuckwad in a pickup truck and the bike is a total loss. Major bummer to see it go out like that.

I say "Thanks! I bought it myself!"

Nasty. It hasn't been a good week for riders. Two got killed last weekend, a friend of mine got rear ended (he's fine, thanks to his gear, his bike not so much), and now this. We talk about rider education and the need for more of it, but I think we really need to start looking into better driver education. And the hit-and-run is the only good thing about intersection cameras. I hope the bust the driver.

I'm sorry to hear, I wish him the best.

Cool, thanks!

Gotcha. I'll send him a PM, his bike sounded fantastic.

Had a great time as well. New tires sure gives a nicer take on things, plus I felt good and the bike was running nice as it can. One question, there was a guy named George on an 07 Tuono pitted near you guys, anybody know him or know if he's on here? I want to know what his exhaust is since it looked factory stock, but sounded much better than what's on my Tuono.

Bitchin', that'll start the day right. I take the same route, I get on at 480.

Ok cool. I'm hoping to go Friday mostly because I need to bug Todd about a few things but if they close the gate that early then there's no way I'd make it.

8pm? WTF! Who closes gates that early when they know campers are coming?