motociclista

I can't believe nobody has mentioned the Ninja 1000. If you "absolutely love sport bikes," then I think you should consider the Ninja 1000 with the saddlebags, especially if you're considering a track day. It will be sportier on the street and way better for a track day than a heavier Concours 14 or FJR1300. It also happens to be more powerful and lighter than a VFR800 Interceptor and generally less expensive, too, both to buy and to maintain (no VTEC). It's a sport bike made reasonably comfortable. The 2017s and later have an IMU so you get angle-sensitive ABS and traction control. 2014-2016 get you the better bags and some engine improvements. I have not ridden the new ones with the IMU but I did get a day-long test ride on the previous edition.

The ownership does seem willing to listen to requests and suggestions and spend money, so I'm hoping they'll be able to improve the spectator experience, within the confines of the property's limitations. Saturday attendance seemed noticeably larger than Sunday's. Definitely a lot of people from Ohio. Here's my Saturday and Sunday coverage at RevZilla.

Wow, I suddenly feel like I had a real uneventful year compared to some of you guys. Good for you for coming out the other end stronger. For me, probably 16,000 or so miles of riding (but way too much of that is riding to Philadelphia and back for work), two track days, and the only real milestone was my old Speed Triple rolling over 100,000 miles. Good luck for a great 2017 everyone.

If you have a good dealer/mechanic, then they'll tell you for sure, but it sounds like it could be the stator. I only say that because it's a known weak point with those engines. Lots of people have had stators burn up and mine crapped out on the way home from MotoGP last year and left me alongside I-70 with mosquitoes sucking my blood while I waited for roadside assistance to scare up a tow truck on a Sunday night. Glad you made it home and good luck.

That filing may well be a few years old, actually. http://www.motorcycle.com/features/sorry-but-this-probably-isnt-a-supercharged-600cc-kawasaki-r2.html

They're gone.

See my post in the "gearless riders" thread. They're not great, but they're free.

Thanks, durk. I have similar respect for those (such as math teachers) who didn't get a C in statistics in college. And I did that even after getting an A in calculus. Ask me anything about calculus today, and I'm basically done after telling you how to spell the word.

I found the person I was thinking of. @the_silverfox She did a lot of Iron Butt rides, but it looks like she moved to California a couple of years ago.

I'm trying to remember her name, but there was a woman who had 200k+ on an FJR, as I recall.

No worries. I realize there are a few people here who have more than 200k on a bike. My mileage has always been spread out over too many bikes (which is a good thing, in a way) but this one I've kept long enough to get to six digits. I wish I knew how many total miles I had on bikes, but I really couldn't honestly come up with a close estimate.

If you could see the bike it wouldn't be a "teaser" video. It would be, you know, something USEFUL.

It turns out that if you ride regularly and you keep a motorcycle long enough, you eventually put some significant miles on it. My 1997 Triumph Speed Triple has rolled over 100,000 miles. It spent nearly two years in storage, getting little mileage, and for almost all its life it shared duty with other bikes in the garage. But for a while it was my only bike, and for a long time it was my primary transportation. So eventually I rolled over the odometer without really trying. I've owned it since it was a year old, and now it's clear we'll be together til death do us part. I think it still looks decent from a distance (at least the right side). Anyone who's interested in more details can find them at my web site.

I ran intermediate last year and my bike has flush mounts up front similar to yours. I was told there was no problem with just taping them over instead of removing them. FWIW. I don't know about your rear signals, though. There are lots of others here who can give you way more definitive info than I can, as snot mentioned above.

I'm going to agree with Isaac's Papa. Without more information (is this going to be a two-up bike also, or just something for fun runs?), it's hard to make a good recommendation, but the idea of getting a capable bike with non-sportbike ergonomics seems to make sense to me if it's just a one-up bike. For two, yeah, an FJR or Concours 14 or VFR 1200 would be a good choice, but for one, why not something that's fast and fun and lighter but still not going to break your back? He suggested a Ducati. Personally, I'd lean toward something like a Street Triple, or maybe the aforementioned FZ-09. Edit: OK, soon as I post, you respond that it could be a two-up bike. So nix the Street Triple or FZ.

And he later admitted that if the photographer had said "no," he would have taken it anyway.

SOLD.

I am selling this for my mother. She is no longer physically able to ride. She owned this bike since 2005 and as you can imagine, it was not ridden hard. It's not in perfect condition, by any means, but it is ready to roll and would make a good bike for a new rider or anyone who's just short on cash, short on experience or short of inseam. Just under 6,000 miles. New Yuasa battery installed yesterday. If you're not familiar with the bike, it has an air-cooled single, single disc front and drum rear brakes, and 16-inch front tire and 15-inch rear tire for the "fat tire cruiser" look (scaled down, of course), so the handling is not too chopperish. Weighs about 330 pounds and the seat height is under 28 inches, so it's easy to handle. Clean title. Ready to ride. It's not in perfect condition, but I know it has not been down in the last 11 years my mother has owned it and I see no evidence it has ever been crashed. Somebody did do something stupid and gouged up the rear fender, then did a sloppy job with touchup paint. See photo below. It looks like the first owner probably loaded a bunch of crap on the rear seat and it scratched the fender. One plastic tab on the battery side cover is broken, but it stays on anyway. Other than that, just the usual wear and tear for a 13-year-old bike. Mechanically, it is all stock. Located in Bexley (Columbus). I am not responsible for the gouges or the touchup paint!

Hey Al. There are two bolts that hold the small bracket to the can. Both are loose and spin freely, so I can't tighten or loosen them and I can't see inside to tell how they are supposed to be fastened. I can't take the can apart without probably destroying it. My only concern is that the bolts will eventually fall out completely and my exhaust will go tumbling down the road behind me, possibly causing a 15-car pileup that I'll be sued for. With the age and condition of the bike, I'm just looking for a simple way to keep riding it. If I find a replacement exhaust cheap, I'll get one, but I thought welding the bracket to the can might be a simple solution. Alternatively, I've thought about making a hanger strap to wrap around the can and bolt to the footpeg bracket. It's a stock exhaust from a 1997 Triumph Speed Triple, if that's helpful.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I skipped welding class in high school so I was going by what a mechanic acquaintance told me in terms of brazing being possible. My magnet says the can is aluminum, motocat. I have been poking around for a cheap exhaust. When a bike is five years old, you can find stock exhausts for free everywhere. When it's 19 years old, not so easy. I'll figure out something.

I am looking to repair the exhaust on an old bike. The can is aluminum and the bracket is steel. This is a 19-year-old bike with 97,000 miles that I only keep for sentimental reasons, so beauty is not important. I just don't want the exhaust to fall off, which it's about to do. Anyone have a suggestion for a shop I can take such a small job to? Anyone do this kind of work at home and want to help out? I'm not asking for a freebie. I'm willing to pay for your time.

I agree with the idea of checking the air box first. This same thing happened to me a few years ago. Bike wouldn't rev above 5,000 but idled fine. My clue was that in a pinch I had put in some old gas from a can not long before. There was debris in that gas and it clogged the filter on the fuel pump. Basically, the fuel pump could not flow enough fuel to run above 5,000 rpm. Changed the filter and it ran like new. I'm no mechanic, but that's just another thing to consider.

Another one I enjoyed is the classic "Obsessions Die Hard" by Ed Culberson, though I think it's getting harder to find. He did the adventure-touring thing before adventure-touring became a thing. Thanks, DRC. I'm honored to be mentioned in any of the company on this thread, and probably not worthy.

I have the same Alpinestars boots for track use, but my old street boots were shot and I wanted something new for street use this year. I wanted something waterproof that was really protective but without the track features I don't need on the street, like toe sliders. It was a longer search than I expected, but since I'm doing a lot of work for RevZilla these days, I had access to some expert advice (OK, actually all RevZilla customers have access to their expert advice), and I ended up with the Dainese TRQ-Tour Gore-Tex boots. They're highly protective and waterproof but still reasonably comfortable. I wrote a full review of them here if you want all the details.

I have been a member 23 years, so I'm getting close to Life membership. I was an AMA employee for seven years. So I know the association inside out. I have used the roadside assistance twice, the most recent time being the Sunday night of MotoGP weekend on my way home from Indianapolis. I don't have much to compare it to, but I think it's comparable to other services. It's not like the AMA does it itself. It's farmed out to a national company. As for relevance, fewer and fewer people think so. This story is now a little out of date, but it's my attempt at an objective look at the steady losses in membership and money the AMA has suffered under the current president. They've lost 28 percent of the membership, as of the time I wrote that last year. After I left as an employee in 2008, I wrote an article for Motorcycle Consumer News, outlining a lot of reasons, mostly demographic, why I thought the AMA would see a membership decline. When I asked the president how he would handle those challenges, he said they didn't matter, because membership was going to soar because of the great things they were doing. It hasn't exactly played out that way. I don't know what the future holds for the association.