DerekClouser

Another friendly reminder - ONLY 7 DAYS REMAIN ON PURCHASING T-SHIRTS/STICKERS. https://teespring.com/unofficial-epic-ride2016

In my defense, I DID put the date also :/

Next Saturday , April 23rd. I'm in btw.

Nice, we sold enough t-shirts to guarantee a print. Just in case anyone missed it... t-shirts are available for sale. CLICK HERE FOR T-Shirts

T-SHIRTS ARE OFFICIALLY ON SALE Same as last season - Tshirts are on sale through Teespring. Teespring set the price at $22.99 for each t-shirt and $5.00 for a sticker if you want one. Campaign ends April 27, 2016. This will allow plenty of time for shipping before the event. I'd like to see as many people reppin' these shirts as possible for our group picture. Being as we are moving to only one Epic Ride per year, don't miss out on this years shirt! CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR T-SHIRT OR STICKER Logo (Sticker) Text

I had state 8 do my very first motorcycle rear tire change. I had no clue what I was doing and they charged me $350.00 to change one rear tire and had it for 17 days. If that helps... that was back in 2004 though.

Temperature might be close, but I wouldn't count on precipitation being accurate.

Welcome

Welcome to the board! The key to all those drills is making sure you look through the corners. On the box, look as far through the u-turn as possible and don't go too slow. Speed gives stability. If you are looking as far as you can, the bike will follow.

Welcome. Copley here, maybe we can ride sometime. A couple of us NEO guys ride regularly on weekends down to SEO. Usually about 400-500 miles per ride. Let me know if this interests you. We do avoid 555 though for the most part. Poorly marked and corners can get pretty dirty. So many other roads down there that are just as good and more trusting.

Welcome. As many others have said the MSF course is a huge step in the right direction.

Greetings from NEO. Like @Wolfman1 says, you should come out to the Epic Ride. It's a great time and a good way to get to meet a lot of the forum members.

Welcome. Looking forward to seeing you at the Epic Ride!

Take a look at your body positioning. Usually the direction you lean better, you have better body position. Work on your body position the other direction and make sure you are looking all the way through the corner. I used to be the same way til I worked getting into better positioning entering the corner.

Can't wait to see it fully completed - looks great so far

When I first started riding my dad gave me the greatest piece of riding advice, "The moment you think you are in control of the bike is the moment the bike proves you wrong." Never get overconfident. Always respect the bike and always keep your mind open to learning. Guys on this site, some of which are incredibly fast, will tell you that they still learn new things every year and they are constantly trying to improve. Just take it slow, don't rush the process. Ride within your current limits while gradually stepping outside to learn new things. You are still in the learning of the basics. You need to learn to walk before you can run, just always remember that.

I definitely agree with whaler, if you are going to advertise same day shipping, you'd better ship same day. I had the same issue with MSS in the past, paid more by going to MSS because they promised same day shipping and I needed an item fast ( I honestly forget what the item is now ). They failed to ship and I didn't get the item in time. I called them and they denied, denied, denied. After finally proving my case with tracking information, they did refund my money after I cancelled. If it is indeed the courier's fault, I will accept it and apologize, but that's honestly rarely the case.

I spend more time riding my bikes than detailing em lmfao

I put 9k miles last season. We just didn't connect as much as I would have liked.

Yes, yes it is.

I've been talking about doing it for some time and figured I'd get it done over the winter, but I'm a procrastinator. Stock bike came black with Orange rims/seats. Last year I replaced the seats with a black/white Corbin combo. Really liked the black/white/silver theme, so only thing left to do was fix the rims. Just finished the powder coat and install. Went semi-gloss black. Had to replace the bearings as well, which proved to be a chore, but I like the new look. The new chain is so nice to look at also. Also went with 90° Valve stems which should make me happy trying to get pressures and filling. Before: After:

Definitely can't go wrong with Honda or Yamaha. Suzuki, eh.... lol

You should read Twist of the Wrist II by Keith Code, or you can watch a video rendition of the book on Youtube. It's almost near impossible to turn a bike just by leaning. You must counter-steer to turn the bike. When I watched the video as he was making corners he was doing what you'd expect from a beginner. He's turning the handlebars in the direction of the corner and that's why he went wide several times. Practice counter steering. It's probably the single most important physical skill you'll have on a motorcycle. Keep practicing! Nothing trumps experience on a motorcycle. After enough practice, the basics will become muscle memory. This honestly happened to be as well with Progressive. I called one time to figure out why my rates were so high and they claimed I had an at-fault accident. I was hit by a merging u-haul truck and did minor damage to my right side. The other driver was sited at-fault. When I did my research into disputing this with the insurance company, I found out they actually put both drivers at fault. I think this is just a scam to get higher rates out of people. The worst part it, progressive alleges that they use a 3rd party company to determine at fault drivers of accidents so I had to fight the 3rd party company before having to deal with Progressive. While I'll agree, you need to put the phone in your pocket, I disagree with not bringing it. If something were to happen on the bike, you need to make sure you have access to getting help, especially being a novice rider. I'd strongly recommend avoiding riding with other riders until you've gotten yourself some seat time, especially another novice rider. You are adding another variable that you'll need to focus on. You need to minimize as many distractions as you can, so you can focus on learning the basics. Yes, the experience of riding a motorcycle with another rider is so much fun, but save it for a couple months until you're confident you can handle the basics. State farm is great for sport bikes because they don't do insurance rates off of the bike, but rather the CCs. So a ZX10r, R1, FZ1, Z1000, Ninja1k are all going to priced the same. Responding to the OP: When I watched the video as he was making corners he was doing what you'd expect from a beginner. He's turning the handlebars in the direction of the corner and that's why he went wide several times. Practice counter steering. It's probably the single most important physical skill you'll have on a motorcycle. Experience will give you the confidence and muscle memory will take over eventually. Secondly, when you are starting from a complete stop, slowly let out the clutch and apply a smooth gas. If you fail to give it enough gas and the bike starts to sputter, your reaction should NOT be to pin the throttle as I saw a couple times in the video. Just pull the clutch in a bit more. You'll get the hang of it with some practice. My recommendation to getting the hang of starting from a complete stop is to get to a wide open parking lot. Literally just sit there and practice starting and stopping. Initially when starting, practice getting the bike moving without any gas. You should be able to let out the clutch slow enough that the friction zone will begin to move the bike. Just walk with it and continue to let out the clutch with no gas. If you do it right, you should be able to let the clutch out fully without giving it any gas. This is assuming the gas shutoff at idle on the FZ07 allows it to happen (I've never ridden one)

I always knew you'd come back around to the Kaw. Can't keep away from good quality motorcycles. Although that RSV was incredibly sexy to look at, you can't go wrong with the ninja1k .

There WILL be a t-shirt thread. The longest I can hold the campaign through teespring is 4 weeks. I wanted to get it a bit closer to the actual ride so more people would have the ability to purchase one. You'll probably see the thread pop up in about 1-2 weeks.