Finally: two wheels GOOD!!

[Rifleman]

Well Well, Sean......nice to see someone grabbing the reins and starting the two wheel lifestyle.....way back in the 80's I had a neighbour who bought a new GL500 and didn't like it as much as the bike he had just replaced - he gave me a key and open invitation to "ride it any time to put some miles on it".....was never a huge fan either, since I was more of a sporty bike rider.....now my Sport Tour Bandit keeps me happy. To that end, I just did a tankful of gas with mlg in mind and refueled at 453.3 km on 19.26 L of 89 octane.....in Cdn, that's about 62-63 mpg.....not bad for an '06 with over 100,000km on the clock. Best advice I can give to you is this - no matter what happens when you ride, there is only one person who MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY to keep you alive....YOU ! There is no substitute for this ! Your fault or not, you will lose in any situation, so don`t let it happen....anticipation, constant scanning for threats against you, and most of all, if you have a choice where you drive in traffic, leave more space for yourself do to your best to avoid situations before they give you problems......Ride safe my friend and enjoy !

[Fozzer]

...now relay all that good biking advice to Ozzy, Ken...

...'coz he worries me a bit!... ...!

Paul.... ...!

[beaky]

Finally got her home from the hospital the other day... all parts and labor came to about $750. The mechanic put a pair of shinko 712s on and balanced the wheels, replaced the front fork seals, pulled the carbs off and cleaned them (they were full of rust that had trickled out of the tank over time), installed an inline filter on the bulk hose, tuned and synced carbs, replaced the rear brake shoes and master cylinder seal, put a beefier battery in (free of charge as I had just bought the previous battery from him), and double-checked my electrical work. He also got the tired old rear monoshock to hold air using an aerosol sealer made specifically for shocks.
He didn't get to properly road test the machine, but his gut feeling was that the transmission, charging system, etc. were solid. He also said the engine was quite sound.

I finally verified all this today...

But the day I got the bike home, before putting the fairing, etc. back on, i had to see if I could negotiate the driveway without mishap. It was a lot easier than I thought- as you can see, it's not very encouraging for anything other than a dirt bike or dual sport. A little "trail braking", guard the clutch, DO NOT STOP... it was easy.




I asked the landlord for an extension on the rent to free up some cash, and went and got a decent helmet and jacket.
Had the day off today, and was thinking about riding to work tomorrow, so I put most of the goodies back on (except lower fairing parts and saddlebags), and hit the road. Again, even with the fairing and trunk making the machine a bit top-heavy, the driveway was a snap... partly because the landlord and his son were adding some fill to it even as i headed out, LOL.

My plan was to go about 4 miles down a local 2-lane to the post office to check my PO box... all was going well until I noticed the power was fading. Then it stopped, abruptly. I knew the fuel was fairly low, so I'd left the petcock lever in the Reserve position...hmmm... peered into the tank and could see fuel.... hmmmm. I pulled the bulk line off the petcock and saw only the faintest trickle of fuel. D'oh!
Luckily, the landlord's wife was home, and they had a jerry can full of fuel out behind their house. By the time she pulled up where I had been stranded, it was too late to go to the post office, so I decided to head west through town to my mechanic, so he could look at the speedo cable, which had just broken off at the wheel.

From there, I went back through town, hit the state highway for about 10 miles, rode up another scenic 2-lane for about 25 miles north, doubled back and took a different route to town, got a bit lost, wound up back on the interstate and headed west to the next exit about 10 miles west of town... then took more local roads back home. A squall is threatening the area, so I will sit here a while and probably head out again.
No idea how many miles it was with the disabled odometer, but I could have just kept riding forever, it was so much fun!!!
Also some doses of hard reality:
- These GL500s like to rev high, and between 35 and 50 mph it will seem like there's something wrong with it. No combination of gear and throttle seems appropriate. But once it gets into 5th gear and you pass 60 mph or so, it becomes a different motorcycle... IF you let it scream. Redline is 10K.... I had it at about 9K at one point today. Smooth and responsive to added throttle, and coolant temp stayed right in the middle the whole time.
-Wind gusts are scary on the interstate at speed, but a frame-mounted fairing (as opposed to fork-mounted) makes it workable.
-A LOT more lean is needed on sharp bends at 50 than at 30...
-I really have to work on remembering to turn off my turn signal.
-One must be very careful with clutch and throttle when downshifting to 1st... which of course only happens when one thinks one is going to 2nd.
-All the "cagers" are not necessarily trying to kill you, but their inattention and haste equals the same thing.

Anyway... as anticipated, I am totally hooked. I could kick myself for not throwing a leg over a motorcycle years ago, but I am already over that regret.

Here's my baby... still needs some odds and ends, but she is running like a top, and I am very happy.

[beaky]

Foz, I have no immediate plans to venture into NYC on the bike, but it may happen eventually.
I'd rather do what I did today- exploring the wonderful roads here in NW New Jersey.
Soon enough I'll be sharing some onboard pics or video, but to get an idea, look on Google Maps (or better yet Google Earth) at the area north of Hackettstown, NJ (where I now reside). I spent a lot of time on Rt. 206 and 46 today, with a late-afternoon foray up around the Picatinny Arsenal... farms, old forest, quaint little towns... and miles and miles of mild twistys, over hill and dale! And I barely scratched the surface... there's the loop around Greenwood Lake, Seven Lakes Drive up by Bear Mountain, the Delaware Gap, Storm King Highway up along the Hudson... and of course the vast wilderness of the Adirondacks, full of broad highways among breathtaking mountains. A little farther NE there's Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine. I could spend a year riding around the northeast, having a blast, before heading south to see some nice roads.
Very peaceful for the most part, except for getting forced over one lane on Interstate 80 by some dumbass, then very nearly dropping the bike on my last trip up my dirt and gravel driveway (got to remember: don't try it in first gear, and when in doubt on dirt, add power!).
Frankly, I was almost disappointed today- so many opportunities for someone to turn left into me or take me out at a red light, but nobody did it!