I feel this must be coming for the electric guitar industry too. The instruments don’t wear out for most casual players. For my other hobby this isn’t true: cycling. Shit wears out easy too quick there.
Almost had a disaster today. Was cruising down the street doing maybe 45 and started to slow down, only to pull the front brake lever all the way to the handlebar…with no slowing down. Someone (yours truly) failed to properly torque the brake bleeder valves after replacing the brake fluid the other day. Even worse, there’s no way home that doesn’t involve a 50+ mph road. Fortunately, I was only a few miles from home, and when I first started riding, I used that rear brake A LOT, so I nursed it home, refilled the brake system and bled it, again, and triple-checked the torque on the bleeders (yay for buying the full quart of brake fluid, well in excess of need). Never seen or heard of that happening before. Checked the rest of the bolts from the last week as well, just to be safe.
But now I’m a little skittish about the first trip through the canyon this weekend. Front brakes can be pretty important through there.
ETA: Don’t know why this popped up as a poster-specific reply. Guess I post as well as I torque.
Plus you need a new seat cover! That and a stuck throttle are the 2 worst feelings possible while (potential still) upright on a bike!
A fair number of riders never use their rear brakes so loss of front brakes will involve a delay in reaction time to use the rear brakes.
When riding in a straight line, practicing the use of only the front brakes, to lockup (in the days before ABS), was a good exercise I learned from one of the old motorcycling magazines. Of course, once that front wheel locked up you had to immediately release the brake otherwise you’ll be picking gravel out of your teeth and chin. And knees and elbows.
I became surprised at how big the capacity was for that front wheel braking. It is a good way to learn how much braking force is available from that front tire and brake.
Totally with you there. The brakes on modern sport bikes are so powerful you only need 1 or 2 fingers to work them well.
I used to be really good at braking, back when I did a lot of track days. I could brake just enough to float the back wheel an inch or so over the track. Not sure i could do that now.
That is excellent. That’s perfect practice. I was a daily commuter and never did a track day. I never even got close to doing it that well.
But I did do it well enough to have ridden 250,000 miles with no accidents, so I’ll take that. Still, I wish I’d done some track days to improve my skills.
That’s an awesome riding record.
I’m just wrapping up a long weekend in Austin, watching the American round of the MotoGP race series. The racing and all the related events were fun, but the thing I’m taking away from all of this is something I had hoped not to happen.
Because there was plenty of time to kill each day, and because all the manufacturers had bikes there to either demo or at least sit on, I checked out a lot of bikes. And now I want one, after I thought I had put that part of my life to bed.
I was so envious watching the groups of bikers in traffic, converging on the track in ever greater numbers. That used to be me, heading to Laguna Seca or Pacific Raceways. Ugh, I do not need this itch.
A few pix from this morning. I haven’t even begun to sort through my Friday and Saturday pics.
There’s guy in Western Australia riding the same 2014 CB500F I do.
I’m 77 with 60 years riding, he’s 87!!! and has put 304,000 km on his.
Scratch that itch. There are a lot of good used bikes out there.
Well. I appreciate the push. I think. And I know what I’d get, either the new Ducati 698 Mono, or the KTM 690 SMC-R (my last bike). But when I gave up on riding a couple years ago, it was because I had a long-standing, non-improving shoulder injury that was made much worse with riding.
I have no idea if that shoulder pain will simply return. But worse, I basically told my wife I thought I was done with riding. She hated but tolerated that I rode. I’d hate to go back to her and say, “Guess what?”
I have some catching up to do. Maybe I estimated how many miles I’ve ridden in my life, but I’m not going to look. I think I have about 140,000 miles on two wheels.
I have a long lasting shoulder injury from a come off on green moss…that was a bugger of ride home.
Torn rotator cuff on my right arm and had to lift the arm with my left hand to get on the throttle/brake.
Not reparable short of baseball pitchers millions so gradually improved over time …rarely think about it.
I’d stay off KTM for obvious reasons.
My partner encourages me to ride even when sometimes I think to hang it up - she knows I come back joie de vie as well as exhausted and had finally accepted yeah it’s serious exercise riding the twists on the Gillies range.
Which arm is the injury. I had carpal tunnel in both hands and fixed the left one so I could clutch but put 100,000 km on Burgman 650s which are full automatic. So much fun in the twists with the Power Button on. eCVT and you can ride hard always knowing you are in the power curve.
Talking High praise for 650 Burgman
Out for my Sunday ride down my favourite windy mountain road when I was over taken dangerously close by an R1
So the red mist came down and I was OFF. Power button on I caught him in 3 corners and over took him on the 5 sweeper scraping my knee and the centre stand.(I was wearing my leather pants with knee sliders as I had Just been down the same road on my 916 duke about 2 hours ago, and then went home to get the wife to go for a ride with her on her cruiser)
Well he was so shocked that he waved me over and said that he never thought that in his widest dreams he would be overtaken buy a scooter. He took a photo of the bike after I gave him all the details about it he left still shaking his head.
I know what you are all thinking an R1 against a 650 Burgman how is that possible well there a lot of factors that need to be looked at
1 I know the road like the back of my hand
2 all the corners are no more than 45ks
3 short straights
4 I have done track days on my Burgman and have a racing back ground
I am always in awe of what this bike can do
The wife caught up with me and just shook her head and said you just had to do it didn’t you
well I said a challenge was thrown down and had to be answered
High praise for 650 Burgman | Suzuki Burgman USA Forum
They even raced them in Italy.
I have a longstanding knee injury that makes riding the YZF-R1 very uncomfortable. But as soon as it’s reliably dry, I’ll be on it again.
This is my fav motovlogger Itchy Boots
In Yemen… 
Not riding but I love her commentary and taking me places I could not or would not go. 
I watched the first 10 minutes. That was fascinating, thanks for that @MacDoc .
Glad you enjoyed it. Worth following and going back to her earlier seasons.
Hard worker and fun. Great ambassador for riders.
She does all the video and editing herself …no support crew.
Very cool. I love her story. ➜ Itchy Boots ■
She has also turned into a very good rider.
When she broke her 250 on the Kalahari Desert race I was very impressed - also the Sani Pass.
That 250 is sitting in a museum in South Africa.
I’m in awe of how she handles sand.
Long journey from riding back roads of India on an RE 8 seasons ago.
Less than happy news, but maybe of interest to all who ride or rode: