Things that happened to me today...

[thehollowmen]

Well, a guy at work challenged me to do lots of little circles with the bars locked left, then locked right, since I'm learning and apparently that's quite a good trick to know... clutch control, ballance, breaking and accelerating just right as not to drop it...

I found that my handlebars wouldn't lock cause my knees were in the way.. that is dangerous. When I went to work he whipped out a spanner and we moved my handlebars for me, so kudos to him for the help.

A question: why don't they set up bikes to people's needs? They should know it is a small bike and it is kinda obvious that I'm a 6'2 guy and the handlebars would have been dangerous like that....

I didn't have time to actually finish circles with handlebars locked after that, but I did see a huge oil spill, followed it and saw two accidents... 10 km latter I found it was a council ute (DCC) parked right beside the road cleanup truck... There was no oil left in it and they had to tow it...

Any hints for driving with oil about? I scrubbed down my tyres, took a long drive afterwards but still noticed a sheen in the water near my tyres when I stopped at the lights... Anybody know a good way to get it off the tyres?

oh yeah, and I'm getting the CBTA forms :) LTSA said nobody in the south island did this course... little do they know... :Oops:

A very productive day for me despite the rain.

[Jackrat]

Why don't who set up bikes like that?
Did you ask for advice when you bought it?
This is a bit of an odd question to me because you bought the thing,so you must of tryed it on for size kind of thing.
I mean to say,mate it's your bike,you bought it,fine tune it to your personal needs.I belive that's what most people do.

[thehollowmen]

Why don't who set up bikes like that?
Did you ask for advice when you bought it?
This is a bit of an odd question to me because you bought the thing,so you must of tryed it on for size kind of thing.
I mean to say,mate it's your bike,you bought it,fine tune it to your personal needs.I belive that's what most people do.

I got it at Uptown motorcycles in Dunedin.

I asked for advice, test drove the demo model and it was great, fitted me like a glove. But when I got mine I think it was set up for someone only five foot tall... and well I've been a bit cautious of going near my bike with a spanner for fear of breaking something but I'm slowly getting more confidant thanks to a lot of help from you guys, and other friends.

Should we post a "simple things to become one with your bike" thread to show newbies what they need / don't need to do? I'm learning all the time so could write a bit and have it proofread before posting it...

[Biff]

Any hints for driving with oil about?

Avoid it. Look out for it, especially diesel. Don't panic if you fail to notice it until you're right on it, unless your mid bend and heaven forbid dragging a knee, in which case your sphincter may tremble slightly. If you are mid-way through a turn with no escape route then you're allowed to close your eyes. (Especially applicable on wet roads). Oh and white lines in the wet, avoid breaking heavily or at all, slow and gentle Master Luke. Wet metal drain covers, also best avoided mid corner. Small children - they make a mess of your fairing and ladies named Trevor who have excessive nose hair etc etc

[thehollowmen]

Avoid it. Look out for it, especially diesel. Don't panic if you fail to notice it until you're right on it, unless your mid bend and heaven forbid dragging a knee, in which case your sphincter may tremble slightly. If you are mid-way through a turn with no escape route then you're allowed to close your eyes. (Especially applicable on wet roads). Oh and white lines in the wet, avoid breaking heavily or at all, slow and gentle Master Luke. Wet metal drain covers, also best avoided mid corner. Small children - they make a mess of your fairing and ladies named Trevor who have excessive nose hair etc etc

Thankies, I'd gathered most that from experiance and readings... but I'm really after a way to clean oil off the road and off your tyres... preferably without damage to either. There were litres of oil on the road today in dunedin where this ute had been and it stuck to my tyres for ages...

But thanks for that, I might have to quote you on it :-P

[FROSTY]

re the setup thing--It is a pain in the ass because its the inexperienced guys that need the bike set up for em the most. I hope that workmate helped ya out.
About the oil thing. whenever I spill oil onto a tyre I use hot soapy water and a scrubbing brush--emphasis is on the HOT part

[Biff]

There's a Highway Patrol guy whose a member of an American biker forum I often frequent in order to wind them up. He claims that in the back of his patrol car he has a large quantity of Coka Cola. Whenever he gets called to an RTA and there's petrol, oil, bodily fluids etc on the road they pour the Coke over it which is supposed to clear it up. Apparently most HP cars in LA carry this stuff. So he says. MR SPUDCHUCKER are you there? Any coments?

Not that I expect you to carry a couple of tinnies under your seat of course - I'm just waffling cos I can. :)

[thehollowmen]

There's a Highway Patrol guy whose a member of an American biker forum I often frequent in order to wind them up. He claims that in the back of his patrol car he has a large quantity of Coka Cola. Whenever he gets called to an RTA and there's petrol, oil, bodily fluids etc on the road they pour the Coke over it which is supposed to clear it up. Apparently most HP cars in LA carry this stuff. So he says. MR SPUDCHUCKER are you there? Any coments?

Not that I expect you to carry a couple of tinnies under your seat of course - I'm just waffling cos I can. :)

I've heard that rumour too, of all the things Coke can do do clean toilets floors and blood up. But I don't think they would use coke because it doesn't disinfect it, only washes it away. They'd need bleach or virkon (trigene is a new one I hear about) to clean it up like we use at work.

And disinfection is a good thing when you're dealing with bodiily fluids.

[Drunken Monkey]

...Any hints for driving with oil about? ....

Keep the power on (smoothly - don't 'gun' it). Stick your heel on the ground and ride through it 'moto-x' styles. I kid you not. It might be a hard thing to over come, but just because your rear wheel is spinning, it doesn't mean you've lost control. As you probably know by now, your bike is more stable at speed - if you try and balance your way through an oil slick at walking pace, you risk tipping over more than just keeping the throttle on smoothly.
The heel & moto-x comment was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the drift. Applies in all low traction conditions.
Some riders may disagree with this methodology - there is an element of suiting to personal riding style.

[Drunken Monkey]

There's a Highway Patrol guy whose a member of an American biker forum I often frequent in order to wind them up. He claims that in the back of his patrol car he has a large quantity of Coka Cola. Whenever he gets called to an RTA and there's petrol, oil, bodily fluids etc on the road they pour the Coke over it which is supposed to clear it up. Apparently most HP cars in LA carry this stuff. So he says. MR SPUDCHUCKER are you there? Any coments?

Not that I expect you to carry a couple of tinnies under your seat of course - I'm just waffling cos I can. :)

They tested some of those Coke 'facts' on Myth busters - some were true, some were not... Snopes (http://www.snopes.com) also has an entire section dedicated to 'coke myths'.

[Biff]

Keep the power on (smoothly - don't 'gun' it). Stick your heel on the ground and ride through it 'moto-x' styles. I kid you not. It might be a hard thing to over come, but just because your rear wheel is spinning, it doesn't mean you've lost control. As you probably know by now, your bike is more stable at speed - if you try and balance your way through an oil slick at walking pace, you risk tipping over more than just keeping the throttle on smoothly.
The heel & moto-x comment was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the drift. Applies in all low traction conditions.
Some riders may disagree with this methodology - there is an element of suiting to personal riding style.

That makes sense, the only thing I'd add (so my police cop/biker/instructor told me) was neither to accelerate nor decelerate - which I guess is exactly what you're saying.

[Krayy]

I've heard that rumour too, of all the things Coke can do do clean toilets floors and blood up. But I don't think they would use coke because it doesn't disinfect it, only washes it away. They'd need bleach or virkon (trigene is a new one I hear about) to clean it up like we use at work.

And disinfection is a good thing when you're dealing with bodiily fluids.

We used to use Coke on the RC car track that I used to race a 1/10th nitro car on at one of the hairpins where there the tarmac was a bit glassy. Gave real good traction.

And how much Coke would you need to cover up a slick anyway? The cop might just as well keep some kitty litter in teh car, which may be better.

[**R1**]

i wouldnt worry about slipy stuff on the road you can only slide as far as the shit your sliding on. never come off on oil or anything, and im starting to enjoy slipping around in the rain.

[F5 Dave]

By the way the first mod you should do on a GN250 is remove the handle bars & throw them in a skip. Buy some lower aftermarket replacements. This will mean the bike is half rideable & this mod will actually mean further to reach to the bars but works for shorties as well. Ask Jaz who did it recently. The bars std just make the bike hard to ride.

The other thing is the forks are way too soft & it scares learner when they brake heavily as the forks plummet. Add some preload spacers (a couple of cm of 20 or 50 cent pieces if you can’t find anything else) &/or 10-20ml extra oil in the forks. This is all easy stuff to do, maybe with the help of a friend, only tip is make sure the front wheel is supported off the ground when you take the fork caps off so you aren’t compressing the springs (a rag over the caps as you take them off will stop them flying anywhere, but there won’t be hardly any pressure on them if the front wheel is off the ground.

[Wenier]

Youll get use to the oil slicks/ diesel ya come across. Jus keep constant power like DM said and youll ride it out sweet as. The revs will jus go up a bit and the back will ride a bit off centre but usually the bike works it shit out for ya.
.

[Skunk]

There's a Highway Patrol guy whose a member of an American biker forum I often frequent in order to wind them up. He claims that in the back of his patrol car he has a large quantity of Coka Cola. Whenever he gets called to an RTA and there's petrol, oil, bodily fluids etc on the road they pour the Coke over it which is supposed to clear it up. Apparently most HP cars in LA carry this stuff.:killingme :killingme
"The next time you're stopped by a highway patrolman, try asking him if he's ever scrubbed blood stains off a highway with Coca-Cola (or anything else). If you're lucky, by the time he stops laughing he'll have forgotten about the citation he was going to give you. "
Check the facts (http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/acid.asp)

[Storm]

Its funny you say that about the GN bars as I had one with a set of chopper style bars and it fitted me like a dream. Must've just fluked being the right size for it I spose

[onearmedbandit]

I left Aarons place last night, and I'm sure there must have been some oil at the end of your strret bro!! I wasn't braking heavy as I approached the intersection, but the front locked and tucked. Before I knew what happened I was off the brakes and she sat upright. As I slowed again I saw a small fresh trail of oil at the intersection. Happened all so quickly.

[**R1**]

I left Aarons place last night, and I'm sure there must have been some oil at the end of your strret bro!! I wasn't braking heavy as I approached the intersection, but the front locked and tucked. Before I knew what happened I was off the brakes and she sat upright. As I slowed again I saw a small fresh trail of oil at the intersection. Happened all so quickly.
sht that no good bro. it had nothing to do with the 0-150kph you were doing on the back wheel standing on the seat trying to stoppy at the end of the street that is only 6mtrs long? did it? na fukn with ya bro there has been tar and sht dwn there since the finnished the street i always slide there but only ever go far enough to end up half way out into the intersection in front :doh: of trafic

[thehollowmen]

By the way the first mod you should do on a GN250 is remove the handle bars & throw them in a skip. Buy some lower aftermarket replacements. This will mean the bike is half rideable & this mod will actually mean further to reach to the bars but works for shorties as well. Ask Jaz who did it recently. The bars std just make the bike hard to ride.

The other thing is the forks are way too soft & it scares learner when they brake heavily as the forks plummet. Add some preload spacers (a couple of cm of 20 or 50 cent pieces if you can’t find anything else) &/or 10-20ml extra oil in the forks. This is all easy stuff to do, maybe with the help of a friend, only tip is make sure the front wheel is supported off the ground when you take the fork caps off so you aren’t compressing the springs (a rag over the caps as you take them off will stop them flying anywhere, but there won’t be hardly any pressure on them if the front wheel is off the ground.

Thanks :-) I'll look into getting those forks sorted. The handlebars now suit me down to a T, unfortunitally though for you guys, it means my next bike will probably be a big cruiser, not a sports tourer.. (I'd like a sports tourer but a 6' wife is a lil cramped).

GN250s aren't too bad, could do with a bit more topend though. Anybody know how to do that?

[thehollowmen]

Keep the power on (smoothly - don't 'gun' it). Stick your heel on the ground and ride through it 'moto-x' styles. I kid you not. It might be a hard thing to over come, but just because your rear wheel is spinning, it doesn't mean you've lost control. As you probably know by now, your bike is more stable at speed - if you try and balance your way through an oil slick at walking pace, you risk tipping over more than just keeping the throttle on smoothly.
The heel & moto-x comment was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the drift. Applies in all low traction conditions.
Some riders may disagree with this methodology - there is an element of suiting to personal riding style.

Thanks :-) I guess the heel works better with small bikes so you don't damage your leg but that seems to be pretty good advice. Many thanks :-)

that's also a good hint for a gravel road I have to travel up a lot...

I'm gonna try and get a copy of the moto-man course to have a watch sometime too, apparently they go over it well.

[Stevo]

So where are you doing the CBTA course? In Chch? I did mine there last week and quite enjoyed it. Best of all I got to practice a couple of wee tricks on my ride back to Picton while all was still fresh in my head.

Get this though. A guy on the course had had his learners for 10 years, but had not bothered to buy a 250 to ride cos of the price. I just said but wouldn't you recoup most of that when you sell it? He just shrugged. Said he has a Duc Monster that he was going to ride cos his Dad was into that bike. Having seen him ride, that afternoon, I worry for his safety though. Looked out of his depth on the GN250 he was on!!! (foreign bike admittedly - cos he hired one from the course). But ummm yeah tis not pretty I wouldn't imagine a relatively novice rider on a Duc????

[thehollowmen]

So where are you doing the CBTA course? In Chch? I did mine there last week and quite enjoyed it. Best of all I got to practice a couple of wee tricks on my ride back to Picton while all was still fresh in my head.



Yes, I will be attending in Christchurch, they're the best and said they'll try and cater it to my time when I go up there ... that's service :-D

[Jackrat]

I got it at Uptown motorcycles in Dunedin.

I asked for advice, test drove the demo model and it was great, fitted me like a glove. But when I got mine I think it was set up for someone only five foot tall... and well I've been a bit cautious of going near my bike with a spanner for fear of breaking something but I'm slowly getting more confidant thanks to a lot of help from you guys, and other friends.

Should we post a "simple things to become one with your bike" thread to show newbies what they need / don't need to do? I'm learning all the time so could write a bit and have it proofread before posting it...

Just got in after another two days on the road,been thinking about you and trying to remember what it was like waaaaaay back then :o
Anyway,shops probably can't set a bike up perfectly for everybody so they go for the average.
As you may of noticed as soon as you change one thing it affects other things.Like you shift the bars an the angle of the clutch an brake levers,mirrors change.So you gott'a move them as well.
You can also change the throw of both hand an foot brake levers as well as the angles.I think as you get better/more experienced at riding you will be moving things around to suit your own style.
My own bike has had three different sets of bars on it this year an I'm still not totaly happy with it.I'll even be replacing the seat in the new year,then the pegs an foot controls a little later on.
Depends on your personality I guess but for some of us it never ends,Choise aye!!
As for oil on the road,if you work it out please let me know.
The last time I had any real exsperience with it I landed on my arse. :yes:
Cheers mate.

[zooter]

By far the most treacherous "road surface" I've come across (aside from black ice ) is wet wooden bridges on the SI West coast. The wood is polished by the vehicle tyres and insanely greasy when wet. Steer a car across it no worries but a completely different story on two wheels.

[WINJA]

IF THERES STILL OIL ON YOUR TYRES YOU CAN WIPE IT OFF WITH PETROL ON A RAG (NOT 2 STROKE PREMIX) , 91 OR 96 OCTANE IS OK. TRY TO USE 100% COTTON RAG AS IT HOLDS THE OIL. RIDE CAREFULL FOR A FEW KM AFTER

[pete376403]

By far the most treacherous "road surface" I've come across (aside from black ice ) is wet wooden bridges on the SI West coast. The wood is polished by the vehicle tyres and insanely greasy when wet. Steer a car across it no worries but a completely different story on two wheels.
they have better ones than that, too. There's a couple with everything you describe plus the added attraction of railway lines. And it's nearly always wet on the West Coast...

[Gixxer 4 ever]

I had the miss fortune of soaking a rear tyre with oil when a main oil line burst on my 85 Gixxer. It is just amazing how far 3 litters of oil can spread. :eek5: Anyway to clean it I did a long hard burn out on my shingle drive way. It saved the tyre. :yes: You can do the same with the brake leaver for the front. Just mind it doesn't turn and dump you off. :Oops: Just find a shingle car park or simalar. :cool: