Motorcycle Forum / General / Motorcycles / March 2009

My little Honda Shadow has, as best I can tell, a combined spring and shock
thingie.  You put a spanner tool in and are able to rotate a ring on it.  It
has 7 positions.  The upper end is connected to the frame, and the lower end
to the swingarm.

My little Honda Shadow is only rated for 360 lbs.  Since I weigh about 240,
that restricts me to dating anemic supermodels.  No luck so far there.
Questions:
#1)Do the larger bikes have higher limits (500 lbs, I'd hope)?

Me n the Mrs will be heading out soon. I'm just waiting for
her to finish getting ready and we'll be on our way. In the meantime
I thought some of you folks who have bikes stored for the winter
might enjoy........We'll be leaving our house in Jacksonville on the

These are both pieces of news from a trucking standpoint, but both will
likely have future implications for motorcycles.   Grote and Trucklite
are two of the three lighting companies (VSM is the third) that I deal
with on a daily basis.

I am looking at 10+ motorcycle camping/roadtrips on my calendar for summer,
and it's time for a new bag. The ST1100 doesn't haul as much crap as the
OldWing.
Small stuff size is obviously a requirement with bike camping, so that makes

http://www.terrafugia.com/aircraft.html
Reading the specifications, I noticed that "rotation speed" was 70
knots (80.5 mph) and wondered how that compares to the take off speed
of a C150 or a C172.

Over the last X years, the steady increase in engine size has just
gotten silly IMO. My first big bike 20 years ago was a V65 Magna -
nowadays an 1100 is a middleweight at best when there are a whole
bunch of scoots with 1600-2000cc engines. Oh yeah - then there's the

Looks like the "tail-pipe lady" out of Agora Hills (Fran Pavley-D) is at it
again.
California Senate Bill SB 435:
Thumbnail sketch would be motorcycles 2000 and newer would be required to be

I'm bored.  My Honda Shadow doesn't go fast enough, but I love the fuel
economy.  I miss the Katana I owned briefly.
Looking at this year's GSX650F, it looks like they made the seating posture
a bit more upright.  Might work for me to kill the boredom.

OK, I *think* I want to try my hand at mounting my own tires. After doing a
bit of digging, I've come up with what I think are the tools I'll need to do
the job.
This: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=34542

We're looking for a different route for this year's spring ride.  We
leave from the northern suburbs of Atlanta and usually head north.  
Last spring, we rode the Blueridge Parkway from start to finish, then
toured Virgina.  We came back through Tennessee and North Carolina.  It

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/dayinpictures?f=/g/a/2009/03/23/dip.DTL&o=3
&type=dayinpictures#

The release to work told me it was ok to ride the bike again (like that
stopped me!).  LOL!!  Forecast for the weekend was sunshine and highs
in the 70s where I was headed down south.  As an added bonus, I worked
an extra 4 hours Thursday and we're not allowed overtime, so I was ...

looking for an alternative to driving the truck to the train station.
When I see a scooter parked in the lot, I can't help but see how easy
it would be for 2 guys to lift it into a pickup and be gone. They
aren't that heavy.