Posts Tagged "Motorcycle"
40,000kms
I just hit a major milestone on my motorcycle: 40,000km.
Not all of those miles are mine since I’m the 4th owner, but I got it at just under 30,000 so I still got over 10,000km under my belt on this bike.
Thinking back over those miles, I’ve mostly traveled the same roads over and over. I haven’t gone on any overnight road trips and I’ve never gone over 500km in a single day.
For the past two years I’ve been intending to go on an extended road trip, but either the timing or weather never seemed to work out right.
This bike has been through a lot. Last summer, it was stolen after I had to abandon it on the side of Hwy401 when the battery died. It was recovered two weeks later, but I had to have it re-keyed because the ignition and gas cap had been drilled out.
I’ve also replaced the mirrors twice and now need to find a replacement front fender.
But it still runs great! The 749cc engine size maximizes power while minimizing insurance so it’s a fun ride.
Read MoreMotorcycle & Gear
Riding a motorcycle is one of my favorite hobbies. I had a 2004 Suzuki Katana 600 for a few years until selling it to buy an engagement ring for the stunning woman who is now my wife. I’ve gone the last few years without riding because weddings are expensive and the economy wasn’t great for a sales guy last year.
I was finally able to get back on a motorcycle for the first time since July 2008 earlier this month.
I decided to go with a 2001 Honda Shadow.
This is a very different bike from my previous experience. First of all, the biggest difference is that this is a cruiser style bike compared to the sport-touring nature of the Katana. That means a very different riding position, which is far more comfortable for a longer ride. You’re sitting up with your legs in front of you instead of crawling forward to control the bike. I had a bit of a hard time on my first ride because I kept trying to put my feet in the position I was used to and there is nothing there except the exhaust.
The engine on the Honda Shadow is a 745CC compared to the 600CC on the Katana. What I’ve noticed so far is that there is more torque with the shadow on the low end than the Katana. The Shadow doesn’t really feel like it wants to go that fast whereas the Katana was really just warming up at around 7,000-8,000 RPM. There is no tachometer on the Shadow so I can only go by sound and feel, but I would guess it’s happiest around 3,000-4,000 RPM.
Here is a great review of my exact model of Honda Shadow Spirit 750.
With the Katana, I would find myself up around 140-170km/h without even thinking about going fast. I was constantly reminding myself to slow down. That’s one of the big reasons I styed away from the sportier style of bikes this time around.
The Shadow is happiest at 80km/h in 4th gear or 100km/h in 5th gear. Not that it isn’t capable of moving quickly, it just has an obvious preference for certain speeds. This make for a great ridin experience along country roads or winding hills, Which is more in line with what I want to do anyway.
As for the rest if the gear, I am riding with a Shoei helmet, Alpine Stars Gloves, and a Joe Rocket jacket and boots.
Helmet:
I fell in love with this helmet when I first saw the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. For some reason, it was pretty hard to find this helmet. I looked for 3 years before finding it at the Toronto International Motorcycle Show. This is my second helmet, both of which have been Shoei brand. This time around I went with the Shoei Multitec flip up, mostly because I like the flexibility of being to ride with an open face on occasion. It also doesn’t hurt that it makes the helmet much easier to get on and off. I love how quiet it is, even at high speeds. Overall, very well worth the investment.
Gloves:
The Alpine Stars SP2 gloves are made for racing and have all of the necessary safety features that you would want if you were to be in a high speed crash. I don’t necessarily need this much protection for what I’ll be doing, but I figure it can’t hurt. It has extra thick padded leather and carbon fibre knuckle protectors and is pre- formed to make it easy for you to grip the controls of your motorcycle. The black on black colour is perfect for bringing this sport glove to a cruiser.
Jacket:
I bought this jacket when I first got the Katana. You will immediately notice that it is black and blue, which is a bit of a fashion faux pas on a cruiser, but I like the jacket so much that I don’t care one bit! It has removable ventilation areas, extra padding and built in armor to protect the elbows and the spine.
The great thing about motorcycle gear is that the more you wear it, the more comfortable it gets. I need to work the gloves in a little more but, everything else is perfect.
I’m planning to chronicle my rides this summer on the blog but I haven’t decided on a format quite yet. I think it will end up being a table as an extra page in the main navigation.
As a good friend once told me, remember to keep the rubber side down.
Read MoreCraigslist vs Kijiji
I’ve just been through a long and exhaustive search before deciding to buy a second hand 2001 Honda Shadow Spirit with some beautiful after-market accents.
I’ve been keeping my eye on the market through the end of last season and the winter. Every week I check the usual suspects: autotrader; craigslist; kijiji, eBay, etc.
I’ve been keeping up with what asking prices have been and I’ve even gone so far as to throw out a few low ball offers to see what the price flexibility has been. At first, I started with much less focus but thanks to Kijiji I was able to narrow my search considerably.
First of all, I want to explain that Autotrader.ca has almost become useless to me. Their new search is not intuitive and most of their listings are over-priced dealer ads. Also, their new photo gallery loads slowly and with an irritating pixelated preview page. I had purchased my last bike on Autotrader but this time around I gave up after only a few visits.
Until now, I have always conducted and classified transactions via craigslist. I’ve bought and sold tickets to events and goods.
For some reason I’ve always thought that craigslist was the easiest choice and I’ve been able to accomplish whatever I wanted so I haven’t broadened my horizons.
Since I was buying without a schedule I had the time to really look in a lot more detail than ever before and what really impressed me was the forced added detail in the kijiji posts.
Kijiji allowed me to drill down into much better quality information about the bikes I was considering. I could instantly find mileage, engine displacement, manufacturer, price, etc. I could also sort and filter by each of those same values.
Craigslist only forces a poster to choose a broad category and search by term.
The one great thing about Craigslist us that it is where many people instinctively turn for their classified needs. The net result is a lot of ads for the products that you are searching for at a variety of qualities and price points.
Presumably because of the added effort to get set up, you get fewer listings on Kijiji, but generally higher quality of goods. It seems to me that attention to detail in creating a posting eliminates some of the posters who have the attitude “fuck it, there’s an easier way” and tend not to take care of their belongings as well as others.
Hands down, I am a convert to Kijiji.ca. Really, my only real gripe is that there is no connection between their .ca site and their .com site. I actually had to go back and google “Kijiji Canada” because they didn’t have an easy link from the .com site for me to follow after going direct to the site via typing in what I expected to be the address.
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