more random crap.
First of all, Ann has bike pages now too! They're here! I was going to link to it last night with the other random crap, but couldn't remember the URL. My bad. Kim
also has some info about her CB-1 here. See how entertaining we all are?
While I'm on the topic of riders that aren't me: Peter's missing out on the gorgeous Bay Area weather so far this week because his bike won't start. He thinks it might be out of gas, since he parked it in the garage with the tank pretty empty, and it's been a while since he's ridden it (due to the rain). So he's going to go buy a gallon of gas and bring it home and see if that helps matters. Also, I had dinner with some of my old co-workers tonight, and found out that my friend Chai is going to be taking the MSF course at the end of March with our friend Ofir! Never mind that Ofir's been riding his bike everywhere on a 3-year-old learner's permit; I guess he's finally going legal and getting his license. ;) Chai's convinced that I'm going to let him ride the SVS once he has his license, but everyone that knows Chai will probably understand why I laughed at him when he suggested it. ;)
speaking of the SVS.
So after the aforementioned dinner, I went back to work for a few minutes,
but then didn't really want to just go home and sit around all night. So
I hopped on my bike and took the long way over to Peter's, just for the
heck of it. I cut through Stanford University and took a nice pitch-black
twisty road over to Hwy 280, and took my girl on the freeway for the first
time. :) Damn. Like I told Peter, and all you sportsbike riders are going
to laugh at me now, but, wow, I thought that thing was fun to ride in stop
and go traffic during my commute! Going 80mph [Note: I mean 65mph,
the safe and legal freeway speed] with hardly any traffic on a 60-degree
evening through the foothills was absolutely amazing. I kept thinking, "wow,
this is as smooth as sitting at home on my couch!" (well, that's not entirely
true; it was probably smoother, as there were no cats jumping all over me and
biting me while I was on the freeway. This is most likely a good thing.).
It's really hard to explain, but it's just so amazing how smooth and graceful
that bike is. A couple of times, I'd think I was entering a curve in the road
too quickly, but the bike would say, "oh, you'd like to lean? Check *this*
lean out!" and it'd lean and it'd be graceful, and the turn would be perfect.
Absofreakinglutely amazing.
My neck and shoulder pain has almost 100% dissipated too; I started using the tank bag instead of a backpack yesterday, and it makes all the difference. Maybe I'm just getting used to the posture, too, but I haven't noticed any pain at all while using the tank bag to carry jeans for work and other crap. I like that tank bag a lot; it's a Wolfman magnetic (for some reason, I'm incapable of finding a URL for it). It's got a nice map pocket on top (with a clear piece of plastic over it) and lots of room in the main compartment. I carry a pair of jeans, my wallet, cell phone, disc lock, keys, and scarf in there to work every day, and it's not clunky. So there's my plug for my tank bag.
I should point out that my bike is still in break-in, and so I'm not supposed to take it above 5000rpms. That said, I was going 80mph. Under 5000rpms. I love this bike.
I also put gas in it for the first time tonight; the really annoying low-fuel light started blinking at 117 miles. It kept blinking until I filled up, so I guess I won't have to worry about noticing that I'm low on gas (the SVS doesn't have a petcock, so there's no reserve.). The handy-dandy owner's manual says that the light starts blinking when the fuel drops below .8 gallons, and then stays on when it drops below .3 gallons. When I filled up, I put 3.4 gallons in the tank, and it's a 4-gallon tank (damn CA emissions, everyone else gets 4.2 gallons). So that sounds about right. I can definitely live with 120 miles to a tank of gas, though it'll be interesting to see how that changes once I'm out of break-in and am using the entire rpm range.
I had thought that I needed to change the oil for the first time after 100 miles, but upon reading the owner's manual (what a concept!), I see that it's actually after 600 miles or one month, whichever comes first. This weekend, I'll have owned the bike for a month, but due to 2 weeks of rain, I haven't been riding it every day. So I think I can put off the first service for another week or two. It basically includes changing the oil and oil filter, tightening bolts, adjusting the idle speed, throttle play, and carburetors, lubing and inspecting the chain, checking the steering, checking the brakes and pads, and tightening the chassis nuts and bolts. I think I can handle all of that. :)
OK, time for bed for poof. The nice weather's supposed to continue tomorrow, so I'll be doing some more freeway riding! Yay!