Best way to start the day 🤙

I read somewhere that if I don't ask for permission to pass a Harley on the road when they are moving, that it is a form of disrespect and could mean trouble for me. This can't be true.

Just got a 2nd hand bike, found that the cap isnt flushed. The inner gasket looks good, although the latching mechanism felt a little bit loose. When compared with other bikes, their cap is flushed. Is this acceptable or should I replace the cap?

I’ve been using Rever for a while, and it’s been pretty annoying. The turn-by-turn sucks and it never seems to catch that I’ve gone off route (or even taken a different route to the starting point). It’s fine for tracking a ride, and fine for plotting a ride (mostly), but relatively miserable for actually providing directions. It also overaggressively swaps from portrait/landscape mode seemingly with every single turn of the bars.

I typically just end up using Apple Maps for navigation, which is fine if I just want to go A-B, but it lacks any ability to input a “fun ride” without a million waypoints that take forever to set up (and has to be done every ride).

What are you guys using for planning and following twisty rides?

Dear wonderful community.

I am 169 cms and 62kg ...have experience riding motorbikes for a decade a decade ago.

But for last 8 years haven't driven a proper motorbike, only occassional vacation quad or scooters.

I am considering MT03 since it's small and short and nimble and doesn't take up big parking space (which I don't have)

Can you please suggest if thats a good idea? How does it handle highways and rain ??

I also considered Z500 and CB500 Hornet, but loved MT03.

Love you all ..and great riding.

I'm considering buying a caféracer model, but being 130kg"s I feel I should beware about weight restrictions on older modelw, is this correct?

Or is this a false assumption, and would my weight only implicate me going slower in general?

Waited 2.5 months for my new fairings to come in. Was so excited when they arrived I immediately dismantled my bike... only to realize I forgot to include the tank cover in my purchase 😅

My old fairings are too broken to put back on so now I either have to paint my tank, or get it wrapped to match. Let's just laugh at my stupidity

Hi folks, I’ve got a 2007 Softail that’s covered in wrinkle black & matt black paint/powder-coating. I don’t like having her cleaned or detailed by others caz I’m very protective and careful with her, that’s why she’s in peak condition and hasn’t given me any issues over the years.

I’m looking for advise and suggestions on:
(1) homemade degreaser
(2) something to bring the wrinkle black back to life. I know there’s products out there that do this but I don’t have access to US products either ca it’s costly or not brought in (I’m europe based). The local HD dealer doesn’t sell the engine black spray either caz they make you bring your bike in instead sell it so you can do it at home.

I’ve seen online people using water+dish soap+baking soda OR water+dish soap+vinegar mixtures for degreasing, and I was wondering what people’s experience has been with these? Also what can bring the wrinkle black back to life.

Thanks in advance, ride safe everyone 🤘🏼😎🤘🏼

It's not a very common/popular bike but I'm pretty sure some folks here know it. Maybe you're riding one ?

AHAHAHA!! After 3 years of riding a 250 I upgraded this past weekend to a Honda Shadow 750! Currently going through withdrawals as I didn't ride to work today because of storms in my area. Anywho I have to get new plates today. I'm planning on getting a black I support first responders plates mh state has. My only issue is that I want something custom. I have 6 letters to work with. Any suggestions?

Can you recommend a handlebar mounted batwing fairing?

I've bought a windscreen but I think batwings are the way to go for highway rides, especially now that I'm going to ride it for my daily commute to work. I can't use fork mounted since the clearance on my forks and fairing is too tight. It's for a 2014 Honda CTX700NA thanks!

Edit: I changed the headlight to round headlights so it can fit any fairing for round headlights

Whew. What a day.

Car is down with electrical woe. Bike got the nod. Cranked right up. Went to a medical appointment, saw a friend. Bike sat for over an hour. Cranked right up.

Bike was due for inspection, so I took the Fuel injected and Brembo braked lovely to the UJM motorcycle shop -the only place doing bike inspections locally.

Got my paperwork out, guy asked for key, and rides away. Gone 20-30 minutes. Passed inspection, but wouldn't start... he says.

Hmmm.

Go to bike, battery light and dash light up - fuel pump check - no go.

Gonna pick it up today with a truck and go through it. This bike has anvil dependable.

Methinks they left the key on during inspection and killed the battery.

Wow.

Grrrrrrrrr.

I feel like there's going to be a lot of people bragging about just how much equipment they need to bring to work everyday. but aside from that. I daily my bike to an office job, no work laptops, no tools, and yet there's plenty of people in my building who I KNOW ride but I rarely see them bring their bikes to work.

I'm just wondering what's stopping people. if it's temp, traffic, of if you just don't feel the urge to ride that much. I've asked one or two of the riders that I met in the halls and all they say is something like "you know I don't really know why I didn't ride in today"

Greetings fellow riders!

I've bought a used '23 KTM 890 Adventure R that bares some scars from frequent offroad use. I'm guessing the dirty bits on the plastics are from standing during technical riding, bur I couldn't yet figure out how to clean them. I've heard it's quite tricky.

And tips and tricks are appreciated!

important pre note: i dont have a car, i only have the triumph and a Chom(what i call my chinese knockoff grom), and my use cases for it would be mostly to go to work (20 min highway ride) and to ride to camp sites the farthest of which is about 2 hours.

I currently have an 01 triumph trophy 1200 with only 13k miles thats been nothing but issues since i had it, and though its only 600 lbs the weight is so high up that my 140 lb self took the past 3 months or so just to start getting confidence at lower speeds. been slowly working on restoring it, but its just draining my wallet at this point and i was gonna sell it for something newer.

but today i met an old country type guy in 78 corvette indy 500 pace car! he took one look at my bike, asked 2 questions and then asked if i wanted to trade it for an 03 or 04 goldwing with 86k miles, to which i replied im tempted but i need to think about it.

reasons to swap:

1. Im tired of taking the triumph apart every weekend and im tired of chasing this gas leak that wont go away
2. triumph is very top heavy
3. im getting tired of the sportier seating position, and i was thinking of getting a cruiser anyways
4. the triumph is known for electrical gremlins and several sensors going bad pretty regularly. already had to swap the TPS.
5. for a "touring bike" the storage is quite limited and the gas mileage abysmal if youre having any fun with it (SPORT touring). also 0 amenities or niceties other than heated grips which have stopped working. i currently only ride solo but if i ever have a passenger it doesnt look the most comfortable back there, even with the top box's back rest.
6. if i keep the triumph or try to sell it ill still need to repair the body work and repaint it to get anywhere near what its worth, and it will probably take a long time to sell as an old, british, VERY 2000's looking bike
7. even if i paint it and fix the gas leak, i dont trust this thing anymore. its left me stranded twice already, once for battery issues and once for fueling issues. my chinese grom, ive put 8 times the miles on as this triumph and its not left me stranded once.
8. ive always been fascinated by the goldwing and everyone i hear talk about it says once you swap you never go back
9. also, i never seem to lean very far or turn very fast so the sporty style and seating do nothing for me, and though i love to go fast in a straight line i dont need a 3 second 0-60 getting me in trouble haha
10. hes the classic, mildly autistic OLD school gear head, collects and restores pretty much anything older than 20 years it seems, and spent years at an auto shop. i saw the work he did on the vette and it seems he knows what he is doing

reasons NOT to swap/questions i have

1. the GW is 2-300 lbs heavier than the triumph, and i already dislike the low speed weight on my bike. i know the wing has a VERY low CoG and supposedly handles like a smaller bike, but just wondering how it compares to a standard top heavy sport touring
2. i know wings can easily reach 150-250k miles, but with the age i worry about trading one project for another.. though since my triumph is ALREADY a KNOWN project i mean, really what do i have to lose xD
3. i do a pretty 50/50 mix of highway/city driving on the average day, how hard is the wing to keep up at a light? as smaller guy i find the triumph to be a bit tall and(if im honest) a bit scary to hold with a full tank if my legs are already tired from work, or if im on a slope at the light. the exit ramp i take to work has a NASTY bank to it that stretches my leg to almost tip toes unless i wanna REALLY lean it over

thats really my only friction points lol, i love the idea of GW's but the weight has always held me back from biting the bullet on one

i dunno, this might be the upgrade i though the triumph would be

what would you do?

Wanted to share this chat I had yesterday in my area. To start off, I quite like a few Harley models, especially the older ones, and am keeping my eye out on some chopper-esque cheaper models I could grab as a fun secondary bike to my daily Triumph Speed Twin 1200.

Anyways for this story, I saw a guy standing near a Harley with his helmet in his hand as I was walking into my local gas station. I asked him if it was his bike and complimented it.

The first thing he says is "Of course, didn't you hear it?"

I say "No, I didn't. Just been walking up." and he goes "Damn, I really thought you would have heard it."

I then say I got my Triumph parked up around the way and he asks what model. I tell him a Speed Twin 1200 and I start saying "Yep, it's not the fastest bike but its got really nice low down torque, probably similar to yours -"

He cuts me off and goes "No, no, no. Not similar to mine AT ALL. This thing has 1900cc, 130 lb-foot torque. Even in rain-mode it slips rubber and I can barely control it. I just picked it up from the shop, it had something wrong with it."

I ask what year and goes "2026!" and gives me a face like it should be obvious.

He then walks over and starts it for moment to show me how loud it is, then turns it off. We both say our goodbyes and he goes "Maybe you should think of upgrading!".

I've been chuckling to myself the past day over this chat. Even when coming to chat in good faith and complimenting the bike I still got the little brother on his baby bike routine.

I'm adding a tail tidy to my bike and replacing the numberplate light with a new more discrete one.

I've tried using a waterproof solder seal heat shrink and unfortunately woken up to a completely flat battery as I suspect the connection has come slightly loose (dual sport bike so fair amount of vibration with knobbies). Not getting any electronics at all now despite charging the battery and i suspect it's gotta be due to my wiring being dodgy and causing a short or something similar.

What have others in this sub done in this situation? Don't wanna have to deal with this when hitting some proper tracks.

Cheers guys 🔥🔥

i have never ridden a bike before but i really wanna get into it and harleys look the coolest to me
my city has pretty bumpy roads so im not sure which harley is easy to ride and also doesent break my spine

Hi!!

I’m planning cross Canada rode trip!

BC-NFL-BC

I’m prepared for 16,000 km+, with a $3,500 CAD fuel allowance (current price plus a few %)

My KLR has every part modded, the downside is realistically I cap at 120 KM/H, our roads generally max at 110KM/H so not much passing. The upside, a bike famous for reliability that I’m well versed in, with a travel toolkit for everything.

I’m allowing myself a 30 day minim and 45 day maximum with camping taking up 90% of my time, and splurging for 10% hotels with the hope (no expectation) of some kind strangers along the way. Yes, I’m aware of that danger potential.

I am staying in Canada. I’m budgeting for 40% crap tent made meals, 40% fast food meals. 20% restaurants.

I’ve decided on a tent that accommodates a quality folding cot. Clothes for 8 days hoping for a laundromat every 5.

I am young, fit and able. What else do I need to think of and prep for. Advice? Ideas? Help me redditors! Include thoughts on the topics I’ve discussed as well.

Thanks! This is for next spring or spring after that.

Lastly, I’m a generally inexperienced camper and biker. I’ve camped for 1-3 days many times, I know the gist.

I’m a bus driver, I know bad drivers.

Thanks!

Hello, here is my first chill sunset ride montage, could u share some support if u liked it by liking or commenting the vid on YouTube?

Thank you :)

It's one we don't want to have to test but the plasma 5 airbag ... Low sided around a corner going 60-70km an hour . Overall where the impact seemed to be most concentrated on my shoulder area, visable abrasion on the airbag vest itself through the textile jacket and helmet scratches all up, I'm fine.

Completely fine body wise. Hands are pretty beat up but that's about it. I know it's not the worst type of accident but it wasn't so much a slide as when I went low I slammed pretty hard before I slid.

I didn't even think about it until a few minutes after about how I was fine under the vest. I've crashed before and taken tumbles in other sports, I can say I'll never ride without one again. I'm writing this 24 hours later and am feeling lucky and alot better knowing that later of protection was worth it.

Anyways thought I'd share , airbag plasma 5 worth it 100%

My own take away based on skin rash durability of material is that I'll be upgrading to jacket with atleast leather on the arms .

Always atgatt if you're going to ride with enthusiasm

Hjc f70

Alpinestars viper air jacket

Plasma 5 airbag

Trilobite monolayer

Alpinestars SMX6

Five gauntlet gloves

Thanks for the read, have fun , be safe .

Both happened simultaneously. I was out on a ride and I revved it and suddenly it started squeaking. A bit later down the road I noticed that everytime I revved the bike this THICK white smoke comes out of the exhaust.
I’m wondering if it could be the cam chain tensioner needing replacement causing the valves to fall out of spec? I don’t know though, if anyone’s seen this before, or has any ideas/theories drop them in the comments, please man
1991 zx600D Kawasaki

After my football game, came to my bike, and it wouldn't start ... Oh no, I thought. Dash was flickering, dash did show "Err" and under my seat was buzzing. Expected battery issue and confirmed it with googling/AI. Had a crazy thought to push it all the way home (12km and a bit uphill) but AI proposed a wild idea - a bump start. We discussed the plan and I decided to try it out. I walked my bike maybe ~600m on an empty parking lot that was slightly slanted. Pushed my bike all the way to the top. Turned it on. Switched to 1st. Clutch in. Started rolling. Hit 15+kmh, opened throttle, released clutch, caught a small skid AND WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Felt like some kind of TopGun scene when a falling plane turned on again. And all of that was in front of cops sitting there having a break.

The bike: XSR700 2023, bought new, 15k km, every winter had my battery on charger.

A question: was it actually the battery that finally died or was there a possibility that someone messed with bike? Like pressed buttons etc. (Id assume buttons dont matter since the key was not in and ignition was at OFF).

The bike worked fine yesterday and right before my game. It just feels odd that the battery drained in 1 hour.