Been seeing posts from people that give cause for concern. I know some of us had hard winters and couldn't ride. Or some newer members may have just gotten their bike. But that is NO reason to let our need to ride override good sense.

Your bike MUST be mechanically sound before riding it. Sure, I might bypass my low speed air intakes till I find what's wrong. But that's a performance issue. Any serious control issues should have you parking your bike until you fix what's wrong. Headshake is NOT normal and OK to compensate for. Rear brake not working doesn't mean just use the front. A light out isn't a matter of getting a ticket. It could be the difference between a cage seeing you... or splattering you.

Its not just the bike that has to be up to snuff. You should be and so should your paperwork. No license? No ride. No tags, insurance, title? No ride. Not feeling well? Take a bus. New to riding and the forecast is for rain? Leave the bike at home till you have the experience to handle the wet

I'm dying to ride here. But while I can jimmy something to get my bike running in a few hours, its not worth the risk. A rigged wire breaking or shorting to ground can shut my bike down right when I might need its power the most. Use good sense y'all before that need to ride costs you your ability to ride.

 

+1

Well said Kuro. I just went through my whole bike last week and ordered some stuff that looks like it wont last much longer. Also got a new tire on. anyways smart thing to give people a heads up. Think ill go bump that gear thread i started awhile back to let newer people know they need gear to ride.

 

I couldn't agree more. Two years ago a friend of mine was killed in a hit and run on the side of the freeway when he had an electrical fault. He was beside his bike when someone came and knocked him over a guard rail. He was a safe rider and a good mechanic, but the kept on riding the bike while working on the problem. If you can't rely on the bike to work all the time, you may have to get off it in a dangerous place, and you could be killed as a consequence! Keep your bike in good running shape and stay safe. You take enough risks when you're in traffic on 2 wheels, there's no need to take any more risks.

 

Yo K..good words man. I would not think to have posted that, you'd think we'd know better,but I'm glad you did,especially if you are seeing this kind of activity. All I can add is common sense Boyz and Girls ! If your machine is not top notch or you (!) dont ride .
There are few,maybe two things I love more than flying on my Hurricane,but every year about this time(as soon as the garage is warm enough,BOTH my babies get a strip -down, general maintenance and going over. Nothing moves until I am satisfied they are right.As much as I want to hurry the job, it has paid off over the years.Freind of mine replaced a front tire, got in a hurry and didnt torque them(he has a torque wrench) and lost the wheel on a ride. Funny after the fact,but he was lucky and didnt get much more than rash.

This year will be more expensive as I want to replace tires on both along with filters ,fluids,plugs and some cosmetic issues on them,but even that is part of the love I have for them and being able to mount up with no mechanical worries.The way I see it, if you know something is not right, and wait for it to fail, it wont fail in the garage,it'll be when you are out...handle it before you leave.My two cents....

 

Man, Kuro.... I was actually glad to see your name as the author for once....
(you know I kid, man... )

But seriously, what a great post. You hit the nail on the head, dude.
Responsible riding is so much more than wearing gear and not riding like a jackazz. It means having your paperwork and your bike straight.

And what kills me is that some people can't even seem to do a SIMPLE "harms/benefits" analysis in their head before deciding to ride. If your bike is messed up, you're taking a 50x risk on an already risky sport. (and don't question me on the 50x number. I calculated it all out on paper. It took me hours, and I assure you it's 50x the chance.... )

And then you have the people considering riding without insurance/licensing/registration??? REALLY!!??

The end result in both instances is losing your bike for a long time, and/or getting seriously hurt (or worse....god forbid). And all because you HAD to go out and ride??

 

heeehe .. funny dude....lol ...

 

Here's a good example

When I first got my bike, I was ready to go. Had my gear, had my permit and wasn't afraid to hop on. But I didn't know my bike and the previous owner had made modifications I needed to undo. So I ordered the service manual and began tearing into her. Every day eroded my confidence in the bike's maintenance as I found things that made me doubt the sanity of the previous mechanic. So as I took things apart, I put things back the correct way and found those.

Those are the spacers on the front axle. In case you don't know, they're not supposed to be equally sized. I wasn't looking for anything like this specifically. But when I torqued the front axle down to spec, the front wheel locked tight. One of the rotors locked against the fork. I was mystified since it rotated easily before. But now it would not budge at all.

Near as I can figure it, to 'compensate' for having the wrong size spacers on the front axle, InsanoMechanic never torqued the front axle so the forks wouldn't press flush to the spacers. Best case scenario: Head shake as the tire wobbled in the forks, causing me to back off the throttle. Worst case: Highside at speed. A torque wrench, $20 on Ebay (for a new front axle with correct spacers) and the torque specs from the manual prolly saved my ***

If you're not mechanically inclined (or not inclined to become mechanically inclined), take your bike to a certified Honda mechanic and ask to have it certified as safe to ride. Especially a New-To-You bike. TCLOCS (Tires, Controls, Lights, Oil, Chassis and Stand preride inspection from the MSF) is for after you know your bike is mechanically sound. "Looks ok" doesn't mean its ok.

And if you know something is seriously wrong, don't come here asking people how to workaround it. Ask them how to fix it.

 

Know this is a little old but another thing especially if its a new or new to you bike is dont go ***** out and hop on the highway first trip, i had 35 miles on my bike this year.....In the neighborhood!!! It helps me to hear and get a sense for what could go wrong at low speed and close to home, luckily my subdivision has tons of little offshoot streets and you can literally just ride around for an hour without touching a main street, and theres alot of kids so i keep it under 25ish, gets me back into the groove after being on the sleds all winter. and if i feel or hear something just not quite right the garage is right around the corner. Everything was right before it left the garage and my short slow trips have confirmed a few issues i was worried about, that have been resolved.

That and with riding mountain snowmobiles all winter i have to relearn the rear brake, first few stops i'm way to grabby on the front

 

Post maybe be old but the need for it isn't. Peeps are still posting up about how something failed on their bike. Something they already knew wasn't up to snuff anyways, sometimes with a replacement only days away from being delivered.

So far, no major incidents. Just a and a FML. But something is gonna give and give badly. If you know something is wrong: Fix it. If its something major: Fix it right.

 

Definately, and its just like with my diesels i run em hard but maintain em harder, like my brother says theres three ways a bike blows up, threw the top end, threw the bottom end or out the side, and all 3 put oil in the tire