Now I’m really in trouble

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I went with my rid­ing group through some of the twisties in the San­ta Cruz moun­tains. One from the group, Tim, very kind­ly offered to swap bikes with me so that I could get a taste of what else is out there.

So today for a half-hour that went way too fast (in more ways than one) I got to ride a Ducati Mon­ster 750.

I was already get­ting the feel­ing that I might be out­grow­ing my Vira­go. This not only con­firmed the sus­pi­cion, it proved it. I’d feared that a big­ger, fiercer bike would be hard­er to han­dle and that I’d run into some trou­ble in the twisties. The oppo­site was true. After a day full of white-knuck­ling every turn and feel­ing I was on the edge of hav­ing the Vira­go go out from under me, I ner­vous­ly got on the Ducati and, fum­bling as I was and unfa­mil­iar with the bike as I was, pro­ced­ed to slalom through the turns feel­ing like the tires had as much grip in the lean as on the straightaways.

I thought it was my fault I could­n’t cor­ner. I thought I’d just need to learn to trust the bike. I don’t know whether it’s the high­er cen­ter of grav­i­ty, the weight of the bike, or the pow­er, but sud­den­ly today I was on a bike that I could trust.

One the­o­ry is that the Virago’s frame just isn’t very stiff, giv­ing it a feel under stress that it’s not sta­ble. Tim was asked what he thought of the Vira­go when he got back, and, well, he exer­cised great tact but it was clear he did­n’t have a great time. His descrip­tion of the ride was almost if he’d read my mind: he said it was real­ly hard to com­mit to a cor­ner on that bike.

So now I’m con­vinced beyond any doubt that I should have a big­ger motorcycle.

Um. Also, on the straight­aways, wow! I broke a buck today for the first time on any vehi­cle. That’s right, I’d nev­er done that in an auto­mo­bile on the free­way before. Ever. And today I did it on a lit­tle two-lan­er. It did­n’t even feel all that fast, either. That’s the argu­ment against, of course. Some will say that 100mph isn’t much, but it’s beyond my capac­i­ty to con­trol at this stage of my learn­ing curve.

If it were just the speed and pow­er ques­tion, I might nev­er upgrade from my 250. Feel­ing safe and con­fi­dent in the curves, though, that’s priceless.

Published by splicer

18 Replies to “Now I’m really in trouble”

  2. I’d like to sec­ond Paul’s
    I’d like to sec­ond Paul’s remarks, although for the price Yama­ha is charg­ing for the bike I would assume they would put decent rub­ber on it. There is no rea­son that your bike should­n’t be han­dling well. I have been brows­ing on-line reviews and all of the motor­cy­cle press reports give the Vira­go excel­lent han­dling reviews. (And excel­lent over­all reviews.) Any chance you dialed in too much sus­pen­sion pre­load? I’d set it back to fac­to­ry specs and give it anoth­er ride. 

    Also, with only $0.65 in your account (as per your pre­vi­ous blog) I would not con­sid­er adding more debt.

    Dad

  3. The tires are pret­ty much
    The tires are pret­ty much cer­tain­ly not the prob­lem here. If I under­stand what Bob­by (The Cycle Wiz­ard) is say­ing, it’s a com­bi­na­tion of the cen­ter of grav­i­ty being so low and the frame being too flex­i­ble. This is not some­thing that can be swapped out; it’s pret­ty much built-in. A frame replace­ment would cost more than the bike is worth, even if it were pos­si­ble. And it would­n’t solve the cen­ter-of-grav­i­ty issue.

  4. I think it’s just not
    I think it’s just not designed to be more than a starter bike. My mechan­i­cal genius friend says the tires are fine and that the frame is flexing.

    I would think I’d want the sus­pen­sion tighter, not loos­er in this case. And it’s not like I’ve tak­en the sus­pen­sion out of fac­to­ry spec, just out from “default set­ting.” I’ll talk to Bob­by about the pre­load and ask some ques­tions when I’m in class on Wednes­day. My under­stand­ing of pre­load is that it does­n’t actu­al­ly change the per­for­mance of the shock, it just keeps it from com­ing back up as far to pre­vent the yo-yo effect.

    I’ve read a lot of those reviews, too, and almost all of them that I saw com­pared the Vira­go to oth­er small cruisers.

    And just in case you’re wor­ry­ing, my check­ing account bal­ance does not reflect my sav­ings bal­ance. Plus, all my bills are cur­rent. So I’m not get­ting into trou­ble just yet, just run­ning out of spend­ing money.

  6. Oh, I know. I have a
    Oh, I know. I have a haunt­ing sus­pi­cion that 

    was cre­at­ed by peo­ple who have been spy­ing on me to learn what I’d like.

    I’m afraid I’m still being drawn towards the Ital­ian end of the spec­trum tho.

  7. I doubt that Arlen Ness has
    I doubt that Arlen Ness has been spy­ing on you.

    Be drawn all you want, but test dri­ve, and con­sid­er how much main­te­nence and parts will be at the end of the day.

  8. Yeah, although I have a few
    Yeah, although I have a few friends that ride Ducatis, and they say that their bikes aren’t tem­pera­men­tal, I’m still not com­fort­able with the rep­u­ta­tion. Maybe if I were a lot more rich or had a lot of expe­ri­ence doing main­te­nance, but I’m not and I don’t. I believe what they say about new Ducatis being a lot less del­i­cate than even the ones a cou­ple years ago, but I’m not will­ing to take that chance, even though the ride Sun­day was such a sweet experience.

    No, I’m think­ing Moto Guzzi, and I have been for a lit­tle while now. The rep­u­ta­tion for reli­a­bil­i­ty is just one of the rea­sons, but a con­spic­u­ous one.

  9. If you want reli­a­bil­i­ty, you
    If you want reli­a­bil­i­ty, you want a Japan­ese bike. I haven’t even seen a Moto Guzzi for decades, and although they did have a rep­u­ta­tion for being more reli­able than the oth­er Ital­ian bike you are dis­cussing, they nev­er were in the same league with Yama­ha, et al.

    And han­dling has nev­er been their forte. Too darn wide to rock and roll.

    I am sure they have been improved since I was alive, but I sus­pect the oth­ers have been, as well.

    Dad

  10. Then start research­ing
    Then start research­ing Vic­to­ry. They’re vitu­al­ly bul­let-proof, inex­pen­sive, and parts are easy to obtain.

    Any­way, I’m off for SoCal.

  11. Inex­pen­sive? They start at
    Inex­pen­sive? They start at $15K! I’m going to move back to the Excel­sior just to afford a $10K bike! I’ve been research­ing Vic­to­ry for a lit­tle while (since pic­tures of the Ham­mer appeared in ), and as much respect I have, they’re def­i­nite­ly not the bike for me. I love their looks from afar, but I would­n’t want to be the guy rid­ing that mon­u­men­tal twin. They’re very showy engines and they scream atti­tude just sit­ting there. Am I the kind of guy that screams atti­tude? I don’t think so. I have a shit­ty atti­tude a lot of the time, but I don’t ever have a Bad Attitude.

    Part of me wants to buy Vic­to­ry just because thank God there’s anoth­er Amer­i­can motor­cy­cle man­u­fac­tur­er, but that’s not enough reason.

    Enjoy SoCal

  12. With vic­to­ry cycles you get
    With vic­to­ry cycles you get what you pay for. How­ev­er, you’re look­ing at the sug­gest­ed retail price, and not the actu­al price you end up pay­ing. I picked up my V92C for 12K.

    As for V‑twins being an showy engine of atti­tude, I have to dis­agree. It’s about the long haul. As I said, test-dri­ve em first. Low end-torque engines tend to suprise the hell out of peo­ple who have nev­er been on one.

    It’s also some­thing to con­sid­er, in the event you break-down and need a replace­ment part.

    -Back from SoCal, obvi­ous­ly. I high­ly advise you start read­ing The Patri­ot Act, as you may start feel­ing it’s effect shortly.

  13. Oh no, I love V‑Twins. At
    Oh no, I love V‑Twins. At this point I would­n’t own any oth­er con­fig­u­ra­tion. I meant the Vic­to­ry motors in gen­er­al. I have no doubt that they have the sub­stance to back up their looks, but their looks are high atti­tude, high-show, high pro­file. It would be like rid­ing the Wash­ing­ton Mon­u­ment around. Those bikes are monumental.

    Actu­al­ly, I have news on this front. More later.

  16. Yes, newest mod­el. Check out
    Yes, newest mod­el. Check out Ebay. you may be able to pick up a new one straight from an area dealer.

  17. Yeah, I think Scud­e­ria is
    Yeah, I think Scud­e­ria is the local Polaris/Victory dealer.

    BTW, it’s too late, but I’m not say­ing so “pub­licly” because I haven’t called my dad yet and I don’t want my LJ to be the way he finds out. I’ll post pics soon.

  18. Thanks for the phone call.
    Thanks for the phone call. It was great to hear from you, but I real­ly don’t mind hear­ing about things like motor­cy­cles from the blog. Wed­ding plans, trips back East, acci­dents, mug­gings, ill­ness­es, deaths in the fam­i­ly, etc. are things that I like to hear about right away. 

    Dad

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