Largest rear tire possible on stock rim? 160/60/18?

Always said riding was good for ya!


Anybody know of any brain studies on why we feel better when riding?
Here's one:

This Is Your Brain on a Motorcycle

Riding a motorcycle every day might actually keep your brain functioning at peak condition, or so says a study conducted by the University of Tokyo. The study demonstrated that riders between the age of 40 and 50 were shown to improve their levels of cognitive functioning, compared to a control group, after riding their motorcycles daily to their workplace for a mere two months.

Scientists believe that the extra concentration needed to successfully operate a motorcycle can contribute to higher general levels of brain function, and it’s that increase in activity that’s surely a contributing factor to the appeal of the motorcycles as transportation. It’s the way a ride on a bike turns the simplest journey into a challenge to the senses that sets the motorcyclist apart from the everyday commuter. While the typical car-owning motorist is just transporting him or her self from point A to point B, the motorcyclist is actually transported into an entirely different state of consciousness .

Riding a motorcycle is all about entrance into an exclusive club where the journey actually is the destination.

Dr Ryuta Kawashima, author of Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain, reported the outcome of his study of “The relationship between motorcycle riding and the human mind.”

Kawashima’s experiments involved current riders who currently rode motorcycles on a regular basis (the average age of the riders was 45) and ex-riders who once rode regularly but had not taken a ride for 10 years or more. Kawashima asked the participants to ride on courses in different conditions while he recorded their brain activities. The eight courses included a series of curves, poor road conditions, steep hills, hair-pin turns and a variety of other challenges.

What did he find? After an analysis of the data, Kawashima found that the current riders and ex-riders used their brain in radically different ways. When the current riders rode motorcycles, specific segments of their brains (the right hemisphere of the prefrontal lobe) was activated and riders demonstrated a higher level of concentration.

His next experiment was a test of how making a habit of riding a motorcycle affects the brain.

Trial subjects were otherwise healthy people who had not ridden for 10 years or more. Over the course of a couple of months, those riders used a motorcycle for their daily commute and in other everyday situations while Dr Kawashima and his team studied how their brains and mental health changed.

The upshot was that the use of motorcycles in everyday life improved cognitive faculties, particularly those that relate to memory and spatial reasoning capacity. An added benefit? Participants revealed on questionnaires they filled out at the end of the study that their stress levels had been reduced and their mental state changed for the better.

So why motorcycles? Shouldn’t driving a car should have the same effect as riding a motorcycle?

“There were many studies done on driving cars in the past,” Kawashima said. “A car is a comfortable machine which does not activate our brains. It only happens when going across a railway crossing or when a person jumps in front of us. By using motorcycles more in our life, we can have positive effects on our brains and minds”.

Yamaha participated in a second joint research project on the subject of the relationship between motorcycle riding and brain stimulation with Kawashima Laboratory at the Department of Functional Brain Imaging, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer at Tohoku University.

The project began in September 2009 and ran until December 2010, and the focus of the research was on measurement and analysis of the cause and effect relationship involved in the operation of various types of vehicles and brain stimulation. The study measured changes in such stimulation over time by means of data gathered from a long-term mass survey.

The reason for Yamaha Motor’s participation in this project is pretty obvious and not a little self-serving, but further research into the relationship between motorcycle riding and brain stimulation as it relates to the “Smart Aging Society” will certainly provide some interesting results.

The second research project was divided into two time periods throughout 2009 and 2010 compared differences in the conditions of brain stimulation as they related to the type of vehicle and driving conditions. A second set of tests measuring the changes in brain stimulation over time involved a larger subject group.

Yamaha Motors provided vehicles for the research and made its test tracks and courses available for the study. What the study revealed is that what you’re thinking about while you’re riding – and your experience on the bike - changes the physical structure of your brain.

Author Sharon Begley concurs with Kawashima’s findings. In her tome, Train Your Mind – Change Your Brain, Begley found much the same outcomes.

“The brain devotes more cortical real estate to functions that its owner uses more frequently and shrinks the space devoted to activities rarely performed,” Begley wrote. “That’s why the brains of violinists devote more space to the region that controls the digits of the fingering hand.”

And you may also get some mental and physical benefits from just thinking about going for a ride on your machine.

A 1996 experiment at Harvard Medical School by neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone had volunteers practice a simple five finger exercise on the piano over five days for a couple of hours each day. Pascual-Leone found that the brain space devoted to these finger movements grew and pushed aside areas less used. A separate group of volunteers were asked to simply think about doing the piano exercises during that week as well, and they dedicated the same amount of “practice time.”

Pascual-Leone was somewhat take aback to discover that the region of the brain which controls piano playing finger movement expanded in the same way for volunteers who merely imagined playing the piano.

Along with the obvious benefits of riding motorcycles; like saving money (motorcycle insurance is relatively inexpensive), motorcycles take the edge off the grind of the daily commute, and that appears to make your brain a better place to be…

Next Saturday 8/23 I can pick up my bike from the shop (FINALLY) but I'm still unable to ride so I will need a surrogate to ride it home for me. Any one of my locals that can help a cripple out? There could be a lunch in it for you.

My gaitors, after only 4 mo. on the bike, have split apart. Is there a 'good brand' i should be getting? Got mine from a U.S. shop for $25. The bike wasn't even in the sun, though here in Arizona it does get dry and hot!

Thks!

Over the last week I have ridden 2700kms, mostly in the company of the esteemed Cormanus, a gentleman I met through this forum and whose friendship I have come to value. We went our separate ways on Thursday; Cormanus back home to Pomona, QLD, and me on to Sydney. I happened to mention to him that on my way I intended to ride the Wollombi, one of my favourite roads. Cormanus has not ridden that road but did recall that I had posted on this forum regarding a particular corner on the Wollombi called Lemming Corner
(see: http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3410 ).

In that thread Cormanus posted:

And The ferret posted


So before coming to the point of this post let me show you what I was greeted with as I swung into the entrance to Lemmings, heading southbound. (Those of you who drive on the "right" side of the road need to make some head adjustment).



To keep my own hide intact I didn't stop right there but continued another 100m or so to pull over on the right side next to the visibly distressed riding companion of the rider of the bike pictured above. Lemmings is in a remote area of the Wollombi. There is no mobile network coverage but a fairly constant, if sparse, stream of traffic. A motorist took the rider, injured but he will live, to the next town, Kulnurra, while I spent some time with his companion. Shock is an involuntary, and somewhat interesting, bodily reaction. If you have just seen your younger brother low side into ARMCO it can be expected. It can often trigger a denial type syndrome where, amongst other things, inconsequential detail becomes important to the sufferer. You know, needs to talk about my CB rather than next steps. I had to talk him through it. First though we moved the tail of the bike as close to the ARMCO as possible and recovered stuff like tank and tail bags from the other side of the ARMCO. We spoke for about 45 mins or so until I felt he was in a better place. The previously mentioned motorist was to arrange for a recovery vehicle and advise the police of the incident. I went on my way.

As I rode my mind was occupied with "Why Lemmings?", and that is the point of this post. First lets take a look:

What the rider saw seconds before losing it:


OK, it's a Honda 650, but check out the battering the ARMCO and its support posts have taken. This young lad wasn't the first Lemming:


Let me ask y'all (thanks Ridem). Is regulation and signage the solution to Lemmings or the many other similar corners that make life interesting for the worldwide motorcycling brotherhood? I suppose you might call them Death or Glory corners. This road has enough motorcycle specific warning signs, speed advisory signs, curve arrows, large red REDUCE SPEED signs, and other miscellaneous signage to almost equal the trees in the surrounding bush land. The speed limit is reduced to 80kph for most twisty sections. The Highway Patrol take an interest in this road, especially on weekends. My only conclusion is NO. Regulation and signage is ineffective. The wreckage proves it.

So where do we go next? Often to drink copiously from the comforting and drought free well of self pity: "Decreasing radius got me". "That gravel should not have been there". "The road was wet, doesn't drain well". "The cats eyes/road paint caused the rear to slide out". "That bloke should have head checked before changing lanes". "He didn't indicate". "Diesel spill". And on and on and on it goes. I've heard them all. Maybe even been guilty myself. Sorry old mates, it is nauseating self delusion. IT'S OUR OWN FAULT!!! ALWAYS! EVERYTIME! Perhaps the only valid excuse was offered up by Bill Cosby - "It was the Devil that made me do it". At least it got a laugh.

I look in the mirror and what do I see (apart from a passing resemblance to Clark Gable)? I see a bloke who sees an advisory sign as a challenge, a speed limit as Stalinist, road safety campaigns as childish, ineffectual and even Orwellian. I see a bloke who loves the scream of a revving engine and the adrenalin rush as the bike tips in. I've often felt heavy regret as I realise I have entered and exited too slowly and then marked that corner down for next time. I'll tame you I mutter darkly. My chicken strips fill me with feelings of disgust and self loathing. I'd rather wear a clown suit than reflector gear (sorry ferret). Signage, regulation, advanced riding courses, they won't help me. Furthermore, bugger the Brake Light Initiative - is the man mad?

It's in all good and true bikers. Is it in you? Have a good look at yourself. Tell me I am wrong. Go on.

Cheers

My buddy just bought a 78 CB750K and the question popped into my mind why the kick start is a thing of the past. From what little I know is that on fuel injected engines the battery has to power the fuel pump and if it is dead a kick start wont matter anyway. But then you have a lot of carbed bikes like the Nighthawks with no kick start either. Or is it because it costs another 20-30 bucks?

I would feel better having the option just in case but of course you can always push start in in a jam if you have to. Just wondering what the real reason is that almost nothing anymore has a kick start including scooters.

Marquez going for 11 in a row.

and guess who was fastest in practice today? Lorenzo and Pedrosa slightly slower.

I think everyone knew it would be only a matter of time before Yamaha used their new three cylinder for an adventure-touring model. Hopefully it won't be as ugly as this rendering.

http://blog.motorcycle.com/2014/08/11/de...rt-tourer/

This could be a real contender in the class if Yamaha can clear up their fuel injection glitches and keep the weight below the competition.

That screen is really hideous.

I made an innocent JOKE about a Harley owner, some one was offended I think and the tread was shut down.
It is nice to have a civil forum but are we becoming to sensitive to a joke ?
We already have lost a lot of the "old timers" who are no longer posting.
Most of us are older but not dead yet, life is for living and we have to be careful that this forum is not just for people with no sense of humor.
I know that on most forums it is just a handful of the members posting treads, hopefully here we have a larger group of posters.
Any comments from other members ?

OMG, OMG, OMG She's MINE!!!

Pick up at Huntington Beach Honda


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