This past weekend my wife and I were out exploring Oregon's wine country. While doing so we stopped in a small town where we strolled around a bit and had some lunch. Right after we arrived I noticed a trio of motorcyclists just as they were headed out. The last rider stood out to me as his kickstand drug along the main drag making quite a racket for quite some ways before it finally hit something big enough to kick it upwards.

My wife and I ate lunch at a restaurant there on main street where we were seated right by the front window. About the time we were finishing up our meal I saw the same trio of riders return to town. They parked right across the street from the restaurant where we were eating. The same fella that had left his kickstand down earlier when leaving wasn't really sure how to park his bike. After nosing it into the curb his riding buddies said something to him and he tried to move the bike around so that his back wheel was up against the curb. He then backed the bike into a car while doing so. A woman actually walked over to inspect the car to make sure no damage was done before she gave him the okay to carry on. I don't even think it was her car as she appeared to be just a bystander.

After many years of riding I'm still not exactly "smooth" at parking my bike. (I can say that ease of parking is one aspect of my Hawk GT that I do miss.) I can also still find things to criticize about my own riding in the name of getting better. But in this particular case I don't mean to be critical of this other rider. I really just wanted to share this story as I found myself a bit worried for this guy who was clearly rather new to riding. Also, he wasn't a small guy, but it was obvious he was having a bit of a struggle with the big cruiser that he had chosen. Maybe it was just a rental bike, I really don't know. In the end I figured that it was none of my business, but as I watched all this play out I realized that I had actually grown a bit concerned about a complete stranger. None of us are guaranteed safe travels out there on two wheels. I just hated to see someone seemingly stacking the odds even higher against themselves.

Anyone else have a similar experience? Maybe such stories aren't all that rare. I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was still a kid. By now I've surely romanticized in my mind any such problems that I might have had way back then. I know that we all have to start somewhere. I can't help but think that it's much better to get that kind of stuff out of the way early on, long before hitting the street as an adult much later on in life. Hopefully the guy I saw struggling somewhat goes on to enjoy many years of safe and happy riding.

The wife and I hoped on the bike to join a couple friends on a ride. Started it up let is run a little bit. Stuck it in gear to pull out and it shut of. Did that 3 more times until I reliazed my kickstand was down. I felt like a fool but what a relief it wasn’t something major.

SOMEBODY HELP ME. I'm about to make a terrible TERRIBLE mistake!!

https://savannah.craigslist.org/mcy/d/19...95660.html

I've always worn hard leather as my default upper body armor, but this year i've been thinking of moving toward something a bit more modern (with actual armor).

some candidates: fox titan (https://www.foxracing.com/titan-sport-ja...n=UniShop) seems to have the edge on maximum protection and maximum airflow. i could just throw my warm layer over this when necessary, but i worry that the serious armor plating could be a bit bulky? thoughts?

EVS comp jacket (https://www.btosports.com/p/EVS-COMP-JAC...tEALw_wcB) is also very light, and while less armored, seems much more wearable (meaning i lookand feel a bit less like i'm headed to a motocross event...)

finally, i've considered adding armor to an existing jacket. this seems to be the least expensive option. It seems like i can just sew some pockets on the interior of my elbows, shoulders, and back and sew in these plates nice and secure. thoughts on this? has anybody done this?

I didn't want to take the 2020 Valkyrie thread too off-course so I have created this thread to discuss these "new" suspensions.

I did some reading last night and apparently these go back to the 1970s and a designer named Norman Hassock who decided to build a better mousetrap, which he did. He then tried to get BMW to buy it from him but they declined and instead built their telelever fork system. After his patent expired they came out with their own version of the Hassock which they called the Duolever. And now Honda has come out with their own version.

Lots of good photos on image websites plus some youtube videos but I am too dumb mechanically to really understand the subtleties of the designs. Wikipedia says one drawback to the duolever type (besides cost and complexity) is it does not allow room for a centrally located radiator, which makes it a good fit for the big bikes that already have side-facing radiators.

[url=https://www.hossack-design.com/]Hossack's Website

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Hossack]Wikipedia on Norman Hossack

[url=https://www.motorcyclistonline.com/conventional-vs-telelever-forks-drawing-line]Telelever vs conventional forks

I guess this is all old news if you are into BMW motorcycles.

I ride in “water resistant” riding jeans and on my recent trip to Virginia I was caught in what can only be described as a deluge myth sent by the gods. I don’t want to wear Moto pants because I love these jeans so I’m considering some overpants to throw into my Kreig and put on when weather looks frightening.

Any recommendations? The last pair I had about ten years ago were such junk I threw them out during a trip, but there seems to be some quality stuff out there.

Hello all, I have my 2014 Deluxe for sale, it has a Moriwaki exhaust and power commander installed and I am asking $8500. I've had a few inquires and a nasty email from the CL ad telling me I'm out of my mind. So I'm interested in opinions on where I have it priced? Do folks shy away due to the mods? I know I did at first and figured I would put it back to stock until I lived with the Moriwaki for a bit. Now, no way I would pull that exhaust off. All dealer installed and adjusted on the dyno. All input is welcome from the experts here....thanks !!

absolutely loving my new Valkyrie as is Mrs. Use2b
first look at the 2020 Version

Are there any videos of the procedure? My challenges brain can't figure it out just by the manual.


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These are the small black rectangle mirrors that were popular years ago,don't even know what brand they are.Flanders part# 401-78257 looks like what I'm after but they state they are for a Yamaha,not universal. Anybody know the mirrors I'm talking about? These mirrors were cheap and everybody had them on everything years ago.