After riding around with a rear tire that was shot, threads showing, I finally got a chance to get my new tire put on. Taking the rear wheel off was super easy, as was reinstalling it. I took it off to have it changed in hopes of saving some money, which worked out nicely. I’m amazed at how much different a new tire feels. I was so used to riding around with one that you could feel slip a little bit at times, yet the new one is super sticky. On my test ride up the street I could hear the gravels from the asphalt slinging up on the underside of the bike from the stickiness of the new rear tire. I can even tell the bike sits higher than it once did thanks to the extra rubber the tire has. Here’s to hoping I get another 13k miles or so out of this one!
I left work today on my bike for the first time this year, and didn’t get to make but one turn before I realized that I was out of gas. I usually fill up if I start getting close to 200, because my reserve bar is usually flashing. On this tank I had quite a few more highway miles than I usually have, and for some reason the reserve bar didn’t flash any at all. It wasn’t a big deal even though it was 5 o’clock traffic. Chase circled around when he realized I ran out of gas, and helped me push it out of the road. We just pushed it from the red-light down the street next to the post office and into a parking lot. I called dad to bring me some gas, and it was funny, he knew the exact reason I was calling. I’m not going to push it any more to see the max I can get on a tank, because obviously to find out you have to run out. On a different note, I got 48.5 miles to the gallon.
One of the reasons people dislike, or maybe even want to not associate with the crowd that ride sport bikes, is because of their completely cocky attitudes. I’m sure not all of them are like that, my brother and I are great examples of not being, but I must admit that a lot of them are complete douchbags. I had one guy critique my front tire today, which royally ticked me off the more I thought about it. I ride for the fun of it. I ride for me. Not to push it to the limits just so my buddies can get a good laugh. This one guy is the exact reason I never want to meet up with any other local riders and go on a group ride. I’d rather just ride alone, with close friends, or w/ my brothers and dad.
Quite often I am asked that question while filling up at a gas station, or sitting at a redlight. Most assume that one of the headlights is out, but the real reason is all in the beams. One is a low beam, and the other is the high beam.
Motorcycle ride through the mountains to Tellico Plains for Father’s Day.
A few photos from this set
The past few days here have been wonderful outside — mid 70s and mostly sunny. I usually like it hot outside, but I must say that the mid 70s range is the most comfortable. Having these nice warm days, especially over the weekend, allowed me to get my bike out for the first real enjoyable ride of the year. I parked it nearing an oil change, so it took just a few days of riding to hit that milestone.
I’ve had it for right around 2 years now, and have clocked 8k miles on it. That seems like quite a bit for a bike, but I also ride it pointlessly around for the fun of it, and when weather permits, it’s my main transportation to work when it’s warm out. I bought it used with a little over 900 miles on it. My maintenance schedule is a little off from what the manual calls for, because I was told that it had the break in service already done before I got it, but I didn’t really want to take their word on it.
As many times as I’ve seen the commercial for Sta-bil, laughing at it, I knew for certain that would never be me. I couldn’t have been more wrong! I spent more than an hour today trying to get my bike started. Apparently when it came time to put them up for the winter, none of us remembered fuel stabilizer. After leaving the battery charger on it and running the battery down 3-4 times, I was finally able to get it started. You could tell by the smell of the exhaust that the gas had turned bad. And since it was warm out, I went for a short cool ride afterwords to fill it up, which felt great!
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
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