Idle Thumbs Motorcycle Club

[subbes]

  On 8/4/2012 at 1:01 AM, chickenontheceiling said:

i particularly love lane splitting for this reason: "oh, you're stuck in traffic? pity." vrrooom

avoiding being doored is a minigame all on its own

[The Killstar]

  On 8/4/2012 at 1:01 AM, chickenontheceiling said:

but riding off the interstate is breaking it entirely and grinning at it's shattered fragments. i guess the equivalent to me would be if you could walk out of skyrim and see what was over the mountains.

Haha yes, I agree. I am the MASTER of Bethesda jumping. I will break one of those games with hopping around. How do you get to the Greybeards? Start at Riverrun and start hopping. Maybe it was growing up in the golden age of PC gaming, when the levels were designed to be fun, but not unbreakable. HELL in Doom you could punch in the anti-clipping code and break that shit wide open!

[Squid Division]

  On 8/4/2012 at 1:01 AM, chickenontheceiling said:

i particularly love lane splitting for this reason: "oh, you're stuck in traffic? pity." vrrooom)

I think this is different in Europe than in North America. There aren't that many bicycles in the US, so people never look for them. I've seen a couple cyclists get creamed pretty hard by cars switch lanes suddenly without looking. So while it's legal in DC, I don't really ever lane-split unless it's some catastrophic event (like the slight jiggle from the earthquake last year) that brings traffic to a grinding halt. Even then that only gets me 2/10 of the way home.

While we're talking about all the stuff that makes us superior to other, lesser, humans; I love the demonstrability you have on bikes. When some asshole decides to cut me off or something, he and everyone around him can see me gesturing at him. It's not like in a car where it's just a box you might happen to see through to see them waving madly.

Still, my favorite thing about riding is when someone finds out you ride and says 'oh that's so dangerous! be careful' as if I don't know that I could get hurt. In actuality, they never have the slightest clue how many times I almost got run off the road on the way into work that day.

[The Killstar]

  On 8/4/2012 at 3:49 AM, Squid Division said:

While we're talking about all the stuff that makes us superior to other, lesser, humans; I love the demonstrability you have on bikes. When some asshole decides to cut me off or something, he and everyone around him can see me gesturing at him. It's not like in a car where it's just a box you might happen to see through to see them waving madly.

People certainly know when I'm pissed off.

[Raff]

I have the remains of my hilarious stripped down Honda Super Cub (can't remember which model exactly, one of the less pretty ones) field bike in my Mum's garage. Sadly I've not been able to start it for a very long time. Will get a picture next time I'm there.

[chickenontheceiling]

  On 8/4/2012 at 3:49 AM, Squid Division said:

While we're talking about all the stuff that makes us superior to other, lesser, humans;

acceleration is what gets me. there are a bunch of tunnels here in amsterdam, and if you get to the front at the lights and tear off ahead you can have them all to yourself.

i would love a cubby. they look like heaps of fun. "the bike that freed the third world" i've heard it called. and indestructible:

(try to ignore the douchebag presenter)

on a side note, my germany run has been postponed. sad face. friends decided to stay in town for gay pride day.

[brkl]

  On 8/3/2012 at 9:23 PM, Sean said:

In the spirit of cool bikes you can actually buy -- a newly released, small (250cc!) bike from Cleveland Cyclewerks if you're looking for a round-towner or just getting into riding. It's got awesome old-school styling and retails for like 3k new.

That looks exactly like the kind of bike I would want to own if I lost my mind and actually decided to get one.

[Arucardo]

  On 8/3/2012 at 9:23 PM, Sean said:

In the spirit of cool bikes you can actually buy -- a newly released, small (250cc!) bike from Cleveland Cyclewerks if you're looking for a round-towner or just getting into riding. It's got awesome old-school styling and retails for like 3k new.

This reminded me of a clip on the Drive youtube channel about this bike:

[The Killstar]

Hell yeah, that Bonneville video I posted is from Ride Apart. The only thing I'm worried about on those is the build quality. But for 3 grand I suppose you could spend a bit upgrading.

[chickenontheceiling]

had quite a ride today.

[The Killstar]

VERY COOL.

[The Killstar]

GAH, that's huge. But these are the states and provinces that I have hit on my 2 wheeled trips. If I can convince my boss to let me have two weeks off next summer I'll be adding half a dozen or so.

[chickenontheceiling]

why the blue and orange?

[Nappi]

Elmuerte can answer that.

[The Killstar]

Orange=Triumph

Blue=Honda

[uphc]

  On 8/3/2012 at 12:51 AM, chickenontheceiling said:

mr. remo mentioned the book 'finding flow' once a long time ago (by the guy with the absolutely mental surname)

Oooh, I know this one! Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi! (Pronounced something like "Chick-sent-me-high" if the internet's Merlin Mann is to be believed.)

Actually posting to cover a Dream Cast topic, though. Through a combination of hearing about this thread and seeing a friend post his craigslist ad selling an absolutely beautifully maintained 1975 Honda GL1000 Gold Wing (that may or may not be a rad bike; I know *nothing* about motorcycles), I had a dream the other night that I bought a motorcycle. Pretty great!

Except that my brain is stupid, and the entire dream consisted of loved ones telling me it was a terrible decision to spending so much money on a frivolous and dangerous thing, on top of which I didn't even know how to ride it, and where was I going to keep it?

So I guess keep doing and talking about cool things in here, Shitty Wizards. Apparently it has an audience, even among the subliminally disinterested.

[Squid Division]

You should definitely buy your friend's Goldwing. It was a prophetic dream.

[chickenontheceiling]

as soon as i read goldwing i winced. i rode one once and it was like sitting in on a sofa on the roof of a car. BUT that one looks very nice. i say buy it too.

[Squid Division]

Yeah the original Goldwings are pretty awesome.

[Sean]

A guy at TTG has one and I can attest that it is an awesome bike. It's huge but looks and feels small; powerful as hell and a real tourer. I would definitely snatch one up given the chance.

[Timett]

Hello! I'm new to the forums and to motorcycle ownership. My brother owned a custom motorcycle business for a while so I've ridden on and off for a few years now but I finally got certified and scraped together enough cash for my first bike this summer.

I got an 01 Yamaha VStar 650. I was originally looking for an 1100 but ended up going the cheaper route. I don't regret it because this thing doesn't feel under powered at all.

There's my bike. I've tweaked a couple things on it (got rid of the windshield straight away) but I don't think I'll mess with it too much

My brothers and I on a ride. I'm in the middle there. My older bro in the back rides an 06 Harley Heritage. Younger bro picked up a 1974 Kawasaki just to have something to ride while he was in town for a few months.

He turned it from this:

to THIS in like 3 days:

I tossed the ear buds in and listened to the most recent Idle Thumbs earlier today while we rode through Hell and back. Good times!

I look forward to talking (and maybe someday riding!) with you guys

[brkl]

How can that possibly be the same motorcycle

[chickenontheceiling]

[chickenontheceiling]

this app will blow you away:

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=ea93e1ea-a78d-4729-a84a-8abaf7599013&m=false&i=0:0:0&c=0:0:0&z=529.80465184398&d=-1.57838202511349:-0.762086489115695:-0.664796908537665&p=0:0&t=False

excellent for road trips (and made by microsoft!?)

[The Killstar]