List of things Mako needs done to her

* Need to get a rear stand so that I can change the oil / lube the chain more often.
* Need to get the fuel injection looked at to see why I'm getting so many FI errors when trying to start her.
* Need to get new tires sooner rather than later.
* Need new rear brakes badly.
* Need to replace the chain soon.
* Need to replace the front cowling that I so foolishly cracked the second day I had her.
* Need to replace the bent piece that the gear shifter bolts on to.
* Need to order a new wind screen.
* Need to have her put on a dyno and have the Power Commander remapped.




Anyone have a grand lying around that I can have?

Only 3,925 of them are mine but it was still pretty so I took a picture.

So ... this wasn't done because I'm overly loyal to the bike or something crazy like that. My tattoos tell a story of my life, at least to me. They remind me of particular time, particular events, things I want to remember. The SV will always be "my first bike" so no, I'm not going to get new ink for every bike I buy in my life. Funny story though. I actually fell asleep while he was doing it. I woke up to him and my buddy laughing and when I looked over, the dude said "you're freaking me out, man. It's like tattooing the dead." Hahahaha ... oops.

here's some pictures from today's ride and the link to all the ones I took today. I'm tired.



( Read more... )

Tomorrow's ride ...



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It's 64 miles just for me to get to the damn meetup point in Tonopah. hahaha

If you zoom in north of Wickenburg though, you get to see the fun twisties. This'll be my first trip through the White Spars and I'm damn excited.


Oh ... bike turned 19,000 miles today. I'm 14 miles away from 3,000 on my own. It's been 7 weeks.

I saw her sitting there for a long time. Not quite sure what she was waiting for. I was still about 100 yards away so I just kept my eye on her. She was in the little inlet for left turns, heading northbound. I was in the right lane of three lanes, heading southbound. What is she doing? There's absolutely no cars on the road in front of me. None. I kept my eye on her and slowed a little as I came closer, knowing that she would probably do something stupid.

About 30 yards away ... Yup, there she goes. It's as if she was waiting for me to get closer just so she could take aim. She begins turning left in front of me into some residential street. Luckily, I was prepared and had already slowed to let her through. But then she must have realized that she missed me and god forbid, you'd make it through a day without attempting to kill a motorcyclist. She decided to change her mind and turn her left turn into a u-turn. Oh joy.

I continue to lay on the brakes and unfortunately, my rear wheel locks up. Now, I know for a fact you're not supposed to release the rear brake if it locks. Just ride it out. Oops, I must have forgotten that part. I let up on the brake and the wheel does a nice little wobble, effectively saying "What have I told you about letting me go???". Luckily, my speed had reduced enough to where this didn't toss my ass high side off the bike. I was able to control her and continue on.

I pulled up next to the lady at the next light which wasn't far down the road. She was old. Never looked at me. Never even knew I was there. Frankly, I'm not sure she even knew she was driving at the time.

Time to start practicing my hard braking again.

This is the first weekend since I had the bike that I didn't ride at all. I'm not too fond of that fact. I just had other stuff to do so I didn't get into any rides. When I did try to get people to ride, they either made plans and then had to back out or just couldn't make plans at all because they had other stuff to do. I very well could have just gone out on my own and ridden. I have no qualms about that but ... I didn't. Honestly, I feel stressed now. Riding is a release for me and I always feel better after getting off the bike but this weekend, there was none of that to be had. I might be meeting up with my ex for coffee tonight and if I do, I'll ride there but that would just be Tempe or Scottsdale. Not exactly a trip to Prescott or SRC.


I did wash the bike today. But I fucked up some stuff. I don't even know how. I removed the wind shield because it had some dirt/water marks that just wouldn't come off. I took it inside and scrubbed and scrubbed ... nothing. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that the stains are on the inside of the plastic because in all honesty, with as much scrubbing as I did, that thing should be squeaky clean. I might just buy a new one anyway. I like the smoked look more than the one that's on there now so it wouldn't be a complete waste.

Anyway, I went to put the wind shield back on along with the mirrors and all of a sudden, there was nowhere for two of the bolts I took out to screw back into. I have no idea what the hell happened but now the wind shield is on there with two less bolts than it had before. It's still sturdy but I'm confused what the hell happened. I mean, there's literally no thread to screw into anymore. Then, when I went to put the mirrors back on, one of the screws simply will not go in. It's as if the screw is too big for the threads it's screwing into but that can't be because I just took the fucking thing out of there. So now that mirror is on there with only one bolt until I can figure out why I can't get this one to fit back in. Obviously a situation that will not do at all. I feel like an idiot though. I can't even get "unscrew" and "re-screw" right. Maybe this is why I never work on my own shit.

So yeah, I'm frustrated. The bike is clean but it hasn't been used like I wanted it to be this weekend. It's also not complete and that drives me nuts. I've put over 2600 miles on this thing and I was hoping to get close to, if not reach 3000 this weekend. Oh well ... on with the new week.

It was a full day.

I woke up this morning and had told a couple friends that I was going to call them to plan out a time to go on a ride. Met up with Josh at a QT on this end of town and we rode out to Andi's house. Lynette showed up just about the same time as we did. Soon after, we were off to Rock Springs Cafe in Black Canyon City. We were disappointed to learn that they stop serving breakfast at 11:30 and we got there at 11:45. Bummer. So we ate lunch, then Josh and I decided to head North on the 17 so we could hit the winding roads before you get to Sunset Point. There was too much traffic for it to be as fun as it could have been but it was still nice to get some speedy turns behind us.

We met back up with the girls about 30 minutes later in New River, gassed up and headed out to Lake Pleasant. We had a good time being lost around the lake area, not knowing where to go in order to actually have access to the water but we eventually found it. Andi and I got in the lake while Josh and Lynette just hung out on the "shore" and chatted. The water was freezing but it was fun. Lesson learned: bring sandals next time. Yeah, lakes don't have sand. I was pretty much standing on jagged rocks the entire time I was in the water.

Once we were done there, we all headed back into town. Josh and I waved goodbye to the girls and grabbed some slices at Ray's, then we headed back East.

It was yet another great ride bringing me to 2,300 or 2,400 miles on the bike. I can't complain much about that at all.

Some lady in downtown Phoenix pushed me out of my lane today as we were coming to a red light. Of course, as always, I expected it so it wasn't a big deal at all but I can't just let things go so I stay right next to her, look over and realize she's having a nice little chat with her passenger, not even paying attention to driving which is obviously why she didn't see me next to her when she decided she just had to be in my lane. So ... I'm right at her window and decide to roll on the throttle. Popped it up to about 8,000RPM. Never seen someone's head spin around so fast. I almost felt bad, I scared the shit out of her. Maybe next time, she'll think to look for a motorcycle before just swerving into another lane. Probably not though.

What a great day. It started with my alarm at 4:45am. Got up, got showered and headed out to Scottsdale to meet up with a fellow rider. After downing a much needed cup of coffee, we headed out to the Carefree Highway to meet up with everyone else. The cops were out in full force that early in the morning so we just took our time and still got there with plenty to spare before kickstands up. There were 10, maybe 12 bikes in todays ride. We all headed up to the I-17 and on to Rock Springs Cafe.

It was windy as fuck this morning and that made this particular leg of the trip a little more challenging. Breakfast was good and that was the only planned portion of the ride but no one was done riding so we all came up with different things to do. The group I joined in on decided to head up to Prescott. The ride up there was good. I was riding sweep (not intentionally ... I was just the last person in line) and dropped back quite a bit for a while due to the wind. Surprised myself when I looked at my speedo and found out I was doing 105. I didn't have an intention of catching up. I was just riding my own ride as they say but I ended up catching the group right as they were about to get off the Cordes Junction exit (to Prescott).

We got to Prescott and stopped for a few to relax and enjoy the weather. It was a gorgeous day all around, minus the wind in certain parts. The other guys were planning on heading back to Phoenix through the White Spars and Yarnell but I still don't think I'm ready for those kind of twisties so I decided just to go back the way I came. I said my goodbyes and hung out in downtown Prescott for a while, enjoying some coffee, staring at some gorgeous women and just relaxing before the ride back.

Heading out of Prescott, I almost got side swiped. Well, not really since I was expecting it (as always) but I know I scared the shit out of the driver when I rolled on the throttle in order to get out of her way. Other than that, there were no near-misses or anything of the sort.

When I got back into town, I headed to my sister's house (as I frequently do when I'm up in North Phoenix). Checked my phone and found out the Suns were up by a crapload at halftime so I laid down and watched the rest of the game as well as the rest of the Diamondbacks game (both of which my teams won). Then ... headed home.

It was a great day. A great ride. Met more cool riders, learned more about my bike and about riding in general and got to spend some time in Prescott. I'm racking up the miles quite quickly, I must say. I need to get a new rear brake but I found a shop that'll do it for $45, parts and labor included. He also says he can remap my Power Commander for probably about $75 (instead of the $250 quotes I've been getting). He said he charges $75 per hour to put the bike on the dyno and he says he can get the job done in an hour so ... worth a shot.

Okay, that's my day of bike news. Now I'm gonna go relax. :)

It's going to cost me about $250 to have my Power Commander remapped. I'm not thrilled about that and it's not going to happen anytime soon because I have more important things to attend to with upcoming monies but eventually, it'll have to be done. The bike backfires on deceleration and it's annoying as hell but again, I don't just have $250 lying around right now.

Other than that, the riding is going awesome. Today is the one month mark for me owning this bike. She still hasn't told me her name. Been on two group rides and going on another one on Sunday morning. I have about 1300 miles under me so ...

I was going to look into registering for the Experienced Rider Course at T.E.A.M. Arizona since I could have sworn they said that you should have 500 miles done before registering. When I went to the site to look at the info though, it says they prefer about 6 months of riding experience. I'm not sure I'll wait the full 5 more months but I guess I can put it off for a couple and just get out there and practice more. I may end up just saying "fuck it" and registering sooner than later. I mean, what's the worst case scenario here? I learn too much? It's only $100 so compared to the $285 for the Beginner course, it's a steal.

I ordered an owners manual for the bike. I need to learn this bike, learn how to access things that may need tweaking. Learn how to properly maintain it. Once that comes in and I'm a little more comfortable with knowing about the bike, I'll order the Clymer so that I can learn how to actually do some of my own maintenance and repairs. Since I'm rapidly putting miles on the bike, I imagine it would be beneficial (and cost-effective) to know how to maintain and repair it when necessary.

Okay, the end.

Ride to Bartlett Lake ...


So I can't tell you how awesome the group ride was today. Met up with some eastsiders in Tempe and we rode out to Cave Creek to meet the rest of the group. That ride in itself was fun. We had breakfast in Cave Creek and there were tons of people ... so many that we had to break the ride into three groups. We rode out to Bartlett Lake and just had fun with the winding roads. Nothing too twisty and there were plenty of sandy spots to avoid but all in all, it was incredible. I now have over 1,100 miles logged since getting the bike and that was less than a month ago.

Riding with a big group like this was definitely fun. Their philosophy is perfect (no rider left behind) and they always have someone riding sweep to make sure everyone's okay. I got my coin too (means nothing to you guys but trust me, it's a good thing).

I have some pictures that other people took but I'll only bore you with a few of them. Great times. Can't wait until the next ride. Met a lot of awesome people too.

( I'll even put the pictures behind a cut so I don't piss you guys off )

So I've been so busy with life that I've forgotten to update this for the last however long. It probably hasn't even been that long but oh well.

Got the bike registered today. I went to the Mesa MVD a couple weeks ago to do it but they told me I needed an emissions test and I didn't want to fork out the money at that point so I just got the 30 day registration and held off for a while. So today I went in and got the emissions test. Passed without a problem. Went to the Tempe MVD where they proceeded to tell me that I did not, in fact, need an emissions test and that they could only register my bike until November at which time, I WILL need an emissions test. Another one. Fucking stupid.

Oh well, the bike's finally legal (well, as legal as it can be with a vertically displayed license plate). Technically it was legal before but there was just nowhere to tape a piece of paper (the temp registration) without it flying off in the wind.

So yeah, that's done. Had the safety inspection done and I'm going to need to replace the fluids soon but that was expected. Learned a bit about how to take my bike apart and such. Got some chain lube, etc, etc.

Taking a group ride with the guys from southwestrides.com (too lazy to link it) to Bartlett Lake on Sunday. That'll be a good time. My first exposure to twisties and such. They have a 'leave no rider behind' policy and the sweepers will stay behind you no matter how slow you need to go to be comfortable so that's good to know going into it.

All in all, just getting some miles under me (over 800 so far in less than a month) and will probably look into the Intermediate Riders Course at T.E.A.M. Arizona soon.

I'll write about the ride Sunday evening or Monday. Until then ... ride safe.

I realized this morning that I've put over 700 miles on the bike since I've had her. 737 to be exact. I bought her on March 22nd. I've owned her for 24 days. I think that's a good amount of riding in that time. I've had some people tell me that they put 200 miles on theirs in two months. Makes me wonder why they even bothered buying it.

I was going to wait a bit longer to take the Intermediate MSF Course. They say that you should have 500 miles by the time you consider it. I thought I maybe had 300 or 400 ... Apparently I was wrong. I think I'll sign up when I hit 1,000. Judging by the way things are going, that should only be another week or two.

Time to learn more. Oh wait, I do that every day.

Went on my first group ride today. It was an "Intro Ride" meaning for beginners and since this was my first group ride, I figured what better ride to start with?

I'd tell you where we went but I think I'd rather let Google Maps tell you since I'm tired and want to take a nap.



It was a great ride. Not too many of us and we were accompanied by three guys who have been riding for quite a while. One led and the other two generally stayed back to make sure the group was okay. Once we got on the Southbound stretch out West, the two guys in back started showing some of their skills and it was quite entertaining. :)

It was perfect for my first ride and now I'm all kinds of excited for my next one. Maybe I'll even brave some (minor) twisties next time.

So I've been riding more lately. I'm still shaky on my turns and I think it's solely due to the wreck because I was never shaky on them before. I'm having to teach myself to trust the lean. I notice (and my buddy notices) that I don't lean much now when turning which of course makes for an awkward turn. I just need to trust mybike, get out there and practice a bunch.

I met a guy at D&D Discount Motorcycles ... one of the customers there ... and he was going to head out with me sometime and just follow me around and give me pointers. He's been riding for 20 or 30 years and is part of the Arizona Drill Team so I figured he would be a good guy to learn from. Last I heard, we were going to head somewhere around South Mountain because he said he knew some good, low traffic roads for me to practice on. Well, I called him up Saturday night to schedule something for Sunday and he says "Well, my brother-in-law just got a new bike and we're going to head up to Sedona. Do you want to come with us?" My first reaction was "hell, yes I do" but once I accepted the offer and hung up the phone, I realized that Sedona, much like every other destination, is not a straight line from here and not only would I have to turn, I'd have to do so at 70+ mph. Butterflies started flying around in my stomach and stayed there for the rest of the night. I realized I wasn't ready. Keep in mind, he knows I'm new and he said he didn't care how slow we had to go, how many times we had to stop, etc. He told me not to worry about the turns and assured me that I would be okay but I realized that it wasn't solely up to him or even me. It was up to my bike. I just don't think we're close enough yet that she'd trust me with a trip like that. So I called him up in the morning, a half hour before I was supposed to meet them and told him that I was going to pass.

Saturday night though, I did get out to the Pavilions and met a buddy of mine. We rode around town for a bit, down to South Tempe, hung out with some friends and then headed home. It was kind of nice riding with someone. I didn't know how I'd react to it but just having someone else riding next to / in front of / behind me gave me that little bit of increased confidence. He didn't make anything crazy for me, never got too fast, etc. He made a couple of quick turns that I didn't expect and once we stopped, he told me he did it to see how I'd react and apparently, I did well enough.

I guess right now, it's just about spending some time and gaining my confidence. I've obviously got the basics down. I just need to practice, practice, practice until I feel comfortable with the longer trips. Then I need to practice some more. I've only got about 200 miles under me. I think once I hit around 750-1000, I'll sign up for the Intermediate course at T.E.A.M. Arizona.

So I did some practice runs in the parking lot next to my apartment complex yesterday. Just a lot of hard braking practice, swerving practice, stuff like that. It went well. I don't last long practicing in parking lots though. It gets boring. I know it's good for me and all but ... how many times can you start and stop like that? I took a few runs around the block, just to get some more street time in and everything went well enough. The purpose for this was that I knew I had to ride to work today and tomorrow since my cage doesn't have enough gas (it's 30 miles each way) and I won't have money to put gas in it until Friday.

So yes, this morning, I woke up early enough to have time to get ready and hit the road before the real rush hour started. I was nervous last night and when I woke up. I mean, I'd been on the freeway before but that was Easter when there were far fewer cars on the road. I didn't know if I was ready for rush hour but I didn't have a choice. To my surprise, the nervousness went away once I geared up. It just seemed like business as usual. Took the HOV lane most of the way which was nice. Had a truck tailgate me for a good 5 miles but I made sure that I had all my escape routes plotted out just in case. I was just as aware as ever and rush hour proved to be nothing more than the same streets with more cars to keep an eye on, something that came easy enough. The only times I got a little nervous were the bends in the road. After taking that spill in a turn, turns make me a little nervous now which is something I'm going to have to get over quickly considering nowhere I want to go is ever straight ahead.

Plotting out my way back home, I think I'm going to end up going out of my way to avoid one simple stretch of road. From the I-17 to the I-10, the ramp that takes you through is a good solid, consistent turn. Not a big deal in and of itself but toss in the fact that this particular road is elevated probably a good 40 or 60 feet from the other roads crossing below it and ... let's just say my nightmare is low siding on that and sliding right off the fucking street to the collection of random vehicles passing below. If the fall didn't kill me, the cars would. I know that's incredibly unlikely to happen but damn, it's intimidating. Part of me just wants to go do it so that I can prove to myself that it's no big deal but I think I'd rather get more confident in my leans before tackling that.

So yeah, I made it to work this morning without incident. I'm going to head over to D&D (the shop I go to) and hang out for a bit, chat with the guys, get some quotes for things I need to fix up on the bike. I moved further away from them so now I don't get as much of a chance to get in there.

The end.

So my buddy helped me out and put the new gear shifter on the bike this morning. I tested it out and everything works perfectly. There's little evidence of the drop ... a scratched up rear foot peg, minor scrapes on the front left blinker and then, of course, the crack in the front fender. I'm not fixing that yet though. I have to give myself some time to learn and it's not going to impact the performance of the bike in any way so ... I'll just keep an eye on it.

Didn't ride much because we were doing other stuff too but I took it up and down the road just to make sure all the gears were clicking properly and such. First time I was able to wear my new jacket. It feels nice. I can tell it's well ventilated and will help in keeping me cooler in the summer.

I joined up with SouthWest Rides and everyone there is very welcoming. They have all kinds of rides for all kinds of skill levels so once I get more parking lot practice (for low speed skills) and more miles under me, I'll join up on one of those. A couple people already told me to just send them a message when I was thinking about riding, even just around town, and they'd meet up with me. Honestly, after some of the "scenes" I've been in, I think this one might be a nice one to get involved with.

So yeah, I move tomorrow which will make it near impossible to get in any good riding or practice time but hopefully I'll find time after work throughout the week and then be able to dedicate all of next weekend to just getting used to my bike, practicing what I learned in the MSF course and just generally getting more comfortable, more "one" with my new baby.

Here's all the minor damage that was done to my skin from the fall ...

( Cut for those of you who don't want to look at this every time you open you friends page )

Yes, crash6767, I'm now in the market for some good overpants. I need better boots too. These are just the ones I bought at Payless to get me through the MSF course but I could use a higher boot.

Live and learn. As you can see, the damage is quite minimal. Only other thing that came of this was my shooting shoulder pain (go figure, on the right side, the side I didn't fall on). I'm hoping it's just a pulled muscle but sometimes the pain feels like a small fracture. We'll see how it feels in a week.

Despite getting my new gear shifter in a couple days ago, I still haven't had time to put it on. I have to move this weekend but I don't own a lot of stuff so I'm figuring I'll get the gear shifter on Saturday morning and then move stuff Saturday afternoon and/or Sunday. Then ... off to the parking lots.

Got my jacket today.




All that's left is pants and better boots than the cheapies I have now.