Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Yo, Alan C. good buddy.......

When you're done with those "big bike" training wheels, could I borrow them for a while ??? :cry:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I wonder where the Mr. Alan is too?
Hello, there....
Um, he might be busy with his new bike's kind forum????
New mission, find Mr. Alan..................>>>>>

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Did you get some of that Road Rash??

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

You didn't drop that 07 Shadow did you Easy? If so, I hope you are not seriously hurt and neither is the Shadow, sweet bike!

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Say it ain't so, Easy!

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

You alright?

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

NO!

I'm severly PISSED at how stupid I was. :cry:

0 mph drop. Only casualty=1 tail light lens.

I still can drop a bike garcefully so I guess that is good news.
(OK, make that safely; it really wasn't all that graceful!)
And I can pick it up by myself.
Oh, and there was NOBODY around to see it! :tup:

Two lessons to be learned:
1) Never say never
AND
2) The GZ is a great little bike but it is TOO forgiving. It lulled me into some bad habits. What I did on the Shadow wouldn't have even been noticed as a mistake on the GZ.

I had stopped to back into a parking space. Had the wheel turned hard left; pushed back a bit and noticed my right foot was a little out of position; squeezed the front brake......flop, over she went. The real mistake was starting to back up while being just a TINY bit out of balance. I've done it a hundred times on the GZ and it was no problem; just "throw" the little beast around wherever you need it. Add 100 lbs. and different geometry and you can't be that sloppy anymore.

I knew all that from previous bikes but the GZ just made it all too easy. Rude awakening.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Glad you are okay, and the bike only suffered a minor injury! I'll take what you are saying to heart since I just changed over to the Kawasaki Vulcan 500 and it's about the same difference in weight that you experienced with the Shadow.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

You said in another post "A Shadow will lay over on it's right side, continue to run and sustain no damage.....other than a broken turn signal lens.

(Wonder how I know THAT!!!) ", but here you "Had the wheel turned hard left;" and squeezed the brake. Which side did the bike fall over on? Wouldn't it fall over to the left side just as if it was going forward? :??:
Glad you had no damage scraping the tank or bending shift/brake linkages, mirrors, etc., :) and you didn't get hurt, the only casualty is a little plastic lens and your pride. :cry:

The best part was that no one was there to see you do that. :poke2:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

No, with the front wheel turned to the left and the bike going backwards, the mass is moving toward the RIGHT; applying the brake (at .001 mph) stopped the wheel from turning but didn't stop the mass of the bike and rider from continuing to go RIGHT......because I had let it lean slightly that way to begin with and then was positioned wrong to deal with it.

I should never have started the manuver knowing that something just didn't feel quite right.

In that situation, I agree that no witnesses was the best thing. :tup:

If you fall down and get hurt, you get sympathy.
If you fall down and DON'T get hurt, you get ridicule !! :cry:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I guess the lesson is something like: You can ride the GZ most of the time without really even thinking about the mechanics of controlling the bike. It's fun that way. With a bigger bike, you need to pay a little closer attention to the details, especially with very slow manuvers.

Having come "down" from bigger bikes in the past, I am more comfortable with the handling of the Shadow. It seemed that I always had a tendency to over-steer the little machine. Have you noticed that it takes just a tiny bit more effort (maybe a more conscious effort) to get the the Vulcan to turn ??

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

At this point I've put less than 40 miles on it,(just got it last night about 7) and I haven't really been out on any really "twisty" roads much yet, but I did notice that the turning radius in my driveway was a LOT larger than the GZ.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Well, from my perspective, Easy, I appreciate you sharing this with us. Really a warning to us relative newbies to not let your guard down. If it can happen to a guy with your knowledge and 40 years of riding experience, it can happen to us in a heartbeat (not that what happened was that big of a deal, but now imagine letting your guard down on a fast turn or at an intersection . . .).

I read somewhere that the two "cohorts" most likely to get in an accident are brand new riders (makes sense), but even more "relatively" brand new riders (2 - 3 years riding experience) because they overestimate their skills. Yours is a cautionary tale to us all to keep alert, always.

Keith

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I think it's just part of the learning curve. I'm up to ~3000 miles on the Strat and I haven't had any more "incidents", although I wouldn't say I am out of the woods. I have been very careful to stay off the front brakes when the bike is leaned over and in slow (parking lot) turns. It just takes time to adjust to the heavier weight and what you can get away with and what you can't. Part of my problem I think was riding the GZ during the week and the Strat on the weekends. It made it harder to dial into the handling characteristics of the bigger bike.

I'm riding the big bike almost exclusively now and, as soon as gas prices go back up, I will probably sell the GZ. I might hang on to it as a training bike for friends and, possibly, family, but it's not good for it to be sitting in the garage waiting for the occasional "maintenance" ride.

Glad you didn't break anything other than a taillight. You'll get over it in pretty short order.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Oh, so NOW you tell me about the front brake ??? :neener: :biggrin:

I'm over the drop already; rode it home and felt fine.

Now, the beating I'm getting here.......that is quite another matter. :cry:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

The beating is not for dropping or letting the bike lay down and break a piece of replaceable plastic. The beating is for telling them. Why did you do that? :poke2:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

In retrospect, it does look like a mistake, doesn't it. :cry:

No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Beating? What beating? This is nothing. I think you're projecting. :poke2:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Easy, maybe getting the drop over and done with is a good thing. Now you can concentrate on riding. :rawk:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

:poorbaby: :jo:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I nominate WW as the GZ250BIKE.COM forum diplomat. Seems like you always have something positive to say, WW. Never met a Canadian I haven't liked (and living here in Michigan, I've met a lot of Canadians!)

Keith

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

OK, Patrick, you're right.
I'm done whimpering.
Screw you all !! :neener: :biggrin:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

You know you deserve it. :redflip:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

you only lost a lens, be thankful cus it could have been much worse and you could have been too care free with the bike in a different situation and got hurt.

i almost got hit today. well not really i saw it coming and slowed down before the lady that was not paying any attention pulled out. this may have been stupid but i got close enough so that she knew she has almost hit me when she did start to pull out. she did see me when she was about half way into my lane and slammed on the braks, it looked like she was pissed and im pretty sure she was cussing me out from in side her car. so i gave her one of these :redflip: and one of these :pissed: drove past her and turned the corner.


:biggun: :crash:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

A guy I work with just bought a Harley Sportster 883R with stainless Supertrapps, etc. a week after he got it, some woman turned out in front of him he laid it down to avoid broadsiding her, busted his leg, wrist and did about 3,000 in damage to the bike (Mostly the cost of replacing those Supertrapps and the headers).

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

that really sux, i hope the lady stopped. people need to pay attention to what they are doing.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Yep, she stopped, & got the ticket for failure to yeild. Of cousr her first statement to him (As he was laying on the ground) was "I didn't see you, you should be more careful" :roll:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Sounds like the H-D rider was assumimg people can see him. Headlight on or not, people on the roads are not programed to see anyhting smaller than a car. Ride like you are invisible. Both our bikes have extra running lights, headlight modulators and we still have the odd idiot try to take us out. My new helmet is Pearl White which should also help a bit but that is no reason to be asleep behind the bars.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

true, i know it is hard to see bikes at times. but there is a difference between the person that just dosent see you and the person paying no mind to what the hell they are doing. like the lady that almost hit me, she was talking on her phone who never even looked in direction i was coming from until she already started to pull out...

she was looking down at her phone, put it up to her ear, looked to her left, pulled out and than looked to her right.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Well done. You were looking for yourself and for her because she was too busy multitasking. As many riders will say "Ride like you are invisible". If don't already do it, use your hi-beam during the day because the GZ is a pretty small visual target to home in on. A single headlight gives other drivers a poor depth perception but at least they might notice you.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

My wife has commuted for about two years on a Vino 125 through some busy streets in downtown Oakland and Berkeley. Some people, what ever they're on, feel like they have to go around her because she is on a 'little' scooter regardless of speed. She also makes a smaller target than the GZ, and so people are constantly not seeing her. What I've picked up from her experience is that basically, watch everyone pulling out, changing lanes and generally asserting themselves in her comfort zone and hit the horn if they look like they're thinking about doing something stupid. There are some real dill holes out there who get a wounded pride at being beeped at by a small woman on a scooter, but that's what lane splitting and the CVT transmission are for (taking off from stoplights).

One of these days I'm going to replace the stock horn with one that has a little bit more bite.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Them little suckers are FAST.......0-20 or so !! :biggrin:
I got smoked by a girl on one while going through Nashville on my GZ trip last summer......TWICE.
I thought the first time was just a fluke. :shocked:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Sorry, I just can't agree with you on that point! Everytime I've come across someone riding/driving on high beam, I've had to turn my head away so they don't blind me. All this means is that I am then not watching what they're doing. It's also the same when someone comes up behind me with high beam. It shines straight in my mirrors & makes it uncomfortable for me to drive. All high beam does for me is piss me off. If the idiots can't see low beam, they sure as hell can't see high beam either. :??: O_o

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

That's not all it means. It also means YOU SAW THEM and acknowledged their presence, which is the whole point.

The high beam is much more visible than the low in every circumstance.

All bikes should use it ALL the time.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Still don't agree with you. O.k., I've seen them, but then when I have to turn away because they're blinding me, that's when I'm not watching what they're doing!

Also, if it pisses me off, & I ride bikes, What's it going to do to the car drivers? You'll probably say that it doesn't matter, because they've seen you, but I reckon that a pissed off driver (& there are plenty of pissed off rednecks on your roads) is more likely to do something stupid- "gee officer, that idiot on the motorcycle blinded me, so I just couldn't avoid hitting him"- Like I already said, if they cant see low beam then they're not likely to see high beam & recognize it as anything more than "some sort of bright light in the middle of the road". I think that it is more a thing about them being so empty headed as to just not register ANYTHING around them, as to a brighter light making them realise that there are ANY other vehicles on the road.

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I've just thought about something else regarding high beam - I don't know what the laws are in America (or over here in Spain either!) but in England there are pretty strict laws as to when you can use high beam, fog lights etc. (including rear fog lights) so as not to blind people or cause a nuisance. Seems like the law makers must be on pretty much the same wavelength as me :roll:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

This might be a first.......let's see if I can't arbitrate this a bit:

High beam is slightly more visible on a day with bright sunlight (or mostly bright) and, with your eyes already conditioned for the bright light, there should be no reason for it to "blind you".
HOWEVER.........
Under circumstances of LOW light, including times when headlights are required by law, high beams are not a good idea, partly because of what Alan said and also because it would be illegal.
(Guess he said that too!)

:popcorn:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

Rear fogs are one of those things that should be on cars here in the states, I'll never understand our DOT. My SAAB has one, of course it was delivered without the bulb in place to keep the DOT happy. I use it whenever it's raining, foggy or we're having brush fires and the smoke starts up, makes a big difference in making my car visibile to cars coming up from behind. I think, only Volvo, SAAB and Jaguars have them even in place on US models. Mini actually removes them and puts a blanking plate in place. :roll:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

I've got no problem with that......as long as the bulbs or lenses are amber and not white.

There is a very good reason for not allowing white lights on the back of a moving vehicle.
Imagine driving in a dense fog and seeing white lights suddenly appear in YOUR lane in front of you. Are those rear fogs or oncoming headlights ??? Quick, you only have a split second to decide! :skull:

Re: Shoulda kept the GZ.....sigh
 

As my memory tells me, Volvo used a red fog light on the rear eons ago. A rear white fog light would be asking for trouble.