I almost dropped my Shadow today.

[dentheman]

In front of my house, I'm at a stop sign, going to turn right. I give her some throttle and let out the clutch and she stalls. It was my fault, she was in second gear. Luckily the right footpeg held her up at about a 45 degree angle instead of folding. I will tell you that lifting 500+ lbs of dead weight from that angle is no fun. I took her home and parked her for the day, then took a couple ibuprofen as my lower back was complaining a bit. This brings out one thing I don't like about the Shadow, that is that when in first the shifter still has downward play, as if in some other gear. So I keep pushing the shifter to insure it is in first, and the one time I don't do it, she is in second. I recall when riding a GZ during the MSF course that the shifter wouldn't move down any further when in first, giving a positive indication.

I have also had a couple somewhat close calls of cars pulling out in front of me from the right. It was obvious those drivers were surprised once they saw me. These things have all happened within one block of my house, at low speed. I much prefer riding on a highway to riding in a residential area.