Highway Pegs

Wait what?  Highway pegs or boards are a safety device?  And the answer is yes.  Yes they are.  Our friend James R Davis over at MSGroup.org has a nice little article on them.  You can read it here.

He points out some very good things about highway pegs or boards.  I can wholeheartedly agree as well.  I’ve been on some longish trips and you’re legs can get very cramped on the pegs all the time.  You can stand up to help alleviate that, but the best solution is to put some highway pegs or boards on your bike.  This allows you to move your legs if needed while remaining safe!

As a matter of fact, this is a project I’ve been thinking of undertaking on the Zombie.

-Todd

Pothole!

Okay, no, the pic is misleading, I didn’t go diving headfirst into a pothole.  I found the pic online and thought it was funny.  However, what I did do is hit a pothole on the motorcycle.  A particularly deep pothole.  Hard.  Very hard.

I was on my way to work and apparently was not awake yet as I missed my usual turn and had to continue on and take the next turn over to the street I wanted.  As I got to this new intersection, I looked over my right shoulder just to make sure no-one was there before I took the right turn onto the ramp.  BANG!  I hit something very hard!  It felt as thought someone had taken a baseball bat and hit me in the palms of my hands as hard as they could!  After the initial pain, I noted that the bike was now running on only one cylinder as well.  I checked for any other immediate damage and didn’t see any so I continue to work, on one cylinder.

At work I was able to look it over better; both mirrors where knocked loose, the right fork was up 1/2″ in the triple clamp, and the license plate was bent up into the rear fender.  Holy cow that was a hard hit!  I borrowed an Allen Wrench from a guy at work (I left mine home) and put the fork back into place.  I tightened up the mirrors with my pliers in my tool box.  I straightened out the license plate as best I could.

After work I rode the bike home, with one cylinder firing intermittently.  Joy.  Once there I tried to figure out which cylinder was acting up.  Of course it then refused to cooperate and decided to run fine.  Okay, I’ll let it go and try to catch it next time it does it.  Well, a week passes before it finally does it.  Of course I am in traffic.  I pull over and yank the right spark plug wire – no change!  So my right coil is going out.  Nice, I just bought these last fall.

So, time for an adventure with my daughter Sabrina; fix the coils!  I have my old set which I seem to recall had a bad left coil.  Take off the gas tank and unbolt the coils.  Then I take off the right coil and set it aside.  I go dig out my old coils (good thing I kept them!).  Now we de-solder the wires to the original right side coil (they were both broken further up).  Next to de-solder the good wires off the now bad coil.  Then solder the wires to the original coil (which I hope works!).  Button the whole thing back up and cross our fingers.

Success!  The old Zombie fires up!  Now to hope they stay working.  I need to find a source for replacement coils as new ones are no longer available from Honda.  Soon I’ll be back with another story about the saddlebags Sabrina and I installed for our upcoming trip.

For now, keep an eye out for potholes!  My accident could have been much worse!

-Todd Quigley

Live to Ride, Ride to Live

I think we’ve all heard the phrase “Live to Ride, Ride to Live”.  I know I’ve heard it a lot.  I usually see it associated with Harley-Davidson, though it has often been associated with motorcycling in general.  In light of a recent pair of unrelated motorcycle accidents, I found myself trying to assuage my wife’s fears of me getting killed in a motorcycle accident.  This phrase came to mind.

Let’s look at it in two parts.  First, “Live to Ride”.  This implies that the purpose (maybe not the sole purpose) in life is to ride.  I can agree with that; there is nothing quite like the feel of riding down a back road somewhere soaking in the view, the smell of the outdoors, and the thrill of hurtling down a road on the seat of a motorcycle.  I find myself finding time to ride any time I can.  I also find myself watching the weather closely, hoping it will stay sunny for a weekend ride I’ve got planned.  All in the name of the ride.

Let’s look at the second part now; “Ride to Live”.  Now this one can have many meanings.  Riding to live being like breathing to live.  A requirement to one’s continued existence.  It can also be read as riding being the only way to live, as in life isn’t worth living without the ride.  However, the way I take it is this; Ride in a way that you continue to live.

I don’t think many people take it that way.  In fact I’m sure that many don’t.  It’s one of the reasons why I write this blog.  How am I sure that many don’t think about riding to live in this way?  Avoidable accidents.  The key word there is “avoidable”.  Many accidents I see on the news, the internet, or hear about from others are completely and totally avoidable.  I hate to say this, but people need to look at the facts.  As a motorcyclist I am at a greater risk to injury in an accident; we are exposed with no metal bodywork surrounding us, we are not safely belted into a car, we don’t have airbags to prevent us from being hurt.  We need to ride like we know this!

One recent accident involved a motorcycle turning on a green arrow when an SUV blew through a red light and hit him.  The motorcyclist died shortly thereafter.  We are all sad for the motorcyclist and his family.  Many people criticize him for being at fault just because he’s on a motorcycle.  I criticize him for not being sure that traffic had in fact stopped.  I don’t go through green arrows blindly.  I cannot count the times I’ve seen someone run a red light.  I’ll slow to a stop and check before continuing.  Sure I may piss off the guy behind me, but I don’t want to get hit.

Another accident involved a couple on a motorcycle who were killed when the car ahead of them stopped suddenly on the interstate.  Again, I am sorry for their families.  Again, we are all sad for them.  Again, many people criticize them for being motorcyclists.  Again, I criticize them for not riding safely; they were following too closely.  In a car, we often forget about following distance.  Cars are equipped with anti-lock brakes, crumple zones, airbags, and seat belts.  The price for following too closely isn’t high as it is on a motorcycle.  On a motorcycle, following too closely can kill you.  Easily.  I practice emergency stops.  I have a good feel for how fast my motorcycle can stop.  I follow a great distance behind the car in front of me.  Yes, the gap is large so people tend to move over into it.  I just slow down a bit, opening the gap.

My wife also said, “well you can’t plan for everything that could happen”.  Actually, you can.  You can practice for bad conditions and emergency stops,  you can ride as if someone is in fact about to pull out in front of you, you can wear all your gear, you can pack an emergency kit.  Basically you can ride as if someone is trying to kill you.  That might be a bit extreme for some.  But the truth hurts, THOUSANDS of motorcyclist die each year.  Someone is trying kill us; we are.

Ride to live my friends.  Yield at intersections, keep your distance, watch for others (they often do what you don’t expect), slow down on curves, practice your riding skills.  Ride to live.

-Todd Quigley

Sue - Safe Rider

Over at the AMA blog “Get Out and Ride“, I read a neat post the other day.  It contained a real life story about riding gear from a woman named Sue.  She won $200 of riding gear from Tour Master with this entry.  Let me share it with you:

I began riding a few years ago and was very new to the riding scene. It was something that I had always wanted to be able to do, and I was so happy that my life had finally stabilized and I had the opportunity to learn.

My boyfriend was my savior and got me hooked up with all of the right things: long gloves, helmet, jacket, pants, boots, etc. Once I was all suited up, I looked like an abominable snowman. For some reason it was not what I had expected. There are a lot of advertisements and publicity depicting riders in much less apparel.  I dealt [with it] and went on to take a motorcycle safety course. I passed rather easily, and we were already planning my big debut on the road.

It was a chilly spring day, Easter weekend actually, when I went on my first ride. Things were going well when I decided to pull over into a parking lot to wait for a few friends that were behind. Bad idea. The lot was full of gravel and potholes, and my inexperience and lack of appropriate braking [experience] sent me on a mission to outer space.

The bike and I went flying — I swear I was airborne for a good minute or two.  I got up a little slow and very angry that I’d just wiped out.  The bike was scratched and so was my ego.  Later in the day I tipped the bike again coming to a stop on a sloped road. I put my short leg down and tipped over… After that, I threw in the towel for the day.

My boots were scathed and filthy. My pants were scraped and so were my gloves. My helmet had a good-sized abrasion on it. I did not have a single scratch on my body. I was sore, but if it weren’t for my gear, I would have absolutely broken multiple bones and had a nasty concussion. That stuff saved me.

I worked in a hospital for a while after that and saw a lot of motorcycle wrecks. They had insane looking road rash. I always tell them how my gear saved me a lot of grief.

I try to spread the word when I can. I wish I could reach the people in tank tops and shorts on bikes. I saw a guy in flip flops once… I’ll never ride without [good riding gear], it’s not worth it for a second!

Pretty neat story I thought.  Let me share another one with you too:

The year was 1988.  It was in September I believe.  I had just started college.  Having restored a 1972 Honda CL175 Scrambler, I was eager to take it to college and show if off.  My trip started off simple enough, put on my helmet, gloves, leather jacket, heavy jeans, and boots.  I checked the bike over, fired it up and let it warm up.  A few minutes later I was off.

A short time after I was headed up the on-ramp to Interstate 81N/17W.  Being a little bike, I had the throttle pegged to get it up to 55 and merge.  Being a little bike, I also had it in 4th gear so I had some power to do so.  Just as I got on the highway, feeling the rush of joy being on a bike, I pulled in the clutch and up-shifted to 5th.

Well, that was my intent anyways.  Since this happened 20 plus years ago, some of the details are vague.  Some details are still sharp though.  Like the feeling in my stomach when I pulled the shifter up and the engine died.  Along with the rear wheel locking up.  So there I was, young, inexperienced, and about to crash.  Hard.

It seemed to take forever, but I’m sure it was more like instant.  I quickly pulled the clutch back in, hoping it would free up the rear wheel.  It didn’t.  Now I was REALLY scared.  55 MPH on the highway, engine dead, drivetrain completely locked up, and quickly losing control – controlling a rear wheel skid was something I did not know how to do.

So I did the only thing I could think of.  I dumped it.  I figured I was going to go down, so I chose the shoulder with gravel and grass versus dumping it in the middle of the highway.  I banked off to the right, grabbed some front brake and leaned back to the left and let it slide.

I landed on my left hip and buttock.  The bike, being much heavier than I, slid on ahead; showering me with gravel as it shot down the shoulder.  I slid on my back and butt hoping not to get by traffic or by my bike.

Eventually (though I’m sure it was quick), I slid to a stop.  So did the bike.  I picked myself up, ran over to the bike and flipped the fuel cutoff switch and the ignition.  Now that the bike was safe, it was time to check me out (funny how we do it in that order!).

Well, I got up and ran didn’t I?  Legs, feet are OK then.  Hands, arms?  Also OK.  Head?  OK.  I pulled off my helmet and noticed it came off rather easy.  Well, a crack straight down the back will do that!  I must have banged my head when I came off the bike.  I checked myself over for more unseen damage.

Well, my jeans had holes in them.  My gloves were torn up.  My jacket looked like someone took a cheese grater to it.  But that was it.  I didn’t have a scratch on me.  I was OK!

It turned out to be a mechanical problem in the transmission.  I don’t need to go into details about it.  But that gear saved my skin.  Literally.  And no, no-one told to me wear all that gear.  In fact, my friends with Harleys (no offense intended) told me I was wearing too much gear.  I read what gear to wear in the New York State Motorcycle Operators Manual.

For that story, I don’t need to link back to someone; that’s my story.  I think I’ve mentioned it in the past, but I felt like putting it out again after reading Sue’s story.  What gear you ride with is your choice.  You can wear plain clothes and no helmet or you can wear a full armored body suit with a full-face helmet.  It’s your choice.  Some riders feel they are expected to wear certain gear depending on what they ride or who they ride with.  Some choose based on their own feeling of freedom.  I’m sure there are many reasons why riders choose to wear what they do.

Me, I taught myself to ride.  My “bible” was that NYS Motorcycle Operators Manual.  I wore what it said to.  I have ever since.  I’ve heard many reasons why riders wear what they wear.  Some say, “I’m not going to have an accident, I’m too careful”.  Others say “I can’t wear all that stuff, I feel claustrophobic”.  All I can do is choose what I wear.  I cannot tell you what you should wear.  Only you can do that.

So, read our stories.  Think of them what you will.  If they get you to think twice about your riding gear, great.  That’s all I ask.

WD-40

Yes, you could be riding around with a bomb in your luggage.  James R. Davis over at msgroup.org has an excellent safety tip that I’d like to share with you.  He states that if you have a can of WD-40 in your luggage, it could become punctured in an accident, if exposed to flame or spark it could explode as well.  Many manufacturers are switching propellants due to the ozone depletion.  Some propellants are flammable.  Please look at the warning labels on any aerosol products you place in your luggage and ensure that they are not flammable.

The last thing you want in an accident is a secondary explosion.  So please, if you are carrying anything like WD-40 in your saddlebags and/or cases, check the labels.

-Todd Quigley

1983 Honda CX650 Custom

As some of you may know, I own a 1983 Honda CX650 Custom.  Some of you may not remember or even care, though some of you may find it interesting.  The CX650 was the last in a short-lived run of an odd design by Honda.  It started in 1978 with the CX500, a simple and reliable motorcycle.  It soon became popular among couriers in the UK for it’s rugged reliability.

The CX500 however wasn’t what you would call a “normal” motorcycle.  The engine was a V-twin, not necessarily an innovative idea, but Honda decided to stick in the bike sideways!  The configuration was similar to the Moto Guzzi motorcycles, with the cylinders sticking out on either side of the gas tank.  Honda paired that up with its shaft drive to get the power to the rear wheel.  They also made the engine water cooled, enabling it to handle a wide temperature range without trouble.  This was unlike an air cooled engine in which overheating can be a problem if the motorcycle is not moving fast.  Add in the comstar (a cross between spoked and alloy) wheels and an electronic ignition and you had a very low maintenance, rock-solid motorcycle.  It was never a high-performer, but it was easy to ride and maintain.

A few years later, Honda tried something new with it.  In 1982 they added a turbocharger.  If you search around the internet, you will find reviews on that bike.  It was a masterpiece in modern engineering.  However, it wasn’t quite up to the performance Honda was looking for.  So in 1983, Honda bumped the engine size up to 674 cc’s.  The new CX650 Turbo took the world by storm.  It could easily keep up with the 1,000 cc sportbikes.  I’m told on good authority that there is nothing quite like it.  Honda decided that since they had this new 674 cc engine, that they would use it in the rest of the CX line.  So, along came a GL650 and the CX650 Euro and Custom.  The Turbo, GL650, and CX650 Euro had already existed as 500 cc versions so were not changed much besides the larger engine.

The CX650 Custom was another thing entirely.  A completely new design sharing very little with anything that came before it (or after it for that matter).  In styling, it looked a lot like the 1983 Honda 750 Shadow and the 1983 Magna’s.  Though they looked similar, they shared almost no parts!  By 1984, sales for the CX650 series were not what Honda had hoped for.  They decided to halt production.  Some say the CX650 Custom was cancelled because Honda didn’t want to compete with itself with the 750 Shadow.  But since the entire CX650 line was cut, I’m more inclined to say they saw the low sales and dropped the entire lineup to concentrate on the more “American” Shadow lineup.

Whatever the reason was, the CX650 was dead.  So, if you are the kind of person that roots for the underdog, or enjoys having something pretty unique, a CX650 Honda might be for you.  There are some drawbacks to a unique piece of history though.  Parts, or the lack thereof; Honda made the usual amount of spares for a motorcycle but 28 years have passed and most of those spares have been used up.  Ebay has become my new friend when it comes to parts for the CX650, though it can be rough sorting through improperly labeled stuff.  Another problem is that a 28 year old spare part sometimes is no better than my current 28 year old broken part.  As time passes, parts are going to be harder and harder to find.  Owners of the CX650 Custom are starting to look seriously at alternative sources of parts; other models of Honda produced around 1983, other makes of motorcycles, and aftermarket parts that can be modified.  For instance, my water pump seal is a known weak point.  This means that the parts are disappearing at an alarming rate.  One savvy owner decided to track down another source.  Turns out, 2005-2007 Yamaha FZ6 motorcycles used the same part source!

Now we come to the point of my discussion, the 1983  Honda CX650 Custom Infosite.  I’ve taken it upon myself to put together a single source of information for my motorcycle.  That way if someone needs to get parts for their bike, they can find everything on my site.

• Need a copy of the manual?  Download it off my site.
• Need to know where a part can be found?  Click the link on my site.
• Need to know how to do something on your bike?  Read the how-to on my site.

As time passes, I hope to add more and more to my site so that my fellow CXers can continue to keep our bikes going for a while longer.

Grifter License Plate Storage Box

Hello again!  I could swear I covered this before, but I can’t find it in my posts!  Anyhow, today’s fun f ind is the Grifter Storage Box, a neat and convenient way to store your important papers on your motorcycle.

Here is the description from J&P Cycles website:

 - Weather tight and lockable, The Grifter is a small storage box that hides between your license plate and bracket.  Ingenuity Infusion designed it to work with all state plates.

 - Use it to store your insurance and registration papers, small tools, tire pressure gauge, etc.  Complete with mounting fasteners, document pouch, lock and two keys.

 - Tough polypropylene body with O-ring seal and stainless steel lock .

How neat is that!  And it’s only about $20!  You can even buy a foam insert that you can trim to hold small items such as an air pressure gauge or flashlight.

I hope some of you find this useful, I’m hoping to get one soon for my bike.  That way I won’t need to keep my papers in a zip-lock bag!

-Todd Quigley

Motorcycle at Traffic Light

I read one of James R. Davis’ safety tips about paying attention.  He brought up some good points that I would like to expand upon.  You can read his article here.

Basically what James says is that you may be paying attention, but you may not be aware of your surroundings.  He gives two solid examples in his article.  What I would like to add is a bit on “how”.  How do you become more aware of your situation?

First, you do need to pay attention.  That part is important.  Second, you need to be thinking of possibilities.  Say you are riding down a street and there is a dog in a yard that is starting to bark and run toward you.  You need to pay attention to the dog, but you also need to think about the possibilities.  A child could run out from the other side, or a car could back out of a driveway.  You need to react to the situation while keeping in mind the other things that could happen.  In this situation, you should definitely slow down first.  Then you can take a quick look at your surroundings while the dog is coming to you.  You do not need to fixate on the dog the entire time.  This way you will be confident of your situation when the dog gets to you and you can concentrate on handling it then.  You do know how to handle a dog yes?  If not, I’ll do an article on that next Monday!

So to summarize, pay attention first, then get a feel for your surroundings.

-Todd