On a steel horse I ride...

[CDNSushi]

Some of you may already know that I love my two-wheeled transport. Rode a lot while in Japan, so figured I'd feed my addiction in Canada too. Plus, motorcycles and scooters are ideal transport on the island! Year-round riding FTW! Shortly after moving back to Canada I bought this:

(Yamaha V Star 250)

Which is an amazing bike, and a lot of fun to ride. But I belong to a club who is having their big annual weekend-long bash (bender) waaaay up in Alberta, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to doing my imitation of a mosquito in the wind for 2 straight days from Victoria BC to Grande Cache AB. Also, when you get to about 90km/h or higher, the engine seems to rev really high and whine. I wanted something beefier, heavier, and more stable for the long trip. (And a bit of extra comfort wouldn't hurt either).

So I just pulled the trigger on my bike's big sister... The V Star 650 Classic. (In club colours too, I must add) Now I'm totally stoked and looking forward to the trip in July!



Added bonus: driveshaft instead of chain, and c/w windshield and saddlebags.

Ok. That's my news of the week, and show-and-tell. Your turn! What do you ride? Piccies, please! :-) Let's see some bike p0rn!

[unixken]

Big fan of shaft drive, here. Years ago, owned a Honda CX500, a GL1200 Goldwing, and a Kawasaki ZG1000A1 Concours, all shaft driven (and all liquid cooled.) A clean reliable setup, very low maintenance, smooth, and consistent. Purists may balk, but I say great choice, for the long distance.

Sweet ride you have there. I hope you enjoy it for years to come. All it needs now is a tartan paint job. ;)

EDIT: Should have had Scott make you some saddle-sporrans.

[Tarheel]

My mom's dad sat me in front of him (half on the seat, half on the tank) of a 1958 BSA four stroke bike in 1961. It was my first ride and I have been hooked since. I am a sucker for "old school" machines with chain drive, no windshield (which I rue often) no bags and a saddle seat. My 2001 Kawasaki 800 "Drifter" is ideal with modern inventions (radiator, hydraulic disk brakes, and better suspension design) Fashioned after the 1948 Indian Chief, my bike allows riding kilted. The power is 800 cc but the total weight (with me and fuel) is only 850 pounds. It gets a bit interesting in cross winds on the highway. That just adds to the thrill.

[Father Bill]

V-Star 650 Classic here too! Love it!

[ccook]

I built this VStar 650 about 4 years ago.

[ratspike]

I've always preferred two wheels to four. I didn't even learn to drive until I was around 30, and that was only because I wanted a motorcycle and had to have a regular drivers license. Up to that point I rode a bike everywhere. My first moto was a well used Ninja 250, which I put a lot of miles on until it finally got stolen. My current ride is a Suzuki Vstrom 650 that I bought new in 2007. It's still comfy after 12 hours in the saddle, does pretty well on gas, and does just about everything pretty well. The v twin motor is bomber. This is my second Suzuki twin and I have no interest in going back to an inline bike.



Sadly, the Vstrom only gets out once a week because I do all my commuting by bike. Currently it's only two days a week but will be going to five pretty soon. The moto is faster but all things considered, the bike is the better choice unless I'm time crunched. Since I'm done with racing and virtually all my riding will be commute miles, I decided to sell off the stable and build the one bike to rule them all. It's a 43-50 mile round trip, depending on the route, so I wanted a bike that I'd be stoked to spend that much time with.

[Laurence]

LOL!!! Gives a whole new meaning to the words "circuit rider" in my mind! Enjoy!

[O'Callaghan]

Last bike I had, a long time ago, was the old 750 water-cooled Suzuki. Someone stole it from me! Nice bike, but I'm not sure I need a big road bike anymore. I have been toying with the idea of getting a small dual-purpose bike, so I can ride it off road and still use it to get from A to B on occasion.

I have a short inside leg. I'm 5'8", but also have a long body and short legs for my height. My old Suzuki allegedly had a 31" inch seat height, but that was with the stock seat, which had been replaced long before I bought the bike. Ironically, if I was looking at, say, Harleys, I could comfortably place both feet flat on the ground on one of those, but trail bikes, even small ones, seem to be much higher, especially the monoshock ones.

The Yamaha TW200 looks like something I might be interested in. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I have nothing against more power or more weight, as I am used to dealing with a 70 bhp road bike that weighed over 500 lb, but I don't want anything that is way up in the air, or anything that is too big to really be genuinely suited to off-road use, and whatever I get it will probably never travel more than 30 miles away.

[Tobus]

Congrats on the new ride!

What do you ride? Piccies, please! :-) Let's see some bike p0rn!

I actually got out of motorcycles altogether a couple of years ago, for various reasons. But this was my scooter for about 20 years. It was a 1973 Harley-Davidson XLH Shovelhead, customized out of its AMF parts. I ran an S&S carb, Andrews performance cam, drag pipes, etc. It was loud, fast, and angry. It leaked oil like any proper vintage bike should (I preferred to say it was marking its territory). It would set off car alarms in adjacent parking lots when I rode by. And if I rode the gears down when decelerating, it would jet some nice flames out the pipes. It was pretty obnoxious, actually.

[Tarheel]

Tobus, you should know by now that pre-AMC Harleys didn't leak; they marked their territory. This from a former 1971 900 Sportster XLCH owner-operator.