elizilla

I had a demo ride on a Spyder and just didn't like it very much. I have enjoyed my sidecars a lot more. The trike I have been considering is one of those Piaggio MP3 scooters. That would be a great around-town scoot, since the area where I live is very well supplied with convenient motorcycle parking, and the MP3 is narrow enough to use it. In particular, the hospital is a parking nightmare, but there is motorcycle parking closer to the main entrance than even the handicap parking. And I expect to be spending a lot of time there. :-(

Hello! Long time no see! I haven't posted much since I sold my 4th gen, but I did go to T-Mac in 2012 on my Super10 - it was great to see you guys there! And this year I moved to a new house with a fantastic huge heated garage. But I have bad news for y'all. I haven't ridden the Super10 since March, because my left leg won't hold me up. And now I can't ride the Ural very far because my left foot is too weak to shift the gears very easily, and I get tired. SO tired. Last week, the docs finally got their @#$% together, and gave me a diagnosis. MS. Obviously we'll be doing everything that we can with the medical stuff. But that's a drag to get into here. Don't ask, ok? I am here to talk about motorcycling, because that is a much more enjoyable obsession. :) Giving up motorcycling is out of the question. But a 7th gen DCT with a slick Hannigan sidecar setup? That might be just the ticket. And at least sidecars are cool! So I am here to ask for pictures of what sort of frame is under that layered bodywork. Any of you 7th gen guys got photos of the bike with the plastic off? I don't have one, the local dealer never got any in, and I don't know anyone local who has one, so I haven't had a chance to analyze whether it's a good candidate for a sidecar. If there's a dearth of attachment points, well, the VFR1200F is a lot of bike and I don't want to create a dangermobile, so I might have to move on and look at the NC700X DCT. It's just that a VFR1200F would be a whole lot niftier. And I need some nifty! I don't intend to do anything right away. I have too many doctor's appointments, and fragile reserves of energy. But by winter I suppose I will settle into a new routine of some sort, and I hope to have room in that routine, to spend the winter fiddling with bikes. I can start drooling now, can't I? So please, share some pictures of the VFR1200F with the bodywork off. Thanks!

Seeya there...

Got one. It's pretty good for my purposes, highly practical. The suspension travel is a bit on the short side for around here. I'm going to put cartridge emulators in it this winter, and see if that improves the front end any. Also I bet the Crossrunner and the Crosstourer are both way more exciting when you roll on the throttle. The Crossrunner has a chain, though, so it's not going to push the NT out of my garage anytime soon. The Crosstourer, though... the more I look at it the more I want it, even though it seems crazy to want another new bike so soon. Am I turning into Skuuter?

I have a pair of Teknic Violator waterproof boots. They are pretty comfortable, far more comfortable than the two pairs of Alpinestar Web Goretex that I owned before them. The waterproofing has worked great in several downpours where every other item of my gear has leaked. They are highly protective, which I tested in a parking incident where another rider dropped his bike and it fell into me, sending the VFR over like a domino, on top of my foot. I was trapped until some guys came over and lifted the two bikes off my foot and freed me. I had no damage to the foot, not even a bruise. They've worn like iron. However they are too warm in hot weather, they're bulky, and if I am not careful about closing the velcro properly a little bit of velcro can overlap the edge and chew up my pantleg. Two weeks ago when I wore them to the Great Big Sea concert and spent the whole concert on my feet and dancing around, I wished I had chosen different footwear. Oh well, it's all tradeoffs - when I left the concert and rode home in the rain I was glad I had the waterproof boots. :) Timmy posted here a while back that he'd gotten a pair of these boots - how are they treating you Timmy? On the way home from T-Mac this year, I decided not to put up with the overheated feet anymore, and I bought a pair of Sidi Vertigo Airs. They are lighter and cooler, and I think they are more attractive. Now that I have added a good padded insole they are very comfortable. I haven't crash tested them yet (and with luck I never will!) but they seem like they would do well. I think they are more well-made than the Teknics or the Alpinestars - when you hold them in your hands and examine them, you can see they are good footwear. I expect they will hold up well. I hope never to get stuck with another pair of the junky Alpinestars.

I'm with phobe on this. I think it looks fantastic and I want one. If Honda brings it here, it could push the TDM out of my garage. OTOH, if Honda brings us the Crosstour, I might become a one-bike kind of rider for the first time in years. Imagine getting down to one bike! Wow. Or I could take my multiple-bike disorder in a completely new direction, get a scooter to race, maybe a real dirtbike... What a fantastic future it could be. Please please Honda, bring us that Crosstour! :)

I vote for calling the CrossRunner a 6th gen and the CrossTourer a 7th gen because that's the powerplant under the bodywork. Remember the 1st gen had a lot of different models with different sizes and configurations, but we called them all 1st gen.

The practical side of me wants a comfortable 200 mile range, shaft drive, hard luggage, and roomy ergos. And I adore Honda V4s. This just might be my dream bike.

Allright, I want one. Probably the one with the ammo case bags and the crashbars, if it isn't too heavy. But I wouldn't kick the other one out of my garage either. Please please please Honda, do send them to the USA...

I don't replace with every tire change, but I should do it more often than I do. Twice I've had them go bad.

Fantastic report! It's fun to see you visiting some of my favorite places, like Hunts Lodge! And I'm so glad that so many VFRD members were able to welcome you. Looking forward to the next installment.

I recently picked up an angle grinder and a bench grinder, and I find I use them for a lot of things I used to use the dremel for. But when you need a dremel, there's nothing else like it.

I'm not looking at this for actual off-road duty. I'm looking at it for terrible roads, but roads nonetheless. In Michigan I think we have more miles of what I'd describe as highly improved gravel, than we have of paved roads. They're wide, with reasonable camber, and in the right season they're often graded to a point where they are smoother than the pavement around here, but they're still gravel. Meanwhile, in the hillier parts of Ohio, or in WV, they pave those type of roads instead of leaving them gravel, but they also have quite a few unimproved gravel roads that are barely a step up from two-rutters. I've experienced this when taking impromptu detours - you can be on a road that's in the map database in the GPS, but it might look more like a jeep trail. And you can be on a paved road that just dwindles to such a thing. Instead of turning around, I'd like to keep going. Even if I do hear banjos. :ohmy: