Recently my wife and I met a man named Joe Cubbage, a Motorcycle racer at Laguna Seca Raceway. He was talking to be about how the motorcycle I bought is set up suspension wise for a person between 130 to 170 pounds. However, I am a football player size kind of guy. In my bare feet I'm almost 6 foot 5 inches tall. With shoes on I am 6 foot 6 inches tall and with black almost knee high riding boots on by Red Wing I am about 6 foot 7 inches tall. Then the really critical thing for riding and braking and taking off the line in 1st gear, my weight. Since I am a football player size of guy my weight is usually between 300 to 330 pounds which would be twice the weight of one average rider. So he was telling me that this might stress the chain and pull a lot on the front crankshaft through the front sprocket. Also, he said I should get new front sprocket with one less tooth. This would lower my gear ratio and give me more power in 1st gear but would lessen my safe top speed on the motorcycle but also give me more power to compensate for my weight in all gears.
The second thing he said was that the front and rear suspension should be altered for my weight. Also, he said that since my wife is not a light weight either, that I shouldn't ride my motorcycle with her on dirt roads and that I should ride about 100 miles at least on my motorcycle on easy roads around where I live before I try to ride her on the back and that the suspension should be modified before I do that.
However, I'm thinking that I might wait to modify my front sprocket until I ride the first 600 miles of break in below 4000 rpm because there would be a tendency for me to exceed 4000 rpm with one less cog on the front sprocket until that time. I'm only at about 100 miles right now on my odometer so I still have 500 miles to go for the initial break in period on a new bike.
I'm really happy with my new bike and got it in Gilroy, California because Steve, the owner there is a real straight shooter and gave me a great deal on it. I went there with a friend who rides a white tanked Harley. I think it is a 1995. He is a retired Car Dealer owner and recommended Steve and Hi Gear in Gilroy as Steve is a real straight shooter he said. So after buying the bike we rode over hiway 152 to the coast through the redwoods. However, even though I had taken a college course at a local community college taught by a policewoman and with CHP help on the saturday riding experience in a large parking lot on two Saturdays, I hadn't ridden out on the open highway in 20 years since I was about 40. I immediately got into trouble twice. The first problem was that on a new motorcycle the bike doesn't like to go back down into 1st gear and so only went into 2nd when I downshifted at a traffic light in Gilroy on our way out onto 152 so I killed the engine when the light turned green. So I wouldn't slow up the traffic I quickly pushed the bike with my legs out of traffic. In a few weeks if I was more experienced I would have simply quickly restarted it and took off. But traffic never was my forte as I have always been primarily an off road rider in San Diego county and in the deserts of Yucca Valley California and finally at my A-Frame in Mt. Shasta California where I rode the dirt Roads a lot way out past McCloud and up onto Mt. Shasta up to 10,000 feet during the 1970s on the dirt roads there and all around the mountain. However, most of those roads have now been closed by the Forest Service.
Anyway, as my friend on his Harley started up the mountains and into the redwoods on 152 I got into trouble a second time because I had forgotten that you can't start a left curve at the center line with an oncoming car without hitting the car when you lean into the curve so I straightened up in the turn to avoid an accident and braked heavy with my front and rear brakes, went to the right outside at about 20 mph and resumed my turn. My wife was following my friend and I at a distance in her Lexus and was oblivious to all this, however, as she isn't a rider, just a passenger on a motorcycle.
I was chagrined that I forgot something this important but glad I had survived it. Then it was wonderful as it was a hot day of at least 90 degrees on the Gilroy side so it was a wonderful ride up the mountain to Mount Madonna through the redwoods and down the other side into Watsonville. However, when we neared the coast we got into some windy colder weather so I stopped and got my jacket and a necklet that I sometimes wear for skiing by Marmot to keep my neck warm in the ocean winds. So my friend went on so he could get his car and pick up his kids from school but eventually hit heavy winds. He called later because he was worried about me riding a new bike and not having ridden for 20 years. I think he was traveling much faster than I was because I was trying not to take the rpms up too high (above 4000 rpm except in emergencies) because I was breaking in the bike so when I hit the wind it almost knocked my helmet off my head and buffeted me in the winds for almost half an hour. I was grateful to get home where I didn't have to worry about the winds anymore. All in all it was an amazing fun adventurous day and a new beginning for me.
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