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Monday, May 18 VTwin Mama Reawakens ... Changes Coming Up Dear Readers, This last week I have gone through a range of emotions ... from just sucking it up and keep on going the way things have been or letting everything go and disbanding VTM ... and finally, an understanding that I could find a middle ground ... that keeps the core essential elements of VTwin Mama going while also lightening up my own personal load. Key Ingredients and Any Changes VTwin Mama website: the VTM website is the cornerstone. Started on January 29, 2001, the mission has been to help motorcycle riders address the challenges they face in all aspects of the sport and lifestyle. This has been my own personal creative voice with the wonderful help of everyone who takes the time to respond to a letter or offer an observation. It is the part I love the most ... the sharing and caring as an advice columnist while adding innovative sections such as the Motorcycles for Short Riders List, the charts by seat height and engine cc size, and the Fit Charts. It is who I am and will continue to be. VTwin Mama message board: the VTM message board is a wonderful experience for those who love the format. I will, however, be relinquishing the day-to-day monitoring of this useful section. I will be asking for any current members to take over the tasks of monitoring the topics and stepping in as needed in an official VTM capacity. I will address this need later today with the board. VTwin Mama newsletter: the newsletter started as a free service and then moved to a paid subscription base in order to generate some funds needed to support the basic costs of running everything associated with VTM. The weekly newsletter, however, is tying me down in a way I no longer wish to be. I will be sending a final VTM Newsletter to all current subscribers explaining options for refund on the remaining portion of any one person's subscription. News You Can Use: one of the key components of the newsletter was gathering news from around the Internet that directly impacts riders. Marty, my husband, who enjoys surfing the Net for this type of information, will be gathering the news and posting it on this site. Watch for that change coming later this week. VTwin Mama Advertisers: there are three benefits to having advertisers, whether through affiliate programs or direct orders. First, you the reader gets input from qualified companies who seek your business that match your needs. Second, advertisers get an inexpensive path to getting their information out on a well visited site. Third, it generates funds needed to pay the basic bills of web hosting, etc. I will be contacting all advertisers to catch up with them, as they have suffered from a down turn of exposure to my readers because I wasn't updating the site regularly for the last 2 months. VTwin Mama Logo Wear: it's difficult to keep thousands of dollars of inventory on hand ... and even more difficult to decide on what styles and colors to try to offer. I have already moved main T-shirts to an online store, which allows a fantastic range of color choices and logo styles. I will deplete all other inventory this year (although I will keep the current patches and add a new pin soon), whether through direct sales or charitable donations. We'll start with a 50% off sale! At this time I will continue to accept orders paid by MasterCard and Visa ... but by the end of this month, I will turn off that feature and go to a straight PayPal or check payment method. You wouldn't believe what the credit card processing company gouges me for every sale, every month minimums, and even yearly charges at random. It's insane. VTwin Mama Ride Map: I'm going to have to address this initiative later. It's not working like I would like it to ... too cumbersome and the map doesn't show everyone's pin ... and the company, which promised to move us into their newer, more expanded system, has left us hanging high and dry. I'll give it some thought and figure it out. Well, there you have it ... not quite as awful as you or I thought, right?!?!?!?!?! Let's move forward together and enjoy the camaraderie we have come to love. Mama Monday, May 18 Dear Mama, It's been a while since I last wrote you. The last time I did I was just starting to get a real feel for my bike, and than the snow fell after a long winter and about 4 feet of it, I finally got my bike back out and I'm doing super great!!! My first trip out and I had a few butterflies but after a few moments they blew away. 3 weekends ago my sister and I took a drive to town where the motorcycle course was going on, so we stop in to visit. Our instructor was glad to see us. It was a year ago the same weekend since I took the course. We talked to a few future riders about all those butterflies and told them that they can do it we did. And we left. It felt so good to be able to drive in on our own bikes. It just keeps getting better every time I take it out. I enjoy it sooooo!! much. I can take the turns without thinking about it at all. If anyone has a dream to ride a motorcycle and think they can't, Well I'm living prove that you can. It takes a passion and lots of practice. You MUST get yourself comfortable on your bike. And get to know your limits!!! And them it becomes a joy!!! Good luck to the ladies. Till the next up date!! Keep up the great work! Teala Dear Teala, Monday, May 18 Dear Mama, Dear David, Core stock parts for the old metrics can usually be found at Old Bike Barn or on eBay. On my Bike Fix: Lowering the Bike page, you'll find a link to a company that does custom shock shortening work ... at the very least you can talk with them and see why or why not your bike's shocks can be modified. I'm thinking that you would benefit greatly by approaching an independent motorcycle shop in your area. If anything, they may be able to advise you on what's possible and what it's going to take to do what you want. I'd also be searching for a specific Honda Shadow 500 message board ... although all I could find was the more general Honda Shadow.net board. Mama Monday, May 18 Dear Mama, Dear Charity, The Honda Shadow is a great bike ... but mostly you'll find the 750cc size. This can be a bit powerful to start on, but a lot hinges on how you do in your course. Take your course and you'll have a lot of clues to work with then. Good luck on your adventure! Mama Monday, May 18 Moose Racing makes Easy Pull ... it goes in line with the clutch cable. On my BMW R65 I needed to cut the cable to install it. There was also an issue that the slot inside was not cut deep enough and the cable was bending. I emailed Moose Racing about the issue but I dont know if they fixed the problem. I know this may not work for everyone but it is worth looking into. Drew (note from Mama: wow ... this truly looks universal ... and while it won't solve a problem of getting shorter fingers to grasp the actual clutch lever, if you're looking to make the pull easier, this is a distinct possibility to help.) Monday, May 18 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Joe, Monday, May 18 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Amy, Monday, May 18 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Ernie, Get to a practice place and start from the beginning ... duck walks to get your clutch friction zone comfortable and then start/stop drills to relearn the mechanics of picking up both feet together and smoothly to the controls and then back to the ground. A few hours of practice should get you back into the saddle comfortably! Mama Wednesday, May 20 Dear VTwin Mama, But occasionally I will stall, usually when starting. I did this once at a light and just the other day at a stop sign causing me to almost loose the bike (I recovered luckily). Is this normal? What causes the bike to almost tip when stalling? Sometimes I feel like I take 10 steps forward to only go back 5. Is it also normal to feel more confident riding with others than alone? Will confidence affect your riding ability? Thanks VTwin Mama & Congrats on getting married!! Rach Dear Rach, You're in that zone between gaining confidence but not quite having all the techniques exactly perfect yet. It's incredibly normal and you are not alone! Just the other week, after 30 years of riding, I was at a stop light with a group of friends, but something distracted me, so I never downshifted fully and was in third gear instead of first when I stopped. The light turned green and of course the bike chugged trying to get going in third gear. I had to quickly gear down to first while traffic was piling up behind me. It happens! What I also noticed is that for some odd reason, some reasons being odder than others, we tend to look down at the bike when something isn't quite right ... as if there will be some neon sign flashing to tell us what we've done wrong. That starts the wobbles and the bike tip ... because we go where we look. Some folks gain handling control and confidence alone while others do so in a group of friends. Just keep taking your forward steps, chuckle a bit when a step backward happens, and learn from it. Trust me ... eventually the mechanics of riding will give way to more intuitive handling. And then you'll make an oopsie mistake like I did and just keep going. They make for great stories around the camp fire! Mama Wednesday, May 20 I bought a Sportster with after market forward controls. I was happy to have them, but there IS a learning curve. I was extra careful turning, stopping and until I put my feet up without having to "remember" to keep them forward, instead of in the middle, I walked my bike through even remotely tight turns. I took extra care taking off too, as the balance is different. I got used to it, and love it now. The forward position is good to help leg circulation as it creates more extension for your knees and that allows for better blood flow and longer ride times as well. Good luck, Trish (note from Mama: thanks for chiming in with first-hand experience of the change-over!) Wednesday, May 20 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Fun Run, First, if the style suits, you could add handlebar guards like this (just to show you a picture of what I mean)... you see more on motocross bikes where they need protection from anything flying into their hands, but it does cut the effect of the cold rush of air at your hands. Very effective. Next, I've heard people use those hand warmer heat packs ... just slip them into your gloves. Good idea for cold feet too. Those you can get at any sporting goods store. Last, you can explore installing heated grips on your bike. There are universal systems but you have to be careful about the extra load on the electrical system, so check with your local dealer's parts/service departments or an independent bike mechanic. They should be able to tell you what's possible. Mama Wednesday, May 20 We must have seen some of the same videos. I ended up drilling out the whole baffle. It worked GREAT! It did run pretty rough till we had the carbs adjusted. But now it runs and sounds like a new bike. Got the sound she wanted for a fraction of the cost. Thanks for the info and happy riding. Joe (note from Mama: as you noted, a whole baffle removal can require some adjustment then in the air/gas mix, so one should always be prepared for that possibility when altering exhaust baffles, even with a new system.) Thursday, May 21 News Section Added to VTwin Mama Site Dear Readers, Thursday, May 21 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Rocky, While it may seem that contacting a local women's riding group, before one even has a license, is counter-intuitive, in fact, why not benefit from these women's knowledge on getting started?! My Women's Sites page lists a lot of national level organizations, with local chapters, as well as independent groups. Send an email, say hi, and then attend a meeting. You'll find out that not only are you not alone, but that there are people standing by to help you! Pursuing a dream is just that ... taking baby steps towards something you think you might enjoy. No matter how it turns out, you'll never have to wonder "what if I had tried that." Because you did! Thursday, May 21 Hi, I have a similar winter problem. I get to the 'teens sometimes, but for driving to work sometimes it is in the twenties. I bought adjustable heated handgrips. They are great. The only thing they don't do is heat the BACKS of your hands. The handguards might work for that. I might try it myself next winter! The grips are nice and even at 27degrees, my hands didn't freeze at freeway speeds. The backs got cold though and thicker gloves were helpful, but the guards sound like the extra I will need. I seems very hard to find truly warm gloves for women! My DH has really nice ones I got him from the HD dealership. Could I find equivalent gloves for ME? ANYWHERE? No! There were no gloves that came close to his for design and warmth : ( I looked at every motorcycle shop and motor clothes shop throughout the fall, winter and spring in 4 counties -Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma and Sacramento! We women need to complain to the manufacturers! TTFN, Trish (note from Mama: I too have found men's gloves that really do the right job, but often times then I'm stuck with so much extra material in the palm area that I can't flex my hand when I want without punching in the center to grab the grip again.) Sunday, May 24 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Alys, Here is Alys's input on how she got things working: I took the bull by the horns and just started unscrewing
(un-hex-keying?) at the obvious points, and it turns out to be WAY easy.
The guy who advised that I'd need to take my handlebars off because
there isn't enough room to work, well, perhaps he has giant fingers?
Sometimes being a girl (OK, pretty much always being a girl) works to my
advantage. Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Sue, If you look at my Fit Chart: Suzuki and scroll down, you'll see two 5'10" gals on the 2007 model. Note the reach of the leg to ground ... that's a 27.8" seat height ... so unless you're long in the leg inseam, you would probably need to lower the bike. I also see that the saddle (seat) area is very wide, not only in the seat itself, but the frame as well. A lot of times leg reach to ground can be improved by shaving the seat side, but if the frame is pushing your thighs out so much, there's little that can be done to reduce that stretch before your leg can drop down to the ground. Overall I don't see that the foot controls are too far forward, but that's something you'll need to double check by sitting on it. I also recall that when sitting on this bike that the stock handlebar was a fairly wide reach from arm to arm. If you look closely you'll see that the tall gals have a fairly stretched out arm position to reach the hand controls. And also note that this is long bike in its overall length. This means you would most likely need to get a new handlebar so the controls are closer together and then add a pullback riser to get the whole handlebar closer to you. A big clue is to sit on the bike and turn the handlebar all the way to one side. If you can't do that without lifting our of your seat, then a change has to be made or you'll never have easy control in a tight turn or parking situation ... and given the weight (over 700 lbs), you really need that! Can all of this be done? Sure. But you'll have to have a heart-to-heart chat with the dealer's sales and service departments and factor those changes in before buying the bike. It's usually less expensive to get the work done as a condition of the sale rather than after the purchase. If you're buying from a private owner, I'd still talk it out with the dealer to make sure certain options are available to you as noted. Mama Wednesday, May 27 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Joanne, Take a close look where the cable enters into the clutch lever assembly. You should see a knurled knob adjuster ... it's about the size of a quarter, a little fatter, with ridges all around the side. Because clutch cables stretch over time, one can loosen this knob and make an adjustment. But let's do some checking first. So, pull your lever ever so slightly and see that there is about a 1/4" movement before you really have to pull the clutch lever with any force. This is freeplay. When the cable stretches, there is more freeplay and eventually it will be difficult to disengage your gears (clashing noise or it creeps forward even when the clutch is held in). So, in essence, we can move the engage/disengage point of the clutch lever action. Take hold of that cable and loosen the nut. Turn the cable (not more than 1/4 turn), tighten the nut, fire up the bike, and see where your engage/disengage point is now. Remember, too much freeplay and the bike will creep forward with the clutch pulled in ... no freeplay and the bike will have a prematurely worn out clutch. This is a very fine line. Now that you have a beginning understanding, recall that you can always call your local dealer's service department ... since it's such a small thing, they may be willing to adjust it for you or give you a heads up on something I'm not taking into account. Mama Wednesday, May 27 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Big Girl, Wednesday, May 27 Dear VTwin Mama, Just so my readers know, we began noodling this out together via private email as this can take some back and forth to get to the essence of the problem. Readers, what you're now reading is a summary of everything, so that not only can you see how I research this type of question, but so you can learn from it as well. Dear Philip, So, now I'm looking at the Rear Brake Panel diagram for the 250 ... if you correlate your description of a brake stopper arm not reaching the rear brake plate to the numbered parts, I can get your message to my mechanic guru Mark, who helps out when its above my knowledge level. Mama From Philip: On the bikebandit site, the brake stopper arm itself is found on the diagram for the swing arm (part 5). This (is supposed to ) attach to the rear brake panel with parts 9,11,14,16 on the diagram. My brake stop arm is attached at the front, but about an inch too short to reach the mount point on the back. I was wondering about lowering because I figured if the swing arm was swung just an inch or so lower, that the stopper arm would reach. Thanks for the help with this. We have one Honda repair guy here in the 'last frontier' and at $80/hour I wanted to try and figure it out myself. From Mark Zimmerman, author of The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance, who helps VTM from time to time with trickier stuff: Tell your guy to loosen the rear axle and back off the brake adjuster, then rotate the brake backing plate, (what he calls the panel or stopper arm) forward until it lines up with the retaining arm. On that design brake the panel rotates freely and is only held in position by the retaining (torque) arm and some slight tension from the swing arm. BTW, it sounds like someone has had this thing apart and assembled it hastily. I'd pull the thing apart and have a good look at the rear brake before riding it. He may also be looking at missing or improperly assembled parts, but a shop manual will point out the details. Oh yeah, shops around here get between $90 and $125 to work on bikes so he should consider himself lucky. Wednesday, May 27 Traffic Reports for UK Motorways Dear VTwin Mama, Friday, May 29 Hi VTwin Mama, Dear Dusty, What sold me was even in the 1" version, you could sit on it and not feel the bolt that Wayne had placed under the seat! And the cover is removable for washing. So that's my .02 worth! Let's hear from others so you have more input from people who had the same problem. You can do a bit more research by heading to this page on webBikeWorld ... they really offer "no hidden agenda" info. Mama Friday, May 29 Dear VTwin Mama, A while ago I was asking about the Hyosung GV650-UM Cruiser (same company). I had been looking for a first bike for several months, tried many different ones but kept coming back to the Hyosung. I am happy I did as it is well balanced, powerful enough, but not overwhelming for a newbie. The adjustable foot pegs came in real handy for my shorter legs. I will be keeping this one for a while. Ill send a pictue when I get a good one. Safe riding, Karen Dear Karen,
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