BigLenny

And that Ladies and Gentlemen, is a mic drop moment. Very well said Great White! Now, drop the mic and walk off the stage.

Yes. And the biker should get ticketed and never ride a passenger again.

Hey Guys, I'm already in the vacation planning mode for next year. We are aiming toward heading out west to California and ride the PCH and go up north to put Oregon, Washington, and Idaho on our ride maps. Here's the deal though; I'm gonna trailer my bike from Little Rock to at least Amarillo, or maybe on farther to N.M. or AZ. We've ridden across that area numerous times and are pretty set in our minds that this time, we aren't willing to put up with the long droning miles of OK, Tx, and maybe N.M on the bike. Even trailering it, once we get on the bike and make that large loop, we're probably still looking at putting 3000 miles on the bike for that trip. Anywho, Does anybody have an idea of where I could leave my truck and trailer out that way for about 10 days? Thanks, BL

Okayyyyyyyy. I see whats going on here. You guys are yanking my chain just to get a rise outta me. I can see it now. Y'all are all sending PM's between each other saying "hey, lets all disagree with BigLenny, the ol country boy from way down south, and see how much we can get his rebel dander stirred up". Well, I'm here to tell ya that it ain't gonna happen! I love you guys too much. LOL.

NO NO NO, Puc!! You know I highly respect you and I would never allow myself to ever have hard feelings toward ya. This is just a conversation here. So, let me say this; THIS GUY IS A SCUMBAG!!! He is as wrong as a 3 dollar bill, and he needs to go under the jail for life! I AM IN NO WAY WANTING TO IMPLY THAT THESE ARE APPLES TO APPLES OFFENSES!!! They are not! I'm only saying that the illegal biker guy, if he would've exercised patience and not decided to break the law and just stayed put until he could've passed in a legal manner, there could've been, not definitely for sure, but there could've been a different outcome here. The old hot headed jerk clearly stated he was upset about him passing on a double yellow. If he was passing him on a dotted line, maybe the Scumbag wouldn't have reacted like he did. Who freakin knows? Lemme ask this hypothetical question; If the biker was illegally passing, and when he got to the old man, and lets say the man wasn't a hothead but he didn't even know he was coming and turned left into a driveway and plastered the biker, what would we all be saying? We would be saying the biker put himself in harms way by passing on a double yellow line. We would be saying he should've never been trying to pass on a double yellow line and putting himself and his passenger at that moment in time. LOL.

Rick, My wife and I wear Nolan's and love them. We have the funky N43 Trilogy's. They have a chin bar that can be removed by the click of two levers. I bought them because they have a much wider area of vision than a traditional full face or modular helmet.

Absolutely the guy would be wrong to try to run you off the road! And the guy that ran him off the road is wrong and should go to jail for a very long time. And, running down the freeway at 80 is certainly different than breaking the law and crossing a double yellow line and speeding to pass two cars illegally, while not even having a legal license to be on the road. The guy shouldn't have even been there at that moment in time to begin with.

Dang! That thing looks clean! Good job.

Sailor, I probably shouldn't have used the word "consistantly". The statistic i gave was from an article I read a few years ago in Rider Magazine. The article was about an extensive study that had been done on motorcycle accidents. The study had not just looked at police reports, but had actually looked at the circumstances leading up to the accident, and what the motorcyclist was doing and what situation he had put himself in before the accident. How many were avoidable if the rider were to have been practicing the correct motorcycle riding protocol. The study showed that over 70% were rider error and were avoidable due to the rider either purposefully or absent mindedly putting himself in harms way based on proper motorcycle riding protocol. One of the examples I remember was a biker that was killed on the interstate because a tractor trailer driver changed lanes over on him and ran him off the road. This accident of course went down as caused by another vehicle. So it would technically be in the 70% you talked about in the hurt report. However, the study of the accident showed that the biker had allowed himself to get caught up in the flow of traffic and wound up riding beside the big truck too long and the big truck driver basically forgot he was there when he changed lanes because he was in his blind spot. Thus creating a rider error of breaking a key safe motorcycle riding protocol of never allowing yourself to ride for an extended period of time beside a semi truck. Absolutely there are a large number of motorcycle accidents that are caused by cars that were the cars drivers fault, but the study showed that a very large part of them were completely avoidable by proper riding technique. I'm not going to say "we have all done it", but I am going to say I have certainly done it. I have let my mind slip and then realize I'm riding in a pack of cars too tight, or I'm spending too much time in someones blind spot, or I didn't put myself in the correct lane while going through an intersection, etc. Now, as far as the accident we've all been cussing and discussing; I absolutely believe the old man driver of the car is criminal and wrong (I voted criminal on the pole) and should be prosecuted. Heck, stick bamboo shafts up his toenails and burn him at the stake for all I care. He needs to go to jail, and never be allowed to drive again. And, his insurance better be paying for the accident. Buuuuuuttttt.........I stand by my statement that if the idiot on the bike would've been riding by true motorcycling protocol and staying patient waiting on a "LEGAL" passing zone, instead of breaking the law and putting his and his precious cargo's lives at stake, the whole event would've been avoided. And I'm not going to even start explaining another rider error he made by getting on the bike with illegal license. This accident will be recorded as "caused by a car", thus it will fit beautifully into the Hurt Report of 70%, but the fact is, it was avoidable and rider error. The passenger of the bike should sue the knucklehead rider for being negligent and putting her in that situation.

Statisitics consistently show over 70% of motorcycle accidents are rider error. This is a very clear visual of what happens when a rider makes an error and allows himself to become impatient and puts himself in a situation where something bad could happen. He made another error to break the law and pass tow cars ON A DOUBLE YELLOW line and guess what? Something bad happened. By allowing himself to break one of the cardinal rules of riding a motorcycle, which is to excersize patience at all times, he made a mental error which put him in a situation where he would cross paths with a man who probably doesn't like motorcycles and surely doesn't like people breaking the law and passing him on a double yellow. That man then more than likely broke the law by assaulting the rider and his innocent passenger. This could've all been avoided if the rider would've followed one of the critical rules of riding a motorcycle: Patience Patience Patience.

If money is a discussion here, the Wing is the hands down winner between these two. You can get a full boat loaded Wing with CB, GPS, and all the fixins for way less than a Roadmaster. And the aftermarket accessory offering for the Wing dwarfs the Indian. You hear people say the Wing is the bike to get for long distance touring, and that is true, but it's a wicked great bike in the twisties too. If you take all of the skin off of a Wing, what lies underneath is a big sportbike frame. A few years ago the Discovery Channel did a special on the Goldwinig, and it was darn impressive. Honda commissioned their top sportbike designer to design the current Wing, and he was on the show talking about his overall thoughts on how they want the Wing to be a perfect mix of long distance tourer and performance bike on the technical roads. So, you might be asking yourself if I'm so high on the Wing, then why don't I own one? The answer for me is very straight forward. I have had 6 knee surgeries (sports injuries), and the neutral sitting position with my feet directly below me and slightly behind me doesn't work for me anymore. And, I'm 6'6" with a 37" inseam and the fairing rubs against the front of my knees which drives me crazy! I know you can get highway pegs to stretch your legs out, but the fairing and engine heads are so wide, for me, when my feet are on the highway pegs, I feel pretty much like a woman feels at the OBGYN. LOL. I think the Indian is an appealing ride. It's unique and looks like no other bike. And having a bike that not many folks have really turns me on. But, the heat that we experienced on the test ride that day, and the fact that their dealer network is at best anemic, and the price being higher than eagle feathers, ugh, not for me.

Slowroll, They are certainly fun to test ride and are interesting looking bikes, but, go with the GW. You'll be a lot more happy when you need to find a dealer while on a trip. We test rode one when it was 90 degrees and man, the heat issue is something i'm not gonna tolerate. Good luck to ya. Big Lenny

Glad ya made it home Bongo. Yep, put the trike away for a spell. It's time to start thinking about how you're gonna spend that bankroll during the holiday season.

The 2009 DL650 VStrom was the World Bike of the Year. I have cousins that are brothers. One rides a 650 VStrom and the other rides the 1000 VStrom. Both guys absolutely love them. They are durable trouble free bikes. The cousin that owns the 650, he and his wife rode it two up for 2 weeks out west and did over 4000 miles, and the bike performed perfect. They also rode 2up for 10 days with us on a San Antonio trip. Hung right with us. He eventually bought a BMW R1200RT for their long touring, but he still rides the 650 VStrom back and forth to work and all of his local riding. The bike now has 150K miles on it. I say buy it.

Statisitics consistently show over 70% of motorcycle accidents are rider error. This is a very clear visual of what happens when a rider makes an error and allows himself to become impatient and puts himself in a situation where something bad could happen. He made another error to break the law and pass tow cars ON A DOUBLE YELLOW line and guess what? Something bad happened. By allowing himself to break one of the cardinal rules of riding a motorcycle, which is to excersize patience at all times, he made a mental error which put him in a situation where he would cross paths with a man who probably doesn't like motorcycles and surely doesn't like people breaking the law and passing him on a double yellow. That man then more than likely broke the law by assaulting the rider and his innocent passenger. This could've all been avoided if the rider would've followed one of the critical rules of riding a motorcycle: Patience Patience Patience.

I don't hate the Dragon at all. I do fully understand that it is a well marketed motorcycle tourist destination, and as such there are going to be a lotta folks riding it at any given time. However, when we've ridden it, it has been in the middle of the week, so we had no traffic issues at all. Also, I wait at Deals Gap and stake out the traffic just long enough between bikes leaving ahead and bikes following us to ensure I won't get pushed. Usually when I'm riding it, somewhere in the middle of the 11 miles, I become aware that I have a big goofy looking grin on my face. LOL. Now, as stated in previous posts on this thread, there are a buncha roads around the Dragon that I would rather ride because they are pure Zen inspiring paths.

I used to work with a guy that experienced a interesting event. He was a motorcyclist and he and his wife were riding one day when a lady made a mistake and pulled out in front of him and his wife. They almost went to the ditch trying to avoid the lady. This guy was also a tad bit of a hot head as mentioned above. My co-worker then proceeded to make a series of unfortunate decisions. After the scare of almost being hit, instead of sitting and trying to calm down and reminding himself that people make mistakes, the ole "hot head" thing kicked in and bad decision #1 happened. He chased her down as hot heads sometimes do. Then when he cut her off to get her stopped he committed bad decision #2, he got off of his bike and took his helmet off, I repeat, he took his helmet off, and preceded to approach her as she was getting out of her car to apologize to him, and he started down the path of ragingly chewing her out all up in her face. Well, what transpired next was, well, downright hilarious. The female driver proceeded to whip my co-workers a** because she was in stark fear from his aggressiveness. It turns out she was a nationally awarded martial arts trained competitor. She broke his nose and and gave him some other considerable injuries. The whole thing did wind up in court and he had to pay her a settlement because it was decided to be she reacted in self defense. When he started chewing her out he had made an aggressive gesture with his hand that made the woman feel like he was starting to throw a punch. Man, there is nothing worse than getting your hot headed a** whipped in front of your wife. By ANOTHER WOMAN!!!! God, we laughed at him for a while after that. As a matter of fact, I'm still giggling about it right now while I type this. LOL!

As I stated in my earlier post; the Yamaha corporate people at BBB said they were going do an announcement on Oct 6th, then one in November, and one in December. Obviously the October one happened, so I wonder if the other two are for real?

That was exactly my thought Marcarl. Sounds like the fellas default mindset isn't safety. Hopefully the crash will start him down the path of maturing in that area.

Ditto.

Looks the same on the US website. The only consellation is the people at the Yamaha factory test ride event said they are going to make new announcements in October, November, and December. Guess we'll see if that's true. Prolly not. They look like they are going the way of Suzuki as far as their styles of bikes they're interested in.

Oh Good Lord, Zzyzx! Wait! That dude with the hat had a buncha relatives there Saturday.

Dang it, Mike!! You and your photographic memory! I stand corrected. LOL.

I hate Crooks!

Barry, NOt sure if you have decided yet, but you mentioned Hot Springs, Arkansas in your original list. Arkansas is well know as a hotbed for great motorcycling in the middle part of the country. Hot Springs was Americas first Las Vegas, and has a ton of great history to read and learn about. Plus, you could take a hot bath in one of the 150 year old bath houses downtown. Any direction from Hot Springs is awesome riding. And the leaves will be turning for a beautiful sight. Let me know if you are gonna head this way and I will make time to meet up with you. I live in Little Rock which is 40 miles away. I'm in Hot Springs all the time with my sales territory. As a matter of fact, I'm there right now.