Outgrowing Your Motorcycle Part 1

By Joe Baylor | Sunday, July 29, 2007, 06:51 AM

As to not embarrass anyone we will call the first friend Dave. We are out riding one day and every time we would leave a stop sign or traffic signal he would end up 400 yards behind and I would have to slow down to allow him to catch up.

When we get back to his house I ask why? He tells me he’s dogging the gears and just can’t keep up. I take his bike around the neighborhood and it accelerates just fine. I ask him when he is shifting and he tells me 5 mph later than the owners manual recommends. I laugh and tell him to try 20+ mph past and he might be dogging the gears. The next time we ride together he’s right with me each time we pull away from a stop. With that little piece of advice he is going from 0 -60 in 6 seconds instead of 12.

Three weeks later he rides another bike that has an additional 200cc’s and now he wants a more powerful bike. He doesn’t need more power he needs to learn how to get the most out of the one he has. It’s a cruiser with plenty of get up and go. Unless he plans to have a passenger riding with him frequently what he has is good. If he wants to go faster solo he needs to come to the dark side and purchase a sportbike because it’s a waste to get going that fast only to have to slow to a virtual crawl to make the upcoming curve.

Shiny Side Up.

Joe

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