Alright so when I started riding it just so happened that a bunch of my buddies also bought bikes (I know trend setter right?) jk anyway I've alway rode cruisers and customs. The closest I ever got to owning a sport bike was a Radian and the only reason for that was the fact that I bought it mint for $800 in small town Wisconsin and sold it in the twin cities two weeks later for $2300. If it hadn't been for my first bike getting totaled, I would have never bought the Radian. If I had never bought the Radian I would have never sold it and had the money to buy my first XS. If I had never bought that bike, I would have never learned to rebuild a motor or weld or design a motorcycle from the ground up, and I wouldn't have rode my bike today and I wouldn't be typing this post right now....weird how things like that seem to work huh?
Anyway point of the story is I finally got the bike all tied up, just need a couple more things before she's truly complete, but its ridable as is. So I called up some of the guys from the old crew, I was expecting them to roll out on the bikes they had last time I rode with them which was last season....nope almost every one of them has a sport bike now. One ninja 636, another 600r, a yammy R6, and a gixxer 600. The only other cruiser was my buddies vstar 650. My best friend who's visiting on R.A.P. from the airforce right now tailed in his mustang pony.
Anyway this was the first real time i've pushed this bike to any type of extreme, and let me tell you the thing is a maniac. Apparently a hardtail bobber isn't really a beginners bike, I have to manhandle this thing like none other. This bike acts so differently than my soft tails, it's one of those situations where if you get scared and let the bike do what it wants to do or if you freeze up you'll be on the ground or off the road in a second kind of situations.....like 80% of the time lol. I'd never ridden a rigid frame until this bike and I have about 200 miles on it total... so there's my experience lol.
But these rocket guys were taking corners like it was the track. I watched multiple times as they touched their knees to the ground (I had been wondering why they all had padded pants) Meanwhile here I am trying to keep up. Not gonna lie I pushed my little xs just about as hard as she can go today. I was surprised to find that she barely keeps up with a v6 mustang....that was frustrating. I didn't expect to keep up with the rockets but I was hoping she'd at least beat the stang... However i was not the slowest lol the vstar took that award.
Lessons learned today:
1. If I ever fall off my seat I am losing all hope of having children
2. Hitting bumps on a springer seat at 75 MPH launches you about 6-12 inches in the air
3. Trying to downshift, while hand signaling a turn, and braking at the same time (especially while hitting "Slow down! there's a stop sign ahead!" rumble strips will cause an immediate speed wobble.
4. Hitting road snakes in the corners sucks
5. I need a rear brake
6. No matter how fast your bike is it will never get as much attention as the custom bike rolling next to you
(got about 10 
from people today)
7. Even after eating the back end of an audi and then the highway on my last bike, I will never give up riding unless i'm dead or dismembered
8. Suddenly I'm riding a bike that isn't shunned by the Harley guys, However those same guys seem to either have an uncontrollable need to hold a sound off or race every time I end up at a stop light next to them.
9. Every bolt on my bike needs a lock washer
10. My bike can do a ton up
11. And last but not least....I don't think there's any better feeling than finally getting down the road on the machine you've been pouring blood sweat and cash into for the whole season with some good ol' friends.
It's a great feeling riding a bike I now know so much (yet so little) about and have built from the ground up. Kinda makes you feel connected in a strange way when you ride it...like there's some type of mutual agreement that goes something like "Alright b*tch I won't try and kill you if you don't try and kill me....unless you piss me off...then we're both dead" kinda thing.
All in all I finally got to experience the moment I'd been waiting for all summer and get out for a full day of riding on the old machine. Hopefully I will get many more out of her and she won't go down in a ball of scrap metal and flames like my last bike.
P.S. Not only did she come out unscathed, but she healed her own wounds. The base gasket miraculously sealed itself and stopped leaking oil. I guess that heat treatment stuff just needed some time or something.
Anyway point of the story is I finally got the bike all tied up, just need a couple more things before she's truly complete, but its ridable as is. So I called up some of the guys from the old crew, I was expecting them to roll out on the bikes they had last time I rode with them which was last season....nope almost every one of them has a sport bike now. One ninja 636, another 600r, a yammy R6, and a gixxer 600. The only other cruiser was my buddies vstar 650. My best friend who's visiting on R.A.P. from the airforce right now tailed in his mustang pony.
Anyway this was the first real time i've pushed this bike to any type of extreme, and let me tell you the thing is a maniac. Apparently a hardtail bobber isn't really a beginners bike, I have to manhandle this thing like none other. This bike acts so differently than my soft tails, it's one of those situations where if you get scared and let the bike do what it wants to do or if you freeze up you'll be on the ground or off the road in a second kind of situations.....like 80% of the time lol. I'd never ridden a rigid frame until this bike and I have about 200 miles on it total... so there's my experience lol.
But these rocket guys were taking corners like it was the track. I watched multiple times as they touched their knees to the ground (I had been wondering why they all had padded pants) Meanwhile here I am trying to keep up. Not gonna lie I pushed my little xs just about as hard as she can go today. I was surprised to find that she barely keeps up with a v6 mustang....that was frustrating. I didn't expect to keep up with the rockets but I was hoping she'd at least beat the stang... However i was not the slowest lol the vstar took that award.
Lessons learned today:
1. If I ever fall off my seat I am losing all hope of having children
2. Hitting bumps on a springer seat at 75 MPH launches you about 6-12 inches in the air
3. Trying to downshift, while hand signaling a turn, and braking at the same time (especially while hitting "Slow down! there's a stop sign ahead!" rumble strips will cause an immediate speed wobble.
4. Hitting road snakes in the corners sucks
5. I need a rear brake
6. No matter how fast your bike is it will never get as much attention as the custom bike rolling next to you
(got about 10 from people today)7. Even after eating the back end of an audi and then the highway on my last bike, I will never give up riding unless i'm dead or dismembered
8. Suddenly I'm riding a bike that isn't shunned by the Harley guys, However those same guys seem to either have an uncontrollable need to hold a sound off or race every time I end up at a stop light next to them.
9. Every bolt on my bike needs a lock washer
10. My bike can do a ton up
11. And last but not least....I don't think there's any better feeling than finally getting down the road on the machine you've been pouring blood sweat and cash into for the whole season with some good ol' friends.
It's a great feeling riding a bike I now know so much (yet so little) about and have built from the ground up. Kinda makes you feel connected in a strange way when you ride it...like there's some type of mutual agreement that goes something like "Alright b*tch I won't try and kill you if you don't try and kill me....unless you piss me off...then we're both dead" kinda thing.
All in all I finally got to experience the moment I'd been waiting for all summer and get out for a full day of riding on the old machine. Hopefully I will get many more out of her and she won't go down in a ball of scrap metal and flames like my last bike.
P.S. Not only did she come out unscathed, but she healed her own wounds. The base gasket miraculously sealed itself and stopped leaking oil. I guess that heat treatment stuff just needed some time or something.
