Motorcycle Notes
Prelude
Why ride a motorcycle? I've asked this a few times in my life - at first, during high-school, it was because I wanted the independence from my parents (no school buses where I grew up, so it was ride a bicycle or catch a ride, and it was several miles uphill to school). When I was in the army, it was a cheap ride to base as I didn't like hitch-hiking. Later, it was a means to adventure and a fun activity to do with some friends who also rode. Then I stopped for a long time, but the wind, the road and the urge to live in the moment called me back.
Adventure always involves risk, is seldom comfortable and is usually admired more in retrospect than in the moment. Even the shortest ride feels like an adventure to me and well worth the risks involved. Life is risk. The biggest mistake I could make in life is not "living" - just getting by, following the same patterns and taking no chances. I choose to ride.
Purchase
Once the decision to buy a bike was made, I must have looked for about a year. I considered everything from cruisers to dual-sports. I had no biker-image to uphold; I'll ride any bike that I enjoy riding, and I don't judge people by what they ride; they're all bikers to me. My final deciding factors were:
That I wanted to be able to commute on the bike whenever I felt the urge.
That I wanted to be able to ride across the country if I so chose.
I also want to take longer journeys that would take me to regions where an off-road bike would be more suited to, but, as those kind of trips would be several years away, I settled on a road bike for now.
I considered a Harley for the longest time, but my budget wouldn't stretch far enough to buy one new. So I started checking for used bikes at dealers and on craigslist. Then I found a used 2003 Triumph Speedmaster with a hundred miles on the clock that had sat in a garage for five years. I wondered if it could be used for long distance (before I woke up to the fact that ANY bike can be used for long distance). I first found this (Across the USA on a Speedmaster). Then I found the first man who set out to set a speed record for going around the world on a motorcyle set it on a Triumph Thunderbird or Daytona (a close cousin to the Speedmaster), finally I remembered Ted Simon; the book "Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph" had been an inspiration to me years earlier to take my first motorcycle adventure. So I bit the bullet and bought the bike. She started (after replacing the battery), but ran very sluggishly. I rode her home, struggling up every hill. I was still waiting for my service manual, so I decided to spend the extra money and get her a full service. They cleaned out her carbs, changed oil, tightened cables and a host of other small tasks, but what a difference it made! Now I know why they named it "Speedmaster"; it felt like they had replaced the engine with a rocket. The hills and mountains I crossed with such difficulty before the service were no problem after the service; she just purred on up.
Maintenance
My goal so far as maintenance goes is to be a shade-tree mechanic; someone who can do the basic maintenance items like changing the oil etc. and basic repairs needed on the road. I don't have the workshop or space for larger jobs (where engine components are left in pieces for a few days) and I park outside, so bigger jobs aren't the most practical for me. With this goal, I bought the service manual for my bike from the Motorbook Store and plan to get a decent toolkit from a place like here (supplemented with a few extra tools) and a puncture-repair kit from here.
As time goes on, I'll have some notes to add to this section.
Tips'n'Tricks
How To Remove Melted Plastic from your Exhaust Pipes : This can happen if you brush your boots, rainsuit or (in my case) your bike cover against your pipes. Initially, I start the bike and run it until the pipes are just too hot to touch. Then I scrape (gently) as much as I can off with a piece of wood and fine-grade steel-wool, followed by some chrome polish. If it's really baked on, here and here are a couple of links with more advice (oven-cleaner seems to be the most popular method).
Want to change the pipes on a Speedmaster? : It's really easy - there are 2 bolts per pipe. I switched back to the original pipes from the Sceptre pipes that had been installed by the previous owner (they were giving me a headache) in about ten minutes.
How to clean the wheels when you've lubricated your chain without holding a cloth behind it : Yup, that's what I did. Spray WD40 onto a cloth, and simply wipe it off. Try to not get it onto your tires or into the brake calipers.
Hot not to get chain-cleaner or chain-lubrication all over your wheel and tire : Use an old pizza-box (or just a piece of cardboard in that shape) - slide it behind the chain and spray. The cardboard will catch the extra spray and can be thrown away afterwards.
How to clean bugs off : Simply wipe a damp cloth over the bug splattered area, wait about 10 minutes and then wipe them off with the damp cloth again.
How to strap a large bag onto the bike : If you have a sissy-bar, you can put it on the seat against the bag, and use 3 bungie-cords, 2 should form an X, supporting the bag underneath, and pulling it back, and one right around the bag (horizontally), crossing over the X formed by the other bungie-cords. I learned this the hard way but having my bag go bouncing down the highway.
My Speedmaster
Here are some specs on the 2003 Triumph Speedmaster.
This is my Speedmaster. I've never been one to name a bike, but for some reason, this bike needed a name. I decided on "Amelia" (after Amelia Earhart) - as that name embodies adventure.
Links
Some of my preferred motorcycle sites:
Many trips on many different bikes with a lot of photos and commentary (this is a great online community to be part of if you're interested in adventure and motorcycles): http://advrider.com
Bibliography
Motorcycle-related books I've been reading:
The book that inspired me to first start riding many, many years ago is Ted Simon's Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph.
Lois on the Loose woke me up to the fact that I had been missing riding for so long.
Most important: a service manual for my motorcycle
Dr Gregory W Frazier's book on touring
The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Zimmerman; great color photographs and lots of good advice.
The motorcyclists's handbook - the complete guide to biking by David Minton. This is a book published in 1981 but I found it's contents still surprisingly relevant - motorcyles haven't really changed that much. The biggest change seems to be the introduction of fuel-injection (but not all bikes are fuel-injected yet).