Posted by joepremont on January 10, 2002 at 01:13:27:
In Reply to: I challenge each and every one of you here! posted by INTRUDN on January 06, 2002 at 22:01:50:
I've been reading this forum for over a year now, using the bits and pieces of "Savage Savay" to help me decide which motorcycle I would buy, 27 years after selling my last bike, a 360 Yamaha dual/purpose thumper. I have always liked thumpers like the 500 Triumph and BSA,and kept the Savage in mind, even while blurry-eyed from the promise of "power" from the mid-size v-twins. Ultimately, the price won out. Yesterday I bought a new 2001 Savage, black as the Ace of Spades, and probably all the bike I'll need for a while.
I would like to take "Intrudn" up on his challenge by relating my second ride ever on my new ride. The first ride was a rather dull 25 mile ride from the dealership in Harlingen, Texas to my home in Olmito, Texas. The only thing memorable was remembering how much fun I had had riding my little Yamaha thumper down the dirt roads around my home town back in the early 70s, and the realization that I could "do it again", so to speak.
This morning I installed a windshield I had picked up for the bike. Of course, I had to try it out, so I took a drive toward Boca Chica Beach, the southern-most beach on the mainland. After about 15 miles on a moderately busy Farm-to-Market 511, I turned east on Boca Chica Highway, a Winter-Texas couple in a pick-up a safe distance behind me. They like to go fishing at the mouth of the Rio Grande River, at the end of one of the few drive-on beaches in the country. This is a nice little two-lane, no shoulders, through rolling coastal plains. About 3 miles off to the left, I could see the off-shore drilling platforms in port for repairs at the Port of Brownsville. The structures rose above the coastal desert landscape, reminding all who cared to look that technology CAN help man rule the earth. I rode through the Border Patrol check-point, they don't check you until you come back to civilization, and pegged it on 50 MPH, enjoying the sun and the temperature in the mid-70s. I was almost out of a long double-S curve, when a streak appeared on the shoulder and I knew we were on a collision course. It was a full-grown bobcat. Believe it or not, I flashed on the advise in the Motorcycle Operators Handbook that suggested it was better to run over a small animal than to go off the road and possibly hit something bigger, or harder. Lo and behold, I wobbled, but I didn't fall. The bobcat was left spinning in the middle of the road. I waved-on the Winter Texans and managed to stop about a quarter mile down the road at the marker that commemorates the last battle of the Civil War. Unfortunately, the Battle of Palo Alto was fought about a month after the war had ended. And so it goes.
There was no apparent damage. I collected my wits, told myself how valuable a lesson I had just received on my first day of riding, and headed back home.
The return 22 miles were pretty uneventful. I rode in some 18-wheeler traffic, tried to just "get the feel" of my new ride. The windshield, a small one from Suzuki, works pretty well, diverting the wind toward the top of my helmet. I hope I don't start craving "more horsepower", as that seems to be the biggest complaint about this great little motorcycle.
To the regular contributors, thanks for all the advise. I'll try to answer any questions that come up from earlier posts.
Thanks
P.S.: After I got home, I did find that I had one bent spoke on the front wheel. I straightened it and tightened it to sound about the same as the others. Should I have the wheel balanced or trued or something like that? The little bits of brains and blood on the wheed came off no problem.