Angi the Biker Chick

Wednesday, May 31, 2006
  Mornin' Folks
Not much been happening in my little motorcycle world. Reading about my daily morning commute would get very monotonous, as well as possibly freak out my parents. Not that I ride dangerously, mind you, but I do have a tendency to lane split, and that freaks out my parents, especially my grandma.

So I will not remind them of that on a daily bases. I guess I could regale you with tales of my weekend (always a good fall-back plan!). This weekend was a holiday weekend *Yipee* so a lot of riding was accomplished. I spent the better part of cloudy Saturday cleaning my bike of all the awful grime that had accumulated when I road it briefly in the rain on Monday. I even went as far as taking off my saddlebags to clean the fender underneath, and gave my chain a good clean and lube.

Which brings me to a temporary rant. I hate chain drives! I hate them! It is such a pain to have to clean that blasted chain. You have to get down on all fours to reach all the nooks and crannies, stand up and slowly walk your bike forward a few steps, then get back on your knees and do it all over again.

Hate it!

The chain may very well end up being a reason for not keeping Alexia for very long. Not to say I will be getting rid of her anytime soon, she hasn't even hit 10k miles yet! I also do not have the funds to get another bike at the moment. However, should the opportunity arise, I may very well be tempted to move up to a 1100 of some other bike. I may even try out a sports bike for a short time. Hmmmm...

This may also be the fact I got beat by a corvette the other day. I got off the line first, but I was struggling to get the bike up into 5th gear when the 'vet zoomed ahead of me with a gear or two to spare.

Oops, mom and dad, don't read the part above.

Sunday was spent just riding and walking around the coast. First I went over to Laguna Beach. While I have cruised LB via PCH many a time, I have never actually walked around LB. So Sunday I did. There was a small artisans craft fair going on, a pro marijuana protest in progress, and a ton of people just there to hang on the beach. I found a great little bead shop, so now I won't have to order as much of my stuff.

I left LB around 3:00 and headed up PCH to Huntington Beach. HB also has a craft fair every weekend from dawn till about 4:00 pm. I found the Knucklehead Industries booth and bought a bracelet from him (www.knucklehead.biz), and also found a really fun shirt booth (www.alanscottdesign.com) that had some bleached out designs on short and long sleeved shirts, and some really nice hoodies. I normally hate hoodies, but did like these. They were similar to my Dragonfly hoodie (www.dragonflyclothing.com).

After HB I cruised around Balboa and then headed home, slightly tired and very satisfied.
 
Comments:
LOL Angi! Yeah chain cleaning kinda sucks. Since sportbikes can use rearstands, I finally got one (along with some swingarm spools) so I could clean/lube the chain without having to roll it back and forth.

Speaking of sportbikes, definitely give one a shot sometime. I know you'll dig the speed & handling, it's just a matter of whether or not you'll like the ergos.
 
i hear ya about the chain. my first bikes were chain driven and it drove me insane. not just the cleaning, but the cleaning after you lube the chain. get you bike all shiney and then spatter lube everywhere...ugh. my new bike is shaft driven and i will never go back. it will be shaft and belt from now on.
 
Chains suck ..... old technology.
Get a Honda VTX it's shaft drive.
 
I just sold my honda VLX (yep, chain drive) today! I'll be picking up a suzuki intruder volusia this saturday, which has a shaft drive. I'm looking forward to the many maintainance free miles on it.
 
Ha! Shaft drives are for geezers. :-) Don't listen to them Angi.
But you might want to get a lift of some sort.
I have chain drive on both my Honda and my Harley and lifting contraptions for both.
You can get a chain cleaning brush that has like three sides and you just push it down on the chain and spin the wheel by hand. Dip it in food oil or bicycle oil to clean it. It works great and takes like 5-10 min. to do. Sorta like a miniature handheld car wash, eh! for chains.
 
Have to agree with Sniper...I did have a 750 Shadow before seeing the light and moving up to the VTX. Nothin' like a shaft to not worry about!!
 
I have a shaft drive, V-star 650 Custom and love the fact that I don't have to mess with a chain. My husband, on the other hand, has the chain on his 1993 Honda Nighthawk. His chain drips glubs of oil on the garage floor, lol.
 
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