First ride report: Got the license plates, title transfer, and the insurance today...so now I'm ready to ride. Was a little nervous at first. Cranking up and taking off I found that first gear was a little taller than the 250 I rode at the MSF course. This engine is torquey, but doesn't like to rev. And boy, does it vibrate!

I don't think the guy ever tuned it up, and I'm wondering about the fuel delivery as it tended to surge going down the road. Had it up to 35 mph at one point, in 3rd gear. Didn't go any faster 'cause that was the speed limit, and I was in our neighborhood, not on the highway.

I'm going to give it a tune-up soon, and give it a thorough going-over.

Funny...with the stock exhaust on it, it sounds kinda like a big lawn mower.

Our neighborhood has about 5 parallel streets, surrounded by the main neighborhood roads, one of which we live on. I took the bike down the hill and turned left into the neighborhood. Forgot to cancel the turn signals at first, and beeped the horn when I remembered. Hello neighbors!

Found that my rearview mirrors show a wonderful view...of my shoulders. I can't angle them to see past me. I guess I'm just a wide guy. We'll have to work on that.

I rode down two of the parallel neighborhood streets in addition to the surround roads, including our road. All left turns today. There's one sharp turn that I don't yet want to try going to the right. I'll work up to that one.

On the two parallel streets, there were a total of 3 dogs that chased me. Boy, they were having fun. I found out these dogs can't run faster than 25-30 mph.

After making a couple of laps, I came back home. My wife tells me that I look like a normal guy on the bike...not like an elephant on a tricycle, like I was picturing. That's good. She didn't get a view from behind, though.

So, home again safe...fun stuff! I have broken the ice!

Here's the bike.  I don't know what kind of bars they are...I thought they were stock.

Thanks for the advice about the engine mounts.  I'll check that.  

It's got 10,600 on it, and the previous owner just changed the oil.  Should have gotten another spark plug at 7500 or so.  

Yeah, that's it.  

Blinky-FSO wrote on 04/24/12 at 18:50:44:


This makes me think even more that there's something wrong with my bike.  LOTS of vibration is making it very unpleasant to ride...and it's certainly not better than the Nighthawk I rode during the MSF course.  This is troubling.  

I'll let you know if I come up with an answer to the rearview mirror problem.  I did spend some time adjusting the mirrors this evening, but I didn't ride afterward.  I'll ride again tomorrow. I tried to see if possibly the motor mounts were loose...but it looks like they're tight.  So I don't know what the problem is.  

Thanks for the welcome!  Better late than never on the riding, eh?

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I agree. If I have to break a hip, I would rather it be from a spectacular slide off a a Suzuki than by tripping over the cat or slipping in the shower.

I will let the guys that really know the gear work with you on the vibration and surging. My bike has only 3700 miles and has a very linear throttle and no surge.

best regards

You keepin it in a low enough gear when youre rolling slow?

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I had the same problem at first.  Did you just adjust just the actual mirrors themselves by hand, or did you try loosening the bolts down where the stalks (not sure if that's the right word) attach to the bars as well?  From the pics looks like your mirrors are pretty far back towards you.  I loosened up the bolts at the bottoms of the stalks and rotated the stalks forward a couple of inches so that the mirrors were ahead of the bars.  After that I could adjust to see around my wide shoulders.  Wider bars would really do the trick, but you may be able to adjust what you've got a little more and see if it helps.