Yeah I owned one of these too. This bike was just too big for me. I sold this with less than 1000 miles on it to buy my M109R.
I just bought a 2009 650 V-Star Classic. I can't wait to customize it, even though it looks pretty cool as is. My first goal is to extend the front forks approximately 8 to 10 degrees and buy a smaller front fender. Then I'm going to lower it several inches.
If and when I have the funds, I'll get a custom paint job. Purple with gold and red pinstriping. I would like to change the rear of the bike to attach a big old fat tire. I know this is going to cost a small fortune, but I figure this bike will last at least 20 years or more. So I have time.
Well I guess its about that time,time to drop the oil out of Ole Yella and change it for winter,don"t want any moisture that may have gathered over the season in there to freeze this winter.Top her off with gas and put her to bed for the winter,kinda like hibernation I guess.Man this really bites,I hate having to put her away,I just wanna RIDE A LITTLE MORE.
finally gonna get to ride for the first time in 2 weeks tomorow. weather hasn't been too bad here but work has got in the way and haven't had a chance to ride, had a bad case of withdrawal for sure lol. there is a local organization that collects donations all year and uses the money to buy turkeys and all the fixings for thanksgiving dinners and they have us bikers ride along to help deliver the food to needy families in the area. rode in it last year and had a blast, after all the food is delivered they have all of us bikers meet somewhere and feed us a big dinner for riding and helping out. the temp is supposed to be high of 65 with sunshine and for colorado in november that is a treat . so to everyone here at ccc have a great thanksgiving and hope ya'll get the chance to put some miles on soon.
keep the shiny side up and the rubber down !!!!!!!!
if i see a bike stoped i'll pull of to help .as i'am sure we all do . but i do it for cars and trucks too . i pull in front of them to keep my bike from being hit .but the best part is the look on they faces now you all know i'have a small bike but to them hey it a biker stop to kick my butt . i pull my helmet off and ask can i help you . and they smile and say sure . sometime i have to use my tools or just chang a flat for a lady or some one up in years that needs some help . but after i stop to help it funny how many cars and trucks stop to see if there ok . the drive tells them no we are ok he is got it fixted for me some offer money but i never take it i figer some day i be there and need help . some times i ask being hrer long yes .i never would think a biker would stop . i just say hey i drive a car too . but we have a lot of help stop now they just look at be puzzed on till the cars and truck stop to see if the big bad crilped bike is robbing him or her . but i dont care just one time did a tropper stop he ask you need and thing if so call this no# for road help but i see you got it fixed i did have one ask me could i buy you beakfest up ahead i said ok he was happy to get help and found at odd a biker of all to stop after all the cars passed him by then they all were stoping to see if he was ok when they show a biker stop with him life is odd and you may find help in some one you never would think of
This is a very sweet custom motorcycle, yes? Actually, no. Some young ... scarred knuckled ... greasy fingered ... bike loving gentleman never worked on this bike ... or sweated out getting the exhausts tuned or getting the handle bars at "just the right angle" or anything. It came off an assembly line. Granted, it came off a high priced assembly line, but no true lover of cycles ever sweated blood and tears over this machine. A well to do man put in an order for it ... told the company what kind of motor he wanted, what kind of tires he wanted, what kind of wheels he wanted, what he wanted as far as a color scheme for a paint job and the whole ball of wax. Once the order was all written up, this sweet machine came off on an assembly line. "Custom made" without the "Custom".
Somehow, this all seems like cheating to me. Because some yo-yo has the big bucks, he can put in an order, ("do you want pies and fries with that sir?"), and "WHAM! BAM! PRESTO!" ... he's made into an instant "biker". He hauls this beautiful machine to the rally, (Panama City's "Thunder Beach" in this case), unloads it, and rides it "triumphantly into town" from his five star hotel room. After a weekend of bedding beautiful women and getting drunk at high priced bars, he rides it triumphantly back to the trailer, hauls it back home, and there it will sit in an air conditioned garage for the next bike rally six or seven month from now. The motor will never be fired up. It will never be loved. It's just a prized possession.
How do I know all this? Because I asked the owner when I stopped at a gas station to fill my tank and quench my parched throat from the long ride over.
Pathetic!
Give me my muchly used and lovingly customized Magna with 24,163.0 miles on it ANYDAY compared to this shining sparkling bike with barely 500 miles on it. I did ALL the work on my Magna and my Intruder myself ... every barfed knuckle, every scraped and cut finger, every tear of frustration on every rusted bolt was earned and appreciated. My bikes may not look as nice as this one ... but they are certainly loved more!
Day 5: Road Trip - Canberra to Janolan Caves
Woke up on our last morning in Canberra and rode down to the Canberra Motorcycle Centre in Mitchell. The regulator hadn't arrived yet and we were a bit nervous, but they assured us it should arrive this morning. We left the bikes there and went next door for a coffee (good coffee joint if you're a coffee junkie like me). Dim decided since we were waiting around to get a haircut. Finished the haircut and got the call that the bike was ready at the
same time (see it was meant to be!). The guys were brilliant, replaced the part under parts warranty from Yamaha and didn't even charge us for labour.
Late morning we headed out of Canberra on the Federal Highway and cruised. Thoroughly enjoying just being out riding again and on the adventure. Pulled in to a rest stop along the
highway, and had views of a wind farm in the distance... see Adam shows us how it's done:
Then we cruised on till we got to the Big Merino in Goulburn. Fuelled up the bikes and ourselves before heading on. The freeways had numbed our brains so much that Adam said "The twisty long straights" were his favourite roads (?!?!)
We rode on to Taralga where the roads were very rough. Nice and windy but very rough. Once we got past Taralga the roads got really good. We pulled in for a photo op:
Adam had a wee on the fence (he said it wasn't electric, but I dunno, he's been acting strange ever since!)
From this point the roads became awesome. Beyond awesome actually!! (Dim's favourite road here). Big sweeping curves and bends and up and down hills with great views. One very very steep twisty decline, followed by a very steep and twisty incline, then the road stretched out nice and windy again until Black Springs. Wanted to go back and re-do the Taralga to Black Springs road over & over. Do it if you get the chance.
Next stop was Oberon for fuel, then we headed down to the Janolan Caves. Noticed a few signs as we got closer to the caves, which said that Trucks and Caravans were not allowed to go down that road. I knew something good was coming up... Dim's literal diary entry after doing the ride down to the Janolan Caves goes like this: "OMG crap that was a scary ride. Down down down the very steep mountain side with all those 15km p/hr bends and all that camber on the road! Barely one lane wide with vans and 4wd's refusing to move over to the edge while they were heading up the mountain and we were coming down."
Booked into the hotel and were given a free upgrade due to a school coming in and taking the motel rooms. So we got a beautiful "Traditional Stay" room with antiques and fantastic mountain views (but no TV). Checked in and explored the grounds for the evening.
Day 6: Road Trip - Janolan Caves to Sydney
It was hard to fall asleep last night with thoughts of having to go back up that mountain and dreams of "The Shining", which Adam had told me about because the traditional hotel had reminded him of the hallways in the movie. After breakfast we headed down to pick one of the cave tours. We picked the Orient Cave tour which was great. Lots and lots of stairs and tight passages but well worth doing. Spectacular views of the cave
with stalactites, stalagmites, and other rock formations. Nature is incredible, makes you wonder what else of such beauty lies in dark caves undiscovered!
We decided not to take the mountain road up and out, and instead to take the only other way out of Janolan Caves, which is a less steep but longer windy ride out of the mountains. This road happens to be closed between 11.45am and 1.15pm daily, as it's one lane only for part of the road, so they close it to allow only bus tours to come in. So after the cave tour we had a bite to eat while we waited for the road to open.
Light misty drizzle and fog started as we headed out of the mountains. Much nicer roads, still twisty but nowhere near as steep. Just before Lithgow, pulled off the road to check the maps, and an older local guy pulled up in a ute to see if we needed help.
Headed into Lithgow looking for the Bells Line of Road. Great start to it with a cop car having pulled someone over to the side of the road right before the beginning of Bells Line. Mostly 60 - 80km/hr speed limits and we have to say, a very disappointing road. Sorry to all you Sydney folk who think it's brilliant. A small section in the middle at 100km/hr was okay. Maybe it had been over-hyped because we've heard about this road so much, or maybe because we'd just come off such great riding the day before (e.g. Taralga to Black Springs), but it's not a road we'd recommend to people or that we'd make an effort to do again.
Came in to Sydney and for the first time ever had to pull over to a pay toll booth on the bikes (I'm sure that novelty will wear off quickly). Went through a few other electronic tolls as we got closer (must remember to set up a toll account) and we rode in over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic so we had to keep eyes on the road for braking traffic, so didn't get much chance to enjoy the experience or check out the scenery. Once we were in the city we started looking for the street our hotel was on. When we finally got to it we were in the right lane but the hotel was a left hand turn. So we had to keep going and I thought we could just go round the block... but this is Sydney hey? So noooooo... once we turned right, we found we couldn't do another right at the next block, and so we were on a wild goose chase to get back to Point A. Finally got there & checked into our hotel. Set up the toll account & time to unwind. We got a call from this strange bloke, they call him Al... made plans to meet Al & his wife Coz the next day.
Stay tuned for the next episode... Will Als try and push Dim & Adam off The Gap? hmmmmmmmm LOL
Dim & Adam
Are You Loyal to Your Old Area Code?
I ask because as many of you know I moved from my beloved New Jersey and the 732 area code to rural Georgia and the 770 area code in June of 2007. I staunchly refused to change my number when I arrived because I was a Jersey Girl. I'm still a Jersey Girl but I'm getting tired of the funny looks at the doctors office and other places when people ask for my cell number. I don't know why but I feel like by giving up that 732 cell# I am giving up a bit of myself and my rights to go home again. Yeah, I know that's stupid but I like my cell number, I've had it for like 5 years now. If I change I might get an ugly number.
I remember watching Men in Trees last year and the main character, played by Anne Heche, faced a similar decision and it totally resonated with me.
Men in Trees - Episode: Get a Life Area Codes 917 and 646
Annie: Jack, no! A 646, maybe, but a 917? That's vintage, that's class, that's New York City.
The original area code for land lines in New York City/Manhattan was 212. In the 90s, the 917 area code was overlaid in the same area, meaning new numbers, mostly cell phones, were given the 917 area code. In 1999, area code 646 was added. This is why Annie calls 917 vintage. If someone has a 917 area code, it is believed to be more elite because a person had a cell phone before the big wave of technology.
Day 3: Road Trip - Albury to Canberra
We woke to a beautiful day, 32c degrees. Headed out from Albury, across the Hume Weir across a huge girder bridge. Absolutely awesome road along the Murray River (pic on right of page) to Jingellic, where we crossed back over the border into NSW.
Then headed from Jingellic up to Tumbarumba, all bitchumen with big sweeping curves which Dim really loved. Except for one spot where we came around a corner and had a 5 foot long Red Belly Black Snake sunning itself in the middle of the road!! Adam went to the right of it (on the wrong side of the road), it lifted it's head to look, and Dim passed it on the left side, right in front of it's raised head. (No pics of the snake, didn't really want a closer look!!)
Got to Tumbarumba and checked out their Information Centre / Museum which had a lot of information on a famous 1930's plane crash called the Southern Cloud. From there another fun ride up through Batlow to Tumut where we had lunch, beautiful food from a run down looking little milkbar.
We asked some rangers about different roads through to Yass, one road we'd been told about was very rutted and dirt and wasn't advised even for 4WD vehicles. So they sent us on a back road from Tumut through Brungle, then to Gundagai which was a really good ride! It was on this strip of road, that Adam spotted a massive Goanna on the side of the road... (He must have scared him off cos he was gone by the time I passed by).
Pulled in to Gundagai and took some photos with the Dog on the Tuckerbox (pic right of screen). Got back onto the boring Hume Highway and droned on to Canberra. So boring Dim's average speed crept up to 120km p/hr to avoid falling asleep. (Will that defence work with the cops?) 
Booked into a nice Country Club in Canberra who were very good by letting us park the bikes under cover
and even gave us sponges & a bucket to give them a wash the next day.
Day 4: Road Trip - Canberra
This is where Adam ran into some trouble, his bike refused to start after the wash.
He'd had a regulator / rectifier replaced just before we left and this had died again. One in a
million chance, faulty part failed. We searched out a local Yamaha Dealer (Canberra Motorcycle Centre, Mitchell). They checked out the bike and confirmed it was the regulator again. They ordered the part in after our local Yamaha guys from home (City West Yamaha) faxed up the paperwork to do a parts claim through Yamaha and we went off to do our sight seeing at the Canberra War Memorial and Parliament House.
Cruising around Parliament House we were approached by a security officer on a bicycle, and we were expecting to be told off for going in so close, but he just suggested a good spot for taking pictures. Then we cruised to the War Memorial down Memorial Drive, which is a long stretch of road between the two buildings and
the middle of the road is divided by red gravel and on the sides of the road are monuments the whole way down, which represent each of the wars Australia has been a part of. All the while expecting Adam's bike to die at any minute, because it wasn't charging.
The Australian War Memorial is well worth a visit. A huge place and very interesting. Adam loved it and could have stayed there overnight looking around. Some amazing interactive video, light and sound displays and the most amazing exhibit of the Japanese Mini Sub which was sunk in Sydney Harbour.
Took the bikes back to the country club and did a 'once over' on the bikes before Adam's bike goes in for work & hopefully we can leave town!
Stay tuned for the next episode... will Adam's bike ever be fixed or is he stranded in Canberra while Dim galavants off into the sunset? LOL
Dim & Adam
Sunday 1 November 2009
Day 1: Road Trip - Werribee to Albury
Our bags pre-packed from the night before, we strapped them onto the bikes in the morning and headed off to fuel up on day one of our riding adventure. 
We're ready!!
We headed off towards Hurstbridge on a typical Melbourne spring morning - lovely drizzling misty rain which started just as we got on the bikes! Stuck on the freeway until we got out of Hursbridge, where the road started to improve. But as we headed up to Kinglake, we rode into a massive fog bank so thick that it engulfed us and you couldn't see the bike in front of you. We crawled up the hill averaging 15-20km the whole way. It was very spooky with blackened trees looming through the fog like burned match sticks standing on either side of the road.
Scariest ride I've ever had (at this stage of the trip), with hairpin bends and steep cliffs dropping away on one
side of the road, the road was barely two lanes wide and because of the fires there earlier this year, there were no armco or marker posts showing the edge of the road.
Stopped at Kinglake for breakfast (or really to change underpants), and met some other riders out front and had a chat.
As we headed out of Kinglake, through Kinglake West and towards Flowerdale, the fog got thicker and thicker. As we passed through Flowerdale, the weather changed. All of a sudden we were looking into massive sunshine and incredibly hot weather! The ride through to Yea was beautiful fast flowing roads and let us make up some time from our slow trip up the hill earlier.
Stopped in Yea for lunch and caught up with Adam's (aka "Rent-A-Hubby's") parents (pic right), then headed up the Maroondah Highway through Merton & Eildon. Crossed over Lake Eildon, but it's almost nonexistent (no water to be seen), then on to Mansfield. Found a brilliant road from Mansfield through Tolmie to Whitfield. That put a smile on the dial. Up and down the mountain, very twisty & enjoyable riding. Dozens of "high risk area for motorcycles" signs to put the fear into you. But we did good.
Continued on through King Valley to Wangaratta (pic of King Valley on left). Stopped for drink and to check out a local street festival, and within 5 minutes of being there, the heavens opened, a massive heavy thunderstorm downpour hit us and drenched everything. Talk about 4 seasons in one day! After this weather, not much could surprise us now.
Found another brilliant riding road, hilly and twisty, through Beechworth and then on to Albury where we stayed for the night (actually two nights).
After breakfast we cruised out to the Ettamogah Pub (Table Top, NSW). It was a nice, warm 32c day. Didn't realise we were there so early, and nothing was open yet, so we got to look around outside the place with no distractions. The Ettamogah Pub is based on an Aussie cartoon strip, by Aussie artist Ken Maynard. It's basically the comic come to life, with lots of Aussie outback humour.
After enjoying a drink at the pub (when it finally opened), we headed back to Albury and found a nice park on the banks of the Murray River and relaxed on the grass in the shade of a Coolabah tree. (singing...)Then down came a Jumbuck to drink at the Billabong... (oh wait, that's another story)
Well Adam relaxed, because I was being stalked by a pack of vicious killer ducks. One of which was faking a limp to try and get close to me with sympathy. It didn't work! (My fear of ducks is a LOONNNGGG story!!!)
Had a late lunch in Albury at The Burger Bar (on Dean Street) and the burgers were great, highly recommended (and the best crunchy beer battered chips we've had anywhere). Took a walk around Albury after lunch and explored the Albury Art Gallery (quite interesting & it was free).
Stay tuned for the next episode in our travels... Will Dimitra make it down the mountain to the Janolan Caves? Only one way to find out... LOL
Dim & Adam
When I was 14, I hoped that one day I would have a girlfriend.
When I was 16, I got a girlfriend, but there was no passion,
so I decided I needed a passionate girl with a zest for life.
In university I dated a passionate girl, but she was too emotional.
Everything was an emergency; she was a drama queen, cried all the time
and threatened suicide. So I decided I needed a girl with stability.
When I was 25, I found a very stable girl, but she was boring.
She was totally predictable and never got excited about anything.
Life became so dull that I decided I needed a girl with some excitement.
When I was 28, I found an exciting girl, but I couldn't keep up with her.
She rushed from one thing to another, never settling on anything.
She did mad impetuous things and made me miserable as often as happy.
She was great fun initially and very energetic, but directionless.
So I decided to find a girl with some real ambition.
When I turned 31, I found a smart, ambitious girl with her feet planted
firmly on the ground and married her. She was so ambitious, that she
divorced me and took everything I owned.
I am older and wiser now and am looking for a girl with big tits.