that's very nice.
So, anyway...the bike came today! :) The nice man delivered it
(Cole from CC Rider Tow South in the east bay) and I put it alongside the
curb, got out the owner's manual, and spent some time trying to figure
it out. I did little things like take the seat off, find the helmet locks,
try the horn, etc. It took me a minute to realize that you need to pull in
the clutch in order to start it (in addition to the usual kill switch and
starter button), which I think is sort of odd, but, OK, whatever.
After a little while, Kim rode over on her CB-1, and we took some pictures:
There are a few things about riding the SVS that are going to take a little while to get used to. For instance, the windshield. It's really weird to turn the bike (whether it be while I'm riding, or just while I'm pushing it somewhere) and not be able to see the wheel. The windshield is always facing front, so most of the time it's not pointing in the same direction that I'm turning the bike, which really throws me off. When I was gonig around a corner, I had to force myself to lean into the turn; not being able to see the wheel was causing me to just turn the handlebars like a bicycle. :( Peter mentioned having that problem with his bike, too, so maybe it's just a "getting used to sportsbike/windshield/fairing" thing. *shrug*
Most of the rest of the problems are posture issues: I need to remember to put my feet down in *front* of the footpegs now instead of behind them (like the Nighthawk). I stabbed myself in the shin at least a million times with those damn footpegs today. Whose fooking idea was it to make those things pointed, anyway? Ow ow ow ow. The other weird thing is that my hands cramp up like a summbitch from riding. I'm pretty sure it's because I'm putting way too much of my weight on my wrists, because once I started really squeezing into the gas tank with my knees and supporting my weight there, my hands stopped hurting as much. Also, whereas the Nighthawk's handlebars were pretty much perpendicular to my body while I was riding, the SVS's are at a pretty steep angle. So before, I could just sit up straight and rest my arms casually to the handlebars, but now I have to lean further onto the gas tank (even at low speeds) and keep my elbows bent. Now I see why Peter had to really work on his turns; it's really easy to just try to steer with the handlebars with your arms bent like that. :P
It's really hard to keep the stupid thing under 5000rpms. Only 494 more miles of break-in....
I'm going to ride it to work tomorrow and hopefully not die in traffic. It's pretty easy to control my speed, but I can definitely tell that it wants to go quickly...low speed maneuvering is not its forte. Ah well. :)
paying for the damn thing.
I called Progressive and got bare-bones insurance for the SVS until I can
work out what "extras" I want. Peter had a good point that I'll probably
want some sort of collision, since it would really suck to have a brand-new
bike be totalled. :( I also called Meriwest and got my loan extended to
24 months from 12, so that I can actually pay the monthly payments. I'm going
to try one more thing, though: remember that credit card with the low APR
that also had a low credit limit? Well, I activiated it today and was told
that I can transfer balances from other credit cards, and can even possibly
raise the credit limit. So, since my bike balance is currently all on this
credit card from the dealer, I'm going to see if I can transfer that balance
to the CapitolOne (low APR) credit card. That way, I don't have to get a loan
at all, and I can pay off the credit card balance at a much lower APR.
Hopefully that'll work. That would seriously kick ass. So I'll try that
tomorrow.
OK, that's it. :)