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New Rider and V-Star owner

2K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  RideAndFly 
#1 ·
53 years old and just started riding. I took the BRC in December and bought a 2007 V-Star 650 in February. After something like 350 miles of short rides around the neighborhood before going out on the road (until the neighbors thought I was lost, crazy, or both) I've put an additional 1000 miles on her in less than a month now.

I'm also a private pilot, thus the username. I seem to have a penchant for hobbies that involve turning money into noise. :D
 
#7 ·
Thanks everyone!



No, no boat, but I also like to shoot and if I'm not paying for airplane rental (I'm in a flying club which is much better than just renting outright) or motorcycle stuff I also buy guns and ammo and go punch holes in paper. Thus the "money into noise" comment, which is something pilots often say about their .. affliction.

I do have hobbies that don't qualify though. Getting back into ham radio (licensed since 1978 but been off the air for a couple of decades) and "analog" (film) photograph and darkroom work, which is quite the opposite. Soft orange light and some jazz playing and I can print all night.

Welcome! Where ya from? I Just took the BRC course this week, and just got my license yesterday.. Just got off my 2010 V Star 650, haha.
Lawrenceville, GA, northeast suburb of Atlanta. Originally from Elizabethton in northeast Tennessee but been here since 2003. Probably retire eventually to the north Georgia mountains, but for right now my job is in Atlanta.

As for the photos, well the thing is, there are several things in progress. I have photos of her when I bought her, but weekend before last I was riding with a buddy and my upper pipe fell off. At 65 mph. I didn't know WTH happened, can't see it riding, just the bike got real noisy. We found the pipe beside the road and on the next Tuesday (they're closed Sunday and Monday) I took it to the shop where I bought it (consignment sale.) The bolt holding it had apparently backed out and left the pipe to vibrate freely until it broke off at the little midpipe adapter between the slip on and the header pipe. I had three choices: 1) they could order the midpipe adapter bit and gasket from Yamaha and have it in about a week, for $35, and put my old pipe back on. It's functional, but really banged and scratched up from falling off at 65 mph. Or if I didn't want a banged up scratched up upper pipe, 2) they could order a new one from Yamaha, also about a week delay, for over $400, or 3) I could put new Vance and Hines pipes on in a couple of days and ride it that weekend, for $550. I said "do eet!" :D

So the pictures I have of the bike are with the stock pipes, just as I bought her. But she has Vance and Hines Cruzers on now, plus I have much larger bags and a custom made back rest to install this weekend, so she'll look rather different.

But here she is as I bought her, with and without yours truly. I named her Jessica, after Jessica Rabbit, because she's red (a red-head) and my name is Roger. Seemed perfect. :D
 

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#5 ·
Welcome from Houston, Texas. Ride often and safe. Riding and flying, sounds like two good hobbies.
 
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#8 ·
Good deal on the MSF course for both posters.

I took it 4 years ago to get my license before I had a MC. I thought it would be a formality because I had owned an enduro bike for most of my life, and obviously I knew how to ride.

I learned quickly how many things I did not know, taking the class may be the best $250 ever spent in my life, and what I learned has saved my butt many times.

And esp for those of us with grey hair, for some reason older riders have a very high accident and death rate. Ive never heard a clear explanation for why: maybe because lots of guys want to "get back into riding" when they are older, and can now afford really big, fast expensive bikes?

Knowledge is power.

Ride safe, be well, do good work.... and keep in touch.
 
#10 ·
Like many, I've been riding since I was 10, but when I got married 20 years ago I sold my bike and just recently got back into it. I've learned a lot from the MC Rider videos and practicing in parking lots, but those stats are scary for gray old farts like myself and I don't want to become one of them. Up here in New Brunswick the course is $500 (mandatory for new riders) but they offer a weekend refresher course for people who just want to update their skills and have their own bike. At $150 it's a no brainer so I'm going to sign up for it.
 
#11 ·
Digital photography (as far as doing the process for myself, not necessarily viewing the results of others) just sort of leaves me cold. I like getting in the darkroom and getting my hands wet (ish, I use tongs for printing) and feeling like I'm crafting something. It's meditative in a way that pushing a mouse will never be. This is probably exacerbated by the fact I'm a network engineer. I spend way too much time in front of a PC screen already, so it's not something I want to do for my hobby as well. Different strokes and all that.

The Internet and, much more importantly I think, cell phones, have changed what appeals to me about ham radio, but not removed it. I no longer have much interest in VHF/UHF mobile and portable. I used that mainly for keeping in touch with my friends who were also hams, to have someone to talk to while I drove boring drives, and for auto-patching, all of which cell phones do better. But the challenge of radio propogation, of restore old radios that glow in the dark (something I want to start doing as I get the bench set up in addition to the shack) of making those contacts using a bit of wire hanging in a tree, that sort of more primitive challenge is also pretty near and dear to my heart. I think part of it is a reaction to the modern world for me, which is nothing like I was promised - the future was so much better in the past!

Heck, we can't even get kids interested in flying, because commercial flight, for all its inconvenience and insults to dignity IMHO, has become so cheap it's commoditized. What is extremely common place loses its magic. Not to mention they can fly a sim on the computer, which is about as much like real flying as a motorcycle sim would be real riding, but it seems close enough for most of them. In the immortal words of Pepe LePew, LeSigh.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Digital photography (as far as doing the process for myself, not necessarily viewing the results of others) just sort of leaves me cold. I like getting in the darkroom and getting my hands wet (ish, I use tongs for printing) and feeling like I'm crafting something. It's meditative in a way that pushing a mouse will never be. This is probably exacerbated by the fact I'm a network engineer. I spend way too much time in front of a PC screen already, so it's not something I want to do for my hobby as well. Different strokes and all that.
RideAndFly, I can totally relate! I am an avid nature/landscape photographer and I own four Sony Alpha series DSLR's (models A200, A500, A550, SLT-A57) with a ton of lenses, though I admittedly get more pleasure from shooting with my collection of vintage/antique film cameras, some dating back a century. A few years ago I returned to developing my own film for the first time since taking a photography class in high school about 40 years ago, and I am hooked. Attached is a pic showing just a portion of my collection, and also one taken in front of my oceanfront home on Fogo Island, using a truly pristine folding bellows Kodak Autographic 1A camera that was made in 1917. (shot handheld in near darkness, and no light meter handy) I am seeing better tonal quality from that 100 year old camera than I do from the latest/greatest high tech marvels. Go figure.

Glen
Focus On Newfoundland





The 1917 Kodak "Autographic 1A" which took the above photograph
 
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#14 ·
I remember my dad taking me and my brothers up in his small plane at the local airport. If I were a rich girl I would have all the toys. But my V Star 950,...Jeep, kayak, mountain bike, longboard, skis, snowboard, and hiking shoes are pretty good! Haha.

So fantastic to have you on the forum RideAndFly. Thanks for photos! :)

Sent from my SM-S975L using Tapatalk
 
#15 · (Edited)
I have 5 or 6 of those cameras (the ones towards the back)

the thing about the large format cameras, they were used by the press for newspaper photos. The plate or negative was used directly to make a plate for the printing press (a process created by Itek, I use to work for them). So the negative size was the image size that ended up in the paper, without needing to enlarge it. When you are putting out a newspaper in a matter of hours, time was everything.

The great thing about them is with low speed #ASA film you can get incredible resolution and detail. You can blow up the negative 10 or 20 X and its still sharp with no grain.

There are digital cameras that blow them away completely. They are scanning cameras that only have one row of pixels. To take a photo the camera rotates on the horizontal axis and scans left to right. 360° if you want.
 
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#16 ·
Welcome from Waldorf, MD! I did the same thing - started riding for the first time at age 52 on a 650 Silverado, and now I'm on a 950 Tourer. For all of us north of 50, just remember, you don't get to be old by being a fool. There are plenty of "smart" folks residing in cemeteries! I was out cruising Saturday morning and three other bikers passed me going at least 65-70 in a 45 MPH zone [I was doing 50... I swear!!!!].
 
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