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OsideGirl -> RE: What I'm riding... (8/29/2016 9:20:35 AM)
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ORIGINAL: PeonForHer
Yay, bikes!
I've had this little fantasy for ages now of getting across the pond, buying one of those giant Harleys and doing some major coast-to-coast type touring, all my pals getting a visit from me in my specially-reinforced bowler hat. We have a few bikes in the garage - an old Dual Sport from the 1980's, a 1996 Big Dog, my Fat Boy, M's Street Glide - and a Yamaha Midnight Star 1700, which is really big and snarly. There are a number of big touring bikes that could provide a good ride across the country.
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I must admit, I'd never even heard of 'Victory' motorcycles before. Are they a very big name over there? I'm not surprised about the water-cooling - I'd assumed you'd need that in the hotter parts of the US, most especially when it comes to touring. Victory is an American built cruiser company (designed by Arlen Ness), they are the sister company to Indian Motorcycles.
The air cooled isn't really a problem for the bike as long as the bike is moving (which is one of the reasons that I'm happy that lane splitting has become officially legal in CA). But, water cooled tends to be cooler for the rider too.
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And what do they *sound* like? No sewing-machine noises for me. Can't abide that.
The Octane and it's sister bike, the Scout, have a small V Twin, so they don't sound like sewing machines. With the stock exhaust they are pretty quiet though. The upgraded 2 into 1 exhaust provides a little louder growl, but it is still quiet enough that I've been using friends with louder exhaust as protection on the freeway.
This is the bike as stock:
[image]https://cdn.rideapart.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Octane_side.jpg[/image]
I did 230 miles on the Octane this weekend. It had it's good points and bad.
I don't really like the upgraded seat, it's too wide at the nose for me and feels like it's pushing my hips out of the joint. I can't seem to find a good spot on the adjustable shocks. It rides quite stiff, stiffer than it's sister platform, the Scout. The 2 into 1 exhaust is cool, but I have to be careful when I put my feet down, otherwise I hit the inside of my knee on the upper pipe.
It also has the major complaint that I have about all bikes in this size category - when there is traffic on the freeways, at above 70mph - the bike gets beat up from the wind buffeting coming off of other vehicles. I was exhausted after a 30 minutes bomb down the freeway doing 80mph with traffic.
One the twisties this bike was amazing. It's light and nimble and so much fun. And I absolutely surprised M when I outpaced him off of a red light. Gears are very long - just when you think you should be running out of gear, there's still more. 65mph in third and it's no where near the red line.
With every new bike, there's always new aches and if I'm going to take this bike to Babes Ride Out, I'm going to need to build my resistance up other wise that 800 miles in a long weekend thing will kill me.
And one of the funniest moments this weekend: We're riding through La Jolla (where a tear down house costs $2mil) riding up the hill to the Mount Soledad war memoial.....and a chicken runs out in front of me, stops, looks at me, and runs back into the bushes. I literally almost hit a friggen' chicken in one of the most expensive zip codes in the country.
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