Salty

Toga! Toga!

I fitted the Norman Hyde Toga pipes on to my Bonnie over the weekend and took her out for ride. I have to say...wow! What a difference. It sounds...well..like it should sound. I'll admit that at first I thought they might actually be a little too loud, but once I got used to hearing the sound, I just wanted to keep opening up the throttle so I could hear that growl some more. Are they too loud? Maybe. But compared to the Bubs, they're kittens, so I'm happy.



Another great thing is that as I had hoped, my bike seems to be a lot happier with the free flowing exhaust. The idle seems much smoother, and I don't think I had one backfire for the whole ride!

So combined with not stressing as much about the rough running, and with the new beefier sound, I'm itching to ride this week! And...cue the rain.

First Week Of Moto-Commuting

I successfully finished my first week of motorcycle commuting. By successful I only mean that I'm still alive. I still have plenty of skills to work on. My counter-steering is for crap. I need to trust my bike more and remember that it wants to stay up. I'm still too hesitant in these situations, and while I need to continue to be very cautious, hesitation can be just as dangerous as recklessness.

This weekend I'm driving down to Manhattan Beach to pick up some Norman Hyde Toga silencers that I found on Craigslist. I needed to go back to stock headers because those Bubs the previous owner installed were OBSCENELY loud, and that's not my style. I don't want to be "that guy" who sets off car alarms, scares children and terrorizes my neighbors. I know a lot of motorcyclists are into that and would call me a ll sorts of names for feeling this way, but I could care less. I think they have decided to make a selfish choice to be loud at the expense of everyone else, because they think it's cool. I think that's retarded.

That being said, the stock silencers that came with the stock headers make my bike sound like a sewing machine, and I'd like to spice things up without getting too ridiculous. It sounds like the Togas will do that for me. Unfortunately, it looks like intermittent rain for the next week, so I'll have to try the install and testing whenever I can find some dry roads. I don't know if I'm ready to tackle the rain just yet.

Maiden Voyage

ample parking

Today was the maiden voyage. My first commute to work on my 2007 Triumph Bonneville. After replacing the obscenely loud exhaust that the previous owner had installed (I know "BLASPHEMY!!!! LOAD PIPES SAVE LIVES DUDE!!!!.), and waiting for all of the recent thunderstorms to pass, I was finally ready.

I must say, everything went relatively smoothly. Despite installing the quieter stock pipes (which I did all by myself - thank you very much), I rolled my bike out of the backyard and near the sidewalk so I wouldn't disturb my neighbors. A quick jaunt to the local gas station to check my tire pressure, and I was off! I decided to take the long way to work, following a similar route to my old bicycle commute, through Griffith Park on Crystal Springs Road. As I anticipated, the drive through the park was excellent. I was able to take a few easy curves at higher speeds without having to worry about a lot of traffic. The surroundings are of course beautiful, and I tried hard not to let them distract me.

I was sure there would be at least one embarrassing moment, and I was right - although it was a personal one. I've been constantly reminding myself to keep my head and eyes up (VERY IMPORTANT), but since I'm still getting a feel for what different speeds feel like without looking at the speedometer, I did quickly glance down to see how fast I was going a few times. I was taking it very slow and riding very conservatively the whole time. I was sure that I was doing 35-40 mph a couple of times, but my speedometer always seemed to hover around 30 most of the time. It wasn't until after Griffith Park that I realized that I had been looking at my TACHOMETER THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!!!

Yikes.

I'm a little nervous about the ride home, as it will be my first time riding at night. Here goes nothing...