Got me virago now, anyone wanna buy a textile jacket?

Heh, the options for pratting about with the original exhaust are a bit
limited. For a start one of the silencers is a dummy, and you'll have
lots of fun rejetting the carb if you mess with the back pressure. Paint
diesel onto the collector box regularly as they rot like **** and are
pricey...

I'll swap you a decent leather for your jacket, where are you?

 

Is that the one where you wear chaps and touch your toes?

 

'cos i like being a noisey anoying ****

Seiorousely they're prolly just fine as they are, i'd have just liked a bit
more of a deep sound without having to buy a harley,

Thanks to everyone who has given advise, duly noted, learn to ride smoother,
i am trying, need to try harder, guess a bit more than 250 miles on a
schools racer style bike, then 130 miles on a virago isn't enough to get
used to large engined bikes.. large compared to what i've ridden before.

 

... and then wear some more chaps, obviously.

 

Keelworm wrote

You don't have to fucking imagine anything, you just get on and fucking
do it. Smooth riding is not controlled by your imagination. That is
far too limited, especially in your case.

 

I'd respectfully suggest that you catchee monkey softly, Gazzhoppa.
Get some miles in on your bike. Wash it, polish it, bond with it.
Get out on your own and find out what you can do and what the bike can
do ... then start thinking about modding it to your taste, once you
are intimately conversant with it as standard.
Give yourself a baseline, like.

The school bike won't have been a "racer" style. School bikes are
comfy, uprightish affairs, easy for newbies to ride. Race reps seat
you with all your weight on your wrists, arse up in the air, feet up
behind your knees - with your upper body spread across the tank like a
squashed frog and your chin on the filler.

There are some tips somewhere for taking a pillion; written by
Christofire I believe. Look here:
http://www.google.com/groups?q=&rnum=10

There's a lot of people here with years of experience taking pillions,
hopefully they will contribute. Ace already has, but perhaps Salad
Dodger, Colin Irvine, Stritchy, Tuppy, Mike Buckley, Owen or Badger
may add some tips. I'll give them something to disagree with, eh?

Smoothness really is the key, not just with a pillion, but riding a
bike in general. If you are smooth, you don't stress your engine,
gearbox, brakes or contact patches. Neither will you stress yourself
or your precious cargo. Particularly with a cruiser, use your rear
brake rather than the front to bleed speed off and when coming to a
halt. You want to avoid fork dive, which rattles your passenger
forward as the bike tips forward, adding to the deceleration forces.

As Ace says, roll off the throttle a fraction before you change up,
minimising the jerk as drive is lost and regained. Have your foot
under the lever, pressing upwards and it should just snick in as you
ease the throttle - or a whiff of clutch will enable a smooth change.
Balance revs to road speed before a downchange, ease the clutch in and
snick down one and she shouldn't even feel it - the revs rise by a
thousand or so, but that's it.

Plan ahead - anticipate like ****. As a recently-qualified rider, you
are in the unhappy position of having too much to do and not enough
time to do it, right? Planning ahead makes it easier. Try to make
time for yourself as well as space for yourself. As you get the miles
in, a lot of what you feel you have to concentrate on at the moment
will become automatic, giving you more time to deal with riding faster
and thinking about other stuff.

Your pillion will need practice too, but she should just sit there
atm, "like a sack of spuds", leaning as the bike does but remaining
perpendicular to her seat. As she feels deceleration, she can brace
and lean back - conversely for acceleration - but this is when lids
may clash. Use higher gears and try not to have to change too often
initially would be my advice.

A bit of communication with the pillion is good - you should come up
with a drill, a set sequence for getting on and off the bike and
letting each other know when you are settled without having to yell at
each other. A tap on the knee before you crack it open is a good
example of signals when moving - as is you rolling off your seat and
down the road when you know you aren't going to make the bend. A
brief cheery wave of farewell is good form on these occasions, so that
she knows she is on her own ...

Relax, get the miles in and get smooth.

 

Missing apostrophe there, methinks...

 

... and then wear some more chaps' old chaps ...

Is that better?

 

<snip excellent advice>

As Pip says, smoothness is the key. I've done <counts> 18 years of
riding with SWMBO as pillion. All I can think of to add is:

1) Always get on the bike first and off last

2) After *lots* of joint experience on a familiar bike, your pillion
will get used to when you change up through the box and, after some
time, you can be a *little* less smooth when getting away. However,
braking, cornering should always be done smoothly.

 

Yupp.

 

Wot Ace says, but in heavy traffic on the MWay it can be a little
un-nerving, especially given your evident experience. Put a stop to
it, early. SWMBO had never really been on a bike before I took her on
mine. She went from "hunched up grip of terror" to "where's my fucking
tissue" wriggling pretty rapidly. ...

.... she's now so well trained she just sits neutral. I have to keep
lifting my left hand to check in the mirror[1] that she's still there.
Of course, the slight tug on the autocom lead would also be a clue.

<some really sensible stuff snipped>

[1] She rides[2] with RH on the grab rail and left hand resting round
my waist.
[2] Obviously not this year, given her pregnancy.

 

Porl, are you feeling all right?

You really aren't well are you?

<cancels medical appointment> That's better.

 

So people have time to safely pull over and park, maybe have a roast
dinner or two, or even build a replica Spitfire or three before your
Virago goes past?

 

Agreed, though substitute daughter for wife. It was the smoothest I've
ever been and if I'm being a bit hasty I just imagine she is on the
back and everything smooths out.

Pre warmed these Avons?

 

Wot kind of decent leather jacket mate?? i'm after a retro/cruiser kinda
type, tassles are optional

I guess something with armour in it, back protector is a must as my back is
fucked as it is, don't want to finish it off if the worst happens,

I still havent looked what size my jacket is yet, it's either large of extra
large.. i'm not a fat bloater, but not slim either,
trouser size is 36 to 38 (changes weekly due to having colitis) but i really
don't have a clue of my chest size.. breast size is prolly 36b tho

Anyhoo, i'm in Grantham, lincs, but going to matlock bath this weekend most
likely, then up the A1 towards scotland in the next few weeks, (eventually
making it to jon o groats, but going in the motorhome with the bike on the
trailer.. when i've made it that is)

RE: the exhausts.. both my pipes are real ones, tho the top one does look to
not get all of the gasses, they are yamaha ones, the slash cut type,
Just inside the slash bit is a closing plate with a pipe exiting with a
slight curve.
Prolly an inch in diamiter, i was thinking of making that larger, but then
it'd be obviouse what i'd done.

I know there's a place that modify's the drag star stock pipes to make em
louder, but not the XV ones, if i could find out exactly what they do, i
could do the same,
Some have said to just drill a few holes in the collector box, don't think i
will tho.

Duly noted the paint the bugger with diesel bit, i imagine it's there as a
balance box, and i'd deffo need a re-jet if i were to remove the collector
box and weld on some pipes to make the headers mate with the end pipes
directly???

 

Have a spare lancer style jacket but no armour or tassles. Buy new and
have done with it.

Yep. You will lose performance if you bugger about with the standard
setup. You might gain some noise or a couple of mph at the top end, but
at the expense of a whopping flatspot somewhere in the rev range.