Ok, This is exactly why it is hard to explain to non trials people about trials and how different it is versus anything to do with SPEED... Describing Saturn 5 in Simple English Is Difficult...
XKCD is awasome! With the bike in the trailer I always get asked "how fast does it go?" by people who have never seen one. I answer back that I usually ride it in competition at 1 or 2 MPH. They just have a puzzled look on there face. You just can't explain (anything) to an average americian. And there is no concept of a motorsport that does not involve more power and going faster then the other guy. At time it feels like I am the only one who is not a type-A personality.
I am going to plot that at work and stick it up in my shop. Sweet drawing of a Saturn 5. I tell people my trials bike tops out around 50, and scares the ever lovin shit out of me at that speed. I have been amazed at the percentage of people I talk to who have at least a minimal notion of what trials is. There was a bike trials rider (no idea who) on Americas Top Talent (or some such drivel) a few years back. It made an impression apparently. I keep a few photos on my computer at work, so I can show people what the fuck I am talking about, and how much of a nerd I am.
viking, I understand it was the Smage brothers that were on Americas Got Talent! Same here with photos -- i told someone at work that my bike was 280cc (before I got the 80!) -- and they asked me if it was the bikes the Shriners ride in the parades!!! :eek1 so i sent him a video clip of Toni at the world rounds and asked him if he's ever seen a shriners bike do THAT!
He was talking about the bicycle guy that was either the same season, or the season before. Least I think that was what Derviking said in the post, :huh
Yes, that, the bicycle. I guess my point was only that at least a percentage of the American public has been exposed to the concept. Bike and Moto are inherently different, but inherently the same. I remember a video of a German dude doing a wheel hook on a better than 10' wall on a bicycle. Same obstacle could be done on a motorcycle, just with a different approach. So no, for a devotee, such as ourselves, they are different, but for the general public, I figure one is as good as the other, it gets the point across as to control, precision, and dorkyness (said with pride of course)
Dorkyness? Have you seen people ride "dirtbikes" (But I know what you are trying to say, but I still giggle about either of us, feeling like we have to say it because it is "trials") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJHsQ0ycGgA&feature=fvwrel Dammit, Trying to embed; <object width="420" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iJHsQ0ycGgA?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iJHsQ0ycGgA?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object> tell me that isn't dorky...
Good point.... Watching a new rider who bought a Harley is even more amusing. There was a group of Germans fueling up at the station near me, possibly the most terrifying sight I have ever seen. Who in there right mind rents a 650lb motorcycle, and then rides it in deck shoes. :eek1
Yeah, this mentality is humorous, then he's on every talk show complaining that he lost his foot (or use of it for a while, and how not only the shop that rented it to him, but Harley is at fault, and needs to be taught a monetary lesson.
Probably the same ones that keep there feet an inch off the asphault until they are up to about 40 MPH. I don't know how they still have all there toes. If you drag your foot continously for 200 yards and it never leaves the ground, is that a single dab? Even on a Harley?
i like to see them come to a red light, stop, downshift 5 times, then look for neutral until the light turns green
Or duckpaddle for 1/4 mile before and after the red light/stop sign. Wobbling all over the lane (+). Trying (unsuccessfully) to keep their ape-hangered, open sewer-piped, grossly-chromed overweight, underpowered shitheap upright. The latest craze that has infested the area around where I work is ape-hangered, open sewer-piped grossly- chromed poorly tuned (as in not at all after the installation of the Chokin' Buzzard carb and sewer pipe).....Sportster. Yup, you read correctly. Ape hangers on Sportsters. :huh I usually storm past their wobbling asses in traffic on my 30-year old GPz 750. Pointing AND laughing.
HHhhmmm, them guys with the craniel rectal inversion could use some real time on a bike ! You mothball one vintage bike and have to start riding the next! Sounds like outta space or just touched.:eek1
Have you seen Honda`s 2013 lineup. A cb1000f (twin shock) with fuel injection and 3 500`s that look like yamaha`s failed 550 vision of 1984.
Haven't seen the 500's yet, but that CB1000 is sharp. I've seen a few H-D baggers with ape-hangers. So part of the reason for a fairing is to get your hands out of the air stream, but then you put apes on the thing so your hands are above the top edge of the fairing? :huh
Oh, no. You buy a HD to be cool, then you modify it to be "unique" which is oxymoronic, as well as expensive. Dad has one, an Ultra-classic though (it is the HD goldwing crowd, kind of different than the chopper/apehanger crowd inside the HD ranks I guess). I like it, and Rides nicer but weighs about double what the old gold-wing did, I feel, so like the old Cadillacs, rides nice. I'd like one but they are friggin expensive.
I rented an Electra-Glide Classic more than a few years ago, when I was attending a two-week Johnson Controls school in Milwaukee. Spent the lay-over weekend tooling around the fair Dairy State. The one I rented predated the chassis upgrade in 2009. Handled like a garden gate. I'd like to try one with the new chassis--I hear the front and rear wheels are now in the same plane!
