First ride on my new NC700X

I do not currently have a chin curtain. That is probably the next thing I will try. My main beef with chin curtains is that when you carry your helmet into a diner or a motel and set it down on a table, the chin curtain picks up the smell of whatever rag was last used to wipe that table, and whether that rag smelled of cleaning products, motel air freshener, food, or mildew, it's unappealing to have that smell on something that's touching your neck.

The Ural? Reliability on a long trip? Well, I did a trip from Michigan to Maine and back in 2012, and I had to rent a truck to finish the trip home because I was under a time constraint. So, no, the reliability isn't there. The speed isn't there either. But if I were retired and had plenty of time I would totally attempt a trip to Alaska on it. It would be super fun. It's not reliable, but it can be fixed with primitive tools and modest skills. If you have time for the delays, the far more frequent breakdowns are easier to bodge your way through in remote places. The advantage of the modern bike is that it's about a hundred times as reliable, so you are way less likely to have a problem - but if you do have a problem it you need precision tools and/or specialized parts. I also have nothing but praise for the Ural parts supply chain in the USA. If I need something I can get it a lot faster than I can get something for a Honda.
 
elizilla said:
The automatic is even fine at parking lot speeds, though it has taken me a little while to trust it.
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I really like the idea of the DCT, but have concerns about the functionality. I've never tried one and don't know how it deals with situations where you need to feather the clutch. I like the bike and will consider it or its successor for my next bike.
 
elizilla said:
I do not currently have a chin curtain. That is probably the next thing I will try. My main beef with chin curtains is that when you carry your helmet into a diner or a motel and set it down on a table, the chin curtain picks up the smell of whatever rag was last used to wipe that table, and whether that rag smelled of cleaning products, motel air freshener, food, or mildew, it's unappealing to have that smell on something that's touching your neck.
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Just food for thought
Forget the surfaces where you set the helmet down
The chin curtain will catch and absorb any tears and or snot you have on your chin or nose when you take it off, so there's that
 
bicyclist said:
I really like the idea of the DCT, but have concerns about the functionality. I've never tried one and don't know how it deals with situations where you need to feather the clutch. I like the bike and will consider it or its successor for my next bike.
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Well, two weeks ago I was at the Big Muskie Memorial and they had just dumped a lot of deep, soft gravel in the drive. Which is sloped. None of us liked it, but my DCT crossed it just fine, even without a clutch to feather. The guy on the ST1100 wasn't so lucky - he dropped his bike. A couple of the other riders opted for the grass instead of the driveway.
 
Clay, my wife has extreme sensitivities to smells/odors. She can't forget the surfaces and what they've been cleaned with. I didn't understand this when we got married and thought she was exaggerating, but after 15 years, I've started smelling the things that bother her. They don't bother me, but I know when they're going to bother her.
 
The one that actually bothers me most is motel air freshener. Why do they have to poison the air with that nasty stuff? What are they hiding? This is not a good line of thought; some things are better if you can just not think about them. Probably in most cases, it's just that the staff member spraying it smokes, and/or they smell that stink all day and so have lost the ability to smell it, and that makes them spray too much of it. But smells are highly evocative and I don't want to think about shabby motels and greasy diners, when I am riding.
 
Oh - I heard it was Hubley .. or Heathkit .. or was it Mr Haney who sold them ..?
 
A couple of thoughts for Helmlet placement to avoid the smells; One go to a gun shop or sporting goods store that sell them and purchase a gun lock security cable and lock your helmlet to your bike. AT night if moteling it use a bike cover and place helmlet under it after parking as you are covering bike..

Fortunately I have very little sense of smell left. My hay fever since 1967 has pretty well made me immune to most things. being in Orange groves when ripe fruit is being harvested etc I will notice tha, or passing a major dairy farm I will be aware of it, Or behind a chip truck with a load of Hemlock chips , Or a freshly road killed skunk.

Eldon
 
Katherine - I was quite surprised when you told us (in another thread) that you'd sold the NC700X.

Did you find a way to add an electric shifter to the Super 10? I guess what I'm asking is - how did you solve the problem of drop foot and shifting?

BTW - looking forward to photos and stories about the Super 10 with a hack.
 
The company that is doing the sidecar, DMC, is also installing an electric push button shifter. It's not due back to me until sometime in February at the soonest, though, so there won't be much to say about it any time soon.

What I am looking forward to long before that, is a "first ride" report from the purchaser of the NC700X.
 
Well I wish I had a "first ride report" but I've been too busy to take the NC700X to the local BMV to have the title transferred and pay for registration and a plate. I'll do that after the New Year. My youngest son bought a old house last month and between helping him and the holidays, I've been too busy to do much. It's unfortunate because our weather has been fairly nice for late-December. We still don't have any white stuff on the ground but I'm sure it'll come soon enough.

All I've done to the bike so far is connect a harness for my battery charger and spend a lot of time on the Twisted Throttle website looking at the plethora of farkles available for the NC. I did find out from friends that you can manually downshift in D and unless you continue to shift manually, it automatically reverts back to full automatic (D) so that's good to know.

We're past the Winter Solstice so each day will get a tiny bit longer. :)

Happy Holidays to all!
 
OK, I had a strange burst of energy this morning so hooked the trailer to my car, loaded the NC and headed down to the BMV. In 30-minutes I had a new title, registration and a license plate. Once home, I put the NC on the lift and installed the Kouba Links which may have taken all of 20-minutes, including greasing the pivots. The forks got pushed up into the triple clamps which actually took a bit longer since it's a lot of work to get both sides even! I happily noticed that the sidestand is still mostly OK so I'm in no rush to get it shortened. And I can still get the bike up on the centerstand but it takes a bit more effort. :)
 
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