800 miles on the odometer in 3 days, monkey butt

J

jordan

1980 XS400H
Messages
67
Reaction score
1
Points
8
Location
Charlotte, NC.
Rode up to charlottesville Va from Charlotte nc, took 29n from greensboro, 40's and rain on the way up. Realized REAL quick that this is NOT a touring bike. Then a good nights rest and the Blue Ridge Parkway for HOURS. Again. not a touring bike. If your ever out that way, pm me i can give you some good routes for scenic rides and even a few roads with good technical corners. Bike did great tho, vibrations werent that bad but dang i need a more comfy seat.
 
Nope, these bikes are not touring bikes. They will beat you pretty good after some time in the saddle. Some folks do use them that way but after an hour, I am feeling tired and sore. My riding is all on local and back roads. Love the bike for that kind of riding!
 
OliverB said:
Nope, these bikes are not touring bikes. They will beat you pretty good after some time in the saddle. Some folks do use them that way but after an hour, I am feeling tired and sore. My riding is all on local and back roads. Love the bike for that kind of riding!
Click to expand...

I agree with you. I have ridden fairly long distances, but it's not something I would want to do regularly. However, my weekend pleasure rides regularly exceed 50 miles.
 
50+ miles on normal roads and such is enjoyable but one day I had to drive 45 miles to Fort Wayne and then back on Interstate 69 and that was terrifying and agonizing... not to mention my bike overheated when I arrived lol
 
yeah, really, the trip made me want a bigger bike. This is a wonderful little scoot for around town but NOT a highway machine. Also, F*Ing pea gravel was EVERYWHERE in the twisties.
 
pea gravel is the devil on fast twisty areas...yikes. :yikes:
In my case, the bike vibrates so bad my hands go numb on long rides.Also my right hand goes numb from holding the throttle WO. (JK....almost hehehe). I really love old back roads with long sweeps, mellow turns, (the occasional hard corner too) so you can really dig in and throttle out of. Highway/Freeway riding is hard on the nerves, for me anyway, because I have to focus for so long.
Around here people drive like A-holes, especially on the freeways and @ the top end, my bike doesn't have the get away torque so I ride extremely defensive.
 
ROCK ON!! That ride must have been a blast to put down some big miles!

I go to school at Western Carolina University, originally from a town outside of Charlotte. The roads up here are nuts! Amazing rides! Some back roads here make the blue ridge park way and dragons tail look easy! Some really tight stuff that I wouldn't want to go on with a bigger bike but the little xs does grate.

As far as doing the miles I am thinking of doing a trip on my bike this summer. Something like a week on the road. I wont take highways it will be back roads only going 55-60mph. I plan on putting a new sprocket on the back to drop the revs and help with the shake making my hands go numb.
 
That sounds more awesome to me than anything else. I love multi day rides by motorcycle! I always try to plan my ride around 200-300 miles at a time (and really try to stay towards the bottom end of that number) and it had always treated me right. If and when I've exceeded that 300 mile marker, it always starts to ware on me, and the riding isn't fun anymore. The only times it has been fun to ride any more than that would be when I'm with a larger crew of riders, where the exhilaration of riding with friends out weighs the wear on my body.

It could be good to consider ergo's on your bike if you are getting that beat up - have someone take a picture of you on your bike and look at the alignment of your back, look at the position of your shoulders, look at the shape of your arms. You should have square shoulders, your back should be straight, with your rotation at your hips, and you should have a slight bend at your elbow. If you have a curved back, try sitting further back on the bike or moving your bars forward or up or both. If you drop your shoulders forward, then make the reach shorter, or sit more forward on the seat. If you rotate your shoulders back, (also perceived as dropping your head/neck forward), then try moving bars lower and more forward. If your arms are locked out move more forward on the seat, or move the bars up or back. If your elbows are bent past 45, then lower your bars or move them forward. These sorts of adjustments will make a big difference in how you feel at the end of the ride, and try your best to adhere to good posture, as described above. The goal is square shoulders, neck straight off your back, slightly bend elbows, and a flat back rotated at the hips.

Stretch before riding! Seriously. It will make a big difference. Especially your hams, back, shoulders. Neck, abs/core and calves/quads. You might feel like a dirty hippy doing yoga in your leathers, but you'll look way cooler when you get off your bike without monkey butt!

Finally, it's always worth thinking of what people were doing just 200 years ago to cover the same distance. Poor ass folks like most of us travelled by foot, or by box car. Count your monkey butt as a blessing in disguise.
 
Oh yeah. And windscreens. I wouldn't be caught dead behind one, but they do make the ride a lot more comfortable. Supporting your upper body (especially your neck) against 50-75 mph wind for several hours would be wearing on anyone, there are decent options for clip on clip off clear wind screens, that way no one around town will have to know ;)
 
My best is 800 miles in a single session (not on the XS). I only stopped for gas. This is when I got my first supersport :bike: Lifting weights helps a LOT. Focus on your abs and back (most people don't have access to equipment designed for the neck unless you're a racecar driver or wrestler).

A cheap fix for me was wearing a thick pair of basketball shorts under my suit when it wasn't too hot. They add a little cushion that seems to make a big difference.

Check out your rear suspension and make sure it isn't too stiff.
 
For those complaining about hands going numb: even with the bike running optimally, there is still a bit of vibration coming from these bikes. You can buy vibration dampers for bar ends. They are essentially weights that you put into the end of your bars which help to lower perceived vibration. I made mine here in my garage out of .45 caliber bullets, a few long bolts, knurled washers and lock nuts, and a little bit of ingenuity. They drastically reduce the vibration at idle, and even helps my mirrors to be more useful! (They used to vibrate quite a bit making the world in the mirror rather blurry)
 
One of the things I found very uncomfortable for riding is the stock buck horn bars,they hurt my wrist and just way to narrow to hold your arms that way for a long time.I hope my euro bars improve that.
 
Buck horn bars are goofy and impractical for "performance" riding, but they are probably the most comfortable of any type. It allows one to maintain the most neutral arm and wrist position.

Unless a specific injury makes a neutral wrist/arm position uncomfortable I cannot imagine a euro bar improving things.

Most of us just put looks and performance ahead of comfort when it comes to handlebars.
 
I can't ride any bike with buck horn bars they feel way too goofy. My stock 79 bars are nice for long rides.
 
They still put buck horn style bars on a lot of "beach" or cruiser bicycles to this day. It's definitely a strange feeling compared to a normal bar.
 
BC you mentioned injury,well I have carpel tunnel syndrome in both hands so maybe that explains why they hurt my wrist so bad:shrug:.If they were spread out wider they wouldn't be so bad. they way they are narrow makes anything but a neutral position for me to ride with.The bad is I wont know till the euro bars feel like till spring cause I got back after I had put my bike in hibernation.
 
Back
Top