Joined
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69 Posts
Added about 1000 miles to the CTX over the last 4 days. I rode down the California coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles with a number of detours.
After miles of twisty roads I felt like I was getting confident with the bike, but then toward the end of the trip, I dropped it making a U-turn in an intersection. I was just going too slow and set it down gently. I was attempting the lift technique where you back up to the bike slowly and right it with you legs, when someone ran over to help me. He didn't appear to speak English, but I gave him a big smile and a handshake.
After that I felt like an idiot and was flustered, like I was taking turns too wide and just not relaxed. I made it home fine and was happy with how little damage there was to the bike. With a little polish I don't think it will be noticeable.
Other than that, I was a great ride. Talked with a lot of friendly people about the bike at gas stations or in front of cafes. I have decided that I will invest in the tall windscreen and heated grips, but won't make any other changes.
One other interesting thing, I had a guitar pedal in one of the panniers (Ibanez Tube Screamer). For those of you not familiar this is like a little metal brick for guitar effects. It probably weighs 3 lbs. Anyway, I just had this sitting in the bottom, not in a bag or anything. After one day of riding I noticed there was black plastic dust in the pannier where the pedal had worn away some of the pannier plastic from the bike vibrating. So a word of caution to everyone, keep any hard metal objects wrapped in something soft.
After miles of twisty roads I felt like I was getting confident with the bike, but then toward the end of the trip, I dropped it making a U-turn in an intersection. I was just going too slow and set it down gently. I was attempting the lift technique where you back up to the bike slowly and right it with you legs, when someone ran over to help me. He didn't appear to speak English, but I gave him a big smile and a handshake.
After that I felt like an idiot and was flustered, like I was taking turns too wide and just not relaxed. I made it home fine and was happy with how little damage there was to the bike. With a little polish I don't think it will be noticeable.
Other than that, I was a great ride. Talked with a lot of friendly people about the bike at gas stations or in front of cafes. I have decided that I will invest in the tall windscreen and heated grips, but won't make any other changes.
One other interesting thing, I had a guitar pedal in one of the panniers (Ibanez Tube Screamer). For those of you not familiar this is like a little metal brick for guitar effects. It probably weighs 3 lbs. Anyway, I just had this sitting in the bottom, not in a bag or anything. After one day of riding I noticed there was black plastic dust in the pannier where the pedal had worn away some of the pannier plastic from the bike vibrating. So a word of caution to everyone, keep any hard metal objects wrapped in something soft.