Comeback... - Page 3

**Twister** · 03-03-2010, 12:33 AM

A day after tomorow is my "first day of school" I'm studying the booklet that they gave me (this thing is serious). On the other hand, I went for a short ride on Sunday afternoon (beautiful weather) at night I couldn't resist and installed the heated grips I'm guessing they are made out of sugar, 'cuz they are SWEEEEET!. I also bought the steroids for the horn, I already tested them (so loud it litteraly hurts ears even if your pionting them on a different direction) but I hope that tones down using them outdoors with the helmet on. I'm puttin on some bling on them horns, but I gues I'll post all the details and pics when I'm done in the mods section.

Ride safe
Ride fun

**Guba** · 03-03-2010, 01:18 AM

Be careful on the use of your heated grips! I have them too, but the Rebel charging system doesn't keep the battery charged at idle, so try to use them only when the engine is revved. The reason is, the battery isn't a deep cycle battery. If it cycles to less than 80% of charge it's called deep cycling. And Reb batteries weren't made for that. The result is short battery life. But warm grips are nice!!!

**Twister** · 03-03-2010, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guba

Be careful on the use of your heated grips! I have them too, but the Rebel charging system doesn't keep the battery charged at idle, so try to use them only when the engine is revved. The reason is, the battery isn't a deep cycle battery. If it cycles to less than 80% of charge it's called deep cycling. And Reb batteries weren't made for that. The result is short battery life. But warm grips are nice!!!

Thanks for the advise. No wonder my headlight turns yellowish at idle, it makes sense now, I'm thinking of a couple of ways to solve this, 'cuz it would be nice to warm up the engine and the grips at the same time. I'll eventually come up with something.

**mad hatter** · 03-07-2010, 12:03 AM

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking bike!

JunkyardDog · 03-07-2010, 12:10 AM

I use heated gloves instead of heated grips, but have not tried them on the Rebel yet. I can already guess they will not work well. I will probably rig up an off switch on the head and tail lights, so I can use that power for the gloves. Jerry.

**Twister** · 03-07-2010, 09:42 PM

Just graduated after FOUR DAYS! It was a lot more fun than I expected, the class started with 11 students, but only 9 of us graduated. One of them quit, 'cuz he couldn't work a clutch (after buying a 25K HD) and a young lady who couldn't find a baby-sitter for Saturday and Sunday practice/exam. Couple of maneuvers were a bit hard like the "box" but I did OK (top of the class whoho).

Half the classmates had bought a brand new HD at the same stealership giving the class. And have NEVER ridden a bike. Class was given on Buell Blast bikes (495 cc piece of plastic, Buell being a Harley Davidson Company) I wish there was a place around here that gives the class on Rebels. Of course every time on the floor room they wanted me to trade in my "metric" bike for one of theirs. Jajajaja! Me going in debt for a vehicle? They were barking at the wrong tree. Everything I own is paid for; if I can't afford it I don't buy it. They tried to explain me that their bikes are the best on the planet, and that their re-sale value was the best. I told the sales person MY bike was worth at least 500 bucks more than it was 24 years ago at the show room, I can get twice as much what I paid for a month ago just wrenching/polishing it for a month. Then asked him if he had a 2 wheeler that could do that on his floor room. He just kept quiet.

Thursday night one of the instructors recommended us to ride EVERY DAY at least 15 mins. Sooo, on Friday I took my bike to class, of course it was weird, to say the least to show up on a parking lot PACKED with HDs, crowded with hard core bike riders. Got all kinds of looks. A lot of people asked about it. Saturday and today, when we went for lunch some of the students, and a few hard core HD riders and I went for pizza yesterday and Subway today, they were amazed it could keep up with them and most of them where assuming it was at least a 500 cc (I guess it’s hard to tell if you are not familiar with the Hondas, just looking at the engine head. Among them they say an 1100 cc is a "small" bike. (They're so full of it) When I told my class mates (when they asked if was upgrading/trading it for a HD) that I was going to do at least 3 to 5 K Miles on it before "graduating" to a larger bike, which would probably be in the 600-750 cc range, they went like "crap I should have done the same".

Overall it was a lot of fun and I RECOMMEND IT to everyone. The most important thing is that I developed a lot of new skills and techniques. Some things that I was doing wrong (Like not using all of my fingers on the front brake, or not looking far enough on a curve) where addressed and now I can work on those. Fortunately the range is like a 2 or 3 mile ride from home. It was just great, really enjoyed it.

Plan is to get my motorcycle endorsement on Friday and add the bike to my insurance on Saturday. Let's hope everything goes as planned.

HD stands for HUNDREDS of DOLLARS not Harley Davidson.

**Twister** · 03-07-2010, 10:12 PM

Here's some pics of my loaner Buell and some of my classmates. Of course we had a guy fell BAD, damage the bike and everything. But good thing is that he wouldn't quit; 10 mins. and he was riding; the thousands he payed for his HD encouraged him to keep trying I guess. The irony is (for those of you with triskadecafobia) that the bike thay gave him afterwards was #13, and he didn't fell after wards. We had other falls, but nothing serious. Thank God I didn't fell, 'cuz that would stress me ridding on the way home. Like the instructor was saying: "Best thing here is that is NOT your bike, just shake of the dust and you're OK. The fastest we went was like 15 mph at the practice range. I really hope from the bottom of my heart that the guy that quit, gets enough practice with a smaller bike and eventually tames his Road King, before he sells it.

**Twister** · 03-07-2010, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JunkyardDog

I use heated gloves instead of heated grips, but have not tried them on the Rebel yet. I can already guess they will not work well. I will probably rig up an off switch on the head and tail lights, so I can use that power for the gloves. Jerry.

Do you feel like you're tied/tangled? Have you used them on your other bikes? how do you like them? Have you ever forgotten to unplug?

**Twister** · 03-07-2010, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mad hatter

Welcome to the forum. Nice looking bike!

Thank you sir!

**Twister** · 03-07-2010, 10:49 PM

If you zoom in on this one you can see my red brave "metric" rebel next to a classmate's "sae" HD she has several thousand miles under her belt and a very cool bike, with marine speakers, an amp in one of the saddlebags an Ipod cradle on the bar right behind the wind shield. Sorry for the quality, but I only had my phone on the range.

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