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Story of epic first ride on wife's new bike, where I wished I had my Connie

Salish14 said:
Here is a write up I did on the forum for the new Yamaha R3 ABS that is the first bike for my wife. Buying it and getting it home ended up requiring some of the more epic riding I've had to do. I think it's a fun story, and I share it here just because it relates to how much easier the ride would have been on my Connie.

https://www.r3-forums.com/forum/801-new-rider-section/145641-epic-first-ride.html
Click to expand...

Super first ride; thanks for sharing. Hope your wife enjoys her new ride and pray for her safety. My wife is also a new, 2-wheel biker. Her first is a Honda Rebel 250; just fits her for now...
 
I have ridden Seattle to Pullman many times, on an 80' Honda CB650 or an 82; Honda V45 Sabre. I think each time I experienced at least two of your weather conditions and always big winds crossing the river at Vantage.
 
Yeah, Kelly, all of us who ride here in the PNW know we have a landscape that just screams extremes. It's not totally unlike the other Western States, except that we have more rain and the winds that come with storms. Our topography is way more mellow than the Sierra, but the weather at 3,000 at Snoqualmie Pass is consistently worse than the weather at 7,000 feet in the Sierra. And the winds in the Gorge and the Columbia near Vantage are epic.

I think of my Connie as a sort of all weather/terrain assault vehicle for pavement. And here in the NW, if you ride year round, you have to get good at riding on all types of roads in driving rain and darkness at 42 degrees. Don't get good at that in Santa Monica.

But this is all made OK by the fact we have such beautiful country and when not raining, perfect weather and the best summers. Just love it.
 
Good write up. My wife hates when I ride in the slop. I have always seen it as an opportunity to get better and test my skills.

Sounds like the stock tires are as bad as the ones on Connies
 
Yeah, the stock tires on the 2017 R3 are bias ply. I didn't know you could still even buy bias ply tires. Mama Yama has switched to radials for the 2019, as I will do for this bike once I get around to it. What's so strange, and you won't believe me, is that my Connie is way, way more flickable than that little R3. I'm thinking it must just be the tires, because I think the geometry is similar enough. I can flick my Connie from side to side with great speed, and relative ease, and to get that R3 to do the same is slow and a lot more effort. Odd.
 
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