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"Cornering sparks can start forest fires?" - Cycle World

PAndrews

PAndrews

Mini Bike
I am a 2003 C10 owner and would like to someday be a C14 owner. In the September 2011 Cycle World there is an article comparing the C14 to the BMW K1600GT. The writer states that the Connie drags on cornering.  Do you drag a peg or something else while leaning on corners? I've not heard of this before. The article indicates that this can be corrected by adjusting the suspension. Have you lucky C14 owners started a forest fire?
 
I couldn't believe what I was reading. I ride all over, including twisties in the Texas hill country, I have, not once, in 14000 miles, scraped the pegs. I came from a Nomad that scraped all the time. This bike is incredible. I like what Mark Hoyer said in the front of the magazine about the C14.
 
I don't think sparks from a motorcycle present any real threat at all, since they stay on the road. Its the embers from a lit cigarette that roll off into the grass that are the real threat.

We are in the worst drought here in nearly 100 years right now, and the whole area is a tinderbox.  Three times in the last week I have been following vehicles on the road where the driver threw out a lit cigarette butt and it showered sparks all over the roadside. We have at least one grass fire a week started along the roadways here from folks tossing out cigarette butts, and last year some folks near me lost their homes from a cigarette butt tossed out a car window.
 
I took that as a "tongue in cheek" comment.

I got tired of dragging that feeler tang so I took it off, problem solved.
 
I don't get Cycle World, so I haven't seen the article, but I suspect you are right, they must have been joking. Sorry for my previous rant, this issue just hits a little too close to home for me.

Though I'm surprised they even bring this issue up. You'll have to work pretty hard to drag the pegs on a C14 if the suspension is properly adjusted. I can't imagine it being a real problem worth even mentioning in an article. If you're touching down pegs on this bike, then you are at the limits of the tires anyway.
 
I think the whole comment was a dig at the C14 for not having electronically adjustable suspension, because they whined about having to set it up.  I can't belive the BMW has THAT much more clearance than the C14.  The whole article was geared towards a 'BMW knocks off the C14' attitude.  They also said the GT flogged the C14 in top gear roll-ons, but then admitted he C14 held its own if they repeated the test in 5th gear....
 
Bruce_Reafsnider_TN said:
I think the whole comment was a dig at the C14 for not having electronically adjustable suspension, because they whined about having to set it up.  I can't belive the BMW has THAT much more clearance than the C14.  The whole article was geared towards a 'BMW knocks off the C14' attitude.  They also said the GT flogged the C14 in top gear roll-ons, but then admitted he C14 held its own if they repeated the test in 5th gear....
Click to expand...

I test rode the new BMW, and I thought the suspension on it was way too soft and mushy. I had to keep it in the hardest suspension setting to make it even come close to the C14 suspension. This pretty much made the "electronic suspension" useless, since I'd never use the two softer modes. Even the sporty mode was still too soft for me.
 
I know what you mean, Fred.  I really think they just rolled the C14 out and rode it, no adjustments made.  All I know is if my C14 with Pilot Roads leaned any further it would be sliding on its side down the road.
 
Fred_Harmon_TX said:
I don't think sparks from a motorcycle present any real threat at all, since they stay on the road. Its the embers from a lit cigarette that roll off into the grass that are the real threat.

We are in the worst drought here in nearly 100 years right now, and the whole area is a tinderbox.  Three times in the last week I have been following vehicles on the road where the driver threw out a lit cigarette butt and it showered sparks all over the roadside. We have at least one grass fire a week started along the roadways here from folks tossing out cigarette butts, and last year some folks near me lost their homes from a cigarette butt tossed out a car window.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the truth about forest fires Fred. They should put a tax on cigarettes for a fund that pays every cent to fight these fires. Every time I read that a wildfire was started by lightning, I know a smoker was watching out for other smokers. The butts are piled up at every intersection with a signal light. What more proof do you need? Of course they throw them out the window, who would want a STINKY PIECE OF CRAP in their car???
 
Absolutelty agree coming from Australia where summers can be brutal and bushfires way too common.

People who depose of their cigarettes and trash in this manner have little respect for themselves or their neighbours. When the snow melts here in the NE I'm ammazed by the trash piled up.

As for the bike, I had no troubles keeping up the pace at a Track day and only scrape the pegs a couple of times. But that was in a certain corner where it comes up at you.
 
It drives me crazy watching people just toss the butts out the window. I have confronted friends that do this. I hear lame excuses that they are biodegradable and such. But they never think of where their coals go. And I will say I have been hit many times both in the cage and on the bike by coals. So it really pi$$es me off. Most smokers feel it is there right to make you breath and a lot of time be polluted by the smell of their smoke. Smokers do not realize smelling like an ash tray. But when you don't smoke, you hate smelling like this, especially because of others. But to discard their butts (coals) out the window without any regard for the possible ramifications is really ignorant. How some of the smartest people I know can have attitudes that can be so dumb is beyond me.  :'(
 
Well at least I'm doing my part, I have aluminum pegs with aluminum feelers.  No sparks here!  :nananana:

And I totally agree that the butt heads should keep their butts in their cars.  :38:
 
Cap'n Bob said:
It drives me crazy watching people just toss the butts out the window.
Click to expand...

I am behind you 100% on this! Sometimes you have to ride through a shower of sparks.
 
Ok...back to the original question about scraping. When I first got the bike I scraped the feelers the first ride. I pulled over and off they came. Later in the ride I was scraping pegs. I still scrape pegs now and then especially if the camber of the road is off but in the very tight corners I tend to get my arse off the saddle a bit so I don't have to lean the bike as far to make the corner.
 
I took the article to mean like Bruce is saying. They loved the ability to adjust the BMW on the fly. With the Concours, they believed few would take the time to pull over and adjust for changing conditions.  If what they say is true, it must be hell when the gas tank runs out of fuel.  After all, few woudl be willing to stop and put more in when they could push the bike instead. 
 
Those butts coming out the window are very frustrating, for sure. Here in WA it is around $1015.00 fine for tossing one during the summer  months.  Long time ago, in another life, I was cruising down I-5, when the passenger in the car ahead of me tossed one.  Justice was swift. I winged that car over, the driver had no idea why, but the passenger found out. She got a ticket for the butt toss, properly phrased as throwing lighted material; and her comment was along the lines of "It's not fair, I didn't know you were back there!"
 
We are in the middle of the worst drought ever on record with high winds, and today someone tossed a cigarette butt out the window of a vehicle and started this fire along the road about 1/2 mile from my house.

large.jpg
 
Fred, I saw your comment about being at the tires limit if you are scraping your pegs. I also saw some
pictures where you laid the bike down to photograph the tip over protection.
My question is, did you ever watch to see where the tires are tread-wise when the feelers touch down?
I suspect you still have a ways to go, depending on your tire, but without testing it I don't know. Anyway
I know people grind the feelers or pegs without problems. Going beyond that, we all know what happens when hard parts touch down.
 
Riding two up, i tend to lighten the center stand each ride.  can't recall hitting my pegs yet.  :-[

:motonoises: :motonoises:
 
I have the Dunlop Q2 Sportmax tires on my C14 and have touched the peg feelers down a handful of times through sharp 90 degree angle turns.  What I've found out is that at a fairly tight setting on my suspension, with the peg feelers on the ground, I have about 1/4 inch of "chicken strip" left on my rear tire, so the peg feelers are a pretty good safety measure, for me, so I don't go over the limit of the tire.  If I'm scraping, I just keep it steady and let her roll.  Luckily, I haven't started a wildfire yet.  :))
 
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