Hello from a new rider in Berkeley, CA

[Rookie Rider]

Give yourself and the bike some time. You wll get to know the bike better with more riding.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by SLOAero

Braking seemed especially week in the rear

I've had mine for over 5 years, & it's always felt weak to me, but, over all, the braking's ok. Remember, the front brake is responsible for around 70% of the braking.

[jonathan180iq]

Originally Posted by SLOAero

Here are my brief notes:
Shifting was fine - it took me a little while to get used to finding neutral - once I did I realized I'd not be doing it very often since I have a habit of rolling to a stop in first.

Braking seemed especially week in the rear, but I could still be getting used to the bike.

On some right turns around 15-20 mph the bike seemed to... i'm not sure what the word is... but the regular acceleration that you feel in a turn wasn't there-like it was trying to drop in the rear on me during the turn? Maybe I had my foot on the brake? Don't recall a similar experience during left turn-could be the right turn was sharper so something was pronounced there - this weekend when BART's parking lot is empty I'll have a good go at that.

Smell - smelled like burnt...something. Burnt oil? Leaking then burning oil? Or maybe it was the smell of exhaust and I'm so damn used to modern cars and gas stations I'd forgotten it?

Anyway - thanks everyone for your responses! I feel confident riding this bike now - can't wait to get some more slow miles on after a good cleaning/oil check.

Shifting being nice and smooth is a good thing. I'm sure you know the crankcase and the gearbox share the only lubricant that the bike has. Anything that was in the oil, that might be enough to damage engine internals, in my humble opinion, would begin to show symptoms in the finely teethed gearing before it would in the more loosely designed motor itself.

The rear brake blows. I only ever used it when I needed to brake quickly or to lightly shave some MPH during a turn. (That takes experience by the way. Jamming your foot down on the rear can be deadly mid-turn, even with a crap brake.)


Were you giving it enough throttle, during those low turns? I mean, it's possible that you just weren't moving fast enough. There is very good scientific explanation for this but I don't have the vocabulary for it. The bike weights nearly 400 pounds. If you aren't moving at a decent clip where momentum offsets gravity, then it's going to fall over. Same reason bicycles can't stand up while sitting still and you will fall off of a wave runner if you ever stop moving. Think gyroscope. - If you are leaning, maybe too much, and not moving fast enough, thus creating enough counter force, it will feel like the bike wants to fall into the inside of the turn.

If it's not that, then you need to look at wheel balance, tire pressure, and rear wheel alignment. Those are all things that you can check on your own, with the help of this dandy little forum.

If you have the slight head leak, with brown oily residue, like I think 90% of GZ owners have, then you shouldn't be smelling that bit of oil burning off. If this is your first ride after an oil change, you most definitely got some oil on the exhaust at some point. Give that time to cook off and dissipate before we start worrying about bigger problems. - Now, that being said, these things, after a certain age, seem prone to developing an exhaust leak on the left (driver side US) header between the flange and the gasket. Oxidation or something is rapid right there and the little gasket starts to fail with age. The flange that screws the headers tight also works itself loose. It's something that you can smell. Just make sure it's snug. Or maybe, right after cranking the bike, use the back side of the your hand (the sensitive bit between the middle knuckle and finger tip knuckle) you see if you can feel puffs of air seeping out there. A feather works too.