twhitus, Welcome to our nightmare! I too am in Fla., along with several other members. What county are you in?

Hi all, just wanted to introduce myself. Only passed my motorcycle test around 6 weeks ago and 4 weeks ago I bought my 1999 Savage. I have to admit to not even knowing what a LS650 was until I happened on an advertisement in the local Craigslist and liked what I saw...once I took it for a test drive I was sold and I couldn't be happier....she is a little rough around the edges but I have been giving her some TLC which has been great, not to just improve the bikes looks and performance but also its really helped me learn the engine and bike in general.

Super happy that there is this great community and hope to get to know you and maybe ride together sometime in the near future.

I am located in New York City, NY...if anyone else is close by, gimme a holla!

All the best everyone and ride safe.

JD

Mike,

Welcome aboard. I too am from Pennsylvania, but now live in North Texas, we moved here from Lititz.

I worked in Philly back in the 60's, the summer of 1960 I worked at Pat's Steaks and after I graduated I worked at Zable Brothers at 5th. & Columbia.

How about some pics of the geek box being incised?

Here is a pic of my S40.

Kenny G

Mike,

I don't miss Pennsylvania winters, but today it is in the teens here in North Texas. I am able to ride here about 49 or 50 weeks out of the year.

The closet thing here to a Philly Cheese Steak is made by me, including slicing up the meat and making the rolls. Texas doesn't like hard rolls.

What I would give for a trip to 9th. Street, I can't think of the name of the bakery, it's about a block from Fiorelli Brothers or Bruno's Cheese Store.

Kenny G

Mike,

Thanks.

I haven't been to the Italian Market in 10 years, but it was leaning towards the Vietnamese when I was there.

I loved that Polish food from Port Richmond.

And the pork sandwiches from the Reading Terminal.

It is supposed to be 70 degrees here tomorrow so I will be riding in the morning.

Kenny G

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and new to riding. My girlfriend was riding before I met her and ... well  ... now I ride too.  

I live in a place called Phillip Island in southeast Australia. The Island is known mostly for Penguins and the MotoGP track. I'm not a MotoGP kinda guy but it is fun to watch the race on the telly while listening to it live out the back door. It's also fun to see all the bike convoys that come down to the Island when it's on. We have beautiful coast roads and twistys through the hills nearby, but to get to them we have to run the gauntlet along the Bass Highway for about 20 minutes. The Bass Highway just about always has amazing crosswinds and/or headwinds.

I rode trail bikes as a kid but hadn't ridden for over 30 years. I got my learners permit three months ago and my provisional licence a week ago. I've done over 3500 kms (2200 miles in that time). Lovin' it.

At first I bought a 2010 Ninja 250R with, 600 kms on it, from a friend of a friend "to get the party started", as an elderly biker friend put it. It is a beautiful machine and the Yoshi slip on exhaust sounds amazing. It was fun to ride but alas, once I knew what I was doing, I realised it was the exact opposite of what I wanted in just about every way!

So my girlfriend 'inherited' the Ninja and will sell her older ZZR 250.

I did a lot of research into what kind of cruiser I wanted and initially settled on the V Star 650 (in theory). Then I sat on one - back to the drawing board. A salesman at the bike shop introduced me to the Boulevard S40. Then I sat on one - Bingo!

This site was a valuable resource while I was researching bikes and preparing to buy one.

I test rode two second-hand 2014 S40s (there were exactly four for sale in my state on the leading motorcycle sale site, and only eight in the whole country.) The first one had been sitting in the guy's driveway for about a year and had rust in all the chrome parts. It also ran very rough. The second one was in great nic. so I bought that one. I rode pillion on the girlfriend's Ninja for an hour to pick it up, and rode back for an hour on my S40 - pure bliss!!



The rest, if you're interested, are some specifics about plans for the bike. All of them are inspired by this site.

Last weekend I moved the rear turn signals to the licence plate holder, to accommodate some saddle bags. I made a bracket from aluminium and spliced the wires to lengthen them (here's a friendly tip: On the late model S40, the screws that hold the signal housing onto the bike will pinch the wires and short the lights if you screw them in too tight, just sayin' ).

Tonight I ordered some Willie and Max Black Magic Slant Saddlebags and some Suzuki OEM saddlebag support brackets (Another tip: On the late model S40s the centre bolt on the fender rail has been moved to the INSIDE of the fender, so the OEM brackets look like the only one's that will fit.)

A coupe of weeks ago I picked up a pair of  HD Dyna mufflers with the appropriate bolt rails. They came off a new bike. I want to get an adapter made up to account for the kick at the end of the stock muffler. And I've spoken to a mechanic friend about re-jetting it for me when the time comes.

I plan to replace the seat. Honestly, the stock seat looks like it was designed by the guy who designs seats for buses and trains. At this stage I'm leaning toward a Corbin seat.

I was going to add a post to the tech section about the bracket I made up to relocate the turn signals (I took photos along the way) but I'm not sure if it's really going to add much to what is already there. I would welcome opinions on that  


Anyway, I love the bike, Really appreciate this site. And look forward to more reading and more posting.

Cheers

Kieran


This is me and the bike the day I rode home:

Hi Kieran and welcome.
I'm new here too and I just had to laugh when I read about you changing your turn signal mounting right off the bat since it was the 1st thing I had to do on my bike. Naturally next came the Dyna muffler LOL!
I wonder how many others have gone through the same pattern.

Understandable about the Vstar 650. My other half owns one and I can't stand riding it. She's not real thrilled with it either. Up until highway speeds the S40 can run circles around it. I guess every star should have something orbiting it  

I actually think the seats on my commuter train are more comfortable than the S40's seat. Still it's more comfortable than the Vstar's seat. If you get the Corbin I look forward to hearing your opinion on it.

Also should you get tired of looking at the nasty brake light like I did I posted about a good solution for replacing it in the Rubber Side Down section.

philthymike wrote on 12/16/16 at 07:18:47:


Hi Mike, yeah I've come to understand that the S40 is quicker off the mark and a lot more nimble than the V Star. I'm so glad I went with the S40.

As for the rear brake light, it's funny you mention that. When I stood back to check out the turn signals after I moved them, the first thing I thought was 'now, what can I do about that ridiculous looking red box on top of the rear fender'. I'll look up your post in the tech section.

I'll post about the seat once I get it done. That might be a bit later on though.