r/motorcycle

I'm trying to find a helmet to wear with my cb500x that has a drop down sun visor. My head is 22 5/8'' or 57.5 cm. That puts me in a medium for most helmets. I've tried a HJC RPHA 72 and a SHoei Gt Air 3 both in medium so far and they feel ok around the crown and i can barely stick a finger in across the forehead but they barely touch my cheeks. Both chin straps are uncomfortable against my adams apple especially when looking down a bit. There is actually a gap between the pads and my cheeks with the RPHA 72, and the GT Air 3 just barely touches them.

I'm not sure if its common for people to need different cheek pads, or if i actually need to size down to a small. The closest cyclegear is a 3 hour round trip for me...and they also dont carry the HJC. I'm feeling pretty discouraged - i was sure shelling out for the shoei was going to do the trick...but the shoei is actually massive and pretty heavy compared to the HJC and it still has the cheek fit issue for me.

Hello everyone,
In a couple of months, I will have my car paid off so I will be in the market of financing a brand new bike. I currently drive a 2004 suzuki gs500 and am looking to upgrade to the suzuki gsx-s1000. I have been riding for about 2 years now, no accidents and I ride without speeding 10mph over the speed limit, but the gsx-s1000 will have almost 3x the horsepower than what I currently have. I am choosing the 1000cc instead of the 750cc because I like the red color scheme, plus I am hoping that it will be a forever bike, never having to buy or trade up for something different. Will this bike be too much for me to handle? All opinions would be appreciated. Thank you.

Edit: Thank you all for your time and recommendations. After reading the comments, I will go for the GSX-S750 next. I would like to utilize the whole bike and be safer to practice my throttle control on a more powerful bike. You guys are awesome and a great community! Hope you all have a great day.

I mean if your bike is your only transportation you probably do but those with a car or better public transit what do you do when you're feeling sick? Like you're okay enough to go to work but you feel like dogshit at work? I'm in the US if it matters.

It’s honestly sad how many of you are completely overlooking your suspension, right now. And I know it to be complete ignorance, based on the way many people in the community talk about suspension. Completely clueless. And before you get mad at me, ask yourself when the last time you replaced your fork oil was. Ask yourself about that one time you crashed the bike, and if suspension could have helped prevent it. Ask yourself if you don’t ever feel confident with the tires.

As an example, I crashed my Z125 in a parking lot months ago doing a U-Turn because I forgot to stiffen the dampening back up to street settings. My front tire caught in a crack in the road and rebounded my handlebars to the other direction, flipping the bike and me to the other side. With higher compression, this rebounding effect would have been much kore subdued and controllable. I’m sharing this as an example of why it matters, and what can be done to diagnose & fix.

If you know this isn’t you, good job I’m proud of you for taking care of your motorcycle, and being a good rider.

Your suspension keeps your tire consistently on the ground. It’s as important to your safety as your helmet is. It’s almost as important as your choice in tire & tire pressure to how much grip is available to you.

So I hope this is a wake up call to someone. Not everyone has adjustable suspension, so I understand if this isn’t you. But if you spend $500 on your brand new Pirelli Rosso 4 Corsa’s or comparable tire to go fast, buy a $10 wrench to adjust your suspension’s preload with. Spend $100 on a set of preload springs that actually fit your weight. Suspension components get HOT AF and you don’t even realize, go get the oil in the suspension replaced after 10-20k miles. It’ll feel like a brake bleed after a long time, suddenly you’ll have a lot more feeling from the suspension because the oil isn’t completely oxidized anymore. If you’re out-riding the compression, go look at getting the shim stack/valves rebuilt.

My main point remains: go learn how to adjust your suspension. Go maintenance your old suspension. It may save your life.

If anyone has questions about HOW to adjust suspension, or even going deeper down the rabbit hole like better spring rates for your weight, different oil weights, rebuilding shims to vary the compression/rebound characteristics, etc feel free to ask. Here to teach and hopefully also learn.

Edit 1: It's called damping, not dampening as I made the mistake of saying.