ST1300 Towel Rack

[Burnout]

It's just been too hot to ride. Been 90-95 here for the past two weeks. (i know you guys from down south are gonna make fun of me!) The bike has been sitting and actually serves well as a towel rack when the boys and I get back from the Lake. But all is not not lost.... I'm just riding something different!

[wildhorse]

I have a Kawasaki 650 Side by Side that I run... Sure is a lot of fun to get out and jump a few waves!

[admin]

When I had one it sure was a lot of fun, but, you almost needed a fuel tanker running alongside to keep the gas tank topped up. This was almost 20 years ago, have they gotten any better fuel economy wise?

[wildhorse]

I get around 4 hours run time on a tank of gas

[admin]

How much gas would that be, 10 gallons roughly?

[wildhorse]

4 gallons

[Burnout]

The newer ones are way better being 4 strokes and better hull designs. I got an oldie. Mine holds 6 gallons. 5 on main and 1 for reserve. 3 hrs run time on the main tank.... Roughly $20 a day. Soon as the gas is gone, we snorkel.

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[admin]

That's not too bad for the amount of fun you can have. It sure takes a lot of co-ordination to figure how to get on those things the first few times and it's funny as heck watching a beginner trying to figure it out.

[Burnout]

The older ones are narrow and unstable when not on plane. Most of my tip-overs / flips are at the dock when someone else is trying to get on.

I tried a friends "stand-up" model last year. That's exactly what you said. I couldn't get that thing on plane to save my life. Kept falling off. I gave up after giving the neighborhood about a half hour of priceless entertainment....

[garyft]

If I stopped riding above 90 degrees I could only ride for about 3-4 months a year!

[GoneFishin]

It has been in the 90's and 100's here the last few weeks and I have limited my riding to the mornings. It's very easy to get dehydrated in this heat even if you have water on board which I always do in this kind of weather. "Man's got to know his limitations"! B-(

[Granpah]

If I stopped riding above 90 degrees I could only ride for about 3-4 months a year!

Ditto !

Here, between 9 PM and 8 AM it "cools off" to low 80s ... making us night riders. Right NOW, it's about 3 PM and a balmy 101 in the shade ... a better place to be than three higher digits in the sun. I've tried 98 on my bike (with jacket, gloves and helmet) and after about 2 miles had to quit. So yesterday, instead going out with the temp nudging 100 again, I stayed in my air conditioned garage and installed my long overdue windshield vent ... did a good job on it too. At least my GL1200 and me were close and cool all day. At least I saved a lot of fuel. :d :lol:

[wingandaprayer]

The newer ones are way better being 4 strokes and better hull designs. I got an oldie. Mine holds 6 gallons. 5 on main and 1 for reserve. 3 hrs run time on the main tank.... Roughly $20 a day. Soon as the gas is gone, we snorkel.

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Dating myself: I learned to ride a Kawasaki Jet-Ski 400 by way of my employer in 1975... I missed out on the testing of the prototypes the year before... I didn't buy one mainly because if I remember they sold for $1300 to $1400, but the duties/sales tax and the Liberal Luxury tax (it was an inboard boat after all) added I believe another $700 - and secondly because I had just emptied my savings for a Yamaha RD350... I believe I paid around $1300 for it...
I'm thinking a Jet-Ski should be like riding a bicycle, once you learn you don't forget...let's see in 75 they were 400cc and would do about 25-30mph, now they are what 800cc? How hard could it be? :d

[Granpah]

Sorry to be a wet blanket [ :lol: :lol: ], but I'm following an urge to add a word of caution about powerful Jet-Skis, based on some second hand experience.

In two weeks, I'll escape from getting baked beyond well-done in St. Louis to the ancient whaling village of Woods Hole, MA on Cape Cod. :d The place where I stay shares the town with a major U.S. Coast Guard station that in addition to being a global communication coordination center (example: cleaning up oil spills anywhere in the world), continually rescues boaters along the East Coast. [Long ago, I tried to influence one of my sons to join the Coast Guard but he didn't take the bait :d ] Every year they issue warnings from their Office of Boating Safety specifically about Jet-Ski accidents (Jet Ski is Kawasaki's brand name, there are other brands, of course) in which riders run full speed into partially or fully submerged rocks (into a boat or a boat crossing their path • • • shades of left turn car-biking collisions). At 40-50 mph it doesn't make much difference if you run a GL1200 into a wall or a Jet-Ski into something solid on top of or under water. Plus I've NEVER seen a Jet-Skier wear a helmet (nor a motorcyclist wearing a life jacket :d ) ... now THAT would really be funny. :lol: :lol:

An earlier written article in the Business Library states, "According to the US Coast Guard, 10 percent of all boats on US waters are jet skis, but jet skis account for 36 percent of all boating accidents. Jet skis are involved in 40 percent of all boating-related injuries and 8 percent of all boating deaths."

The Coast Guard's and Marine Patrol's second Jet-Ski warning is for riders to stay far away from swimmers and bathers in the water. There too, either the Guard or Marine Patrol have too often had to retrieve swimmers who've been run over, sliced and diced by a Jet-Ski. It ain't pretty.

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T DRINK BOOZE BEFORE RIDING OUT ON A JET SKI. IN CASE OF SOME ACCIDENT, THE PENALTIES FOR BUI [boating under the influence] ON WATER ARE JUST AS SEVERE AS THEY ARE ON LAND.

Otherwise, Jet-Skiing is only second to riding my GL1200 ... especially during these globally overheated days.

Have lots of fun and ride safe!

[garyft]

In any discussion of personal watercraft and safety, I'm reminded of a former coworker. Another coworker had just purchased a used jet-ski (the old stand up type) and another guy pipes up and says "I hate Jet-skis, they aren't safe. I had a friend who drowned on one."

I asked the first question that came to mind:

"Was he wearing a life jacket?" "No".
"Could he swim?" "No".

I didn't say anything else, but the next question that came to mind was "how is that the jet-ski's fault?"

Like anything else we do, especially as riders, we incur some risk. If you don't take the necessary precautions to mitigate that risk, that's on you.