Motorcycle Store Online

Should you use the motorcycle engine kill-switch?

I took the basic rider course here in Florida and they taught use the kill-switch and then turn off the ignition. My step-dad on the other hand screams every time he sees me do this, and says that switch is for emergencies only. While I have to listen to him for now, what's the real deal here? Is it truly for emergencies? Does using it do anything to the bike at all? I mainly need sources to go read this for myself and maybe show him.

Here any good news lately? (joke)?

FROM A FLORIDA NEWSPAPER

A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio and his wife was in the Kitchen. The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle and somehow, the motorcycle slipped into gear. The man, still holding the handlebars, was dragged through a glass patio door and the motorcycle dumped onto the floor inside the house. The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining room, and found her husband laying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the motorcycle laying next to him and the patio door shattered. The wife ran to the phone and summoned an ambulance. Because they lived on a fairly large hill, the wife went down the several flights of long steps to the street to direct the paramedics to her husband. After the ambulance arrived and transported her husband to the hospital, the wife up righted the motorcycle and pushed it outside. Seeing that gas had spilled on the floor, the wife used some paper towels to blot up the gasoline, then threw them in the toilet.
The husband was treated at the hospital and was released to come home. After arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He became despondent, went into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and smoked a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl while still seated. The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. She ran into the bathroom and found her husband lying on the floor. His pants had been blown away and he was suffering burns on the buttocks, the back of his legs and his groin.
The wife again ran to the phone and called for an ambulance. The same ambulance crew was dispatched and the wife met them at the street. The paramedics loaded the husband on the stretcher and began carrying him to the street. While they were going down the stairs to the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked her how the husband had burned himself. She told them and the paramedics started laughing so hard, one of them tipped the stretcher and dumped the husband out. He fell down the remaining steps and broke his arm.
Please feel free to browse my other questions, I post jokes all the time.
This is a variant of a true story, the part about the paramedics dropping the guy is obviously fake, but the explosion in the toilet and blowing up the guy smoking on it is true.
http://www.snopes.com/embarrass/accident/toilet.asp

2001 4x4 Silverado Engine Swap?

I have a 2001 Silverado 4x4 with a 5.3 Liter V8. I bought a motorcycle and am now towing a trailer and bike/jet ski to places like Sturgis, SD, Florida etc and that small engine complains a lot on hills both large and small. I want to do a total engine and transmission swap to an LS2 engine...actually I want to hire this done. It's that or get a used Duramax. What am I in for? Engine/trans cost and swap cost?