April 15, 2009
The Countdown Begins/Random Weekday Nonsense.
Here we go, people. THE countdown has begun! In slightly less than one year, I will turn *gasp* forty! And I couldn't be looking forward to it more. Not in the sense that I'm looking forward to the actual aging part, but unlike some folks I know, I have absolutely no reservations about that fateful day. I suppose saying goodbye to my thirties will be somewhat nostalgic, but no more so than my twenties or even my teens. As far as I'm concerned, once you get past 21 it's all pretty much academic anyway. They don't even give you an insurance break at 25 anymore so 21 is really the last "big one" in my book. And if I may speak from my own personal experience, I was a bit of a dork at 21. I think most of us were. It just comes with the territory. Unless you are called Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein, that is. In my book the older I get, the better. What did we do for the 39th birthday festivities, you ask? Simple: IKEA. Frisco, TX style.
In other news, a good friend of mine Saturday had an unfortunate crash test while riding his uber-sweet CBR 600F4i. He's going to be fine, but the bike is a bit worse for wear. It would seem he rolled the rear tire through some oil when getting the bike out of his garage and then when making the turn off his street things went all pear-shaped in a hurry. Obviously, when there are only two wheels present, maintaining COMPLETE traction on both of them becomes paramount and oil is the last thing you want on a tire. Or maybe Armor All. Not sure, but either one will probably end your ride in a most unpleasant manner. Here's a bit of trivia about import bikes for you: the plastic from which they make the fairings and body panels is more expensive than children! (Or so I'm told) Seriously though, if you crash test your import bike and go to the manufacturer to obtain your replacement parts, you are going to end up buying the bike twice. It doesn't look that bad, but the entire left side of my bud's bike is damaged--the nose fairing, the mirror, the clutch lever and mount, the side fairing, the alternator cover, the shifter, the foot peg and even the tail fairing are all either rashed or broken. Now he could just get the essentials and get 'er back on the road for under 2 bills, but if he were to go to Honda USA and get the parts I shudder to think what it would cost. I priced the nose fairing at our local shop and it comes up to $675.96 without the little bits and bobs to hold it in place and make it look all pretty and finished. The mirror is $104.97. Yes, that is for ONE mirror. He'll probably be able to save about half of retail if he can find all the parts on eBay but that is still money that no one really wants to spend. There are a few lessons to be learned here: first, don't roll your tire through oil and wreck your bike. Second, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR! Third, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR!
And in other bike news (you knew it was coming, didn't you?) I am just about set for the next round of mods on the Mighty SV. I have, sitting in the garage right now, one pair of RaceTech Gold Valve cartridge emulators and .85kg fork springs to go with. You see, gentle reader, when Suzuki designed the SV, they were working to a price point. Probably the easiest way to save money on a bike is to skimp on the suspension. So that's precisely what they did. Instead of fully-adjustable cartridge forks, they went with damper rod forks which have been essentially unchanged for about 40 years. The factory springs are notoriously weak and the fork oil has been compared to "dirty ice tea" by some. The magic of emulators is that they take cheap damper rod forks and emulate the function of cartridge forks. I will spare you any more detail but just know that this is supposed to be THE mod to get your SV's front end sorted--short of a full GSX-R front end swap. And that opens up a completely different can (or 4) of worms. The emulators combined with the correct spring rate for my weight, and topped up with fork oil thicker than the aforementioned iced tea should get things squared away in one afternoon. The only negative? I have to completely disassemble the front end to make it happen. Not overly complicated but certainly time consuming. There will be one easy mod, though. Today, our friendly neighborhood UPS guy should be dropping off my Yoshimura RS3 stainless steel slip-on canister. Since the day I picked up this bike, I've been annoyed by the ridiculous noise it makes. A twin should make a nice, low rumble that barely hints at the insane-o, crazy goodness just bursting to get out. The factory can, however, is an embarrassment. That's all you can say about it. Well I suppose you can say that and it's DOT approved! Oh yay. But all that will change soon. Very soon. I may even make a recording of the before and after so you can hear just what I mean. Or maybe not. That might be kind of a pain while trying to do the install and youtube has about 6,271 videos of exactly the same thing--just search for SV650 Yoshimura exhaust. Oh, and while you're there, search for "SV650 Crash" and hit the top link. It should be a guy on a blue SV doing a stand-up burnout that ends with the bike pulling him into a parked car I know it's soooo wrong, but that one cracks me up every single time!
And just to make sure this post is completely random, I'll end with something our Pastor on Easter Sunday asked the congregation: "Is your religion making you the kind of person you want to be"? Didn't see that one coming, didja?
In other news, a good friend of mine Saturday had an unfortunate crash test while riding his uber-sweet CBR 600F4i. He's going to be fine, but the bike is a bit worse for wear. It would seem he rolled the rear tire through some oil when getting the bike out of his garage and then when making the turn off his street things went all pear-shaped in a hurry. Obviously, when there are only two wheels present, maintaining COMPLETE traction on both of them becomes paramount and oil is the last thing you want on a tire. Or maybe Armor All. Not sure, but either one will probably end your ride in a most unpleasant manner. Here's a bit of trivia about import bikes for you: the plastic from which they make the fairings and body panels is more expensive than children! (Or so I'm told) Seriously though, if you crash test your import bike and go to the manufacturer to obtain your replacement parts, you are going to end up buying the bike twice. It doesn't look that bad, but the entire left side of my bud's bike is damaged--the nose fairing, the mirror, the clutch lever and mount, the side fairing, the alternator cover, the shifter, the foot peg and even the tail fairing are all either rashed or broken. Now he could just get the essentials and get 'er back on the road for under 2 bills, but if he were to go to Honda USA and get the parts I shudder to think what it would cost. I priced the nose fairing at our local shop and it comes up to $675.96 without the little bits and bobs to hold it in place and make it look all pretty and finished. The mirror is $104.97. Yes, that is for ONE mirror. He'll probably be able to save about half of retail if he can find all the parts on eBay but that is still money that no one really wants to spend. There are a few lessons to be learned here: first, don't roll your tire through oil and wreck your bike. Second, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR! Third, ALWAYS WEAR YOUR GEAR!
And in other bike news (you knew it was coming, didn't you?) I am just about set for the next round of mods on the Mighty SV. I have, sitting in the garage right now, one pair of RaceTech Gold Valve cartridge emulators and .85kg fork springs to go with. You see, gentle reader, when Suzuki designed the SV, they were working to a price point. Probably the easiest way to save money on a bike is to skimp on the suspension. So that's precisely what they did. Instead of fully-adjustable cartridge forks, they went with damper rod forks which have been essentially unchanged for about 40 years. The factory springs are notoriously weak and the fork oil has been compared to "dirty ice tea" by some. The magic of emulators is that they take cheap damper rod forks and emulate the function of cartridge forks. I will spare you any more detail but just know that this is supposed to be THE mod to get your SV's front end sorted--short of a full GSX-R front end swap. And that opens up a completely different can (or 4) of worms. The emulators combined with the correct spring rate for my weight, and topped up with fork oil thicker than the aforementioned iced tea should get things squared away in one afternoon. The only negative? I have to completely disassemble the front end to make it happen. Not overly complicated but certainly time consuming. There will be one easy mod, though. Today, our friendly neighborhood UPS guy should be dropping off my Yoshimura RS3 stainless steel slip-on canister. Since the day I picked up this bike, I've been annoyed by the ridiculous noise it makes. A twin should make a nice, low rumble that barely hints at the insane-o, crazy goodness just bursting to get out. The factory can, however, is an embarrassment. That's all you can say about it. Well I suppose you can say that and it's DOT approved! Oh yay. But all that will change soon. Very soon. I may even make a recording of the before and after so you can hear just what I mean. Or maybe not. That might be kind of a pain while trying to do the install and youtube has about 6,271 videos of exactly the same thing--just search for SV650 Yoshimura exhaust. Oh, and while you're there, search for "SV650 Crash" and hit the top link. It should be a guy on a blue SV doing a stand-up burnout that ends with the bike pulling him into a parked car I know it's soooo wrong, but that one cracks me up every single time!
And just to make sure this post is completely random, I'll end with something our Pastor on Easter Sunday asked the congregation: "Is your religion making you the kind of person you want to be"? Didn't see that one coming, didja?
// posted by wayne @ 4/15/2009 03:21:00 AM 
