New toy!

[Feersty]

Nice Motobike!

[G.Irish]

I got home from Sebring fairly late last night and totally missed this. I guess I need to check the garage every time I come home in this house...

[Ginger]

OK - so I went to flush the brake fluid before my last track day. Turns out one of the screws holding the reservoir cap is seized (the reservoir is a metal unit and is one piece with the master cylinder). RJ and I have tried pretty much everything by now. We used a couple regular screw drivers, they all were stripping, so we used an impact screwdriver which make the stripping turn into a circling, and finally I dremeled a slot in to the screw and that strarted to strip, too.

RJ bought some screw extractors the other day and I'd like to try them. I think soaking the screw in penetrant would be good, but would that do awful things to the fluid is some seeped in? Would it eat up the lines if it worked it's way into the fluid? The seals? Is this entirely too much worry over a trace amount of penetrant?

I can replace the cylinder with a new unit (I'd love to have me a pretty new brembo radial).. but I'd like to not spend the money, and minimize downtime, as well.

[PDenbigh]

If you're going to flush the fluid anyhow, any trace amount of penetrant will be flushed out....

Unless it doesn't work and the cap is still stuck on, in which case you will DIE, and your little dog too!!!!

[PGK]

you don't need an extractor necessarily. drill the head off the screw, take the cap off and use vice-grips to turn the screw. soak it in some penetrant too.

[Ginger]

A few pics from the latest track day:

[CaptainHenreh]

That is 11 kinds of awesome.

[Ginger]

Just like the BMW, the progress on this "project" is slow.

I haven't ridden it much over the winter - once every 3 weeks or so - just enough to keep the battery from dying and the carb from gumming up. The rear tyre I put on the back for the track day was a Michelin Pilot Race H2... worked great on track, and great in the summer. But it takes forever to warm up in the winter, which can be a really big problem any time it's below 50 degrees out. It'll spin the tire through first and second for the first couple minutes of a ride. And don't think about turning, because it won't grip.

I would know.

If anybody is familiar with my office you'll know what I'm talking about: I was leaving work, turning left on to the street in front of my building from the downhill exit. Go - lean - "hey, I'm looking at more ground than I should be." The guard across the street saw, and I was embarressed. He came up to help, but before he made it to me I had picked up the bike, got it restarted, and thrown him a thumbs up.

I'm a tard.

I went home and surveyed the damage (this was late December). The bars were bent and.. that was it.

I love motards.

I pulled the Renthal bars off the F4, which were miserable on it, anyway, and used them here. I had to sacrifice my grips in the process, so I picked up the cheapest pair I could find anywhere - $7 a Coleman AND Suzuki blue! I'd been getting really tired of the giant mirrors on the bike, too - they were heavy, and rotated around to not-viewable whenever I came down from a good front end loft. Oh, and they were ugly. So I ordered up a CRG Hindsight LS. It's sexy.

On with the pikchures!



Power lead: good for heated jackets, gloves,battery tenders, and other stupidity.



Yay cool mirror!





There are some tentative plans for the bike: I plan on riding it to work every day I can, because I get 61+ mpg on it (riding like a jackass the entire way) so I want to do a few things to make it more streetable, and more fun. The stock seat has GOT to go, so I'll replace it with a Corbin or a Recanzo [note: Recanzo can do regular covering, or suede, and any colors I want. What colors should I go with (maintain the factory, or go black?), and go suede?). I've wanted some Marchesinis for a long time, but they're getting more and more expensive with the recession's progress. I've got a bit of painting to do, and I also want to add some hand guards (again: yellow, or black?).

Depending on how ballsy I feel, I may add a HID light, a windscreen, and try to ride it all the way through next winter.

[Ginger]

A few months back I lost my tail light on a ride into DC at night. I turned the bike off, then back on, and the light came back.

Isolated incident.

So I didn't make the connection when, a few months later, I started having problems starting the bike in humid and wet weather. I'd thumb the starter and nothing would happen. Everything worked great, the lights cutout, all the running gear, and so on, it just wouldn't turn the starter when I hit the button. I guess it wasn't working great, really. I ordered a replacement starter switch, figuring it was worn out.

The connection between the two problems is that the wiring harness comes together behind the headlight plastics... so something wrong up there means you get gremlins all over the place. And when I went to plug in the new starter swtich, behind the headlight bucket, I found my problem:



I guess the wiring had gotten too close to the headlight. I'm sure it was owner error, reinstalling it from last time I was back there, but I think it's a pretty poor design. You shouldn't really be able to accidently put the wiring harness in it's cavity wrong, and have it melt.

RJ had a bunch of 4 pin connectors, so I replaced the screwed up junk, and made a makeshift heatshield/spacer out of tinfoil. I'll order a real heat jacket soon enough.

I also put passenger pegs on the bike, since it didn't come with any, and I've needed them lately.

Oh, and the speedometer cable broke. Excellent.

[Dave]

'Tis just a flesh wound!

[Ginger]

New Bling: