What did you do to your FZ today?

Not sure yet am heading back to a sports bike, have a few optionsavailable at the moment possibly GSXR1000, MV Agusta F4 or 999 Ducati.
 
I went for a ride in the rain today. Sick of sitting inside with Air Con (45+ c on Friday here) Cool but wet today. Shacking down the R1 shock and setting it up.
 
Yep had fun. Checked out my new water proof Jacket (NOT) but really didn't care. It was wet but about 23 deg C so not at all uncomfortable and just good to be out riding! Bugger about how the bike looks now though.
 
Leaving it in the back garden under wraps until the snow is gone fell off of it fri outside my house nothing bad got away with just a bent clutch lever and gear pedal which I bent back in shape by hand.lucky escape.
 
Picked up Fangn's FZ1 today. Rode her home extra careful on the new tires.

Not sure if I will be able to keep her as clean as you have Shane.:tup:

Just finished adding some accessories that I removed from my 2007 before the insurance company collected it.

Will post up some pics soon.

Off to bed......
 
I changed the oil to full Yamaha synthetic 15w-50 and the filter.

I went riding through north scottsdale to north phoenix and was looking for AZ track days business office to talk to them about getting some track time. Well I managed to get a little lost and came upon a shop called DTR Motorsports on N Cave Creek Road. Two guys were out front working on what looked like either a battery or alternator issue on a car. I stopped got off the bike and ended up chatting with them. One of the guys was the Owner and gave me a quick tour. They are primarily a race bike shop setting up for road racing or drag racing.

Anyway, I asked him about Racetech Springs and told him what was going on with my bike. He offered to setup my suspension for $30 and I took him up on it. We set up the suspension basically the same way as in the Keith Code video. I guess the fork spring preload was too soft, he cranked that all the way down. He said the compression valve was closed all the way and he clicked that open 2 clicks. He then said the rebound was too far open and that is why I was seesawing over bumpers and stuttering in corners. He then went about the rear and cranked down the preload all the way and then decreased some of the rebound. He pushed the bike up and down a bit and I must say it looked a lot smoother and controlled compared to before he got his hands on it.

I rode home the long way and will say that I feel way more comfortable going through corners at lights, before it felt like the front just wanted to push out and then bounce up a little like it was skipping on me at just about any speed. Now it just eats up the bumps and I feel planted. On hard acceleration I would feel like the front was lifting up a little bit and a tank slapper was brewing, now it just feels like the bike squats down and is off like a rocket.

All in all the best $30 I've spent so far on my motorcycle.

The only question is that if I want to soften up the ride a little for commuting and such, can I just come up one on the preload front and back?
 
No, don't adjust the preload again until you do something that requires you to like changing spring weights or adding weight to the bike (fully loaded touring luggage). The preload is there to allow you to set your suspension in its optimal range of travel (like the Keith Code video describes), it is not for adjusting damping.

If you want to soften up the suspension, the rebound and compression settings will allow you to. If the bike feels sure-footed over bumps and gives you confidence, it's good where it is for now. Just leave it.

If you want to make bumps easier, learn to relax your body instead. Being jarred around on a bike is often caused by a tense, stiff rider. I am guilty of this all the time, especially during the winter when I am paranoid of surface conditions. Rather than letting your body 'go with it', a tense rider will exacerbate bumps by fighting the bike below him
 
Dustin said:
No, don't adjust the preload again until you do something that requires you to like changing spring weights or adding weight to the bike (fully loaded touring luggage). The preload is there to allow you to set your suspension in its optimal range of travel (like the Keith Code video describes), it is not for adjusting damping.

If you want to soften up the suspension, the rebound and compression settings will allow you to. If the bike feels sure-footed over bumps and gives you confidence, it's good where it is for now. Just leave it.

If you want to make bumps easier, learn to relax your body instead. Being jarred around on a bike is often caused by a tense, stiff rider. I am guilty of this all the time, especially during the winter when I am paranoid of surface conditions. Rather than letting your body 'go with it', a tense rider will exacerbate bumps by fighting the bike below him
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Thanks I do notice that I do stiffen up quite a bit, especially on unknown roads and in traffic. I constantly have to tell myself to relax.

I'll leave it be then and see how she does over the next week. I've almost got everything to finish the naked conversion and am getting excited to reveal my work.
 
HOLY MF'in $HIT. I just went for a ride up South Mountain while playing hookie during a slow day of work. I had that bonding experience like from James Cameron's Avatar where the guy pairs up with the pterodactyl thing.

The bike is so much more flickable and feels a lot more sure footed after getting the suspension tweaked just right.

FINALLY, I feel confidence inspiring behavior from my Beast, and not like it's just waiting to buck me off.

After a quick set of back and forth twisty action I just started laughing like a jackass.

It's been really good practice to go up there because it is a techinically challenging (at least for me) stretch of road that has a lot of different type of corners and requires low speeds. Posted limit is 25 and corners have a warning of 15. The most interesting part is I will get an occasional panic feeling and target fixation and have to overcome it. I've done it 3 times in the last week and I feel better every time. The new suspension settings is amazing though. Still not as sticky as the Fz6 but, I think that's cause the S20 vs the PR2's.

View attachment 12962
 
Ssky0078 said:
HOLY MF'in $HIT. I just went for a ride up South Mountain while playing hookie during a slow day of work. I had that bonding experience like from James Cameron's Avatar where the guy pairs up with the pterodactyl thing.

The bike is so much more flickable and feels a lot more sure footed after getting the suspension tweaked just right.

FINALLY, I feel confidence inspiring behavior from my Beast, and not like it's just waiting to buck me off.

After a quick set of back and forth twisty action I just started laughing like a jackass.

It's been really good practice to go up there because it is a techinically challenging (at least for me) stretch of road that has a lot of different type of corners and requires low speeds. Posted limit is 25 and corners have a warning of 15. The most interesting part is I will get an occasional panic feeling and target fixation and have to overcome it. I've done it 3 times in the last week and I feel better every time. The new suspension settings is amazing though. Still not as sticky as the Fz6 but, I think that's cause the S20 vs the PR2's.

View attachment 12962
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Definitely not a bad way to waste an hour if the traffic in the park is slow. A bit further away I personally prefer the last 10 miles of the 89 south of Prescott. While on S. Mtn I've had my tires slip a few times on all the sand on the road going up and scared the crap out of me; and being stuck behind cars and watching them drive on the center line and into oncoming lane for seconds at a time scares me of a head on. :tdown:
 
ddemlong said:
Definitely not a bad way to waste an hour if the traffic in the park is slow. A bit further away I personally prefer the last 10 miles of the 89 south of Prescott. While on S. Mtn I've had my tires slip a few times on all the sand on the road going up and scared the crap out of me; and being stuck behind cars and watching them drive on the center line and into oncoming lane for seconds at a time scares me of a head on. :tdown:
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Yeah, I tend to have about an hour to an hour and half sometimes between patients usually from 1-3ish for some reason. It's 20 minutes from the office, 20-25 minutes up and down, and 20 minutes back. My legs are getting sore from shifting side to side on the seat,lol.

I know what you mean about the gravel, I definitely take it slow and with the Fz1 never need to get on the throttle hard, it's adjustments in milimeters that seem to work fine. Great experience builder.

I would never do that ride during the weekend or after regular peoples work hours. I think I saw only half dozen cars and half dozen bicycles the whole ride up and down around 3 today.

I like that route for AZ 89. I will probably be doing it again on the 2nd if the weather is good.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8av6bvgevfE"]AZ SR89 Prescott to Wilhoit on Fz6 Darkness - YouTube[/ame]
 
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I put on cheap chinese Roll-A-Click levers and the Euro FZ1n headlight kit (well, I am waiting for a used headlight wiring harness to butcher down to the minimum, I'm think I'm going to try to test out the euro harness and see if I can't figure out a way to wire it up using that, nobody else seems to have tried that, so I thinK I'll give it a go.

It's nice having a gauge cluster where I can see the speedo again and no interference in turning. Also although my dual LED bicycle headlights made me visible, it wasn't really the best for me to see down the road. I made it 2 weeks with a jacked up setup and only came close to dropping the bike once doing a u-turn in the bad turning direction, not bad for redneck style.
 
Spent 1/2 an hour readjusting my suspension.

Rear rebound is 2 clicks away from maximum hardness. Gonna have to start saving up for rear Ohlin shock
 
Hail said:
Did my 28 mile commute to work this morning. Been to long!
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I don't know about where you live, but it was a beautiful morning to ride to work, in the low 60's here and a few dips into the 50's in some of the valleys.

It was even nicer on Monday, but i hear rain is on the way so I might have to drive again soon.
 
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