What did you do to your Non-FZ1 motorcycle today.

Ice & Snow

Had fun with a friend's XR 250 & 400. Both have well studded tires and climb icy hills like they are dry flat pavement. The 400 is just 2nd or 3rd gear and up you go. The 250 (as I discovered) is 2nd gear and keep the revs up or you will power out on the steep stuff. 1st gear will pull you up from a stop on just about anything. It is ridiculous what you can ride on with studs.

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By the days end it was getting very soft and muddy. Winter riding is all but done here now. Lots of street bikes out yesterday as well.

Here is me learning the hard way that the 250 doesn't have the grunt of the 400. Iv'e taken the 990 up this same hill with ease.

[video=youtube;vT0RTpb_Ri0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT0RTpb_Ri0[/video]

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More video eventually.
 
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Snow & Ice Monkeys

[video=youtube;9JZzZTlMSzU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JZzZTlMSzU[/video]

[video=youtube;nSY6Ke2XHMc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSY6Ke2XHMc[/video]

Here's how Warren, my buddy with the 400 saw things.

[video=youtube;0KTzgjCzlAE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KTzgjCzlAE&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Yep, that's me taking a header. Even with studs once you get the front wheel into the soft stuff on the sides of the trail all bets are off. At one point you hear Warren Laughing as I ride out onto a BIG frozen puddle before bailing to the left. He was thinking that I was going swimming. I bailed before the real sketchy part ahead of me.

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Couple of notes; his lens is scratched and it shows. He has a Hero4 and I have a Hero2 GoPro. The battery life seems better on mine, but his picture quality is better and the sound quality is miles better on his.

OK last one, courtesy of Warren; Some language at the start (F-bombs) but nothing anyone hasn't heard before. If you are watching this on your tablet at church you might want to keep the volume down.

[video=youtube;URvPiDQqEAI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URvPiDQqEAI[/video]
 
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Tire Change Party

My buddies came over this morning to change out the studded tires on their XR's on my new tire bench.

It was so much easier than doing it kneeling on the floor. Sorry, no action shots.

Even with rim locks, and filthy rims, it was almost fun, it was so easy. Proper tire lube, possibly the slickest substance on earth, and the trick of lubing the inside 1/4 inch of the tire helped immensely. Working with studded tires can be hard on the hands so the guys were wearing gloves. If you don't have a 15 inch tire iron like the long one in the picture, do yourself a favor and buy one. The other spoons are just more like bead buddies, keeping the bead up as you do all the work with the long bar.
 

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Finally rode it.

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I remembered how easily it wheelies, especially with empty fuel tanks on my way to the gas station. :angel:
Did a short shake-down run and enjoyed at how incredibly well balanced and manueverable this bike is.
 

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I went for a little ride today; it was nice to shred some tires in the sunshine even if it was pretty chilly. 3 or 4*C is warm enough for me!
 
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We are pushing 90*F here in Houston. Never this warm this early. Makes me think we will have a miserably hot summer this year.

I took the speed triple out last Sunday to get the new S21s scrubbed in. Though I got them scrubbed in edge to edge I have not pushed them hard at all yet. So not much to report. I am excited that they claim better traction than the S20 with 30% more tread life.
 
Was Nice after work for a change. We've had over 3 ft of rain this season. Tire scrubin time, about 100 miles on and off riding. These stock tires as not so good off black top but I'll be riding most on pavement.


 
I live in Texas. :).

Oh right, what was I thinking. :cool:



Here is my next shop project; A bench vise that is a basket case about to be refurbished. They come in handy for many jobs from bead-breaking a tough tire to doing work on forks. I got it for free, and have already made a replacement jaw (one was missing), extracted two jaw screws that were snapped off in the vise and cleaned and ground the surfaces in preparation for the new paint (can you guess what color?).

It had a hard life and won't be perfect after it is done, but these old (made in Sheffield England) forged (not cast) vises are really good. It doesn't look like much in this picture but this is the starting point.


Oh, and in keeping with the spirit of this thread; I put a new Yuasa AGM battery in my bike after the 6 year old one finally gave up the ghost. It wouldn't crank the bike over, even though it still read 13.1 volts on the tester.
 

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Rode It Baby!

Yeah!!

When I post gps tracks I try really hard to give good, sensible advice about those tracks; like "don't do this in the spring or after days of rain because it is bottomless black mud". I realised the truth of this today, after riding a couple of "green lanes" that I had said exactly this about.

I should heed my own advice! Red Cat helped pick my bike up after a tip over in slick black mud. I just couldn't get enough grip with my feet to lift it myself. Even after turning around and doing a south facing "easy" lane we discoverd that the dry crust was only milimeters deep over "pig snot" slick mud. The low spots didn't even try to hide this goop with a crust. Yesterdays rain and snow did not help, so we stayed mostly on gravel after this little adventure.

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Note the tires.

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That's Red Cat looking back over the muck lane, saying;"why did we do that again?"

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Stop for pictures and chat on Coal Camp Road.

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Up at a little hill climb that faced south and was actually dry. Note the right side of picture and Red Cat's approval.

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View from the top. I've been here many times.

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After another; "hey that looks dry, lets go for it." We spent some time scraping muck out of the fenders and chain guards. My rear wheel locked after a rock was dragged into my chain gaurd along with all the mud. Red Cat's front wheel locked after his low fender became clogged with mud.

This was on a road marked (by me) Twp Rd. 22 "mudfest". Note to self: Take your own advice!

On the way back we ran back and forth through a river crossing (very low water) and I soaked my buddy Ian, blasting past him in the opposite direction. I pulled up beside him after turning around and blasting through the water again to see him dripping from head to foot and heard a "thanks pal!"

Hey anything for a buddy Ian, I know how much you hate being dirty......he he.
 
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