Letter to Corbin

I mailed a letter to Corbin today in a hand addressed envelope. Hopefully they'll read it. Text of the letter follows.

Dear Sir,

I’m writing to you today to tell you about the experience I have had with Corbin.

This summer I ordered a seat for my 2006 CBR 600RR (July 16th).  After getting no follow up email after my order I emailed and used the online contact form several times to find out the status on my order. On August first I called the number listed on your website and found out there was a problem processing my credit card and the order had been put into whatever limbo your computer system has. Your ordering people corrected the issue and put the order in. Problem number one: after an issue with the initial order I received no contact from customer service to right the order. Problem two: nobody answers e-mails or the contact form on the website.

Already after this I was a little leary of Corbin, but I waited anxiously for my new seat. My seat finally arrived on August 22nd. The leather work was beautiful and I couldn’t wait to install it. When I went to install it I found that the seat pan shape and bolt holes were completely wrong for my bike. After contacting your customer service twice I finally got in touch with someone who looked at the shipping system and realized I had been shipped the wrong seat, a 2004 seat. They blamed me for ordering the wrong seat (despite my initial order email showing in two places that I had ordered a 2006 seat).

I assumed this was going to be par for the course and ate the shipping cost ($25) and re-work fee ($35, which your CS did not tell me I’d be charged for) to get the correct seat sent to me. I waited almost a month for the correct seat to arrive. On September 18th the new seat arrived. Once again I giddily ran to my garage to install it. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that the seat pan was just wrong.

On the CBR and most other Japanese sportbikes the seat pan is a piece of shaped fiberglass with a tongue in the front that locks under a bracket in the subframe, and two tabs in the rear for bolts to go through. On the Corbin seat there was no tongue, just an L-shaped bracket that didn’t do anything to stabilize the front of the seat (I could feel it move while riding). I should note that the 2004 seat that you initially sent me did have a tongue. The rear bolt tabs really didn’t line up very well and needed some coxing to mate with the subframe.

I got it mounted up and went for a test ride. There were three major issues with the seat. First it felt like there was less padding in it than in the stock seat. I could feel every imperfection in the road through my sit-bones and it felt like I was sitting right on fiber-glass with just a little bit of low density foam in between. Second it was too wide. When at a stop light or when changing to a leaning off position in a corner the sides of the seat pan get in the way or cut into my thighs. Third it felt like there was a ridge down the center, which got quite uncomfortable after a few miles.

Once again I called customer service. The surly fellow informed me there was no return policy but arranged for an RMA. I sketched out how the seat should be built including a description of how the seat pan needed a real tongue and how to shape the foam, and FedEx picked it up.

I waited until mid-October again with no word from your company. I called customer service to check the order and found it was on-hold. The nice woman on the phone, Jessica, was the only person I’ve talked to at Corbin that was friendly on the phone. She said she would move the order ahead since I had been waiting so long.

Fast forward to October 24th. Once again I was excited to try it out, and once again I was disappointed. The seat pan still lacked a proper tongue to stabilize the front. The back of the seat had been beefed up with extra foam with no regard to shaping, but the front (nose) of the seat had not. The effect this has when riding is that I’m higher than I should be and thus tiring out my arms and core trying to maintain good body position. Without a beefed up nose, the tendency is to slide forward constantly, so I tire out my legs and arms trying to stay in place. I’ve spent 50 miles on this seat and its almost entirely useless to me.

Corbin customer service offered to let me ship it back again (at my cost) for re-work, but at this point I’m done wasting time and money on this.

Please allow me to describe what elements a good sportbike seat should have. It should be low and thin, like the OEM seat. It should have a pronounced nose to reduce forward slide, and a slightly raised rear lip to rest against during acceleration.. It should have a cupped out area where the sit bones go during most riding, with very high density foam or gel under the hips. The seat pan should mimic the OEM seat pan almost identically. Remember, we’re building a seat for someone who likes to carve the twisty roads for 6+ hours a day, not a cruiser that is riding down the freeway. When I ride I need to be able to move side to side, but the seat needs to help me stay in position front to back. I don’t need a cushy seat, but my sit bones need to be insulated from the road.

At this point you might consider throwing my letter in the trash and going on with your day, assuming that I’m just one unsatisfied customer. A search of sportbike related forums and social media groups reveals that this is not an isolated incident. For every satisfied customer there are several quite vocal customers that have had a similar experience to me. Remember the lawsuit with the gentleman on the BMW with the Corbin seat? As you recall he said that a ridge down the center of the seat caused damage to his man-parts. I had the same feeling of a ridge with my seat. This isn’t an isolated event. We are in the information age. No company is insulated from what vocal dissatisfied customers can do to their reputation.

At this point I’m done trying to work with this Corbin seat. A full refund of the cost of the seat, shipping, and re-work fees would make me happy ($259 + $25 + $35 = $319). Otherwise I will try to re-sell it on e-bay and recoup some of my loss, then look for a competent custom seat-builder.

Best Regards,

(signature)

Winter Project

My first winter I had a fairly new Ninja 250. The only work I did on it over the winter was change the oil and put a new battery in it after the stock one failed at 2000 miles.

My second winter as a rider I had the old '99 R6. I didn't have a garage, so I pretty much didn't do anything to it after October because of the cold and rain. Just fired it up or rode it once a week to keep the oil circulated.

Then I moved to a place with a garage. I moved in the winter and tore my bike apart within a week of moving in. I repainted the fairings (badly), and attacked various nagging things. Through the summer it was also much easier to work on things in the shade, and be able to leave the bike and tools spread apart overnight when I didn't finish in one sitting. The second winter I tore it apart more, then sold it.

My CBR is overall in much better shape than my R6 was and I'd like to keep it that way. It clicked over 17,000 on my NorCal trip which means its a little late for the 16K service. I'd like to keep it for at least two more seasons so keeping up on engine work is vital. If I was the type to shed my bike every year I'd never have to worry about valve checks and new spark plugs.

Short laundry list of things to get done:
Valve check
Spark plugs
Clean air filter
New fork oil/seals
Engine Oil change

At first I thought maybe I could do it all, then I watched some youtube videos of how deep everything is buried in the CBR and said fuck that. I took my list to my local Honda dealer (if anyone should know how to check CBR valves, they should) expecting a thousand dollar estimate and was pleasantly surprised that everything on that list besides the forks was part of the 16K service and would only cost $250ish. The forks are more labor intense and would cost $250 by themselves. Oh well. I've taken apart forks before and never want to do it again unless I have better tools and a triple tree stand.

All I have to get done after that is select new tires for next season and maybe get a custom seat! I didn't need money in my bank account anyway.

Wish list

Need to start selling organs and blood to pay for this sport...

Winter riding/off season touring:
Adventure pants/Jacket
Waterproof gloves
Balaclava

In general:
Custom seat that doesn't suck. Airhawk was OK, but I don't like how it shifts around. Might have to bite the bullet on this and pay lots of money for a custom.
New sport gloves or repair my Yoshis
Baffle for my Yoshimura RS-5. Haven't been blacked flagged for it, but its pretty loud for the street.
New left fairing and front fender for my CBR
Tank bag.The kind that mounts to a quick release on my gas cap. Strap tank bags are teh suck.

Don't need, but would like:
New helmet
New two piece leather suit
Trailer hitch, trailer. Problem is I need a bigger garage for that one. Hard to justify spending $900 on hitch/trailer for something I'd use only a handful of times a year. It would make getting to the track quite a bit easier. Might be able to make a few dollars by renting it or transporting bikes around the area. "Crotch Rocketeer Motorcycle Transport" has a nice ring to it.

Really don't need but want anyways:
A 250/300 sportbike for "practicing technique" and off season derping around. I'd feel less bad about low siding a Ninja 250 I paid $2500 for than my CBR600RR. Don't have room for a second bike right now anyways. Wait another season or two, cheap 250s will always be available during the winter.
A VFR750/800 for sport touring around. Although I'd probably be disappointed in the twisty performance of it on HWY 20, it'd be a lot more comfortable getting there, might even persuade my GF to ride with me on it.

Venture Battery Powered heated vest

This was another compromise. I wasn't sure that my bike could support a regular heated gear option, and I needed one that would fit under my track leathers.

The venture vest runs on a 7.4v 1800mah battery. It was four heating panels (two front, two back), and three settings.

High will run for about 1.5 hours. Medium and low supposedly longer. Low barely puts out enough heat to notice. Medium is nice for 50* in the rain, at high speed, High is nice for 40*.

The vest is comfortable and somewhat windproof. The battery charges in 1-2 hours. The only downside is that the battery has small capacity. I'll probably end up replacing this with a better heated gear option if I do any significant winter touring in the future.

Alpinestar Race in the Rain 2 piece oversuit

I bought the A* Race in the Rain suit as a compromise. I needed waterproof gear for my NorCal tour, but I wanted the protection of my track leathers. There is no sizing guide for these so I ordered a medium since I wear medium everything else.

The medium is just too small for my suit (Alpinestar RC1 2 piece suit. Jacket size 42 US, Pants size 36 US). I had to cut lines into the ankles so I could even get the leathers into the suit and be able to get into the leathers and zip up the ankles. Medium is also too short for a 6' tall guy. But good news, its water proof, fits over my race hump, and isn't that bad to wear once you struggle into it.

Besides the addition of zippers at the cuffs for easy of fitting, the suit badly needs rubber grip panels at the knees. Even with stomp grips I had no tank grip while wearing this suit.

Overall I'd give it a 3/5.

Cortech 2.0 Saddle bags

I could pretty much copy and paste my review of the Cortech tail bag for these. The bags rest on the back of your bike and attach to anything via some straps with fastex buckles. The tailbag bucks into the saddle bags via four buckles. The over the bike straps come with two no-scratch covers that may or may not help.
Features I'd like to point out:
-Expandable via some zippers
-Comes with rain covers that are effective and stay on at 90mph.
-Retroreflective piping
-Easy to take off and take into the motel with you
-Maintain shape at speed

Cons:
-Generic mounting solution isn't really firm. Requires cargo loops on the rear fender that I don't have
-I kick it every time I mount the bike. Supersports and luggage don't get along.

Rating: 4/5. Its overall a good system. Great build quality, looks good, holds a ton.

Airhawk 2 seat pad

Remember how my expensive Corbin seat didn't work out? Yeah. So I figured what the hell and bought the Airhawk Medium for about $100 and gave it a 1200 mile test.

The Airhawk is an inflatable seat pad made by the folks that made inflatable pads for medical stuff. It is a series of interconnected bladders inside a fabric shell that mounts to your seat with some flimsy bra strap like straps that go under your stock seat.

The user guide advises you that less inflation is generally better.With a sportbike you don't want to be any higher than you have to be, so less is more. During my first day I gradually deflated until I found a comfortable sweet spot.

I made it 4 hours in the saddle without any back/butt pain the first day, so that was a success. Over the next four days of riding I never had any butt or back pain, a for sure improvement over the stock seat alone.

Too good to be true? Yeah. Here are the downsides:
-The seat tends to move around. Part of that is the bladders transferring air back and forth depending on where you sit and how you move, and part of it is the flimsy mounting solution.
-The cloth exterior would be great in the summer with jeans, but with leathers you continually slide forward on it. If they beefed up the front of the pad to mitigate that, it would be better.
-Air moves between cells when you move, so you move around too much on it while carving the canyons.

Overall I'd rate it 4/5. The Airhawk 2 was a huge improvement for slab over the stock seat. It needs a better mounting solution, a grippier surface, and a way to "freeze" which cells are inflated so you stay put in the twisties. Probably a better solution for a touring bike than a sport bike in the long run.

NorCal Trip

Day one:
After saying goodbye to my girlfriend (interpret that how you wish) I mounted my CBR and headed south. Riding South on I-5 above Eugene on a game day means heavy, stupid, traffic. Also rain, and sun peering through the clouds to blind me with reflection and glare. I had to stop eventually to switch to my dark visor. The ride was uneventful, slab is like that.

I arrived at my parents place and realized I'd forgotten pants. I borrowed some beaten blue jeans from my dad and suffered through dinner with my brother's in laws. He was jealous of the trip...

Day two:
My dad's friend decided to ride with us as far as Happy Camp. Because the weather was clear we decided to go Siskyou pass to Happy Camp to Eureka. Dad's friend is 350+lbs and rides a 1987 Suzuki Cavalcade.

We burned down I-5 at speeds that would earn us traffic tickets, then turned off onto hwy 96. After a few turns I passed everyone and soloed it into Happy Camp. HWY 96 from I-5 to HC is in good shape with nice variety in turns. Its not tourist season, so traffic was minimal.

At Happy Camp we ate greasy pizza and took obligatory pictures next to the bigfoot statue. Dad's friend returned to Southern Oregon and we continued on. The rest of 96 south to Willow Creek isn't in good shape and has many rough patches and tar snakes. It was fun nontheless.

HWY 299 from Willow Creek to Arcata is busy and we were stuck behind trucks several times. It is also quite scenic. We should have stopped at the vista point to take pictures  but were in a hurry by then with the light failing.

The last few miles on 101 were dark and we eventually arrived at the worlds worst Motel 6 in Eureka. Our first room smelled like dog piss and cleaning products, our second room smelled heavily of just cleaning products and had filthy carpet.

All of Eureka smells like decomposing garbage and fish. There are vagrants (or people that look like vagrants) everywhere. At one gas station we filled up at there were discarded condoms near the pumps. Such a classy place.

That night we dined at the Lost Coast brewery. Good fish tacos there.

Day three:

For breakfast we went to Jack in the Box. The guy working there was the most personable and friendly person I've ever met in the fast food industry. Its weird feeling uncomfortable because someone is chipper and polite.

We departed late down hwy 101 for Ft Bragg. HWY 101 is curvy and 65mph limit, but 80 miles on it gets boring. The one technical section of it has a lot of tourist traffic, cops, and a 35mph speed limit.

At the Junction of 1/101 I dropped my bike on the shoulder waiting for dad. Very embarrassed and upset that my bike isn't pretty anymore.

Hwy 1 into Ft Bragg is 30 miles of very technical riding. RVs should avoid this route as it has many 10-15mph corners where they drag hard parts. The road is in construction in several places and needs repair in others.

We ate at the Cliff House restaurant which was pretty good before filling up and heading for HWY 20.

HWY 20 is 33 miles of sportbike heaven. About half of it is recently paved with ample turnouts. To my surprise the motorists on 20 actually used them too! The turns are mostly 25-35mph marked turns with predictable radius. Its just a fun road, not too difficult, but will give you a workout!

Willits on the other side of 20 is another small town/farm community transitioning to yuppie/tourism. We didn't stay long there. It smelled bad too. Hwy 101 north back to Eureka is a 130 mile trek. Its all curvy, but it gets boring at legal speeds. Light was failing (I didn't have my night visor), rain started falling, and I was tired/bored so I left dad behind and burned back to Eureka.

Dinner again at Lost Coast brewery.

Day four:
Rain. Yuck. We packed up and headed up HWY 101. Traffic thinned out and we made good time despite the rain. There were some beautiful sights of the ocean and the storm. It'd be nice to take pictures of, but stopping and getting out my camera was low on my priority list. Through the redwoods we encountered two dangers: wet pine needles and road grooving. Some idiot engineer thought it'd be good to fuck up the road in corners for better car traction, then to taunt riders by putting signs up warning of the danger they caused.

We took a short break at the beginning of HWY 199, then went in. The rain was getting worse. Visibility was bad and there were some corners where I had a loss of traction from pooled water. It probably didn't help that my Q2s were down to the wear bars in the middle from too much slab. Dad had some issues with bad gas from Eureka, good thing I filled up from a different tank at that station. With my feet wet and my gloves soaked (Joe Rocket "Sub Zero" gloves are not water proof as advertised) we arrived for lunch at Taylors Country Store in Cave Junction Oregon.

Taylors has all your meat needs covered from sausage to hamburger, and a cafe. We enjoyed lunch and snickered at the Harley rider wearing his cut-vest with patches, but who drove his car instead of getting wet.

With full bellies we burned slab in the rain the rest of the way to Eagle Point and called it a day. Almost. I went out for Bike Night with the Medford riders, then called it a night.

Pictured: my parents on my CBR

Day five:
I was rewarded with no rain. It was however in the low 40s with a cold north wind, and my boots and gloves were still wet. Add to that my heated vest ran out of juice halfway home and I was pretty cold when I got home. Nothing interesting. Just burned slab as fast as I could without risking revoking my license. At bike night I'd found out that Tiller Hwy was a mess, so I took the boring fast way back. I was very glad to get out of my gear and take a hot shower. Overall a good adventure.

1200 miles, 5 days.

Will I do a tour like this again on a supersport? YES! I will however take what I learned from this when planning the next one and put more than a week and a half into planning it.

Lessons learned:
-Pack less stuff. I used everything I took tool-wise, but I could probably get away with just a tail bag if I did it in the summer. Winter off-bike clothes are bulky. Turns out I don't need to take spare fuel bottles, there is gas often enough that I never had to stretch my range.
-Get a tank bag for camera/credit card/etc. Its a pain undoing three layers of gear to get to my CC for gas, and I don't take pictures as much as I should when my camera is in my tail bag.
-Get a custom seat. My Airhawk 2 seat pad was good, but not as nice as a good custom seat would be.
-Get more comfortable gear that can take the elements. My 2 piece track leathers plus my Race in the Rain suit got uncomfortable wearing all day. If I do it in the summer I'm wearing my textiles/mesh.

Beer run

My riding season wasn't really the greatest. I worked too much this summer instead of taking time off to go to the track or tour. Coming into November I had the enviable problem of PTO at work to use or lose. While tossing around the fantasy of renting a Harley in LA or LV and roaring around the desert for a few days I came to the idea with my dad about taking a few days to ride around Northern California.

When adventure knocks, answer or stay on the couch. This might have some suck-time, but it'll be a trip to remember.

The plan:
Saturday 11/16: I ride to Eagle Point. Have dinner with my folks and my brother's in-laws
Sunday: Dad and I ride to Eureka. Go to a brewery, see the sights.
Monday: Ride through Willitz and Ft Bragg. Visit a brewery. Back to Eureka.
Tuesday: Eureka to Happy Camp to Hornbrook to Eagle Point. Dinner with the Southern Oregon riders.
Wednesday: I ride back to Corvallis.
Thursday: I drag my tired ass back to work.

Because I lacked touring and winter gear I quickly purchased:
Cortech Saddlebags to match my tail bag
Airhawk seat pad
Alpinestar 2 piece race in the rain suit to fit over my leathers
Venture battery powered heated vest.

I'll give my full writeup on each product after the trip.

Corbin pt 3

Corbin finally got my rebuilt seat back to me. They added a ton of foam in the back, didn't beef up the nose of the seat, and didn't put a real tongue on it. I rode with it for a little bit. Its actually worse than having a flat seat because this seat pushes you forward and offers no stability. Without a proper tongue it moves around while riding.

Their Customer Service refused to refund me and would only take it back for refit if I paid for shipping both ways and paid a refit fee. I'm not going to throw more money at them. Anybody want to buy a seat? Might need some rework and modification...

How they could fix their design: Use high density closed cell foam with gel pads. This would afford a shorter seat with better comfort. Copy the OEM seat pan as close as possible.  The seat pan is also too wide for a comfortable ride, even if they got the padding right.

I bought an Airhawk seat pad,we'll see how that goes.

Corbin pt 2

In my last post I detailed how Corbin sent me the wrong seat, claimed I had ordered the wrong one (despite my proof otherwise), made me pay to ship it back, and charged my card $35 for shipping/reprocessing whatever.

On September 18 (a month and two days after ordering my seat) I received the "correct" seat. The part number was correct anyways.

There are four distinct things wrong with this seat.

1. The seat pan doesn't have a tongue to fit under the subframe in the front to stabilize the seat. It has a cheesy L-shaped bracket that does nothing for stability. You can actually feel the front of the seat wobble. Its as though a blind man felt an OEM seat pan and described it to another man that made a mold for the fiberglass, then drilled whatever brackets they had on hand into it to fit the bolt layout.

 The OEM "tongue".

2. The seat pan is too wide. When you have your legs down at a stop its digging into your thighs. This might be fine for someone who has wide hips or a woman, but not a guy with a 32" waist.

3. There is no padding in the rear, where you actually sit as a sportbiker. With the slick nature of textile pants on leather, without padding or shaping you'll slide around. Seriously my hips were hurting after 10 minutes on this seat.

4. There is a ridge down the center of the seat. Remember the lawsuit from the owner of a BMW for the same issue? http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2012/04/man-sues-bmw-for-persistent-erection-after-bike-ride/1#.UjyU7YZJPcA

I contacted Corbin customer service and asked for a refund. Of course they have no return policy so the surly fellow on the phone named Sergio gave me an RMA. Fedex is supposed to pick up the box tomorrow and take it back to the factory. I included written and illustrated instructions on how to fix their seat.

At this rate I might have the seat I want by Christmas.

Go listen to this

Normally I wouldn't recommend a podcast. 99% of the podcasts I've heard are absolute self serving garbage. This assessment carries across podcasts that relate to the various equipment intense sports that I partake in as well as politics and pornography.

Here is the exception: http://twowheelpodcast.podbean.com/

Two Wheel Podcast is run by Ralph Rodriguez, "Soggydoo" on pnwriders.com. Ralph is a long time rider on the street and track. Professionally he engineers for a talk radio station, so his podcast is somewhat better produced than anyone elses'. On the motorcycle Ralph is responsible for encouraging new sport riders to take it to the track, and got me on the track for the first time.

TWP's guests come from all sides of motorcycling, racing, and engineering. For instance I'm listening to an interview of Dave Moss (http://feelthetrack.com), a professional tuner and racer.

In July 2013 Ralph hosted a suspension clinic at his house near Medford, Oregon with Dave Moss. At that clinic Dave took 50 of us and educated us on the science behind the suspension on our bikes. He took a plethora of different bikes and as he set each one up, tried to impart to us the how/why/what of making the bike work like its designed to. Dave genuinely wants to make the sport safer through better knowledge of the technology and technique.

Other guests include: Kevin Schwantz (motoGP champion), Blake Young (racer), Rob Burch (motofitgroup), and Larry Pegram (racer).

Its worth some time to listen to.

Quick Gear Review: Ogio No Drag Mach 1 backpack

First off let me say that Ogio is up to Mach 5 on their No Drag backpack series, so this review is slightly out of date because I bought something on clearance. Really there isn't much difference other than a wider base on the newer ones, the straps and the inside are pretty much the same.

The shell of the pack is molded foam covered in nylon fabric. The straps are fairly standard backpack straps positioned to lower the pack on your bag with a sternum strap and an off-center belly strap to keep it in position. My only complaint is that the shoulder straps don't have an easier keeper for slack when you tighten them down, so the slack whips around in the wind (not really a big deal, minor annoyance).

Like most motorcycle specific backpacks the No-Drag loads from the inside so that your zipper is not exposed to the wind. Inside you'll find a laptop compartment, some smaller pouches, and a main compartment. Its important not to overload. If you load so that the zippered hatch stretches beyond the shell, it'll get really uncomfortable really fast.

Internally its big enough for a visor, shoes, and some other misc.

Fit-wise I have no complaints. Its a little awkward to wear with an aero-hump on your jacket, but you can fix that by lowering it on your back. With a normal street jacket you'll forget its there (unless you put something heavy in it, then you'll remember when you lean into a corner and it leans with you). I've taken it on 4 hour rides without any issue.
Pics (sorry about potato camera)

My experience with Corbin (so far)

Just because I ride a sportbike doesn't mean I like being uncomfortable. Adapting a bike ergonomically to the rider makes the trip more enjoyable, safer, and contributes to better control.

After doing a 750 mile weekend I decided my CBR needed a better saddle. I shopped around and read reviews. There aren't a lot of companies making good aftermarket saddles for sportbikes. I settled on Corbin after reading some good reviews and placed my order (July 16).

Then waited for a week. I hadn't received anything beyond the initial sales receipt and they hadn't responded to my emails (emailed them on July 23 and used their online form several times). So I called them (August 1st) and asked what the hold up was. As it turns out they had "lost" my order. There had been a problem processing credit cards the day I ordered it and my order hadn't processed. Instead of calling or emailing me they'd just ignored the issue.

OK, fine, so the order is processed and they're going to work on it. My seat shipped on August 20th, and arrived on August 22nd.

It was a beautiful seat that arrived. I tried to install it that night.

It was the wrong seat. The bolt holes didn't line up and the tongue wouldn't fit under the bracket. So again I called and emailed them (emails go unanswered by the way). The first tech I talked to was thoroughly unhelpful. Finally on my third call (August 27th) I talked to someone who actually looked at my order and realized they'd shipped me the wrong seat. Then he blamed me for ordering a seat for the wrong year (they shipped me the 2004 seat). See screenshot of my order. As you can see, I ordered the correct year.

They said if I shipped them the wrong seat, they'd make and send me the right one. So that's where I'm at. Seat is in transit, hopefully I'll get the right one someday.

Thus far my experience with Corbin has been a bad one and I would not recommend dealing with them.

Quick Gear Review: Coretech Tailbag 2.0

Sometimes you want to be able to actually carry stuff with you on a sportbike. I know, its unfathomable that you'd want to carry more than what you can shove into the meager pockets in your leathers, but its TRUE!

Lets say you want to carry: spare visor, visor cleaning stuff, rain liner for your jacket, a water bottle, and a better tool kit than what can fit in your under-seat. Thats more than you can fit in your pockets, and bigger stuff than you want/can fit in a tank bag (I don't know about you, but anything bigger than a "small" tank bag is too big for my liking, and my CBR doesn't have a metallic tank to magnet to).

I bought the Coretech 2.0 tail bag. It has more than enough storage for the items I mentioned, and could hold enough spare underwear and socks to last a weekend of riding. It comes with a rain cover, has the usual assortment of pockets, and can expand via two accordion zipper areas.

As usual with Coretech its build sturdy and looks like it'll take use well. I'll need to get the matching saddle bags for my trip to MotoGP next year.

The only complaint I have with the tail bag is the mounting system blows. It is four straps with fastex buckles on one end and a loop on the other. You have to noose them around whatever on your bike you can reach them to and hope they stay. Some kind of system that mounts firmly to the pillion seat would be much better and easier to grab and go (without leaving straps dangling on your bike).

Pics or it didn't happen:

The new bike

Whenever I get a new bike I'm afraid to mess with it. Suspension settings, oil, coolant, whatever. I want to ride the damn thing a little to get a base feel before I dig into it. I know its irrational, maybe even dangerous. Lets just call it a quirk.

My new (to me) CBR was no different. The oil in the viewing window looked good, so I didn't change it for about a thousand miles. The suspension settings I didn't touch either for a while. They were "set" (and I use the term loosely) for someone much heavier. I returned them to factory settings and it felt better-ish. The tires were Pilot Power monocompound tires. From the date code I think they might have been the originals (scary huh?). I wore them out and replaced them with new Q2s.
Seen here with the new tires, on the way to get mounted:

After my first trackday on the bike I rode it 250 miles south to have the suspension set by Dave Moss (http://feelthetrack.com/). I learned a few important things that weekend:
-The factory settings are way off
-Riding 250 miles of slab at once on a sportbike with a stock seat isn't pleasant
-Riding 700 miles in a weekend with a backpack (Ogio No-Drag Mach 1. Highly recommend) as your only luggage makes you rethink what you need for a weekend
-Getting your suspension tuned by a professional makes a world of difference. Before you upgrade, maybe you should do maintenance and set the OEM stuff. According to Dave most street riders don't ride fast enough or well enough to warrant the high end suspension their shop wants to sell them.

Family

In 2010 when I caught the bug I was living with my brother. The disease caught him at the same time and we both signed up for the basic motorcycle class together. I should note: neither of us had ever ridden a motorcycle before this, it was completely out of the blue.
He bought an old Honda Shadow 750 and I bought a Ninja 250r.
My first street ride (the day after finishing the class)

Seen here with a Harley Davidson and a Honda Battlecruiser at work

Erik was the more responsible older brother, I was the budding Crotch Rocketeer.

Eventually I sold the baby ninja and bought a beater R6 (I regret not having a 250 sometimes). Questionable as to whether this was an upgrade, but I learned real sport riding, and maintenance on that bike. My brother continued riding (and wrenching on) his old Honda.

Meanwhile my father wanted a new hobby, since SCUBA diving is such a logistically intense hobby/mental illness, and saw how much fun we were having. He took the class and got endorsed. For a while during the winter he rode my brothers Shadow, before buying a Shadow 600 (girl's bike) from a friend of my brother.

Through the winter he racked up a thousand miles on that tiny underpowered bike with only 4 gears. The upgrade bug hit him in the form of a brand new BMW F700gs. A beautiful and much coveted adventure bike.

Below pictured when dad and Erik rode up to visit me in Corvallis.

My brother decided on that 12 hours on the road that he needed something newer and sold his Shadow a few days later. Once again he opted for a cruiser and bought another girl's bike, a Harley Davidson Sporster 883, low rider. See below with my lovely sister in law:

His wife will actually ride on this one, so I suppose I shouldn't poke too much fun.

My dad and I just a few weeks ago: