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.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
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.
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.
Friday, November 22, 2013
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.
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.
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.
Friday, November 15, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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