New Bike!

The worst kept secret because I told everyone about it. Last Saturday I traded in my 2017 Supersport 939 for a 2022 Supersport 950 S. Its scary how uneventful the trade in process was. On Friday I talked to a sales lady there (no other than #1C plate holder Hannah Johnson of OMRRA) who made sure they had a 950 S, then Saturday I trailered the '17 up. They had the new bike right there for me and after signing my name a few times and writing a check I loaded up the 950 S and went home.

Of course its the off season and quite wet, so I'm getting the run-in miles done slowly. Looking forward to lots of Canyon Carving and track days on my new bike!

In my office at work I've started white boarding my 2022 Motorcycle season. Basically a wish list of things I want to do, to keep me hopeful during the dark and dreary autumn and winter.

In no particular order:

March - Superbike School at Willow Springs

April - Trackday at Thunderhill

May - Memorial Day weekend at The Ridge

June - Eastern Oregon Run, MotoAmerica at The Ridge

July - Independence Day weekend at the Ridge

August - Trackday somewhere

Sept - Labor Day at RMP

Oct - Thunderhill

Nov - SoCal Sport Tour

I usually have a fantasy in the autumn about taking my bike down south where its warm, and by next year I should have a good amount of vacation days accrued. One of my fantasies is to trailer down to Thunderhill and spend a day on HWY 36 right after or before. Another idea is to go even further and ride around the San Bernardino's and Palm Springs area. I have a year to figure out the details.

Amazing how good trip-planning can be an escapist fantasy in of itself. Look at a map, say: "oooh look at those curvy roads", look at the weather and see that its 75 and sunny there and 55 and raining here, look at AirBnBs in the area... Rinse and repeat.

Fall '21

Seems like this summer flew by way too quickly. That happens when you're having lots and lots of fun.

By the numbers:

Trackdays at the Ridge: 5

Trackdays at PIR: 2

Overnight moto-trips: 2 (not enough)

Crashes: 0

Tickets: 0

Last night I sold the VFR800. Bittersweet moment, but it was time to go. All things are temporary, possessions, friends, careers. We're only borrowing those things from the universe. I've been thinking about how some things are connected and how life moves in cycles.

Shortly after buying the VFR in 2016 I started riding with Seth. I thought he was a jackass but since he attracted all the fast riders, I kept riding with him and became friends. For years we put together epic group rides and introduced dozens of people to the track. But now Seth's gone, and the VFR is gone; that cycle in my life is ended.

I've been planning to trade in my 2017 Ducati for a 21 or 22. That plan can now proceed because the Honda is sold. Good/bad timing I suppose since yesterday on a ride the 2017 started running badly! Bad gas I hope, but I know things are never that simple.

I'll keep this short. Honestly my muse is somewhat lacking for writing and I don't know why.

A Rant Regarding Motorcycle Shops

 I tend to agonize about things. Its one of my most irritating personality flaws. My inner monologue is something like 99% arguing with myself and or reliving all my various mistakes in life no matter how minor. To that end I usually have plenty of hindsight related minor and major mistakes to relive 24/7. Since I'm a motorcycle enthusiast and don't do all my own tech work I often have lots of things to agonize about with regards to my bikes. Now the weird thing is that because of my line of work I tend to have some short term memory problems; tell me your name and I'll forget it before I even finish introducing myself. But I can tell you all the transgressions imagined or otherwise that I've befallen in relation to getting work done on my bikes by other people!

Lets set the way back machine for 2011. I had this absolutely POS R6 I'd just gotten as my second bike after starting on a Ninja 250. It had an oil leak from the stator cover. I take it to (names have been changed to keep me from getting sued over slander if any of the guilty parties were to read this blog, yeah right) Crapley Motorsports in Grants Pass. He checks it in, tells me he'll call in a week, then forgets about it for a month. I bug him, he says more important jobs (his subie bros with blown turbo engines) were taking his time. I go pick it up and fix it myself, which took two tries because I suck.

The next bike I own is a very nice 2006 CBR600RR. Being that I'm trying to keep it nice, I take it to Frank's Honda in Corvallis, Oregon for the recommended valve inspection service. A week or two later I get a call to pick it up and I show up after work. Its their closing time, their tech has already left, and the man working the desk takes my money, gives me the key, and promptly leaves. I go into the parking lot (its dark, its winter, its cold) and try to start my bike. It starts. Then it dies. Crap. I hit the starter again, it starts then dies. Double Crap. I try a few more times then give it the ol' hold the throttle partly open when starting and it runs! As soon as I close the throttle it dies. Turns out that in pulling it apart they messed up the idle, but I was able to fix that in the cold dark parking lot and get it running again. Oh and the valve inspection? Years later when I had it apart after a crash I notice that the screws on the valve cover looked like they'd never been touched.

So in 2016 I sell the CBR600RR and buy a 2014 VFR800FD. Great fun, comfortable. My stupid ass believes Bert Lambert's Honda in Beaverton when they say they'll key the panniers as part of the horrific cost of buying them, when I come in for the first service. Well obviously that didn't work out. At the first service they told me it was going to be another $250 to key the panniers. I asked them to ship it all to my house and I'd figure that out. Anyways on the way home from the first service (in the middle of nowhere) the lower fairings start flopping in the breeze because they didn't fasten them. When I go to change the oil next I have to use an extension to break loose the oil drain bolt and filter. Come on, who the hell uses an impact gun on a drain bolt? Bert's Honda in Beaverton, that's who.

Since I swore I wasn't going back to Bert's again for service and because I'm dumb I take my VFR to Salem Motorcycle Country for the 16k mile service (which stupidly involves a valve inspection). When I pick it up and look at the invoice I see they had just "inspected" cables and stuff and changed the oil. Well wait, what about changing brake fluid, coolant, and inspecting the valves? To paraphrase the jackass working there "nobody every does the valves they just trade it in". For a roughly $500 service charge I got an oil change. Oh and they used an impact gun on the drain bolt.

Then there's this used car dealership in South Albany that has a motorsports place on campus. They sell used bikes and new Suzukis. Well at one point I need new fork seals on my ZX6R and since Independent repairman Johan won't do forks anymore I call up South Atlantic Powersports and see if they can squeeze me in. They say they can and I drop off my forks, parts, and a bottle of fork oil. I wrote the oil capacity down and put it with the stuff I dropped off. A week later I get the forks back and put em on my ZX6R and go race. If you already read my race blog you know what happened. They emptied half of the fork oil bottle into each fork and hydrolocked them. I raced on forks that had maybe 5mm of travel and zero bump absorption. 

There's an Independent Motorcycle Repair guy in the mid valley I use occasionally. Unfortunately he's a sole proprietor and got a good reputation so he's picky. I used him a number of times over the years and he's always done good work. Problem is since he has a line out the door he can pick and choose what he wants to do. I asked him at bike night "Hey Johan, I have a VFR 800 that's due for a valve check at 36k miles, can you do it?" "No, I don't work on V4s".

Since the Honda dealers in my area had left me with a bad taste I go looking. There's a shop near Portland (Let's call them... CycleMusic) that's run by a guy that used to crew for the Honda Superbike team and they say they can do the high mileage service on a VFR. Great! They even offer a small discount for OMRRA members (which I was at the time). Now I should mention, at the time that I was looking for this service the VFR was already experiencing an intermittent power loss issue. I attributed this to the mileage and figured it would be resolved by doing the high mileage service which included spark plugs.

Well anyways I get the bike back and it runs good. I had them do the suspension and steering head bearing and it feels almost like a new bike. I go ride it out to eastern Oregon the next week and guess what, the power loss issue is still a thing. So anyways it goes back to CycleMusic multiple times while we guess at what the issue is. Power commander tune? No. Fuel pump? Well we couldn't get an OEM one because of the pandemic so we use an aftermarket which doesn't supply enough go-juice and makes the problem worse. Cam chain tensioner? No. Finally get ahold of an OEM fuel pump, that isn't the fix. A tank of fuel after I get back from my southwest trip the VFR outright dies (good thing that didn't happen on the trip) because of an electrical short involving the rear brake and rear brake light, which for some insane reason Honda decided to run the power for the fuel pump THROUGH the rear brake light. They fix that and ... still have an intermittent power loss issue.

So at this point I'm ready to ride it off a cliff and claim the insurance but I get a recommendation for a shop in Medford that has a good reputation for electrical problems. So I drop it off with MRP Motorsports at the beginning of April. I tell them all about the problem and what we've done and even a theory that it might be the TPS going out. Then I don't hear back. I pretty much have to hound them to get an update. They took the bike apart then pretty much forgot about it.

Oh and the TPS? Turns out Honda doesn't sell just the TPS because its riveted into the throttle body, which to buy is over $1000! MRP got ahold of a used one, finally got to work and installed it and... that didn't fix the issue. They're continuing to troubleshoot, maybe. Suppose I'll have to hound them more. Since its summer they have a myriad of people wanting last minute stuff and the guy with the old VFR isn't a priority. Probably would have been better just to get rid of the VFR last year when the problem surfaced instead of blowing time and money on trying to make it my forever bike. Which is a real shame because none of the sport touring options on the market these days really appeal to me in a visual sort of way.

"Well Tim just do all your own work". No. I suck at this. I do a lot of my own work and then call in the pros when its something beyond me. Its just so much of the time the pros don't get it right, or in the case of dealerships outright do it wrong! Why is it so hard to find competent help? Dealerships pay their techs shit for wages so nobody sticks around. Independent places can't pay enough to keep good people around, the good ones leave and go start their own shops and then go out of business because they suck at business.

In the vein of "do all your own work" this week I installed new suspension on the Ninja 400. Part of why I don't usually "do all my own work" is because I don't have all the tools and the facility to do it properly. Maybe that's why I'm a tool abuser. I used ratchet straps to suspend the bike while I swapped out the rear shock. On the '400 its actually pretty straight forward to get to the shock, you don't have to take anything off or strip the whole bike down!

Funny thing about the front of the '400. Kawasaki in their infinite wisdom made the front fairings in a way that you can't use a pin/head lift stand on it without impacting the fairings. Supposedly only two major (high price) brands work in this regard and one is out of stock in all stores. The other thing is that the pin size is something wonky like 21 or 22 mm. So to get the '400 up on the head lift stand I made a pin adapter (wrapped duck tape around a smaller pin) and used ratchet straps to lift the front end, then stick the head lift stand in (this doesn't impact the fairings).

For the forks the proper way to install the kit involves taking the forks off the bike. Nah. Too much work and possibly not enough clearance with the fairings. Instead I took the stock internals out and used my hand vacuum pump and a couple feet of hose to suck out all the OEM oil. Then I dropped the new Matris internals in. Easy peasy. Probably missed a few CCs of OEM oil but no big deal since it was low miles anyways.

The new suspension is a lot smoother feeling, at least in the twenty miles I rode it last night after finishing the work.

Fossil Run July 2021

 I know I've talked about "The Fossil Run" before, after all what motorcyclist in the Northwest hasn't? The thing about this sport, especially going longer distance, is that its generally more fun and safer if you go with a group. The thing about group travel though is the difficulty lining everyone's schedules and preferences up. It always amazes me how much pulling teeth it is for some people to get Saturday-Sunday off from their "life" and "family" to go do something that they've said over and over that they want to do.

With that in mind eventually you say to yourself: "self, (because that's what I call myself) stop worrying about including everyone and just pick a date and go", and so I did. I invited twenty people and four (including me) showed up. Good enough, a small group is easier to fit into restaurants, gas stations, and motels.

Cast of Characters:

Double D - Street Triple 675 

Flamin' Beans - Africa Twin (which he rides like its a big supermoto)

SalemCBR - CBR1000RR (good to have a famous YouTuber with us to record this momentous occasion)

LazyEye - SuperSport 939 (yours truly)

With our bags packed and tanks full we set out over the Santiam pass towards Central Oregon. We got a somewhat early start hoping to beat some of the heat and the traffic jam at Sisters, Oregon. We didn't beat the traffic and it turned into a passing/leap frog game pretty quick. Any head start dissolved near Suttle Lake when we came upon a wreck of a truck and learned there was a second wreck (of a motorcyclist) up ahead.

While waiting and chatting with ODOT first response and local SAR members, I learned that Life Flight was inbound for the motorcyclist. Oddly enough after circling once the 'copter didn't land and left the area. Later we found that he had died, another casualty of someone turning onto a major highway without looking.

The highway past Sisters is slow, congested, and hot. Especially with a cylinder between my legs. After the time we'd lost because of the wrecks we stopped in Madras for lunch. Apparently all the fast food places still had their dining rooms closed due to lack of employees. Drive throughs and motorcycles don't get along, so we had a real sit down lunch at Black Bear. Probably better than eating Taco Bell anyways.

North of Madras we finally turn onto a more interesting road and start some genuine canyon carving. To my dismay we got stuck behind a tour bus for several miles, which seemed like an eternity, and left me questioning what jackoff psycho decided to bring a friggin' tour bus out into the twisties.

The ironic thing about "The Fossil Run" is that Fossil highway from Antelope to Fossil is only 36 miles long. Its 36 miles that's pretty great, but only 36 miles. We travel hours and hundreds of miles to get to this 36 mile long highway. But I must digress, there were more tour busses out there. What. The. Heck. Editor's note: there's a church camp, ironically near the old Rajneesh Cult grounds, out there that imports people for indoctrination by the bus load. Back on topic. Not that going on "The Fossil Run" is detracted by this simply semantic problem, because just past Fossil is literally hundreds of miles of fantastic canyon carving.

After a rehydration and gas stop in Fossil we continued on to carve the canyons east and north. Past Spray we picked up Highway 207 which goes through the mountains and past an OHV area. Excellent twisties and on the downhill side (going north) there is probably ten miles of undulating curves following a river which of course I forgot to turn on my Go Pro for. Coming around one corner we got to test our brakes and stop on road to admire some cows that were hanging out on the tarmac.

On a side note I think its Murphy's Law of Go Pros that you never have it on when something really cool happens.

More canyon carving on 207 and onto 206 followed. By the time we rolled in to Condon for a fuel stop I was feeling the mental fatigue common to riding in 100 degree heat all day. With mesh gear your sweat is evaporating as fast as your body can make it and its amazing how dehydrated you can get. Fortunately the gas station there had air conditioned restrooms and Gatorade.

West of Condon is open prairie with constant wind and Windmills. Its the kind of terrain where you test the phrase "if a curve is boring, go faster until it isn't".

The open terrain gives way to Cottonwood Canyon which has some excellent flowing curves and then back up into the open, and then back down into another canyon and on into Wasco. Trips like this are canyon carving in a very literal sense, as opposed to carving roads that follow a river but don't have a real canyon. Again, a semantic difference.

On we went into The Dalles and checked in to our motel and hit the pool!

Pictured: LazyEye and Double D jumping in. Not pictured: SalemCBR who hadn't made reservations soon enough and was staying over at the sketchiest Super 8 ever.

Some of the local riders from The Dalles joined us for dinner. It took the restaurant quite a while to serve so we had plenty of time to catch up and plot future shenanigans.

The next day we had a late start after bike maintenance and another restaurant that served slowly (short staffed). Mostly we back tracked the way we'd come but a little bit more direct. While on Fossil highway we decided to stop to cool off in the John Day river, only to find that it was only knee deep!

Pictured, me near the middle of the river. I picked up a bit of scum in the river and felt itchy/sticky afterwards.

The rest of the ride after the Fossil/Antelope highway sections was boring and stuck in traffic. All in all a great weekend. No tickets, no breakdowns, no crashes. The hard part is going back to work on Monday and trying to not think about where/when to head out again! But first I need new tires and or my VFR back (but that's another post).

Pictured: SalemCBR, Double D, and LazyEye at the Mountain Identifier on Hwy 206.

Not quite post script: My short video I made about the trip!

https://youtu.be/jLkmUm9KUSY

Time Flies When you're having fun

 I love summer (duh!). Which is problematic because it's so short. Also because time flies when you're having fun and I try to cram as much fun into summer as possible so... it flies. June flew by in the snap of a finger. So many fun and un-fun things happened so quick that before I've even gone swimming its over.

I kicked off summer right with a group ride to the lake and then to get ice cream! Only a few of us made it since it was mid-week but quality over quantity! Riding fast and then back slapping and eating ice cream is one of those "emotional highs" that are hard to replicate anywhere else.

Instead of going to MotoAmerica at The Ridge I rode to an outdoor biker wedding where my special lady nearly died of heat exhaustion in the unusually hot June heat wave we had. But on the bright side that week I found a deal on an un-molested 2020 Ninja 400. Its a ton of fun to rip around on it. Like they say its more fun to ride a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow.

It came with a god-awful loud Werkes exhaust. I've put a baffle in it, but I might just swap back to the stock boat anchor eventually. I'm taking it to PIR in July to rip around in the small displacement group. That should be interesting, totally stock bike, no mods yet, even OEM GPR-300 tires. I'll start throwing mod-money at it after that so I have a baseline. The stock suspension is ... adequate for street riding. I've ordered a Matris (Italy) shock and fork spring/valve kit to give me proper springing, dampening, and ride height. Funny that in 10 years of track riding this will be the first bike I've bothered to have sprung for my weight. Now I'm eyeing a Thunderhill-West weekend to properly test the new suspension at the end of September on a technical track.

My wanderlust is kicking in. I want to go out east but I have three things blocking me. 1. I seem to have something crammed in every weekend already. 2. My VFR is still in the shop (don't friggin get me started on how much this situation pisses me off) and 3. With my new job I don't have a lot of time off yet so I'm limited to just a Saturday/Sunday. No matter, I'm going to make it happen one way or another. The SS is perfectly capable to an overnight ride as long as I don't take a lot of stuff.

July 4th weekend when most people were busy doing non motorcycle stuff I was at the happiest place on earth: the racetrack. Saturday I did the OPRT intermediate class, which academically was a waste of time for me, but coaching wise was worth it. Sunday was just normal riding and I had a great time. There was a lot less traffic Sunday and my lines and times improved (even though I look terrible on camera and can't drag a knee).

Onward into the weekend!

Random Thoughts

 Working from home is distracting, because I'm a distracted person. I'm like: Gotta concentrate on this VMWare cluster issue..... hey I wonder what people are saying on a certain motorcycle forum. Then there's that time when I see that MotoAmerica at the Ridge tickets are on sale and I go and buy them and make plans with my friends and then... realize that I've already committed that weekend to attend a wedding.

At a memorial ride recently for my friend (which I didn't attend because I was at the track) a couple people crashed out. Several people showed video from incidents. In one thread a person was showing the video of running wide and hitting dirt. Being the helpful know it all I am I chimed in spreading the gospel of Keith Code and the physics of throttle control. Well anyways it degenerated into a bunch of arguments because people are stuck in their way and love to argue on the internet. Fuck it. Pearls before swine. Deleted my content. Everyone can go fucking crash into a minivan. Blood for the blood gods. Fuck pointless arguments. Seems like any discussion of technique devolves into a "my rider coach is better than yours" and "I've been racing forever and you're wrong because I can't be bothered to read and understand what you're saying".

Stuff like that is juxtaposed in the community with people who openly acknowledge that they're inexperience that don't want to come out on rides. Like gee, I'd love to help (I really would), but boy am I not wanting to deal with other people's fucking drama. I would love to put on some beginner rides and talk a technique beforehand and give people some learning drills (hello Keith Code) but simply I don't want to deal with other people's shit. The community eats its young and people mostly only last 2 seasons because of the overly macho bullshit that so many people are spewing. Why does nobody help? Because the moment you open your mouth to help someone is there to argue.

Anyways over Memorial Day weekend I got an amazing day in at The Ridge. Signed up with Tracktime, mostly had the track to myself all afternoon. Waiting like an anxious teenager for the photographer to finish up with the pics so I can see how bad I look. Doesn't matter, had a great time and came home with the bike undamaged.

Next weekend I'm supposed to be at The Ridge again but the forecast is going downhill. Boo. Probably go anyways since I'm stubborn (and not exactly inexperienced in the rain).

Loss

Sunday 5/16/21 a close friend of mine died. He was on the way home from a group ride and hit a car that was performing a U-Turn.

Seth was a talented rider, a devoted father, and a staple of our community. He was the magnetic personality that attracted everyone to him.  He'd started racing this year and won multiple sportsman and novice races.

I started riding with him in 2016 and since then there wasn't a week where we weren't talking bikes or planning some kind of group ride. Its hard to think about organizing rides now without thinking of him.

The community is never going to be the same.

Ponderings About Recent Happenings

 I got a job. After ten months off I finally got a job. I started in May. So far so good, they even seem to appreciate me!

I managed to get in one last short trip before I started. Just a simple trip down to Southern Oregon to see family and then back up via the coast. Maybe a bit anticlimactic but a longer affair wasn't feasible.

My poor neglected VFR is still in the shop. This time we're replacing the TPS, which may be the culprit of the intermittent power loss issue. The techs are having trouble finding the TPS to order though because big H didn't bother including it in their parts fiche individually and there's no way I'm buying a whole new Throttle assembly to get one! I really want to close the chapter on it being in the shop most of the last year.

I'm going to the Ridge Memorial Day Weekend for one day. Should be fun to see what the SS can do. Its down on power, handling, and braking compared to the ZX6R, but its more comfortable and its red.

In April I went to one day at OMRRA and volunteered as a corner worker on Turn 1. Since it was a rain race and the first of the year there was plenty of action. We picked up six bikes in that corner. I believe the total crashes for the day was 35 or so. Also got to cheer on a friend who is racing Novice 1000 this year and doing quite well.

Spring Observations

Every spring the bikes and riders come out after hibernation and repeat the age old rites of vernal-moto. My observations this year are mostly made from the point of view of a keyboard jockey on internet groups and forums as well as in person. So without further ado I present: The Rite of Spring (Motorcycle edition)

1. Blood for the Blood God. Lets get the unpleasantness out of the way quickly. Every year when the weather opens up people hit the road with minds, bodies, and bikes that have been in storage all winter. Tires might be underinflated, bodies are flabbier than last year, and brains are enthusiastic but reactions are rusty. Right off the cuff my area saw a handful of moto-fatalities right away mostly to do with people making bad decisions, just like every year.

2. The new riders and questions. Since we're living everything more virtual than we used to lets face it, the influx of new riders with old questions hitting the moto-groups seems bigger this year. What kind of oil/tires do I use? Where do I get my tires changed? Why is this so expensive? Why do I see lots of pictures from rides but nobody invites me *cries* ?

3. Group rides starting up again. During the winter when you get out for a quick scoot in between rain storms you might get one person to go with you, now lots of people want to go! But with lots of people wanting to go most of them don't have the same schedules or skill levels and things get.... complicated. Post up a ride saying "ATGATT, spirited pace", and someone with no gear whatsoever and bald tires shows up, then rides a 50% pace (except on the straights) and complains later about getting left in the dust.

4. People drama! "Why doesn't anyone invite me?" - Because your schedule is weird and or you suck to ride with. "I won't go on that ride because so-and-so is going on it." -Really dude? I'm not going to manage who is hurt at who, I'm just inviting everyone. "I don't know any good roads, I'll just follow" -I can't blame people for being navigationally inept, but just being lazy is another thing.

5. Every woman that ever posts or shows up getting absolutely mobbed by thirsty dudes. OK, some literally ask for it but most don't.

This is really just an observation on moto-culture though, I'm not making too much fun of any one person or group. Really I'm just glad spring is here (except for allergies) and I can ride without being bundled up and still cold. Time for some proper sport tires to go on the Duc and for all day rides.

Obligatory Winter Update

Its that time of year again where I write a post and talk about how I have nothing to write about because it's winter. I'm sitting here looking out at frost on the ground and a weather forecast of rain/freezing rain for the next ten days. Alas winter must have its time.

I've gotten in a few rides on the odd "nice" day this winter. The good thing about the Willamette Valley is fairly mild winters.

Unfortunately the VFR ended up back in the shop. It seems to have developed some electrical gremlins. I guess that is to be expected given I've ridden it in the wet since the day I bought it.

Fortunately I got the Ducati SuperSport back from MotoCorsa. In November I dropped it off for the 9k mile service and to figure out why the transmission has never shifted right. Well in the interim they discovered that the transmission was totally boogered and replaced the whole thing under warranty.

I got contacted by the OMRRA membership rep a few weeks ago asking if I was going to re-up my membership. I had to be upfront and tell him that I am still unemployed and so my '21 season is going to be just as nonexistent as my '20 season.

Seems like we're going to lose another year. No jobs. No bars. No eating in at restaurants. No gyms. Sooner or later my savings and unemployment will run out. No hope for the future.