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: