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If anyone in central MA is looking for a bike I saw a great mid 80s Suzuki GS850 for $500.. it had some leaks in the motor, but it ran, was in great shape, garaged it's whole life and came with a bunch of extra parts.. email dejanigma at gmail if you want the guys number.. It's right on the boarder of holden and worcester.
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Jul 26, 2009 02:59
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IAMKOREA posted:I am pretty inexperienced as I've only owned a single bike. A single lovely out of tune rat bike. But it's getting better as I learn to fix more poo poo. Anyway now I'm trying to diagnose it's really slow return to idle. I've read vacuum leak and lovely throttle cable, but I'm not really sure how to check either of these. well, intake leaks are easy to diagnose. spray starter fluid between the carb and cylinder head. RPM's go up? you have a leak. RPM's go down.. you still have a leak. :-0 As for the throttle cable, just replace it. dejanigma posted:If anyone in central MA is looking for a bike I saw a great mid 80s Suzuki GS850 for $500.. it had some leaks in the motor, but it ran, was in great shape, garaged it's whole life and came with a bunch of extra parts.. email dejanigma at gmail if you want the guys number.. It's right on the boarder of holden and worcester. To back this up. GS850's are so good that messengers in europe got suzuki to produce them for another two or three years after they offically wanted to kill them off. If you have any idea what it takes to start up a production line, you can imagine how big the demand had to be! $500 is a steal. And.. I got one of the 1980 GS550's in my garage running tonight. :-) It hadn't run in a year.
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Jul 26, 2009 06:39
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`Nemesis posted:Riding in severe weather isn't that bad. I rode for 30 minutes in a storm so nasty that the rain was blowing sideways, the spaces under overpasses were packed with stopped cars, and traffic in the freeway was going like 30mph. The bike ran fine and always felt stable and I felt very comfortable driving faster than the speed of traffic. As long as you have decent rain gear so you don't get cold and hypothermic, and you avoid lightning, you will be just fine. I love riding in torrential rain, as long as I've got everything set up properly. There's no fun to be found if you're worried about being cold, wet, blind due to a steamed up visor, stranded or your luggage is leaking. But as long as your luggage is waterproof, your kit is waterproof, your visor is freshly cleaned and waxed, your tyres are good and your bike is reliable, it's absolutely brilliant. Speaking of which, I need new gloves, trousers and boots. I'd have thought my boots would be waterproof, but I need to find where the drat water is coming in. The trousers are a couple of years old, and have been crashed on a few times, so they're looking the worse for wear. Thinking of which, my helmet's about the same age and looking very much the worse for wear, eurgh, more replacements.
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Jul 26, 2009 13:25
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Nerobro posted:
Ha! The GSes just dont quit! Good job resurrecting another one. I would have bought it on the spot, it's in a lot better shape than my current GS550, but I doubt this is the point in the race to be switching horses :/
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Jul 26, 2009 13:51
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Methusulah posted:What tank bag would someone recommend for a 2006 ex250? I've been wary of buying a tankbag online without getting some input first. (all the local dealer has are Joe Rocket mini mantas) I've been thinking of the Tour master tb-12. Is this big or small? I don't have any kind of perspective on size, and I don't want something too big for the bike. This Fieldsheer is what I have, and its been a great bag so far. It is pretty compact when you have it compressed, and when you expand it, it can swallow quite a bit. Comes with multiple kinds of straps for carrying off the bike as well. I keep the shoulder strap attached and shoved into the front pocket so I can easily pull it out and carry the bag around. It also converts into a backpack. It has a map pocket on top of the bag, and one on the base as well if you don't bring the bag with you. I have the magnetic base, and I've been a little careless about it, so I have a few scratches on my tank. Just be wary about that. Specifically, it has left very slight impressions on the tank of the fabric just under the magnets. The base stays on my bike pretty much all the time. The base magnets are nice and strong, I've carried gallons of milk and some other heavy stuff in the bag, and nothing has caused the bag to shift around at all. I also just found out that the cover it comes with is for the bag, not my helmet. 
sirbeefalot fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Jul 26, 2009 |
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Jul 26, 2009 17:52
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When you park your bike, do you leave it in gear or neutral? I see a lot of people starting their bike just by hitting the starter, so I assume they leave it in neutral.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:12
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shaitan posted:When you park your bike, do you leave it in gear or neutral? I see a lot of people starting their bike just by hitting the starter, so I assume they leave it in neutral. I've had people tell me to leave it in gear, so it "settles back" and will resist tipping.  I leave it in neutral, cause if I changed it now I'd catapult forward and stall every other time I started it.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:18
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I'll park in neutral unless I'm on a decent grade. I usually park by approaching where I'll be parking, shutting the bike off, and walking it into position, so putting it in neutral is the easiest way to do this.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:35
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Just like a manual car, I always leave it in gear when I park it.
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Jul 26, 2009 23:39
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I park in gear as my bike requires the clutch to be in to start it anyways.
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Jul 27, 2009 00:08
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I leave it in park, partially because that's how I was taught, partially because I leave my car in park, partially because I like to kill the engine before parking and just coasting in with the clutch pulled in and then just hopping off. When I start the bike to let it warm up, I walk around and kick it up into N.
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Jul 27, 2009 00:31
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I'm back on the hunt for a digital clock for the bike. I did order and install the TrailTech Vapor, and the clock is about the only good thing it has to offer, long story short. I'll be returning it and putting my stock gauges back on. Ideally what I'd like is a digital clock with a backlight that comes on with the bike. Does anyone know if such an animal exists? Everything I see online is chromed out analog cruiser poo poo with no backlight for $100. E: something like this would be sweet, its not backlit, but the LED's glow. Not for $220 though. Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Jul 27, 2009 |
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Jul 27, 2009 01:45
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Phat_Albert posted:I did order and install the TrailTech Vapor, and the clock is about the only good thing it has to offer, long story short. Could you please elaborate on this? I was planning to order one, since the Husky has no warning lights, fuel light or even temp gauge and is off on mph.
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Jul 27, 2009 02:32
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Phat_Albert posted:I'm back on the hunt for a digital clock for the bike. I did order and install the TrailTech Vapor, and the clock is about the only good thing it has to offer, long story short. I'll be returning it and putting my stock gauges back on. What was your beef with it? I've been using mine for ~3000 miles and don't really have any complaints.
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Jul 27, 2009 15:37
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This might sound like a stupid question but has anyone tried car wax on their visor? I've given up on dodging rain during the week and I'm planning on just riding regardless. My only problem right now is that my visor seems to suck pretty good for getting rain off. I'd try RainX but its been reporting to cause yellowing.
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Jul 27, 2009 16:03
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8ender posted:This might sound like a stupid question but has anyone tried car wax on their visor? Do you have a general aviation airport/pilot shop near you? If so, you can try getting some aircraft-grade plexiglass cleaner and polish there, that stuff generally works alright and won't harm visors.
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Jul 27, 2009 16:29
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I use this wierd pink stuff to clean my visor, and it keeps it clear of the rain and the fog. I've since smelt paraffin and guessed it's some sort of paraffin wax. If it's just coloured paraffin wax I'm going to be mighty annoyed.
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Jul 27, 2009 16:33
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Can I leave my bike on its side for an extended period of time? (A couple days) I assume I probably can't, but I need to get the wheels off so I can take them to a shop and get new tires put on. It's an EX250 if that matters. It's in self storage right now and I can't think of any way to suspend it, although I might be able to come up with something if that's my only option. One more question. The bike currently isn't in running condition. I just got a new battery installed, but there's old gas in the gas tank. Peering in without a flashlight, it looks like there's very little, just dregs at the bottom of the tank. Can I add new gas over the top or should I try to siphon out what's in there?
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Jul 27, 2009 21:27
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NoCleverName posted:Can I leave my bike on its side for an extended period of time? (A couple days) I assume I probably can't, but I need to get the wheels off so I can take them to a shop and get new tires put on. It's an EX250 if that matters. It's in self storage right now and I can't think of any way to suspend it, although I might be able to come up with something if that's my only option. I wouldn't unless I drained all of the oil and gas out. There's nothing inherently wrong with it being on it's side, but most, if not all, of the gas and oil would probably leak out of if you did that. Yours should have a centerstand. Pop it up on that, and weight the rear seat to lift the front off the ground. Problem solved. Draining the tank would be prudent, I've always just added more gas as long as there' only a little left in there.
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Jul 27, 2009 21:34
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So in reading this article it seems that this was a true accident. For the sake of discussion, is there anything this poor guy could have done to avoid this, or do you suppose it was the rare case of simply bad luck?
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Jul 27, 2009 22:11
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I really couldn't imagine anything. I know I don't go down the road looking for tires to come flying out at me. The article didn't mention what sort of gear he was wearing so if he was in the Harley uniform (Hawaiian shirt, Shorts, and flip-flops) then that could have something to do with it.
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Jul 27, 2009 22:34
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Doctor Zero posted:So in reading this article it seems that this was a true accident. For the sake of discussion, is there anything this poor guy could have done to avoid this, or do you suppose it was the rare case of simply bad luck? Hard to say from the article - there's not much description of traffic conditions, etc etc. It seems like he could have swerved and accelerated to avoid the wheel, but there's no way to know for sure.
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Jul 27, 2009 22:36
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NoCleverName posted:One more question. The bike currently isn't in running condition. I just got a new battery installed, but there's old gas in the gas tank. Peering in without a flashlight, it looks like there's very little, just dregs at the bottom of the tank. Can I add new gas over the top or should I try to siphon out what's in there? Just a word of warning, this isn't necessarily a common issue or anything but my 2004 was sitting for about a year or so before I bought it and the tank was about 1/3 full during that time. How do I know? The ring of surface rust inside the tank told me so. It had quite a bit of rusty silt at the bottom of the tank near the Reserve pickup, and the first time I switched to reserve, it sucked up a bunch of that poo poo, and I got to learn how to pull and clean the carbs and the tank within a week of motorcycle ownership. Its very easy to pull the tank, remove the petcock, and rinse the whole thing out really well with some clean gas. Way easier to do this than pull and clean both the tank and the carbs. Of course, this is all relative, do you know how old the gas is?
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Jul 27, 2009 23:16
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Taelrin posted:I really couldn't imagine anything. I know I don't go down the road looking for tires to come flying out at me. The article didn't mention what sort of gear he was wearing so if he was in the Harley uniform (Hawaiian shirt, Shorts, and flip-flops) then that could have something to do with it. A leather suit and a full face helmet aren't going to save you from a tire moving at interstate speeds hitting you in the melon, pushing you head on into a concrete wall, and sending you over a bridge afterward. The only way you avoid that is huge helpings of luck.
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Jul 27, 2009 23:19
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Z3n posted:I wouldn't unless I drained all of the oil and gas out. There's nothing inherently wrong with it being on it's side, but most, if not all, of the gas and oil would probably leak out of if you did that. Can I take both wheels off while it's on the center stand? sirbeefalot posted:Just a word of warning, this isn't necessarily a common issue or anything but my 2004 was sitting for about a year or so before I bought it and the tank was about 1/3 full during that time. How do I know? The ring of surface rust inside the tank told me so. The gas is from 2006, so it's really old. I couldn't see any rust in the tank, but I need to take a good light back with me and check it out, my flashlight somehow died on the trip to where I'm storing it. The guy I bought it from jumped it and ran it briefly on the gas in there, but I still might tank the tank off like you mentioned.
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Jul 27, 2009 23:51
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NoCleverName posted:Can I take both wheels off while it's on the center stand? Sure, just rock it up and jam a decent size piece of wood under the engine. Obviously you need to remove the lower fairings first.
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Jul 28, 2009 00:34
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8ender posted:This might sound like a stupid question but has anyone tried car wax on their visor?
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Jul 28, 2009 01:14
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Gnaghi posted:Could you please elaborate on this? I was planning to order one, since the Husky has no warning lights, fuel light or even temp gauge and is off on mph. Well, its partially my expectations, and partially shortcomings of the system itself. For starters, its tiny. Like 5 inches across. The pictures on the website make it seem bigger. On the Bandit, which is a big bike, it looks kinda ridiculous. Secondly, the tach is weird. Its accurate for the most part, but it will randomly start responding slowly when the bike is revved up. Also, when cruising at a constant speed it will fluctuate +/- about 1000 RPM's from the true amount. I have the tach hooked up correctly according to the instructions and everything I've read on the internet. Also, the thermometer is always listing the temperature at about 15 degrees warmer than it really is. The vapor also comes with a head temperature sensor that replaces the crush gasket on a spark plug. This doesnt fit down the plug well on the Bandit. Not TrailTechs fault, but sucks nonetheless. To me, all this doesnt add up to $130 worth of device. Plus, if I want to have lights for blinkers, neutral, oil pressure, etc, I need to add the $60 dashboard add-on. To get it where I want, would take about $200, and I dont believe the device warrants that cost given its faults and my issues with it. I plan to put the stock gauges back on the Bandit, find a backlit clock and deal with it.
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Jul 28, 2009 01:43
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Maybe just a big indiglo digital clock/watch that you tape to something?
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Jul 28, 2009 06:58
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I got some cheap stick on clocks from autozone for 3 bucks in a 2-pack. They might have had backlit ones, I'm not entirely sure though. The cheapy ones were the only ones small enough to fit anywhere on the bike.
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Jul 28, 2009 07:01
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I bought a cheap kids watch from the Gap. its blue and has guitars on it. i strap it to the handlebars when i ride. Sometimes i take it off and wear it and pretend im a hipster (heheheheeh)
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Jul 28, 2009 07:54
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This isn't so much a question about motorcycles as it is a question about insurance, but it has to do with the accident I had a while back where the fedex van backed into my bike. I gave a statement, shop damage estimate, and purchase receipts for the gear that I was wearing to the claims adjuster over a week and a half ago. Aside from a short telephone conversation with the field adjuster on the 20th, I haven't heard a peep from them. I've tried calling and sending e-mails to the claims adjuster and have heard nothing back. What I'm wondering is, how long is it typically supposed to take for the insurance company to send a settlement offer? I'm feeling like I'm getting screwed here. sectoidman fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Jul 28, 2009 |
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Jul 28, 2009 08:01
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Phat_Albert posted:Secondly, the tach is weird. Its accurate for the most part, but it will randomly start responding slowly when the bike is revved up. Also, when cruising at a constant speed it will fluctuate +/- about 1000 RPM's from the true amount. I have the tach hooked up correctly according to the instructions and everything I've read on the internet. These are pretty much my only complaints with the device. I gave up on the tach telling me anything interesting beyond that my bike is on. I'm ok with riding by engine sound anyway. The temp gauge on it is pretty hilarious. I was so pissed at that thing after riding a couple hours in sub-40F weather when it told me it was 55 the entire time. Now it just comically reads 120F when its a reasonable 105F on my ride home from work.
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Jul 28, 2009 13:32
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Phat_Albert posted:Well, its partially my expectations, and partially shortcomings of the system itself. Phat_Albert posted:Also, the thermometer is always listing the temperature at about 15 degrees warmer than it really is. The vapor also comes with a head temperature sensor that replaces the crush gasket on a spark plug. This doesnt fit down the plug well on the Bandit. Not TrailTechs fault, but sucks nonetheless. Phat_Albert posted:To me, all this doesnt add up to $130 worth of device. Plus, if I want to have lights for blinkers, neutral, oil pressure, etc, I need to add the $60 dashboard add-on.
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Jul 28, 2009 13:39
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sectoidman posted:This isn't so much a question about motorcycles as it is a question about insurance, but it has to do with the accident I had a while back where the fedex van backed into my bike. I gave a statement, shop damage estimate, and purchase receipts for the gear that I was wearing to the claims adjuster over a week and a half ago. Aside from a short telephone conversation with the field adjuster on the 20th, I haven't heard a peep from them. I've tried calling and sending e-mails to the claims adjuster and have heard nothing back. If you have your own insurance, they should be handling this for you. If you don't, you should be calling every single day and leaving angry voice mails.
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Jul 28, 2009 13:40
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MrKatharsis posted:If you have your own insurance, they should be handling this for you. Last time I had to deal with insurance, State Farm told me to contact theirs myself. If they weren't cooperative, I should come back and State Farm would take of things. So, yeah, I'd be off to my insurance to have them take care of it.
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Jul 28, 2009 17:09
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laymil posted:How do you have it hooked up? It sounds like you have it wrapped around a spark plug wire, which is what they tell you to do. It's spectacularly horribly that way. Just stick it on the + terminal of one of your coils. I had the same problem and that cleared it right up. I have it hooked to the + terminal on the coil, and the black wire is connected to a black w/ white tracer ground wire in the harness. This is what the internet said to do. Something else is going on though, as it will be absolutely perfect and spot-on for a while, then just randomly it will be slow to react to revs, and then it will just wave up and down rhythmically around the actual rpm amount. laymil posted:I agree the ambient temperature thing sucks. The head temperature sensor can go anywhere on the head. I've got mine on one of the other bolts. Yeah, I thought about doing that, but the rest of the bolts on the head of the Bandit are gasketed with plastic or rubber gaskets, and I dont want to mess with those and wind up with an oil leak on my hands. laymil posted:I wouldn't have even considered mounting the gauge without the dashboard. To be fair, I thought I could keep my stock idiot-light portion of the dashboard and just ditch the gauges, but that didnt pan out. Thats why I dont have the dash surround. Overall though, it would be about $200 all said and done, and I dont feel that its worth it for the compromises and headaches. For $200 I want something that will just work, and work well. If I was mounting this on a dirtbike with no pre-existing gauges or something, I probably wouldnt be as picky, but the Bandit has pretty drat accurate gauges as it is, so it bothers me to have to pay money to downgrade their quality. Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Jul 28, 2009 |
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Jul 28, 2009 17:19
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Phat_Albert posted:I have it hooked to the + terminal on the coil, and the black wire is connected to a black w/ white tracer ground wire in the harness. This is what the internet said to do. As for the bolt, I've got a GSX600F, so its pretty much the same engine. There should be a few that aren't gasketed. Phat_Albert posted:To be fair, I thought I could keep my stock idiot-light portion of the dashboard and just ditch the gauges, but that didnt pan out. Thats why I dont have the dash surround. Overall though, it would be about $200 all said and done, and I dont feel that its worth it for the compromises and headaches. For $200 I want something that will just work. $200 is pretty cheap, all things considered. What was wrong with the stock gauges  ?
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Jul 28, 2009 17:23
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laymil posted:$200 is pretty cheap, all things considered. What was wrong with the stock gauges Nothing really, I wanted something different, and thought I would try this, plus it added some neat features that I didnt have. Thats why I'm not super pissed about the whole thing. Going back to the stock gauges isnt that horrible, with the exception of having no clock. I'm boxing it back up and shipping it back for a refund today.
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Jul 28, 2009 17:28
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Phat_Albert posted:Nothing really, I wanted something different, and thought I would try this, plus it added some neat features that I didnt have. Gotchya. It's good that you have that option. Buy a cheap watch with backlight, remove the band, get some velcro, and put it on your steering stem nut?
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Jul 28, 2009 17:47
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