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clutchpuck posted:Any financed bike will require it. Pretty much all of the above. I pay something like $450/yr for total coverage (liability, comp, collision, roadside assistance, accessory/gear coverage, etc.) on my bike because only old men ride FZ1s or something. And since I'm an old married man, I'm at the bottom of the risk table. Though they did raise my monthly premiums about ~$4/mo when I moved across town to a 'higher risk' neighborhood where it's more likely to be stolen. Which is idiotic since the 'low risk' place I lived before, I had to park it outside in the parking lot, but now it parks inside a locked garage where it's much less likely to be molested. Kinda wish they'd offer a discount on comprehensive for riders who own a private garage they can lock their bike inside.
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Dec 4, 2014 06:43
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| # ? May 16, 2024 08:07 |
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FZR chat Check your vacuum/intakes. They tend to dryrot and cause leaks. Are all of your carbs equalized? simple poo poo. Is the vacuum test port plugged? fuel levels ok? Floats not sticking etc?
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Dec 4, 2014 08:55
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Worth pointing out that if you had a flagging coil, you would have two cylinders playing up instead of just one.
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Dec 4, 2014 10:50
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Slavvy posted:Worth pointing out that if you had a flagging coil, you would have two cylinders playing up instead of just one. Thanks. Yeah we looked closely at cylinder 3 and 4 and it was doing the same thing on both. The "blue blue blue orange".
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Dec 4, 2014 15:59
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cursedshitbox posted:FZR chat Carbs have not been equalized and I'm running open filters so no positive crank vent etc. In fact, the dealer only had three main jets of the same size so it's running 3 112.5 mains and one 115. I will do my first vacuum sync once the mains are matching. Floats all looked great when we did the mains. We added 2 gallons of gas so it seems to be independent of fuel level. I'll look for the vacuum test ports when I swap the last main (in the mail). I think I've learned the "tune high, then mid, then low" rule the hard way. Pretty sure the clips need to go back after doing the mains. Heh heh.
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Dec 4, 2014 16:05
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fuel levels. yay drunk postin'. FLOAT levels. Dammit. the main being off shouldn't do much of poo poo at idle, but having em not sync'd, that'll cause some stuff. It took me a while to get mine set on the 400/600 hybrid I had, but when I did get it, ohhhh boyyyyy.
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Dec 4, 2014 17:30
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clutchpuck posted:Any financed bike will require it. Pretty much. I think they wanted around 700ish/yr for collision on an 05 DRZ. Everything else on that particular bike is about 200/yr total. It's pretty much because I'm 24, unmarried, and live in Houston. Getting uninsured motorist coverage here is a great way to double your premium too. Marxalot fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Dec 4, 2014 |
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Dec 4, 2014 19:49
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Marxalot posted:Pretty much. I think they wanted around 700ish/yr for collision on an 05 DRZ. Everything else on that particular bike is about 200/yr total. I pay ~$550 for maxed-out-everything coverage on an 08DRZ400-SM in Denver. This is with a speeding ticket about a year and a half ago. 31, unmarried (lolgoon) male.
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Dec 4, 2014 23:12
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XYLOPAGUS posted:Thanks. Yeah we looked closely at cylinder 3 and 4 and it was doing the same thing on both. The "blue blue blue orange". Just a reminder that coils are setup 1,4 and 2,3. What you described is weird. Perhaps you have a bad plug/coil lead?
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Dec 4, 2014 23:49
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I have a bent-forks question here. About a week ago I got into an accident where I rear-ended someone. She slammed on her brakes for an ambulance that I did not see due to a large truck (Nor did I hear it, which makes me wonder if they had just turned on the alarm or if my memory is failing me) and I did not have the distance to stop with 80's era brakes and my apparently less-than-wonderful brake discipline. I did manage to scrub quite a bit of speed so the actually damage to me was minimal at first glance (Damage to her nonexistent beyond a scrape on her bumper); just a bend in my fender, scrape on my right-fork and my handle-bars bent somehow. Anyway, I replaced the handlebars yet when I went to test-ride it, I noticed that I have to point the bars slightly to the right to go straight. Does this mean the forks are bent? Is there something else that could have become misaligned in the crash? I ride a 1986 Kawasaki EN450, if it helps, and could take crappy phone pics though I'm not sure what to photo. I plan on removing the front-wheel and forks for inspection next time I have a couple days off, so tips on what to look for would also be appreciated.
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Dec 5, 2014 00:50
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Loosen up the forks in the triples and then retighten them. You may have moved them slightly when you wrecked. If you don't have a center stand find a way to suspend the front to take any weight off when you're doing this.
kenny powerzzz fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 01:17
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kenny powerzzz posted:Loosen up the forks in the triples and then retighten them. You may have moved them slightly when you wrecked. If you don't have a center stand find a way to suspend the front to take any weight off when you're doing this. This, but adding that if you have a straight line in your tire pattern you can even eyeball it. They're tweaked in their mountings, but the metal is probably not bent. If you want to be sure, you can do a thing with a piece of string wrapped around the rear tire used to align the front. But anyway, if you can feel it while riding and you have a good pattern to eyeball with, you will see it easy. So loosening the clamps, gripping the tire with your knees, bending it with the handlebars and back-forth eyeballing it a few times, you will easily get it within straight tracking tolerances. The pattern/symmetry recognition our brains have inherited from our ape ancestors is a surprisinly accurate tool to work with! But if you have a zigzag pattern or the knobbies somehow don't quite line up, go with the string.
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Dec 5, 2014 01:41
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Sarrisan posted:I noticed that I have to point the bars slightly to the right to go straight. Does this mean the forks are bent? A little wordy, but it's a decent walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSunBRB6-r8
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Dec 5, 2014 15:49
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really dumb question about clutch adjustments. Have a GS500, and the clutch "catch point" was really really high up. [far away from the handlebar] I'm assuming when adjusting the clutch lever, having a tiny bit of play before squeezing it is what you want, because that helps assume that the clutch is fully engaged. I have it currently set so there's maybe 1/2 of a cm of play in the clutch cable, and the "catch point" is much closer to the handlebars than it was. Are my assumptions correct, or am I way off? And yeah, I googled, but I see plenty of missives on how to adjust the clutch, but none to tell me if i'm adjusting it "correctly" or not. EDIT: I KAN SPELL REEL GUD. Also clarified a bit more nitrogen fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Dec 5, 2014 |
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Dec 5, 2014 19:40
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You should have the friction point toward the "out" end of the lever's play. That way you can just pull it in a little and disengage the gear, helps with faster smoother shifts. If the friction point is too close to the grip, you might end up dragging the clutch a little through the gear change. You should have very little, like 1-2mm (check your manual), play when it's out. Your manual will tell you the right way to adjust it. On my bike there's a cable adjuster and a clutch ramp that also needs to be adjusted.
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Dec 5, 2014 19:53
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Manual just tells me the mechanics. I honestly think the way it was, it was not fully engaging, it was "out" so much. It *FEELS* better this way, but I will readjust it a bit to minimize the play. (I think the amount of looseness that I have is within what you describe but will check.) Right now, the "catch" point is maybe halfway between the fully "out" and fully "in" points of the lever, maybe a tad closer to the handlebar than away from it. Is it worth it getting aftermarket adjustable levers to help with this? I Feel like I shift far smoother with the clutch lever adjusted like I have it. I mostly want to make sure my assumptions are correct about having the clutch engaged. When driving a car, I always fully pressed teh clutch to the floor, so in my mind, I want to pull the clutch lever all the way back to do anything, shift, idle, etc. are my assumptions wrong?
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Dec 5, 2014 20:11
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nitrogen posted:really dumb question about clutch adjustments. Just set it to what feels right for you, and leave it there. I'm sure someone will come by and tell you all about the finer points of having precisely 7/64th's of an inch of play in the lever, but if you like where it's at then it's fine. There is no "correct" way other than to not have it at either extreme.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:06
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nitrogen posted:Manual just tells me the mechanics. I honestly think the way it was, it was not fully engaging, it was "out" so much. It *FEELS* better this way, but I will readjust it a bit to minimize the play. (I think the amount of looseness that I have is within what you describe but will check.) Not wrong at all but I like my clutch zone almost all the way out on the end. That way it feels like I'm clutched in soon and the rest of the travel is extra. That and I think of my clutch like an on/off switch, it's not and I know that but I've never had a problem with modulation even in the most narrow zone and out at the end of lever travel feels like it gives me a more narrow zone. And after typing this it looks very confusing but it's not.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:20
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There is, in fact, a correct way. Yes you should get an adjustable lever if you can. You need to set the clutch so it disengages where you feel right, but with enough play that it's fully released when you let go. Then you set your adjustable lever so that if you stretch your fingers out straight from the bar, only your first knuckles stick out past the lever. This means that you're using your fingers to pull the lever instead of gripping it shut with your hand. It's less fatiguing and makes you smoother and looser on the bars. Ditto with your brake. Think about how often you use the clutch to change gears. Then think about how often you use it at traffic lights when stopped. The times when you change gear should be your priority. Set the clutch so you can change gears by just pulling in your fingertips a couple of centimeters. Yes this will make it more of a pain at lights because you have to readjust your grip to pull the lever all the way in, but who cares? You're stopped, it makes no difference anyway.
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Dec 5, 2014 21:33
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Good point. I need to get new levers anyway so I will get adjustable ones. Thanks for the input. So are you saying, that to shift properly, I do NOT need to pull the clutch all the way in (like you usually should in a car?) You just have to pull the clutch in "enough" to be able to change gears, adn that's not going to wreck anything? If that's the case, I think i'll do it your way.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:22
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I'm hopped up on painkillers from 'nam right now so I apologise if this isn't as articulate as it could be. You can shift without using the clutch at all, you just need to momentarily take the load off the gearbox by cutting engine power slightly. This creates 'lash' in the gearbox where, for a split second, the gear train has no pressure being applied from either the engine or the wheel and is essentially free-wheeling. This lets the dog gear currently engaged to release smoothly and slip into the next gear/allow the next dog gear to slip into the next gear. Quickshifters work on this principle by interrupting engine spark momentarily when a switch detects pressure on the gear linkage. Generally when you're changing gear you only need to pull the clutch in enough to smooth out the transition and correct for any error/sloppyness in your cutting of the throttle, as well as making re-engagement much smoother and less lurchy when you jump back on the gas. You can, theoretically, shift any bike, up or down, without using the clutch, and the gearbox can't tell the difference. In practice, it can be very difficult to do this smoothly and consistently on some bikes due to other design aspects like engine configuration, fuelling, gear ratios, weight, gear linkage design et al. The clutch is like a cheat button that lets you sidestep all this difficult annoying stuff and concentrate on other difficult annoying stuff like not riding into mailboxes. tl;dr yes, you only need to pull the clutch enough to smooth things out, it's the letting off the throttle that actually lets you change gears. If you decided to hold the throttle open and attempt to change gears, then you would need to pull the clutch in all the way because there would be unrelenting pressure/lash on the geartrain making normal disengagement impossible. Coming full circle, this is exactly the situation the gearbox experiences when the bike is standing still and you want to launch from a light. There can't be a momentary interruption of power flow, allowing the dog gears to move, because one end of the gearbox is unable to rotate at all - the gearing connected to the wheel via the output shaft and chain/shaft/belt. The input shaft and gears, on the other hand, are constantly spinning at engine RPM. Attempting to put the bike into gear without using the clutch just stalls the engine because it is unable to produce enough torque at idle to spin the wheel/move the bike instantaneously. At this point you need to pull the clutch in all the way so that the engine is completely isolated from the transmission, the input shaft and it's gears are essentially 'motionless' because they have no torque being applied to them and are just freewheeling from residual momentum. This lets the dogs slam into place with that satisfying thunk of selecting first gear from neutral. Then the clutch lets you apply a smoothly increasing amount of torque through the gearbox so you can gradually start moving the bike. You can theoretically start the bike (or car!) from a stop in any gear if you ride the clutch enough and use enough throttle. Not recommended. tl;dr starting from a stop by easing out the clutch is like pushing a heavy fridge; you push steadily and apply more force. Starting from a stop without the clutch is like running full-tilt at the fridge and hoping that colliding your body with it will make it start moving. Cars use a slightly different principle for the gearbox which makes the above techniques much more harmful and difficult; on the other hand, cars let you select any gear from neutral/any other gear with no rpm/speed matching required. A bike gearbox is functionally identical to a dogbox in a race car.
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Dec 5, 2014 22:48
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I only read a minimal amount of random words written by the kiwi, so I might be rehashing things. I can guarantee I will use less words though. A clutch has 3 zones: open, friction, closed. The friction part is where you slip the clutch to ride from a stand still for example. This zone is real tiny, way less then the total throw of the lever. Adjusting the lever means putting this friction zone closer tot the tip of you finger, without it slipping, until optimum comfort has been reached.
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Dec 5, 2014 23:12
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kenny powerzzz posted:Loosen up the forks in the triples and then retighten them. Ola posted:This, but adding that ... epalm posted:A little wordy, but it's a decent walkthrough: Thanks, guys, this was it. I was panicking a bit that a new set of forks was in my future, and I really don't need that expense.
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Dec 6, 2014 00:27
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Sarrisan posted:Thanks, guys This goes for me too. I noticed that I could shift without moving the clutch sometimes, but I wondered if that was bad for the transmission or something. Now, I just won't worry about it. Thank you very much for the explanation, now I can understand things a whole lot better
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Dec 6, 2014 01:26
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I like to put upward pressure on the shifter (preloading) and then when you let off the gas it will shift right in. This works well for clutched and clutch less shifts. It's not something I do all the time and some bikes are more receptive than others but sometimes it's fun to leave a stand still and run through the gears as fast as you can without clutching in after first gear. The drz400 takes it like a champ and rarely hits a false neutral. My ktm990, you have to pull up very firmly everytime or it will not go fully into gear.
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Dec 6, 2014 02:58
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nitrogen posted:This goes for me too. It's bad for the transmission if you do it badly (well strictly it's bad for the selector forks, unless you're *really* bad at it), but it only takes a few minutes to learn to do it smoothly, and after a while it just becomes second nature. Once you've got it down smooth it won't hurt the gearbox at all.
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Dec 7, 2014 17:31
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OK, another stupid question. When I ride and its cold out, my glasses will fog up. If I don't wear them, no problem at all. (Don't need the glasses to see, I passed the eye test 6 months ago without the glasses but they do help.) Does anyone make like a prescription visor for a full face helmet, or some kind of good special glasses for this purpose that don't fog up? Or any tips or anything for dealing with this? Antifog spray I got from Walmart only made it worse so I figured I would ask.
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Dec 8, 2014 04:41
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I use these UVEX wipes http://www.amazon.com/Uvex-S477-Fog-Eliminator-Cloths/dp/B003M0BY8C . The wipes are reusable and they last about 2-3 weeks if you keep them wrapped up in their little packet. The downside is that they seem to only come in boxes of 100, and I don't remember paying that much when I bought mine.
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Dec 8, 2014 05:10
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nitrogen posted:OK, another stupid question. Open up your visor a bit.
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Dec 8, 2014 07:49
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KARMA! posted:Open up your visor a bit. Breathe out through your nose.
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Dec 8, 2014 08:09
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Get contacts. It's such a quality of life improvement, especially for riding.
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Dec 8, 2014 08:23
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Collateral Damage posted:Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts. Get contacts.
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Dec 8, 2014 08:24
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All these suggestions work but seriously get contacts.
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Dec 8, 2014 09:05
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I'm gonna go against the grain and say just ditch the glasses.
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Dec 8, 2014 09:08
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KARMA! posted:Open up your visor a bit. That helps, but not too much. Same for breathing through my nose, or mouth. I wish i could breathe through my ears. And to be specific, my visor doesnt fog up, only my glasses do. Collateral Damage posted:Get contacts. It's such a quality of life improvement, especially for riding. I guess I'll have to get over my fear of shoving stuff into my eyes then. I'm due for an eye appt soon so I'll look into that.
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Dec 8, 2014 14:22
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nitrogen posted:I guess I'll have to get over my fear of shoving stuff into my eyes then. I'm due for an eye appt soon so I'll look into that. You'll get over it in like a week, max. So much better than having frames hovering in your peripheral vision. Or get Lasik
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Dec 8, 2014 14:24
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Yeah, the first time I rode with my contacts in it was a bit of a revelation, the unimpeded vision (due to frames and the size of lenses) was definitely an improvement.
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Dec 8, 2014 15:05
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Also there's the risk of your glasses shattering in a crash, unless they're specifically break/shatterproof or whatever.
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Dec 8, 2014 15:13
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nitrogen posted:I guess I'll have to get over my fear of shoving stuff into my eyes then. I'm due for an eye appt soon so I'll look into that. If you don't like shoving stuff in your eyes, you should try LASIK, where they cut your corneas open while you're awake, it was great fun! 
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Dec 8, 2014 15:56
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| # ? May 16, 2024 08:07 |
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M42 posted:Also there's the risk of your glasses shattering in a crash, unless they're specifically break/shatterproof or whatever. Almost all glasses lenses sold these days are polycarbonate. If you're worried about that being near your eyes you'd better get yourself an open-face lid right soon. The exception, if you're interested, is cheaper photosensitive lenses (the old, off-patent process can only adhere to silica glass, the newer process works fine on polycarbonate). Also any impact likely to shatter glasses inside a crash helmet is likely to turn your brains into rice pudding so the state of your eyes is going to be the least of your concerns.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:38
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