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Strife posted:Nothing gets the blood moving like seeing a bale of insulation in the middle of the highway when you’re going 70. Well good thing you didn’t fuckin die, that would have been embarrassing.
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May 25, 2020 00:18
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Busy day on Hwy 9. Rode with a buddy on his slightly modified Zero
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May 25, 2020 03:07
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Aw man, that's exactly the bike I've been dreaming about for a while now. Same paint, exhaust, electrical problems, everything. I want one so bad. I'd never ride it cause I don't like sport bike ergos and total lack of luggage. I still want it though. Congrats on having one. So the other day at the shop one of our guys was changing tires on some big rear end Kawasaki touring thing with a shaft drive. Very modern thing. I'm embarrassed that I didn't catch what it was exactly but all I know is there's nothing similar on Kawasaki's website now. Customer brought in his own tires. Was a pain in the rear end changing them. They were stiff as gently caress, it took two of us and all the related tools to get the top bead down in the drop zone to get the tire on the rim. Then on a test ride after it didn't feel too hot apparently. Bouncy or something. Looking closer at the tires we noticed: the cross section profile of the tread was not totally round, It was scalloped (is that the right word? can't think of another) outwards at the edge of the tread as if the tire had been mounted on a rim too wide for it; the width of the tire was not really as wide as you'd expect on the rim, it barely stuck out wider than the rim even though the size matched the old tire; there was no brand name at all on the tire. Guy said he got them from a friend who said they were Dunlops. He obviously lied or was lied to. We'd never seen or heard of this before. No-name tires, made in China. And clearly made wrong. Is this becoming a thing now?
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May 25, 2020 14:47
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Aw man, that's exactly the bike I've been dreaming about for a while now. Same paint, exhaust, electrical problems, everything. I want one so bad. I'd never ride it cause I don't like sport bike ergos and total lack of luggage. I still want it though. Congrats on having one. I've never heard of a place putting no name tires on rims unless they are some hole in the back shop.
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May 25, 2020 14:57
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somebody who posts here gave me a ninja 250 in (mostly) perfect condition two years ago and I started my motorcycling journey but the combination of boston winter+having to work 80 hour weeks last year meant I didn't ride even a little last year. now with covid and having a good job I can afford this stupid hobby, so i'm going to rebuild this poor sucker. I've been a professional cyclist/bike mech for 5+ years but obviously this isn't bicycles so its going to be a fun learning journey to the ninja's credit when PO came over last year and tried to start it with barely any gas (and me being lovely, having left the battery all winter) and it loving turned over. that was a year ago but let's see. im no mewse but i can do my best!
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May 25, 2020 17:22
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SEKCobra posted:I've never heard of a place putting no name tires on rims unless they are some hole in the back shop.
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May 25, 2020 17:52
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   poor girl was doing her best
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May 25, 2020 18:17
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Casual Encountess posted:
Nice bike! The rotors look pretty rusted unfortunately. Lower plastics should be cheap on ebay
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May 25, 2020 18:37
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i actually have the lower plastic but it a)needs a screw and b) seems pretty cute without. assuming i get the fucker to fire up im guessing step one is replacing the braking system?
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May 25, 2020 18:57
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It should fire up just fine with no brakes. It's hard to tell how much of that rust is surface rust (which will wear off after 20 miles of riding) and how much is the flaky pitted stuff (which won't) but it certainly wouldn't hurt to get new rotors. If you replace the rotors you also want to replace the pads because they wear together as a unit. First thing I'd do is check the date code on those tires, though. Then things to look at in general order of importance: tires brakes (fluid, pads, rotors) engine oil battery chain sprockets spark plugs cables fueling stuff Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 19:10 on May 25, 2020 |
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May 25, 2020 19:07
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Neither have I. Sounds like disreputable practice. Are you meaning this as criticism of us for doing this? I dunno if you read what I posted, but this customer brought his own tires for us to mount. If I'd noticed the lack of brand name on them before the job I would have raised some questions with him about this because it seems like a bad idea. But I wasn't the one grabbing the parts when they came in and also I'd never heard that there was such a thing on earth as no-name tires so I never imagined this was a thing to look out for. This is a bizarre story, my first assumption would be incorrect tyre sizing. But I have seen some smaller cheaper bikes (some hyosungs, various Chinese bikes) come with random tyres that, if you cut them in cross section, would look roughly bathtub shaped. As in, flat in the center, convex on the shoulders, then concave near the edge where it meets the sidewall. I rode two identical Hyosung x4's, one with these and one with normal pirellis and yeah they're scary, don't feel at all normal and make the bike really unpredictable. Like, not just 'go slower than you would on pirellis' scary but full on 'can't do the speed limit all the time on a 250' scary.
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May 25, 2020 20:01
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Sagebrush posted:It should fire up just fine with no brakes. Yeh the rotors might be fine after a de-rust bath. At the shop they check them for thickness to determine whether they need replacing. I think it's around 5mm is acceptable? Don't know the number off-hand. Remember the 5 c's of getting a bike running again: Carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs
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May 25, 2020 21:02
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mewse posted:Remember the 5 c's of getting a bike running again: Carbs carbs carbs carbs carbs There is a corollary to this, though: if the engine runs at all, don't gently caress with the carbs. Don't try to tune them, don't try to clean them, don't touch them at all. Fix everything else first (tires, brakes, and chain, then battery, airbox, exhaust) and once everything else on the bike is in good shape you can consider loving with the fueling.
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May 25, 2020 21:04
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EX250 are immortal, so it shouldn't be a problem getting that running. I'd still clean the carbs after all that, and check the tank for rust. Parts are cheap and plentiful for that model, too.
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May 25, 2020 21:46
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mewse posted:Yeh the rotors might be fine after a de-rust bath. At the shop they check them for thickness to determine whether they need replacing. I think it's around 5mm is acceptable? Don't know the number off-hand. All factory discs have minimum thickness specs on them, the ones on that Ninja look ok to me as there's no lip and the rust looks like it's formed on a very even surface.
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May 25, 2020 23:20
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Slavvy posted:This is a bizarre story, my first assumption would be incorrect tyre sizing. quote:But I have seen some smaller cheaper bikes (some hyosungs, various Chinese bikes) come with random tyres that, if you cut them in cross section, would look roughly bathtub shaped. As in, flat in the center, convex on the shoulders, then concave near the edge where it meets the sidewall. I rode two identical Hyosung x4's, one with these and one with normal pirellis and yeah they're scary, don't feel at all normal and make the bike really unpredictable. Like, not just 'go slower than you would on pirellis' scary but full on 'can't do the speed limit all the time on a 250' scary.
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May 26, 2020 02:33
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Slavvy posted:All factory discs have minimum thickness specs on them, the ones on that Ninja look ok to me as there's no lip and the rust looks like it's formed on a very even surface. What I've found is that you're unlikely to find a rotor under the minimum thickness. Either the rotor gets warped or the bike gets crashed before this happens. The exception is when someone runs the pads down to nothing, or the pad material falls off the backing on one side and they run it like that (I've seen both).
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May 26, 2020 14:25
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I managed to get a rock or something stuck between my pad and my rear rotor and it left a nice but small groove in the rear rotor. I'm not sure if that would pass inspection at a track, but I can still lock the rear up easily when practicing braking so I haven't really worried about it. I actually realized recently I use too much rear brake when panic braking, I know some people will cut the pad down to lower the surface area available for braking, but I should just work on not hitting it as hard.
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May 26, 2020 15:59
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MomJeans420 posted:I managed to get a rock or something stuck between my pad and my rear rotor and it left a nice but small groove in the rear rotor. I'm not sure if that would pass inspection at a track, but I can still lock the rear up easily when practicing braking so I haven't really worried about it. I actually realized recently I use too much rear brake when panic braking, I know some people will cut the pad down to lower the surface area available for braking, but I should just work on not hitting it as hard. My instructor said if you hit both at once it's easy to overdo the rear, so his tip was to do the front first, then feed in the rear. I had pretty groovy old rotors, and I think that caused some very poor braking in the wet, even if they were quite good in the dry. My intuition of it is that the groove holds some water which then lubricates the surface and takes some time to boil off. You might think that the pad would wear a negative groove to fit and you'd get bigger surface area, but alas the pad probably moves around enough so it doesn't hit the needle in the same groove on the record like a pro turntablist. At times it was really bad and I had to be mindful of keeping the brakes at high temp or else I'd have 2 seconds of dead lever when I needed it the most. New pads and rotors was a different world in wet braking, immediate response and no dead lever. But that was with all rotors bad, fronts worst. So for just one groove on the rear, keep riding.
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May 26, 2020 18:11
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Gorson posted:What I've found is that you're unlikely to find a rotor under the minimum thickness. Either the rotor gets warped or the bike gets crashed before this happens. The exception is when someone runs the pads down to nothing, or the pad material falls off the backing on one side and they run it like that (I've seen both). I've seen it a few times but it's always been daily ridden bikes with high mileage.
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May 26, 2020 20:09
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Passed my exam yesterday, went very well despite the fact that I ended up finishing in the rain. Immediately went out to try a few bikes, can report that 250cc bikes are not as horrible as everyone pretends they are. Also tried the bike I've had an eye on for a long time, the Honda CB500X and it felt extremely great right from the start. I just want to compare it to the Benelli TRK502 as that one is quite a bit cheaper right now and seems to be about on par for features. A local vespa dealer is apparently Benelli dealer as well and has it in stock, they said I can come and sit on it and stuff and if it feels good they'll put it on the road for me.
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May 27, 2020 13:23
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Do people actually say 250s are bad? Literally the only issue I had with my 250 was that it didn't have a 6th gear for highway and I very much disliked cruising at high RPM which I could have remedied by going with a different brand as I think the CBR250s do have a 6th -- just something I hadn't considered at the time. Everything else about it was magnificent for getting me started. If I didn't get an amazing deal on my new-old-stock '18 650 I would probably have stayed with it for a while longer. My much-maligned decision  I'm still hanging onto it. It's perfect for parking lot practice right now, if only I could get it insured and registered. Costs almost nothing to insure here, comparatively -- $50/month, and is a great little training bike for when I think I'll be doing things that might push my comfort level and possibly make my bigger, shinier bike go boom. some kinda jackal fucked around with this message at 13:40 on May 27, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 13:36
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SEKCobra posted:Passed my exam yesterday, went very well despite the fact that I ended up finishing in the rain. Immediately went out to try a few bikes, can report that 250cc bikes are not as horrible as everyone pretends they are. Also tried the bike I've had an eye on for a long time, the Honda CB500X and it felt extremely great right from the start. I just want to compare it to the Benelli TRK502 as that one is quite a bit cheaper right now and seems to be about on par for features. A local vespa dealer is apparently Benelli dealer as well and has it in stock, they said I can come and sit on it and stuff and if it feels good they'll put it on the road for me. Congrats! Martytoof posted:Do people actually say 250s are bad? Not here but...
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May 27, 2020 14:08
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UK Goons (and those that don't mind international shipping for a pretty cool t-shirt) - WeMoto's charity t-shirt this year is to support NHS charities*, and it's a bargain at £10: https://www.wemoto.com/parts/search?q=nhs&partsfilter=pattern  * Yes, yes, I know we shouldn't be donating to charity to support the NHS and paper over the cracks of what's supposed to be a universal system funded by government, but for right now this will have to do.
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May 27, 2020 14:40
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SEKCobra posted:Passed my exam yesterday, went very well despite the fact that I ended up finishing in the rain. Immediately went out to try a few bikes, can report that 250cc bikes are not as horrible as everyone pretends they are. Also tried the bike I've had an eye on for a long time, the Honda CB500X and it felt extremely great right from the start. I just want to compare it to the Benelli TRK502 as that one is quite a bit cheaper right now and seems to be about on par for features. A local vespa dealer is apparently Benelli dealer as well and has it in stock, they said I can come and sit on it and stuff and if it feels good they'll put it on the road for me. Probably the only time 250s are a bit rough is getting onto the highway, and I didn't even ride on the highway for the first like 18 months I had my license. And yeah, that's gonna vary by bike. I'd be willing to bet most people throwing shade at 250s are riding bikes they're not fully utilizing and would probably be fine on a 250. I have a big 'ol bagger and I'm looking into getting something small like a 250 just to cruise around town it'd probably be faster than my Harley anyway.
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May 27, 2020 14:54
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Martytoof posted:Do people actually say 250s are bad? Literally the only issue I had with my 250 was that it didn't have a 6th gear for highway and I very much disliked cruising at high RPM which I could have remedied by going with a different brand as I think the CBR250s do have a 6th -- just something I hadn't considered at the time. Everything else about it was magnificent for getting me started. If I didn't get an amazing deal on my new-old-stock '18 650 I would probably have stayed with it for a while longer. My much-maligned decision Both the 250 and the 300 I rode had sixth gear, couldn't go on the highway though, unfortunately.
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May 27, 2020 14:56
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I've ridden a couple hours each way on the Grom on the highway a few times. If 125cc can manage it, then a 250cc definitely can. Now, whether or not it's fun depends on the bike. My wr250x was miserable on the highway long distances, but the EX250 was a touring dream. Did an 800+ mile day on mine and it wasn't a big deal.
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May 27, 2020 15:14
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I spent a year and 10,000 miles on a CBR250R and here is the exhaustive list of what was bad about it:
Ulf fucked around with this message at 15:45 on May 27, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 15:39
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The cbr250r is by far the prettiest of that era 250s. It was well ahead of the market in tech too, with EFI and abs. But I'll never understand why they put such an underpowered wheezy single in there.
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May 27, 2020 16:42
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Likewise I think probably my favourite bike was my carbed 1999 CBR600F. Way less power than a current 600 but so easy to ride and super comfortable. Also pretty quick by any reasonable standard.
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May 27, 2020 17:26
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SEKCobra posted:Passed my exam yesterday, went very well despite the fact that I ended up finishing in the rain. Immediately went out to try a few bikes, can report that 250cc bikes are not as horrible as everyone pretends they are. Also tried the bike I've had an eye on for a long time, the Honda CB500X and it felt extremely great right from the start. I just want to compare it to the Benelli TRK502 as that one is quite a bit cheaper right now and seems to be about on par for features. A local vespa dealer is apparently Benelli dealer as well and has it in stock, they said I can come and sit on it and stuff and if it feels good they'll put it on the road for me. Modern Benellis (I don't know about historical ones) are massive turds and any advantages it may have over the Honda will be irrelevant after six months when everything falls off and catches on fire at the same time, just get the Honda.
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May 27, 2020 20:54
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I cant believe i didn't run into/think of this before. if you're changing tires on a bike and are going to balance it and have new tires with heaviest/lightest spot markings. do a quick check of what's actually the heaviest spot with only the rim with no old weights on the balance stand. on both my front and rear tubeless rim for my fz6n the heaviest spot was not at the valve, it was some random place. Only needed 10 grams on the front, 20 grams on the back to true it with the rubber on.
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May 27, 2020 21:09
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Slavvy posted:Modern Benellis (I don't know about historical ones) are massive turds and any advantages it may have over the Honda will be irrelevant after six months when everything falls off and catches on fire at the same time, just get the Honda. Historical ones were too but for conventional Italian reasons (meaning they were at least *polished* turds) rather than the current ones which are sweepings from Chinese factory floors that a designer who had once ate some pasta has slapped a sticker on.
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May 27, 2020 22:38
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Historical ones were too but for conventional Italian reasons (meaning they were at least *polished* turds) rather than the current ones which are sweepings from Chinese factory floors that a designer who had once ate some pasta has slapped a sticker on. Benelli Tre: genuine Italian bike, permanently broken due to lack of parts, excessive styling enthusiasm and Italian engineers. Benelli everything else: genuine zongshen with a misaligned Benelli decal, permanently broken due to lack of parts, lack of QC and Chinese accountants.
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May 27, 2020 23:23
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knox_harrington posted:Likewise I think probably my favourite bike was my carbed 1999 CBR600F. Way less power than a current 600 but so easy to ride and super comfortable. Also pretty quick by any reasonable standard. I will always regret selling my lovely fireblade. It always ran. It was great. I should have put VFR wheels on it and kept it forever.
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May 28, 2020 03:21
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Slavvy posted:Benelli Tre: genuine Italian bike, permanently broken due to lack of parts, excessive styling enthusiasm and Italian engineers. If there's one advantage to the former is that there'll always be some bloke with a shed full of bits for it and a shitload of good advice if you can put up with his complaints about Guzzi being wimps for caving in and running a reverser on their shaft drives.
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May 28, 2020 08:03
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goddamnedtwisto posted:If there's one advantage to the former is that there'll always be some bloke with a shed full of bits for it and a shitload of good advice if you can put up with his complaints about Guzzi being wimps for caving in and running a reverser on their shaft drives. This is a uk thing. Like I know what you're saying, every place has ultra-specialist greybeards in tiny sheds, but the UK is the absolute imperial capital of men in tiny sheds doing obscure poo poo, no other place even comes close. You guys have model specific car/bike magazines and they're all filled with ads for adaptors and converters and strengthened bits for whatever and it's all made by hand on an 80 year old lathe somewhere in shropshire. I remember reading a story about HRC going to a man's shed in the early 90's because he was able to make the rc30 go faster than they could, not believing that they'd been humbled by a greybeard in blue overalls and constantly asking him where his factory and employees were. loving HRC bows to the man in a shed, and I would argue motorbikes are one of, if not the, most man-in-a-shed driven pursuits in the world.
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May 28, 2020 08:11
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Slavvy posted:This is a uk thing. Like I know what you're saying, every place has ultra-specialist greybeards in tiny sheds, but the UK is the absolute imperial capital of men in tiny sheds doing obscure poo poo, no other place even comes close. You guys have model specific car/bike magazines and they're all filled with ads for adaptors and converters and strengthened bits for whatever and it's all made by hand on an 80 year old lathe somewhere in shropshire. It's true that the UK started to lose it's technical lead after WW2, when shed-compatible terraces started to be replaced with blocks of flats. If the Parker-Morris housing standards had required a shed, there'd be a Union Flag on Mars by now.
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May 28, 2020 08:23
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Me and my partner just bought a house, and you would not believe how deaf estate agents are when you say a garage is mandatory
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May 28, 2020 09:04
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Slavvy posted:This is a uk thing. Like I know what you're saying, every place has ultra-specialist greybeards in tiny sheds, but the UK is the absolute imperial capital of men in tiny sheds doing obscure poo poo, no other place even comes close. You guys have model specific car/bike magazines and they're all filled with ads for adaptors and converters and strengthened bits for whatever and it's all made by hand on an 80 year old lathe somewhere in shropshire. And it is awesome. Shame they've got no sense of aesthetic at all, but eh, you can't have everything. Shelvocke posted:Me and my partner just bought a house, and you would not believe how deaf estate agents are when you say a garage is mandatory I can believe it, based on the fact that every property search website has some kind of checkbox or feature search where you can specify "must have garage" and that using it still returns houses that definitely do not have garages. If I had to guess at a reason I'd say it's because people not inclined to wrench think "garage" just means "off-street parking", because what else would you use a garage for? So even though you asked for a garage, surely this terrace with a patch of concrete in front of it is also acceptable?
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May 28, 2020 10:10
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