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BrownieVK posted:Lol I my Moto Guzzi is still broke. Just thought you guys would like to lol along with me. Is it the thing (s) that was broken when it came out of the box, or is it other things?
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Dec 20, 2021 02:21
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BrownieVK posted:Lol I my Moto Guzzi is still broke. Just thought you guys would like to lol along with me. As a former Guzzi owner I did indeed lol at this post
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Dec 20, 2021 02:31
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Slavvy posted:Is it the thing (s) that was broken when it came out of the box, or is it other things? Lol not sure. I only have about 800 miles on it and the ABS and Traction control system lights are still on. This is despite two battery replacements and following every piece of advice from the wizards on the guzzi tech forums those lights still shine on mocking me. I've got two dealership options, one is 4 hours away but has been a Guzzi dealer forever and is highly recommended, the other is two hours away and is a euro bike place that recently became Guzzi certified. I need to pick one and drop it off I guess. My Indian Scout gets abused anytime I get a chance to ride, multiple red line stop light launches, crashing in grass racing a 8 year olds go kart... Etc the normal stuff and it's been rock solid for 8000 miles.
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Dec 20, 2021 13:47
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Slavvy posted:That brake fluid is currently 50% water by weight, you should probably change it. Question about oil drain plug crush washers: On my car I replace one every oil change, but neither the Suzuki RV200 service manual nor parts diagrams I've found show an independent part for this. The bolt I see in one video looks like it has a crush washer, but it might be a part of the bolt and the guy ignores it. Is this something people don't routinely need to change unless replacing the bolt, or is it something so commonplace that they just don't mention it or specify a part for the vanvan? Remy Marathe fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Dec 27, 2021 |
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Dec 27, 2021 22:11
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You're 'supposed' to do them every oil change but I don't know anyone that psychotic, I usually replace them when they're hosed. A simple metric copper washer will do, Suzuki use a specific part that's like a spark plug washer and it's designed to squash down mechanically but you certainly don't need this and if you already have one, you can reuse it no problem. You definitely need something there though as the steel plug won't seal against the alloy case.
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Dec 27, 2021 23:51
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I'd be fine with unnecessarily replacing a $0.10 washer once a year like on the car, but the SM for this bike doesn't even mention it so I think they're in full agreement with you. Does time/multiple crushings eventually gently caress them up? I'll just measure it next change so I can keep a spare on hand.
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Dec 28, 2021 00:31
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What happens is that you buy a $10 bag of washers, the minimum size, and open it to dutifully replace your washer on oil change, as per. Then, obviously, when the next oil change is due, the remaining $9.50 worth of washers are scattered to the four winds and when you say "gently caress it" and reuse the old washer, you notice that the ones you bought aren't as good as the OEM one you threw away. It starts looking sketchy on year three, so time for another $10 rinse-repeat.
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Dec 28, 2021 00:38
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Can't you like heat up the copper washers and quench them in water to make them soft again? I've never tried it but i've seen Millyard do it for copper gaskets
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Dec 28, 2021 04:33
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You totally can, if you care enough to do that for a 35 cent washer that will probably work fine for at least half a dozen oil changes regardless. It seems like something you'd see done at one of those Pakistani roadside repair shacks: technically the absolute most efficient way to use the material, if you want to get every last microsecond of life out of the the thing, but a completely insane proposition if you make more than a dollar a day. If you've already got the torch setup, sure, go for it. It's your time. I would try it Sagebrush fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Dec 28, 2021 |
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Dec 28, 2021 06:28
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CheddarGoblin posted:Can't you like heat up the copper washers and quench them in water to make them soft again? I've never tried it but i've seen Millyard do it for copper gaskets This would be a breathtaking level of psychosis even by the standards of middle aged motorcycle hobbyists.
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Dec 28, 2021 06:30
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(Also you don't have to quench copper when you anneal it. It goes just as soft if you let it cool down slowly after heating it.)
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Dec 28, 2021 08:23
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I know a lot of mechanics that do that with copper washers.
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Dec 28, 2021 09:14
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I’ve done it but only because I need the washer right now and I can’t be hosed waiting for Jeff bezos to send me a new one.
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Dec 28, 2021 18:58
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I always change the washer because I just buy a bunch of washers and filters at the same time and store them together. If the filter comes in a box you can put the washer in there and it's even easier.
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Dec 28, 2021 20:38
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Potentially a dumb question, but a little kid asked me so: Have you named your bike? What name did you give it and why?
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Dec 31, 2021 03:30
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I have not, no. If I did, I would give them animal names like Rex or Lucky or Blue. I do sometimes act like the bikes are living beings, but they are definitely like horses or dogs, not people. Don't give your bike a lady's name. That's weird.
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Dec 31, 2021 03:39
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Only when I'm having trouble with it. Start you piece of poo poo!
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Dec 31, 2021 03:42
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I jokingly called my Magna Thomas a few times last year when I first got it because my wife and I had been watching Magnum PI.  I just thought it was funny.
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Dec 31, 2021 04:54
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T Zero posted:Potentially a dumb question, but a little kid asked me so: Have you named your bike? What name did you give it and why? My mb100 is called donkey cause it looks and rides like one and my cb125 is pony cause it's a high performance thoroughbred by comparison. My bandit is called 'you piece of poo poo'
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Dec 31, 2021 06:06
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I was temped to call my Japanese bike a Japanese name but realized there is no non-weeb way to do so. I do like the animal name idea, maybe after a racehorse.
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Dec 31, 2021 08:01
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T Zero posted:I was temped to call my Japanese bike a Japanese name but realized there is no non-weeb way to do so. If youre going to name it after a japanese racehorse this is what will happen to your bike https://udx-carwash.com/%E3%83%90%E3%82%A4%E3%82%AF/41070/
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Dec 31, 2021 08:50
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This is a dumb question to ask the internet but I'm doing it anyways: What tires should I buy for my CBR300R? The current ones are original. They have plenty of meat on them (bike has seen 8000km, 3000 of which was me) but the rear is pretty squared off and they're at least 7 years old so I figure new ones isn't a bad idea. The selection is large, the price difference is insignificant. I read here that bad tires break brains which I don't want to happen. I don't need to optimise for cold wet grip or durability but I don't think I want something super soft and track oriented either. I'm a noob who mostly rides to work on boring streets and likes twisties when I can find them pretty much, and I have yet to scrape my footpegs.
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Dec 31, 2021 10:40
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I asked this question a while back, Slavvy posted the answer (it's bike specific, not useful to you), and the shop should be installing them shortly.
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Dec 31, 2021 11:34
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If I only look at the Germans I usually buy car tires from they are kind enough to enable listing only the tires that are available for both front and rear dimensions, they offer: Avon Roadrider MK II Dunlop Sportsmart TT Heidenau K80 Metzeler Sportec Street and Roadtec 01 Michelin Pilot Street Mitas Sport Force + as well as Sport Force + SOFT Pirelli Sport Demon I can also buy front+rear Bridgestone Battlax Racing Street RS10 or Continental ContiAttack SM EVO from a different place, for example.
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Dec 31, 2021 14:52
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Invalido posted:If I only look at the Germans I usually buy car tires from they are kind enough to enable listing only the tires that are available for both front and rear dimensions, they offer: 110/70 and 150/60? Or something these? Is there a tire type you’re looking for? RS10 and the ContiAttack are way different from the rest of those.
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Dec 31, 2021 18:23
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Toe Rag posted:110/70 and 150/60? Or something these? Is there a tire type you’re looking for? RS10 and the ContiAttack are way different from the rest of those. 110/70 and 140/70 both 17" according to a cursory glance of the internet. Bike and.user manual are both far away right now, but I'll triple check before ordering, natch. RS10 and Contiattack were from different site, likely to use different filters. Ze Germans are likely to gladly sell me anything that's on the market, I just have no idea what to get. Reading user reviews on the vendor sites I've looked at is useless. Car tires is easy to buy cause I've been driving for 25 years and I know what I want and need. Moto tires is a complete mystery to me. Edit: looking at yet another (local) vendor I can also get a set of Pirelli Diablo Rosso III or Michelin road 5, for example. Or Pirelli Diablo Superbike slicks (lol) Invalido fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 18:41
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If you’re not concerned with getting high mileage the Rosso III is a fine choice IMO.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:56
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Toe Rag posted:If you’re not concerned with getting high mileage the Rosso III is a fine choice IMO. I'd imagine on a light bike they'd be like having psychic powers.
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Dec 31, 2021 19:57
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Invalido posted:If I only look at the Germans I usually buy car tires from they are kind enough to enable listing only the tires that are available for both front and rear dimensions, they offer: Ok so those are roughly, in order: Poo Poo Poo Average Average Never heard of them Excellent The Conti attack SM is a great tyre but doesn't work great on small corner speedy bikes like that. The Bridgestones you mentioned and the Rosso 3 mentioned will be good for about 3,000km on the rear, they are absolutely the best performing but probably overkill for what you're doing. My choice for small light bikes with lovely sizes is always the sport demon. Moving to a 120 front is a free and easy upgrade also. Pilot road 5's will last about thirty years on a small bike like that and serve you well, but will also probably transform it into a humvee so they're not my first choice.
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Dec 31, 2021 20:27
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Toe Rag posted:If you’re not concerned with getting high mileage the Rosso III is a fine choice IMO. At this point in my learning journey I'm much more interested in gaining confidence and not having my brain broken than high mileage. Also not getting hurt or dead. If the rear last a season that's plenty good for me right now in the grand scheme of things. If it doesn't then that's okay too if that's the price I'll have to pay to have psychic powers available which sounds great even if they'll outperform my abilities by a large margin. Margins are good. Edit: Slavvy posted:Ok so those are roughly, in order: Awesome, thanks a lot. Please tell me more about the effects of going to a wider front tire if you can be bothered. I value this advice and will take it under consideration. There's no real hurry though, spring is probably a hundred days away although I'd like to get the bike sorted ASAP so I won't have to think about anymore. Oil, brake fluid and tires on the to-do list. Invalido fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Dec 31, 2021 |
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Dec 31, 2021 20:31
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It's not a huge difference, it just makes the contact patch a bit bigger in exchange for very slightly slowing down the steering. At most you'd have to bump the rear preload by a step to sharpen it back up, though if you're coming from factory tyres (IRC? Shinko? Malaysian pilot streets?) just the fact that you're on pirellis will be a much bigger change to the handling than 10mm more front tyre. There is probably little to no 'real' gain to a 120 if you were going by lap times, but the reduction in wobbling and nervousness has a good effect on your confidence and that in itself is worth a lot. It also looks cool.
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Dec 31, 2021 20:46
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What can you get away with on tire sizing before you have to start making other changes? Is it basically always safe to go up or down 10 from OEM? Ratio seems fine but changing the width makes me worry I’d be messing with the tire’s profile unintentionally.
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Dec 31, 2021 21:44
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It's super specific to the bike and tyre and not something to gently caress around with normally. 110 to 120 on the front is super common and a small change, likewise 190 to 195 on the rear where possible. Most bikes stop you doing anything overly stupid by the shape of the guards or swingarm. Changing wheels to get bigger tyres is more commonplace ie a lot of bikes with a 180 section rear can accommodate a 190 rim off of a different bike. Just in general, 95% of the time whatever improvement you're looking for can be solved by one of these three: Skill Bike setup Tyre brand/type If you can't resolve it with those it is almost always better to just get a different bike. If you aren't looking for a specific improvement then don't dick around with this stuff.
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Dec 31, 2021 22:09
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Actually let's double post and do a CA MD Q&A, ok? Tyre size talk has reminded me that the unwashed, fake carbon clad, live to ride masses approach things backwards and I often forget that not everyone realizes this. They get a bike, decide/get told it needs some kind of upgrade, modify it and then dream up reasons it's better afterwards. The right way to do it is to attack a problem that you have with a solution specific to that problem. For clarity here I'm not talking about faults like a blown rectifier, but problems with the intrinsic qualities of the bike. How do we decide what's a problem? Is a Grom being painfully slow a problem that needs solving? A Harley handling like poo poo? Everything on a bike is both relative to, and connected to, everything else. A Grom is plenty fast for a gussied up postie, a sportster handles well for a pig iron cruiser. But despite this, technology does improve and some bikes are objectively better than others. It's all very confusing. What we need is philosophy to help us determine what's good and what isn't. My philosophy is very straightforward. A bike is a tool for a job used by a human. We can judge basically all tools by two qualities: fit for purpose, and ease of use. My thinking is that the best bike in all circumstances is the one that's easiest to use for the rider, because the rider is worth vastly more in terms of overall performance than anything you can bolt on or modify mechanically, so it makes sense to modify the bike in a way that gets the most out of the rider. Fit for purpose is easy: dirt bikes are for dirt, sport bikes are for tracks, cafe racers are for posing etcetera. There is nuance and specificity here, but you've probably already got a bike and 'get a different bike' isn't helpful advice most of the time. Ease of use is the tricky part, but there is some low hanging, generic fruit to harvest before we get to the hard stuff. Adjust your levers to the right span and angle for you. Adjust your foot controls if possible. Make sure your basic posture is good and the bike isn't comically too big/small. Pump up your goddamn tyres, I know you haven't done it in weeks. The difficulty comes in the interaction between skill and bike dynamics. You need a good setup to feel comfortable and get the most out of yourself, but a good setup is defined in large part by what feels good and easy, but what feels good and easy depends on your skill, which is hampered by your setup... The key is to create a positive feedback loop where you improve your skill, which makes it easier to understand what you're trying to do, which makes it easier to understand what you would like the bike to do better to help you, which makes it possible to improve the bike's setup, which in turn makes it possible to improve your skill etc with the end goal being an unobtainable optimum where the bike is the best it can possibly be for what you're doing. You can never actually again this optimum, but striving to reach it is incredibly satisfying. Learning riding technique in conjunction with setup improvements massively boosts your skill and rate of learning and overall understanding and, imo, unless you're a savant it's also the only way to be able to jump on a foreign bike you've never ridden before and immediately understand how to make it work for you. Let's do a forum experiment and see if we can make some people's bikes more optimal, we'll do it how I do it IRL. Firstly: if you don't yet consciously break up the corner into phases (braking, entry, middle, exit) you are still at the tadpole stage and need to do more basic skill stuff before this becomes very helpful. Imo riding is taught 'wrong' in the sense that you're given a bunch of rote poo poo to repeat but no understanding of what's actually going on or what your inputs are actually doing. You need understanding to get beyond a very basic level of riding. Having said all that, the way to improve your understanding is to ask what's most difficult for you. I don't care what the bike does well, I want to know what the bike does badly. Whatever phase of the corner is the worst and least comfortable and most awkward for you, that's what I want to know about because that's what holds you back. Tell me your bike and your issues and I will attempt to address them by recommending changes in technique or setup. The idea is that you fix the worst thing, and then the next worst and so on and before you know it you're changing one click at a time, shaving fractions off your lap time to the pub, and also developing actual mastery through understanding. Note: not all bikes are suited to all riders and approaches, sometimes it's a matter of adapting to what the bike wants and sometimes that adaptation is beyond the threshold of comfort/strain possible for you personally. Tl;Dr: come at me with your handling problems and I'll try to help you crash less
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Dec 31, 2021 22:44
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Slavvy posted:The key is to create a positive feedback loop where you improve your skill It's funny because last week I was riding in cold, wet weather (not raining, but roads wet, some streams running across). Not what I normally ride in and definitely outside my comfort zone. I thought "OK, it's cold and wet, so it's cooling down my tires, so just take it easy. But wait! By taking it easy I'm not getting heat into my tires" and was just a negative feedback loop. I even had to wave a car through, shameful. I thought, this is what Slaavy must mean when he talks about new riders on 600cc and 1000cc sports bikes, tip toeing their way down the road because they can't get the bike to work because they aren't creating big enough inputs for it, etc.
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Dec 31, 2021 23:08
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This is kind of irrelevant now because it's a bike I owned 10-12 years ago, but here's something I'd like to understand about my old Pegaso Strada 650. On the exit of this chicane, there was some kind of off camber hump or something that would make if feel like the rear of bike would almost skip over half a lane to the right. It happened both on the squared off metzeler poo poo tires that came on the bike, and with the new pilot road 2s I put on it. It was pretty disconcerting, to the point that I didn't want to just ham-fistedly cane it out of that corner. When that bike got stolen, I got my multi 1000, which was much more stable out of that corner. The cb1000r I test rode didn't even blink, it just dropped peg and rolled through like the road was the smoothest of race tracks. You wouldn't have even noticed the bump was there. So in the end I replaced the bike instead of fixing the problem, but what was the problem? I never set up the suspension on the Pegaso, I never knew how.
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Dec 31, 2021 23:40
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Toe Rag posted:It's funny because last week I was riding in cold, wet weather (not raining, but roads wet, some streams running across). Not what I normally ride in and definitely outside my comfort zone. I thought "OK, it's cold and wet, so it's cooling down my tires, so just take it easy. But wait! By taking it easy I'm not getting heat into my tires" and was just a negative feedback loop. I even had to wave a car through, shameful. I thought, this is what Slaavy must mean when he talks about new riders on 600cc and 1000cc sports bikes, tip toeing their way down the road because they can't get the bike to work because they aren't creating big enough inputs for it, etc. Yup. This is where using a dynamic approach (concentrating on the bike's pitching) is a really helpful skill set to have. If you only ride the traditional way (brake upright, release, turn, gas), you're essentially trusting the tyre to grip all by itself and hoping you and the road are smooth enough while you cut a long, wide arc with no real control of tyre loading at all. If you're braking into the turn and moving quickly from the brake to the throttle without any coasting between, you're drastically boosting your grip and feel by actively driving the front or rear wheel into the pavement when you need them most, and creating traction and temperature, while also keeping your time and speed at lean to a minimum. Finger Prince posted:This is kind of irrelevant now because it's a bike I owned 10-12 years ago, but here's something I'd like to understand about my old Pegaso Strada 650. My first thought reading this is a clapped out shock/poor clicker setting (if any, never seen a pegaso irl so don't know exactly what it would've had in that area, or how rubbish/not the bike is in general) leading to insufficient rebound damping. Rebound damping controls how quickly the suspension extends after you go over a bump or unload that end of the bike. Rebound on the rear is particularly critical as it controls how much the bike wants to seesaw from any given input or bump. Too much rear rebound and the bike will feel extremely heavy and reluctant to turn (rear doesn't want to unload on braking, which reduces fork dive and frontward weight transfer and the associated steering quickening) but very stable over bumps. Too little rebound and you get what you got: the bike is flighty and wobbly, doesn't immediately recover from bumps and instead tries to bounce and seesaw, which both unloads the rear tire and leads to a constantly-changing steering geometry, which is quite scary to deal with in the middle of a corner. Adjusting (low speed, which is all 90% of shocks have) rear rebound is basically a slider with entry/exit stability at one end, roll rate and ease of turning on the other. In your case I would've turned up the rebound damping, if possible, and repeated the exercise to see if the bike improved, as well as making sure we didn't make the bike worse elsewhere and thus created an overall compromise that's worse than what you had before. Lowering rear preload would be a more indirect way of approaching the problem as it might put the steering geometry or shock stroke in a better place, this would definitely not be my first choice and would definitely create issues elsewhere, but it's what I would try if the shock had no damping clicker. Slavvy fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Jan 1, 2022 |
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Jan 1, 2022 00:28
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Slavvy posted:braking into the turn and moving quickly from the brake to the throttle without any coasting between this poo poo is so much fun on this:  If the rear isn't bottomed out by mid-turn, I'm not going hard enough. tbf the
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Jan 1, 2022 01:10
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Slavvy posted:
The Internet tells me it had "Aprilia Progressive System rising rate linkages and a Sachs hydraulic monoshock with adjustable rebound and preload", so it sounds like I could have maybe fixed it if I had got to that point before it was thiefed. Knowing myself at the time I definitely would have used it as one of several weak excuses to get a new bike instead though. Thanks, I will keep this in mind as I test ride bikes in the new year.
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Jan 1, 2022 02:10
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| # ? May 16, 2024 08:28 |
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Yo I just want to say that I've been lurking this forum for a month now, and you and other longtime posters' responses to myriad questions old and new have been of great help to me as I returned to riding. This forum is the closest I've seen to the non-toxic community that beginnerbikers.org provided me many years ago (it looks mothballed and hosed up these days) in terms of practical advice and appropriately placed idiot-checks, and I appreciate it.
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Jan 1, 2022 02:52
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