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ArcticZombie posted:Anyone got any tyre recommendations for a Kawasaki Z900RS? I’ve squared my current ones off by commuting and long motorway trips across the country to visit family and they’re now absolutely terrifying to ride on. My favourite roundabout on my way home is now arse clenching. It’s got Dunlop GPR300s on it right now, about 7000 miles on them an uhhh, I didn’t really like anything about them. No strong feelings either way, better wet performance would be nice. Pilot road 5's.
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Jan 20, 2022 21:56
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:
Ah has this been done to death before? Should have guessed really, apologies for the repeat.
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Jan 20, 2022 22:31
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Break-in techniques are just one of those things where the technical basis for the concept is complicated, the results are subtle and delayed, and changes to the procedure don't necessarily map directly to tangible outcomes. Such things are a breeding ground for old wives' tales. See also: engine oil, countersteering, vaccination. Yes, breaking in a new engine properly is required to get the intended performance and longevity. There aren't any secret special practices, though. Do what the experts (your manual) recommends and you'll be fine.
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Jan 20, 2022 22:40
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Lungboy posted:Ah has this been done to death before? Should have guessed really, apologies for the repeat. It leads to endless circular pissing matches because doing anything other than what is prescribed in your owners manual comes down to feelings and reading tea leaves and the like and everyone gets mad Just do what your owners manual says, and enjoy your bike
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Jan 21, 2022 02:18
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Slavvy posted:Pilot road 5's.
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Jan 21, 2022 03:58
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:The only good tire. All other tires are fraudulent. It is the second best tyre after the angel gt 2 
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Jan 21, 2022 06:07
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Yeah but which Diablo should I get?
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Jan 21, 2022 06:55
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Speaking of which I finally received my front tire for the crb300r. I'm guessing 110/70-17 really is an oddball dimension after all because I had the rear after two days but the front took 3 weeks so they might have come straight from the factory in Indonesia for all I know. All's well that ends well, plenty of winter left to get them mounted. I'm jonesing pretty hard to the point that I started looking at the possibility of getting a beater winter bike (thinking about a light dual sport like a 250 or something) and put it on appropriate tires, but what I'm pretty sure I would want on such a bike doesn't seem to exist - at least I can't find them. There's a few options for nordic-style snow tires, but if I want that kind of rubber and thread pattern there is nothing I can find that comes with short studs too. Long enduro studs (available and super pricey) would be worthless on asphalt, and while I have studless car winter tires and they're an excellent compromise for where and how I drive I wouldn't want to go without on two wheels. People put studs in existing tires themselves but that's a whole can of worms. For those who live in more sensible locations than I do this is what a studded car tire looks like, trapped pebbles and everything. The soft rubber and the lamellar pattern grips well on anything except slick ice, which is where the studs come into the picture to at least provide some traction, pretty much.  For my pedal e-bike I can choose from 3 different makes for this type of tire so I'm surprised I can't find anything at all roughly equivalent for motorcycles.
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Jan 21, 2022 10:03
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This is just what my tyres look like after six months of commuting in London.
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Jan 21, 2022 10:08
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Look for suppliers that stock Anlas, heidenau and mitas. They have some in stock that are pre strudded. Here is my local shops winter tire range, though some are manually studded in country, not from factory. Pdf is in moon language sadly. I see they have some lamellar patterns. https://mcoslo.no/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/vinterdekk-2021-22.pdf Supradog fucked around with this message at 10:22 on Jan 21, 2022 |
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Jan 21, 2022 10:18
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I can parse Norweigan well enough to get the gist and there's always google. I found retrostudded Mitas in at least some dimensions locally and Heidenau snow tires at my usual getting place, but that site is better than any other I've seen so I've bookmarked it for future use, thanks Still, a blocky tire with either factory or retrofitted studs isn't what I want. I want lamelles and studs. Like I have on my e-bike (chicken strips clearly visible) :  If I get to choose between either a proper lamellar snow tire or a studded blocky tire it's not completely obvious what the best choice is honestly. For a car I'd choose lamelles for my local conditions every time though. Good tires is sort of what the whole idea of a winter beater bike hinges on and the available selection I've found so far is disappointing. I guess maybe it's a tiny potential market not worth pursuing for manufacturers sadly.
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Jan 21, 2022 11:05
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Invalido posted:I can parse Norweigan well enough to get the gist and there's always google. I found retrostudded Mitas in at least some dimensions locally and Heidenau snow tires at my usual getting place, but that site is better than any other I've seen so I've bookmarked it for future use, thanks Trelleborgs used to be studded dirt tires but then they stopped being made (and are the long enduro studs). But why not just get tired and sipe them yourself? Because I am not aware of what you want being a thing.
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Jan 21, 2022 13:08
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builds character posted:. But why not just get tired and sipe them yourself? Because I am not aware of what you want being a thing.
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Jan 21, 2022 14:34
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Invalido posted:Proper snow tires have a special rubber compound that isn't used for anything else afaik. Correct. Well, it's a softer compound that I'm sure is used for other things that likely aren't consumer available. I was surprised when looking for Heidenau K60s for my F800GS that they come in a regular compound, and a M&S (mud and snow) variant. I think you'd have more luck with a Euro manufacturer, as they seem to push their seasons a little more than North America.
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Jan 21, 2022 19:05
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Mitas MC32 looks like the best option I can find. It seems like it's made to accept post-factory studs with interruptions in the sipes and even pilot holes for studs molded in.  Most (all?) vendors sell them as "moped tires" but they're rated for 170km/h  Maybe it's some kind of legal thing, studs generally aren't allowed in the EU outside of the Nordic countries because of road wear/pollution. It's available in all sorts of scooter dimensions and also in 100/80-17 and 130/70-17. Nothing in say 21" though, so if I understand this right something like a drz250 is out and I must look at scooters (NO!) or motardy bikes for those to work. Maybe a loving GROM or something if I can find one lovely enough. They'd probably fit on my little Honda just fine but to my minds it's too nice and I don't want to give it a salt bath lasting for months on end or crash it repeatedly at low speeds. Guess the most sensible option right now at least is to keep jonesing and just deal with it. Maybe next winter I'll lose my mind and do it. With a bit of luck it's only two months left to dry roads and some sunshine.
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Jan 21, 2022 21:04
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Invalido posted:Mitas MC32 looks like the best option I can find. It seems like it's made to accept post-factory studs with interruptions in the sipes and even pilot holes for studs molded in. They use groms for rider training at some places here, so crashed repeatedly at low speed seems like something they're good for.
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Jan 21, 2022 21:08
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Invalido posted:Mitas MC32 looks like the best option I can find. It seems like it's made to accept post-factory studs with interruptions in the sipes and even pilot holes for studs molded in. Part of the problem (and this is based on what I read and learned putting carbide studs in dirt bike tires myself which I am absolutely not an expert at) is that you want a hard tire to hold the stud in and you want a relatively thick tire for the same reason. That's fine for dirt bike knobbies on snow where the traction comes from the knobs themselves going into the snow but doesn't work nearly as well for what I think you're looking for which is that the rubber also be soft enough that it has better traction on the ice. Again, just in dirt bike tires, softer tires = wear out crazy fast on roads. You can buy absurdly sticky mx tires that will chunk in like 50 miles of easy freeway riding. I'm not trying to discourage you. Riding in the winter is great and should be done. I think maybe you'd have the best luck with a dual sport tire and then some very short carbide studs or maybe try putting car studs in. But that's all doing it yourself which can be a real pain (and expensive for the car stud tool).
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Jan 21, 2022 22:48
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While we're on the topic of studs, why is it that NETRA (the local Enduro/ hare scramble sanctioning body) bans Kold Kutters and other similar screws from their winter events?
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Jan 22, 2022 02:19
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For some reason spikes are only allowed on cars and explicitly not on bikes here.
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Jan 22, 2022 08:18
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builds character posted:Part of the problem (and this is based on what I read and learned putting carbide studs in dirt bike tires myself which I am absolutely not an expert at) is that you want a hard tire to hold the stud in and you want a relatively thick tire for the same reason. That's fine for dirt bike knobbies on snow where the traction comes from the knobs themselves going into the snow but doesn't work nearly as well for what I think you're looking for which is that the rubber also be soft enough that it has better traction on the ice. Again, just in dirt bike tires, softer tires = wear out crazy fast on roads. You can buy absurdly sticky mx tires that will chunk in like 50 miles of easy freeway riding. I have no dirtbike experience but I've been driving cars and riding bicycles on snow tires during season for most of my life at this point, so it's decades of winters since I'm getting old. I've learned three main lessons. The first is that winter roads are tricky. Grip can vary drastically and unexpectedly from all sorts of factors. The second is that the difference in performance between bad and good tires on snow/ice is huge. Enormous even. They don'y age well since they turn too hard after a few years and lose performance. They wear super fast if they get too hot from warm weather/overloading/low pressure/high speed/whatever. They throw studs easily if you don't treat them gently. Treat them gently in mostly cold conditions (preferably below 5c/40F or so) and they'll last for a long time. The third thing I've learned is that short car-style studs are only really useful on ice, and only absolutely necessary on smooth or wet ice. In all other conditions they actually hurt performance at least marginally compared to an equally good studless snow tire. I've winter e-bike commuted to work almost daily for years and years. A trick I learned (or think I've learned since it's anecdotal) is the importance of seating the studs in a new tire. This (on a bike) involves a break-in of some 20km of gentle S weaving at max tire pressure and since I started doing that on new tires I hardly lose any studs at all on my e-bike before the rubber wears out. I see no reason why short studs in soft tires shouldn't work for gentle motorcycle commuting, which is mainly what I want do do. If I get similar wear from moto tires as I do from bicycle tires it wouldn't be the end of the world since I'd ride about the same distance and the price difference per tire isn't huge. Ripping around on a dirtbike with lots of wheelspin or something like that is an altogether different matter though, I can see why a soft studded snow tire would have a hard time dealing with that. I read a thread on a Swedish language machining forum about studding moto tires yourself, and the consensus there at least was that screw-in studs are useless and only double flanged press fitted ones mounted with glue is worth doing. I've only studded one tire in my life - on an electric wheelbarrow with a tractor style tire and a top speed of walking pace, and those screws have stayed in the tire just fine, though they're getting pretty worn down since they're from aliexpress and used all year round mainly on gravel.
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Jan 22, 2022 15:21
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SEKCobra posted:For some reason spikes are only allowed on cars and explicitly not on bikes here. The chances of being run over by your own tyres in the event of a crash are considerably lower in a car than on a bike. (No idea if that's the actual reason but that's all I can ever think of when I see spiked bike tyres, having once managed to get the front wheel of my own BMX in my face)
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Jan 22, 2022 15:40
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I think the result of the last "drain carbs over the winter?" holy war was that, yes, the carbs should be drained. After switching the petcock to Off, is there a difference between loosening the drain bolt vs running the bike until the bowl is empty? I finally picked up that '04-'06 carbed XL1200R I've been looking for. The carb's drain bolt faces inwards (away from the air cleaner) and I don't have a long enough screw driver to access it from the other side of the bike. I could take the air cleaner and carb off but it is absolutely freezing (feels like -21 C, -6 F) and I don't really want to spend a lot of time fiddling.
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Jan 26, 2022 15:29
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Buy a longer screwdriver.
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Jan 26, 2022 15:36
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epswing posted:I think the result of the last "drain carbs over the winter?" holy war was that, yes, the carbs should be drained. After switching the petcock to Off, is there a difference between loosening the drain bolt vs running the bike until the bowl is empty? Yeah there's a difference, one of those things actually drains the carb while the other makes your engine cough and jerk miserably while not draining the carb. Taking the carb off doesn't suck very much but I've never tried working in sub zero temperatures. In conclusion: Steakandchips posted:Buy a longer screwdriver.
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Jan 26, 2022 18:18
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I tried draining my carbs this year, and I got one, but the other one seems to have accumulated gas tank rust silt to the point where it's completely clogged the drain port. Turn the screw and absolutely nothing comes out. Oh well. At least the fuel is stabilized. (I seem to remember this happening to me before with this bike...)
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Jan 26, 2022 18:23
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There's nothing wrong or dumb about replacing my bike's (front) brake lines AND pads at the same time, right? Like, save stress on the system by not forcing the pistons in, clean everything up real nice, and then fill it up and bleed it properly.
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Jan 26, 2022 19:29
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captainOrbital posted:There's nothing wrong or dumb about replacing my bike's (front) brake lines AND pads at the same time, right?
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Jan 26, 2022 19:51
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captainOrbital posted:There's nothing wrong or dumb about replacing my bike's (front) brake lines AND pads at the same time, right? If you're worried about the pistons it would be a good time to poke them out and clean them
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Jan 26, 2022 20:01
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Are the 155cc engined versions of some 125s that are available in different markets really just remapped 125s?
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Jan 26, 2022 20:02
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Invalido posted:On the contrary it's smart and rational. You won't stress anything by forcing fluid backwards provided you use a non-stupid tool to push the pistons in but you potentially run a risk of overflowing the reservoir and making a mess. May as well avoid that risk if you're taking the lines off anyway. Slavvy posted:If you're worried about the pistons it would be a good time to poke them out and clean them Yeah, that was my rationale; since the calipers will be completely disconnected I can give them a good cleanin inside and out. Can't wait to flip over the bars on my track pads.
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Jan 26, 2022 20:22
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A reminder to loosen the cap of the reservoir before attempting to push the pistons back into their bores. They go in much easier. You shouldn't even need a special tool beyond a screwdriver or something. I speak from personal experience.
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Jan 26, 2022 20:39
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Lungboy posted:Are the 155cc engined versions of some 125s that are available in different markets really just remapped 125s? To answer my own question: no they are bored out larger capacity engines.
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Jan 26, 2022 23:47
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Lungboy posted:To answer my own question: no they are bored out larger capacity engines. The only bikes that do car-style displacement shenanigans afaik are the bmw parallel twins. Idk if they still make these or if people cottoned on to the fact that an 800 strangled down to 650 performance is a loving con.
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Jan 27, 2022 01:57
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Slavvy posted:The only bikes that do car-style displacement shenanigans afaik are the bmw parallel twins. Idk if they still make these or if people cottoned on to the fact that an 800 strangled down to 650 performance is a loving con. Triumph do it on one model too, the Tiger 850 has a detuned version of the 900 engine. They publically say it can't be fixed with a remap but there are lots of owners that reckon a throttle remap is all it needs to get back the 9 or so HP it's missing.
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Jan 27, 2022 09:22
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Slide Hammer posted:A reminder to loosen the cap of the reservoir before attempting to push the pistons back into their bores. They go in much easier. You shouldn't even need a special tool beyond a screwdriver or something. I speak from personal experience. I messed up a thankfully cheap bicycle caliper by using brute force after forgetting to take off the cap.
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Jan 27, 2022 09:37
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My FZR600 has an intermittently sticking rear brake. What should i do? Is it a good idea to start by just taking off the calipers, removing the pads and lubricating all of the slidey bits, or should i go further and remove the pistons too? I don't know a lot about the history of the brake, but the brake lines have been replaced a few years ago.
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Jan 27, 2022 20:17
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Intermittently sticking is a new one for me. You can take the pads out, it'll probably make you feel better, it's always good to spend time doing things that feel constructive and tangible to keep yourself mindfully grounded. However, if you actually want to fix your brake, I would start with making sure the slidy bits are free and greased, the lever is greased and adjusted and not missing a spring, and bleeding the fluid. Sniff test says it could be the terrible 80's caliper seized, or it could be the more common MC swollen/seizing internally, but no real way to know if you haven't done the above first. Alternatively just get a caliper and MC seal kit and go hog wild.
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Jan 27, 2022 20:34
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Bike has sat for 6 months, cranks but doesn’t start. Plan is to get my hands on some starter fluid tomorrow, spray some into the carb while cranking, and if it fires briefly that should isolate the problem to fueling (and I don’t need to bother checking air/compression/spark for now). However, when turning the (vacuum operated) petcock to ON, a few drops of gas leaked out. Is this already telling me the petcock isn’t holding vacuum, or is otherwise leaking somewhere and that’s my problem?
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Jan 28, 2022 02:34
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How long did you crank it for? The drops leaking out are pretty normal and why it has an off position; the tiny spring that works against engine vacuum to keep the diaphragm shut off is weaksauce and can't hold back the pressures in the tank for long. If the bowl was empty it'll take a while to pump the fuel through with a vacuum tap. If you don't want to draw down your battery doing this, you can apply vacuum to the tap directly via a hand pump or whatever until the carb is full. Verify stuff is going in there by draining a bit of the bowl.
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Jan 28, 2022 03:13
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Slavvy posted:How long did you crank it for? OK, makes sense, I'll make sure there's actually gas in the bowl. I think I got all the other sanity checks, ignition on, killswitch set to run, petcock on reserve, gas in the tank, gearbox in neutral, kickstand up. Cranked for 6-8 seconds, 4 times, with maybe 10-20 seconds between each try. At that point the battery started groaning (it read 12.78 VDC before starting). Edit: Curiously, during the 2nd/3rd tries, when I cracked the throttle while cranking, it cranked a lot slower, would barely turn over. Shutting the throttle made it crank normally. Edit 2: Got my hands on a service manual, which specifically says not to open/pump the throttle when starting. Also mentions when starting in less than -7 C to pump the throttle a couple times immediately before starting to add extra fuel via accelerator pump. I still need to check first if fuel is even making it past the petcock. epswing fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jan 29, 2022 |
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Jan 28, 2022 03:41
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