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Z3n posted:Lots of tuning, yes, but the markup on pipes is absurd. I believe the top of the line LV pipe for an 08 R6 retails for around 1800$, dealer cost is supposedly 800$. I'd put it a bit lower than that, probably around 600$...you can see why pipes are such hot items for the dealer to throw in at a "50% discount you pay labor" and poo poo like that. That seems like an awful lot. I mean, I got just a plain jane LeoVince for my ZR-7S, and it set me back less than $500CAD, including the super-happy-fun-border-rape-charge (  FedEx ). Have you tried directly contacting the manufacturer for a quote, rather than going through a shop?
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Oct 6, 2008 08:31
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greg_graffin posted:Bridgestone Battlax (battle axe? wtf) BT45 I'm sure new tyres are better than a lovely old pair, but while I have no experience with the other brands you've mentioned there, I would not recommend the BT45s. They are just a terrible tyre, with uninspiring grip and feedback - the only redeeming feature of them seems to be that Bridgestone seems willing to make them in every size combination under the sun. Edit: I put them on a 1984 Yamaha FJ600, and my experience with them has steered me away from Bridgestone ever since.
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Oct 8, 2008 20:56
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DOT 3 and 4 play nice together, no need to worry. Silicon based DOT5 would be problematic, if it were mixed in, but unless he happened to have that lying around, you should be golden. Just thank your dad for being awesome and making sure your brakes don't fail, causing you to die.
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Oct 10, 2008 23:18
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:i dunno if it's true of the new BMWs but i learned a few days ago that the old GS models, early 90s, had tubeless spoked rims. they did this by extending the rim a little beyond the tire bead and attaching the spokes there, so the spokes are not under the tire. very clever. My dad's R1150GS has the same tubless/spoke setup. It's kind of weird to see the actual ends of the spokes, but I guess if it works...
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Oct 12, 2008 23:29
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^^ bootsCoredump posted:Does anyone have a preferred brand for steel brake lines for their motorcycles? What about hand guards, anyone got a favorite? I've got a set of Galfer ss lines on my bike, and the fasteners started showing surface rust within a month of installation. Maybe they used to be better?
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Oct 22, 2008 01:55
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Hermansen posted:Anyways, I've got a friend who's got a Kawasaki Ninja 250, who told me I could take it for a spin, just to see what it's like. As long as you stay in residential areas, and obey all local traffic laws, you're not going to get a second glance from any LEOs. Just make sure the tags on the bike aren't expired, don't act like you just stole it, and you should be fine.
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Oct 22, 2008 20:51
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Whoa. Wife Turds posted:Since I've been meaning to ask forever and this is a question thread...where is your avatar from? It's from a video clip of some touring car racing in the mid 90s. One driver made a *cough* opportunistic pass *cough* which the driver in the video deemed to be just a little dodgy, and took offence at. The commentator made light of it by saying soemthing to the effect of "he says he's going for first," rather than saying that he was flipping off a fellow driver for a poo poo pass.
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Oct 22, 2008 22:07
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PuntCuncher posted:It's a Kawasaki, right?  Mine only is really noticeable when I get below 1/4 tank. Why is it only on Kawis?
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Nov 2, 2008 06:18
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Alright, my google fu is failing me today. Can anyone help me figure out what the oil capacity on a 1988 Honda CB450S is? I think it would be marginally different from a Nighthawk of the same vintage, as it has an oil cooler. The amount of oil that I took out while doing the change wasn't any help either, as it wasn't high enough to register on the dipstick 
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Nov 2, 2008 20:24
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Bonus super fun happy stage: no sight glass. Oh, did I mention that there's some sort of weird rear end setup concocted by Honda so that the ridiculously short dipstick checks the level of the oil on some weird little flat bit of metal (about as hard to describe as to understand why they did it). I'm not too concerned about overfilling it - I put ~2.5L in, and it seemed to bring it up to the bottom of the dipstick. My only other experience with overfilling a bike, was running my GS500 around for a week with an extra litre   Some bikes will try to vomit their oil out if you forget to screw on/replace the dipstick.
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Nov 4, 2008 12:05
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Spartak posted:How do people handle switching to reserve while in motion? I used to ride a GS500 with no fuel guage or idiot light. It would, pretty much without fail, start sputtering/lurching around 200km. After a while, I just got used to feeling the tapering off of power that indicated I was low, and would just reach down and flip to reserve without any problems. Practice flipping between ON and RES while riding along some lonely, straight stretch of road, a bunch of times, just so you're aware of how to keep the bike going where you have it pointed, while still fiddling with the petcock. It will take a few tries to get comfortable, but with a little effort, you'll stop having to worry about accidentally drifting into oncoming traffic Running on reserve all the time just sounds like a recipe for getting stuck on the drat side of the road, regardless of how careful you are, because mileage is never going to be the same between two tanks. Ever. Why not keep that small margin of error, just in case your short stint of squidding around dropped your range by 30km?
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Nov 16, 2008 21:39
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Yeah, riding a bike without any guage of fuel level other than manual inspection (or knocking on the tank, for that matter), made me much more cautious about running out of gas. Then again, I'm rarely riding further than 30km these days (yay school  ), so running out isn't too common a problem.Would it be acceptible to, rather than pouring fuel stabilizer in and hiding them away in a corner (don't have that space anyhow), just fire up and ride the bikes that I have every week or two? The weather's occasionally nice enough to allow me to ride things other than my reliable dd, so I figure why not just enjoy a variety of motorcycles, and save myself the trouble of bikes lying fallow.
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Nov 16, 2008 22:56
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Z3n posted:Yup. That's kinda what I was hoping. It's far too much fun to have different bikes to ride every once in a while to leave them sitting unloved in a corner for the winter.
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Nov 17, 2008 00:05
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Nerobro posted:Firing them up is good for them. Still do a winter oil change, and still use fuel stabilizer. That means if you skip a week you won't gum up those precious pilot jets. Bikes run very well with stabilizer in their fuel. It's a few oz of prevention. Does fuel stabilizer play well with premix?
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Nov 17, 2008 21:50
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Go faster Err.. seriously, though, just try to be a bit more consciencious about squeezing your knees together on the fuel tank.
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Nov 20, 2008 22:16
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darknrgy posted:What is a good USDM alternative to the VF400F? I watched this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTO2s7wyrFs and now I want one. Good handling, nice engine whine because of the cam gears. Wiki says it has a good powerband too. Honda sold the VF500F to the US and Canada in the 80s. The VF400R is a little more sport focused, I think, but that's as close as you're likely to get without going to a grey market bike. They're nice little bikes, if you can find them, and perfect for people learning to ride (well, other than having plastics to potentially damage).
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Nov 23, 2008 10:14
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Thanks for that, I'm looking to do a carb cleaning on that cb450 that I picked up a little while back. Hopefully that'll sort out any weird issues it's having, and if not, well...
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Nov 24, 2008 06:21
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Well, first off, you steal it, beat the everloving poo poo out of it, asplode the rear tyre doing donuts, then, once you've had your fun, part it out, or stupidly try to sell an entire stolent bike. I mean, sure, he just found the bike crashed on the side of the road and thought it would be worth something. 
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Dec 4, 2008 04:59
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rxcowboy posted:Also, don't forget to set aside part of your bike budget for gear - it's not that expensive, but you'll regret not spending money on (decent) gear. So, yeah, pretty much what darknrgy just said. No time like the winter to pick a bike up, though. From now until about the end of February will be about the cheapest possible time to find a used bike.
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Dec 4, 2008 06:39
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So inspect them. There should be no more than 2 bolts on either caliper required to do this job. Just pop the off, pull the pads, and see if anything looks amiss. Just don't, whatever you do, squeeze the brake lever while you have the calipers off. That will unleash hell's fury, and we can't save you from that fate. Sorry.
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Dec 5, 2008 11:11
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Just give it a good shot with some penetrating oil or lube, and let it sit for a minute or two. The usual order of operations for shutting your bike off should be: 1)Come to a stop, preferrably with clutch in. 2)Kill engine. Using the kill switch or ignition seems to be personal preference - I like using the kill switch. 3)Sidestand down, bike onto sidestand. 4)Turn steering to (nearly) full left lock, and pop out key. Sometimes bikes are a little picky, in as much as they won't let you take the key out if you're at full steering lock. I've also had my key stick, but that was easily solved with a bit of lube. As long as your key still comes out of the ignition, it just sounds like you've not quite got the procedure down pat.
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Dec 6, 2008 10:09
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Let's say, hypothetically, that I wanted to stop being such a lazy rear end, and rejet my bike for the pipe and filter that it has on it. It runs fine right now, but I have the feeling that the stock jets are just a little lean for an aftermarket filter and exhaust (lol K&N). What exactly would I need to buy/order through a local shop, or should I just order a dynojet (or whatever particular brand happens to make one for my bike) kit and have done with it? My bike's a 2002 Kawasaki ZR-7S, and it's stock, other than the drop in K&N filter and a Leo Vince pipe. Also, would I need to order a whole new set of carb gaskets to go along with any such operation?
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Dec 7, 2008 02:51
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If you're really paranoid, most bike shops will sell huge fuckoff chains that you can padlock your bike to something solid with. Or you can just leave it parked, under cover, somewhere mostly visible, and hope that theives are only looking for the stunta bieks. Also, glad to hear you got the ignition thing worked out. The first time with those is always a bit 
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Dec 8, 2008 00:13
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Unless you fancy boiling it it caustic chemicals, no, probably not. I'll let the other guys answer as to the efficacy of a burn/clean cycle.
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Dec 11, 2008 03:33
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moist turtleneck posted:Is there anything extremely expensive or hard to fix with this bike? Seems too good to pass up That looks like a really, really fair asking price for one of those, especially considering the mileage and apparent condition. I fixed one up for a friend for his first bike, and although it does have a maddening amount of unnecessary complexity - yay superfluous fuel pump, hydraulic clutch and pneumatic suspension - I didn't find it all too troublesome to work on. A valve adjustment was actually easier than it was on my ZR-7S, by virtue of the adjustments being done with a nut and threaded perch, rather than shims. The main problem I had getting it going was finally traced back to a faulty petcock, and once that was sorted, it started and ran reasonably well, despite the fact that two of the exhaust valves weren't opening or closing Carbs for that bike are retardedly expensive, though, so if you're really concerned, I'd see if you could take it to a mechanic for a PPI, or take along someone who knows more about carbs than you do, just to make sure that it's a matter of adjustment, rather than something necessitating a new set (or rebuild).I've heard of problems with cams, but the bike I fixed up had 75,000km on the clock and was still on its original set, so...... go for it. Edit: Whale tails kick rear end.
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Dec 12, 2008 17:57
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Well, they have to catch you to put you out, right? 
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Dec 15, 2008 19:06
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 Punch a hole somewhere in the bottle. Trust me on this one. 
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Dec 18, 2008 13:01
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I'm seriously considering making my next set of riding gear the "HOLY poo poo MY RETINAS ARE MELTING" yellow Aerostich Roadcrafter one piece, especially for riding around in inclement weather/night. Sure, I might look like I'm directing air traffic on a runway in a hurricane, but nobody is going to fail to notice something that goddamn visible. Incidentally, if you bought anything from them in the last year in that high-vis yellow, it's subject to a recall. The newer colour starts fading, apparently, whereas the old one doesn't. I don't ride everywhere with my high-beams on, because it's just a dick move. As long as I'm devoting a large-ish portion of my awareness to traffic flow around me, I shouldn't have to blind/annoy fellow road users, no matter how old/retarded they may be.
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Jan 9, 2009 02:04
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 'stich suit (or a BMW one) will be mine at the end of grad school.Does anyone know what type of carbs I will encounter on a 1987 CB450S? Is that type covered in the CV carb cleaning thread? If not, I guess I may have to add to it soon-ish.
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Jan 9, 2009 03:39
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I transport my track bike in the back of a Mazda B3000, and finely honed the art of transport over the course of this summer. My first attempts involved rope and non-ratcheting straps. It took 40 loving minutes, and ended up with the bike falling over after a sideways glance from a passing motorist. Later, I moved up to using 2 ratcheting straps and rope. This worked alright, but still took too long to setup/undo. The perfect setup that I found, involved just two ratcheting straps. Put the bike into the box, diagonally, with the front tyre wedged into the driver's corner of the box, and the rear pushed hard up against the passenger side of the bed (you could swap sides, depending on your bike's exhaust orientation). One ratcheting strap goes from the right side of the top part of the forks (or bars, depending on how tired I was). This goes to a tie down on the forward part of the truck bed. The left side strap attaches to the corresponding part of the bike on the left side, but is attached to the truck at the rear, driver's side tie down point. Aside from being super loving quick and easy to rig up, it also left enough room to get all of my gear, as well as my friend's kit - a full icebox, two sets of leathers, track stands, tools, helmets, miscellaneous poo poo. With rope in the way, or even extra straps, getting all of that in was just a huge pain in the rear end. Obviously you're not going to be too worried about fitting sets of leathers or a fuckoff big cooler in beside a bike that you're just buying, but still. Oh yeah, and ratchet that fucker down hard. There's no reason to leave enough suspension travel to have it move anywhere. If you can feel the weight of the bike in the bed influence the truck when going through a corner (while the bike stays motionless), you've done something right. 
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Jan 12, 2009 00:50
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Who was it that picked up that loving immaculate late 80s Fazer 1000? Something like that would probably fit your bill. Wait, you said you wanted a mid eighties GP bike? Oh man, how did you miss this loving gem? http://atlanta.craigslist.org/mcy/986190690.html  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image.  Click here for the full 1024x768 image. Yes, not over 500cc, but it's two stroke, so it's probably only a bit short on power, right? Comedy option: 7/11
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Jan 18, 2009 10:26
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Phat_Albert posted:Better yet, do a 7/12. 750 chassis, Bandit 1200 bottom end/pistons/cylinders, and 1100 head and cams. drat, that sounds absolutely ridiculous. Any pics/videos of such a beast?
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Jan 19, 2009 07:53
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It'd be a little odd, but it could be your cam chain losing tension, causing the valves to open at the wrong time. Pop your cam chain tensioner off, and reinstall it (your manual will tell you how to do this properly - it will make the procedure easier if you are able to grow an extra set of arms). When I was adjusting the valves on my bike, I ended up with the intake valves opening about 1 tooth (degree?) too early, and that was enough to generate no end of clackity bullshit, and really, really unhappy motor function. If you want to diagnose valves interfering with pistons, take off your timing cover, unplug your spark plugs, and spin the engine through one full rotation by using a socket wrench on the crankshaft bolt (it should be the only one you see once you've opened the timing cover). Looking over pics online of GS500 motors (I never had a reason to wrench on mine  ), it looks like the timing cover is on the left side, but I'm not sure if that would also be used to spin the crankshaft. Just make sure the bolt you're spinning is causing the whole engine to turn over and you're in business.Oh, and turning it backwards is probably a bad idea.
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Jan 21, 2009 12:11
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That does look busted. The only time that you should be able to move it in and out that easily, is if you have the adjust screw all the way in, so that the spring is fully compressed. It's possible that the last person to adjust the valves on your bike overtightened that screw and it stuck. I found out that it's much, much easier than you expect, to have the spring stick. Take a flathead screwdriver to the tension screw - it should be a recessed/captured screw opposite the piece that you were pushing in and out. Turning it one way will put tension on the spring, and turning it the other way (well, aside from not being recommended in the manual) should free it up, if it's stuck. It shouldn't take too much force to free it, if it is stuck. At worst, you either replace a broken spring inside of the tensioner, and at best, you reset it properly, and your GS lives to fight another day. If mucking around with the winding screw doesn't cause anything to pop out, just give a local shop a call and see if they have any springs on hand - shouldn't be more than a few bucks.
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Jan 22, 2009 11:02
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^^ DiZ posted:Nice, glad I could help. As Z3n said, even if your timing has been bumped a tooth or two, it's a very simple procedure to set things right - even more so due to the GS being air cooled and naked. I think it's really unlikely that the chain actually jumped teeth on either of the cam sprockets, and it's more likely that your timing was just off due to there being no tension on the chain. I can walk you through the procedure to check your timing, once you get a new spring/cct.
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Jan 23, 2009 00:32
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DiZ posted:I just did the timing using an online manual and the exhaust cam was off by like 1/4 of a turn, I just set it to how the manual said but when I put the bike together I got a massive back fire and then just cranking, tested the motor and still no compression, I think I was a tooth off or something despite triple checking. Yeah, I remember how much of a pain in the rear end it was the first time I buttoned my valve train back together. I found the really tricky part was in knowing just how much the tension on the chain would rotate the cams, but once I figured that out, it was all good. Are you not getting compression in either of the cylinders, or just one bank?
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Jan 23, 2009 09:12
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Afaik, there were no internal changes after ~1990 (?), and those were only to the carbueration.
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Jan 25, 2009 05:03
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Primo Itch posted:drat, that looks pretty nasty. The sheer mechanics of highsiding anywhere other than on a track are pretty ... 
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Jan 27, 2009 01:23
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Datsun Honeybee: Get something better for unfucking stuck bolts than wd-40. You should be able to find non-flammable liquid wrench or PB-blaster or whatever, so that even if that stuff doesn't work, you can break out a heat wrech to make sure things come apart. 
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Jan 31, 2009 10:10
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Phat_Albert posted:I'm looking for something for the Bandit that will offer a combination of good grip and longevity. I've been rocking a set of Metzler Z6 on my ZR7s for ~15000km, and they've still got life left in them. It's kind of spooky, actually. Price: A Avail: A Longevity: A+ Grip-Tarmac: B+ Grip-Wet: B- Grip-Gravel: D Grip-Snow: 
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Feb 2, 2009 05:04
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