Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Cycle Asylum > Discussion - always find my self ridding in motorcycle

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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

teknicolor posted:

Don't make it sound like a chore or anything

some people are proud to work 16 hours a day in a dark cave filled with combustible toxic particulates!

# ¿ Nov 3, 2009 20:08

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 08:02

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

yeah what's the problem finding takeoffs? i thought those things were dirt cheap and everywhere precisely because every harley owner puts straight pipes on it when they buy it.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2009 13:23

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

I think in principle I've been able to narrow my needs to 2 bikes, my 1955 BMW for vintage riding and bragging rights, and my 98 Ducati ST2 for going fast and stuff. I need to get rid of the lesser bikes I still have. It took me a couple years of test riding a lot of other things to settle on this. Though I can envision wanting a dirt bike at some point, or something sportier just for dickwaving.

# ¿ May 2, 2012 07:18

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

iwentdoodie posted:

Anyone in the Portland area have a shop they prefer?

I have nowhere at all to work on my bike, and need tires put on and a chain. There's two shops near me, one won't touch a bike older than 1995, and the other wants close to 250 for tires and chain. I'm in Vancouver, but am willing to ride into Portland.

I can't believe in a city that big there isn't some kinda indie bike shop you can go to. What's wrong with the 250 though? If that's parts included, that doesn't sound crazy to me.

# ¿ May 5, 2012 03:44

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Z3n posted:

What happens is this:

They get some guy who needs tires and a chain.

They get the bike, half the bearings on the bike are seized, the rotors, pads, and brake fluid is shot. This isn't even considering other things that the owner hasn't noticed, like a JBWelded block or god knows what else. Bearings will run you 60 bucks plus an hour of shop time, the tire and chain are probably being billed at an hour of shop time each, brake pads and fluid are 100 bucks, plus another hour of shop time, and oh poo poo, you just discovered they've never been maintained so brakes need a rebuild and the rotors are hosed and...

And that's how you end up with a thousand dollar repair bill on a chain and sprocket set.

And that's not even getting into "Hey, it's not running right, clean the carbs out!", only to discover that you have low compression on one cylinder or a coil is dead or there's some electrical problem that's causing it to cut out...basically, there's no money in old bikes because for the cost of the repair they could just go buy a new one. Diagnosing an electrical issue can take forever, especially if your techs don't really know how bikes work and A->B their way using a repair manual and the parts inventory of the shop.

Of course, there's a group of guys out there who know the ins and outs of these bikes and can pull a profit on them as a result of it, but your typically dealership doesn't touch them with a ten foot pole because the couple of bucks they lose in shop fees are made up by the next squid who wants a gixxah.

poo poo, I remember a guy who had a $20,000 GSX-R600. Crashed it, wanted it stretched and lowered, and they just kept rolling it into his loan on the bike...eventually, he had a slammed, crashed, stretched GSX-R600 that was 3 years old that he still owed 19k on, because he'd been making minimum payments for 3 years.

This is a pretty worst-case scenario, but I've seen a lot of little things in this vein at the shop I worked at. We saw a lot of 70s/80s japanese bikes, mostly beat-up, not taken care of, owned by college students, that kind of thing. And one typical thing that would happen is it needs a new clutch, and 5 of the 10 clutch cover screws (all phillips screws, because japan didn't know what the gently caress it was doing back then) are frozen, stripped out, requiring dremeling and impact hammering or drilling or whatever. That turns a 45 minute job into a 3 hour one. It's annoying to the shop and the customer, but it's common, especially on old japanese bikes.

Mostly we never had issues with people deadbeating out of their bills and leaving us with lovely bikes, but we did have to invest a fair amount of time having long conversations with people to manage their expectations if they brought in a barn find for repair. We'd give them the Z3n talk and tell them it could range from 150 to 800, that kind of thing.

# ¿ May 5, 2012 05:14

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Helmets are in the minority here in AZ. It's pretty sad. I don't care THAT much, though. I kinda like it, in a way, cause I can use it as a simple visual measurement of how much I, as a BMW rider wearing full gear, am better than everyone else.

# ¿ May 6, 2012 01:53

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

GnarlyCharlie4u posted:

Are you sure this isn't just because of previous owners?

The question is kind of moot, because no matter what type of screw head is or was on the bike, what's almost always on them when they come into a shop today is a totally stripped out piece of crap that neither a JIS nor a phillips screwdriver can get a grip on, especially when frozen into the threads by years of oxidation.

# ¿ May 7, 2012 03:39

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Why would they do something on other vehicles but not on motorcycles?

# ¿ May 10, 2012 03:28

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Z3n posted:

How could a truck tire be different from a bike tire?

I don't think I like the new z3n. I was looking for a detailed explanation of the physics involved in the stress and rotational differences between centrally mounted and peripherally mounted wheels, and all I got was a single dismissive sarcastic sentence!

# ¿ May 10, 2012 10:41

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

The best sound I've heard a bike make was an M900 with Termi carbon mufflers. Get it.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2012 22:00

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Z3n posted:

Great bike but jesus christ 5.5k for a 10 year old monster? That's insane.

I don't think I've ever seen a Ducati listed at a sensible price, except the one I found that was crashed to poo poo. And yeah, that M900 probably has the same fuel injection as my 98 ST2. They do have known electrical issues with the stator and reg/rect.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2012 00:24

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

One of the things that's good to know about rain is that asphalt retains about 80% of its traction when wet. (Putting aside the first half hour of a rainfall when the old oily poo poo is still on the road)

# ¿ Jun 4, 2012 07:55

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Sagebrush posted:

Seriously? What were you riding? I've noticed the most returns from cruisers and the fewest from new BMW adventure bikes, but I'd say at least 80% of the time I get a wave back, and like I said I wave at nearly everything. And I ride what Harley folks would have called a little jap poo poo rice burner when it was new. I'm guessing that either everyone likes vintage bikes, or the round headlight is throwing them off.

As a BMW aficionado I can confirm that some of the snootiest riders are the new GS owners, but this does not generalize to all, or even most, BMW owners. The airhead guys are the best guys.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2012 07:10

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

ReelBigLizard posted:

EDIT: What do people do for Speedtrap/Hazard warnings here?

Locally the accepted "PoPo ahead, bro" signal is a rapidly flashed headlight, and to a lesser extent a frantic "slow down" motion of the hand (I use this one more for bad road conditions/horses ahead).

Shimrod posted:

Around where I am it's the same as in a car to signal police ahead - give a single flash of highbeams (2 around here is "YOU HAVE YOUR HIGHBEAMS ON oval office TURN THE FUCKS OFF"). That or wave your hand in a circle over your head to incidate sirens then point back.

If there's a hazard ahead I'll jab my hand pointing down at the ground a few times - one of the oldschool motorcyclists around here did it to me once and I had no idea what he meant ("Corner? Yeah, I can see... oooooh, thanks!") but it's pretty obvious and other riders around here seem to get it.

What's all this?

You tap the top of your helmet with the palm of your hand, that's the signal. No other signals are accepted. How dare you people make other signals.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2012 05:14

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

If you said the phrase "Texas bike rally" to me, that's just a little bit worse than what I'd picture in my mind. Pretty close though.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2012 04:11

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Maybe it had something to do with opening them at different rates, which is kind of how the early VTEC on bikes worked, one of the two intake valves wouldn't open until higher RPMs.

# ¿ Jun 13, 2012 18:27

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Z3n posted:

Mine are set to engage nearly at the end of travel, but the levers are adjusted such that they are still in comfortable reach at that point. I like the controls being responsive.

This is going to sound pedantic and snotty, but I recently went through BMW mechanic class and learned that on certain ones of their bikes you can adjust the lever to what "feels" right to you and easily throw off the whole system in such a way that you'll halve or third your clutch life. So I'd suggest just doing what the manual says, excepting for known types of bikes where you can dick around with the adjustment without harm.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 00:54

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Z3n posted:

What causes that?

On the last model boxer engined bikes to have cable clutches, the clutch had an adjustment procedure that was backwards from normal practice. You set the handlebar lever to a fixed setting, fairly loose, and then you adjust the throwout arm on the back of the tranny (which is absurdly hard to get to) until it's just barely tight or something. They had an issue common with police bikes where the owners (cops, and therefore obnoxious know-it-alls, according to the BMW class teacher) would adjust the lever to where they thought it ought to be, which was like 1/16" play or something similar to Harleys, and this would cause the clutches to burn out. And then they would blame BMW and demand their beloved Road Kings back.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 04:22

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

ReelBigLizard posted:

I met an old local petrolhead who, back in the day (70s-80s), made beer money by tuning up exotic sports cars for rich bankers and tax exiles. He confided that the bulk of his work was revving the tits off them and racing up and down a private road he had access to.

BMW class teacher said that this was a thing with a lot of modern BMW bikes. Some of them have fairly high performance engines but most BMW owners aren't wild and crazy people so they get ridden at 3k rpm every day. So a good tuneup includes WOT to redline a few times.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2012 19:09

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Didn't notice it until now, but around the 15th, the official service bulletin went out in the BMW dealer net about the S1000 con rod bolts. It's just a lack of loctite on them, as was rumored. Said there were some instances of them loosening up at high RPM, no more details than that. The repair job is listed as around 5 hours of paid warranty labor. Turns out you have to split the engine cases to get to those bolts. They wrote up a special 20 page repair manual addendum on it and made a special parts kit of everything needed.

They don't give specifics on what range of bikes are affected, you have to check an individual bike by punching its VIN into their dealer net. Just says it's some 2012 bikes made before June 1 this year.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2012 07:04

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

I was under the impression the platinum/iridium plugs just had longer lasting electrodes.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2012 20:37

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Pretty sure there's a regulation in our vehicle inspection code, required yearly for every registered vehicle, that says the exhaust has to be stock with no holes. Pretty much every shop I know of ignores that regulation, including ours. AS A BMW OWNER

who doesn't like loud things I'd like to fail those bikes for that stuff, but I'm pretty confident we'd lose a lot of customers over that. If loud pipes are banned in the inspection regimen, then a shop that inspects a bike with loud pipes is performing inspections wrong and subject to bigass fines, which the cops can easily call them on. But the cops ignore it too. So it's just widely accepted by riders, PTA members who hate riders, mechanics, and cops that bikes are obnoxiously loud and nothing really needs to be done about it. Kind of a self perpetuating problem.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2012 04:32

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

The different brands are wildly different on test ride policies. Almost all the Japanese brand dealers will never let you ride a bike, and almost all the European dealers will throw keys at you. I'd like to know why this is, but I assume it's because all the worthless punks who would ruin new bikes want Gixxers and Ninjas.

# ¿ Jul 14, 2012 01:42

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Bugs and rocks are freedom. Freedom just bounced off your helmet and never touched you.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2012 02:13

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

n8r posted:

V4s are more expensive to manufacture. More cranks, more engine cases, and probably other stuff.

V4s have more crankshafts and cases than I4s? What?

# ¿ Jul 31, 2012 02:08

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

echomadman posted:

Hein Gericke(UK) is in trouble, might be some bargains to be had in store for UK/IE goons
http://www.visordown.com/motorcycle-news-industry/hein-gericke-enters-administration/21120.html

R.I.P. Hein Gericke

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ Aug 4, 2012 01:18

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

I've had a bunch of BMWs, a Guzzi and a Ducati all with auto retracting sidestands. I hated them all. The Ducati had easily the worst kickstand I've ever seen. Harley on the other hand makes the best kickstands in the world. They have some that lock when you put weight on them, so when you extend it and put weight on it, it locks, making it impossible to retract. So even if your bike rolls, as long as it's leaned on the stand, the stand will just stay out there.

But they get you back for it by making you call them "jiffy stands"

# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 02:10

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

I am so angry that I can't get one of those KTM toasters in the US.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 13:18

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Chris Knight posted:

Helmet off, gloves off, on the centre stand, check the oil, fill up, write down the mileage, suit up and head off.

You sir should own a BMW.

# ¿ Aug 22, 2012 03:29

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Over the last month, all our parts suppliers at the shop have run out of basic common parts and seem to be in no rush to get more. Tire tubes? Helmets? Foot pegs? It's September for Christ's sake, even up here in the north there's another good month of riding for people without gear, and a month or two more for people with.

# ¿ Sep 13, 2012 13:35

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Quite A Tool posted:

Was that at Go Az? They always have some gorgeous bikes there.

They had a custom black painted K1600GT when I was there, and a white/orange RC8R that blew my mind. I was like daaaamn.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 00:12

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Linedance posted:

I have to say... 1 liter v twins loving own!

More specifically 90 degree V twins, more specifically Ducatis. :smug:

# ¿ Oct 19, 2012 00:36

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Ducs in general seem very hit or miss. I've got a '98 semi-watercooled one with highish miles that has been very reliable, and we've got one with nearly identical engine and electronics in our shop that's been a nightmare of issues for the owner. Nasty sounding rattle in the bottom end, choke that doesn't stay where you put it, damaged wires in the harness, sidestand that always looks like it's about to snap off.

But if you work on them, you can see why issues crop up. They're underbuilt. The fairings all have about half as many mounting points as you'd see on a Japanese bike or a BMW, often on weak thin brackets. Mine uses the coolant overflow tank as a structural member in a couple places. The rectifier (a component whose job is to shed electrical energy by shunting it to ground, generating heat as a byproduct) has no fins on it and is mounted in a place with no airflow.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2012 23:58

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

JP Money posted:

What does this mean?

It's basically an M900 engine, air cooled 2v, still with fins, but the heads have coolant hoses grafted on, a radiator attached, and a water pump on the side. So if you look at it, you'll see an air cooled engine and you won't quite be able to figure out what that radiator in front is for.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2012 06:37

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

$200 is a good deal. I think we do like $230 and we're probably one of the cheaper places in this area.

# ¿ Nov 2, 2012 14:24

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Gixxer bros :rolleyes:

# ¿ Nov 12, 2012 02:55

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

MoraleHazard posted:

I had a slight interest in Buells over the years, but every time I walked into an H-D dealership they looked at me like I had two heads and couldn't sell the bikes.

I've heard that kind of story a few times. I wonder if Erik knew that kind of poo poo was going on? That's the kind of a thing that'll kill a bike, obviously. Somebody in manufacturer/dealer relations should have been all over that.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2012 16:27

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

Here's the toughest one from my area. Takes years of practice to navigate it confidently!

Spaghetti junction

# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 03:50

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

What if she's on a step-through scooter?

# ¿ Jan 5, 2013 05:11

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 08:02

Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester: Oct 3, 2000

clutchpuck posted:

My friend got a new bike...

I HOPE THEY CRASH

and I want to watch it!

Classy as ever. Never change, CA.

I think this is a good time to revisit Silver's favorite music video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isj0oBjfrxE

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 02:21

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