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I don't think it really counts as "today," but I went on a 4,500km road trip this past couple of weeks. Sydney -> Canberra -> Melbourne -> 12 Apostles & back via mountain roads where possible. Highlights include crossing a mountain range at sunset to gorgeous scenery, then getting most of the way frozen on the way down. (I ended up wearing everything I had and making a balaclava out of - clean - underwear to keep my shivering half-way under control). Also, riding around the side of one mountain and watching the next one along catch fire. Big, grey fingers of smoke clawing down the hill. Yay for poor decision making. Anyhoo: photos!  GPOY  Mt Hotham - SPLORT  Cabin in the woods  *Inspirational text goes here*  Blair Witchin'
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Apr 18, 2013 04:50
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Yeah, good times. Makes me look forward to a grown-up bike, though. That sort of distance on a 250 is a bit like this: The helmet's doing fine. There's a couple of chips in the shell and some of the sharpie has faded, but I'm going to sand back the clearcoat and touch up the design with lightfast poscas soon. Should be A+ for moar dumb adventures.
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Apr 19, 2013 02:59
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Went for a sunset ride to the refinery at the edge of town. Sat and watched.  
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Jul 24, 2013 00:52
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Installed the after-market pipes that came with the SV1000 I bought a couple of weeks back and took the bike for a spin. Jesus Christ, I sound like an rear end in a top hat now. These slip-ons are so loud it actually hurts my ears to give the bike any revs, and I can see heads turn as I WUD-WUD-WUDD down the road. "Oh look," bystander expressions say, "there goes a man with a tiny peen." SAD FACT #1: Even these ridiculous cans can't mask the high-pitched overlocker whine of the engine so the bike still sounds so-so at best. SAD FACT #2: The previous owner installed a power commander and had the bike dynotuned for this exhaust, so the fuelling seems off for the (otherwise fine) stock exhausts. Either that or I have a previously unknown affinity for coaxing backfires out of motorcycles. IDIOT QUESTION: Kind of sad to lose the (alleged) additional horsepower the previous owner's mods gave the bike, but I'm yanking these bullshit exhausts back off tonight. Would it be worth keeping the power commander and installing a downloaded map for standard pipes? Is there such a thing as a repository of PC3 maps?
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Mar 25, 2014 05:34
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Snowdens Secret posted:http://www.powercommander.com/power...01000&yrid=2005 Hell yes! Thanks!
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Mar 25, 2014 06:02
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KozmoNaut posted:All 4-stroke engines backfire (or crackle and pop) to some degree. How audible it is depends on carbs vs. EFI, cylinder size, exhaust, emissions equipment and a bunch of other factors. We're not talking little backfires here. The Micron slip-ons pop *some* on decel and do that popcorn thing, but with the stock cans? Nothing, nothing, nothing, BANG, nothing (etc). I assume an occasional backfire is ok, but we're talking predictably regular. Took the bike out for a long ride yesterday night with the slip ons still fitted and I'm getting used to the noise. Probably a bad sign.
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Mar 26, 2014 00:18
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Worried that my clutch is giving out, so obviously I rode through 100km of deserted, debris-strewn, creepy-rear end high country forest with no mobile reception. At dusk. Because SMARTS.
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Apr 13, 2014 12:03
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Man that looks like the cover to a horror movie. It was so fantastically creepy. There've been storms through that area all of the past week and a whole bunch of that road (that mostly very twisty, cliff-side road) is covered in bits of fallen trees. On one corner, I rode through a tree that had fallen across the road and had simply had the middle chainsawed out and rolled aside to let traffic through. And then of course night fell and I was riding through low-hanging cloud in the near pitch-darkness with only the loud-as-gently caress growling of my stupid exhaust behind me and I was a little bit afraid that I was being chased by something. Great night. Going to get up before dawn to watch the sun rise over the next stretch of this mountain range tomorrow.
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Apr 13, 2014 12:15
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freebooter posted:Whereabouts is that? I moved back to Perth a while ago and forgot there existed such things as "hills" and "elevation." Omeo highway between Mitta Mitta and Omeo, Victoria. Only sealed all the way about a month ago. And by "sealed all the way" I mean long stretches of loose black pseudo-gravel.
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Apr 14, 2014 09:34
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Man that looks like the cover to a horror movie. You want horror movie cover, I got your horror movie cover right here:  From this morning's ill-advised ride.
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Apr 14, 2014 10:30
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Popped babby's first power wheelie. By accident. About a foot high for all of a second or two. Didn't die. Landed gently and perfectly composed. Probably a bad thing. 
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Jul 4, 2014 12:15
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Garaged it for the next four months b/c a friend gave me her SD990 to 'babysit' over the winter. Renewed my life insurance policy.
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May 18, 2015 08:51
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Didn't understand why my new-to-me Duke 690 was so ridiculously peaky / had zero low-end poke until I dug through the bag of parts that came with it and found the original throttle tube. The previous owner had spent a small fortune on a power commander, new airbox, dynotune, and bullshit racing bling like $600 rearsets ... then installed the most aggressive throttle tamer he could find. With the stock tube, the bike's gone from feeling like an anaemic 250 at everything but flat out to the snatchy AF KTM experience I was hoping for. Yessss. I'm wondering - is there any good reason why someone would do that? Spend a stack of  on vroom vroom bits then neuter the bike with a slooooooooow twist throttle?
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Sep 4, 2015 00:58
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velocross posted:There's also a ignition map switch (circle dial) under the seat. The manual should have more info on it but it should be #3 standard, #2 aggressive, #1 soft and #0 bad gas... If I remember correctly. Yeah, I'm familiar with that switch. My issue was that, regardless of ignition map setting, the bike was totally underwhelming at anything under half throttle, then it'd all came on in one big wallop. Which was fine for riding flat out, but felt dull as fuuuuuuck at commuting speeds. Stock throttle tube's woken the bike up nicely. Actually has some low- and mid-range oomph now. The downside is that it the stock throttle *is* pretty snatchy, I guess, but I didn't buy a ktm for practicality so that's all good by me. Outgoing tube was a K400 G2 throttle tamer, for those playing along at home. ie: the tamest throttle they make. Z3n posted:KTM used a super aggressive cam on the throttle bodies on the older 690s so just fixing that makes the bike a lot easier to ride. I'm making a mental list of the finest mailboxes in my neighbourhood.
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Sep 4, 2015 05:43
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Stared at it wondering if the noise its making is going to wax my savings. Hadn’t ridden my 690 Duke for a few weeks, started it up yesterday, and got an earful of the most unholy rattling noise it’s made since I bought it. The biek was fine when I put it away so I dunno what’s up. It still rattles after warming it up and taking it around the block. Sounds like / is in the right area for a loose AF cam chain; the rate increases with throttle and makes an ugly rattle/buzz on decel. I adjusted the manual cct and that hasn’t done squat so I’m poo poo out of ideas.
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Jun 27, 2016 01:32
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Schroeder91 posted:No, it's a Vstrom 1000 and the front dives the second I touch the front brake. ... I've had no issues braking how I do and have done it a long time so it's habitual and I like it. When I started riding on a CBR250, I used the rear brake all the time too and it felt more natural. That said, every larger bike I've ridden has had a hilariously ineffectual rear brake, my old SV1000 included, and I've quickly gotten used to mostly using the front. Assuming the Vstrom has a similar setup - it shares a stack of SV1000 parts, no? - its no wonder you're running those pads down. Using the rear to slow that biek has got to be some exercise in patience and early application.
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Sep 20, 2016 01:49
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Razzled posted:I mean the Tuono is pretty special in that the lines and cylinder is so close to the engine that it roasts the fluid anyway so the rear brake has a dead feeling almost immediately regardless of how often you change it. I pretty much only use it as a hill assist now Haha, yeah. I've got the same model Tuono and the rear will only hold on a hill if I'm really stomping on it. There's a set of lights on a hill near my house that I have to wait at every morning and sometimes if I'm still a bit woolly I forget to apply enough pressure and start creeping backwards. Wakes me up real good. Genuinely surprised that's the only issue I've had with that bike, btw. Very disappointing vis a vis the italian experience. *touches wood*
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Sep 20, 2016 04:33
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Just got back from a 3000km-ish ride through some of Australia’s best roads. Generally excellent. Miraculously avoided every police patrol, completely shredded a new set of Q3s. Fun time. Half way through, my Tuono started weeping oil from the rear cylinder head gasket, which seemed weird given that I’d just replaced that gasket when checking the valve clearances. Popped it open to have a look today and    Old time-sert in the cylinder head ain't serted into anything no more.
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Apr 9, 2018 08:32
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Slim Pickens posted:Was the old screw bottoming out and shearing the timecert out? No idea how you fix that without having someone weld the hole shut and retap it.. A timecert in a bigger timecert? Yeah, that could work. “Yo dawg, I hear you like timeserts in your timeserts, etc.” Meanwhile, the loose advice I’ve gotten from Melbourne’s only competent Aprilia tech has been: quote:Is the thread in the head still ok? I would loctite it in with the really strong stuff – 270 I think it is these days. Or a bearing fit style of stuff. Or drill through the side of the head into it and pin or grubscrew it. Just try to be as gentle on the head as possible. Drill the side of the head, you say? Hmm.
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Apr 10, 2018 02:13
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Speaking of avatar/post combos and being retarded. 
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Aug 11, 2018 02:25
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Rode it. The weather's been shitful here in Melbourne the last few weeks (and my mental weather's been pretty ordinary to match, tbh), but today was real nice.  
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Aug 17, 2019 08:44
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Changed the front tyre on my MTS today. I've only done a couple of tyre changes before and I was dreading doing the front because it was such an ordeal the last time. Incoherent swearing, tears of rage, etc etc. Maybe because each time I've done a front it's been in the dead of winter and the new tyres have been cold af? This time I left the new rubber next to my column heater for a couple of hours beforehand and the whole fitting process took maybe five minutes. Just goes to show, the more you know, the more you know what an idiot you've been.
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May 10, 2023 05:23
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Pretty sure the manual for my 2007 multistrada directs me to the dealer for a chain adjustment.
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Aug 8, 2023 03:32
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Slavvy posted:Basically every Aprilia I encounter, I can't really think of a reason you'd want it over the equivalent Ducati I was gonna say "cost," given that they depreciate like mad, but since switching from an Aprilia to a Ducati I've found the difference in purchase price for a 2000s era bike is cancelled out by being able to source reasonably priced parts quickly and easily ... so I guess yeah, fair.
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Oct 15, 2023 23:30
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Beve Stuscemi posted:Regardless, those look sick and I bet once they're on the bike you wont be able to tell I think how you feel walking towards your bike is a small but significant part of the appeal of riding (and one of the reasons I feel ambivalent about owning an otherwise excellent air cooled multistrada and have a marketplace alert for hypermotard 1100s on sale anywhere on east coast of Australia). All of which is to say, I'm moderately colourblind and I can see that difference. If I'd specifically bought wheels for ~the aesthetic ~ that would drive me nuts. My 2c is that it's easier to powdercoat them now than do it later after its been bugging you for weeks.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:21
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So, to remove the shock from an MTS1100 (and presumably, a bunch of other ducatis with SSSAs) you have to extract the 80ish millimeter bolt that attaches the bottom of the shock through a 100ish millimeter void in the swingarm. (As in, access is through two small holes in the swingarm - you stick an allen key through and gingerly pull the bolt out through the inside of the swingarm.) As you can imagine, there's some potential for error here. It doesn't take much for the bolt to fall off a long allen key, and part of the procedure involves the bolt just hanging out inside the swingarm with nothing really supporting it as you pull it through. The holes you're doing this through are barely wider than the diameter of the bolt. Anyway, last night I was remounting my shock after a rebuild and lost the bolt in the swingarm, and the end of my pickup tool that I sent in after it. Cue six hours of keyhole surgery involving a couple of rare earth magnets heat-shrunk to a zip tie (for a flexible fishing implement), a boroscope, a couple of bamboo bbq skewers, and the extremely slow accrual of knowledge about how to manipulate the lost pickup, and then the bolt, so they'd fit out of the tiny loving holes in the swingarm. Anyway, if anyone needs their appendix out I'm pretty confident I can do it now.
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Nov 1, 2023 01:02
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The amazing thing is that this absolutely sucked but by the end I could totally do it again, even given the absolutely hosed constraints of the situation. (I know this because I dropped the bolt again after getting it out, and it took 5 minutes to grab, turn around, and extract. Reminds me of something I vaguely remember hearing in the John Hinds road racing talk about how thoratic surgery isn't really any different from retrieving a bolt you've dropped into the engine case of a fireblade, it's just easier. People and motorcycles - it's all packaging problems.
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Nov 1, 2023 01:37
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Followed up the invisible work on my MTS1100 (clearances, belts, filters, clutch stack, etc) with a 14t sprocket swap and replacing the stock mirrors for bar-ends (and relocated indicators). Funny that despite being so small and so far out of my field of view now, the bar ends are still WAY easier to use than the stock mirrors which were great at one thing: providing a blurry view of my arms. Anyway, the most interesting thing about the whole endeavour is how much the experience of the bike has changed without the mirror stalks taking up so much real estate ahead of me. I feel like the bike kind of disappears under me now. Big change in experience for a insignificant change in function. Smaller sprocket is fine in a novelty-value kind of way. It's not exactly like the multi was lacking in torque before.
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Feb 15, 2024 01:09
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Slavvy posted:Putting the motor just that couple of hundred revs higher at any given speed/gear can do wonders for comfort though, Ducati tend to go for really chuggy gears on the air cooled engine. Yeah, now that I've had the chance to take it out of the inner-suburban crawl for a bit, I can see it makes a fair difference. It feels more like a fat, slower steering HM now, which I guess it should given that that's what it is. prukinski fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Feb 16, 2024 |
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Feb 16, 2024 00:26
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Nothing, for once! All my servicing is up to date and all my consumables are fresh. Work has been hosed lately, and it has been such a joy/relief/grounding experience to commute into that clownshow on a bike that is running perfectly. prukinski fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Mar 26, 2024 |
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Mar 26, 2024 00:03
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Invalido posted:I looked over my sv650 ahead of a mandatory inspection that needs to happen real soon - the bike stops being road legal on the first of april which is also the first day when the inspection places start doing motorcycles (they want reliably ice free ground for the short test ride that's part of it). Lights all work and the chain slack and tire pressures are within spec, so that's good. While I was at it I also greased the squeaky kickstand and som other stuff, flushed the brake fluid and replaced the engine oil and filter. Last time I released the oil I had all kinds of silvery looking sparkles in the drain pan, but I was 97% sure that was because the pan had a dollop of anti-seize in it. Those remaining 3% of doubt has been nagging me just a little. This time everything looked fine with a reasonable amount of metal sludge on the plug magnet so that was a relief. A pretty small relief perhaps but I'll take it. I've had ten bikes now, and every time I drain the oil on them I get wigged out about a little bit of sparkly stuff in the pan. Of all the ways I've hosed up bikes in the last decade or so, a spun bearing or other catastrophic internal failure hasn't been one of them.* I'd say a lot of my fuckups were overreactions to things that seemed like problems but weren't so, uh, IDK how much mistah sparkle you need to be seeing in your oil before you get worried. *Mid 2000s era KTMs don't count. That's business as usual.
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Mar 27, 2024 22:59
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cursedshitbox posted:Sorry you were saying? I mean, both bikes were running again when I sold them and gently caress they were a hoot to ride outside the city, but there sure were a lot of unlisted maintenance items for the ~2005 era 690 and 990 dukes. You know, torquing internal bolts down to the spec they should have been at the factory and peening rocker arm bearings. Just totally normal, everyday preventative maintenance that's listed clearly in But yes, I'm extremely happy to see your 950 still going more or less strong.
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Apr 8, 2024 00:12
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