The official 2008 motorcycle thread

[Russ]

So...

It's really, really nice.

Which means motorcycles come out!

I've got the same one I've had in previous years, '79 Honda CX500 with full front Windjammer, milk crate on the back, and 5' fiberglass CB antenna on the back corner.



First project on it this summer is to rebuild the carbs - I've got the rebuild kits in, I just need to do it now. Shouldn't take too long, only two of 'em.

Then, balance the carbs.

Finally, I need a new seat. I was going to dig around and find a suitable replacement seat online & swap it in.

Oh. And a new fuel tank. 2.9 gal is driving me nuts.

And maybe a new CB - my old used one is acting up and not transmitting half the time. If I replace it, I may get a communicator setup to talk with passengers, at least if I regularly have any passengers.

I think I'll need a new rear tire halfway through the summer depending on the amount of riding I do.

Anyone up for some longer tours this summer? There's a GREAT set of roads between 30 and Iowa City (about halfway to CR on 30, then long sweeping winding roads the rest of the way in), a beautiful road north of Iowa City (Sugar Bottom Drive), and some others in that area.

A round trip would be damn close to 500 miles, though. We could get some tents/sleeping bags, ride out to Iowa City, camp down in Sugar Bottom, and then ride back the next day.

-=Russ=-

[Max Weinberg]

I'd be up for a cruise in the IC area if you find yourself down here.

I just got my new tune up/points kit in. Now I just have to get the thing running again. Hopefully I can free the stuck ring that is causing the oil blow by and get the thing RELIABLY running as aposed to just running.

[Russ]

The ISU motorcycle club has some stuff going on in the Towers lot right now.

Including a bike dyno.

I watched a GSX-R run (not sure of year/mods/etc), but it was making around 122 to the wheel.

I decided I didn't want to pay $30 to be told mine makes... 35 to the ground. I also didn't really want someone else flogging it that hard.

-=Russ=-

[stick]

I'm up for whatever, my bike is the same as it has been but running fine.

[WrenchHead]

All my crap is running.

I'm free in the evenings and during the weekends.

I still have the W

[andrewk]

All I have left to do is re-up my registration, then I am game for a nice long ride. I've still got my EN450, but it will keep up surprisingly well with some of the bigger bikes.

I probably need to do some more fine tuning before I'd want to do a 500 mile trip, but that shouldn't take long once I get it legal.

Luke- you have more balls than I do to take that pic whilst moving! At 9999 miles, no less- Good work.

Andrew

[WrenchHead]

I took that photo during the strangetalk organized ride in 2005??

I turned over 10,000 miles that ride.

[mbreitba]

I'm getting very very close to buying a bike this year. I'm half tempted to go pick this one up this week.

[ese]

I love naked bikes. I don't think people assume you are a douche if you roll up in one of those as opposed to a fully plastic kawasaki ninja or something.

[mbreitba]

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of naked street bikes. I'm just waiting for financing to come through on this one, and if it does, I'll be buying it.

FYI - it's a 1990 Honda CB-1. 400cc inline 4, 13,500rpm redline. Top speed of about 110, perfect for around town and shorter highway rides.

If this falls through though, I'll be looking for additional CB-1's, 1986-1987 Yamaha Fazers (little brother to the Vmax) and Honda Hawk GT's (Hawk GT's are similar to the CB-1, but a v-twin 650, and a single-sided swingarm which looks sexy as hell).

[WrenchHead]

The CB1 was really cool when it came out too. You might have had some other 'naked' bikes like the GS400 by Suzuki, but the CB1 looked pretty hot.

The SV650 sort of stole it's thunder in modern times, but Honda beat Suzuki to the punch on that.

My favorite Honda bike of that era was the GB500, which sold like crap, and is now worth more than it cost new. I'm hoping for the same trend with my W650.

[bigassbertha]

I need to buy a fuel pump (having no gauges = running it out of gas lots of times = expensive fuel pump) and put clear coat on my new tank and I'm rearin' to go for the year. Still lookin as it did. Needs tires, too, I guess.

I've pretty much decided that I love it too much to ever get rid of it.

[Russ]

Woot. This rain is wonderful, cleaning all the remaining sand off the streets.

-=Russ=-

[redog]

We had 3 nice days of riding down here in IL. Rest of the week is going to be rain and thunderstorms so we should get all our sand and grime off the road as well.

[Russ]

*sigh*

One of my mufflers fell off on the way down to DSM today. As did the attached rear foot peg.

eBay time, if I can find anything.

A 80 degree v-twin sounds like shit without mufflers, btw.

-=Russ=-

[andrewk]

Damn dude- that sucks. I don't know what pipe diameter you have, but I used to run Sportster mufflers on my bike (they came on it) and they sounded OK. I went back to stock mufflers because I like the tuned sound better than the "hey look at me, I have a sub 600cc parallel twin with loud pipes"... However, the Harley guys don't like the stock mufflers, and you might be able to find a set cheap that will get you by, or maybe it will sound good on your bike-

The shitty thing is, I just threw out my old mufflers a couple weeks ago- I'd have given them to you-

Andrew

[andrewk]

Oh, and I am digging the weather- Finally got the registration done, and went for a nice ride today. I really need to fine tune my carburetors soon. I think this weekend the saddle bags will go back on too.

Andrew

[Russ]

Eh, the bike needs $500+ of parts right now. New seat, new mufflers, an impossible to find adapter plate for the mufflers & rear pegs...

And I need to rebuild the carbs. I've got the parts.

-=Russ=-

[mbreitba]

I need to buy a fuel pump (having no gauges = running it out of gas lots of times = expensive fuel pump) and put clear coat on my new tank and I'm rearin' to go for the year. Still lookin as it did. Needs tires, too, I guess.

I've pretty much decided that I love it too much to ever get rid of it.

I really like the looks of that - exactly what model bike is that?

[andrewk]

Eh, the bike needs $500+ of parts right now. New seat, new mufflers, an impossible to find adapter plate for the mufflers & rear pegs...

And I need to rebuild the carbs. I've got the parts.

-=Russ=-

Was looking on ebay- Did you see these?

905 bucks, but I don't know if they require that adapter plate...

Is there a chance you can make the plate? I have some small scraps of mild steel laying around if you want 'em.

Good luck though.

[bigassbertha]

I really like the looks of that - exactly what model bike is that?

Honda 919, rc51 front end & brakes, 954 front wheel, 900rr exhaust, other assorted honda parts

[mbreitba]

Looks hot...like a 'roided up CB-1

[bigassbertha]

People tend to like it.

People walk by crotch rockets and even custom cruisers staring. They stop for mine and wonder what the fuck it is

[jasoncar40]

Finally took a picture of my "new" bike. It's a 2004 Yamaha FZ6.

[Russ]

So... 2 months later, it's running again. Who wants to go riding?

Woot. This rain is wonderful, cleaning all the remaining sand off the streets.

The streets are cleared, kthx... please? Enough with the rain?

A 80 degree v-twin sounds like shit without mufflers, btw.

Correction: An 80 degree v-twin with one muffler sounds pretty bad. An 80 degree v-twin with no mufflers... isn't too bad. Loud, but has a good lope to it.

Carburetors... suck. A lot.

But, the bike is running again, and once I get the mixtures tuned, it should be running rather nicely. I manually balanced the carbs when putting the rack back together (just adjusted the throttle plates to the same angle with reference to some holes in the carb body), and... I think it was pretty far off previously. It seems to pull better off idle, and I can get the idle down pretty far without it dying out. I think, once it's warmed up, I can get a 600-700 RPM idle, which sounds pretty darn nice (previously I idled at 1500, because especially in the winter, it would repeatedly die out while warming up much below that).

I'd say we could make a Ledges run this weekend, but... given the rain, I think we'd need pontoons to do that.

-=Russ=-

[WrenchHead]

sure. i'm up and running

[stick]

I'll be up and running hopefully in a week or so, still wanting on parts. If anyone has a chain breaker (for a smaller cam chain), let me know.

[stick]

Wrenchead and I will be riding sometime tonight here in the next couple hours. If you want to come shoot me a PM and I'll give you my phone # to meet up with us.

[Russ]

:-/ I'm going out to pull the carbs of my motorcycle again. Sorry. I fail.

-=Russ=-

[Corwin]

I'm guessing nobody wants to ride around with a slow scootin' old fart, heh. Probably not tonight anyways. Gotta get up too early in the morning

[WrenchHead]

Well we're back already anyway!

I have a couple of old man scooters, so I'm always up for slower riding.

The Yamaha lives.

We offered to help a guy that was pushing a Russ bike up Mortensen Pkwy tonight.

[Corwin]

Your scooters are also faster than mine probably, unless you've got a 50cc somethingorother

[WrenchHead]

I got a confirmed 54mph at one of those speed alert radar signs they had in my neighborhood last summer.

[Russ]

Eh, in Iowa City, one of the women regularly rode a scooter on the motorcycle cruises. She kept up just fine. IIRC it was a 250cc Silverwing or such.

-=Russ=-

[Corwin]

heh, a Yamaha Razz ain't keeping up with no motorcycles, but faster than the average bicycle for long distances

[WrenchHead]

Silverwings are 500cc and probably are faster than my motorcycle.


I still want to form an Ames scooter gang.

[stick]

I saw a scooter heading into Hawkeye Yamaha in Des Moines last week when I was picking up my engine parts. I only mention it, because he popped a big wheelie like it was nothing.

[Russ]

I still want to form an Ames scooter gang.

How about the "Ames Milk Crate Patrol" - show up to an ISU Motorcycle Club event with 10-20 old bikes with milk crates attached (and, if we can find someone to do it, someone to bungee a milk crate to a new sportbike).

In other news, my carbs are off again, and I found a few issues that would have been causing my lack of power - one of the primary jets was mostly clogged, which would lean things out enough to cause the issues I was seeing. There were also some issues with the needle valves. And, sadly, one of my needle valve seats appears to be damaged (somewhat out of round), but that's just minor mixture adjustment, and it was running fine before, so I'll just deal with it. Explains why that needle valve didn't seem to do much, though.

-=Russ=-

[Russ]

And, the bike is back together and running properly! The "out of round" needle valve seat was actually just a small chunk of the previous o-ring wedged down there - once I got that cleaned out, it was fine.

Time to schedule a cruise, I suppose...

-=Russ=-

[Ted]

Well, I've finally acquired a motorcycle.

2002 Suzuki GZ250 (250cc) with 11,021.5 miles on it.

I was barely able to get 70MPH on I-35 yesterday (highest gear and maxing out the throttle). But, I got off at the Polk City exit and went north on hwy 69 through Huxley. I think the previous owner put ethanol in it, since it is certified to run on an ethanol mix. I might try and filling it with regular/premium gasoline after I use the tank up.

I also got a very generous insurance rate on it because of the small engine displacement.

[WrenchHead]

Insurance on my Vespas is 8 dollars/year. I signed away my uninsured motorist coverage since I already have health insurance at work.

That bike is mighty small to be riding on an interstate, letalone a highway.

[Russ]

And I'm out for the year. Likely won't be able to get my bike fixed until September at the earliest. Someone else organize a cruise already.

-=Russ=-

[Ted]

I guess the bike is barely interstate legal (de facto). I topped at 74 MPH on Hwy 30 earlier today. I also ran out of gas, so I pushed it to Conoco and filled up the tank. 2.960 gallons of ethanol-blended for $3.899/gal. Trip was 206.2 miles.

[WrenchHead]

That's the big upside

I would like to have a Vespa 250 or a Piaggio MP3 250, but they're too slow to take on the highway with any sort of comfort.

My 650cc bike gets right around 55mpg each time I fill up, regardless of how I ride. Mostly around town riding.

I'm ready to cruise whenever. Like I said.. Everything I own is running fine at the moment.

[andrewk]

Lies. Unless you got that radiator hose in...

[WrenchHead]

I had that radiator hose rigged up with pipe pieces the next day:



I was driving around for three hours last night.

My new hose is sitting in my kitchen at the moment and it'll go on tonight after work.

[flynfrog v2.1]

Drove it back from vegas

[flynfrog v2.1]

[andrewk]

I think I tried to keep up with you on that bike once last year, and I failed miserably- Nice ride.

Is that pretty comfortable to ride around? I have ridden my fair share of dirt bikes, but never really liked them...

[bigassbertha]

All right, I need to hang my head in shame and mention that the fuel pump is still not fixed on my bike. Someone organize a ride a couple weeks out so I have a kick in the ass to get it going...

[WrenchHead]

I have a bike from Austria too:



on/offroad is the way to go as we enter our Mad Max world of no gasoline and anarchy.

[bigassbertha]

For what it's worth, it IS aesthetically fixed (from the pictures you can't see the completely flat left side of the tank - track day. oops)

[WrenchHead]

I'll ride any night. Someone just name a place.

I'm going to a scooter rally the 1st-3rd of August, so I'll be gone that weekend, otherwise...

[Ted]

Yesterday I did a joyride up to Clear Lake. That was fun.

I ordered a 16T sprocket for my bike, apparently the OEM is a 15T front that may be partly responsible for the lack of speed. The speedometer goes up to 90MPH, but the bike barely attained 80MPH on Interstate 35 yesterday (when riding in the wind wake of a semi-trailer, downhill, etc.)

Not sure about this mod. 139dB seems excessive.

[Russ]

Oh, I was thinking about the 139dB air horn for mine. There have been a few cages that haven't seen me at ALL and have tried to merge into me.

-=Russ=-

[WrenchHead]

Yesterday I did a joyride up to Clear Lake. That was fun.

I ordered a 16T sprocket for my bike, apparently the OEM is a 15T front that may be partly responsible for the lack of speed. The speedometer goes up to 90MPH, but the bike barely attained 80MPH on Interstate 35 yesterday (when riding in the wind wake of a semi-trailer, downhill, etc.)

Not sure about this mod. 139dB seems excessive.

I switched my 14t sprocket to a 15t one on my bike and the top speed is decreased. 4th gear has a higher top speed than 5th gear now. Due to the engine not being able to overcome drag with the transmission geared that tall. I'm thinking of switching it back, so I can easily break 100mph again.

[Ted]

I feel like riding somewhere this afternoon/tonight. Anyone else?

[stick]

I get back up to Ames around 530, A ride would be nice... but how is the weather? Des Moines has been pretty rainy today.

[WrenchHead]

Looks cloudy, but OK. I MAY be around tonight.
I'm supposed to be in Des Moines taking photos of the full moon and other stuff, but if it's going to rain, I might postpone.

[Ted]

So the verdict...?

30% chance of rain, but the doppler radar shows the rain heading east. Clouds are broken.

[WrenchHead]

I'm ready to ride.. I got my yard mowed and plans in Des Moines fell through... Anyone wanna meet somewhere at some time?

[stick]

I forgot all about this thread and just got back from putting around Ames for a couple hours. I've been meaning to do more riding, I might go tomorrow too.

[WrenchHead]

Since none of you replied, I just drove around in the Sprite.

I'm still up for riding til about 1AM though. It's nice out.

[Ted]

Probably tomorrow. I have to work at 8AM tomorrow so I'm in for the night. I got impatient around 6:30 PM and decided to eat dinner, then proceeded south until I ended up at my parent's house in south Des Moines (all roads south lead there, I guess). It was a worthwhile trip since my insurance card and papers arrived in the mail there.

[andrewk]

Had a nice ride tonite, aside from my bike acting up in Gilbert when we stopped for fuel. Ended up being a pinched vacuum line, but it was backfiring and sounded like a busted cam chain... Other than that though, it was a nice ride.