This blog is closed...

With the SV out of my life, I've been writing all new garbage on an all new blog.


CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE:

http://motorcycle-junkie.blogspot.com

The SV's days are numbered

I've been thinking a lot about a big dual-purpose dirt/street bike lately. Having grown up riding dirt bikes, I feel like I need to get back to my roots. Yet, I need a bike that can also take me to work and back. Been looking at a the Honda XR650L and the Suzuki DR650SE. Considered the Kawi KLR650, but they're too ugly.


I'm close to finalizing a deal with a guy who is looking for something more sporty. He's got a DR650 to unload, so we've agreed to trade bikes, plus a fist full of cash. I'm currently negotiating which accessories I'm willing to include and how much more he's willing to pay. Hopefully the deal will be sealed in the next 2-3 days.


A big dual-purpose bike will be far more comfortable for my crippled knees, and maybe I'll ride a little slower. If that kind of bike will keep the pain away from my knees and other joints, and keep me safe by riding slower, then hopefully it will be a wise move on my part. Who knows? Maybe I'm just looking for a change. It's coming up on 2 years with the SV, and I've logged nearly 14,000Km on the odometer.


Here's a sneak peek:

Sportbike Rally 2009 - Parry Sound, Ontario

The 27th annual Sportbike Rally was held July 3-5 in Parry Sound, and I had been looking forward to attending since I first learned of it a few months ago. My long time buddy, Sean, from Toronto agreed to meet me there. He arrived a couple of days early to tour the area on his brand new Honda CBF1000.

I left Friday afternoon, and more than 1/2 of my 450 Km solo ride was through pouring rain conditions. Although I had my rain suit, my boots and gloves are not waterproof. The weather for the remainder of the weekend was perfect, though.

The rally itself was a little disapointing: events seemed poorly organized and lacking in quality. It was rumoured that this year's event had some challenges with respect to sponsors: some dropped out completely while others scaled back on spending. I guess it's a reflection of the state of the economy. In any case, we went to the registration immediately after a bacon 'n eggs breakfast at a local diner. We paid our $25 fee and received a t-shirt, an old issue of Cycle Canada, and a poorly photocopied schedule of events. We then went to the "bikini bike wash" to have the road grime cleaned from the bikes. A couple of ditch pigs wearing denim shorts used cruddy sponges with dish detergent to scrub the bikes. They did a horrible job, and they didn't even rinse the soap off. What a big waste of ten bucks.

In the early part of the afternoon we headed to the airport to watch the radar runs -- an event in which anyone take their bike onto the runway to see how fast they can go as a police car clocks their speed with a radar gun. The racing strip measured a little over 1/4 mile and allowed plenty of room to slow down at the end. As expected, the Hayabusas ran the fastest, with the highest hitting 258 Km. It was fun to watch for a few minutes, but it was less entertaining the more we watched.

Around supper hour we took part in the Thunder Run -- a 15 Km parade of all the motorcycles from the outskirts of town, on through the downtown area and ending in a shopping mall parking lot. I would guess upward of 1,500 sportbikes gathered for this group ride. It was followed by some sort of live music (a Rush tribute band) but we instead opted to go out for beer and pub food with friends Andrew and Dave.

Sunday we got up and went for breakfast at the same diner as the previous morning, then we loaded the bikes and checked out of the hotel. Finally, we made a pit stop at Starbucks before hitting the road. Sean rode with me to Ottawa as he and his wife rented a cottage in Gatineau Park for then next 2 weeks. His wife would be meeting hime there with the car and their dogs.

The ride back home was great. Beautiful weather, nice roads, and not too much traffic.

On the ride from Ottawa to Parry Sound: when it wasn't raining really hard, the sky looked like this:

About 2 1/2 hours into the ride, it was actually dry for about 10 minutes so I took advantage of the opportunity to empty the water from my boots, and to empty my bladder... and to call Sean to say that I was running late.

Comfort Inn parking lot scene.

Lining up for the "Thunder Run"

Chatting with some Harley-folk at Starbucks before leaving for home.

Packing up


The ride through Algonquin Park was nice
(except when we got stuck behind camper vans and motorhomes)

New leather suit

I picked up a new-to-me one-piece leather suit recently. As always, I scored a great bargain. When I found this deal, I wasn't even shopping for a leather suit but I knew it was a steal the moment I spotted the ad.

It's obvious from the styling that this suit was made a decade ago. However, the overall condition is very good and the quality is top rate. And for the low price of just a hundred bucks, surely I did well. Who cares if I look like Shazam! .... at least I'm protected.

As usual, I had the seller ship the package to Ogdensburg. I rode down there wearing diposable riding attire: an old pair of jeans with rip in the crotch, and a jean jacket left at my house by a roofing contractor. Behind the UPS store, I stripped down to my padded spandex bike shorts, socks, and t-shirt. Then I slipped into my new leather superhero outfit, and rode off after tossing the denims in the dumpster.

ATC2K no more

I had really been enjoying my new ATC2K video camera. In fact, I must have been enjoying it so much that in a moment of excitement, I failed to notice the locking clip didn't lock quite so securely when I slid the camera into its mount. I had been trying the mount on different locations (on the rear subframe with the camera facing backwards, on the lower fork legs, on the handle bars, on the passenger grab bar, etc,).

In any event, I probably should have removed my gloves when I clicked the camera into the bracket, because I failed to notice that it didn't "click" securely. After riding a few kilometres, I happened to look down and saw the camera was gone. So I back-tracked and located it not far from the gas station where I had recently gassed up. It was lying in the middle of a very busy intersection, and it was easy to tell from the damage that it had been run over by a car. Destroyed!

The LCD still appears to work -- sort of...it displays some funky gibberish but that's about all it does. Verdict: the camera is dead, no longer able to record. I brought it home and removed the SD memory card to find that the last saved video file is corrupted. I tried a few of my forensic file recovery tools, without success. The file size is zero Kilobytes.

Anyway, here's one of the last video clips I made with it -- rear facing with the camera clipped to the seat subframe:

ATC2K video camera

Got a great deal on a waterproof sports video camera: $58 shipped to my door for an Oregon Scientific ATC2K helmet cam. It's no professional camera by any stretch of the imagination but it's waterproof up to 10 feet, and it's rugged as hell. It records AVI files to an SD flash memory card and uses two AA batteries. It's also quite small and compact, and it has a built-in microphone (although the sound quality isn't stellar either). These usually sell for about $100 but if you shop around you can find them for less. I bought mine privately from a fellow SV Rider member who had a bunch of them for sale. I didn't ask how he came to be in possession of them or why he was selling them so cheap.

As you might expect from a camera in this price range, there are some minor limitations: it can only read FAT16-formatted memory cards, which means that the maximum storage limit is 2GB. That represents about an hour of video at the high setting of 640x480 pixels @ 30 frames/second, or about 2 hours at the lower quality setting of 320x240 @ 30 frames/second. You cannot adjust exposure, colour settings, or adjust the focus in any way. It's pretty bare bones, but it works and it's made to survive abuse.

It comes with a bunch of mounting options: a handlebar clip, a rubber strap and locking clip meant for a bicycle helmet, some velcro straps, etc. For now, I'm using the handlebar mount but I'd like to find some other way of mounting it further up front and lower, like maybe under the fairing near the headlights. Not sure yet but I've got a few ideas.

So here's a sample video. Not great, but for the price it ain't bad. Shot this clip just after supper hour, as the sun was beginning to set... so the lighting isn't great.

Until I figure out another mounting solution, I've switched back to the factory wind screen: the dark smoke double-bubble screen is OK for bright daylight, but as soon as the sun begins to set, the camera cannot see through the dark wind screen.

Oil change

Everyone and their dog has an opinion about which is the best brand of oil to use in their car, motorcycle, or sewing machine. Like everyone else, I've got my opinion, too. And, while we're on the topic of oil, is it worth spending the extra cash for synthetic oil? Or is good old dino oil good enough?

To start, I'm a believer in changing the oil frequently. And if I'm going to change the oil, I always change the filter. Always. How often? Well, I try not to exceed 3,000 Km between oil changes on my bike. While that's not a lot, consider that most of my riding is a short commute across the city, 6 Km each way to the office and back. And I don't often baby it during the ride. I did the very first oil change part way through the engine break-in, when there was barely 250 Km on the bike, and I just used plain old Castrol 10W40 motorcycle oil for that along with an OEM oil filter. When the odo rolled its first 1,000 Km, I changed it again, using Rotella T dino 15W40. By then, I had picked up a couple of K&N filters. Since then, I've continued with Rotella, averaging ~2,000 Km between changes, give or take.

Rotella T is used in heavy equipment (big diesel engines) but it's a terrific choice for modern motorcycle engines. It's cheaper than most motorcycle-specific oils, and it's desiged to perform in the extreme conditions under which big diesel engines are often operated. Now I ain't no expert as you know, but because of the SV's wet clutch, Suzuki recommends using an oil without friction modifiers, whatever those are. Most engine oils for cars have that "energy conserving" stamp on the back of the bottle where the API and SAE label stamp goes. All I know is that if you look at the stamp, and if it says "energy conserving" then it means it contains friction modifiers and this might cause a wet clutch to slip. You don't want that in a motorcycle because the clutch plates are swimming in the same oil that lubicates the engine crankcase. Rotella T (and most engine oils designed for diesels) do not have the energy conserving label.

This is good for motorcycles

This is good for cars

Anyway --for no particular reason-- this week I decided to pick up 3 litres of Royal Purple 15w40 synthetic. The advantage of synthetic oils, in my poorly-formed opinion, is that it they are able to withstand extreme temperatures better than the old dino oils, whether those extreme temps be severe cold (like -30 degrees celcius in the winter, or +30 degrees celcius in the summer). Since my bike will spend many hours idling in heavy urban traffic during the hottest days of the summer, I figure I'm willing to spend a few extra bucks for an oil in which I might place more confidence with regard to its ability to withstand heat. If I didn't ride in downtown traffic so much, then I'd probably never think about using synthetic oil.

And to answer the question of whether synthetic oil lasts longer between oil changes: no. Well, yes, probably... because synthetics don't break down as easily as dino oils, but to be safe you should change it just as often.

Royal Purple synthetic.
Yes, the oil inside the bottle really is purple !!!

PartSource had Royal Purple on sale for $10 / bottle this week so it wasn't terribly expensive. In case you're wondering about which oil filters I use, I bought a box of 8 Hi-Flo Filtro filters that I picked up at a local dealer. They're about $8 each, compared to the $13 Suzuki wants for an OEM filter. From what I've heard, Hi-Flo makes a very reasonable quality filter that is about equal to an OEM filter, but they're cheaper. On my SV, I've used OEM filters once or twice, K&N once or twice, and I think I'm on my 2nd Hi-Flo. Like fighting over brand names of oil, I avoid getting caught up in all those silly arguments about which brand of filter is better. As long as you change the oil and filter often enough, it probably doesn't matter much anyway. Surely even the cheapest crappy oils today are better than the premium oils from 20 years ago.

Similar to OEM filter in terms of quality, but costs less.

Doing an oil and filter change yourself is probably one of the easiest maintenance projects you can do. Takes me about 15 minutes from start to finish. I've heard that a dealer charges about $80 to do an oil and filter change on most motorcycles, and that's with regular oil, not synthetic! I'd never bend over to get screwed like that. The cost of my synthetic oil and filter change this week was 1/2 of what a dealer would have charged me for a dino oil change. Gheez. I've got enough left over cash for a two-four of beer.

Tire update

So I've got about 500 Km on the new tires and my first impressions are very positive. I really like their rounder profile: when you start to lean it over, it's smooth as hell. They tip quickly because they are rounded like balloons. The old Dunlops really had a flat strip up the middle, which grew wider as the tire wore, so you had make an effort to get the tip started (but once started it was fine). I had gotten used to that and never thought about it. But with these new Contis, they begin to tip immediately with seemingly no effort.

I'm pretty much a law abiding citizen when I ride, avoiding hooligan-style antics for the most part. I've never put my knee down but I often take certain turns at speeds high enough to earn a serious traffic ticket. One turn in particular is a wide sweeping 90 degree bend in a 50 Km/h zone. The street is wide and visibility is clear for some distance, so I routinely hit this corner around 90 Km/hr without feeling like I'm pushing the envelope too hard, but a couple of days ago I decided to try it at 110: it was like riding on rails. I'm sure I could take it even quicker, but with speeding laws being what they are in Ontario, even at 110 I'd lose my license for at least a week, get my bike impounded, and have a fine between $2,000 - $10,000.

I also got an unexpected opportunity to try the new Contis in the rain. The Dunlops weren't bad when things got wet, but they weren't great. With the new tires, I was able to lift the front tire off the ground, and I even gave the bike a very generous amount of throttle coming out of a few turns. They didn't seem to mind the we surface at all. Two thunbs up!

New tires installed

New rubber: Continental Conti Force Sport

With an urge to ride faster and faster since the upgraded suspension, I've noticed that my rear tire is eager to lock up and skid under moderate to hard braking. When the stock tires were newer, the rear brake required quite a heavy foot to lock the tire -- but with the centre tread wearing down it sure seemed to have noticeably less grip when braking.

The OEM Dunlop D220 tires were nearing the end of their natural lives with close to 11,000 Km (~7,000 miles) on them. Many SV owners complain about these tires. Mostly, they say the Dunlops have no grip. Well they're not a supersport tire, so you have to keep that in mind. They're a decent performance tire, designed to last for many miles. It's a sport-touring tire and I found them to provide adequate grip for street riding and they've certainly lasted well. In fact, I would easily have been able to get another 3 or 4,000 Km out of the front tire, and I'm sure I could have gotten another thousand or two from the rear, but with a brand new set of rubber sitting in the basement I figured there's no reason to be taking chances. With a big mortgage, a wife and 3 kids, I need a bike crash like I need another kid.

On a local bike forum I read about a small shop that did good work for cheap. The owner is an active member on the forum, too. I PM'd him and he said he'd install and balance both tires for just $60. A buddy from work said he'd had a bit of work done there a couple of times had been pleased. Name of the shop is Hybrid Racing.

So yesterday I called the number and asked about a convenient time. He said he'd have an hour to spare near the end of the day. With the new tires around my waist, I rode through traffic awkwardly but it wasn't that bad and it wasn't more than 5 minutes away.

It took him about 45 minutes to do the entire job. He was very conscientious and thorough, and he didn't rush. The rear tire required no weights for the balancing, and the front just 1/4 ounce. I took it real easy riding home, and will continue to go easy until I've done a couple of hundred Kms scrub them in. After the ride to work today, the errands I did around town this afternoon, and my evening ride, I've probably done 150 Km already.

As I've heard about Continentals, they have a very round profile, almost balloon like. I think they look great. Hope they take me another 11,000 Km.

Intiminators update

So I've been riding with these Intiminators installed in my front forks for 2 weeks now. I've ridden approximately 1,000 Km and I'm very pleased to report that they seem to be well worth the $150 (that was special introductory price, 50% off). They're made by a relatively new company, called Ricor Racing Shocks, and I suspect their going steal away many of Race Tech's customers as they compete with the popular Gold Valve cartridge emulators for damper rod forks.

From the factory, the SV's front suspension has fairly soft spings (0.67 Kg/mm) and an uneven amount of crappy 5W fork oil. Being the low budget damper rod forks they are, they don't offer much in the way of adjustability: you can adjust preload to set the sag and that's it. When I first bought the bike, I tried cranking the preload as far as it would go, but still the sag was too much for my ~ 200 lbs. So I changed out the fork oil for some 15W and added about 5 big heavy duty washers in each fork leg to act as additional spacers to give me some more preload adjustment (5 washers were about 1.5 cm). It helped a little, as I was finally able to set the sag properly (~ 30 mm) but with 15W oil in damper rod forks, it's a compromise. Gone was the squishy & plush ride, and also gone was the hard nose dive under hard braking. It handled more like a real sport bike with the heavier oil -- much more firm, but small bumps were quite harsh. In fact, I found myself avoiding most bumps on the road when possible.

So now having gone back to 5W oil (as Ricor recommends), and having removed the extra spacers, I installed the Intiminators just below the soft factory springs - they sit directly on top of the damping rod. And like magic, there is no longer any compromise: the soft plus feel is back when riding around town, yet when I want to get on it hard in a nice turn, the suspension is firm like when I had 15W fork oil. And the front doesn't dive under braking (no more than it should). So this $150 upgrade has been like upgrading to a set of quality cartridge forks. The downside, however, is that there is still no adjustability for compression or rebound damping. Whatever... combined with the ZX-14 shock I installed in the rear last month, it feels like a new bike. Problem is that I feel myself wanting to ride faster. Maybe I should be thinking about a cruiser or a big thumper?! I did go to the Honda dealer this evening to have a good look at a 2008 XR650L...

Cumberland Heritage Village Museum

Left the house shortly before 9am this morning with a fellow SV rider to check out the Heritage Power and Country Festival at the Cumberland Heritage Village Museum. A bunch of vintage biker folk were there to eat a bacon 'n eggs breakfast, talk about motorcycles, and check out all the old machinery (antique cars, tractors, farm equipment, etc,). It's about 25 minutes east of the city along the Ottawa river. It was a nice ride but definitely chilly; and for some reason my grip heaters decided not to work so I must look into that.

A few photos:

Shootin' the breeze.





1929 Harley Davidson police bike

A pair of 1954 and 1956 Ariels on the back of an old Dodge pick-up


closer shot

other side

1976 BMW R90

a mid-60's Velocette Venom (I think)

More suspension upgrades, mirrors & motorcycle races

My weekend was filled with motorcycle-related activities. Now that's a refreshing change.

Two weeks ago, I ordered a set of Intiminators from Ricor Racing after reading plenty of good things about them. They recently became a site sponsor at SVRider, and the folks there have been going on and on about them. Apparently, they're the bees knees of suspension upgrades for folks who ride bikes with cheap, crappy suspension. Just what I need. And, to entice the SV crowd into trying their product, they've been offering a 50% discount, so I had to jump on the deal ($150 sale price).

To save all the hassles of shipping across the border, I chose to have them delivered to the UPS store an hour away in Ogdensburg, NY. While I was at it, I also picked up a pair of bar end mirrors off eBay. They're knock-offs of CRG Hindsight LS mirrors, but these are only $10, compared to the $8 million price tag other people are willing to pay for the genuine CRG models.

So, with 2 packages waiting for me in NY, I set out early Saturday morning with my buddy, Andrew (also rides an SV). Just over an hour's ride. While Andrew went into the Lowe's to look for some Dupont chain lube, I proceeded to install my Intiminators so I could smuggle them back into the country. I had the left fork leg finished within 5 minutes, and was already started on the 2nd leg when Andrew returned. Because the bike was leaning over on the side stand, the left leg wasn't quite strong enough by itself to support the whole front end, so Andrew helped to take some of the weight off while I pushed down to screw the right fork cap on.

These Intiminator thingies just drop down inside the for tube: they sit directly on top of the damping rod, and the fork spring goes down over them. That's it, just pull the cap off, remove the spacer, remove the spring, drop the Intinator in, and put everything back. They are similar to Race Tech's gold valve cartridge emulators but far less work to install.

*from the Ricor website

Ricor recommends using a lightweight 5W fork oil. Since I had 15W in there, I picked up a bottle of 5W Belray earlier in the week and changed it in the driveway. And, being the lazy person that I am, I changed the fork oil the easy way: I siphoned it out. None of this silly business removing the forks and holding them upside down to drain them... I began by straightening a wire coat hanger, and taped a 6-foot length of 3/16" clear vinyl tubing alongside the wire. With the front end supported by my steering tube stand, I removed the caps, spacers, and springs, then used the coat hanger wire to guide the vinyl tubing all the way to the bottom of the fork tubes. Then, start sucking. Just let it drain into a jug. I drank a beer while it drained. Actual work took about 15 minutes, and the siphoning took about 15 more minutes. I was taking it for a test drive in barely over 1/2 hour, and the forks were now ready for the Intiminators. One thing I've wondered, though: why don't they just have drain plugs at the bottom of the forks like in the good ol' days? Things used to be a whole lot easier back then.

* from the Ricor website

So here are 2 photos of the mirrors. I had to come up with a way to mount them to my wacky combination of oddball bar ends from hell, because I've got SV-S bar end weights mated to SV-naked handle bars, with V-Strom handguards. To make those pieces work together, I also have some of the mounting parts from a crappy pair of Lockhart Philips bar ends. With a throttle tube from a Yamaha R6, longer throttle & clutch cables from Motion Pro, and Galfer SS brake lines, there isn't much that's original aside from the forks themselves. Talk about a hodge-podge of hardware to make it all fit together, but after fiddling with various bolts, washers, and rubber expanders I finally got them to stay on there. They are solid and don't have any vibration when riding at speed. And the best part, unlike the factory elbow viewers mounted on the fairing, I can adjust them to actually see BEHIND me (imagine that!).

My CRG knock-offs

The quality is better than you'd think for a pair of $10 mirrors.

Finally, today was race day at Calabogie. I rode with my co-worker, Evan, out to the track this morning. Calabogie is the first event of the season in the Parts Canada Superbike race series, so that means that Canada's 2009 racing season has officially begun. Lots of people, lots of bikes, lots of noise, lots of sun. It was great! Kinda tired when we arrived home. Sitting in the sun all day and having to lug all your gear around everywhere you go tires you out. But I took plenty of great photos.

All kinds of racing: amateur & pro series, 125cc, 600 sport, SV650 cup, women's, and the finally, the superbike big boys. Weather was great, but it might have been more enjoyable if the sun hadn't been quite so bright.

SV Cup rider

SV Cup formation

By coincidence, a guy I knew in high school was racing a

ZX-10R. We recently re-connected on Facebook after 20 years.


Winner of the CBR125 Challenge race.

re-re-shaped seat

Last August, I spent an evening removing the factory seat's vinyl covering, and carving up the foam in an attempt to increase comfort. Since I'm way too cheap to lay down 450 smackers for an aftermarket Corbin or Sargent seat (yes, they cost that much here in Canada) I decided I would do it myself. I had already spent $200 on Suzuki's gel seat, but it didn't provide the comfort I was hoping for. My D-I-Y chop job was a big improvement but after riding on it for the remainder of the season last year, and now for a couple of months this season, I thought I might be able to improve it even more.

Last weekend, I removed the vinyl covering once again and used a big, sharp kitchen knife in another attempt to re-shape the foam. I ended up cutting out most of the foam I added last year, and adding another layer of foam (the black closed cell foam I used before), then re-shaping it some more. My main goal was to flatten out (level off) the seat because I've always felt that my butt is sliding forward, into the gas tank. This feeling has been somewhat intensified recently following my rear suspension upgrade (stiffer, so it doesn't compress as much when my fat arse sits on the bike). So essentially I wanted to remove the forward sloping shape of the seat to prevent me from sliding into the gas tank, and I wanted to build up the outer edges that curled downward at the rear corners, basically to widen the rear part of the seat a little bit for better support.

Here's a couple of photos following last year's seat modification:

The first chop had rounded off edges at the widest point of the seat (the rear). Comfort was a little better, but it didn't look quite as nice as I would have liked. This time, I wanted to make full use of the wide part by padding it up and flattening it out.

It's actually hard to tell from the last year's photos, but the main part of the seat where my buttocks rest is now much more level with the ground rather than a forward-sloping wedge shape. Also, I managed to make the rear part of the seat wider and flatter.

I find the new shape to be almost Sargent-esque.

For comparison, here's a photo I swiped from SVRider which shows a side-by-side shot of both the Corbin and Sargent models for the SV650:

Corbin (left) - Sargent (right)

Preliminary findings are very convincing. First, the aesthetic qualities of this 2nd chop job are far superior. Second, it just feels far more comfortable. Previously, I frequently found myself adjusting my seating position. Although I've not ridden for more than an hour at a time in the 6 days since I hacked it up again, I have noticed a remarkable improvement in the comfort department. I'm planning a ~ 5-hour trip into NY state this Saturday, plus a ride to Calabogie for the Parts Canada Superbike Race Championship on Sunday. Update to follow.

*** UPDATE: I've logged about 1,200Km since hacking up the seat foam again 7 days ago, with about 600Km of that in the last 2 days. Very pleased with the results. No butt ache whatsoever. In fact, I never thought about my butt all weekend!

Can you hear me now? Moron...

I've always been frustrated with my bike's lethargic and whimpy sounding factory horn. With people cutting me off, pulling out in front of me, failing to look before merging or moving into my lane -- I beep my silly girl's horn at them and no one even notices. Not any more.

A couple of months ago I picked up a FIAMM dual trumpet air horn at Princess Auto ($39). I finally got around to installing it this afternoon. I wired it so that my existing horn button triggers the relay, taking its power directly from the battery. An hour with quick disconnects, a crimper, heat shrink tubing, and some 12 and 16 gauge automotive wire is all it took. For the moment, the compressor and both trumpets are located under the pillion seat (the compressor is wrapped in a big shop rag and stuffed under there). I need to have good look at how I'm going to mount the trumpets under the front fairing.

How does it sound? Well, with the rider seat and rear seat cowl back in place, it's still loud enough to make your ears bleed. That stupid moron talking on his cell phone as he moves over into my lane without looking is in for a real scare.

Have a listen..

My quest for the best blinkers

Suzuki's OEM turn signals are big, bulky, and just plain ugly. In my quest to replace them with something sleeker and [hopefully] something brighter, I've bought just about every aftermarket turn signal I can find. Of the 7 or 8 different pairs of blinkers I've purchased in the last couple of years, they've all been junk. For the rear, I have been using some Lockhart Philips surface mount micro indicators. While these are cheaply crafted junk blinkers, too, I must admit they are very bright (10 watt halogen bulbs), and they don't get in the way. So for now, they'll stay.

Lockhart Philips surface mount micro indicators:

For the front, I've been especially frustrated with the stock blinkers because my nylon motorcycle cover always gets caught on them when I put it on or take it off. I had been considering Rizoma Zero-11 LED turn signals for quite some time. Everyone who has every bought Rizomas will say the same 2 things about them: 1) they are very good quality, and 2) they're expensive. Well, now that I've bought my own, I agree with both statements. Although I'm still not convinced they're actually worth the nearly $100 price tag. Good quality doesn't have to be expensive, but often it is.

If you look at these things from straight on when illuminated,

you'll temporarily go blind. They are bright.

The really funny [read: frustrating] thing with these expensive and good quality blinkers is the fiddling I had to do just to install them. For $100 a pair, I never expected I'd have to screw around during the installation. I bought Rizoma's fairing adapter plates (for Suzuki bikes) a few months ago at the Toronto Motorcycle Show (they were in a clearance sale bin with no price marked, so the guy let me have 'em for $5). The hole drilled in the center of them for the turn signal stalk is too small. I actually had to drill the hole larger. In fact, the little plastic connector on the end of the wiring lead is an even larger than the diameter of the stalk. To avoid drilling the hole larger than necessary, I used a sturdy safety pin to remove the delicate pins from the plastic connector.

Something else worth noting with these Rizoma blinkers is that they operate on 6 volts, not 12. Therefore, Rizoma includes a small box (about a 1 1/2" x 1/2") to reduce the voltage. You must absolutely install these or you'll burn up your $100 investment as soon as you turn them on. They also include thermal resistors to slow down the blink rate should you need it. In my case, however, I didn't need the resistors because I replaced my OEM turn signal flasher a long time ago with an electronic flasher when I had a previous set of LED blinkers on the rear of the bike. The nice thing about these Rizomas is that they include everything in the package: the blinker, the resistor, and the voltage converter -- and they all connect together with cute little plugs.

In conclusion, yes, they're expensive but they're good quality, bright as hell, and can be seen quite easily on a sunny day. They are particularly bright when looking straight on from the front, but still quite visible from an angle. I've learned that if you stare directly at these things when they flash on, you will temporarily go blind, kind of like looking into the bright light of an arc welder. Probably not good for your eyes.

For anyone who may be interested, I bought my Rizomas at PJs Parts. There is no longer a distributor of Rizoma products in Canada (or so I'm told). PJs had the best pricing I could find and they were very good to deal with. Price was $72 for the pair, plus $21 shipping to Canada. Convert that to Canadian dollars, and it added up to $107 CDN.

Polished exhaust

So I had been noticing the exhaust pipe on the bike slowly turning a golden-bronze colour over time. Whenever I clean the bike, I usually rub the pipe with a rag just to polish it a little, and to keep the crud off. On several occasions, I've used Nevr Dull on it and it seems to clean it up nicely (with little effort), however, it doesn't do anything about the dis-colouration.

During my teen years, my best friend's father always used a cream polish called Autosol around his garage to polish old engine casings, chrome parts, almost anything made of metal that he wanted to restore to a shiny glow. I also remembered that he used to rub, and rub, and rub. But after lots of rubbing, the shine was amazing. Brilliant.

I found a tube of Autosol metal polish at a local hardware store for $9. It might be worth a try.

I spent about 3/4 of an hour just rubbing it on with a clean shop rag. Rub, rub, rub. Doesn't require a whole lot either. Then a final buff with a clean micro-fibre cloth. Wow. This shit really works. I did the entire exhaust system (although the header pipe on the rear cylinder didn't get as much attention as the front pipe because it's so damn hard to get your hands up in there).

Before: the golden-bronze tint
of the pipe after 9,000 Km on the odometer

After: ~45 minutes of rubbing with Autosol.

Hopefully the shine will stay for more than just a few days. We'll see.

Rear suspension upgrade

It's widely known that the SV650's stock suspension has 3 drawbacks:

1) the components are budget pieces
2) only preload is adjustable (no compression or rebound damping)
3) too soft for anyone over 150 lbs.

Upgrading suspension can make an old bike feel like new, and a not-so-old bike feel a whole lot better. This post deals only with my rear suspension because I haven't decided what I'll do with the front. Last year, I changed the fork oil (from 5W to 15W) and I added a 12 mm spacer on top of the springs. This made a noticeable improvement up front, but I should really think about chainging the stock 0.67 Kg/mm springs for 0.85 Kg/mm. I don't think I would bother adding cartridge emulators to these cheap forks. If I was going to put that much effort into the front suspension, I'd probably just consider doing a GSX-R front end swap.

I'd been reading about all of the rear shock swaps for the SV650. People inevitably replace the crappy OEM unit with something that offers adjustability, plus most people are after something a little stiffer. All types of swaps have been done: shocks from various GSX-R models will bolt right into the SV frame but they all seem to require some amount of cutting/modifying the battery box. Some people have even opted for a shorter battery (ex: à la Honda CBR). The Kawasaki ZX-6R (a.k.a. Kawi 636) shock is also a popular swap, and I bought one of these in very good condition last summer. These are among the stiffest shocks around and are perfect for someone over 200 lbs. However, it too, would require altering the battery box (less so than a Gixxer shock). Then I learned that the ZX-10R shock can be installed without cutting the battery box, but only if you can get a hold of one from the 2007 or 2008 model years. The ZX-10R shock is also perfect for someone weighing 175-190 lbs. Finally, I learned that the ZX-14R shock is nearly identical to the '07-'08 ZX-10 shock, but sprung a little heavier. I generally tip the scales at 195 lbs, so add another 10 lbs or so when my gear is on. With that then, either the ZX-10 or ZX-14 shocks would suit me, and neither would require major surgery to install. I'd been on the lookout for a while, and I managed to sell the 636 shock I had sitting in the basement for 8 months. By the time you pay shipping, expect to pay $75-$125 for a decent used shock.

Here is the OEM shock I removed from my bike
(after 9,500 Km on the odometer).
The spring is quite soft, rated at 7.7 kg/mm (430 lb/in).

Here is a shock from a 2008 Kawasaki ZX-6R (a.k.a. 636) which I had initially intended to install. Notice the reservoir sticks out, above the upper bolt hole. This is where it would contact the battery box. Spring is 9.2 kg/mm (515 lb/in).

This is the shock I bought from a 2007 Kawasaki ZX-14. The spring is even stiffer than that of the 636 shock. The reservoir is angled lower than the 636 unit and doesn't intrude on the battery. A perfect fit. Spring is 9.7 kg/mm (542 lbs./in).

After about an hour, installed.

I loosened the upper and lower bolts on the shock, and also the bolts which secure the dogbones. Then I attached a couple of ratchet straps from the rear subframe to an overhead support joist. I raised the front end with my steering tube stand and I used a small floor jack to take the main weight of the bike (the ratchet straps were just in case something went wrong). With all of the bolts loosened before raising the bike, the removal was rather easy. With the shock removed, I used Nevr Dull to polish the rear-facing cylinder's exhaust pipe. Then the new ZX-14 shock went into place.

Finally, it was time for the test ride: I blasted up and down the canal for a few miles, crossed over to the other side, repeated. Twenty minutes was all, but it was enough to notice a big improvement. Familiar bumps (little ones and big ones) in my neighbourhood are better, and the whole bike feels planted much more firmly when you get on it hard around curves. I'll need to make a few adjustments but for now, I'm very pleased with this upgrade. The increased stiffness is welcomed given the bike needs to haul my ~200 pound ass. And the adjustability means that I'll be able to tweak it just the way I like it once I get used to it.