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.