Motorcycle Junkie - SV650 rider

This blog is closed...

2009-08-24T23:15:00.013-04:00

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

2009-07-13T23:59:00.005-04:00

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

2009-07-07T23:54:00.017-04:00

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

2009-06-29T12:39:00.007-04:00

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

2009-06-27T17:50:00.015-04:00

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

2009-06-13T00:10:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-12T21:38:00.021-04:00

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

2009-06-08T14:21:00.007-04:00

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

2009-06-05T21:45:00.010-04:00

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

2009-06-05T21:09:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-31T21:20:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-24T22:34:00.020-04:00

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

2009-05-21T22:21:00.015-04:00

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...

2009-05-17T17:59:00.011-04:00

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

2009-05-09T11:05:00.011-04:00

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

2009-04-26T21:30:00.011-04:00

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

2009-04-19T22:53:00.013-04:00

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.

Back on the road

2009-03-14T14:43:00.001-04:00

In the middle of the week, the 5-day forecast looked promising so I rang up the GoodTime Centre where the bike has been hibernating since December. They said picking it up this weekend shouldn't be a problem since I was among the very last bikes to go into storage, it was near the front of the pack in the warehouse. Great. I'll be there at 10:30am on Saturday.

Upon arrival, I settled up the final bill while the service shop did a quick wash and blow dry. Then I got suited up and was ready to go. I took a minute for a quick walk around --the usual pre-ride mechanical inspection-- then I rode about a mile down the road where I had arranged to meet Prashant and Preston for an 11 o'clock brunch. They were suprised to see me on the bike so early in the season; spring doesn't officially arrive for another week. We had a great time catching up, and we made tentative plans for some rides as soon as they dig their bikes out in the coming weeks.

There's still plenty of snow on the ground but I'm confident it will melt quickly. I may not get to ride every day for the first few weeks but at least the bike is at home now, ready to ride on a moment's notice. Feels good to be back in the saddle.

Super deal on new tires - ruined by UPS

2009-02-27T21:44:00.005-05:00

The SV has about 8,500Km on it now and the original tires are still holding up well. But if I'm able to ride as much as I hope to this season, I'll definitely need new rubber by mid-summer. I'd been thinking about a pair of Continental Road Attacks. They're often described as a reasonably priced sport touring tire with decent all around performance, and most people say they get decent mileage from them. Good grip in the rain, and quick to warm up. Continental also makes a similar tire called the ContiForce. Both the Road Attack and the ContiForce are considered sport touring, but for the Road Attack the emphasis on "sport" , while for the ContiForce the emphasis on "touring." The ContiForce tends to be a few dollars cheaper, too. They also make a SuperMoto version of the ContiForce that has a very tough casing to withstand abuse. On many of the SM forums, it seems to be a popular choice.

In any case, while clickin' around on eBay last week, I happened to stumble upon a guy in Wisconsin selling brand new Road Attacks for $50. WTF?? In the US, a rear normally sells for about $130. In Canada, that same tire would cost $250. After a few emails back and forth with the seller, and it turns out he bought a bunch of stock from a titsup motorcycle dealer and now he was just peddling the stuff on eBay to make a few bucks. Problem was that he didn't have a matching front tire for me. However, he did have a matching set of ContiForces, and he was selling these for only $35 each!! Holy shit, Batman, that's $70 for a matching pair. He got me a shipping quote from UPS: $55 from Wisconsin to Ottawa. A little steep for shipping, but it's still a terrific bargain. That's just $125 USD for a pair of Continental sport touring tires delivered to my door! I sent him the cash via PayPal and I'm happy as hell.

Oh, but then there's the criminals at UPS. Of course, these bastards always have to ruin a good thing. When I was working out the details of the purchase with the eBay seller, I couldn't remember exactly why I didn't like UPS.... Oh yeah, it's the damn brokerage fees they charge when delivering a package across an international border. So, when the tires cleared customs, those fucking wankers at UPS slapped a $96 brokerage fee on my $70 tires. I remember getting nailed by them once before when I bought a digital camera from the US. I just can't see how they arrive at a fee of $96 for a package valued at $70. WTF? It makes no sense.

But they've got me over a barrel. It's not the eBay seller's fault. I just wish I had remembered about UPS and their crooked ways before arranging this deal. I'd have asked him to ship the tires through the post office 'cause they don't charge ridiculous fees to clear a package through customs.

Oh well, sometimes I need to learn the hard way. And either way, the entire bill comes to about $245 Canadian dollars, which happens to be almost the same price my local dealer quoted me for the rear tire alone, before taxes, installation, and balancing. So, I guess I'm still ahead in this deal.

Montreal Motorcycle Show

2009-02-22T19:28:00.006-05:00

Andrew invited me to tag along with him and Dave for a quick daytrip to the Montreal Motorcycle Show. We left Ottawa shortly after 8am. We were held up by traffic and snow but we eventually rolled into the Montreal Convention Centre just before 11am.

There wasn't much of a line up at the ticket booth and we were inside within minutes. Overall, the show was as I expected: all the dealerships were there displaying the latest offerings of all types (cruisers, big tourers, sport bikes, dual sports, etc,). There was a dozen or so vintage bikes on display from the Vintage Road Racing Association. The scale of this show doesn't really compare with the big Toronto show but it's still nice to go out in the middle of winter and see a whole bunch of bikes in one place. It's also nice to just throw a leg over some of the new models, even bikes you might never consider buying. I took my turn sitting on such bikes as the new CBR600, CBR1000, Varadero, Hayabusa, B-King, ZX-14, KLR650, KX250, DR650, DRZ400SM, VStrom 650 & 1000, and a few others.

There were far less accessories on display than I hoped. And we also noticed that the exhibitors weren't actually selling anything. Apparently, they're not allowed to sell stuff at the show, rather, they're only allowed to 'display' their wares. Quebec is a crazy place, indeed. And the manufacturers weren't there, just the dealerships. So really, they were just showing off the '09 models, and there were relatively few aftermarket goodies. Regardless, it was nice to get away with the boys for a day and check out the new bikes.

When we had our fill of motorcycles, we used Andrew's GPS to find food: PizzaDélice was just a few blocks away, so we had a nice lunch and were on the road home by 2:30pm.

2009 International Motorcycle Show - Toronto

2009-01-05T10:35:00.020-05:00

A nitrous-equipped, stretched-out, single-side-swingarmed 'Busa.

They don't get any sillier than this, folks -- more money than brains. No turning, this bike can only ride a straight line.

The last time I attended Toronto's giant International Motorcyle Show was January 1995. I lived in the big smoke then, and I've wanted to go back every year since, but somehow circumstances and obligations have always prevented me from attending. This year, I figured I deserve to go. I therefore arranged to go with my buddy, Sean, almost two months in advance.

I would be spending the week in Toronto with my wife & kids to visit her family, so I knew I would be around for this year's show. We went to a New Year's party at Sean's place, and Sean and I arranged to arrive at the show when the doors open on the first day (Friday, January 2).

We stopped at Starbucks downtown and hit the higway. It would be fifteen minutes from downtown to get to the show. Upon arrival, the parking lot still had plenty of room. We wandered inside the main building looking for the ticket booth. Seeing the lineup, we felt anxious that we'd be waiting all day just to get in. We were pleasantly surprised to find the line moved very quickly and we were inside within 10 minutes. We saved $3 off the admission price by printing the coupon on the show's website.

The show comprised 5 large, themed buildings. One for choppers & customs, racing, touring & cruisers, etc. I'm not particularly interested in cruisers, choppers, or custom bikes and all the accessory junk that goes with that breed of bike but that class definitely makes up a very large part of the motorcycling market so there's no avoiding it. Besides, even though I may not care for these bikes, they're still motorcycles. And you can't deny the amount of work, effort, and money that has gone into some of the custom bikes; I must still appreciate that. Regardless, with the show's goals in mind, I wanted to see everything anyway.

My long time friend Sean has had a few bikes: a 1970's single-cylinder Yamaha 650, an '83 Interceptor 750, an '83 Honda CB1100F. He hadn't owned a bike for more than 10 years, though, and last summer he found another CB1100F that was very much like his old one. He spent a few dollars to fix some minor stuff and re-discovered riding again. The CB1100F was (and still is) a great bike. A real classic with [still] impressive performance.

For me, the highlight of the show was the multitude of vintage bikes: British, German, American, Japanese, Italian, and others. There was a brand new 1974 Norton 850 Commando still in the crate, a gorgeous '74 Ducati 750 GT (a very advanced bike for the time), and some really old stuff like 1930's Harleys, 1950's Vincents, and others. We looked at the custom choppers and similar impractical machines (ex: the turbocharged Hayabusas and Ninjas with stretched-out swingarms), but it was the new stuff (like KTM's new RC8 v-twin superbike, and the latest Ducatis) that impressed me the most. There was also a very good selection of parts & accessories on hand, with some very good bargains. Although, I did find that much of the leather jackets, helmets, gloves, etc, were geared for the cruiser folk. Oh well, that was expected. We also spotted a CB1100F, very similar to Sean's bike, except that this one was NOT the coveted Canadian model with the gold rims and round headlight. It was a US model, and whoever owned it pimped it out in a very cheesy and tacky style with gawdy accents. Even still, it was nonetheless a great classic bike.

Some magazine publishers were on hand to sell subscriptions at discounted rates. My subscription to Cycle Canada ran out last month, so I renewed for 2 years for only $20. I also subscribed to Motorcycle Mojo and Inside Motorcycles. The only other thing I purchased at the show was a set of 4 Suzuki turn-signal block-off plates made by Rizoma. There was no price tag, and the sales guy let me have them for just $5. Sean subscribed to a couple of magazines, too, and he found a nylon rain cover to put over his bike for $40. I wasn't really looking for anything to buy, nor did I have a lot of cash, but there were definitely some good deals.

We arrrived at 10:00am and we left around 2:30pm. We could have used another hour or two, but I had to get back so we could load up the kids and pack the van for the 5-hour ride back to Ottawa. There was a pretty good crowd at the show, but we never really felt crowded, so that was good. All in all, it was well worth the $15 admission ticket. We got to see plenty of bikes and related stuff -- a nice treat in the middle of winter. We arrived home in Ottawa around 9:30 that evening and would have the Saturday & Sunday to relax before the routing of work, school & daycare resumes. I've now got a full blown case of bike fever. Sure wish I could go for a ride. Hope spring comes early.

A billet chopper??

Some very fine detail work

Check out the 1/2 leaf spring front suspension!

A brand new '74 Norton 850 Commando, still in the crate!

A gorgeous 1974 Ducati 750GT

Harley-Davidson flat-track racer

A very tacky '83 Honda CB1100F (USA model).

Great shape, though, and a real classic.

'73 Can-Am 250cc (still winning races)

An SV650 race bike

custom Sv650 with GSXR front

suspension & fairing

1951 Vincent Black Shadow

Mullet Man

Finally, this is just a loozer mullet man that I followed for a minute in order to get a clear shot of him. I've heard there are people who still sport mullets, but I couldn't believe my eyes. I just had to get a photo. I'll bet he drives a rusty pick-up truck with home-made side-pipes and fuzzy dice.

A sad day.

2008-12-16T14:31:00.007-05:00

Today is a sad day: I rode the bike to its winter resting place. Yesterday's rain washed away much of the snow that had been clogging the streets (though it's still nearly a foot deep on my lawn). The rain also helped [somewhat] to cleanse the streets of the winter road salt.

It was a chilly -8 C (17 F) today, but clear and sunny, so I decided to take the advantage this rare opportunity to ride the bike to the Ottawa Good Time Centre, where I arranged for a rented storage space back in the summer. I zipped home with the car at lunch time, fired up the bike, and got dressed in all my gear while the engine warmed up. My wife followed in the car and waited while I did a final walk-around with the service guy. I also took a few minutes to give the bike a quick wipe down with a bucket of hot water and a wash rag -- just to get rid of the road grime I picked up during the ride. It's pretty clean now. The service techs will now remove the battery and hook it to a battery tender on the shelf, add fuel stabilizer, and whatever else they do for the $35 fee. After that, they'll bill my Visa card $40 for each month until I go pick up the bike in the spring.

While I'm sad, I'm also somewhat relieved as I was beginning to stress over the very real possibility of having my bike sit under the car port all winter. Regardless, it's going to be a long, lonely winter.

Caught with my pants down: winter arrives, riding season ends.

2008-12-11T14:45:00.030-05:00

So winter basically arrived [read snow storm] in Ottawa during the last week of November. While there was an isolated "snow incident" in mid-October, the weather warmed up quite nicely shortly after that and we had some good --albeit cool-- riding days through late October and well into November (fortunately I have grip heaters and hand guards). At any rate, the SV has basically sat parked under the car port, wrapped in a nylon rain cover since Nov. 24th; I rode to work that day and the real winter snow started during my evening commute home. By the time the storm was over, we had a pretty good dump of snow (15 cm/6 inches) and I regretted not having taken the bike to the heated storage facility sooner.

Several months ago I reserved my winter storage spot at a local dealership about 15 minutes away. I figured, though, that after a few days the roads would be dry and clear enough to make the ride safely. Nearly 2 weeks went by before my schedule, and weather & road conditions would give me the opportunity. On Friday, December 5th, I took the day off work and arranged with my wife to have her follow me in the car. She had some errands to do and went out for a while but agreed to be home shortly. It was bright, sunny, and dry, but quite windy. I lubed the chain, and fiddled various other things (cleaning, lubing, adjusting little stuff). Then, I went for a quick ride to fill up with fresh gas. A minute or two before I got back home, a short but violent snow storm came out of nowhere. From start to finish it lasted only 15 minutes, but it was enough to cover the ground and roads with nearly 2 inches of really wet snow. I made it back home just in time. My wife pulled in a few minutes later, just as the snowfall was ending. I had now missed my opportunity to get the bike into storage.

Fast and furious 15-minute snow storm begins.

The weather and road conditions didn't improve much over the next few days (repeated light snowfall), and then we got slammed with a whopper of a snowstorm: over 30 cm (12 inches). The evening this storm began, I put the bike on my front and rear paddock stands to get it off the ground. It sits under the car port, with the nylon rain cover, and covered again with a heavy-duty waterproof poly tarp. It will have to stay like that at least for the time being. With all the snow that fell, city crews have spread plenty of salt and sand on the roads. It will be several days before the roads are clear and dry, but the salt and sand will be there to stay.

My tentative plan is to wait for a dry day (and by "dry" I mean "cold," as in "below freezing") and I'll ride to the storage place. Admittedly, this probably won't happen for another week or two, and that's assuming we don't get another snow storm before then. I'll have my wife bring a bucket of warm water and some rags so I can wipe off any road grime. Maybe even a spray can of WD-40 to wipe some of the nuts and bolts and other items that might corrode. Why didn't I just put it away sooner?

The RD story

2008-12-04T11:25:00.035-05:00

Some time around 1990-91, a friend and former house mate bought a bike that grabbed my attention: a 1981 Yamaha RD350LC. Having grown up riding 2-strokes in the dirt, I was drawn to Phil's peculiar street bike. I knew Yamaha's Banshee quad-racer was built on the RD's engine and was known as a very quick machine. An updated version of the old air-cooled RDs from the 70s. I was immediately interested in this bike.

I spent the summer months of 1993 in Germany's Black Forest region, where I saw many of these liquid cooled RDs on the roads. They were everwhere, and they were very different from other streetbikes: wild acceleration (compared to bikes with twice or three times the RD's engine displacement), lightweight, nimble, and easy to work on: a real hooligan bike. After seeing copies of Phil's bike all over Germany, I really wanted one now.

The RD was Phil's very first bike, and he wasn't (and probably still isn't) a mechanically inclined individual. As you might imagine, he didn't maintain the old RD with much care. He just rode it hard and didn't spend much time taking care of it. After only 2 years of riding it, the bike was ready for the junk pile. At the end of the '93 riding season, he overheated the engine and basically cooked it real good. He had also dropped the bike a couple of times, so the bike had several spots of road rash, bent handle bars, various worn bits here and there, bald tires, and a blown-up engine. In late December 1993, I went with buddies Mike and Dean to purchase Phil's RD from his home in Moncton, some 2 hours from Fredericton. It was a cold winter night, and we had to chip the ice and snow from the concrete slab patio behind Phil's house. It was 1/2 covered with plastic, frozen in the snow. We dug it out and threw it in the back of Dean's Chev 1/2 ton. I handed Phil $500 (which was more than a fair price considering all the work that would be required to revive this poor piece of machine).

Over the next 3 months, I stripped the engine and transmission down and assessed the damage. It was bad: scored crank journals, a broken piston skirt, piston ring in pieces, fragments of main bearings scattered throughout the engine's bottom end. The crank seals had been leaking, antifreeze had been sucked all through the engine (top and bottom). Cylinder walls were scored badly. It was a real mess. Fortunately, I found an identical bike for parts: it had been used at the track a few times and was dtill in reasonable shape. For $150 I got a complete parts bike that looked rough cosmetically, but the engine was in pretty good shape. Between the two engines, I was able to build a complete one. I sent the crank and cylinders to a local engine shop for machining. Of the two cranks, I selected the best one and had one of the journals welded up, then ground down (one of the journals was so deeply scored that simply turning the crank wouldn't be enough as I never would have been able to find main bearings to fit).

So, after a few hundred bucks I had a rebuilt crank, 0.020" bored cylinders, and a planed head. A piston kit, rings, bearings, and gaskets were a few hundred more. I also prepared the gas tank and plastic panels for painting. My friend Keith sprayed a bright [read neon] yellow lead-based bulldozer paint which came from Rob's workshop. It was an old gallon of paint that had been purchased some 15 years earlier but never used. Regardless, it was free paint and it would surely be durable stuff. I bought some hardner and reducer, and Keith sprayed all the parts for a case of beer. I had some custom vinyl decals made at a local shop for about $20. The decal woman rubbed a pencil over the "Yamaha" lettering from the engine casings and copied that for the tank decals, and she designed a checkered flag.

Fresh paint: the engine is just resting

in place for the photo -- no cylinders, no pipes, no carbs).

I also bought a decent (but used) rear tire for $10 from Atlantic Motorsports (a local shop that was only in business for a couple of years). By early May, the bike was basically done. I was graduating from St. Thomas with my first university degree, and was planning a summer of partying at Université du Québec à Trois Rivières after winning a bursary for a [summertime] French program. Although the bike was basically ready, I decided not to take it to Quebec. I would be living on-campus and outdoor parking would be my only option. I was afraid of having my newly restored bike stolen or vandalized, and I didn't want to leave it outside in the rain either. It would only be 6 weeks anyway. After that, I'd be taking it with me to Toronto, where I was enrolled to start my next degree at York University in the fall.

I got back from Quebec in mid-July and put insurance on the bike right away. It was awesome. Spent a few weeks riding with buddies Mike, Darren, John, Dean, and a few others. The RD was everything I had dreamed. From 0-60, it would smoke anything on the road. Beyond 60, it had the roll-on acceleration of a K-car. Maintaining speed on the highway was tiring. It was so light, oncoming trucks blew me all over the place. Mind you, I only weighed 140 lbs. back then. Anyway, as a city bike, it was the greatest thing around and I was about to move to Canada's largest city.

In early August of '94, I loaded up a giant military duffle bag with a much of my crap as I could. I'm sure it weighed 75 lbs. I strapped it to my back and I rode for 2 long days all the way from Fredericton to Toronto. I decided to avoid the big slab and take the scenic route state-side: across Hwy 2, snaking through Main, New Hampshire, and Vermont. After 2 days and 1,800 Km, I made it. The RD wasn't much of a touring bike, but I had a blast on that ride, the roads in the White Mountains National Forest being the most memorable. I took a few detours and side roads to explore a little along the way.

The bike worked flawlessly during the entire ride. It would serve as my daily transportation for the school year. And not being familiar with the winter climate in Toronto, I was pleasantly suprised to find little snow. The cold didn't keep me from riding, not even in January. As a result, I never really put the bike away during the 3 winters I lived there. There may have been stretches of a week or two when I didn't ride because of a snow storm, but it always melted and dried up.

After some 10,000 Km of riding around Toronto over the next year, the bike was doing well. I had met a few riding buddies and was having a great time. Classes and exams came to an end in May, and I was working full time at the bank HQ. I arranged 2 weeks off beginning at the end of May and planned to ride back home for a visit. The ride back had been going well. I bought a +2 tooth sprocket for the front to make the highway ride a little more practical. I rode the 401 and the 20 all day. I spent the night in a motel just a few miles from the Quebec/New Brunswick border. The next morning, I got up early and hit the road. Bare 20 minutes in to the remaining 4-hours to Fredericton, disaster struck without warning. I was passing through Baker Lake, NB, and had just crested a small hill when the engine suddenly locked up. The rear tire left a black mark before I could pull the clutch in and coast to a stop.

Took this photo at a rest stop along Hwy 20,

somewhere between Quebec City and Rivière-du-loup,

the evening before the engine seized.

Thirty minutes of fiddling confirmed the seized engine wasn't going to work itself free. I pushed it for about a mile to a gas station and called my parents. Dad borrowed a friend's pickup truck and came to get me. I spent my 2 week vacation rebuilding the top end of the engine (bottom end was fine). After stripping it down, I discovered a dead insect lodged in the oil injection line that connected the oil tank to the injector pump to the carbs. Looked like a big horse fly or maybe a bumble bee. Regardless, this caused oil starvation to the carbs, which ultimately led to the failure. During the rebuild, I decided to simply disconnect the oil injector and mix my own fuel/oil from that point on. The rebuild went very well. No re-boring. Just a little honing of the cylinder walls which I did myself. Another piston kit and gaskets. About $250 and I was back in business.

However, for the ride back to Toronto, I was nervous about making such a long trip on a fresh engine. I had to get back to work, though, to earn my tuition money for the next school year. My buddy Dean offered to drive me up with the bike in the back of his pickup as long as I paid his gas. I took him up on his offer, because it allowed me to bring more of my stuff, including my dog, Bud. My parents had been looking after Bud and I knew they would rather not.

Bud

After all that, the RD never had any engine troubles again. I moved back to NB in 1997. I kept it for about 9 years in all, and put about 50,000 Km on it during that time. When I left NB again in 2002, I left it behind with plans to return for it. But with kids on the way and other responsibilities taking priority, I never did. My father was also bugging me to get it out of his garage. a few months after moving to Ottawa, I finally, I asked him to hang a sign on it and park it near the road. Within a week or so, it sold for $1,500 (I remember correctly) to some young 19-year-old who lived nearby. I used the cash to pay off some bills. That was a sad day.

Circa 2001.

Yamaha never sold this version of the liquid cooled RD350 in the US. They were introduced to the US market as the RZ350 in 1983. The engine in those were a little different, as Yamaha came out with the YPVS system (a power valve that modulated the exhaust port according to engine RPM). These were apparently good for a few more horsepower.

In the beginning...

2008-11-18T03:19:00.014-05:00

A few people have asked about my early motorcycling days. As I mentioned in my opening post of this blog, my father bought me my first bike in 1978, when I was 8 years old. A kid who lived near me had an old 70's Suzuki RM80. He let me ride it a couple of times in the hay field and I was hooked for life. I begged my parents from that point to get me a dirt bike of my own. After all the begging and whining, my father gave in.

Here's a photo from that first summer. The bike he bought was a 1972 model made by Moto-Ski, called the Moto-Skeeter 450. It was a 4.5 hp two-stroke engine. I think Dad paid 300 bucks for it; bought it from an old army buddy. I shared the bike with my brother, Randy, who is 1 1/2 years older than me. We rode that thing to hell and back for about 4 years. We rode it rain or shine, summer and winter. We had worn a path circling the perimeter of our family's 3/4 acre property. The neighbours must have grown tired of the incessant noise we made riding around our makeshift dirt track. Round and round, dawn 'til dusk, day after day. We must have clocked 50,000 miles circling the house, garage, back and side yards.

1978: My childhood friend, Dean, looks on jealously from his BMX.

Photo from 1979. I was the coolest kid around.

A year or so after getting the bike we had replaced the handlebars (bent in a crash, of course), peeled the decals off the gas tank (yes, de-badging at 8 years old), the pull cord spring assembly was broken and removed. We never repaired the pull cord: instead, like true Canadians, we just wrapped a hockey skate lace around the pulley to start it. I've still got scars on my knuckles 30 years later!

I recall riding in the deep snow during the winters. At one point, we busted the headlight and removed it (I don't think it ever worked anyway). With the light out of the way, Randy got a crazy idea of mounting a snow scraper shovel to the front of the bike: we tied it to the cross bar of the our the aftermarket mx-style handlebars. We used it to "snowplow" the driveway and our race track. I also remember hitting a pothole and having the shovel jilpoke into the ground, spearing me in the abdoment with the shovel's handle and sending me reeling to the ground, and the bike into the snowbank. Kids. Whaddya gonna do?

Another fond memory: I don't recall where we got it, but somehow we got our hands on an old wooden 1970's-style water ski. We cut it down with Dad's hand saw and strapped it to the front tire, making the Moto-Skeeter a more capable snow machine. Wish we had a photo of that.

It was about that time that my father bought an old junky 1969 Alouette snowmobile. The photo below isn't of the actual machine he bought, rather, just a photo I scammed off the interweb. Ours was not in this condition. The one we had was beat and worn out. If I remember correctly, it had a 250 cc single cylinder engine. After 2 or 3 winters, the thing was dead beyond repair (broken track, bad clutch, severely messed up carb, broken steering linkage, etc,). It got hauled to the dump during spring cleaning (literally... Dad dragged it there with the car, our '76 Ford Elite).

1969 Alouette simliar to ours, only nicer.

Between this old mini bike and this crappy snowmobile, I became interested and learned all about how engines worked. By the time we outgrew that first motorcycle, Randy and I had completely disassembled the engine several times (the first time was because Randy laid the bike down in the swamp, and it sat completely submerged in water for a couple of hours before we were able to pull it out. We had also learned to take apart the snow mobile. Imagine a couple of 9 and10 year old kids doing things like replacing the head gasket, replacing broken track springs and bogie wheels on a late '60s snowmobile, and doing engine tear-downs on mini motorcycles. At that age, Randy was probably a little more mechanically inclined than me. He had a natural talent and I learned from him.

Of men and magazines

2008-11-14T15:00:00.006-05:00

I've got hundreds of motorcycle magazines stacked in boxes in the closet. Been buying them for years --often 5 or 6 every month-- and I never throw them out. I keep the most recent ones in the night stand and in the bathroom, and after 6 months or so, I box 'em up and put 'em away.

I've been a reader of both Sport Rider and Motor Cyclist magazines for roughly 20 years. I've bought many issues at the news stand, and I've been a paying subscriber to one or both publications for at least a dozen of those years. My most recent subscription for these ran out last Christmas and I had been buying my copies at my local news store. About 6 months ago, there was a subscription card included in Sport Rider that was offering a year's subscription to both Sport Rider and Motor Cyclist for only $15.95. But of course, as usual, Canadian orders are to subject to a surcharge of $10 per year. But even at $25.95, a year's subscription to both magazines is still a bargain. At that price, I decided I'd take 2 years. I filled out the card, and checked the box indicating I wanted 2 years. Instead of sending via snail mail, I scanned the completed card, attached it to an email, and sent it along with my credit card number to the subscription folks (a 3rd party company called Palm Coast provides this service).

A few weeks later, the trouble began. I received a response from Palm Coast telling me that the offer was only intended for US customers. What? WTF?? Then why does the fine print on the offer say that Canadian orders must add $10/year? Several emails back and forth saw a very silly conversation between me and these subscription service morons. They were haggling with me about the price they'd honor, and I kept referring them back to the offer as it was worded on the subscription card. I won't go into all the details, but let's just say that I got so fed up with their crap I decided to abandon this effort and just boycott both magazines. They'd received enough of my cash over the last 2 decades.

So I began my boycott and subsequently subscribed to a couple of other magazines which I have only ever bought occasional copies at the news stand. They are Rider and Inside Motorcycles. These are both great sources of information, and I only recently discovered them. Oh yeah, and I also have active subscriptions with Cycle Canada and Cycle World.

In my anger over the poor customer service I received from Palm Coast, I forgot to send a note to the editors of both Sport Rider and Motor Cyclist. I had been only dealing with the subscription company, the the staff at the magazines likely had no idea what was going on. So I decided to write an email to the editors to tell my story. Unlike Palm Coast, where those morons took 2-3 weeks to respond to each message I sent, I got a response in less than 48 hours from Marty Estes of Sport Rider's advertising dept. He asked for some copies of my email exchange with Palm Coast, which I gladly provided. The next day, Marty forwarded me an email from a manager at Palm Coast and he was going to talk to the customer service people on his end. But to make it up to me, they are giving 2 years of both magazines for free! With that, they have redeemed themselves.

I was never really pissed off at Sport Rider or Motor Cyclist, as I knew well that subscription services are contracted out; my beef was with this 3rd party. Oh well, I'm happy now, and I'll have 6 magazines delivered to my mailbox every month. Lots of reading material.

Indian summer, hand guards, and frozen bones

2008-11-10T16:03:00.018-05:00

Last week was unseasonably warm for November in Ottawa -- a welcomed week of Indian Summer. Unfortunately, my chronic knee problems prevented me from enjoying it too much; I could tolerate the pain only for my short commute to the office, and a few quick noon hour runs. On Wednesday's lunch hour, I rode to Wheelsport in Orleans to pick up the V-Strom (DL650) hand guards I ordered a few days earlier. I installed them on Sunday afternoon. They are pretty much a direct bolt on accessory for my SV650S, which I've modified with a top triple clamp and standard handlebars from a naked 2005 SV650. The original low-mounted clip-ons were too painful on longer rides.

Last week's warm spell is over, and now the daytime temps are barely above the freezing mark. But with my recently installed grip heaters, combined with these new hand guards, I am almost completely immune from cold hands. It's hovering around the freezing mark and I'm still riding with summer gloves! The only thing I may need to address is the cold metal brake & clutch levers. I can feel the cold metal right through my gloves, so I'm avoiding my usual habit of riding with 2-3 fingers on the front brake. I just keep all my fingers wrapped around the warm grips.

V-Strom hand guards on my SV650S

Speaking of cold weather riding, I am reminded of when I lived in Toronto (1994-1997). I pretty much rode my 1981 RD350 year-round. Toronto doesn't get as much snow as Ottawa, though it definitely gets cold. I rarely rode on Toronto's highways anyway, especially during cold weather; I had a 5-10 minute ride through city streets from my house to the university campus. There's one particular winter day I will never forget, though. It is by far my most memorable cold weather riding experience: a 25Km trip from my home at Yonge & Sheppard Ave. to Pearson Int'l airport during the first week of January '95. Toronto was in the middle of a super cold snap. It was a bone-chilling -25 Celsius (-13 F) plus a little breeze to make it feel even colder. My room-mate, Mario, was flying to Montreal for a week but had forgotten an important document he needed for the term paper he would be working on. Like a dumb-ass, I agreed to rush it to him before his plane took off.

I dressed warmly. However, once up to speed on the 401, it was so cold I considered pulling over to the shoulder of the collector lanes so I could just lie down and die in the ditch. But despite the frigid Siberian-like temperature, I decided to twist the frozen throttle all the way open and make it to my destination as fast as I possibly could. That poor little bike topped out around 160Km/hr (~100 mph) and I held it there for the next 10-12 minutes. I located Mario and gave him his papers. I stayed inside the airport terminal for over an hour --sitting directly on a heater grate near the security desk-- to warm up before the ride home.

When I finally made it home, I pulled into the garage and nearly dropped the bike as I put my foot down. My feet and knees were so frozen stiff I could barely manage to climb off. It was absolutely debilitating. I took an hour-long shower to thaw my bones. I had a mild case of frostbite in a few toes and fingers. Mario thanked me with a case of beer and a large pizza upon his return the following week. Now, I like pizza & beer as much as anybody, but I don't think I'd do it again.

TRE installed

2008-10-24T22:21:00.003-04:00

On most if not all of their fuel-injected bikes these days, Suzuki deliberately retards the ignition timing in the first 4 gears but only during the first half of the throttle opening. I'm not entirely sure why they do this, but one plausible explanation I've read is that it's done to meet pollution and sound level regulations during acceleration.

Whatever the reason, a device called a TRE (Timing Retard Eliminator) can be installed to disable this performance-limiting feature. Some aftermarket companies sell TREs for as much as $125, but it's really just a few dollars worth of parts (a resistor, a transistor, wiring harness connectors, a few inches of wire, some heat shrink tubing) so the price mark-up is huge. Highway robbery. While some people swear it gives their bike more power, many don't think the difference is even noticeable. So should I buy one, or not? That's a lot of money for something that may or may not work.

A member of SVRider offered to buy bulk quantities of all the required parts and assemble a bunch of them as long as a minimum number of people agreed to buy one. At $35 each, he wasn't going to get rich, just a few dollars for his time to build them. At that price though, I figured even if it doesn't improve performance, it wouldn't be a lot of money down the drain. If I really felt it was worthless, I could always hawk it on eBay and probably get more than I paid.

Anyway, I bought mine and installed it: took about 10 minutes, and no cutting of any wires. Now, I'm always a skeptic and I didn't expect to see any big improvement. But I'm happy to report that the difference is indeed noticeable. Not huge, but noticeable. The difference I noticed is a slightly more responsive throttle. Being fuel injected, the throttle is very responsive to begin with, now it's just more responsive. And the nice part about the particular device I bought is that it's an "automatic" TRE, meaning that when the bike is in neutral, the TRE is not active. Some TREs are not automatic, so the neutral light doesn't work (because the ECU is tricked into thinking the transmission is always in 6th gear, where the timing is not retarded).

On a side note, I found a rather cool video showing the evolution of the GSXR over 20 years. I just loved the early models, say '85-'89. By the mid-'90s, the styling got rather ugly.

Heated grips - the essential upgrade

2008-10-19T21:46:00.008-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a set of Symtec Grip Heaters. They consist of two sticky sheets with heating elements glued onto them. Think of the rear defroster in your car, just applied to a sticky transparency page. Just remove your existing handle grips, stick 'em on, replace the grips, and give 'em some electricity. Simple and effective. And, cheaper than Hot Grips, which I've heard both good and bad things about. The Symtec heaters were $45 at Ottawa GoodTime Centre.

I had been concerned about the over-stressing the bike's electrical system. I've heard that heated grips (depending on the type) can suck a lot of power. The type I've chosen draw 43 watts on the high setting (according to the manufacturer's website). Considering my headlight bulbs draw 110W for the pair (55W x 2 on low beam) the grip heaters don't use that much, really. Besides, I've converted my running lights (5W x 2), turn signals (21W x 2 each side), and license plate light (5W) all to LED, so that saves me a few watts. My bike's alternator pumps out 375W at 5,000rpm, so all is good.

Anyway, I installed the heaters two weeks ago, but I've been too busy to get the wiring job done (my recent knee problems also kept me on the couch with ice packs much of the time). The manufacturer's recommendations for wiring them up seemed a little simplistic (if not dangerous) and I thought it best to use a relay connected to a switched power source. I gathered all the stuff I would need (a standard automotive relay, some wire, heat-shrink tubing, crimper, quick-disconnects, soldering kit, pliers, etc,) and I had drawn up a little wiring diagram. I got up early this morning and went right to work.

My wiring diagram:

To remove the grips, I used a bamboo skewer soaked with dish soap. After removing the bar end, I slid the skewer under the grip, all the way to then end. While the skewer was inserted, I squirted a little Windex up there. I was then able to twist the grip a little. I removed the skewer and the grip slipped right off.

Here's the heater installed on the right grip (throttle). You stick it on the throttle tube, not directly on the handlebar because the heat would never make it all the way to your hand otherwise (the metal handlebars would absorb all the heat).

For the left side (clutch), I wrapped the bar with a few turns of heavy duty packing tape. I read somewhere that if you don't do this, the steel handlebar may suck the heat away from the grip. You don't want to heat the bar, you want to heat the grip. On the throttle side, well the grip heater sticks to the plastic throttle tube so it's not an issue there. Wrapping the tape on the left bar will also help to ensure you get even heat on both sides.

I mounted the relay directly under the headlights, on the under side of the fairing.

I mounted the round rocker switch on the instrument cluster bezel. Incidentally, the red LED is for my Gorilla Alarm system.

Once I finished all the wiring (connections soldered and finished with heat-shring tubing), Prashant showed up and we went for a ride to Kemptville. It wasn't particularly cold for late October, but my hands were warmer than Prashant's. The temperature was about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) and it was very sunny, so it wasn't much of a test day. I did wear my summer riding gloves and I'm sure my hands would have been more than a little cold after our 2 hours of riding if it weren't for my new heaters. The low setting worked quite well for today, but the high setting was very warm, almost too warm for today. I'm not afraid of the cold weather now. Bring it on. No, wait, the forecast is calling for snow on Tuesday. Shit. Studded tires?

Rheumatoid arthritis - a pain in the ass & knee

2008-10-15T01:21:00.004-04:00

The weather forecast for this past Thanksgiving weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) was terrific: sunshine for days on end, with warmer than usual temperatures. With the fall colours in full bloom, I was looking forward to riding the entire long weekend. At least, right up until my knee troubles came back and got in the way of my plans.

A few days later, things began to improve. But for some reason, on the Saturday of the long weekend, the swelling and pain began to return. Fortunately, I was able to ride for a while, both Friday evening and Saturday morning. Prashant and I went for a ride through Gataineau park after work on Friday. It got dark on us, but it was fun just the same. The park is a great place to ride, especially in the fall, as long as you avoid the peak traffic times (lots of leaf peepers to see the foliage). We even traded bikes for a few miles: I had a blast on his Katana, and he had a big grin on his face after cranking on my sporty v-twin's throttle up and down the hills and twisty roads.

It wasn't quite 2 weeks ago that I finally got to see a new rheumatologist to deal with the nagging joint problems I've been suffering with these past few months. She drained the excess synovial fluid from my swollen knee and gave me a shot of cortizone. That should have given me almost complete relief for a few months.

It had been a while since I rode through Gatineau Park. It was so much fun that I decided I would return in the morning. I met Greg at his place at 8:30am and we rode all the way up to Champlain Point, which I believe is the highest point in all of Gatineau Park. There is a spectacular view from the lookout area.

We stayed and chatted for a while, then we chatted some more with another fellow who was out for an early Saturday morning ride on his mint condition 1983 Honda CX650. A beautiful classic, and in truly great shape.

A group ride was planned for Sunday: a 4-5-hour ride around Calabogie. This would be much fun, and several fellow SV Riders had committed. Prachant was also interested. But my knee began to swell a little by late morning on Saturday, and by evening it was in horrible shape. I knew I wouldn't be able to ride to Calabogie. My knee was fully swollen, hard as hell, very sore, and hot to touch. Couldn't bend it either. I spent the rest of the long weekend on the couch with ice packs. That sucked, mostly because I missed the big Calabogie ride. And what makes it worse is that there will be very few nice riding days like this before the snow comes.

For Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, I was thankful that only one knee was giving me grief, and I considered myself lucky to have been able to ride both Friday evening and Saturday morning...my way of trying to keep a positive attitude.

In any event, here's a video clip to gross you out: my knee being drained, then injected with cortizone:

Adirondack Park

2008-10-05T20:17:00.018-04:00

Loaded up and ready to leave.

Hwy 31

Lunch at Rotten Ron's, Canton.

Hwy 3

Shaheen's motel, Tupper Lake.

Near Saranac Lake

Lake Placid

Lake Coby

Route 3

Route 56

McDonald's twice in 2 days was too much.
I needed a change, so I went to Burger King!

Canada/USA toll bridge - Ogdensburg

With the foliage colours reaching peak, there are but a few weeks left in this riding season. Knee troubles, kids, and schedules prevented me from taking any big road trips this year. This was my chance for a quick weekend get-a-way before the snow comes. I tried to round up a friend or two to come along, but not everyone is able to get away at the drop of a hat. I wasn't sure in which direction I would be heading: maybe up near North Bay & Sudbury --I've never been that way before. Or maybe a ride to Toronto --but I've been there a thousand times before. Hey, wait a minute, Adirondack Park isn't that far away, and I'll bet the fall colours are awesome this time of year.

I quickly mapped out a route to Lake Placid, in the heart of Adirondack Park: cross the border into Ogdensburg, then take the 56 south to the 3 and head east. I posted a note detailing my plan on the SVRider forum and quickly got some solid advice from hsilman, a fellow member who grew up in the area. The advice he gave was to stay on route 3 until Tupper Lake, then hop onto the 30, then 186, and finally 86 to Lake Placid. This would be the most fun, least traffic, and least likely to see any cops. I left Saturday morning, nearly 11:00am by the time I hit the road.

The weather forecast wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either. The sky was filled with lots of dark clouds the entire time, but they all seemed very high. Temperatures were about what you'd expect this time of year: chilly. I wore all my protective gear (strap-on knee pads, boots, Olympia riding pants, my cold weather Joe Rocket armour jacket, ear plugs, helmet with breath guard and chin skirt). It wasn't until about 30 minutes after leaving that I realized I had the wrong gloves for this time of year. I pulled into a hardware store and picked up some vinyl gloves (the kind you wear for painting) and I put them on under my leather gloves. Problem solved (a tip I read in some motorcycle magazine a while ago).

While in Tupper Lake, I wandered into a department store and to my surprise, they had a one-piece rain suit that seemed to be decent quality for just $29. Made by Bombardier, it's meant for ATV folks. I got an XL size, so it could fit over all my riding gear. It's not just for the rain, though: it's also a very effective wind-proof suit. At the same time, I bought a pair of $29 Carhart's leather & neoprene work gloves with a winter lining. They're warm, wind/water-proof. Not really biker's gloves, but they'll do better than my makeshift emergency plastic glove insterts.

The advice hsilman gave about the route was great: there was almost zero traffic, and the scenery was beautiful this time of year. I saw a lone state trooper in Tupper Lake (in the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot, no less), but there were no cops whatsoever as I screamed through the twisty back roads.

I spent the night at a motel at Tupper Lake. It was clean and reasonably priced -- I'd stay there again. Shaheen's motel.

Had I planned this trip a little better and not at the last minute, I might have checked for good places to eat. Being in a hurry most of the time, I ended up stuffing my face with fast food. Now, I know all the bad stuff people say about McDonald's, but at least the food is consistent, cheap, and fast. I had a late lunch on Saturday at the McD's in Canton, and again in Tupper Lake for breakfast this morning. Arriving back in Ogdensburg on my way home in the late afternoon, I decided I needed something different, so I opted for Burger King. Oh, God! My lower intestine!

After crossing back into Canada, I missed a turnoff from Hwy 1. I was looking for #18 to get to the #31, and somehow ended up on Carmen Road (Irena). That whole area is basically farming roads --nothing but cattle and corn fields. Spent a few minutes looking at my maps but the main problem was that I didn't know which road I was on anymore. Back-tracked for a bit, then chatted with a local who was playing basketball with his kids. He pointed the way to Hwy 31, which is essentially an extension of Bank Street, the main drag of Ottawa.

Overall, a great ride. My butt hurts a little, but not much. Good thing I modified my seat, otherwise I'd really be in pain. My knees are stiff and sore, though. Last weekend, my right knee was swollen like a balloon again, as it has often been these past few months. Went to the rheumathologist last Tuesday and had the synovial fluid drained, plus a shot of cortizone. I was lucky to be able to ride at all this weekend. Anyway, hopefully snow will hold off until Christmas. Another trip like this before the end of the season would be fantastic, but perhaps no likely.

Rusty banjo bolts? WTF?

2008-10-03T10:20:00.006-04:00

When I swapped the original clip-on bars for regular handle bars last winter, part of the project involved installing new [longer] front brake lines. I ordered a custom-length set of stainless streel braided lines made by Galfer, and purchased from CycleBrakes.com. They were great to deal with: price was fair, and shipping was quick. I ended up ordering a full matching set for both front & rear, even though the rear line wasn't required for my project.

The installation went well, and I used a bottle of Prestone DOT4 brake fluid to bleed the new lines. Following the upgrade, the overall braking performance of the bike was noticeably better, especially when you jump on the brakes hard, say, like in an emergency. The brakes really feel like they're grabbing now without any sponginess and together with the heavier fork oil and spring spacers, the front end barely dips under hard braking. Not that the brakes didn't work well before, but with the new lines they just work noticeably better.

But a nagging problem began within a few weeks of installing the new lines: I noticed that all of the new banjo bolts were beginning to corrode. Galfer supplied new bolts and crush washers, and these new bolts sure didn't seem to be "stainless." They give me some junky plated bolts.

At any rate, spring and summer have come and gone, and I've clocked about 5,000 Km on the odometer. Every 2-3 weeks though, whenever I would take some time to wash & polish the bike, I would spend a few minutes to rub/scrub/polish my corroding banjo bolts. After a few times I began to wonder why in the world I would waste my time to remove corrosion from bolts that are not supposed to rust. So in early August, I sent a quick email to CycleBrakes. Why didn't I think of that sooner? They promptly replied, just to say they would contact Galfer and get back to me. I sent them a photo. Two days later, they answered, sayting that Galfer apparently had a "bad batch of banjo bolts" and that they would send me free replacements. Within a week, a package arrived with 5 new bolts and a mess of new copper washers. Wow. What service!

I wasn't in any great hurry to replace them, but I wanted it done before the bike goes into storage for the winter. So after work yesterday, with help from my 6-year old daughter, I swapped all the bolts and crush washers, except for one: the long bolt that holds the two front lines into the master cylinder -- it has different threads from the new one they sent. After a few minutes of trying to thread it in by hand, I held the new bolt next to the corroding one for a close inspection. Hmm... Coarse thread vs. fine thread. Oh well, of all the bolts that one was the least corroded, so I cleaned up the old one as much as I could and put it back on with new washers. I managed to switch all the others, though.

I'll drop another email to CycleBrakes to let them know. After bleeding, I went for a test ride to make sure everything was working.

Calabogie, and a classic sport bike restoration

2008-09-14T02:02:00.011-04:00

Riad, Ken and I set out from our usual meeting point at 10:00am this morning for a ride through the winding roads around Calabogie. The forecast wasn't looking good, but we managed to ride the whole day without a single drop of rain. Too bad Gregg didn't make it, but he twisted his ankle and felt he was in no condition to take a long ride.

As we passed near Almonte, we stopped for gas and I took a moment to call my friend, Peter, who lives nearby. He was getting a helping hand from Preston (another biker buddy: he rides an FZ1) and they were doing a roof repair on Peter's garage. We stopped in for a quick visit and we got a sneak peek at Preston's restoration project: he's been doing a full top-to-bottom and front-to-back overhaul of a 1987 Honda Hurricane 600 (the predecessor to the CBR) in Peter's garage for quite some time. The project is nearly done. He just got all the body panels and the gas tank back from the paint shop. He had everything professionally painted and it turned out beautifully. He also had the frame and exhaust powder-coated. It looks amazing! It's nearly all back together. He'll have it done just in time to put it away for the winter.

But just look at these photos. It's gorgeous:

After the visit with Peter and Preston, Riad had to head for home: he had other plans and could only join us for part of the ride. Ken and I continued on and rode a brisk pace out to the race track at Calabogie, where we watched a few boring laps by some amateur car club drivers. A real hodge-podge of cars, too: Porsches, BMWs, Audis, Corvettes, Dodge Chargers, and a Subaru Forester! The highlight was a couple of Audi R8 coupes -- they were hot. But this line of 15 or so cars were just lapping around the track at a leisurely speed -- no passing, just single file and slow. We stayed and chatted for a while, looked around. Ken is a track marshal and works at various motorcycle and car racing/track days/lapping events, mostly at Shannonville. Although today's action at the track wasn't very exciting, the Calabogie course sure looks nice. I had never seen the track. Here's their website: www.calabogiemotorsports.com

Suddenly, it was after 2 o'clock and we both decided we should get home quickly to avoid getting an earful from our better halves. To make up for lost time, we took Hwy 17 all the way back: boring but quick. We were home by 3:30. All in all, a nice ride.

Installed: lower fairings, undertail

2008-09-14T01:34:00.009-04:00

Last winter I picked up a used set of lower fairings from a fellow on SVRider.com. The guy low-sided his '05 SV after a run-in with a deer. The right side fairing had some scrapes but nothing major. His insurance replaced the fairings (plus other parts that got damaged) and he sold them to me for $150 (I think). Since they were blue, they'd need painting.

I got a color match spray paint kit from ColorRite (Canadian distributor DPARS) for about $100. It included a can of primer, base coat, color coat, & clear coat. The undertail I bought off eBay turned out perfect, but I was running low on the color coat by the time I was finishing up the fairings. Another coat would have made the color match perfect on them but a single can just wasn't enough to cover both side fairings and the undertail.

Here's a shot of the lower fairings during the preparation. The damaged area is the white part where I had to sand and fill some scratches.

And a couple of photos after the paint job:

You can't really see the imperfections in these photos, but overall, I'm disappointed with how the fairings turned out. I'm not going to spend another hundred bucks on the color match paint again. Instead, I've got something else in mind for another paint scheme. Stay tuned...

Stupid swollen knee

2008-08-18T21:52:00.004-04:00

You're too young to have arthritis! That's what everyone keeps telling me. That's what I keep telling my knees (and my hands, wrists, ankles, and feet). My father developed rheumatoid arthritis in his late thirties. With me, it started in my ealy-mid thirties.

Haven't been able to ride much during the past 3-4 weeks because my right knee has been sore and swollen, filled with fluid. Comes and goes in cycles: it builds for a few days, then it peaks and I think about going to the hospital to have it drained. That's when I think about the long wait times and I dismiss it for another day. Then it starts to get better. And just about the time it's almost better, it starts to get worse again. What a drag.

My 11 weeks of parental leave officially ended a few days ago. I'm now on 2 weeks vacation. I will have been away from the office for the entire summer (May 30th until Sept. 2). I spent the first 2 1/2 month looking after the 3 kids all day, and had hoped to spend the last few weeks riding. I had been looking forward to a 2-week ride through New England and into the Maritimes, but my knee troubles put a stop to that plan.

Oh well, time for my Naproxen (anti-inflammatory) and ice packs. Where's my cane? I think I will have to suffer through the long wait at the hospital and get it drained properly. And it's probably time for another short of cortizone behind the knee cap.

Working on installing a new Mototeck undertail with built-in LED turn signals. The whole arse end of the bike is apart right now while I fiddle with fitting it properly. Then I need to paint it (color match paint kit from Color Rite). Stay tuned for updates.

Modified seat

2008-08-11T20:03:00.015-04:00

Over the last week or so, I've been chopping, slicing, shaving, and hacking away at the foam on my stock seat. I've always found the seat to be quite uncomfortable, so I recently bought a genuine Suzuki gel seat but it's not much better. So, I figured I haven't got much to lose if I ruin the stock seat.

The black foam is a camping mattress which I bought for about $20. It's a closed-cell foam, with a squishy, rubbery/latex feel to it. The blue foam pad is thin but very firm and doesn't compress easily. The top foam (headliner foam) was purchased at an auto upholstry shop. This just gives a nice finished look before the stretchy black vinyl cover goes back on. The guy at the upholstry shop just sliced off a giant piece and charged me $20. He gave me much more than I would need.

I did this over the course of a few days, trying different foams and layers, bolting the seat on the bike and going for test rides. After much experimenting, I'm fairly pleased with the result. The shape doesn't look exactly as I had imagined, but the comfort definitely seems to be there, although that comment may be a little premature. I think I need to go for a good 2-hour ride before making real claims to comfort.

The total cost was about $55, but I've got enough left over foam to do several more seats. That amount even includes $12 for a large can of 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, of which I used only a small amount.

I realized at the end that I forgot to take a photo after #7. Initially, I hollowed out an oval indentation lengthwise in the front-center portion of the seat, similar to the modern design of men's bicycle seats. But after a test ride I didn't really care for it, and I subsequently built up that area by adding an oval patch layer of the black foam padding.

Thanks to fellow SVRider gregg-k for the loan of his electric kitchen knife and his staple gun, and for his valuable input. Also, thanks to my good friend, Mr. Killkenny, who helped me throughout the process.

SV riders unite

2008-08-10T23:20:00.008-04:00

Prashant and I had been emailing each other for a couple of days to arrange a ride for Sunday, August 4th. The forecast wasn't good, but by late afternoon the clouds finally cleared and we agreed to meet at 6:00 pm for a ride through Gatineau Park. Prashant called to invite Preston, but Preston failed to check his messages until it was too late. However, in the mean time, I posted a note on the SVRider site inviting the Ottawa crowd to join us. I figured one or two may be interested. To my surprise, four other SV owners showed up at the meeting place (Champlain Bridge on the Ottawa River Parkway). So, that made a total of five riders on SV650s, plus Prachant with his Katana 600. I had previously met two of them in person, but I only knew the other two as online cyber-bikers.

We chatted together for a good 30 minutes before we left the meeting point, then we geared up and left for our ride to Champlain Lookout (I think I heard it's the highest point in all of Gatineau Park). According to Gmap Pedometer, it was 32 miles (52 Km) round trip.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2160059

Once at the lookout, we all chatted for close to an hour while we watched a great sunset. The ride back into town was a little slower: it was getting dark and we also got stuck in a line of slow-poke cars.

The SVRiders who came out for the hike included myself (scoobinter), gregg-k, MacPearce, iamthedruman, and Bellicose42. Prachant was the odd one out with a Katana, but at least it's a Suzuki so we couldn't fault him for that. We all had a nice time meeting and getting to know each other and we discussed arranging a similar ride in the near future.

Peterborough, Toronto, stolen bikes, rain, and mud

2008-08-01T21:55:00.007-04:00

If you've been following the news lately, you may have heard about Igor Kenk, the bicycle store owner in Toronto who was recently charged for having over 3,000 stolen bikes in his possession (he was also nailed on drug trafficking charges). The Toronto Police sorted through all of the recovered bikes and put them on display for the public to peruse, should anyone wish to see if their stolen bike is among those recovered. My Specialized mountain bike was stolen a year ago, from downtown Ottawa. When I reported it to the Ottawa police, they felt that most stolen bikes were being sold to shops in Toronto. So, I figured there may be a small chance that mine could be among the recently seized stash of bikes in Toronto. Regardless, it would give me an excuse (a lame one) to make a quick trip to check it out... on my motorcycle, of course. If I were to find my bike, I would just drop it off at my brother-in-law's and arrange to bring it back later.

Checked the weather forecast: it didn't look good. Who cares! Even though I don't have proper rain gear, I loaded up my newly acquired tank bag and tail pack, and I set out on the 5-hour ride at 7:30 pm. A little late in the evening, I know. But my goal was to make it to Peterborough and spend the night at David and Monica's, and complete the remaining 1.5 hours in the morning. At 6:30 pm, David confirmed it was sunny in Peterborough and he invited me to stay.

I was cruising at a very brisk pace down Hwy 7, trying to cover as many miles as possible before dark. But with the sky full of black clouds, darkness came early. No matter, there was soon plenty of lightning to help me see the road. Sure enough, the rain started coming down, but at least I managed to ride for 2 solid hours before getting wet. The combination of rain and darkness on a crappy secondary road made it difficult to ride with any confidence. Visibility through my Shoei's face shield was poor under those conditions. And to make matters worse, shortly after the rain began I saw a sign that read "construction zone - next 30 Km". Oh, great. And there were further signs warning of unpaved sections, loose gravel, uneven shoulders. Before long, the paved road turned to gravel, but with the heavy rain, it was more like loose gravel rock on a bed of slippery mud. This really sucked in a big way. The slippery, muddy section went on for several miles. I was riding in second gear, barely faster than a walk. Drenched, muddy, trying hard to avoid an unexpected get-off. If it weren't for the rain, the mud, and the road construction, I could have made it to Peterborough in 30 more minutes, but for safety's sake, I decided to pull into a roadside motel for the night. I called David and gave him the news.

It was sunny and dry by morning. I got up just before 9:00 am and hit the road for Toronto. Stopped for breakfast/lunch and made a few phone calls in Oshawa. The bike was filthy. I went straight downtown to the Police warehouse and spent an hour looking through the 3,000 stolen bikes. As I expected, my old mountain bike wasn't to be found. Oh, well. Might as well hang out in T-O for the day.

I called my in-laws and they were heading out the door: on their way to David and Monica's to house-sit and dog-sit for a week. They convinced me to stop in and visit with them in Peterborough and to spend the night. I spent the next few hours just riding around Toronto. Then, just in time for rush hour traffic I hopped on the 401, eastbound. Big mistake. The line of crawling cars went on for miles. I eventually rode the shoulder to exit at Salem Rd, then north to Hwy 4 (Taunton Rd). That had some traffic but at least it was moving. Took about 2.5 hours but I made it to Peterborough. I had a near accident as I arrived in Peterborough. Long story short: my handle bar got bumped by the mirror of a Hyundai Accent as we both went around a city bus. Blame could probably be laid on both of us: me for being impatient, and him for not looking. No injuries, no damage. We just looked at each other, nodded, and gave a thumbs up to indicate we were both okay. My knee may have damaged his door, but I can't say for sure and I don't think he noticed anyway.

Went out for beer and dinner with the in-laws at a Dutch pub. Good beer and good food. I got up and left quietly in the morning. Bob and Mary Lou weren't up yet (it was't early, they just slept in). Made it back to Ottawa at 1:30pm.

The good news: I averaged about 60 mpg. The bad news: my ass really huts. I've been riding on a Suzuki gel seat for about a month. While it's more comfortable than the stock seat, it's still far from what I'd call comfortable. I still have the stock seat and I've decided after this experience that I'm going to chop it up and modify the shape, padding, foam, contour, etc. If I fail and ruin it, then I'll probably look into a Corbin or a Sargeant and sell the gel seat.

After taking a shower and downing a cold Kilkenny, I scrubbed the chain clean with kerosene and a nylon brush (got to use my new swingarm stand). Then I washed the bike thoroughly. I even went so far as to connect the garden hose to the kitchen sink so I could use hot water (it really does a much better job). I lubed the sparkling chain with my Dupont Multi-Use Teflon spray (I've got about 18 cans in the basement).

Oh, and I finally bought some Motosliders. Installed them on Wednesday afternoon, just a few hours before the start of this road trip. Not only will they protect the bike in case I lay it down, but they make good supports to hang your legs over them when screaming down the highway!

Winter storage

2008-07-23T17:49:00.002-04:00

A little early, I know, but I just reserved a spot for winter storage at Ottawa GoodTime Centre. It's a climate controlled environment (with humidity control). I don't have a garage anymore so I need a reliable place to store it.

$20 - deposit to hold the reservation
$35 - bike prep fee (battery removal, semi-monthly charging, fuel stabilizer, etc)
$40 - per month rental fee

Hoping I can ride into December this year.

Tire leak repaired

2008-07-22T10:47:00.007-04:00

I had a slow leak in my front tire since I bought the bike last fall. After endless searching, a few weeks ago, I finally found a tiny pin hole in the centre line of the tread groves. It's so small you can barely see it. There was nothing sticking out: no nail, staple, glass, nothing. But holding the tire under water, a tiny air bubble would seep out every 5 seconds or so.

With about 90% of the tread left on this tire, I just couldn't bring myself to throwing it away. Even if some folks think the stock Dunlop D220 tire is crap (not in my opinion, but that's a whole other story). Regardless, the D220 is a sport touring tire and should last for 10,000-15,000 Km. So far, mine has 3,700.

Being cheap and always looking to weigh all my options before I spend my money, I had to find a better solution than simply replacing the tire. A plug? No. That wouldn't be safe for long term use on a motorcycle tire. Besides, pushing the fat plug tool through the tire would enlarge the tiny pin hole a hundred times over. I thought about removing the tire from the rim and using a radial tire patch on the inside. During high school I worked at a tire shop and this was the way we repaired flats. I never saw one come back with a problem. But there is an issue with patching the inside of a motorcycle tire: extreme pressure is exerted on motorcycle tires compared to car tires. Car tires aren't leaned over from side to side like bikes, and car tires have a large flat surface to contact the road. This flat surface can be safely patched from the inside (and you would never apply a patch on the inside of a sidewall puncture of a car tire). With a bike tire, the entire casing is rounded and the bike is always being leaned over. A patch may not withstand that type of abuse over the long term. A lot of work, therefore, for a fix that may not hold.

The last option I could think of was tire sealant. Many of these are aerosol cans that both inflate and seal at the same time, but they use toxic sticky foams (kind of like squirting Mono expanding foam sealer into your tire). Having worked at the tire shop I saw what a mess they make when it eventually comes time to change the tire. Cleaning that stuff off the rim is an awful job. It sticks like contact cement. It also hardens in clumps, making heavy spots that will upset the balance of the tire. Forget that stuff. But there are other types of sealants that are far easier to clean up and they never really harden. The stuff I'm talking about are products like the popular brand name product Slime. I found a cheaper, lesser-known name brand product called EZ Sealer. It's just a bottle of thick liquid/gel that you squirt inside (remove the core from the valve stem first). Then you fill the tire with air and go for a ride. The slimy gel spreads evenly around the tire and rim. It's much easier to clean it off when you eventually replace the tire.

Well I'm happy to report that it's been 4 weeks and I've ridden about 1,000 Km since I sealed my tire with EZ Seal Tire Sealant and it hasn't leaked any air yet. For $8 I'm convinced I made the right choice.

A final option -- but too expensive (at least until my tires are worn out) -- is to buy new tires treated by Rhino Tire This is a gel that is sprayed into your tires that prevents any punctures from leaking. Watch this:

New luggage

2008-07-17T23:35:00.008-04:00

Bought new luggage. Very happy with it, and proud of the bargain pricing I scored...

After much researching online and reading personal opinions, I decided to go with a full matching set from the Nelson-Riggs' Silver Streak line: I ordered the SSC-140 Mini Sport Saddlebags, the SSC-165 Sport Tail Pack, and the SSC-110 Magnetic Tank Bag.

I ordered the items over the phone from Sandhills Powersports, an online retailer based in Nebraska (I think). I wish all merchants offered the kind of service I received from these folks. A very pleasant and helpful woman named Hilary took my order.

To compare, I checked prices at several well-known web stores (NewEnough.com, JC Whitney, Dennis Kirk, Cycle Gear, MotoSport.com, etc,). Sandhills was the cheapest I have seen, and was highly recommened by someone on the SVRider web forum.

All told, my order added up to just $203, which qualified me for free shipping. Yes, FREE SHIPPING! This deal only applies to US destinations, so I just had them shipped to my friend Kerry, in New Hampshire. I buy lots of stuff online and ship to her address quite regularly. We see each other every few months one way or another. In this particular case, there was an incident with regard to the shipping, but that's a whole other story and it all got sorted out in the end (.....[grumble]...stupid jerks at UPS).

We had been planning our family vacation to New Brunswick and PEI for early/mid-July. Our planned route was to drive through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont on our way home to Ottawa. We spent 3 nights at Kerry's place in NH, where I was able to pick up my luggage set, plus a dozen cans of Dupont Telfon Multi-Use (the greatest chain lube ever... but it can't be found in Canada), plus a very expensive chess set that my father-in-law had ordered (and shipped to Kerry's place to avoid paying taxes, brokerage fees, and duties).

Got back to Ottawa last evening and strapped on my new luggage this afternoon. Took about 3/4 hour to properly adjust the clips, straps, buckles, and velcro. What a pain. But everything is mounted quite solid now. For $200, I've got a very nice set of luggage. I'm very pleased. More money could have bought better quality, but there's nothing wrong with this set. Nothing cheap about them. Each piece even has its own rain cover. Top shelf product, for sure! The saddlebags are on the small side: I purposely ordered the "mini" version instead of the standard because I was afraid of getting huge bags for a small bike. If my bike were a Bandit 1250 or something similar, I may have opted for larger ones. The tail pack is quite roomy, and the tank bag is a decent "medium" size.

This evening, I went for a 30-minute ride to test them out. The ride included a quick run on the 417 to make sure nothing would blow off at brisk highway speeds. Let's just say I went fast enough and wind won't be a problem.

I'm hoping to take my first road trip next week. I'm planning to head back down to Kerry's neck of the woods and explore some of the roads in and around the White Mountains area. My wife and I are trying to work out a plan to have the two older kids spend the week with their grandparents in Toronto. If that happens, my wife will work from home next week, she'll mind the 2-year-old, and I'll be cruising the mountain twisties in Vermont and New Hampshire.

SSC-140 Mini Sport Saddlebags

MSRP is $118

NewEnough.com sells it for $85

I paid $64

SSC-165 Sport Tail Pack

MSRP is $113

NewEnough.com sells it for $80

I paid $75

SSC-110 Magnetic Tank Bag

MSRP is $106

NewEnough.com sells it for $80

I paid $64

New riding buddies & maintenance

2008-06-23T11:30:00.020-04:00

Recently, a former colleage introduced me to his buddy Preston, who rides a 2001 Yamaha FZ1. We hooked up on June 8th for a 250 Km roundtrip ride to Calabogie. It was a beautiful Sunday morning/afternoon; perhaps a little on the hot side, but great weather nonetheless. Here's a little clip of a jerk who nearly pulled out in front of Preston. The excitement happens at 1 minute, 28 seconds.

Preston and I agreed to hook up again the following Sunday morning, and this time his friend Prashant came along -- he rides a 2001 Suzuki Katana 600. The three of us set out eastbound on the 417, then on the 174 all the way to Hawkesbury. After stuffing ourselves with schwarmas, we crossed the bridge into Quebec and rode along the 148 all the way back to Hull. Again, it was a beautiful day except for the last 10 minutes as we approached the city limits on the Quebec side. We rode through light rain...enough that we got wet but not completely drenched.

Preston was busy this Sunday, and Prashant and I talked about going for a ride. However, both of our bikes were due for an oil change so we spent the afternoon at my place tinkering with our bikes. His Katana and my SV take the same filter, and I happened to have a couple on hand. After draining out the waste oil, we filled up with Rotella T 15W40 heavy duty diesel engine oil. Yes, it's designed for big diesel engine trucks, but it's great for motorcycles (far superior than running car oil in a bike). Just search the SVRider.com forum if you don't believe me.

Prashant is new to motorcycling in Canada (licensed just last year). Although he rode smaller motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds for many years back in India, he had no experience on larger displacement [sport] bikes. We checked over a bunch of stuff on his bike (chain, sprockets, brake pads, brake lines, wheel alignment, tire pressure, engine coolant, etc,). He was happy to have some guidance in performing some basic maintenance on his bike, and he seemed to have learned a lot. He had never done any maintenance work before. He paid $60 for an oil change (with cheap oil) at the dealer before. In any event, we had hoped to go for a quick ride after the maintenance session, but my wife had gone to the park with 2 of our 3 children. The 3rd was having a nap so I couldn't really leave the house. We're planning an evening ride some time this week.

Ottawa Valley Bike Show 2008

2008-06-01T23:20:00.005-04:00

I had been looking forward to the Ottawa bike show for several weeks. I knew it wasn't a large scale show (say, like the Toronto show held every January) but I expected something a little bigger. And while size doesn't necessarily matter, variety sure does. This crappy show they put together for 2008 was just for cruiser folks. They should have called it "the 2008 Ottawa Crappy Cruiser Show and Crap Sale." It was just a bunch of ridiculous, tacky cruiser accessories and apparel being sold at high prices. A couple of choppers and a small sample of lightly-customized cruisers, but for the most part just a bunch of crap. The only display that captured my interest was the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Club. They had about 15 beautifully restored examples of Japanese, British, Italian heritage motorcycles, but their display seemed out of place in an exhibition of cruiser bikes and cruiser crap-ware. No sport-bike stuff at all, no dirt bike stuff, no touring bike stuff. Just leather handle-bar streamers, belt buckles, armor-less classic cruiser jackets, open-faced helmets, poorly-made leather saddle bags, and other such junk.

While I'm not usually one to judge people, I will allow myself this one indulgence... why not... The bulk of the clientele attending the show were your stereotypical smelly, grease-monkey, dirtbag, toothless, slack-jawed yokels. Well maybe not all of them; there were a few urban rednecks, as well as some wealthy late-middle-aged yuppie biker-type wannabes oogling the junk being peddled by some of the slimy vendors. I actually watched the arm wrestling contest for about 5 minutes. Looozahs!

I did speak briefly with a 40-something husband & wife team who showed up on their new BMW adventure touring bikes. Like me, they were out of place at this show, and they shared my impression of the whole affair.

And what about the demo rides? The promoter's website mentioned that there would be demo rides! WTF? http://www.capitalcitycycle.ca/ovbs/

Outside, I watched 3 stuntahs doing wheelies and stoppies in a very tiny area of the parking lot that was sectioned off with concrete barriers. That was interesting to watch, but after 5 minutes you'd seen it all. The riders had talent, but in typical stuntah style, they stupidly wore jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers. They also had a wheelie training machine, which you could try for $20.

Disappointed that I wasted ten bucks to attend. It was raining when I arrived, but it soon began to clear so I bailed and went for a ride on my bike. Should have put that $10 bill in my gas tank instead! They won't sukkah me for ten bucks again.

Next year I definitely won't miss the show in Toronto. While I'm sure the cruiser section has grown since I last attended, I'm sure they'll have a good variety of stuff to see. I've been a couple of times before and they have a bunch of everything. Truly a show for any biker, unlike Ottawa's little cruiser-faithful show.

Did I mention that the Ottawa bike show was crap?

Alarm system installed

2008-05-19T23:36:00.007-04:00

I'd been researching motorcycle alarm systems for a couple of months. I recently moved, and I no longer have a garage for my baby, so security is now more of a concern than ever. Since moving, I've established a 15-minute ritual to cover my bike with a dust/rain cover, followed by a big ugly rain tarp, then a Kryptonite U-lock with a large double-braided cable, plus a disc lock. It's a pain in the ass, but it keeps the bad weather away from my bike, and the locks will hopefully deter the less determined thieves.

OK, now back to the arlam system stuff...as always, my goal was to get the best value in whatever I decide to buy. After all my digging around the web, I narrowed it to 3 choices:

1) Chatterbox HJC-2000, which sells for about $70 US. It's very basic, but it apparently works well, easy to install, and it's cheap.

2) Gorilla #7017 alarm with 2-way pager. Lots of people have good things to say about them, easy to install, and they're relatively cheap at $150 US.

3) Scorpio SR-i600 alarm with 2-way pager. Loads of features, installation is more difficult, price is about $320 US.

You can probably guess I went with alarm #2, the Gorilla. However, getting my hands on one for $150 US was going to be difficult. I could do as I've done many times before: order one off eBay and have it shipped to my friend Kerry in Vermont, then just pick it up the next time I see her. But the problem is that I won't see her until July, and I'd really like to have an alarm installed before then. So, after looking around local shops here in Ottawa, I finally located one at PowerSports Honda. Their price? A whopping $249. That's a whole hundred bucks more than in the US (the Canadian dollar is currently worth 99.4 cents US). Other local shops didn't have the Gorilla in stock, but their price was still anywhere from $250-$280. What a rip-off, I thought. But that's just the way things work in Canada. American products just cost more up here. Oh, and don't forget the 13% tax. I paid a total of $280 for this alarm, out the door. Ouch!

I've now put the price gouging behind me. Sometimes, you just have to forget about the pain and hand over the money... even if it is over-priced. Oh well, life goes on.

The alarm was a snap to install. Just hook up + and - to the battery. Then plug in a few connectors into the main box: one for the pager antenna, one for the warning LED to mount on the dash, and one for the mercury switch (tilt sensor). It took me about 15 minutes to get it installed. I velcroed the main unit under the seat, behind the battery. The vibration sensor is built into the main box. Then came time to program the settings. At 10:30pm, I went to a big shopping mall parking lot. It was empty, and there isn't a house around for a mile. Just a big commercial shopping area. I could make all the noise I wanted and it wouldn't bother anyone. I read through the booklet and set the siren tone (5 different alarm sirens to choose from), then I adjusted the sensitivity of the shock sensor, played with the angle of the tilt sensor, and programmed the plain remote as well as the 2-way pager remote. The siren is among the loudest I've heard. So lound that I've stuffed a shop rag on top of it to dampen the sound a little. It's still piercing!

I'd recommend this alarm to anyone looking to protect their bike. But if you can get it at US prices, you'll have gotten a good deal. But even at $250 here in Canada, I wouldn't have found a better one for that price. While none of the local shops had the Scorpio in stock, their list price on it was $499 (...yeah, right). What kind of moron is going to throw $500 at an alarm? Not me.

Camera mount

2008-05-06T21:11:00.014-04:00

For a while, I'd been wanting a not-too-expensive video camera to use on the bike. Y'know, because it's cool and all the kids are doing it.

The video recording capabilities of my Olmpus point-and-shoot camera were quite good as far as digital cameras go, but battery life sucked in video mode. Actually, battery performance sucked in general with that camera. I rarely used it for taking photos anyway (preferring to use my Nikon DSLR most of the time). I bought the Olympus for our trip to Thailand last year, and I've hardly used it since then. So, I sold for $125 a few days ago. Then, I went and bought a flash-based camcorder at Canadian Tire (can you think of a more ridiculous place for buying electronic gagets?). A newly-opened CDN Tire store was having a grand opening sale on the weekend, and they had a super deal on a Jazz DV-179 digital video camera. Never heard of that brand. It's definitely not high end, and considering the abuse I will be putting it through, I was very hesitant to spend a lot of cash on one. Anyway, I bought it for $119 and I must say that I'm quite impressed. I played with it for 15 minutes in the store before I laid down my cash. At home, I popped my 2GB SD memory card in the slot and I'm ready to go (it also has 64MB built-in). You can choose 3 quality settings for video recording. The highest setting is quite good but chews through my 2GB card in 1.5 hours. The medium setting is still very good and my 2GB card will record for about 4.5 hours. Even the lowest setting is quite good, but small, and can record for 9.5 hours before it fills my 2GB storage card. So, the medium setting it is.

So...how to mount this thing on my bike? A quick trip to Home Hardware down the street to buy a standard T-bracket for two bucks. That ought to do the trick. I managed to get the bracket bolted solidly on the side of the bike's radiator.

I won't write a long explanation of how I did it. The photos tell the whole story. And you can watch the sample video at the end to view the final product.

Jazz DV-179 video recorder:

Radiator mount bracket:

Watch the test video:

**** Remember that in the process to upload the video file to this blogsite, eBlogger's server re-encoded the file at a lower bitrate, so the quality has been degraded somewhat in order to maximize video streaming performance.

To hell with spring! From winter, straight to summer...

2008-04-22T22:48:00.002-04:00

Well, for the last week and a half, we've been enjoying summer-like weather here in Ottawa. Not sure what happened to spring. We seem to have gone from 6 feet of snow straight to hot, humid, high UV-index summer weather. Doesn't bother me; the riding has been great. Well, great except for yesterday when a cop pulled up beside me at a red light and pointed out that my license plate registration had expired. Wups. Forgot to renew on April 1st. Went online and renewed it last evening: forty-two bucks for the year.

Went to GearHead yesterday during my lunch hour and bought a new pair of riding boots. I settled on a pair of Alpinestars Ridge waterproof boots. They felt great in the store, but on the ride back to the office they felt strange. So much protective armour in them that it was impossible to get any sense of feeling on the gear shifter, and the rear brake. Kinda felt like wearing ski boots. Couldn't really move my ankle much either. While they seemed to offer good protection, I didn't feel like I had proper control over the gear shifter and brake. So today I went back exchanged them for a pair of Teknic Stinger waterproof boots. Both pairs of boots were overpriced, in my opinion ($169 CDN) compared to US prices (they can be had for a little over $100 USD). I thought about trying them on to get the size right, then just ordering them online from the US. But the convenience of wearing them out of the store made it worth the price. Plus the service was great, so I'll more than likely go back there for other stuff. Some stuff is OK to buy online if you know what you're after, but when it comes to clothing and footwear you want to make sure the size fits properly. Anyway, these new Teknics feel like sneakers: nice and light, and they fit like a glove. They've got ample protection under the leather, too: a plastic toe-cap, plus plastic armour around the heel, on the inside of the ankle, and up the tongue. The sole is also reinforced with armour. And, they're extremely lightweight for a boot. We'll see how they last.

Checked my fuel economy today after filling the tank with mid-grade unleaded at $1.19 a litre (holy shit, a buck nineteen). It took 13.3 litres (3.5 gallons) and I had travelled 260 Kms (162 miles). That makes 5.1 L/100 Km (47 miles per gallon). Not bad since this was all within the city, with lots of hard throttle twisting just to hear the exhaust note.

Still thinking about an alarm system but I've got too many bills to pay at the moment. I'd like the 2-way pager system from Gorilla. At $175, it's not terribly expensive, but it will have to wait for now.

Turn signal safety...

2008-04-15T15:34:00.003-04:00

Those front flush mount LED turn signals I installed recently have got to go. Upon installation, I considered they might not be visible to oncoming traffic. That's why I went the extra step of re-wiring the running lights to operate as turn signals. But while they may be bright, the tiny dot-sized amber LED bulbs I used in the running lights are tough to see even at night because of their close proximity to the headlights. So, for safety's sake, I'm going to put the OEM front signals back on for now, until I find something with a sleeker look, yet with high visibility. I was nearly run over the other day by a car load of teenagers: the driver got impatient waiting behind a car that was making a left turn. They swerved out to go around the turning car and tried to speed through the intersection. Unfortunately, I was in the oncoming lane, about to make a left turn of my own. Although I saw the teen and anticipated his move, I assumed he saw me... but he didn't. It was a close call. After that incident, I began thinking about my front turn signals... maybe he didn't know I was turning? Maybe he didn't see my blinker? It was a clear and sunny afternoon, and maybe my single LED flasher wasn't enough to alert him of my intentions. The flush mounts are definitely only visible from the side. I'm not about to get myself killed over something stupid like dumb turn signals. I need something that's obvious to avoid getting plowed into the ground.

In other news, it feels great to be out riding again after such a long winter. The new handle bars are fantastic compared to those cramped clip-ons. The ride is way more comfy than I imagined. And the brakes grab hard without any spongy feeling thanks to those new Galfer SS lines. With the stock brake lines, I actually thought the brakes were pretty good, but the new lines adds a noticeable improvement in the feel. I'm really starting to love the sound of my chopped exhaust can. It's not loud, but defintely a deeper growl compared to the stock can.

Been riding to work this week. Just found out that the "free motorcycle parking" is about to disappear at the office, though. The new parking policy won't allow for me to park my bike in the secured parking garage any longer, but for now they have yet to begin enforcing it. Until they do, I plan to take advantage of free parking. After that, I'll have is to park on the street (and move it ever three hours) because I won't qualify for a garage permit. In order to qualify for parking in the garage, you need to score a certain number of "points" which are awarded based on 3 criteria: 1) the distance you live from work; 2) your salary; and 3) your years of service. Since I live about 2 Km from work, and since I don't earn a huge salary, and since I have only 3 months of service I basically have no chance of scoring a parking permit. Bastards! It's discrimination! They used to let anyone with a motocycle park for free in the parking garage.

first ride of the season

2008-03-31T11:35:00.003-04:00

I just couldn't wait any longer... The weather was great yesterday, so I decided to go for a spin. Still plenty of snow on the ground, but the streets were actually clear and dry (well, mostly dry). I saw about a dozen other bikes bombing around town.

With all the modding I did over the winter, I was eager to see how everything would work. The clip-on / handlebar conversion is fantastic. Much more comfortable riding position. The naked SV bars are about 5" higher than the factory clip-ons and my wrists sure noticed the difference. The chopped muffler sounds great. The double bubble windscreen offers better protection (I need it more now, especially with the higher riding position). The stainless steel brake lines are a big improvement. The heavier fork oil and additional spring spacers have improved the feeling in the front end. The fenda-extenda does a good job at keeping grime of the engine, and the rear hugger keeps the shock clean. The R6 throttle tube is a really cool mod that makes me want to burn more gas.

The bike got a little dirty from a few wet spots I had to drive over, but a 5-minute wipe-down at the end of the ride cleaned things up. I just hope the weather keeps getting better.

...from clip-ons to handle bars

2008-03-30T20:07:00.006-04:00

While still in the showroom, I found the riding position of my 2007 SV650S to be quite comfortable . However, the low mounted clip-ons were causing serious pain in my wrists from the moment I pulled out of the dealer's driveway. I wasn't going to be able to keep this riding position for long. I must be getting old. Something had to be done...

I had been poking around the SVRider.com site for some time before I bought this bike and had read posts from others who had swapped handle bars for clip-ons on their un-faired SV650 naked models. I also read posts from others who swapped for adjustable options such as ConvertiBars. Those things are great... a kit that includes everything you need, and they're adjustable. But they're not cheap. I suffered the pain and rode the bike with its stock clip-ons for a few weeks before parking it in the garage for a long winter's sleep. I'd have the winter to decide how to proceed...

While browsing the used parts forum at SVRider.com I found someone selling a top and bottom triple clamp set for off a 2006 SV650 naked model for $75 shipped. All I really needed was the top plate and the bar clamps. He said it was in perfect condition but it was hard to tell from the photo. I was a little disappointed to see the top clamp all marked up, probably from a dangling key chain, and a few obvious dings and knicks from a slip of the wrench. So, I figured it would need to be cleaned up; before mounting it, I sanded it with a sponge sanding pad, then sprayed it with a textured satin black truck bed liner paint (the finish is really tough and durable). Another SVRider member was selling a set of stock SV650 naked handle bars from his 2005 model for $20. So, now I was into this mod for just under $100. Not bad, but I knew I would also require longer brake lines. The stock naked bike bars are about 5" inches higher than stock S-model clip-ons, and the increased height is defintely too much for the stock front brake hoses. I called up CycleBrakes and ordered a set of custom-length silver stainless steel lines (4 inches added). Stainless steel lines will also make the brakes grab better without feeling squishy as the hoses won't expand nearly as much when you jump on the binders hard. It should also keep the front suspension from diving under hard braking. The guy on the phone at CycleBrakes offered me a 10% discount if I also ordered a new line for the rear brake. So, for $140, new SS lines for front and rear were on the way.

The top clamp was easy enough to remove and swap out for the replacement one. The only trouble I had was to remove the security screws which fasten the ignition to the bottom side of the top clamp: they set them with Locktite from the factory. And, I had to buy a torx security head screwdriver bit (size #T-40, I believe).

With the new top clamp mounted with the new handle bars, the brake lines were a breeze to install. I tried a few different ways to route the lines, and realized I should have asked for the custom length to be just 3 inches longer, not 4. They're not bad, but 3" would have been perfect. With 4", depending on how you route the lines through the fairing and forks, they almost seem slightly too long. They'll do fine, I'm not worried. I drained out the stock brake fluid and pumped it full of Prestone synthetic DOT4 brake fluid (not the race stuff with silicone). Bleeding them was tedious, but not difficult.

The electric controls mounted fine on the new handle bars. Because I was using stock SV650 bars, the holes for the no-slip nubs (to prevent the controls from turning on the bars) lined up perfectly. Others who use aftermarket bars must drill small holes or risk having their controls twist on them. I also took the opportunity to replace the long twist 1/5th turn throttle tube with a 1/4 turn short twist tube for Yamaha's R6. Got the details about this from the canyonchasers.com article and bought the new tube from ronayers.com for about $12. A cheap and worthwhile upgrade. No more re-gripping to achieve full throttle -- one short twist and she's wide open!

Carefully re-routing the stock cables (clutch and throttle) seemed to work, however, I couldn't help but find the cables were being pulled/stretched to the limit. While it may have worked fine, it just seemed there was absolutely no extra slack. Not wanting to put too much stress on the stock cables, or worse: not having proper control of the throttle and/or clutch, I figured I would need longer (custom) cables. Solution: www.ConvetiBARS.com website. These guys sell the best adjustable clip-ons around and they're pleasant to deal with. ConvertiBARS are the best solution if you want adjustability and they allow you to change your riding position whenever you want. By swapping my stock clip-ons for stock handle bars, I raised the position of my hands, but my new bars are not adjustable. Too bad. I'm stuck with the new (higher) position. While my wrists like the new riding position better, maybe I should have just gone with ConvertiBARS in the first place. In the end, I don't think I saved any money. The sell a kit which includes the clip-ons, the extra long cables and brake lines, too. It may seem expensive, but in the end I probably spent as much. In any event, I ordered just the long clutch and throttle cables (the are 2" longer than stock). The cables I got are top-shelf, on par with OEM quality, and not like some of the cheap aftermarket crap I've seen before. I lubed up the new cables with a few squirts of DuPont teflon multi-use spray grease/wax and they installed pretty easily. Took about 10 minutes to get the throttle cables adjusted properly. Hint: remove the air box to replace the throttle cable. It would have been nearly impossible otherwise, and I have pretty small hands. Click on the photos for enlarged view:

Modding progress

2008-03-25T10:43:00.014-04:00

During my 4 days off over the Easter weekend, I managed to get a few things done on the bike. Still lots of snow on the ground, so I wasn't too pressed for time. But on the other hand, we're buying a new house in a few days so I'm spending a lot of time getting ready for the big move. In any event, here's what I completed this past weekend: installed the Pit-ECK rear hugger that I bought 2 months ago from eBay. I waxed it first (3 coats), and I used one rubber washer and one stainless steel washer on each side of each bolt hole for the mounting. Also, because I'm obsessed with being completely thorough, my very first step was to apply a thick coat of Bondo fiberglass resin to the underside of the hugger. This particular model is made of fiberglass (not ABS, as many other brands). While I was impressed with the quality of the piece, I knew I'd feel better if I applied a little more resin. So I brushed on a thick coat and let it dry overnight before proceeding with the waxing, then installation. Anyway, now that it's mounted, it looks great. The fit and finish couldn't be better (considering it cost just $90).

Another thing I completed was the wiring and installation of the LED turn signals, electronic flasher relay, and my own home-made tail tidy/license plate holder. I bought some Lockhart Phillips turn signal connector adapters for Suzuki and used them to re-route and tap into the wiring for the front amber marker lights to convert them into turn signals, to be used in conjunction with the flush-mount LED front signals I bought from eBay. After finding some instructions on locating the proper wires for the factory flasher, I installed an electronic relay to retain the proper flash rate (LED lights will cause the factory mechanical flasher to flash way too quickly, hence the need to replace it with an electronic flasher relay). Gone are the days of vinyl electrical tape: I used heat-shrink tubing everywhere. That stuff is great. Here's a link to the wiring instructions I used:

Custom Dynamics - flasher install

Here are the LED signals I bought:

Front flush mount LED (bought from clutchlevers.com).

Short-stalk LED signals for the rear. They are Shock Racing's Mini-6 signals. These are very bright!

With the wiring completed, next I mounted the bracket for the license plate. I drilled a couple of holes in the factory undertail. Before mounting it though, I spray painted the bracket with some truck bed liner paint -- it's black, textured, and tough as nails. It bolted into place nicely. Total cost was 49 cents.

I also adjusted the air pressure in the tires. Both front and rear seemed to have lost a few pounds over the winter hibernation period.

This week, I hope to re-install the fairing bezel/shroud that goes around the gauges, and install the new windscreen. I also need to put the tail piece bodywork back on. I have yet to finish prepping, painting and installing the lower fairings I bought a while back. I started sanding one side, but that's as far as I got. I'll just wait until we get moved into the new house before tackling that project. I did buy a color matched paint (aerosol cans of primer, base coat, color coat, and top clear coat) from www.dpars.com (they're a Color Rite distributor for Canada and I highly recommend them). I'll finish the fairing project later. For now, she's almost ready to ride. Let's just hope spring arrives soon.

Still waiting for spring...

2008-03-17T12:38:00.004-04:00

OK, we're more than 1/2 way through March, and still no sign of spring. Nine days ago, Ottawa saw its biggest dump of snow in 20 years: 55cm (22"). A few days before that, we received 30cm (12"). In my neighbourhood, the streets are barely passable as the massive snow banks have severely narrowed the path for cars. The streets are not wide enough for 2 cars to pass at the same time. If you meet an oncoming car, someone has to back up. It's very frustrating. It was very cold again last night, but it's supposed to warm up to the freezing point today: probably not enough for it to melt.

In any event, the winter modding is coming along nicely, but there is still lots of work to be done to the bike. I managed to get the fork oil changed for some heavier weight stuff: the factory fork oil is only 5W, so the new 15W Spectro oil I used should be an improvement. And, as some folks from SVRider.com have reported, I found that my brand new bike had too little fork oil, and each fork leg had different amounts, too! The left leg had about 350ml, and the right had about 400ml. That seems kind of strange since the service manual calls for 493ml in each fork leg!!! No wonder the front end seemed a little soft (especially under hard braking). Before putting the spacers back in, I added 4 large washers to the top of the fork springs, which added about 1.5cm of spacing; this should help out with the front suspension's sag. I took the factory washer from one leg with me to Home Depot, and I found some washers of identical diameter (but a smaller center hole). They were just 10 cents each. It took a little muscle to screw the fork caps on with these extra spacers, but it wasn't so bad. With thicker oil, extra spacers, and stainless steel brake lines the nose shouldn't dive any more under hard braking. This was definitely something I noticed in the short time I got to ride the bike after buying it in the fall.

For some stupid reason, Suzuki no longer puts drain holes at the bottom of fork legs, so the service manual says you need to remove the forks and turn them upside-down to drain the oil. Fuck that shit! That would take all day! Being a lazy bastard, I read about an easier way to change the fork oil: a few people at SV650.org and SVRider.com have written tips and tricks for an easy way to change fork oil on these bikes. This info got me pointed in the right direction: after removing the cap, spacer, washer and spring from each leg, I used a straightened wire coat hanger, then duct-taped a length of vinyl tubing alongside the stiff wire, and inserted it all the way to the bottom of each fork leg. Then, I attached a big 60CC syringe (purchased from my dog's veterinarian for $4) and sucked the stuff out. Had to take several syringe-fulls obviously, but it only took about 5 minutes per leg. The entire job was done in about 45 minutes (not counting my trip to Home Depot). Just goes to show you that the service manual doesn't always give the best advice.

I've also flushed out the master cylinder and bled the new front brake lines with Prestone DOT 4 fluid, and I mounted the triple clamp, ignition switch, and handlebars. The new short-twist throttle tube feels great: it was somewhat mild on Saturday, so I wheeled the bike outside into the driveway and started it up. Let it run for about 10 minutes and couldn't resist twisting the new throttle. The chopped muffler sounds great, too, but the neighbours may not agree.

I waxed both sides of my new dark smoked double-bubble windscreen (3 coats). I haven't put it on yet, cause I still need to splice into the wiring for the running lights (which I plan to convert/integrate into signal lights). I currently have the bezel removed from around the guages so I can easily access the wiring behind the fairing. The whole front end plastics will go back together once I finish up with the wiring.

I may order an alarm system. Been thinking about the Chatterbox HJC-2002. It's cheap ($70) but according to reviews, it's the best no-frills alarm you can buy, and easy to install.

Drove to Alymer, Quebec last night to have a look at a pair of Joe Rocket boots some guy was selling; they're like new condition and 1/2 the price. Too bad for me, 'cause they were a little small so I had to pass. The seller had just bought a pair of motocross-style boots to go with his brand new dual-purpose 2008 BMW R1200GS.

Where the hell is spring?

2008-02-28T11:34:00.010-05:00

February will be finished the day after tomorrow, and still no sign of spring. Nothing. Minus 22 degrees Celcius (about -8 F) this morning with a slight wind to make it feel like -34 C. And, there is about 2 feet of snow still on the ground, with a small amount expected tonight. I heard on the radio this morning that so far this month, we have had at least a trace of snow on 24 out of the last 28 days. I can believe it, as it seems like it's always snowing. Usually, February is known for giving you a taste of spring weather, even if just for a day or two.

So, where is spring? Gina sent me recent photos of her toddler playing outside in a light shirt. She says the grass is starting to turn green and the trees will soon begin to bud. She lives in Penticton, BC. If we don't get some spring-like weather soon here in Ottawa, I'm going to start looking for a job in Penticton. From what I understand, motorcycle riding would be far more scenic around there, too.

I think the bike is getting cabin fever, suffering in the cold garage. And I'm getting really tired of riding the bus to the office.

There is still significant work to be done to the bike before spring, though. I've got to finish up the clip-on-to-handle-bar conversion, bleed the new front brake lines, install the rear hugger and windscreen, and finish up the work on the custom fender eliminator I fabricated. Oh yeah, and wire up the electronic flasher for the LED turn signals, and re-wire the running lights to operate as turn signals. I also need to finish sanding and painting the used lower fairings I bought a couple of months ago. I had also planned to change the factory 5W fork oil for 20W oil. With all this work to be done, maybe I shouldn't be hoping for spring so soon; given an opportunity to ride, there would be little hope I'd get these things done.

Well, here it is.

2008-02-22T11:52:00.038-05:00

OK, so I've decided to start my very own blog for motorcycling enthusiasts. I currently ride a 2007 Suzuki SV650S and I love it because it's such a capable machine -- it's a blast to ride.

I'll start with a little background: I've been riding bikes for 30 years. The first 10 were on dirt roads and in gravel pits, beginning at age 8. In my early 20's, I bought an RD350 and rode that for almost 10 years before I reluctantly let her go. Kids were on the way and like so many with young kids, I went for a period of 5 years without a bike.
But I couldn't take it any more. My mid-life crisis came early: in the fall of 2007, I bought a brand new bike. Being a cheap-ass bastard, but still having a taste for decent quality, I did some research and concluded that an SV650 might be a wise choice. They're known for being just about the best value you can get for your money, and I didn't want to spend a lot. Not a pure sports bike, but sporty enough to have some fun. Reliable, plenty of horsepower, and gobs of torque that high-strung inline-4's lack.

Here's a chronological list with photos and comments about all the bikes I've owned:

First bike: 1971 Moto-Ski model 450 Moto-Skeeter

Long before the movie Dumb and Dumber was released, my father bought one of these very ugly minibikes. My brother Randy and I drove the snot out of this thing year-round from 1978-82. It wasn't pretty or powerful, but it was tough as a tank. The engine was a 4.5 hp 2-stroke (65 cc, I think), and the rear wheel was driven by centrifugal clutch & chain: no transmission, no gears, just twist your right hand. Memorable moments include 1) building home-made ramps out of plywood & cinder blocks to see how high / far we could jump it; 2) using the bike to tow each other on skis and toboggans in the snow; 3) rigging up flexible piping and hose clamps to extend the intake and exhaust systems upward, allowing us to ride the silly thing in 2-feet of water during the spring flood season; 4) strapping a snow scraper shovel to the front of the bike and using it to "plow" the snow in the driveway. Sure, we were young and stupid, but it was a gas. The bike pictured in the above photos are not of my actual Moto-Skeeter, just some photos I found on the web. Mine was identical.

Second bike: 1979 Kawasaki KX80
After Glen Abbot let me take his mini motocross for a spin once or twice, I needed to get a real motocrosser. The old Moto-Ski didn't hold a candle to the rush you could get from an explosive 2-stoke dirt racer. So, my 2nd bike was almost identical to these two green machines pictured here. I rode that bike for 3 summers (1982-83-84). I bought with cash I earned mowing lawns: $300 from my Dad's friend Harry, who purchased it for his 6-year-old, but soon realized it was too powerful for a kid that young.
Some of my riding buddies from the early 80s were Corey (1982 Honda XL100), Geoff (1981 Suzuki DS100 and a 1973 Can-Am 175), John (1979 Kawasaki KE175, then a LTD440), Keith (1983 Honda XL185), Vaughan (1981 Honda XL80), Kevin (1986 Honda CR80), Kodie (1986 Honda CR80).

1978 Suzuki TS185

The KX80 was a little small by the time I was 14 or so (1984) so I made Larry Woods (used car dealer) an even trade for a beat up old TS185. A nerdy looking dual-purpose 2-stoke, but it was gobs of fun. Initially, I had hopes of riding it leagally on the road when I turned 16, but I basically used it as a dirt bike and tore the hell out of it for 2 or 3 summers. I did get my bike license at 16, but I was more interested in dirt riding, and I had my own car by age 17 anyway (a sexy, primer-gray 1978 Plymouth Volare wagon with red vinyl seats, 225 cu.in. slant-6, automatic).

1977 Honda CB125S

Technically, it wasn't my bike: rather, it was my father's. He bought it around 1983 and kept it around until about 1992 when he upgraded to a KZ400 (which I rode once in a while). He rarely got a chance to ride the CB125, because I was always on it (riding on the trails, and sometimes illegally on the street before I had my license).

There was the time I "borrowed" it while my parents were away for the weekend one late December night. I was 15 years old. Went for a ride to visit a girlfriend a few miles down the road in Oromocto. On the way home around midnight, the NB Highway Patrol noticed the tail light lens was missing and tried to pull us over. Like the stupid 15-year-old I was, I tried to outrun the big Ford LTD. Riding two-up on a 125cc bike with my good buddy, Geoff, we didn't stand a chance: top speed was barely 110 Km/h with the wind at our backs. The cop ran out of patience after about a mile, and forced us into the ditch with the front fender of his patrol car. We laid it down [gently] and ran off into the woods. Took us several hours to walk home. Cold, wet. The NB Highway Patrol seized it and were knocking at the door by morning. They had a whole list of charges: speeding, no tail light, failure to stop for police, no license, no registration, no insurance, expired plate, the list went on. Funny enough, Geoff and I had even taken great care to doctor the expire license plate sticker with some green model paint. After a long talk down at the police station, they cop was nice enough to let me go without any charges whatsoever. Turns out he and my father knew each other. I did have to pay $150 towing & storage, plus a few minor repairs to the bike. My dad wasn't happy at the time, but we laugh about it now.

1986 Honda CR80

Bought a 1986 Honda CR80 identical to this one in the summer of 1987. Yeah, I was 17 and it may have seemed a little small, but I was a skinny 135 lbs. That bike was a blast. It was less than a year old, and I got it for a steal: only $1000, from my buddy, Kodie. Used to ride with another friend, Kevin, who had an identical bike. We had lots of fun riding in the airport pit, and quick rips on the asphalt down the Lincoln & Nevers roads.

At the time, I desperately wanted to swap the knobbies for fat street tires, but none of the local bike shops said it could be done... And to think, I might have been the inventor of the super-moto...

1981 Yamaha RD350LC (the first liquid cooled RD)

Ah...my beloved RD350. Bought this street rocket during 1993 xmas holidays, from friend Phil Fournier. Dragged it from Moncton > Fredericton in the back of Dean's 1/2-ton. It was basically trashed when I bought it: the engine was dead (top and bottom), flat tires, plugged-up carbs, worn chain & sprockets, busted lights; the whole bike basically needed to be restored from the ground up. I devoted hundreds of hours and about $1,500 in parts over the winter months to restore it. I also managed to located a complete parts bike. It was in about the same condition, slightly worse. Between the two, I had enough stuff to build one good bike.

For the engine, I had to bore the cylinders, plane the head, new pistons, rings, rods, bearings, grind the crank journals, new seals & gaskets, rework the carbs, new battery, tires, etc. Then came the paint: some old leftover bulldozer paint I got from Rob Burtt. It had been sitting around in his garage and was probably 20 years old already. Contained lead, too. But it was free! And it was a great color: a soft of bright radio-active yellow; my RD was nicknamed "the nuclear banana bike." Keith Holden sprayed the paint for me. A local sign shop made some custom vinyl decals for the tank. It turned out great.

With the restoration basically complete, I had it on the road by April 1994. It was wicked quick, very snappy. It had explosive power, but the precision handling of a John Deere. Oddly, the bike's roughness was one of its best qualities. With such sloppy handling, it required great effort to keep it on the road, and that made it a truly fun bike to ride. Crank that throttle hard and hold it there, and you'd be in the oncoming traffic in a second or two if you weren't careful. And, while it sucked on the highway, it would easily smoke anything on the road from 0-60 mph. I embarrased many Ninja 600 owners on the downtown streets of Toronto in the mid-90s ... I had no trouble keeping up with a friend who rode a tricked out 1991 GSXR750, as long as we stayed on the city streets.

Over the 9 years I owned the RD, I was busy modifying everything I could: custom chambers & pipes I bought from a guy who raced RZs in Shannonville, Marzocchi fork brace, 4" velocity tubes on the carbs, no air filters or airbox, carb jet kit, Boyesen reed valves, oversized pistons, planed head). And, oh, how I miss the sound of that bike! It was a dangerous bike for inexperienced riders (or anyone with little 2-stroke background). Sold it in fall 2002 after having moved to Ottawa (kids were on the way and I didn't have a place to keep a bike). I really miss that bike. Someday, I'll find a nice RZ350 project bike, Or, maybe an RGV500.

2007 Suzuki SV650S

I was bike-less from 2002 to 2007. Enough was enough. Fortunately, the Loonie was gaining value against the US dollar and bike prices were falling, combined with end-of-season bargains. I had found a good deal on a silver SVS in Vermont, but a local Ottawa dealer came close enough to almost match the price: on-the-road cost was $7,975 ($6,899 + PST + GST+ licensing). Suzuki Canada waived the feight & PDI charges because it was the end of the season (and because so many Canucks were heading south to buy from US dealers). Anyway, it was on-the-road for under $8,000. What a bargain for such a great all-round performer. Best bang for the buck, period. And best usable power of any bike I've ridden. The SV is a modern sport bike with a reliable & smooth fuel-injected engine, and a very light yet rigid frame. It doesn't have great suspension like a real supersport bike, but adequate suspension for a street rider who obeys the law. The SV is known for reliability, decent performance, excellent frame, solid motor, and have attracted a cult-like following. Just check out places like SV Rider and SV650.org and SV Portal and SV Down Under.

I've been busy [and broke] over the winter with plenty of mods: muffler chopped by 9 inches, front fender extender, removed rear fender, rear hugger, custom tail tidy, LED turn signals, double-bubble windscreen, replaced clip-ons with handlbars, front & rear Galfer SS brake lines, short-twist Yamaha R6 throttle tube conversion, etc,
My old RD would easily smoke my new SV in straight line acceleration from 0-60 mph, but the SV has something the RD lacked: torque. The idea of a torquey v-twin in a sport-bike package really appeals to me, probably because I'm a little older and my tastes have changed. Though I've ridden several inline-4 cylinder sport bikes, I've never owned one. In my early 20s, I rode the RD because it was the quickest bike I could afford. I was also very used to two-stroke engines. Yet, I used to drool over bikes like the CBR, GSXR, FZR, and the big Ninjas. Those bikes are quick and fast. The RD was just quick. But like most young guys, I just liked the idea of hot bikes that go real fast. For my own safety, I'm glad I've grown up.

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