A2 Replaced your exhaust

This has happened too numerous to recall all of them, I'll share the first time.

I was 19 and had taken a break from drinking for multiple months. Obviously there were reasons that was a thing. I was on my FZR600(was my drag bike) and headed to a party at an acquintance's s parents house.  A close friend we'll just use R for this was already there and we got to BS'n about motorbikes as it happens. Also BS'n about going to the wedding reception(mutual friend from high school) over in our hood. Possible a plan was hatched to cruise over to my place and put R on my GS500E to head back to the party(we might have showed up to the party on bikes but unsure either way). Stopped by 7/11 and managed two 6 packs of the hot new heinieken keg cans. Strapped a 6er to the GS and i was able to fit 4 of the 6 in the front pocket of the pull over i was wearing with the other two hanging out in front. Started drinking upon re-arrival at the party. A few or all of the "kegs' gone and we head to the wedding reception.

As we were cutting across Portland raising moto mayhem on beautiful Saturday we cut over by Emanuel hospital and I used the multiple steep parking lot ramps to try to jump my FZR like a dirt bike. Much air was had. Much bottoming out was done. Caved in cylinders 2 and 3 of the stock headers. I guess what goes up must come down right?

Proceed to stop far enough away from the stop sign on graham to get a still see if its clear. Did a proper drag launch across the intersection and flew a ways down the steep hill on Graham going under 5/405. Just had an energy about being far to reckless.

Heading up interstate ave(Pre-Max) R and I were living the moto dream until a block before going ave a beige Cadillac turned left in front of us, Rich swerved and missed the tail. I anchored the front brake and did my first real stoppie. I was staring through the passengers window looking down into the car. Stalled it up there just long enough for the car to clear, slammed the back end down and met R at the light. Both of us had silver dollar sized eyes. R says something to the effect of "I crashed the bike!" I hollered back in a state of confusion "no you didn't, your'e on the bike!" Thats when he showed me the brand new glove that had rash all over the palm. Turns it Rich hit the center median with plenty of momentum, yellow curb paint on both wheels, underside of the stator cover and belly pan. The bike was going down and pushed off with his hand just enough to ride it out. I think what he did to his shoulder with that move ended up bothering him for a while.

Next stop Queen Anne Victorian manson but one last jump through the DMV parking lot. Terrible ass high jump, front tire just skipping across the rough sloping parking lot. SHIT! can't STOP! carrying way to much speed, just started scrubbing speed as I got to the street on the other side of the parking lot. giving it everything I could I hit the gravel parking strip.

Both feet down, front tire locked up I came to a dusty stop in front of the stone posts that hold the steel gate to the right of the staircase. Just had time to exhale before i look to my left and see Rich coming in hot, feet down with a locked front prayer. success. Made quit the entrance. Got cut off before we even made it to the bar, sadly we said our hellos and promptly were asked to leave. I have a vague memory of doing a burnout as we left but I can't be certain. Rode to Rich's and retired the bikes and headed back to the first party. The rest of the evening was more of a blurred master class on not doing well and being a shitshow. The next Tuesday i went to Dr Browns to order of a vance and hines full system, K and N pods and a stage 3 jet kit. Ditched the airbox, set the carbs up for a baseline tuneI then "replaced my exhaust".

A1 Gone to Sturgis

 Sturgis is a hard nope. I think I might have enjoyed 80's Sturgis but not even sure if  i would. I did ride out to the Fossil Campout back in 2005, James and myself were some of the only sportbikes out there. The campout had some fun and interesting times like;

It was the first time James and I rode together, 15 years later we still have plenty more miles to rack up.

Uncle Brent's incredible pace winding up the windmill lined twisties from Biggs Junction up into the high desert of eastern Oregon. '96 Ultraglide with camp trailer just smooth hustling, I was shocked at how much harder I had to ride my '04 Gix1k than i thought i would have had to riding with him.

There were a couple of hilarious bloopers at the bike rodeo.

On the back roads out of town while doing a side by side wheelie bike on my left starts to veer over to the right, i leaned it back a bit more and slowed it down just enough to let the bike and rider cross just a few feet in front of me and I veered left and we ended up back next to each other  with precious like it had been planned and practiced.

Also the church booth had free coffee, really hit the spot after the Jack Daniels dinners. The coffee got more enjoyable when guys would ask for you to grab them a coffee because they didn't want to be seen at the church tent.

Motorcycle Bingo

I saw this skittering around the social medias recently and promptly clicked off all but 4, thought a bit about each, sent a few messages back and forth with Jams and figured they would be decent memories to write about. So over the next week or forever the goal is to get back to this a bit.

unpublished draft.

Found a writing project to work on so logged in to blogger and here is an unpublished draft from last April. I must have planned an article with this as the inspirational placeholder. Either way, here is the end of the first shakedown rip(i think?) with the CRF front end on the XL250R.

XL250R, 1 cylinder, 2 carbs, 3 chances

XL250R, Honda by name but not by soul. Granted everything other than the soul is pure Honda, like how miraculous the engineers are at hiding an extra 40-50 pounds on a bike, how much it understeers like a front wheel drive GM product, a surplus of 25 extra wires in the harness and an exhaust note at idle that is more reminiscent of a loud aquarium with a bunch of flatulent fish than anything running on petrol. Somehow with all this you go to grab a handful of throttle and instead of Honda it feels more Yamaha(that’s a good thing). There is an urgency to getting at the power, a fun of getting at the power but none of the ultra composed and manageable “are the cam lobes flat” rush of power that is too be expected. In true Honda engineering tradition you have to marry a proper motor to a shit chassis with tiny drum brakes front and rear and forks that have the same rigid dynamics of the javelin at the end of revenge of the nerds.

This is the third chance for this sweet little whip. Gone are the stock forks with the cute blue booties and in their place is a stout front end from a CRF250R, 2007 vintage. With the forks come the front disc and caliper from said bike. Steering stem from a Yamaha R1 modified by G&H cycles for the stock crf top clamp handles the back and forth of the bars. Currently trying to incorporate as much of the stock XL parts into the controls/wiring/headlight but the process is moving along. Hope to update later on tonight with a pic of it as a roller with bars and controls awaiting the custom headlight brackets to mount the sealed beam stock lamp. Usually doing a swap like this leads to a wonky unbalanced bike but I think I have the spares to remedy any awkward handling issues. There is a stage two to this suspension and brake upgrade and if the bike proves enjoyable enough with just the front end I’ll proceed to graft the cr500 rear end on to it. No easy feat but the motor is worth the extra labor I think. To be honest I’ll probably lose interest and give this bike to a friend but no need to be a realist at this stage.

Honda dork-sports

I had an illness, maybe even a sickness. It was years ago but it feels like it’s no longer in remission.  It started as a small red rash that resembled an XL200R, a small red rash that had wings on it. From there the rash spread to a full hive with scabs and everything. It looked remarkably like an XL600R, it made the symptoms more than tolerable and low and behold the rash and hives were gone replaced with the most colorful of bruises. That means it’s deep in the blood now. Then it got worse from there now adding Xl250R like symptoms. This one hurt the worst by far,  took a huge chunk out of my backside like a bacterial skin infection to the tune of $1400 plus $100 for some bullshit duct tape. Luckily Big Cass was along for moral support so I didn’t have to go at it alone. Full fledge ride red fever, kind of like a form of Dysentery minus the lower intestine fun. After years of staying vaxxed with a cocktail of Italian, Austrian and Swedish moto vaccines somehow the red fever took hold. Slowly I began to heal, recovery was on the horizon. The XL200R known lovingly as ‘lil red was transformed into a KTM 125SX, 2 stroke Austrian medicine. There is no way this medicine was a research placebo with how it pulls when it is on the pipe. I still had 850cc of this red virus that I had to neutralize. Jason “the tall one” Chimmy donated an organ to help with the recovery, an ankle is an organ right? The XL600R was now gone, and gone as in Jason had to wait for the swelling in his kickstart ankle to subside before he could give it another attempt, it had adopted a new victim. The Italian Husqvarna was and still is the big bore anesthesia for it. The XL250R was used the way motorbikes are supposed to be used and wound up with a twisted front end and me gasping for air. Did this illness spread to my lungs or was this just momentary? Nope, just getting flung over the bars and slammed hard at Riverdale. James Brad stepped up with a healing hand and took the sickness in and cured me.

Or so I thought...

Clutch slaves

Lately it's been nonstop clutch slaves with a multiple crashed R1 thrown into the mix. Still better than a cable operated clutch for a big bike. Maybe to many Italian bikes kicking around?

A little RSV-R clutch slave piddle.

Drew's Tuono that might be sorted. 

And then there is a slipper clutched Monster S2R that needs to get sorted(I'd like to try to jump it) by means of a bleed hopefully.

Ruining the Italian party with a Yamaha.

That's all.