Gorecki

Seems it's difficult to avoid brake dust on the wheels but switching to organic brake pads will reduce it a lot. But a word of warning, under extremely wet conditions, organic pads don't bite so well right away when soaked. Granted I never ride in such conditions but I'm sure someone does. Seems like the electronic monitoring is a bit pricy for what it is. I treat tire pressure checks as part of my 'pre-flight inspection'. A quick walk around taking a peak at fluid levels, are screws secure, anything leaking (oil, forks, shock..etc), anything crawled into the exhaust over night...not only assures a safer ride, creates the perception of safer ride to come. Granted, I'm quite used to doing these sorts of things on aircraft being a pilot, but I also use it as a mental preparation time for the coming ride (or flight). I generally use a little $8 digital tester which seems to be relatively accurate, but that's an entirely different dialog...accuracy?!?

Umm...it appears a four letter word starting with 'C' and ending with 'P' commonly used to avoid expressing a form of vulgarity, is considered a vulgarity by the forum filters. Likely default behavior, but yeah, that's more restrictive than Disney!

Yeah, southern Illinois and a handful of states below it are miles and miles of flat, straight roads. But, there's some good dirt/motocross tracks scattered throughout. I'm interested in track for the apparent thrill, challenge and freedom. But I haven't actually done it yet so we'll see how that pans. On the roads here can be fun but often where fun begins is also where the speed cameras, idiot drivers and wildlife begin as well. I've never had the chance to 'pin' my throttle and I'm looking forward to that opportunity, otherwise, it's simply not going to happen on a road. Twisting roads can be fun, but I've had to stand the bike up more than once because of unexpected traffic and I'm really not going that low. Just don't trust they'll stay on their side of the road.

Amen to that ! Life is no dress rehersal. I like how you guys think! Maybe I was born on the wrong continent. Now back to our regularly scheduled thread...already in progress.

Know that one too well, I started at ~7. And yes, I know. I'm an idiot.

I suspect the 'age' you are seeing in the pictures is relative to the era. People often lived considerably less holistic lifestyles back then. Brings back a memory of when I was a kid back in the mid '70s when getting autographs from three major league baseball players and noticed (was hard not too) they were all skunk drunk and this was BEFORE the game. Just don't see that sort of stuff today.

Hello Aly, welcome! Cool to hear from the ladies on two wheels, don't think I could ever get mine on a bike without me up front. We in the states have been shorted, I keep seeing references to these four popper 250's you and the Aussie's have, we don't! They seem like they would be a lot of fun on a track! Enjoy the school and fill us in, I haven't been yet but plan on it closer to summers end.

Comments : Cool! That looked like fun! Observations : There was only one clear cut point I saw where the gixxer camera guy could have passed you, but yeah, by the fourth video, think he was running out of gas (so to speak). He seemed like a good rider, but I'm really not qualified to have an opinion. Certainly seemed like the gixxer was screaming like a little girl sometimes though? Also, you really didn't look like you were trying very hard most of the time (guess they call that skill) and when you wanted speed, you had it. Your cornering didn't appear it required any effort, wow...cooler! Not knowing enough to know much, that Honda's looking good! Thanks for posting that! Think I even learned a little about passing and I would have to say a tiny bit about good track day etiquette.

Oh, I still love it. It's the ultimate erector set without having to pick up the pieces. I expect to do it the rest of my life. But I need diversification or I'll go totally WACKO!

Congrats nic! Sounds like you enjoyed the class! Did you bring your own machine or did you ride one of the school bikes?

Sorry to hear that. Not knowing anything about the person, or the truck, is it at all possible that what he was saying is the truck in the least seemed to perform better, longer on the $4.29 a qt Castrol where in the WalMart brand is probably less expensive but that's not what makes him feel good? Granted a 20w50 in a 4-6 cylinder is probably a bit heavy for a vehicle that likely takes a 5w30 for a reason as well as it causing a probable loss in gas milage, so be it. That is life and how people are, there are many things in many ways people are like that. And it's entirely their right and their problem, even if they blow out their engine because the oil pump couldn't take the weight. There most certainly some value in the write up but what I found, for lack of better words annoying about it was its very limited scope, its focus was two dimensional. Acknowledging the viscosity of the two oil 'purposes' were relative or not and big business is taking advantage where it can. In either case not all that much of a shocker, actually kind of obvious. The part making me shack my head was the many other dimensions of cause and effect of oils to an engine (what ever their intended purpose) weren't even mentioned. Making the analysis narrow and somewhat subjective. Even viscosity itself has greater dimensions to it than the article suggested. But never even made mention of volatility, oxidation, wear, foaming, acid neutralization, rust, oh yeah and wet clutch compatiblity. These are ALL factors that when discarded paints an incomplete picture. I mentioned it before but a couple of major oil sponsor companies who charge a pretty healthy price for their product, did not fair well under testing...at all! Well, their viscosity wasn't bad until genuinely stressed. Now add the financial element to all of the above. At least here in the states, they don't sell huge quantities of oil for motorcycles, but they do sell tons for automobiles. So if for any other reason supply and demand of having to produce 'a product' costs them (big business) more so they pass it on. I'm sure I'm paying at least $2 more per quart for the oil I'm using because it's imported. Is it special, hard to say, but my bike is happy. So, it's good enough for me. In anycase, that's business, even in its best light. What ever is appropriate for the intended machinery. If someone wants to put an automotive oil containing friction modifiers in their motorcycle, it is their choice. Hopefully a choice made understanding their clutch might not work so well in the near future, but again it's their choice. I personally take things to the degree of research and evaluation and derive my own findings from the collective results from as many sources as I can find showing continuity. It's the best 'educated guess' method I can come up with and sometimes possibly will not produce the best results. But often it does. Finally, I gather I had offended you. For that I apologize. Was not my intension.

Wow Eirik, you really seem to have a lot of knowledge/experience. I agree with you on even way back when lubrication worked, I'm am totally amazed as you said machines 100 years ago even ran. And heck 'way back when' I had a VW Beetle I swear would run on cooking oil and cheap vodka and keep on going! But right now I'm totally facinated by the 'internal combustion engine' as silly as it sounds. I've done lots of my own car and bike work over the years, but not the serious stuff. Someone asked me to adjust valves I would likely, panic, read 3,000 pages of service manuals and then panic some more. But after nearing 20 years of writing software, engines and related is refreshingly fun. So thanks for sharing your opinions.

Hmmmm... Interesting read. Its entire context was fixated on viscosity and how motorcycle oils were a rip off and priced very high in contrast to automotive oils whose viscosity was as good or better. Granted I can't argue that 'premium' motorcycle oils are expensive, but no more expensive than their automotive equivalents. Also, it making references to 'high rev'ing' engines in cars as it is relative to motorcycles is a reference based on 1994. My old Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4 (First Generation) 24-valve performance vehicle redlined at 11K (I think) while my bike redlines at 18K, so that really wasn't of value either. Also, in the entire document there was never any mention of 'clutch' or more so 'wet clutch' brought me to the conclusion was about deceptive marketing and viscosity and really nothing more. The document is based on a 16 year old right up and I would have to say really isn't on par to all the things involved in todays machines.

Welcome! Is ESS - E SUPERSTOCK? If so, you riding expert or novice? I'm a WERA noob, so pardon the questions.

Mobil 1 seems to be consistantly liked! Throw out bearing? Friction have to do with it? What blend of Motul?

Welcome Tuney! I watched your video and there's certainly something if not many things not okay on your suspension. To tell EXACTLY what is nearly impossible without being hands on and there are considerably more experience 'tuners' in the world than me. What I did see, is your front end seemed stiff even after a while when the oil had a chance to heat was softer, but still seemed stiff. At the same time, I saw when you got hard on the throttle the rear of the bike squatted a lot. This is really unusual and really makes me think it's possible you're riding almost if not entirely on spring only in the back which would support the squat on throttle and the rear 'squirming so much'. So in a nutshell, you REALLY need to set sag and try to get the front and rear dialed in from there, IF you can. There are SO MANY things that could be causing your problems, the shock could be shot/bad values, or just tired oil, or just simply not adjusted properly. The spring could be wrong for you, your weight...etc, setting sag will likely show this. Again...there is a lot of possiblities. Again welcome, hopefully I was a little helpful.

This banana's for you! You can remove it if you want, just thought I'd continue the banana theme.

Why the heck don't they do that here?!? It would stop all of the debates people have over the Rotella. We have Shell everything else, heck I just filled my bike with Shell 93 'V-Power' 20 minutes ago!

They did another as well in 2009 and what was odd about the results is most rankings changed in big ways, Motul dropped by 6, Spectro by 9..etc Oh..but AMS still showed as #1 If anyone REALLY wants to get wacko about oils, check this place out http://www.bobistheoilguy.com the folks on those forums are making me look like I'm passive about the whole thing. I keep finding more and more data, but I'm thinking I still may stick with Motul because everyone says the 300V smells like banana's, sounds like a good reason to use it...right?

Well if anything, it's good to know men are men where ever they are in the world!

Hey dude! Yes, I've read that before as well as their filters info, good stuff! The whole Rotella conversation is kind of funny, there are lots of people who swear by it and it's the source of MANY really heated dialogs. The one word reason I would absolutely not use it is Warranty! They don't make a motorcycle specific formulation of Rotella and if for whatever reasons I have an engine problem within warranty using such an oil would give them every excuse in the world to claim it's my fault and not fix the problem. This is largely why I've gone the Motul route so far, Kawi offers it up as an oil choice on their own website putting it into the 'preferred' category. But I would suspect any properly certified correct grade motorcycle specific oil would leave them no room for argument, but the Rotella would. I'm really not sure why Shell wouldn't just go ahead and release a motorcycle specific version? They'd probably make a fortune! I presume you have a 636?

I feel the same way, I haven't done the classes yet either but found the book and dvd gave me a lot of information, some I can apply, but some really can't be applied without coaching or on the street...so I'm with ya. I've passed through Richmond a billion times coming/going from soccer tournaments with my kids, was just there a couple weeks ago, spent a little time near the university. Was a nice area..

Hello razor! I'm thinking of taking the August NJ class(es) as well, so we may possible cross paths! For a guy who's 62, already riding a couple hundred miles at a time on a liter bike, sounds to me like you're doing pretty okay. Welcome and enjoy, pretty good group here.

I didn't think you were rambling, a lot of very good points there! The portion of your response I quoted is probably the most important. A good like example is right now my precious ZX is running Motul 3000 mineral. At the 600 mile service, that was my choice to continue the breakin process. The moment I got the OEM oil out of the crank the bike woke up like a demon! Everything got 'better', shifting, quieter engine operation and the more miles I put on it, the better it gets. But I guess what I'm saying is there's absolutely nothing wrong with this dino oil from my experience so far and maybe shouldn't even bother going with a synthetic, but my engineering/OCD type mind is always looking for something even better and the metrics to prove it. A lot of the examples you gave I've seen before and I can remember from years ago my old CB350 (that was a great little bike) and CB750 I had really no concept of all of this and I put MASSIVE amounts of California commuter miles on them. Only problems I ever had didn't have anything to do with the engines. But, this ZX is my very first *new* bike and I'm just so thrilled with it thus far, I want to treat it like a queen! Really appreciate your input!

Welcome! Have you read 'twist of the wrist' or seen the DVD? If you haven't it will probably help you be even more ready for your day...lucky you.