Balistic

The short answer is yes they help keep the cost of damage down. A couple of things though, like the catch and tumble the bike? Yes the point of contact is higher than the bike sliding on its side BUT that only counts if the bike is sliding backwards ( tank first) and if it's going away from the tires it's going to turn over anyway. The other is that the slider or bolt will actually damage the frame or engine mount, Yes and no, it depends on the manufacturer. I made my own for years sizing the bolt and sliders to give but protect. R&G are simply the best engineered sliders I have used. We have not had one damage an engine mount in five years. What that means is the bolts give and bend correctly, too stiff and the bike will give. That bending bolt has done some minor damage to bolt face on the frame but it is of no consequence. Yes again to the package effect of sliders on all the high points, the more the better. We have had many bike go down and need only the sliders or a case cover to be ready to go again.

Yes I can confirm that Kawasaki is the toughest of the Japanese sport bikes without a doubt! Current bikes may be the exception as my experience with them ended in 2009. The one thing that was a major difference was the tail frame. Kawasaki stayed with tubing when the others were going to castings that simply explode! I am very happy to report that BMW saw fit to use tubing o the S1000RR and surprise, they crash very well and are easy to repair when bent.

Super volcano

Lots of good advise here, in my experience you can never get 100% back no matter how you clean the pads. I might use then on the street? Cleaning the what is called the deposition layer off the rotors is recommended and then bedding the new pads by dragging the brakes and getting the pads hot enough to melt some material onto the surface of the rotor. This is like a drag car lining up in its burn out, the most grip is when the same material is on both sides. Once you feel the brakes start grab you know you are there and it's time to let it all cool off.

Most of the lightweight batteries are li-Ion, I did see one at the IMS show that is lipo. I have used a few, a Shoria for three years without issue. They all suffer the same Achilles heal, you can not run them low voltage! Not a single time without damage. Usually catastrophic failure the first time. Most offer a 1% discharge rate per month so they can be left alone without a tender. Bottom line is most of the bad out there about this type of battery is from people who used the wrong charger or drew them down too far.

While I have used wheel bearing grease ( a light swipe with a finger) on cars I have never used anything but DOT 3-4 to assemble pistons. I do not like DOT 5 because it isn't hydoscopic, there is no problem mixing DOT 3 or 4 and in fact most say DOT 3/4. Other than a few properties you always have to keep in mind all petroleum products came from the same place and will mix back together.

There is a thing called heat soak, the engine parts are much hotter than the water temp. When you shut the motor off there is spike in water temp that can cause " boil over". One thing i would look at is to make the sure the hose off the radiator neck is going to the bottom of the recovery tank? Other than that fill the recovery tank to the min level with the bike cold and see if anything drips out again.

Unlike race bikes ours have to travel at times when it is below freezing so we do use coolant and not water. While water is good at heat transfer it will boil at a lower point than coolant. You do have to remember that a good cap will hold 15 PSI and that water at that pressure will boil at 240 I think. The corrosion in the cooling system is electrolicys and the only real way to defeat it is to put a zink anode in the cooling system. Hard to find outside of a marine store and then hard to mount in the cooling system. I only use di water in cooling and battery systems for all the reasons you stated. A good alternative to normal cooland is Evans waterless coolant, you would have to check with your sanctioning body but it way beyond what water wetter does.

You could try and narrow that down a little. After four years I can say that BMW has a reputation of reliability for a reason, they make very nice machines. The S1000RR was a big change for us after running 550's and 600's for many years. Horse power can turn parts to dust but the S motor handles the power very well. One little thing that seems to be a wear item is input shaft bearing cup behind the clutch. If your bike or any S1000 seems loud at idle and changes tone when you pull the clutch it's time to replace the bearing assy. Other than that chain and sprockets will be lasting 12 to 16,000 miles. Don't even think about saving money on a chain, with this much power buy the best. Don't even think about an Aluminum rear either! OUr bikes have been the most durable bike to date.

Good kid with a great attitude. can't wait to see him at Code R.A.C.E.

The first thing I would ask is are you pulling the cams all the way down with the cam towers and looking at it? the cams will retard as you tighten the cap down. I usually set the crank and then worry about the cams, it would appear that the cams will be retarded with crank position. If you have done everything right the question of how much the cam chain has stretched may be an issue. You can get slotted cam sprockets and preposition the cams so you can get the crank at top dead and the cam marks lined up.Will

I get all my tire supplies from K&L supply. They are a wholesaler to dealers so you will have to ask around a little. They have all sizes of the nippled patches I use and the rope plugs.

The only thing I could add is that bikes with similar front and rear tires steer and turn very well. back in the day of 16" tires we used to put 120 fronts and 130 rears on Ninja 250s and they worked much better than the 100/120s they came with. The other example would be the HDs with 16" front wide (150) tires, like a wide glide. I think the rear is slightly bigger but a 15" wheel making it nearly the same size. They handle great! very light steering and neutral in the corner. Yea I know we are talking half the lean angle but it's still true.

I have just recently made an interesting discovery that may or may not apply to other brands. I have had one bike that has not been running right and I had been chasing it for two months. I had changed the fuel pump, coils, injectors, and finally the wiring harness. at every point it seemed to be fixed only to start running poorly again with a slight miss just off idle and then falling short on power above 10,000 rpm. after talking with the tech line at Kawasaki and checking all the sensors at the ECU I changed the spark plugs and bam it was fixed? It appears the ECU is capable of interpreting resistance in the coil and going into a limp mode to protect the catalytic converter. On the Kawasaki at least there is no way to monitor the ECU to see the decisions it is making? At any rate my advice on modern EFI bikes is to use the recommended plug and replace it when recommended.

I have stayed out of this Frey but at this point I feel compelled to post. I got a nickname when I fresh out boot camp that I earned with my ability to change my mode of operation in the blink of eye to respond to a situation. Many already know this but it is my screen name Balistic. 0 to 10 on the attitude scale with nothing between, it has nothing to do with any other kind of speed. As for Cobie's, it would be a great injustice to all the elder staff old enough to have watched any of the Mr. Magoo cartoons growing up to pass on the oblivious and award Cobie the nickname of MAGOO with the Os done up as eyes.