When switching an exhaust, what if any changes need to be made to the bike? I presume some as it will change the back pressure. I am looking to go from a straight through race pipe to a road legal pipe with baffle.
It's a ZXR750, carbs not injection. I am presuming it's been setup for the race pipe as I bought the bike from a performance tuning shop and they gave me dyno printouts with the bike.

http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/boston-bruins-motorcycle-rally-for-a-cause.htm

I don't do local motorcycle ride outs, but here's an exception. 6 September, the Boston Bruins are organizing a motorcycle rally benefitting a cancer foundation.

After the ride, you get a BBQ and time to mingle. How cool is that (unless it rains, but then the event is held the following day).

There will be no bodychecking!

...

Can we talk about chokes on carb'd bikes for a minute? I've put 6,000 miles on my ex250 and I still don't understand what this stupid choke wants from me. Everyone says, "just turn the choke on and ride away! no problem!" I call BS. I put the choke on and try to ride away and the bike drops it's idle and tries to die. Some days I use minimal choke, other days I use more choke - no matter what it wants to die. Sometimes I use so much choke the engine sounds like it is going to explode. I can't please this damn choke. The only time the bike is happy is when I sit in the driveway for 5 minutes twiddling my thumbs while it warms up. I really like this bike and want to keep it, but I'm ready to throw my hands up and trade in for something fuel injected.

Does anyone else feel this way with their carb'd bike? Is this life in the carberator world? Can anyone share tips and tricks?

(for the record, I believe the bike is in good mechanical shape. It had a full service last month with a valve adjustment.)

j4's latest post reminded me of about Spamusement! - the old but good idea of illustrating spam subject lines. NSFW, because it will make you giggle.

(To the LiveJournalist whose subject line I stole for this post: forgive me. It was delicious.)

I seem to be going through one of my periodical unable to settle with a book phases. I have a large number of books on my reading list and at least three on the go at the moment – though I think that I may have run out of steam with Kate Fox’ Watching the English about two thirds of the way through. What seemed funny and informative at the beginning now seems drab and repetitive. Back to the shelf with that one, I think.

Somewhere in the living room – on the shelf near my chair, I think – I have the half-read Eleanor of Aquitaine by Allison Weir. Considering the lengths I went to to get it (I seem to have purchased it between print or distribution runs), I really ought to plough on with it. The trouble is, it’s just that at the moment: plough. It’s not badly written or anything, though she does make a lot out of relatively thin contemporary documentation, but my mind set isn’t quite right for a learned tome right now and it is a rather poorer book than McLynn’s Lionheart and Lackland, which inspired me to look it out.

That brings me to the book in my bag at the moment. A novel that I started about ten days ago. I am on page 23. I was on page 23 ten days ago. Then theory was that I should read it on the Tube in to work and again on the way home, but as it transpires, I just want to doze on the way in and I do the Times sudoku on my way home. At home I play Civ or watch the telly. Or doze.

Past experience suggests that this phase will last another two or three weeks and then suddenly all my reading buds will perk up again and I’ll be off…

You know it’s all going just a little wrong when you attempt to take your glasses off and polish them to get rid of the smears and then realise that you haven’t put them on yet and it’s your own eyes that are smeared.

More coffee, I think.

That is all.

 I'm slowing down with Balzac. I wouldn't say he was hard going, but he's dense. 

I ran out of modern English translations a while back, so now I'm printing texts off Project Gutenburg- all of them translated in the latter half of the 19th century by Katherine Prescott Wormeley (who seems to have done not only the whole of La Comedie Humaine, but also a collected Moliere, much of Dumas and all sorts of bits and pieces.) 

(I'd like to know more about Wormeley. Googling her turns up very little, but enough to establish her as a remakable person in her own right.  Henry James referred to her in a letter as "the strenuous Miss Wormeley", Melville was influenced by her Balzac translations and- most personally and substantially-  she is the author of a book called The Other Side of War- which relates her experiences as a volunteer nurse with the Army of the Potomac. A brief account of her war service, together with a lively letter to her mother is available here.)

My 34th Balzac is Le Lys dans la Vallee- in which a young man who knows nothing about women falls in love with a woman who knows nothing about men. There are two sides to Balzac: he is a realist and he is a metaphysician. Here- in this tragic story of sacred and profane love- the two are in perfect balance. Why this book isn't better known outside France, I really don't know. It's one of the great European novels- lyrical, psychologically acute, profoundly ambiguous- and, of course, much more grown-up in its treatment of sex than any English or American novel of its period could afford to be.

Next up: Le Contrat de Marriage- a slightly earlier novel featuring characters who play supporting roles in  Le Lys.

http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/reminder-subscribe-to-our-free-weekly-newsletter.htm

A reminder for those of you who don't like using RSS readers, and don't want to come and visit this site daily, that there's a free weekly newsletter available.

But then, if you're reading this, it means you read RSS stories, so don't really need to newsletter.. do you??

...

It's not been fun since the accident, they didn't lie bruised and sprained rib muscles really do hurt for quite a while. I've had some painkillers off the Doc to let me sleep better and the pain is getting less, slowly but surely.
Last weekend I was on the bike again. All did not go well.
I bought a new helmet and headed out to pick up someone from her CBT, nervous but getting better on the way there with oroboras riding behind me.
Once there I felt twitchy but pretty good, luckily I didn't have to give her a lift in the end so we headed home. I'm sure you've read his tales of tyre woe and I'm not totally convinced my continental contiforce are up to the job (I'm not sure how old they are and I'm not expert enough to be able to tell anything). Turning right at some traffic lights all was well until my back wheel twitched a little, I looked in my mirror to see oroboras do the same and have to put his foot down to steady himself. Both happily stayed upright but it really bashed what little confidence I had in myself. We made it home.
An hour or so later I was required to give someone a lift, it was raining so decided to go and pick up my Mums car to be more comfortable. Even on the short journey there, in the rain with a pillion I totally lost my nerve, it was horrible and I've not been back on since. I keep telling myself it's because of the rain, which mostly it is, I want some dry time to get somewhere near confortable again. Today is the day especially as I've got to give the car back.
I'm probably going to be in the market for tyres myself soon, but am going to get mine checked out first so see how bad they are.
I think that's everything, thanks for all your comments on my previous post, all were most appreciated.
Take care out there, I'm sure there's a metric tonne more oil and diesel spilled on the road at the moment than I've ever seen before, unless that's just around here.
:o)-

This quiz came via girlyswot. I can only make the link work in Firefox, Explorer won't do it. Unlike most quizzes it doesn't post the results, so I've put mine below.




You're a Slytherclaw!: By nature you are rational and a realist. Some people may call you cynical and elitist but this doesn't matter to you. You don't depend on other people's opinions to determine how you live your life. You are generally cautious and prefer to weigh the consequences before you act. In conflicts you prefer to remain neutral and aloof. You value intelligence and you are a natural diplomat, you can convince people to do what you want them to do. Your weakness is that you sometimes think more with your head than with your heart and it leads to isolation. With the intelligence of a Ravenclaw and the subtlety of a Slytherin you will be sure to achieve all your goals!

I sound a pretty cold fish!

http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/sand-in-your-motorcycle-engine.htm

Nol Bikker is a Dutch Kawasaki motorcycles dealer, and he had a sand sculpture made to promote the Kawasaki ZZR1400.

Not bad, but lucky for him, he doesn't sell rat bikes. That'll be a bit more complicated...

...

I`m sorry but I have once more (and finally) changed my mind on the choice of tyres.
I`m definitely going to go for the Avons, after finding out that DK Motorcycles (just around the corner) sell them for an insanely cheap price!
I was looking at Busters, who were selling a rear tyre (120/90 18") for £57.99 - but I`d have to wait 7 to 10 working days, and on eBay, it was £69 plus postage!.

At DK it is only £53.99 and I can collect - as the shop is about 8 miles away from where I live.

The total cost of tyres will be only £42.99 for the Front, and £53.99 for the Rear, making a grand total of £96.98!!

I`m utterly stunned, as DK are fairly well known around these parts for being overpriced, but on this occasion, are underpriced. Great!

Now I need to find a mobile tyre fitter.

Do anyone else's HANDS go numb after riding for a while? I have this 15-mile trip I take that always makes my fingers go tingly by the end. I'm pretty sure it's from the engine vibrations rattling the handgrips, but maybe I'm gripping too hard or not hard enough (that's what she said).

Any hand-stretchy techniques to wake your fingers back up? Get some blood flow up in those flanges? Squeeze them? Relax them? Hold them above or below your heart? WHAT DO I DO!? It could get pretty serious if I can't tell if I'm clutching or braking due to the tingly desensitization in my appendages.

I spent most of the afternoon in hospital with my ex wife today. Why I hear you ask? We hit a dip in the road that was a) invisible, and b) very deep. The dip was that deep that the passenger bar she was holding hit the fender and pretty much cut the tip of her finger off through her glove. I guess as we hit the dip. her hand slipped down the bar, and just under the bar was a flat piece of metal. (I have a Vulcan Drifter, so you can fatham what the seat is like. The jarring was that bad, it hurt my back. We were only doing 25 mph at the time, there wasn't any sign of this dip thing either. Roads in Baltimore are really that bad. We'd just passed a couple getting onto their motorcycle, so I turned around and asked them where the nearest hospital was. The first thing the bloke said was "Oh you hit the dip huh?" I guess it is known in the area for being bad... Anyway, they gave us a bag of ice to put the finger into, and told us where St Agnes' hospital was. We only about 4 miles from there... For once I didn't obey the speed limit as the finger was bleeding heavily. The ex was seen right away at the ER as the tip of the finger was only hanging on by the smallest bit of skin and the nerves that run up the side... It also cleaved the top of the bone clean in two... The Doctor's were able to stitch the tip of her finger back on. They did have to remove the nail and then stitch that back on too... I have to say it makes a change being in hospital with the ex and it not being me that needed attention...

I haven't seen the ex in two years, this is the first time she has been to Baltimore, the first time she has been on this bike... The only down side to all this was she wouldn't let me take a photo of her finger as it was nicely dangling :D She's here until next Tuesday, and she still wants to take 3 hour ride out to the Ocean...

Hey all.

I drive an International 4300DT for a living (see icon.) Today, my right front tire decided to blow out about a mile from our warehouse. While waiting for the repair truck, I placed my marker triangles in the proper position, had my flashers on, and spent much of the time behind my truck or on the bed waving people over.

Here's a map. I was on the right curb where the three trucks are, but was blocking the right lane. For reference, my truck is about the same size as that large vehicle beneath the three trucks, got it?

So we have a very visible breakdown. The sheer number of people who came around that bend at very high speeds and appeared not to notice 20,000lbs of truck in front of them astounded me, but the Gold Medal winner, in a hands-down Michael Phelpsian blowout, was the young Asian woman in the silver Prius who drove straight over all three of my triangles. Destroyed them. Ignored my frantic waving. Never turned her head or reacted the sound made by some pretty solid plastic being ripped to shreds three times in quick succession.

Silver goes to the moron who, through closed windows, nearly gave himself a stroke screaming at me while showing off his middle finger (it was a nice one, nicely trimmed nail) as he changed lanes without looking as to better express his opinion that I rigged the flat expressly to inconvenience him for about 10 seconds, thereby ruining his day, life, and chances of ever overcoming that erectile dysfunction problem. Sorry dude, my bad.

In my job, I see plenty of bad driving, but to truly appreciate the Zen of bad drivers, one must remove from the flow of traffic.

What do you guys bring along if you go for a weekend long trip, as far as tools and emergency supplies are concerned?

What do you bring along for a commute? Day trip? Longer trip?

Possibly next summers riding programme ...

Great Roads of Ireland

As you may (or may not) know, I had planned to spend my hard-earned overtime on a new part for the BMW.

Sadly there have been a few problems...

1) Overtime not paid...(again)

2) Demon Tweeks, despite assurances, not having the part I want. "Be a week, mate!" - That's great apart from the fact I booked Friday off to fit it on their saying they "had stock".

So Friday will be spent fannying about with wet 'n' dry, Trustan and myself.