elizilla

The electric scooters don't whine at all. Even at top speed I could hear the announcer, and the gas scooters around me on the course.

It was the coolest thing ever, and I can't wait to do it again! Pictures are finally starting to become available so I have put one into the post. I know HS likes these things to lead with a picture. :)

This isn't a VFR story, but I had such an awesome time last weekend that I wanted to share it with you guys anyway. I got to go scooter racing! I didn't make this video and I don't know the guy who did, but I'm in it. You can see me at around 5:45, getting off to a lousy start. I'm wearing the same leathers as in my userpic. So here's the story: My friend Erik at Current Motors invited me to go scooter racing at an event called ThunderDrome. Current Motors makes electric scooters and they had an extra one that I could ride. It sounded pretty fun, so I got up earlier than I ever normally get up on a Saturday morning, and rode the NT out to Dorais Park, on the north side of Detroit. The event parking was in a lot on Mound Road that obviously didn't belong to the park. I suspect there might have been a building there at one point, but now, all that remained was concrete, with weeds and small trees growing in the cracks. The lot had a huge fence around it, a serious fence, fifteen feet of chain link and a second fence about half that tall, and about two feet between the fences, with spirals of barbed wire. There were several mechanical gates whose mechanisms had obviously not been used in years. Once upon a time, someone really didn't want people getting in there. But one of the gates had been torn down, allowing entrance. The cars were all clustered in the south end. I picked a course that avoided the worse of the large weeds, and made my way down there and parked. All the pedestrian traffic was going through a hole in the fence, into the park, and I followed. This corner of the park was overgrown and shaded by small trees, but someone had cut the grass at least once this year. There was one large pile of trash but other than that it wasn't too bad. I liked it, it felt like trespassing. On the other side of the trees, there was a path that was probably once paved, but it was well on its way back to nature. It led towards all the activity. The race course was a velodrome. Velodrome bicycle racing was hugely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when indoor courses with wooden tracks drew large crowds to watch as bicycles with fixed gears and no brakes raced. Velodromes are steeply banked ovals, and they're steeper at the ends, so steep that you never get onto the sides of your tires. There are still velo bicycle clubs here and there, but it's nowhere near as popular as it was in its heyday. The Dorais Velodrome was built in the 1960s, and is concrete rather than the traditional wood. Like much of Detroit's infrastructure, it had been abandoned and neglected for many years, until the Thunderdrome organizers got interested in it. They spent a lot of volunteer hours there to unearth it, remove the weeds and small trees that had grown up, clear debris, and patch the pavement as best they could. It was still fairly bumpy, but not unmanageable. As they said, the bumps won't kill ya. And at least they didn't put down any tar snakes. Dorais Park also featured a big grassy hill with a ramp at the top, where soapbox derbies were held in more innocent days. (Check out the Thunderdrome website, it is interesting to see the story of how they unearthed the track.) The pit was to the left side of the path, in a bowl at the bottom of the soapbox derby hill. The grass was tall, and other folks reported it had been slippery earlier with the frost, but by the time I arrived, a little after nine, the sun was well up and it was nearly dry. The track was a little farther up the path. Imagine a small football or soccer field, in a bowl of stadium seating. Now imagine no seating, just a sloping paved surface where the seats would have been. This was the Dorais Velodrome. There were a hundred or so people milling about, but it was by no means crowded. There were people of all ages there, but a large portion of the crowd were in their early 20s and had facial piercings, retro eyeglasses, chucks, and ironic t-shirts. I guess scooters are the new skateboards. I found the Current Motors banner on an EZ-Up shade awning in the infield. Erik was there, along with Terry (also from Current), Erik's son Jacob, and friend Clarissa. They had a large Current Motors bike there for people to see, but the bikes that would be racing were smaller, and were out in the pits. We went back out there and looked at them. They had four bikes to race, altogether. Three were painted black and obviously well used, and the fourth was a red one that looked brand new. It was agreed that I would ride the red bike, because while I feared I would be the slowest, Erik thought I was least likely to crash, and this was their display bike. :) Terry said he had already had all the bikes tech inspected. The organizers told us to go ahead and start our practice laps, so we all went out on the track. I have rarely ridden the electric scooters before. They're pretty nifty. They don't make a sound, when you're sitting still, but when you roll on, they jump to life. It was a little unnerving riding my scooter on the tall grass, over uneven surfaces, to get it up to the rim of the bowl. The worst part was actually trying to fold my legs up and tuck my feet into the floorboards area, it just felt *wrong* not to have footpegs! There was a lot of debris scattered about, for example a piece of 2x4 about three feet long, and lots of large rocks and pieces of broken pavement. Also, there were bikes (with and without motors) milling around, and pedestrians, and camp chairs scattered about. There was a shortage of flat level ground, and all of it seemed to be occupied. Since the electric scooters are so quiet, pedestrians didn't hear them when you came up behind them. But since the electric scooters are so quiet, you can stop at any time, and talk normally to the pedestrians. The scooter was light and very maneuverable, so it was actually not so bad to navigate all that, once I got used to it. I've been to a few track days in the past, and normally there's a designated person exercising strict control over who enters the track, and when, and where, and how. There's usually a pit lane that no one is in except people whose sessions are starting/ending, and a fence, with just one entrance and exit from the track. Tire walls, etc. But they didn't do this here. Everyone was going counterclockwise, but other than that there wasn't much order. People were clustered all along the wall of the bowl, and you just cut through where you could and got on the track. But everyone was relaxed, cheerful, friendly, and polite. No "race face" here. The track was bumpy, but manageable. The first few times around, I didn't go fast enough to get a proper angle with the banked track, so even though I was going counterclockwise I was wearing the right side of the tires. There was a nasty bump in the racing line, in the second turn. I made a mental note to stay higher there. Round and round! Whee! The electric scooter is so quiet that you can hear every bump as you hit it, but the suspension soaked them up well enough, I didn't feel they were impairing the handling any. After a few laps, I was comfortable so I came in off the track. Not long after that they called in all the motorized bikes, and let the bicycles have a turn to practice. I got checked in and received my wristband, then I was instructed to get the bike teched again, since I needed the tech inspector to initial my wristband. The guy at tech recognized me; we had been at American Supercamp together. He had me put tape over the headlight, taillight and signals. It already had clear packing tape on it, but he handed me a roll of white duct tape to hide the lights. He also wanted the killswitch marked, but the electric bike doesn't have a killswitch. :-) Erik marked the ignition switch. The rules described some riding gear requirements, but no one asked any questions about my riding gear - looking around, I was probably closer to dressing like a racer, than 90% of the people there. I put the bike back in the pits, and went back to the Current EZ-Up. Ate some snacks, and talked to Clarissa about riding, then wandered around checking out the other few vendors. There was a bicycle shop called Sweet Bikes, and something called Suicide Squad. I asked the guy there was it was, and he said they were called that because they were crazy - they don't obey traffic laws, they run stoplights, etc. He reminded me of the people I used to meet at the hardcore club I sometimes went to when I was in college. A rider for the last Current Motors bike arrived, Andy. Andy is a champion racer, so Erik and Terry were hoping he'd be able to finish well. Erik said the bike that Andy was going to ride was similar in performance characteristics to mine. The one Terry was riding was the fastest bike they had that met the requirements to compete. (The bike parked by the EZ-Up was just there to display, because it was too large to compete.) Finally it was time for the scooter race. They had all the scooters pull up on the rim of the bow to be counted. There were fifteen. They divided us into three groups of five. Each group would race for fifteen laps, and the top two finishers in each group would do a second race of 20 laps. They used a LeMans start, which means that the racers would stand across the track from their bikes, ready, set, GO! and the riders would run to their bikes, leap on and take off. The first group started. No electric bikes were in this group. One rider quickly opened a comfortable lead, and a second rider opened a comfortable second place. One bike was so slow that it was very quickly lapped. The second group was called, and we realized that three of the four electric scooters were in this group. Terry quickly got one of the gas bikes to take his place so they wouldn't all be together. Erik and Andy were in this group. They came in third and fourth, respectively. Andy was giving second place a run for his money until the last lap or so, but the electrics have a very specific top speed and that's as fast as they go. One of the gas bikes in this group had something wrong with it that required the rider to ride with one hand down on the motor, holding something, to get any speed at all. He was lapped by everyone, I think. Partway through this race, the announcer said "I've just been told there's an electric bike our there! Which one is it? Two? There are two electric bikes out there! Why doesn't anyone tell me this stuff? Which ones?" Then it was my turn, and Terry's turn. I'm afraid I don't run well in leathers, and the bike was still not familiar enough for me to get on quickly, so I got off to a poor start. I was in last place, but I don't think it mattered that much, really. I quickly passed one of the others; his bike was very slow. I heard the announcer asking if there were two women out there? Someone must have answered in the affirmative, because he started blathering about the two women on the track at once. I tuned him out, because she was right there in my sights. I think we must have been one of the better contests that day. I passed her, she passed me, I passed her again. We were neck and neck, lap after lap. I discovered the passing trick, which was to go into the turn on the outside, and then turn sharper and dive to the inside and pass the other bike there, where the slope gave you just a little boost in speed. Just like they taught us at American Supercamp, except without the sliding. :) Unfortunately she learned it too. I had the throttle pinned to the stop, lap after lap. When I got the lead I could never open it up; I could hear her right there on my tail. Finally she passed me, and when I tried to take her again on the next turn, she dove first and I had to brake to keep from hitting her. At which point it was all over - I lost about 20 feet on her and was never able to make it up again. But Terry won our group! So, at least one of us got to the finals. :) In the last session, the guy in the yellow and red 'stich, on the pink scooter, did not finish. His bike died in the second lap. He got it going again as the other riders were finishing, but he wasn't a contender. Of the remaining five machines, Terry came in third. Next up was the mountain bike race. There were twenty or thirty bikes in this group but they decided to have them all run together. They would do a different course - they'd go 3/4 of the way around the velodrome, and then go over the lip of the bowl, and up the grassy incline to the soapbox derby ramp at the top of the hill. Then back down and into the velodrome. They'd do four laps. Once of the mountain bikes opened up a huge lead very quickly; by the end of the first lap he was about 50 feet in front of the guy in second place, who was also comfortably ahead of the guy in third. By the fourth lap, the leaders were passing lots of the people at the back of the pack. The bicycles looked slow after watching the scooters. There were a couple of road bicycle classes that stayed in the velodrome. I'm not sure how they split them up. I decided it was time to call it a day, so I went back to the NT and rode on home. The NT felt large, unwieldy, and powerful, after my time on the scooter. All in all, I think this was an awesome event, and I can't wait to do it again. I suspect everyone else there felt the same, and that it will get a ton of positive word of mouth, so it will get much more crowded in the future. The cheerful chaos was terrific fun but I suspect it will give way to more order, if the crowds get larger. I'm glad I got to attend the first one.

This chain oiler blog was an effort to provide some real information and real data, so people who are interested can find out about them. If you don't want a chain oiler, don't install one. I'm not angry at you for challenging me, but I've had this exact conversation approximately eleventy-seven-thousand times. You can learn a lot from talking to older riders, but nothing they can tell you is the same as firsthand experience. I took the time to find out about chain oilers for myself, and found that while there are hurdles to overcome, they do work for their intended purpose, in my actual real life riding. Occasional WD40 does not. As for the shaft drive, well, that's completely outside the scope of this blog, which is about chain oilers. If you want to argue about that, start a new thread. You won't convince me there either, but you can probably get more support for your position than I will for mine, since most VFRs have chains and this is a VFR forum after all. :)

Yeah, I've heard this sort of thing a lot. After trying every regimen proposed by folks like yourself, replacing seven chains in six years, and after having to replace a chain in a motel parking lot 2000 miles from home in the middle of a cross country trip, I concluded that my mileage definitely varies. I believe I gave chains a very fair test, and they were not working out for me. The chain oilers were my last ditch effort to make my peace with chains and I think they work - I'll definitely use them again. As for having a shaft drive fail, well, I weathered one of those a few years back. Swapping in the final drive from a parts bike took less than an hour and cost me nothing. That was the only shaft drive failure I ever had, and I don't think that one would have failed if the moron who owned the bike before me hadn't run it for 30,000 miles with no grease on the splines - I found crumbly rust and lots of wear in there the first time I changed the rear tire. I added grease and they went another 50K before they stripped. My other shaft drive Hondas went over 100K and were killed by other things (crashing, dropped valve, bottom end failure), leaving me with final drive parts ready and waiting when I finally needed them. It's nonsensical to compare a shaft drive failure, to a single chain and sprocket set. You have to compare it to dozens of chain and sprocket sets, because that's how often they each happen. But if you're happy with your chain care regimen, more power to you! It all comes down to how much you ride and in what conditions, and what tradeoffs you are willing to make.

Today I removed the Pro-Oiler from the VFR. Not because I don't like it. I do! But I am selling the bike, and the new owner doesn't want it. Better for it to stay here where it can eventually get used again, than to go in the trash when the new owner of my VFR comes to pick it up next weekend. Meanwhile the TDM has been laid up all season waiting for brake work. First it was waiting for parts, and then the parts came in but by then it was full summer and I haven't wanted to take time away from riding the other bikes to work in a hot garage. While the TDM has been sitting there, the Scottoiler has leaked all of its oil out onto the garage floor. I have not worked on it, but my guess is that when I had to apply vacuum to prime it again, after I let it run dry last year, I drew in too much oil and I plugged the breather. As my garage heats and cools every day, it sucks up a little oil each night, and pushes it out onto the floor the next day. I'm sure it will be an easy fix, if I would just get around to it. But instead I intend to move the Pro Oiler to the TDM, since it is cleaner and easier to maintain and I now have one sitting on the bench just waiting to go on the bike. I'll be writing to the Pro-Oiler folks to see about getting the parts needed to fit it to the TDM. The oilers worked very well to preserve the chains; they made chain drive almost as trouble free as a shaft drive. I intend to install oilers on all my future chain drive bikes. They are definitely worth having. The winner of this comparo is the Pro-Oiler, but the Scottoiler is also a worthy competitor and you could do a lot worse than to use either one. Since I started this comparo I have seen two other interesting oilers reviewed in magazines. Note I haven't tried either, or seen them in person. But this is what I think, based on the information available. Cameleon Oiler This oiler has an electric pump, like the Pro-Oiler (and the Hawke Oiler). It is not as complex. It is programmed by choose a flow rate that will apply anytime the unit is powered up. You just attach it to switched power; no need to wire it into the speedometer circuit. So it's easier to install, but not as fine-tuneable. It also has an unique and ingenious oil reservoir; the oil is stored in a wide piece of tubing that you can attach to a frame spar or other out of the way spot. Which I think is clever. But the applicator is a single nozzle, and the tubing that leads down to the chain is a larger diameter than I think is optimum. I therefor predict that the Cameleon oiler will leak more than average, because you'll have to feed more oil to get it distributed, and because oilers that use that wider tubing leak more while parked. Not a big deal, just something to be aware of. Scottoiler eSystem (see image at top of entry) This oiler has an electric pump, like the Pro-Oiler, Hawke Oiler, and Cameleon. But it has a novel control mechanism. It uses a triple-axis accelerometer to determine when the bike is moving, and it uses this info to meter the oil. If it all works as promised, it should be easier to install and still offer very precise metering of the oil. I know that Scottoiler uses the small tubing that I have decided is preferred, so it seems like there is nothing in this package to dislike. It also displays the ambient temperature, which is like getting two farkles in one. The Scottoiler eSystem intrigues me, and if I were buying another oiler today I might go for it, in spite of it being the most expensive oiler on the market.

Ooh, pretty shiny! I like!

My worst mod was a combination. Heli bars, heated grips with a switch in a project box stuck on top of the left bar, and a NEP throttle lock. These three things together meant there was only one spot that each bar could sit in, where it didn't foul on either the tank or the fairing. And the spots did not match. I don't know how the PO could stand having asymetrical handlebars. I suppose you can get used to anything, but I chose not to get used to that. I removed the throttle lock and redid the grips so they use a different controller, and now the bars are straight and the bike rides very nicely.

I haven't tried them, but I bet they would keep the aluminum levers from staining the palms of my gloves. Maybe I should get some.

Do they fit 4th gens? I like them, and it would be good to get rid of the condom mirrors.

Thanks Trav. I just sent you a PM.

Jon, the oil has gotten dumped onto the rear tire, repeatedly. So whatever the problem is, it's not a one time deal. MikeC, the oil on the tire surface does worry me. I've turned the oiler down even farther, and chain guard mods are on my list for this winter's projects. But even as it is now, it's less work to clean the tire periodically than it is to manually clean and lube the chain all the time. I'm hoping I can eventually get it perfectly fine tuned, to get the oil to stop going onto the tire.

Just spray some cheap hairspray in them and slide them on. Works great for me, and I do ride in all weather.

That is really fabulous. Thanks for the link to the site with the connectors - I have bookmarked it and I'm already thinking of some other things I might do with those, besides just lights. Though some lights would be great too. And with the V-Strom gone, I will have more time this winter to do fun projects; I won't have to spend all my garage time fixing a recalcitrant Suzuki. I feel inspired!

Ehh, I have put hyperlites on several of my bikes. The LEDs flash whenever my brakes are on. I've had several police officers comment on them. All have said they are great, fantastic idea, etc. They don't seem to know or care that the hyperlites are breaking the DOT rules. Most police officers have no more legal knowledge than the rest of us, outside of their certain narrow areas of interest. Motorcycle brakelights are not in that area of interest. They just make up the laws as they go along, using common sense and their gut feeling about whoever they're looking at. Common sense, well, it works almost all the time, and when it doesn't, the courts will straighten it out. Augmenting the brakelights in non-DOT but obviously safety-oriented ways (no extra colors) appeals to the common sense side of cops. Any cop that writes you for augmenting your brakelights isn't doing it because of the brakelights - they're doing it because they've decided you are a bad person, and they are reaching for something to write you for. In which case if it wasn't brakelights it would be something else. The only people paying attention to whether you comply with DOT regs, are the ones who do inspections. If you live in a place with inspections. I don't, but it's my understanding they just test all those lights while the bike is sitting still. So they're not even going to notice the extra light-up. So I say if you want to add a switch that will turn on your brakelights under engine braking, it's not worth worrying about what the cops will think, or about the DOT rules. Worry about whether it adds to your safety, worry about how to do it, sure. But the cops and the DOT? Nahhh.

The November 09 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News has an article about ASV Unbreakable Levers. I was checking it out because my hands are small and I sometimes have trouble with reach as well. They say these levers are extremely adjustable. They also have a "spring loaded hinge the allows the lever to swing out and away from the bar in case of a fall" among other things that are supposed to prevent them getting broken in a drop. I set the magazine on my desk to contemplate this some more, which is why I had it handy to answer you. The URL listed in the mag is asvinventions.com.

I know and I notice some fling off getting on the sidewall of the tire too, but never on the tire profile. Maybe something like this will solve that. Is this yours? If not, who? I would love to know more. Thanks! The chain life thing that really got me irate was when I had to replace it in the middle of a tour, 2500 miles from home. I'd expected to get about 15K on that chain, like all the others, but it went south at 8K. If the chain oiler will delay the onset of sudden chain death syndrome, and make it set in more slowly so I can go out on a 10,000 mile journey without worrying, that's huge. But on a day to day basis, yes, I like the carefree aspect of it. I haven't had the VFR out in a couple weeks - I've been riding the TDM around locally, and I haven't worked on the VFR, haven't even cleaned the tire. So I have no progress to report since my last post.

Nifty! I just added a link to this post, to my chain oiler blog, along with the others that you can make at home cheap. If I ever do a second round of this, I'll definitely have some things to try. I especially like your twin tip applicator nozzle, it's really clever!

Swimmer, how many miles have you put on your VFR with the Pro-Oiler, so far? I'm curious to know how quickly you accumulated that oil on your tire. And I'll be interested to hear your results as you go, please do share! Someone not on this forum asked me to elaborate on why I did not disqualify the Pro-Oiler because of the oil on the tire. I'm posting my response here, in case anyone else has this same question. I don't think the Pro-Oiler is more likely than any other oilers, to put oil on the tire. I think that this problem is bike specific. The ScottOiler puts the oil on at exactly the same spot on the rear sprocket, and pushes four times as much oil through, yet no oil ends up on the TDM's tire. So if I was going to disqualify anything based on the oil on the tire, I think the thing to disqualify is the VFR. If you look at the rear sprocket on the VFR, it is much closer in to the wheel. The TDM's rear tire is narrower and there's more space between the path of the chain, and the bike's tire. So the VFR's tire would be closer to the flight path of the flung oil. I've noticed that when I ride in rain, the flung oil on the tire seems to rinse away or wear away somehow. I only see it on the tire when I've been riding in the dry. And I've gotten a few responses to my comparo, from other chain oiler users who report oil flung on their tires, who say that it hasn't hurt their traction any. You can see in the picture that the flung oil is not a thick coating. It's all those narrow streaks. It may be safe to ignore, but half the cornering ability I have comes from my own confidence in my tires, and having that oil on my tire reduces my confidence. So I don't intend to give up on fighting it yet. The oil is supposed to fling - that's a feature, not a bug; it's what keeps the chain so clean. And I have to say that apart from the drips when the bikes are parked (easily managed by sliding a piece of cardboard under the sprocket when I park), the flung oil from all the chain oilers has been surprisingly low on mess. It's way easier to clean up, than the spray can chain lube, which is creates a tar-like coating that is very difficult to scrub off, and fills the countershaft sprocket compartment with a solid black mass that has to be shoveled out every 10K or so. My bikes look pleasingly clean since I installed the chain oilers, and it's not because I'm working harder to scrub them. I like everything else about the oilers, so much, that I am going to keep trying to resolve that oil-on-tire issue. Here are my ideas: 1. Dial the amount of oil I'm feeding, down even further. 2. Modify the chain guard, make it slightly longer in the back, to catch a bit more of the fling before it can get out to the tire. 3. Add a step to my gas stop routine, of using the gas station paper towels to quickly swipe the areas where the most fling accumulates. Maybe the tire oil is not going directly from chain to tire, maybe it's getting there by way of some secondary accumulation point. And wiping the heavy fling spots regularly will probably reduce the amount that ends up on my garage floor, so this could be a good habit regardless. 4. Use the ScottOil or ATF in the Pro-Oiler, instead of 10w40 - maybe these other lubes are less inclined to stick to tires. 5. Ride the twisties more often, so I can scrape the oil off my tires before it accumulates enough to be scary. :-) 6. Ride in the rain more often. :-( Can anyone think of anything else I should try?