flavadave

Very cool :fing02:

This shall be my first blog. So I am doing a copy paste of a posting I put up yesterday. Then I will see if this is something I can look forward to doing on a regular basis. Entry....... By friday I was trying to contact a few owner/riders here in the St. Louis area to get in a Saturday ride in. The weather was mild and the time to strike before the real cold sets in is NOW. Of the local owners (that I have located thus far) only BTL68 was able to show uop Saturday morning at Starbucks. BTL68 owns a pearl white 1993 that is really very clean for it's age. The first thing that caught my eye was the pearl white and all the detail in the bike I had never seen before. I had looked at this bike in other colors from the same gen and I never saw all the lines before. The red bikes from that gen just tend to hide the details. So it was really more like my first time seeing this bike. Because we are in the heart of St. Louis it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get into roads you can really enjoy. I pointed us directly to an area called Wildwood where many of the roads are 1 and 1/2 wide winding in and out of farms and following creek beds. This really is picture perfect and give you a chance to just float from sweeper to sweeper. We carved our lines between the edges of the forest that stops at the roads edge and between the leaves that hug the ditches on either side of the tarmac. Your smile never fades here as you climb and sweep or dive and carve. Lots of fun stuff. We got back on the two lane highway which is really no less fun just different because speeds are higher and sight distance is ten fold. Three counties later and we are on highway 94 running north in the Missouri Wine Country and things were good until I saw a flash of color in my rearview. I though "oh shit" and then this ass on a copper colored midweight comes around me damn near hitting his head on my mirror. Then he decided to over take BTL68. I was thinking "look out" but really what can I do? This jerk almost gets his hip into BTL68's bar end and sqeezed by. Now the jerk goes to take over the SUV we had ridden up on. He cracked the throttle on a up hill blind right sweep and forced the SUV to tap the brake just as a yellow Mini Cooper crest the hill. CRAP! I was waiting to see the bike coming down back at me with the ass doing a face plant into the Mini's windshield. Lucky the driver in the Mini tap the brake and the jerk got by. Later BTL68 and I were talking form light to light about how stupid this squid was. Then maybe ten miles later I saw the bike and the KID at a Quick Trip. This dumb dumb waved with a smile like we were buddies. WTF ? I really wanted to turn back as we passed and kick the kids bike over and break his helmet then drag him behind my bike on the tarmac for a minute just so he could see what he was missing. Let's face it, he did not get by all of us by using his skills, it was by the seat of his pants, pure luck. We made it to the ferry crossing and took the 20 minute ride across the Mississippi River into Illinois from Missouri. After talking about eating we jumped on the Great River Road and rolled South to Alton. Once in Alton we went to Fast Eddies for eats and beers. I love this joint. Bob and Tom talk about it all the time (if you listen to their morning radio show). If you are ever, EVER near Alton Illinois do NOT skip Fast Eddies. Back across the Mighty Mississippi River with the sun in our face and the Arch to our South we cracked the bikes open to rid our bikes of any carbon build up. I went home to my sweet girlfriend Bri, whom I refer to as "my hot seat cover" and her daughter Cheyenne. The reat of the night was all about family. BTL68 went home to his BBQ grill with intentions of cooking anything that used to have a pulse and fill the neighborhood air with the smell of charcoal applewood and the defeat of local livestock. mmmmmm..... Somewhere in the mist of such a great day some jerk ass made me give thanks that he squeezed by with little more than luck.

TIme I don't need much of but, space I need badly.......I miss my old shop. Heated and 24 feet of bench on one side :beatdeadhorse:

It was 35 degrees this morning on my way to work. First, buy different gloves these fat things make my hands cramp, they SUCK billy goats. I would like to say I am getting that supercharger for my 98 VFR but, that would not be true. However a rack is in order because I need to haul more than just arse. I am going to add a set of short tips to the 98 VFR just to see how sick they will sound and a PCIII possibly. I am hoping I will be starting on a 'new to me' CB750 Cafe custom soon, we shall see. Also I hope to be working on the girlfriends old standard converting it to a cafe or a bobber. Oh, and it has to be green, she will never let me call it done until it is green. Chics! I just changed the oil and the chain and sprocket are new..... I could use a better neck gator. Oh and last I would like a near rear tire for christmas I have been good :biggrin:

I don't agree with this - not for his intended use. I don't believe he'll be running hare scrambles or doing any serious off roading. The fork situation is simple - there is ~1.5" of tube that sticks out above the stock triple clamp for clip on mounting. Push the tubes down so they're flush before installing dirt bike bars with risers and that's taken care of . I honestly believe the frame and swingarm are up to the task as-is. they're already much beefier than 90% of the current crop of MX bikes. A shorter dogbone link and/or a shim under the top shock mount will raise the rear height. Can it be totally revamped to make it totally off road capable, sure! Does it need to be? Probably not... Maybe I am over thinking it but, that is me. Then again if you go to the Adventure sites those guys seem to try any thing under that sun with the bikes they ride. I think the idea is rather cool and I wish him success. I like it when people think outside the box, it is what makes life interesting.

Math is the most important factor. Cost is a mathmatical you have to deal with but, that being said.... The fork length is to short but by adding a longer fork you will also change the rake which is good because you want it to be more slack and turn a bit slower. So just adding a longer fork will serve both. This will however have a negative effect on your alreadly short swing arm. You will need to fab a longer rear swing arm and increase the amount of travel by a few inches. Now you have increased the leverage on the head tube and the points where the shock mounts. You may need to gusset the alloy frame and thicken the shock mounts by adding more material. That rear shock has to go by the way. It was never meant to take all that leverage the longer chainstays will add. When compressed the spring is going to violently unload making the ass end more like a catapolt when it unleashes the sprung weight. Nothing weird at all. Even my friends brand new KTM 4 stroker needed a better rear spring before the bike could be ridden right. In turns the rear end was tryin to buck him off or kick out because the load was too great. Once the bike had a progressive spring and better rebound controls it would sit just long enough in a corner (under load) to really lay down its power. So far though the idea is very do-able. You could leave some of the plastic by finding a natural point to trim off what you don't want. If you can find someone to help you fab a one or two piece armor system it be to your benefit to do lots of home work. The Discover 90 is a great example. You can reach the transmission from the top or the bottom because of removable panels. Pretty cool really because when knee deep in mud you can still get to linkage. So a thick skid plate is awesome but leave a hole for your socket to drain oil and remove your filter. You have points to use as mounting points now if you use a slightly harder, longer bolt at spots like the foot pegs. If you can find a stock set of pipes you can cut them into patch sections. Bang them open just a bit and weld them to the stock pipes where you cannot cover the stock pipes with armor skid plating. The cooling system will need some thought so that mud is not and issue. What else? Oh, how about a bigger chain ring maybe 60 plus teeth. Sure you would cut off the top end but you will still be pulling triple digits without an issue. Look at stunt bikes, they may have 300 teeth and still get 100 plus mph, red lined but still... I like the idea. Hey it is your bike brother, do what you want. :fing02: