socalnative

I'm pretty happy with the Sidi Adventure gore-tex. Waterproof so far. Decent protection but not a real off-road boot. Not heavy. Breathe ok. Comfortable right from the start. Size is true to US sizes. If I could change anything it would be to add a third buckle up the side. I think it might affect the comfort, but I'd like it to be held firmer. A very minor complaint.

I like many Olympia products also. I was set on getting something with gore-tex. Mostly for breathability and rain proof characteristics. And looked at the Klim Badlands pro, I liked it better than the other Klim jackets for various reasons, like size, fit and features. I haven't seen the Held Carese II in person but it was one of the jackets I had been reviewing. While I was looking at the Klim line I happen to see Firstgear's TPG Rainier jacket. And then I saw the Kathmandu jacket and pants which is what I ended up buying. I thought the large Kathmandu jacket fit me just about right. And I liked the feel of it better than the Badlands pro, which I had gone to try and buy if it felt good. Living in southern California most think it's all sun and perfect weather. But in the half year I've had the Kathmandu jacket and pants I've ridden in driving rain for over 4 hours while the temps ranged from mid 50s down to 29 according to my GS's gage. I was very skeptical in the rain worthyness of the jacket and pants. But so far I've never gotten wet from rain or water. On the ride over the grapevine it was dark and I stopped to change my shield to a clear one and when I got up there was a sizeable pool of water between my legs that I hadn't noticed while riding. If rain proof is something you want I'd want the outer shell to have it built in, not an interior liner, as that just means the outer shell will get wet and become heavy and probably make you colder. I'm just speculating from my experience with other jackets that claim to be water resistant that I've used. I may end up with a Badlands pro, but I'm pretty satisfied with the Kathmandu right now. The jacket and pants longevity and durability will be tested as I wear them daily and on longer road rides and when I'm offroad on my XR. Good luck on your purchase. And definitely try them on.

Depending on how much riding you plan to do before parking it for winter, I'd change out the front for the pr2. Or get new f/r and not worry about it. If you are done for this year I'd just wait and watch for winter tire deals.

Burning or igniting plastics are a good way to find out what it is but you need some experience to do it well. I know how 100% ABS smells when burnt but the problem with some m/c plastics are they are blended ABS, with other plastics to gain additional properties. This makes it hard to really determine what you are working with. Which is important if trying to plastic weld it. This is why a lot of people look for donor panels to use as the fill material. I've had good results using ABS fill material, even though they were not 100% ABS. But it would have been better if the fill material was exactly the same.

What is winter?

bdumas35's set is on a 4th gen, not sure that a 6th is the same spacing.

The conti tkc80s are the best of the semi knobby big dual sport tires. All of the other dual sport tires, scorpion, tourance, anakee, road trail, with the wider than normal grooves or whatever are better than sport touring tires but don't compare to the tkc's on gravel, dirt, etc. The tkc's are a better on road than the others are off. But if you have a small bike, a real knobby works better, but then you're not trying to muscle 500+ pounds around. p.s. I'll ride your panigale like that, but not mine. And that was slow for an XR650R.

With a little wiring work I'd bet the 5th gen controls could be made to work. But I'm lazy and I'd scour ebay for the best looking used or with luck a nos 4th gen. Partzilla says it's unavailable and I believe them, but other part sources list it for various prices and say it's available. I'd call around to them to confirm whether or not they can source it for you. Now that I know it's obsolete, I'll be watching for a nice one too!

First of all remove the phone charger you installed and put it back like it was. If you have 13.5v across the battery, at 5000 rpm, after a 20 minute ride there should be no problem starting right back up. Hook up your voltmeter to the battery and ride around some. Be careful while riding but try monitor the voltage. If it ranges from 12.6 to 14.6 don't have a charging problem ( a 12v system is really a 12.6v system so less than 12.6v is technically a discharge state). If you disconnect the battery from the bike and trickle charge it over night and then try to start the bike, does it start? But the it can't start it again, after riding a short distance? That's the battery not holding a charge or something is really dragging it down while you ride. The slightest bit of corrosion, worn or loose connections can cause resistance problems and it will snowball from there. And the 1 volt drop, across the battery, could just be from the system sensing that the battery is now charged back up after being dragged down a little from the initial start and then charged back up after riding a little while. A good, fully charged battery should be able to start the bike several times in a row. And definitely after riding around for any length of time with more than 13 volts running to it all the time but not more than 16v.

That was a very good find. I know TX prices are a little different but here that would be a great deal for a 3rd in good condition. Yes beaters are a bit lower but usually the plastics are gone or more gone than usable. From my limited experience driving in TX traffic cars seem a little slower overall than here in LA, so most motorcyclist seem to be going fast. Also harleys are the rule there, not sport type bikes. ( I mostly spend time in the Austin area, but have been to SA, Houston and north towards the dfw area.) What I'm getting at is that sport bikes are really overlooked and not anticipated as much there. Driver's are used to the loud harley tone signalling them that a motorcycle is close. Get a decent flow through jacket and try to avoid standstill traffic. I can lane split so I can keep the air flowing and negate some of the summer heat, but it's still going to be hot when it's 90+ Practice slow speed maneuvering in a big empty parking lot. Including stopping, parking and getting off and on... My street riding axiom is there are only two types of drivers: 1. The ones that don't see you, so expect anything from them and 2. The ones that see you but either want to block you, tailgate you or knock you off and run you over.

I just recently installed the Barnett kevlar clutch kit, disks-plates-springs and it's working well. I was experiencing a slight bit of slip only at higher rpms, 9K+, which I'm not in that often. That's gone and I like the engagement better and the lever seems to be more in the middle of the travel. Just before installing the clutch kit I also rebuilt the master cylinder, fully cleaned the slave cylinder and installed a new seal and flushed the lines. I think the springs were the biggest change and for the better. Oh and I almost forgot I was having a bit of grabbing or chattering when starting from a stop and I wasn't convinced it was the clutch being grabby or not engaging smoothly. That's 100% gone and it's very smooth again.

Nice job! If I wait any longer to do something like this there will be no red abs left for the "fender" to mount to.

I'd check the cheap and easy things first: air pressures, front tire/fork for play or looseness-just hold the tire and try to wiggle it, then try to move the forks like mentioned above (the steering head bearings). The front tire for odd wear patterns, back tire for a very squared off shape (also old hard, cracked tires), Check rear wheel/tire/swing arm for play-try to wiggle them like the front, I've not found the cbr600's to feel any more planted than my '94, quicker no doubt but not more steady and solid feeling. I wouldn't be going 50 on a bike that didn't feel good at 70. Something is wrong and find it now, because later you won't have a chance.

"Their presence is usually known well enough in advance that their path becomes unobstructed. Moreover, I can't say I've ever seen a Moto-Chp in true freeway gridlock. Anyone??" I'm forced to commute 54 miles a day mostly on the 210 parking lot. I utilize a van pool, drive and ride, usually riding 2-3 days a week and I see several motorcycle hp's most days. And they are lane splitting if in stop and go traffic. I've followed them several times from Pasadena to past the 57 fwy and they are not always yielded the right away, but they make it known that they are not happy about being blocked by drivers. I haven't seen them give any tickets for blocking but I've seen them pull over single occupancy cars and pull over drivers crossing the double yellow right in front of them. Recently I had to stop as one Mhp made a truck pulling a trailer move out of the car pool lane. The truck did not want to move out of the lane and the Mhp stopped in the car pool lane and pointed and used his PA to order him to move out of the lane, and then he waved him into the right lanes. But he didn't give him a ticket.

The abc video is incorrect, it states "don't split lanes when traffic is moving LESS than 30 miles per hour. Obviously it should be don't split lanes when traffic is traveling OVER 35 miles per hour. California's legal lane splitting law has always seemed at odds with our ongoing 40 years of trying to remove all personal choices and trying to legislate and limit all of your life choices. It's still strange and a bit odd, to be in other states, an see motorcyclists without helmets but not able to lane split.