HispanicSlammer

joking

Now that I have throughly test rode my 1998 I have decided I will keep this bike a while. Cheap bastid that I am I find though that I am hating visiting dealerships more and more! Something about the pointy haired pimply faced race-wannabe-kids manning the parts counters out here that makes me cringe at the thought of having to answer the age old question SPike "what bike"? Me- "1998 vfr 800? SPike - "what size is it?" That just makes me want to reach across the counter and smack the stupid out of em! That and the way he sort of rolls his eyes when he says "what bike" like he cant be bothered hes got a lot of RAAAAAAAAAASSSSSIIIIINNN to do right after I get my freaking oil filter!!! I get the same thing at MacDonald's too "I will have a Big Mac meal with a Dr Pepper please!" and so voice box says back "what do you want to drink?" As if there is only one script in the world and the script must not be interrupted - ever!! The box only does one thing at a time damnit! That is why I like Walmart, nobody there knows anything about what I am looking for and they don't care - so I am free to roam the isles and pick the stuff I see off the shelves no rolling eyes cause I don't run a liter bike!!! No stupid jokes like VFR - Very F'ing Retarded! I like Wally for the big 5 quart jobbies of Mobile One! That and its rather cheap - imagine that! Wally is single handedly keeping inflation in check by selling this crap to us at such low low prices you have to ask; who needs pointy haired clerks?! Evil empire and all I know. So in definance I must draw the line at purchaseing the Fram oil filter - just sitting there on the shelf within reach. I can even read the box without having to ask some green haired 19 year old to get it for me - and get this it actually fits the VFR! Yet its a FRAM. That's a bit too cheap for me! Wally still got me however, I did get the Black And Decker 1-2 amp smart battery charger! $19 bucks ya cant beat that, my toasted up Battery Tender that died on me Last month actually snickered when I brought it home! Yea Yea you cost three times as much and you don't work buddy shuddup!! Now I still have to get that darned oil filter. I know a Fram is probably not going to fall off at the first bump or dump dirty oil all over the cam shaft when it get hot for the first time. Yet I just keep seeing those internet pictures of the cheap ass way they are constructed on the inside - a side by side comparison with cut away photos and all!!! Don't ask me! I don't remember the darned link, I know its in the links database here so look it up yourself~ :warranty: So upon finally having decided to keep the vfr I thought! What if I bought a Scott reusable oil filter!?That might do the trick - no more "who makes the vfr?" dumasses to walk through at the counter! Where do they find these kids they crop up like flies! No not this time - I mail ordered it! HEH another pet peeve of mine with dealerships! We don't have that we can order it for ya, be here in a couple of weeks - so I have to waste my time coming back to pick it up three weeks later, wait in line at the counter and all that sh&t during normal buisness hours that I dont keep myself! Naw I will mail order it and get it right to my door thanks! :salesman: SO I DID! I got a reusable Scott oil filter now to go along with my reusable K&N airfilter I got 4 years ago. I guess I really must want to keep the bike now! 83,000 miles is a long test ride! If it sounds like I am anti dealership sorry I am to some extent, for I don't care for the experience of going to one! No matter how great they are compared to the other! Buying a bike at one is a trauma for me so I am a bit weary of dealers. I never quite trust them completely! Hell they need to make a buck I know that! Those guys have all those kids to feed, pointy haired racing doesn't pay the bills! Like Josey Wales says "Buzzards gotta eat" - I am just a cheap bastid! PS I am still stinging from my XR purchase last year, not looking like such a great deal now a year later! :pissed:

:media: Rampart Range Video - The Hard Part Dan and Craig ride the roughest steepest part of the Rampart Range Trail system, getting stuck along the way. Dan rides a yz400 race bike not geared for climbing, with a racing flywheel it doesn't have the torque for this kind of riding, he must rev and feather the clutch to achieve momentum a tiering task that is fraught with fatigue if you don't ride well. Rock slant Dan and Craig must keep the bikes from sliding off a slanting granite rock face to get to the other side of the trail. Google Map of the area

video preview :media: Canyonlands at Twilight video This is a short 5 min video of the our trip through the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Canyonlands National Park Utah. It was incredibly hot for 9pm somthing like 100 degrees in the twilight, I cant imagine how hot it is in full daylight in July?? The road is surreal surrounding you with red rock lava like stone walls on each side and then falling deeper into Glen Canyon along the Colorado River near Lake Powell. Its one of the nations most beautiful recreation spots, a must ride!!! Canyonlands Map UTAH highway 95 Attached map files Canyonlands mapsource file.gdb Canyonlands MS Streets & Trips File.est

Riding season is about over and as usual members are logging in more - and as such they are posting more off topic posts than ever. ON TOPIC = MOTORCYCLING Let me be clear, vfrd is for motorcycylist, not gaming, current events, cars or any other topic not motorcycling. I really want to make it perfectly clear that off topic spam will be deleted when I see it as I see it. The Other Than VFR forum is not a junk drawer to post jokes, or pictures of cars, cats dogs, or otherwise non motorcycling topics. VFRD has always had a slim mandate, with a very specific purpose and I dont want to see it get off on a tangent - there are a large number of other websites that cater to that so there are always alternatives. I have heard about members getting bored talking about motorcycles all the time! Yea I hear ya I have heard that for the past four years - you can always log into sport-tourning.net and get that, its a good site with a lot of the same members as here, but with seamingly every subject in the universe no holds barred type of joint. Or Gixxer.com, or Hayabusa.org, COG, whatever, but let it be known VFRD is strictly about motorcycles! Furthermore the vfrd gallery is specifically for motorcycles only, and motorcyle riding activites. People are uploading pics of dogs, cars, trucks, jokes, whatever. Photos are resource intensive so I must be strict about that as well. All you need to know is this "if its not about motorcycles it doesnt belong here"! Many of you disagree with this and I know who you are, your still here, I am not trying to be a tyrant, I am just working within the idea, the framework, the objective, the guidlines, the rules, the concept, whatever word you can think of that = Motorcycling! Shoot just read about all the guys switching to different bikes, comparos and such, its all good! Thats motorcycling! (the vfr is still the best bike on the market!!!) I dont log in much on my work week so these things slip by me, however if I see it I will delete it, if it becomes a problem well............I dont want that to happen - so thats why I felt I needed to say all this. I am not pointing fingers at anybody here or singling anybody out nor am I upset about this, I am actually coldy unemotional about it. The fact is vfrd is growing by leaps and bounds, and so many are not tuned into the culture yet, the post counts are pretty consistant, we have always stretched the envelope of how much server space I have on hand, how big the mysql database is its not a money thing, its just keeping it lean and managable. So to keep the integrity of the website lets just keep it about motorcycles! I am asking you all PLEASE!

Well after returning home from the Mosca Pass ride I have not touched the XR since last week, too disappointed to do so. Until I mustered up the patience to replace the scored up cams. Which I did, and promptly ripped up that set too. OOKKKAAAYYY maybe I am missing the root cause here!! This time I took the head off and took out the spark plug and pumped the kick start to see if it was oiling the cams? NOPE NO OIL OUT OF THE DARNED JETS!! So I took off the plate to the oil filter and shot compressed air in the hole, it sprayed out perfectly - no clog? But then a pin and an O-ring fell out onto the floor? I looked where could this go, checked the manual no pin supposed to be there! WTF were did this pin come from? I then took off the whole side plate clutch cover and found a spot where it could go, checked the manual sure enough there was a pin there in the diagram! DUH!! I was in the wrong place! I put it in, put on a new O-ring and put it back together and did the pump thing again with the kickstand, this time oil came out the hole!! YEA now I am getting somewhere! So far I have solved my overheating problem, new thermostat and and a higher compression cap did that. Now I think I have the oiling issue licked too. Still got this jetting thing to solve though all the recommended jets are in there from multiple sources, I think I have the wrong slow jet its too rich for this altitude! Thats my next task after I replace the cam again! Then on to the suspension it could use some softening up must be gunked up with snotty oil in the forks. New seals, and bushings too! Rebuild the shock too! Maybe a softer spring cause it wants to launch me out of bumps!

Part 2 - Craig takes the camera this time as they ascend and descend the Devils Slide at Rampart Range, trail number 676. ATV tracks mostly up steep climbs, whoops, rocks, tree roots, tight switchbacks. Craig on a Honda XR400, Dan on his Yamaha yz400. A few stalls, some rain and lots of good trail! THE TRAILS THE VIDEO Video Preview Devils Slide Video Runs about 12 min 768kb/sec wmv ................... Info on Rampart Range

I let my Buddys Dan and Craig take the vfrd viosport cam with them up to Rampart Range last week and they filmed some good trail riding in the Front Range Foothills. They drove up to Rainbowfalls Trail Head and proceded to ride several of the Rampart area trails, almost 120 minutes of video. I cut it down to 10 minutes of part of Long Hollow Trail #650 for your viewing pleasure, this makes me want to go ride my 650!! Long Hollow Trail Video Here are some map files of the area Google Earth Long Hollow Earth File Mapsource Long Hollow Garmin File Here is a popular Rampart Range Website with details of the area trails http://www.rampartrange.org/pages/rampart_trails.asp

Labor Day Plans Out The Window I have had a fubared Labor Day Weekend, I was supposed to ride down to New Mexico and go camping with my sister, but she called and said that my Niece has come down with the flu or something and my Nephew looks like he has it too! Kids are in Bed and mom needs to take care so camping was out! That is what friends are for! My buddy Dan says he got a few guys lined up to go riding half day down to Bishops Castle, since I am out of plans why not go along. I ask him is it a spirited ride? He tells me nay just a couple of squids who have never been on a mountain road before on a bike. So I get there and none but one of his buddies show up, and hes a complete noob but the three of us regulars are there and thats all we need! Dan, Craig, Dans Noob Friend (sorry can remember his name) on his R6, and myself go hunting for a Dragon! A click here a click there You have read the Robert Frost Poem "The Road Not Taken" a poem I seem to be living as of late. Deep into the twisty part of Greenhorn Highway 165 I found myself being pursued by Craig rather closely, and that has been rare of late as I have not been hunted so closely by him or Dan in the past year or so while on the vfr (dirt-bikes are another pokey story), but sure enough there he was, and soon he was going ahead on past me as I struggled with the bike, bouncy as all get out! I felt like I had lost my nerve on those long extended twists around Bigelow Divide and well getting passed while your going as fast as you feel you can go is always a bit of a let down! OH well I cant ride fast all the time. It was later at a gas stop I decided to soften up the suspension on the Ohlins a bit and see what that would do!! OMG I was back to my old self again in no time, the ride back up the mountain had me going much faster in and in far greater comfort than I was feeling before! A click off - and that has made all the difference! I was in third and found it no problem to keep up this time, and after passing some Labor day cage traffic it was a snap to speed up and charge a turn or two and be right back up there with the two of them! It was amazing the transformation! Bishops Castle Parking four bikes Labor Day ride Craig Buttons up his gear Bishops Castle In full glory - SEE THE DRAGON!! Mr Bishop was out and about, a smallish sort of dude with huge muscular arms and claws for hands, talking about his rights as usual and complaining about the state of Freedom in America - as usual. It seems to be a favorite topic in the San Isabel area since we ate at the restaurant at the lake and found all sorts of signs on the wall with the same sentiment. Mr Bishop has been building that castle alone since he was 18 years old, and now almost in his 70's he still labors every free moment he as building it, now he is building a dungeon walled tunnel all the way around the property which will connect with the buttresses of the castle. I reached out and shook the mans hand as he was explaining his plans for the tunnel - its not a moat he maintains! The dude has huge hands! Dan and Craig walk the plank Labor Day it was Crazy I had never seen so many people on that road, usually we are on it alone virtually with a car here and there along the 30 or so miles of Greenhorn road. Mostly the traffic is along 93 going to Westcliff near Hardscrabble mountain! I love that section of road near the Mountain its so rugged and twisty, but lots of gravel in the turns cause of all the dual wheeled pickup trucks running short and kicking up gravel. Pickups and SUV's are requirements of living in Westcliff I guess? Like I mentioned before we where having to make a lot of passes to ride our normal pace, the poor guy Dan brought along was overwhelmed with the road and just decided to poke along way behind the rest of us, we waited for him at key places - a nice kid who for the most part rode a very mature pace for a guy so young, although I attempted to ride sweep at a few points I guess it made him nervous, even though I kept my distance, he ran way wide on a tight section but did not go off road! I decided to go ahead on ahead and let him ride undisturbed. I did not think I was pushing him but sometimes you just have to feel a new guy out before you figure out whats the best way to ride with him. He seemed to be having an OK time, if not then he was going to jittery all night from the adrenalin shock we gave him! We all tried to give him words of encouragement and told him to ride his own pace Don't let get sucked in and ride faster than your ready to ride - which he did not - thank goodness, but the running wide incident got me worried for sure! So I let him go ahead and take up the rear with no pressure of me following him! San Isabel Lake Four riders Hardscrabble Mountain as seen from McKenzie Junction right before we stopped at the Junction and waited for the R6 I passed a Goldwing pretty fast on a downhill section doing about 90 or so, I knew it was either pass or get stuck behind him for all the good turns, so I gave him uber wide berth while passing and jammed it into the turn about 100 yards ahead of him, and low and behold waiting for the r6 we never saw the Goldwing at the bottom of the hill? Did the new guy make a pass on another bike? I guess so! I mean it took him an awful long time to catch up to us at the junction, I actually dug the camera out and took that picture of Hardscrabble Mountain and had it put away for a good 3 minutes before he rolled on down, still no goldwing? When I passed the guy he was doing at least 70 in the sweepers maybe he turned around for another go? Dan was riding like a banshee cause he was supposed to be home at 2pm, and the woman was waiting for their thing together! His buddy brought along a cell phone so he called and you could hear her yelling at him over the phone HEH life as a young sudo married couple! Dan decided to top speed the flat section near the Supermax prison. I saw him pass me, he was about 500 yards before he disappeared down the hill, when I got to the crest of the hill he was already a mile away! Damn! It was great to get my riding back into the comfort zone! I was hanging out with my pop for a while later and he asked me where we went riding, I told him Bishops Castle, he said "you have already been down there once this week on your dirt-bike" then he said "you do that ride at least 10 times a summer'? - some people will never understand!

Well from my previous blog entry you can see I took the XR650r out for a long jaunt in southern Colorado, long enough to screw up the bike again! I can't say the bike has been unreliable, cause it always starts and keeps running taking me from here to there and back home again - in that respect its always gotten me home! However she is a fragile beast in the cam shaft deptment and has a few quirks the vfr just doesent have!~ Last spring I rode her out 300 miles and came back home with a burned up valve and tore up cam shaft/rockers. I spend a good deal on rebuilding it,replacing the parts, new rings, valves, oil locks, gaskets, cam chain, cam shaft, new rockers, and all the time I spent doing that myself. I got home last Tuesday with a familiar tapping but not as pronounced as the first time, I had hopped that the bike was just out of spec and needed a valve ajustment. So I did that yesterday, easy enough but when I got her all back together it was still tapping hard?? I guess I fubared another rocker/cam shaft set AGAIN!! Damn this sucker is either running dry on oil or getting too hot. I remember stopping for gas and checking the oil each time, on the last stop it needed oil so I topped it up. What was more significant was the oil was smoking when I opened it up! So I checked the radiator, the thing was dry! Darned it I overheated her again! Once I got home I took a look at the thermostat, it was stuck open and the pin had jackeknifed inside the housing! Replaced that! Then I bought a higher pressure radiator cap 1.6 bar Kawi lid so it wont spew so easily, more pressure but if a KLR can take it so can an XR! At the altitudes I ride at it tends to boil off way to easy. I have an oil temp gauge I monitor as I ride and rarely does it go over 200F but I should have stopped when I saw it go down to 150f, that indicates a problem, not enough oil on the dipstick to register the temp! OK so I replaced the main components that control the heat and filled it up with new radiator fluid, now I have a new camshaft and rockers on order - waiting to get that, so I can go adventure riding again, perhaps with more confidence it wont spew antifreeze all over the dirt so easy! I know hot means lean condition but it boggs down otherwise up in the high country, my problem is I ride up and down mountains too much the jetting issues are difficult to get right!

I took the XR 650r down south Tuesday for a 300 mile loop through Pueblo, Buela, Colorado City, San Isabel, and over the Wet Mountains to Gardener and Up over Mosca Pass. map google earth image Buela Colorado Sleepy Little town southwest of Pueblo Buela Colorado Main Road San Isabel National Forest Hwy 162 Lake San Isabel west Mosca Pass in the distance Gardner road miles and miles of dirt road Mount Blanca 14,000 foot peak from top of Mosca Pass East From Mosca Pass Sunset Mitchel Mountain Road Sunset Mitchel Mountain Road Sunset Over the Sangre De Christo Mountains Sunset Glorious Riding I spent pretty much 8 hours on the road that day riding mostly flat dirt roads on the big pig, ended up riding home in the dark, and a bit buzzed over the wonderful sunset near Westcliff. It wasnt as easy as riding the vfr but it was still a Honda@

I went to the Vintage races at Sandia Motorsports park and stood next to it in the pit area, I believe its number 10. It was right there in the pits, if you had a ticket you could see it, even touch it if you wanted too. I did not touch it though. There was a caretaker showing it off just out of the frame.

I just finished viewing the pictures from the Pacific Northwest Meet put on by Kiethbob and wow what a great time yall had up there - I really looked hard at attending that event, but alas the ride to made it prohibitive (2 weeks vacation instead of just needing one). I really love attending motorcycle meets as opposed to huge rallys for the comeradrie and the sheer fun of riding with kindred spirits. Sometimes it ends a bit of tradegdy, I have attended 2 sport-tourung.net meets and there were crashes in both, one was rather serious, and I happened to have been leading the ride at the time. I blamed myself for pacing a bit too fast but really we all are on our own bikes, and we have individual control over our own rides. It is important to have fun AND be safe! Sure riding is risky and riding in groups is too but without risk what would be the thrill of riding a motorcycle in the first place? I see riding in groups as more of a plus than a minus, first off your with people who enjoy the same thing you do! Riding that is, having something in common like that is great! Then you have support from other riders, God forbid somebody should go down there is someone there to help you and seek assistance if need be. Riding with others makes you ride better, time and time again I have improved my riding skills by riding with those of more experience or with better technique than I and so I have learned how to ride better. This year I was lucky enough to attend the TexasMac ride and so enjoyed one of the best rides of my life last may, both with the group and the adventure of getting there as well, I saw the south for what it really is a place of great diversity and hospitality - just as the saying goes. Now I have the opportunity to again head south at the pleasure of the VFRD Fall Dragon ride comming up soon next month and I cant wait! It is an opportunity I cant waste nor would I want to, and it is all made possible by the folks here at VFRD! I am greateful for this and would like to attend as many of these wonderful events as possible, thats what I really love doing, meeting the folks I read about on this very site everyday and making new riding buddies! Be safe out there and enjoy yourself on your bike!