Joining the 2wheeled sector?

[chevy42083]

Still doing group rides on weekends.
I kinda dig the naked Triumphs. We had 6 triumphs come out to this ride.




Ride a couple weeks ago...


I've got 9600miles on the bike now. 70ish mile round trip on school days.
Rear tire is getting squared off, and front is almost to wear bars Gotta find a tire that'll take some playing around and mild track time, but won't turn square on the street.
Oh, and installed some T-rex frame sliders last weekend.

[SonomaZ]

WOW, really nice groups.

Let me know if you find that "magic" tire.
I think I got 3500 out of my current Dunlop rear, it's really squared off.
Mine is kinda notorious for chewing through rear tires though.
Only real cure is more corners, less straight lines.

[chevy42083]

Yeah, there are some sweet bikes in the area. Someone commented on that last pic "Holy crap, is that a BMW S1000rr?".... guess he missed that it's a pair of them. Or that one of my other pics has 4 of them.
While on the side of the road after a friends semi-minor get off, there was a pack of 10-12 aprillias... of all range (year and type) that buzzed by. I was nice. Nice. nice. nice. nice. damn. more?

I see dual compound tires... but I doubt they fall into the magic category.
Houston has too many straight lines

[chevy42083]

I made sure to get footage this time....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZzXUo83Wik

First time on a tight track... very un-nerving. The larger turns of Texas World Speedway let you lean in, these require diving in. This direction is all decreasing radius turns. Lots of noobs riding slower than I'd like, taking weird lines, and just being a distraction. Not that I'm not a noob. I tried to leave space for them to do their thing, but still see the instructor (on the motard, wearing yellow jersey) so I could see the suggested line. This is the track (except opposite direction) that I'll be doing my first trackday at.

[chevy42083]

Bump...

24,400 miles now.

Haven't done nearly as many group rides since my girl started riding. When two up, I didn't want to be in a group or ride aggressively. Now that she has her own bike, we tend to ride with just 3 or 4 of us... cause she's new to riding and shifting a manual.

The DanMoto exhaust I mentioned above fell apart 2 more times before I replaced it with an FMF slip-on. The rivets on the DanMoto were wearing away at the Titanium can. The FMF can is of the highest quality fit and finish.

Pot-holed a front wheel... even bent the barrel of the wheel. I haven't replaced it yet. Bought a used one on ebay, thank god for ebay buyer protection. New is $650 at dealer. Found an online seller that'll be $400... but still need powdercoating/painting.

Wore out my BT23 dual compound rear tire completely now (13k miles)... front BT16 still has some life... but it'll get trashed when I put on the new wheel (not worth labor to remount).
Sync throttle bodies, adjust valves (way out apparently), new plugs... noticable power increase... guess i shouldn't slack next time.

My girl bought an SV650, and the seller threw in some fork parts... which got installed in MY bike. Racetech Springs, Racetech gold valve emulators, proper weight oil, etc... bike feels SOOOOO much better.

Bought a tailbag too. It's yamaha R1 specific, but fits mine perfectly. Tons better than a backpack, and still stylish (IMO). I bolted it on just like the seat strap.

LED Tail-light (haven't wired its integrated turn signals yet)

Bar-end mirrors (if i liked them, the bike is going naked... I like them). So, this should be the last time I take it out for pics with fairings.





GF's red SV650s, Brother's White Duc Hypermotard SP (remember, he totaled his red Hyper last year), My 650r, Scott/Sbiker21's gunmetal SV650sf


And some artsy... probably overdone HDR to a lot of people, but I'll share anyways...