Suspension Research

I got the day off today, so I have been emailing the engine-builders and pipe restorer. I'm also poking around trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my suspension.

I would really like to install emulators in the forks. There are a few choices, but I'm still trying to figure out what's going to actually work. I know that the Harley crowd likes to use Ricor Intiminators, but I don't think they have a model that works with my RD. Then there's Mikesxs, but I don't think they have a size that fits the RD400 either. Then there was one...

Race Tech has an excellent product. I have used their emulator before on the SV650s that I took to the track. They kind of invented the concept (and own the patent on it). It was straightforward and easy to install. And it worked like a charm. The only issue for the RD400 is that in order for the emulators to seat flush against the damper rods, some machining has to be done- I believe there's an inner lip that keeps the devices from sitting flat. It's about $200 for the emulators and another $110 for springs that match my weight and ride style.

As for the rear shocks, I do believe that I will be going with some Ikon shocks (formerly Koni). They only make one model that applies to the RD400, but it's a good one. I emailed Nils and he informed me that on it's lightest preload setting, the springs should be fine for me.

Now, I have to get back to today's task at hand. (No, it's not the Valentine's Day thing- my wife is sick, so all dinner reservations have been called off. I'm just going to smoke some burgers tonight instead.) For some reason, the brake lights on my Harley won't turn off! I bought a new front brake switch, but the last time I tested, it wasn't the rear switch nor the front switch!! Weird. Luckily, when I tested again today, I successfully isolated the issue down to the front. Yay! Now, I just have to solder the new switch in and stitch that puppy all back together!

Taking Advantage of the Weather

So....it's the middle of February. We're in an El Niño. There's more snowpack base at all the Tahoe resorts than there's been in eight years! But lately, the rain has disappeared. The weather is in the upper 60's. For the past two days, I decided to take advantage of the dry weather, before the rain starts up again. And boy! was it glorious!

I put some air in my tires and made sure my battery was topped off. I forgot how much fun it was to split lanes and rip through all that traffic standing still! Getting on the bike actually inspired me to do a little much needed work on it- last night, I took the throttle grip off and gave it a lube job. I also tightened up the throttle play a little. Last week, I did a slight clutch adjustment, since the clutch was engaging too late on the clutch lever release. Now, everything feels great!

How I miss riding! And the with the Bay Area commute, it's the best way to get to work on time!

Ironing Out the Last of the Suspension Bugs

After last weekend's ride, I decided that perhaps my suspension needs just a touch more work. I took a ride on Craig's bike and with his Superbrace fork brace, his bike seemed really solid at high speeds. Conversely, Craig noticed that sometimes when I was in high speed open turns, my frame seemed to wobble, to the extent that he thought I was going to just break loose and lose it! I did notice that my fork was undulating and wobbling a bit, but that just seemed natural to me. Or maybe I'm just used to it, now.

Well, I got to thinking- this is my main bike now. I'll be riding for probably most of the winter, provided it's not wet out. If the frame is shaking, then the tires won't keep a good solid contact patch, and with motorcycles, you don't really have much patch to begin with.

After going online and shopping for the lowest price, I decided to purchase a Superbrace for my bike. Of course, I got the denim black paint to match my bike's semi-gloss paint scheme. With tax and shipping, the cost was just over $190. Not horrible, but for a 6 oz. piece of aluminum, it seems a little steep. I did consider buying a cheapo Chinese brace off of Ebay, but who really wants a "Made in China" suspension piece of their American made Harley. I rest my case.

Beach Bound!

After commuting with the Blackboard all week long, I felt that she was definitely roadworthy and ready to hit a little bigger stretch of road. I just happened to have this weekend off, so I called up my good friend, 808Nightsta, and we headed down to the Santa Cruz area for some lunch.

We were fortunate that the sun was out, because there's a front approaching and the rain was due to arrive by Sunday. We met up shortly after 10am. I was ten minutes late, due to a bad valve in the rear tire- it only went bad, when I was checking the air pressure! Luckily, I had a couple of extra valve cores, so I swapped the bad one out, took my handy bicycle track pump to it and I was good to go!

We topped off before shoving off. I turned on my bluetooth headset and we were on the road. We had a pretty leisurely ride down 680 South until we hit 880. There was a small fender-bender near Camden Avenue which slowed traffic a bit, but we just split the cars, so it didn't bother us too badly. From out of nowhere a trio of Sportsters appeared, merging onto the freeway. The lead guy gave me a head nod, then jumped up on his seat and flanked one leg out, while weaving between the cars. His minions followed. I was slightly in awe that some young hooligans took up the hefty XL to do some stunting! I had never seen that before! I guess that Harleys have really made it into the fold of the mainstream!

Once we got to Santa Cruz, we merged onto Hwy 1, then exited at 41st Street. We took the scenic route down Opal Cliff Dr., enjoying the sights of the coastline to the Capitola Esplanade. We pulled up to two motorcycle parking spaces just waiting for us along the beach, locked up our stuff, and paid our parking fees. I am really digging the room in my HD hard bags! I was easily able to keep my glasses, hat and other knickknacks in there awaiting my use! I locked both of our helmets onto my new Ztechnik license helmet lock and we were off to eat.

We grabbed some patio space on the back deck of Zelda's. I had a Fat Tire ale and a spicy chicken sandwich, while Craig had grilled mahi mahi. Both dishes were delicious. It was just great to sit and relax, soaking up some sun. It was a really tough week at work, so I felt this reward was just. Afterward, we took a walk around the shops and snapped some pictures. After spending a couple of hours in Capitola, we got on our bikes and headed for downtown Santa Cruz.

Downtown we found some free parking, which was really nice. We strolled down the sidewalks of the Pacific Garden Mall, me telling stories of long ago, before the Gap store had ever appeared. I was actually a little shocked to see that Downtown now has an American Apparel store! But mostly, I was surprised to see that Lulu Carpenter's had risen from the dead! It was in it's original location with what looked like the original sign! I told Craig about how way back in the day, they used to have this 1 lb. spaghetti special on Thursday nights, and free jazz music all night long. But when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit, it took Lulu's with it and closed it down. On the way out, we stopped by Pizza My Heart and waited in line for almost a half an hour. I ordered a slice of pesto and a blue T-shirt, while Craig got the mushroom. He said it was the best pizza he had ever had!

It was getting kind of late in the afternoon, so we topped off at some gas station on Ocean and headed back home. Our original flight plan was to take Hwy 1 back up to Half Moon Bay, but we had pissed away too much time, so we were forced to take 17 back all the way, just to recover some lost time.

It really was a fantastic day! Sun, beer, lunch, beach and pizza! Oh, and motorcycles! Love that bike!

FINALLY!! The Machine Is Good To Go!

Oh, God! If it wasn't one thing, it was another!  Today I was down to the little stuff- just finishing up with the Dynabeads and mounting the wheel on the bike. I still had the beads in the old tube that the installer handed back to me, so I just cut the tube open and poured the beads into a bowl. For some reason, the Dynabeads were giving me shit today and it took a little longer than it normally does to get them in the tire. But once done, the tire inflated to a nice 30 PSI without incident.

I cleaned up the axle and gave it a new coat of grease. I got the wheel on, bolted the fender in place and mounted the brake caliper, then torqued everything down to spec.

Off the lift she went and we were off for a test ride! The bike felt wonderful!! The new rubber gave the bike a much more lively feel! It rolled so effortlessly and was smooth as silk! And maybe the last pair was a little worn (5500 miles), but this pair of tires turned in like it had power steering! It was marvelous!

Once back in the garage, I realized that there were still a few minor things that needed tweaking, like the new front brake line was swimming around loosely in the old brake line mount/holders because the old lines had these fatty rubber mounting areas, which was causing the line to slack up around the head tube, tightening near the lower fork. I took that old blown up tube and my tin snips and cut out a couple rubber strips. I got them rolled up and black-taped them around the brake line. Presto! They fit like magic and now they are held firmly in place!

The sun will be out this week and my car will be on jack stands most of the week, so it'll be the perfect opportunity for me to commune with my bike once again!

This Ain't No Japanese Bike! That's For Sure!

I'm just learning what it's like to own a Harley. I'm really enjoying having all that torque at the twist of my right hand. Of course the bike handles much differently than my sport bike, but it's a welcomed difference- I really needed a bike with an upright riding position and I figured if I was going to get a cruiser, I might as well get a Harley rather than a Japanese wannabe.

It's such a great feeling having my arms stretched out forward with the wind hitting me in the chest. My knees and legs are in front of me comfortably resting on the foot pegs- my legs are relaxed.

I must admit that the stock seat and suspension do make for a little bit of a rough ride. With the 11" rear shocks and it's one inch of travel, every little crack and pothole in the road can rock your kidneys. The front shocks aren't quite as bad as others have complained about, but they are a little loose and imprecise.

Changing gears is a little bit of a task. The clutch pull doesn't seem to engage in the right place- it's way late in the travel of the lever. Also the gear changer seems to stick a little upon shifting. It does seem to shift more willingly if I let the motor rev down a little between gears. As soon as I get the chance, I'll change the tranny fluid and do a clutch adjustment.

One thing that is going to take getting used to is that unlike Japanese bikes that have the signal changer on the left handlebar that change left and right, the Sportster has individual turn signal changers one on each side- if you want to turn right, you hit the right side changer, for a left turn, you hit the left changer.

So far, I've only taken the bike up to 80 mph, but it seems stable at speed- with speeds any higher, the motor seems struggle a bit and it gets buzzy. With future plans I have for the bike, I'm not too concerned about any current idiosyncrasies. Since the bike already has Vance & Hines slip-ons, I'm planning on getting a new air intake and a tuner of some sort.

I haven't started commuting to work on the bike yet. I'm still feeling out the bike, making sure that it's going to be dependable and roadworthy. I may start using it as my daily driver in as soon as a week, as soon as I'm confident the bike's not going to kill me!

Someone Lost Their Cappuccino!

I had a little free time this weekend, so I decided to rip into the bike and do a little maintenance. An oil change, a change of transmission fluid and clutch adjustment were in line. I ran by my nearby HD stealership to get some HD Formula+ tranny fluid. I also grabbed some Mobile 1 V-twin oil at my FLAPS. Okay. Got all the materials. now I'm good to go!

I don't have a motorcycle stand that will fit the Harley, so I had to shove some wood blocks under the jiffy stand to try and prop the bike more upright. From there, in order to access the derby cover, the driver side foot peg has to be moved down and out of the way. It wasn't too bad getting the allen bolts out of the derby cover- they're aluminum, so they're generally not torqued down all that tight.

When I popped off the cover, what oozed out was a creamy liquid that looked a whole like a cappuccino or a coffee and Kahlua! That sure didn't seem right!

The drain plug is right below the tranny case and was easy enough to find. I drained as much of the fluid out as possible. I just let it sit there, while I started working on the motor oil. For the engine case, there is a funny little rubber hose with a plastic plug hanging down a few inches in front of the rear tire- believe it or not, that is the oil drain plug! There is a worm screw that has to be loosened to remove the oil plug, which is no big deal. Just remove that plug and open the oil filler cap and let her drain!

With both cases draining, I went to work on my clutch adjustment. Once the clutch cable barrel screw was nice and slacked up. the clutch lever went limp. That way, after I could make the proper adjust to the clutch screw itself, then take up the slack to the appropriate tolerances. Once that was done, everything felt pretty awesome!

I removed the oil filter, wetted the gasket with some fresh oil and installed the new filter. I plugged up both of the case holes and went to work filling up the cavities again. I used a gear pump to inject the tranny fluid back into the case. When the fluid was about to start dripping out, I knew I was at the right fill point. After checking the gasket on the derby cover, I wiped the cappuccino foam from the inside surface and bolted the cover back on again. Done! Then I filled the crank case with four quarts of motor oil, capped it off and started the bike up. Everything sounded good- nothing broken or grinding. All that was left was a test ride.

I started out slowly, just a quick lap around the neighborhood to make sure that everything worked as it should. Next I took her downtown and on the freeway. The motor seemed to run much more smoothly than it had before! The transmission definitely ran smoother, shifted easier and I was able to find neutral with much more ease. I would say that the maintenance was much needed and it made a huge difference in the performance of the bike for such a nominal fee!