Motorcycles BS Thread 2.0

Kinda random, but are any of you in the market for a new cardo?

They're doing a 22% off sale on their website on the Duopacks, but I only need one of course. Figure if anyone else needs one, we could split it and still get some savings.

 

I'm in the same boat, 5'9" 207, I'd like to be 170 but heck I'd be happy at 180. It gets harder to loose weight as I get older. 10 and 12 hour days at work and I don't want to work out. Grrr.

 

LOL i had the same problem the last weekend, put pants on I hadnt put on in a long time... didnt come close to fitting.

Just started my weight loss / get back to my old strength process. Stopped drinking alcohol (this has been by far the hardest), and started working out again (nothing crazy, just a 30min spin bike ride and a simple set of situps, push ups, planks, squats - might add some other stuff in as well - all easy to do at home stuff). But this 3-4 days a week and all of 2 weeks in and I already feel SOOO much better.

 

i was doing good for awhile and now im in the same boat just not as heavy... i was closer to my goal of 165-170 but my medical issues spiked and i went back to 188... a buddy (buddy that has the old goldwing) is telling me to join him in the gym the only problem is tbh idk how with how my left side is? my left hand is so damn weak and i cant bend it worth a shit... so pushups are kinda out since i cant bend it that far pullups are out since it feels like im gonna rip my wrist off... like shit idk what i can do so ive just cut out lots of food and drink stuff (not to hard since issues have shown i cant have those items) so im losing a bit of weight and finally feeling better at least...

 

We're practically twins! December of 2022 doctor's scale had me at 5'9" and 208 pounds but I had hit an all time high of 214 earlier. Riding gear way too tight and felt tired all the time. Started walking regularly, including here at work. Forced myself to get up every hour or so and walk the entire shop floor then after work would walk in the development. After the doctor visit started walking more and using a step counter to track my steps, simple as my iPod Touch had a built in app to do it. By June of 2023 follow up at doctor showed me around 198. Joined the recently opened Planet Fitness only 1 mile from the house and started going almost every day. Some weight training 3x a week and treadmill or bike the other days. Scale now showing me under 190 most day but fluctuating yet 188-192 ish. Want to get down to about 175-178 but these last few are tough. My lower back has been giving me grief again so workouts had to be scaled back some. I used to lift regularly in my late 20's to early 30's but hurt my back, stupidity combined with poor form, and had to quit for a long time. Now have some arthritis in lower back and hips so must be careful with what I do and how hard I push myself. Happy with the improvements and want to continue. My fiancee Dianne has dropped over 20 pounds since July and has found she loves weight training.

 

Team Strange just released their theme(s) for this year's Grand Tour. See link for details. I think most of you if interested can achieve finisher status on this one. Good excuse to go riding, cool t-shirts normally.

https://www.davidebsmith.org/teamstrangegrandtours2024/

 

One of the things you want to check while it's apart is the alum fingers on the outer edge of the clutch basket that the fiber plate's outer cogs fit into. One edge of those alum fingers often get notched by the twisting torque of the plates as the clutch is released. The wear is typical and directly related to how the bike was used, easy riding causes minimal wear in that area, aggressive and race conditions will notch them pretty good. The notches tend to cause a stiffer clutch action over time and can hamper engagement. If they are notched, all that's needed is a hand file and you can smooth them out pretty easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhm4N0Fs8W4

 

Yeah all of the mating surfaces of the fingers of the friction disks and steel disks were nice and smooth no notching. Its a little 223cc air cooled thumper so not tons of power to notch those surfaces quickly. What I really think happened was it was probably the "wife bike" / backup / beginner bike of the previous owners so it likely saw lots of clutch slipping while learning how to use the clutch. Which is kind of funny because slipping the clutch is like not needed at all its first gear is so low that half the time I start in second, literally I'm in 3rd before crossing a standard sized intersection just lazily taking off on the thing haha.


EDIT: This does bring up some concern for the main cam bearing as to how the bike was treated / maintained. Nothing in the clutch side led me to believe a lack of oil changes but... The main "bearing" of the cam on the sprocket side isnt a typical ball bearing you see in almost all motors of this type but a big aluminum bushing that has the cam riding on an oil film. Its known to be a failure point on these motors if oil isnt changed at somewhat regular intervals. I might inspect that this weekend to see how wear looks on that, or simply get the big ball bearing to do the swap to a proper bearing.

 

Very clean looking Low Rider for a 2004. I agree, not too sure about the flames, but it looks taken care of. How many miles on the bike? Would be worth taking a peek at the cam chain tensioners if the prior owner did not say they have been replaced. I have a 2002 with mid controls instead of the forward controls. Did you buy the Progressives new? Where did you get them?

 

I read a Cycle World article at it states the 2024 Kawasaki has 31.7 lb-ft torque and 43 HP. The old bike put out 52 HP so 9 more on the old bike. Not sure FI, and weighing 1 pound less is going to make any difference with that much of a HP difference. Not sure I call that progress from Kawasaki.

 

i think what you are seeing online is people getting specs from the 400 since from kawasaki it says the 500 will have 51hp and the same amount of torque as the last year model which is kinda disappointing on that part but the 44 hp is the ninja 400...

also FI over carb any day... its a lot snappier then a carb bike...

 

The main reason they haven't changed much is the castings and engineering were paid for long ago so costs are way down to produce those models plus they're still selling. Also depending on the update it would force them to go with FI instead of carbs if the bike is street legal. They held off with the KLR as long as they could but the planned updates to the 2022 model forced them to switch from a carb, that process requires a new epa testing and certification. According to Kove who is in that process, it costs north of $100K to get one model certified, they must pay a certified lab to perform the testing.

 

Depending on the state, a WR450 can't be tagged and in some states they're even pulling tags, both of which takes the Yamaha off the table for many riders.

 

i havent heard of any states pulling tags on dirtbikes... also isnt the wr450 the enduro model?

also that post is like 4 years old bud lol

 

Why is that?

 

I'm done with KTM, I've had 6 of them and they've all been good, no issues but ever since 2015 they've been getting slowly cheaper and cheaper on many of their components. The Final straw was the announcement that all their bikes will be made in India and China going forward. Not knocking India or China bikes but I wouldn't pay a KTM price for one and I doubt KTM will discount their models accordingly. They ditched magura brakes on many if not all the Huskies, their forks are full of plastic parts and they went away from Excel rims, vforce reed valves, and DID chains are only on the KTM versions at this time. The replacement chains have been whatever they lay their hands on and some chains have been pure junk. This is on a $13K enduro. Their GasGas models gets all the cheap components which is isn't as bad since they're priced accordingly and you can use the discount to upgrade the cheap stuff. Simple corporate greed IMO.

 

I just realized that, don't know how I landed there. Most of the supermoto guys around here also ride their bikes on the street, if it's a track only bike you'd be fine. Tagging it can be an issue which is why the WR450 which is a great bike doesn't get it's due. Had they made a street legal version like in Aus it'd cut heavily into the KTM, Honda and Suzuki's enduro sales. I heard it's the best selling 450/500 enduro over there.

 

While I +1 to FI over carb for SOO many reasons (riding at different altitudes/weather/storage/just working.... lol), snappier is not necessarily a reason IMO, especially if its a pumper carb. My old CRF250X had an FCR carb that I spent time going through, properly aligning the accelerator pump nozzle, changed leak jet, and wired the AP cam. That thing had such insane crisp throttle response, you could be sitting idling and try to wack the throttle as fast as you could (which often times will stall out a bike FI or Carb) and it would just be instantly on revlimiter.

Holy old quote you did there!

State emissions laws are a big thing converting motorcycles. Its essentially nearly impossible to convert a non street legal motorcycle to street legal here in CA due to emissions laws. While the WR450F is the "enduro model" and was a CA "green sticker" bike through 2017 model year ( green sticker is rideable off road all year around in all OHV areas vs red sticker bikes which were limited to winter months and tracks), it doesnt meet the CA emission standards for being street legal thus cant be converted. Even yamaha said, EFF california and their stupid emissions laws and stopped paying CARB to license their trail/enduro bikes for green sticker so MY2018 on any of their off road bikes are all red sticker.


Dont ask me how I allegedly have a 2014 WR450F that is CA street legal with a fully vin/engine/frame numbers matching CA Highway pink slip. But I absolutely LOVE the 2014 WR450, simple Fuel injection THAT CAN RUN WITHOUT A BATTERY, great suspension, awesome frame (YZ250F), kick start, low maintenance and tons of power. the 2012-2015 version of the WR450 is the last of the 5 valve 450 motors so its known bulletproof. Only thing I wish it had was a 6th gear, but for the riding I do its really never needed and street riding is minimal to connect trails.

 

California has been known to do it on occasion with people who have managed to get an emissions-illegal dirtbike plated. usually because of a DMV worker who wasn't paying attention or didn't care that much.

 

Lol...you allegedly do until you allegedly don't. A plated non-emissions legal bike could have it's tag pulled at any time if some DMV lame-o notices a green/red sticker VIN with a plate

Hopefully it holds though. The CARB has gotten away with enough restrictions. Good news too, in 2025 all red sticker bikes made pre-2022(?) have their restrictions lifted, essentially becoming green sticker bikes. Unfortunately, any newer models that would have been red-sticker are now competition only, and will only ever be allowed to be legally ridden on private land.