general update

I've been incredibly lazy about updating this blog. My apologies to the few of you who notice. But to be honest, I haven't been doing that much riding as of late.

7/4/07, ACH: I expected the holiday traffic and LEO presence to be worse than it actually was, but i took advantage of a day off to hit the crest. The weather was surprisingly pleasant, and the road was in good shape. Met up with the SCS guys and the SBN guys in a strange combination of the two SoCal MC forums who have a lot of crossover, but don't generally ride together. I met a girl at newcs who had a 06 Brutale 910R and though she wasn't bad looking, that bike made her look hot. She gave me the run-down on the Brut (which i'm considering as my next bike) and told me that it's a finicky but fast bike. Quirky throttle, suspect electrical design, but an absolute monster. Sounds like exactly my kind of bike, though electrical work tends to be the weakest link in my mechanical repertoire.

The Track Bike - I ordered a 2-way Elka rear shock for the F4i, in a group buy i found at triumph675.net. It was a great price, and alot of people are singing Elka's praises, so I decided that spending more money on a bike that i won't be able to sell for more than 2500 bucks was a sound decision. The one worry i had was that they'd ship me a 675 shock with track/race springs and valving (which wouldn't work at all. i wouldn't mind an Elka to replace the OEM rear on the 675, since it's grossly overworked by the spring, but at a milder valving than what i'd want on the F4i) in spite of my noting that the shock was for a F4i. Fast forward 3 weeks, when i get a call from Vlad @ motoworld.com, who hosted the group buy, saying that they messed up and sent me a 675 shock w/ race valving. But, to be fair, he called me the second he found out, and swore that he and Elka would do whatever i wanted to make it right. I decided that maybe spending the money on the nice new bike (675) made more financial sense, and being promised a good price on another Elka if i so desired, i could get one for the f4i at a later date. All-in-all i'm pleased so far with the customer service. Hopefully i can get this thing dialed in and enjoy the fruits of credit card debt without a single regret.

I've also attempted to put on some woodcraft clip-ons on the f4i to get the riding position more aggressive. the problem with the f4i is that the stock clip ons mount above the triple tree. this means that you're pretty upright and it's not ideal for track riding. mounting the woodcrafts below the triple tree make for better riding position, but runs into some major clearance issues with the master cylinder and the gauge cluster and fairing stay. It'll take some creativity to get it to work, but i'm sure i'll figure out a way.

Lastly, i planned on painting the track bike a scorched orange w/ black accents, but i think i'm gonna keep it white. I am, however, painting the wheels duplicolor universal gold, the color of champions.

Honda-Tech West Trackday, 8/5/07: I made a post on h-t about a trackday, and we decided on 8/5 at BW (running Counter clockwise) w/Zoom-Zoom trackdays. about 8 people expressed interest, and only 2 have signed up (including myself). But that's ok. I don't need other people at the track per se, I just need to not ride like a wooden statue. If anyone's interested in signing up for this day, go to http://zoomzoomtrackdays.com/ti/zoomzoom/index.html and sign up for the 8/5 event. I'm riding intermediate. There are also coupon codes to lighten the financial load, yamaha owners use code "yamaha" for a $25 discount.

Ruff-Ryderz Parade: took place this past weekend, and i have to say it's a pretty amazing thing to accomplish--as a group of motorcycle riders, to piss off people badly enough that even fellow riders want to mow you down as you block traffic on the 215 freeway so you can do wheelies. Imagine how pissed off the general populace, who already hates sportbikes, was. Thanks for making it easier for all of us to navigate the freeways and streets. assholes.