Leaderboard

Hey, Marcarl , don't you accuse me of not being a long haired hippy. I did get a haircut last week though.

I got a message from a member asking why the site is so dead lately. I don't know for sure but I feel like it's just taking the same course as so many clubs do over the years. We have to be around 15 years old now and many of our core members have gotten older and quit riding. I don't even ride much any longer. I think I took my bike out one time last summer. I keep saying that I'm going to get back into it but just haven't had the desire. I think that all this Covid stuff played at least a small part. Our regional rallies and etc. were a glue that helped hold us all together,. Getting together in person and sharing our stories, working on the bikes, just enjoying one anothers company always seemed to rekindle things. I haven't even had my annual Maintenance Day now for 3 years and that was a highlight, at least for Eileen and I. Not sure we'll have it this year due to the surge of Covid happening again. I know that we need to but just don't know yet. I've not been nearly as active and that pays a big part also, I used to spend a lot of time looking for interesting things to post, tips for our bikes, all kinds of things but just haven't had the time. Starting a new business about 3 years ago has consumed a lot of my time. Now here is something that I haven't told any of you. Those of you who have been around for a long time will remember that I had a bout with cancer a few years ago, about 13 years ago to be more exact. I had Ocular Melanoma and due to the radiation and etc.,, ended up losing 100% of the site in my right eye. I still go back yearly for follow ups. Well my yearly exam was last week and I was dismayed to learn that I again have the cancer. It, luckily, is in the same eye so going blind is not an issue. The fact is though, I don't know yet if it has spread to the liver or anywhere else. I will be going into the hospital late next week for surgery and more radiation. I have appointments sometime over the next week or so for MRIs and etc. to determine if it has spread. I'm trying to not fret over it too much. Just going about my work and will see where things end up. I hate that the site has gotten slow but have no intentions of shutting it down anytime in the near future. I put my heart and sole into this site for a lot of years and I have to do better. In the meantime, I hope that most of you will stick with us, spread the word about the site, and hopefully we can get it moving again. Only time will tell.

I really like the look of the first picture, those swirly marks are an awesome design. Oh well, guess it's not my scooter. Next pictures look more traditional, nice work.

I have had many bikes with issues at the ignition switch come to my shop and after checking the current load on the switch ..At least in my opinion either the switch was being over loaded either by a device or bad connection .

As mentioned a lot of variables go into tire wear as do certain trade offs. The pressure stated on the tire is the max load the tire can take at its max pressure. The bike manufactures tire pressure is the recommended tire pressure for that specific bike based on what the manufacture considers would be an average load or weight place upon the tire. One can vary on the pressure based on what he is carrying. Constant highway driving and at what speeds or constant twisty's also effect how a tire wears. Measuring the tread depth across the face of the tire is the best way to judge if the pressure in your tire is right for your style of riding. For example if you do mostly highway riding and the tire shows more wear on the sides than in the middle you need to raise your tire pressure (NOTE too low pressure also causes more side wall flex creating more internal friction in the tire casing raising tire temperature and premature tire failure ). If the tire shows more wear in the middle than your pressure is too high for your situation. This also creates less contact area between tire and road surface. adding to excessive tie wear mostly down the middle of the tread. Another thing to consider is the fact that in most cases (and there are exceptions ) that tires that wear faster generally have better road grip due to softer compound versus tires that produce higher wear miles. I have run dunlop E3 and E4's through my last several tire changes and got amazing millage out of them. BUT I always ended up changing them before the tread were down to the wear indicators, because once they reached a certain point they became slippery in the corners. So if your doing a lot of twisty roads I would probably stick to the 777's But if your primarily doing straight highway driving specially two up and/or with extra payload I would recomend giving the E4's a try.