CaseyJ955

I'm sorry to hear this, also happy to hear about a cool new hobby to take into retirement. It's not possible to ride from one end of this state too the other without seeing at least one 9N doing something somewhere. Enjoy retirement, there is nothing like leaving the city behind and heading for someplace with some elbow room. Best of luck too you both and thank you for all the valuable contributions!

It was not that many years ago that I cut cords down to stand alone internet and OOMA (no cell reception at home). When I watch TV it's streaming from Netflix or maybe Prime, I plan to nix prime soon for some glaring annoyances that Netflix has so far not inflicted on it's customers. The real issue I'm having is streaming from my Samsung K8500 55" TV. It works but I do have to unplug it a couple times a week to reset the apps to function again. I can live with that but the deal breaker with this smart set is a "Sponsored" Samsung news link I cant get rid of, cant hide it, cant move it. I own the TV outright and wont accept monetization attempts by the mfr. Being the privacy conscious guy that I am I'm obviously not a Google or Apple customer, I have an Android phone but it's rooted and completely de-Googled with an aftermarket OS. I wish I could do that to this damn TV! Can I do that to the TV? I think I'm through with Amazon too after using Prime for awhile. It leaves the Roku and not much else that I know of. I have sort of a two part question before I can decide on this route. 1. Does Roku have any sponsored links, forced content or any monetization attempts beyond the sale of the device itself? I'm looking at a Roku Premiere 2019 as it seems to have what I need and not the stuff I wont use. I ask because this discussion is not readily available with a search. I want nothing with voice features, just 4k streaming capability. 2. Are there any other good services like Netflix that I can get on Roku, I've read that many apps are available. I dislike Prime due to the forced trailers before a feature and the rows of added cost viewing that almost obscures the included content. I like Netflix because there is none of that crap, making it a bargain even at the recently raised prices. Any other advert/annoyance free services like that that you guys personally like. I have read about 97% of them have some adverts so any that dont I'm interested in, even at a cost. Thanks folks!!

Wow, glad your okay. Still it hurts to see a brand new scoot on the ground.

As usual my friend, I largely agree with you. Fully agree on how to handle bad folks. That running stuff with bikes is a piece of idiocy I could never figure out, and still cant. IF I were (I'm not btw) running anything illegal my choice of ride would not be a 200mph crotch rocket, or an obnoxiously loud under powered cruiser, nope. Give me a 2013- curent white Honda Accord, bone stock, no tinted glass or silly looking wheels. That is a ________ running vehicle, one that is completely invisible with the right driver, and a decent payload to boot. It just seems so counter-intuitive to be up to no good and drawing as much attention to yourself as possible in the process. I ask myself way too often anymore "What the eff is wrong with people?" I still have trouble with the whole permit or police escort thing, these are rules I would probably willfully defy, but I would not be kicking the **** out of pregnant ladies at stop lights and riding a 140mph wheelie weaving through heavy traffic. I wouldn't even run a red light en masse with other bikes. These guys are made of no good stuff and I hope they get the hard payback they so richly deserve. I do recall the bike lynchings in Sturgis, the dicks that did that are no better than the dicks in this story, noting the difference of course between property and person. Even as a misguided kid I saw some real problems with things like this, it went a long ways towards tarnishing the image I had of said counter culture. It's an outrage that a private citizen went to work and earned the cash to have a bike, took vacation and wanted to come to SD and enjoy the party and ride with everyone else, but noooo, we have to string his **** up in a tree and burn it, why? Because he didn't ride the "right" bike. I think B.F Skinner could best explain why we have become so vicious and cruel to each other. Between he and Darwin, so much could be explained. Human behavior often puzzles and disappoints, I have been alive just long enough to see some real changes for the worse. Stories like this effect me more than I would care to admit.

The solution is pretty easy, but I have not seen it yet. Instead of motorcycle cops riding overpriced obsolete lumbering obese roadblock bikes we give jurisdictions fleets of modified H2s and special training/riding courses, or deputize already adept sportbike riders for pursuit. The age of CHIPs is long gone! The guys in this story have a whole level of wrong doing, well beyond eluding police or being dicks in traffic. Felony charges seem richly deserved in this particular incident, at least from what is sprinted so far. Here is another great argument for a concealed pistol for self defense. Dont get me wrong, I have no moral issues with eluding police, at all. I do have issues with placing the public at risk though, besides the exhibition that seems to make motorists hate us even more. I find the best way to deal with cops is to NOT give them a reason to hassle you. The sad fact is that sometimes the bike alone is reason enough, and they can be quite hostile for seemingly very little reason. I understand why some folks run, I really do. Guys that do it just to be dicks and show off, not onboard with that at all, whatever they get is what they had coming. This is why I believe that we should rethink the liabilities of high speed persiut vs the benefit to the safety of the motoring public. To catch a Gixxer takes a Gixxer, yes? So far they are doing this with virtual impunity, so what else can be done? Could these guys have been caught if the officers had the right tools and training? Are there enough cops in a locality like that to cover the huge population in the first place? I see only two choices, 1. Fight fire with fire (fleet of police H2s) 2. Watch the fire burn (on youtube haha)

"Someone is going to win Power Ball, but it wont be you and it wont be me." ~ Tom Leykis This has been my experience, but if I do win (chances are much less for me as I dont play) every active member here gets a new scoot to park beside ol' reliable.

You can take it to goodwill in the off chance that some hipster will fall in love with it, you know it may be broken, but may not. If it is broken before the next owner takes deliver then you only you get 3.5 years as an accomplice. If it remains whole until it is owned you are are off the hook.

A spectacular choice!

I got about 30, tried everything to get it up to the 40-ish reported by others, the thing that got me there was the needle drop kit that Skydoc sells. Thats what worked, never did the performance wane much regardless of MPG. I think my emulsion tubes are worn and thats why dropping the needles further in helped. Of course I'm not going to replace them, it's working and the MPG is about right, done! I see another response here about dropping the needles, you can try the kit out, I think it's only a couple bucks and takes only a few minutes to install.

I can feel when it's time to synch and I dont mind doing it, it's quick and easy, but I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm for it. A common plenum intake design should alleviate to a large degree the need for individual throat synchronization. It's hard to beat the OEM rack from a performance standpoint, but I know not everyone has the time and patience to do said maintenance, and maybe not the $$ to pay a shop every time they get finicky, and they do. I've read so many posts in which folks were at the end of their rope with carbs and fuel management problems, folks that I know just wanted to ride, a nice easy kit like this might have some benefit for those who dont want to hassle with the OEM carbs, they sure have a learning curve to tune, or a pretty large expense if someone pays a shop for the labor. What I reaally want is to see some dyno runs including power and tq curves, and actual MPG data. It's impossible to judge if it's a worthy compromise when we still dont know what the real world compromises will be. While I'm in agreement that the OEM carb rack is about as good as it gets for these bikes, I think there is some value in sorting out an alternative for those that prefer to avoid the hassle and expense of the OEM rack. I'll bet that a properly chosen and tuned performance oriented non-progressive 2bbl would operate well enough that the average rider would be hard pressed to feel much compromise, maybe a little at the pump. Carbs like Weber and Dellorto offer a great deal of tune-ability, even different size drop-in barrels to change the MM spec. I have little doubt that one could be tuned to work correctly on these machines, but not necessarily at a great savings over the OEM rack rebuild. I'm thinking that intake design is at least as critical as carb choice. It would be slick to design a single plenum upper manifold to bolt right to the OEM intakes. As I'm typing I have a mental image of my Vmax with a pair of 36 DRLAs on a custom intake haha.

I really like this. I'm going to give him props for taking something on that MANY have discussed, including myself. I have totes of old VW manifolds and Weber carbs to give it a throw, just have no good place to do it until I relocate. I'm still unconvinced that a single barrel is ideal, one or a pair of non-progressive 2bbl Dellorto or Weber carbs I think would rock the house, but drive up the cost considerably from what the guy in the video has done. I'm thinking that the 4 carb system is ideal when it works right, we cant argue it's pretty darn good. I know there are many folks that own 80s model Yamahas that may not have gobs of wealth, and just want to ride. Even if the carb conversion is a little bit south of the performance I can see a market for it for those that maybe dont want to take on the expense, rebuilding/dialing in the CVs. Getting the factory CVs dialed in can be a serious pain in the ass, we have seen more than a few people struggle with getting the bikes right while fighting the OEM carbs. That many more on the Vmax side too. I can definitely see value in an easy to maintain, no synch necessary, slightly less awesome, much cheaper, easier, more reliable way to just get out on the bike and ride. I think this would be a hit if it does that and still gets acceptable MPG.

We're just wrapping up permittless carry in SD, we have had open carry although very few invoke that right it's an important one to keep handy just in case.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-sanctuary/defiant-u-s-sheriffs-push-gun-sanctuaries-imitating-liberals-on-immigration-idUSKCN1QL0ZC Saw this over coffee, I'm already in a state with pretty fair gun laws so this doesn't effect me beyond a positive precedent for my fellow firearm owners living in the blue or over-legislated states. Looks like this might take off, I sure hope so. I'm all giddy now haha! Enjoy!

This truck is already neutered by an abbreviated box anyway, might as well finish her off haha. I spect' a whole lot of truck owners could get by just fine with the cargo space afforded by a 3-series. it's a fashion thing, and it does look pretty darn good. From the pics it does look pretty well made too.

Glad you and your son are okay. Good news is you got your gravity storm out of the way with no serious injury. Hope you guys heal up fast.

I wouldn't wish the dirt nap on him, but had he lost a little skin and gained some experience and better judgement then I suppose that would count as a win, especially for him. Your right, he bargained for whatever might have happened there. I'm just glad he was there to make sure motorists continue to loathe us . I would not have stained the seat, I think there would have been a pucker-sized chunk missing if that were me.

Sounds like it would be prudent to get a full breakdown of all fees and charges before going, maybe have them email the contract and fee schedule so it can be reviewed carefully before hand, so no surprises later. Trying to tack extra charges on at the end is just bad business, but a pretty common practice unfortunately. Use of a credit card for stuff like this offers consumer protections not afforded by debit cards or cash/check. In case the statement does not match what you were quoted going in. Nice extra layer of protection, just sayin'.

The year F150 makes a difference, live axles are a whole lot easier to work with but I'll assume yours is newer. if it's been around awhile the rears are probably sagging a bit, especially if you use it like a truck. I've been a Ford guy forever, and the leveling kits are a reality from Rangers all the way up the F series range, or used to be. I got a kit for my Ranger that was 2" rear and 4" up front, it sat just about right after that. Since that nosedive does effect front end geometry you may feel a difference in handling after this, albeit probably inconsequential. There is a slight chance that you may get some driveline vibration, prolly not but it could happen when the drive line angles change with lift. I doubt your lifting enough to worry about that. Make sure you check for vibration on your test drive, get the fronts locked in and see how she feels. For a daily driver I can sure see why leveling it would be preferential. We left our work trucks with the Ford nosedive, when loaded they level out and ride just about as they should.

I used a Vmax splitter, universal lines and R6 calipers, which I had to go through before use. IIRC, I cut a ~4" x 1" slab from some 1/8" aluminum stock, then drilled one end for the VMX splitter and the other to bolt to the front lower of the steering tree, mostly to just get it to where it's position was natural for the brake line lengths. I cant recall where exactly I bolted it and cant seem to find the pic, but I did use some blue loctite to make sure it didn't wiggle loose over the miles. It's been a couple seasons and it does just what it should. It's -12 deg right now and the bike is outside under cover, I can get a pic as soon as the weather breaks a bit. If you take the splitter and start looking around the front of the forks where it has to go I think you might see what I'm talking about. I like Skydocs kit, it just didnt fit within my self-imposed budget for this machine. Now if I had a source for universal steel braided lines locally my life would have been a whole lot easier, as it is I used what I had on hand, which included aftermarket lines for all 3 fronts and the Vmax splitter. I had too use aftermarket lines as the OEM lines did not fit properly onto the R6 calipers, which I also installed at the time.

Trying to get my front wheel off the ground is like trying to wheelie a Road King. Not sayin' it's slow like an RK, shes just awful respectful of gravity with all that heinous girth on her, especially up front. Maybe you got some Vmax components or a lower final drive gear (VMX gen1). My gears are stock and bike stock-ish, and it rolls right on out too, but no lightness up front.

I pulled the proportioning valve out and plugged the other hole, left the OEM rear hose in place.

I think you and I would get along just fine bruddah!

I was immediately effected and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it, so I sure understand. I think my baby girl is probably going to go forward with it. I'm glad you mentioned the courses, I'm sure she will still see the sense in that. Shes wearing a jacket and full face lid even though we have no adult lid laws. She has been paying attention. SD is pretty good about not engaging in over-legislation. Perhaps they remember what happened last time they did try to put adult helmet laws on the books here haha. I know she will take the course because it's a good idea, thankfully it's not required by law. Putting a law like that on the books would be a bit much IMHO. They do require a rider to show competency on a course before being awarded an endorsement though. I think riders who do take the course get a break in insurance premiums too.

Did it sit with any ethanol? A couple years sitting with a belly full of ethanol and carb removal should not be taken off the table just yet. Glad your feeling better and getting back in the saddle.

Gunk and corrosion tend to accumulate where the HT leads plug into the coils. Also have a look at the spark plug caps. There is a writeup on that and testing pickup coils and ignition coils in the first gen tech section. I would also inspect all the grounds and electrical connections, faulty grounds can show all sorts of strange symptoms. Keep us posted.