straycatt
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Everything posted by straycatt
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Drill a small hole, grind off the point on the back, install a small split ring and......ta-dah, instant way cool zipper pull. Works with any extra pins you may have collected over the years. Thanks again Bob.
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Problem pulling or holding clutch lever?
straycatt replied to BigBoyinMS's topic in General Tech Talk
I wonder if that would get rid of my clutch basket whine/chirp. -
With all due respect.....so what. At what point, with all of this "life saving technology" do we stop controling our vehicles and become simply PASSENGERS. As we remove the responsibility from the rider to learn how to operate his machine well enough to stay alive, we remove the joy and satisfaction of obtaining a valuble skill, gained over many years and miles. Too much more, and we'll all be riding merry-go-round motorcycles. We've made it hard to get lost (GPS). We've made it hard to miss a gear (automatic tranny). We've made it hard to crash (ABS). We've made it hard to get hurt (air bags and safety gear ad nauseum). Just keep going round and round, safe as in your mother's arms. As risky as they are to ride, I'll take my old fashioned, still dangerous, need some skill to ride, fun mobile without all of the safety amenities. Of course it's dangerous. That's part of what makes it fun.
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Got mine today Bob, thank you. The way everyone has been goin' on I was expecting good, but wow I wasn't expecting GOOOOD. This is now the nicest pin on my vest......and I've got some nice pins on my vest.
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Well, that's a little.....ominous. Hope he's OK.
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I got my first motorcycle at ten tears old. Several year later I tried to teach my dad to ride a 125cc mx bike that I was racing at the time. He gave it up about half way thru the first ride, when he tried to ride up (or through) the side of our house. A few years after my fathers "incident" I finally talked my mom into getting on the back of my first street bike, a Kawasaki 500 triple. She made it to the end of the driveway and maybe another 100 yards and would go no further. I thought see might strangle me before I could get her off my scoot. Sooooo.....no my parents were NOT closet bikers. I remember when I was in my early 30's and had just bought another new bike, I took it over to show my dad. He checks it out, and says "you know, after those first few motorcycles you had when you were a kid, I thought sure you'd grow out of it." Sorry dad, still haven't grown out of it yet, but thanks. Those bikes and his trust in me to ride were the best things he ever did for me. I wish he was still here so I could tell him.
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SO! What are the AGES of the DRIVERS of VR.Org?
straycatt replied to Zfrebird4's topic in Watering Hole
Wow, I'm feeling almost young again in this crowd. Even at 50 I can sit at the kid's table in here. It'd be interesting to know riding experience along with age of the folks that ride road sofa's. I've been riding for over 40 years, on the street for more than 34. Motocross, trials, ice, flat track. At one point or another I've fallen off them all. -
I just pulled an Contitour off the rear of my Venture. It seemed to stick OK, but it would NOT track well with the new E3 I mounted up front. Mounted another E3 on the tail end and viola`, all is right with the world. Years ago I ran a set of ContiBlitz on my Nighthawk and I really liked them. The Contitour may be good tires, but this small bit of experience on my Venture has done it for me. I'm out of the Continental tire business.
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I thought that I'd resurrect this thread to offer my thoughts on my new E3's rather than start a new thread. When I bought my RSV a little over a month ago, the front tire was past junk already. I had to ride the bike over 100 miles home and it had such a bad wobble at speed it was an exciting trip. The new E3 up front solved the wobble and in general handled great, but I still had a bad "road crack following" problem. The rear didn't want to follow the front. I re-checked the front wheel bearings and tightened the steering head with no improvement. I played with air pressure front and rear as well, same story. I was reluctant to change the rear tire as it was an almost new Continental "Contitour", but finally bit the bullet and bought a new rear E3. The first thing that I noticed was the size difference between the two tires before the E3 was even mounted. Both tires are the same designated size but the Conti is 1 1/4" wider and 3/4" taller than the E3. After mounting the Dunlop is real close to as tall as the Conti but still an inch narrower. This is most apparent in the way the tread is designed on the E3. The Conti, like most motorcycle tires has the tread running down on to the sidewall allowing all but the most aggressive rider some margin before you run out of tread in a hard lean. On the Conti I still had roughly 1/2" of "chicken strip" on the edge of the tire. I put 200 miles on the new E3 today and even with taking it easy to break in the new rubber, I'm already scuffing the tire right to the edge of the tread. This was by no mean an aggressive ride. There were no parts dragging the ground, the tires never slipped an inch, but I am a little concerned about running out of sidewall tread with the Dunlop's. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I just paying too much attention to a new tire/bike combo. I know that it's not a sport bike, but everyone likes a hard corner now and then. The bonus with matching tires front and rear, is that my un-even pavement problem is gone. These tires ride and handle very well. I think even with the tread issue these are still going to be great tires. You can see the difference between the two tires in the pics below.
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Drop 'em or keep building them, it won't make much difference for many years into the future. There are enough good condition, low mileage Ventures around to keep us all in good rides for the foreseeable future.
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OK, I'd better have two 2nd gen's. Paypal will be sent directly, thanks Bob.
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Hey, I just quoted........myself. Never done that before Anyways, my tire from Dennis Kirk finally showed up at our post office yesterday. (we don't have a mailbox in front of the house, we have to go to town for our mail.....very small town) DK has a $5 surcharge on tire shipments, normally orders over $100 ship free. The USPS label on the box that the tire came in showed a charge of $19 to ship, so actually I paid $110.99 for the tire plus the $19 shipping. I pulled the wheel and found an indie shop to mount and balance for $20, bringing the grand total for the rear tire on my scoot to $150. I was reluctant about buying a tire online as everyone is concerned about getting older tires. The DK tire has a build code of 3708 (the 37th week of 2008). The tire that I bought locally for the front has a build code 4807 and I have way more $$$ into it than the rear. I'm not that concerned about older never mounted tires, but it is nice to have new meat actually be new meat. Dollar wise the online deal is great. As long as I don't have any problems with that tire everything should stay great. I can't imagine dealing with an online company would be any fun for a defective product claim. The weather is supposed to be good this weekend so I can put a few hundred miles on this new tire and see how the bike handles with new rubber all around.
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Wow, that really sucks.....I hope that it works out for you.
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Hmm, was supposed to be a carved pumpkin, but being as how that ship has sailed for the year...........I'm good with that pic, nice get. As far as I'm concerned, you have the lead.
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If you're thinking about taking your scoot to Mackinac Island Michigan.......not going to happen. While there are motor vehicles on the island, ie., emergency vehicles, snowmobiles in the winter. Fudgies (what they call tourists up there) are not allowed to take their motorized rides onto the island. You can take your bicycle but not your motorcycle.
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I do the same as Carl. The worst thing you can do is to start your bike thru the storage period with out riding it. I have never had a problem with Sta-bil. I use it in everything with a motor. A few years ago I took a snowmobile out of storage that I had put up with Sta-bil three years previously. It fired right up and ran well. That convinced me that Sta-bil works.
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It's illegal only if you get caught........ And sometimes even then it's still OK. I've passed leo's going in the other direction several times wearing only a bandana on my head. Never even gave me a second look, except for one time. His brake lights came on as soon as he was past me, and then he must have got side tracked and kept going. The thumb is a good place to ride lidless. Lots of road and few leo's. Legal disclaimer. The above post is for entertainment purposes only and is in no way an admission of guilt or illegal activity, either in practice or intent, on the authors part. Further, said author always follows the laws and statutes of any and all cities, counties, townships, or other legally established authority having jurisdiction over whatever state of the country that he happens to be in. Still further yet, the author endorses all basic principles of safe motorcycle operation as set forth by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.
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Well, I finally got my new tank badges on. Many thanks to Mike. I think the scoot looks better with them on. Even if it's not an '06. I probably got a little anal, between cutting the double sided tape so that it covered ALL of the back of the badge with none hanging out, to measuring the distance from the stripe on the tank and the top and bottom of the tank to make sure that both badges were in exactly the same place on each side. I'm happy with the way it turned out.
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I missed the whiskers on the bags first time thru......nicely done.
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A very generous offer, you are to be commended sir. I too have sent you a PM.
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Story of my life........29th on a list of 28. I'm still in. Thanks
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Thanks for caring, and putting those feelings into action. And welcome. uncleGlenn, Patriot Guard Rider #15305.
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I like your pumpkin idea. Let's run with that one, except it can't be your own pumpkin.
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I haven't got 'em on yet Mike. I'm still cutting out the excess double-sided tape. This stuff is tough. I've gone thru 3 Exacto knife blades and I'm not even done with one yet, and I'm out of Exacto blades. Plus the weather was half ways decent today so I thought I'd take Mrs straycatt and go hit that scavenger hunt site that ic23b posted that isn't too far from me.......but I see you beat me to it........ Now I've got to rake some leaves before the snow buries them all. Thanks BTW, I really think it's going to look good.
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Well even though I'm late (the wife and I just got back from a little 150 mile stroll) I'm posting these pics in honor of ic23b with thanks for the suggestion. It was a nice ride, and we saw a field full of Sand Hill cranes. We stopped to take the pic and as we pulled away the entire field took off, must have been 150 of them.....way cool.