Ride It In the Summer, Work On It In the Winter!

2009 was an amazing year for me as far as riding was concerned. I logged a little over 11,000 miles, met many new people and rode the FZ in some amazing places! With the miles adding up on the bike it was time to spend some $$ and time on her and get her back in tip-top shape for 2010.

2010, a new year with some new parts ready to have miles of adventures put on them. Since the cold weather has set in I have been busy working on getting a few things done to the FZ to prepare for pulling the trailer as well a little maintenance and upkeep.

In order to prep the bike for pulling the trailer the following items were added: Ohlin’s rear shock, 0.85 N/mm fork springs (Ohlin’s), RaceTech Gold Valve Emulators, Stator Rewind, Acumen Digital Voltage Meter/Gear Indicator and added a hook up for the trailer lights.

In addition, I replaced the stock head bearings with All Ballz tapered roller bearings, cleaned and re greased the swing arm bearings, replaced the chain and sprockets, checked the tolerances in the valve train and rewired the air horn.

The work began the day I came home from Charlotte on winter break. With Dads current un-employment he was very eager to lend a hand and spin a few wrenches. So after cleaning up the shop and bit, the tunes were turned up and the bike started to come apart piece by piece.

Due to some communication errors, winter weather and the holidays , the project took a bit longer to complete than expected. However it did end being completed and I have the bike back in Charlotte now, ready to be ridden.

Dad wanted to be sure to document the entire process so he was in charge of manning the camera as the work was going on. However, we both got a bit into the work from time to time and would completely forget about taking pictures.


This is how the bike ended up after the first day of work. Really it was only about an hours worth as we got a late start and I had a dinner date with Alicia and her Mom. (Home made chili, is always good!)


I have been working with a guy at Custom Rewind out of Birmingham Alabama on rewinding my stator to increase the voltage output in order to maintain the charge on the battery when running the electronics that have added to the motorcycle. Currently that stator has been rewound twice and the numbers just aren't matching up. Gary has never worked with a stator on a FZ6 before, so this a learning curve for both of us.

In order to have lights on the trailer, though for some silly reason they are not required by law in North Carolina, I needed to solder in a connection. For this project I chose a square 6 pin connector that way I would have the option to have a constant 12v power source on the trailer if needed.

On the FZ the harness for the tail lights, signals, ect. is located behind the left side pod on the bike. I had already spliced into the taillight wire to power the J&M intercom there and it has proven to be a good location for constant power with minimal noise. Once all the wires were located and there voltages determine I began cutting and soldering in the trailer light harness.
The connector came with a decent amount of wire already attached, however it wasn't long enough to run the connector where I wanted it. So using some donated wire (Thank You!) I made a harness extension that would allow me to run the connector to the underside of the license tag.
While I was messing with the wiring harness on the back of the bike I went ahead and replaced all the crimp connectors that were rusted with some nice solder joints that are now nicely shrink wrapped and sealed. :)
In the fall of 2008 I added a small airhorn to the FZ to replace the dinky stock one that would make a mouse laugh. However, at some point last spring the horn started acting up and working half the time until it eventually just quit. I figure that the problem was probably in the relay so I purchased a new one and then worked on checking all the wires for breaks. In the process of all this I relaized, thanks to Alicia's mom, that I had wired the horn wrong and that was the start of the problem... With some new wire and better wiring diagram, the horn was successfully rewired and the new relay was added. Once again I have my 139 db's of goodness.


While I was waiting on parts and killing some time around the house I decided that I needed to try and repolish my headed. Last year I purchased some good polish and attemped to clean up the header while it was on the bike. I did an ok job then, but I wasnt able to get it like I wanted. So I pulled the header, purchased some fine grade steel whool and went to town.

After an hours worth of polishing I managed to use all the AutoSol and got the header looking nice again. The middle tubes didn't turn out as well due to all the rock dings and such, but its still better than nothing. This has me looking into a Fenda Extenda now...
Once the chain came in I went ahead and cut the old one off. After my last ride to Boone I figure out that the chain had stretch badly in a few links causing some mesh issues on the rear sprocket. This led to a really annoying popping noise that had me scared to make my way home.

Once the chain was off I laid it flat on the floor and pushed the ends of the chain towards each other to see how much it would bend. This was the end result.

Yup it was toast...

Once the suspension parts were ordered I went ahead removed the storage tray under the seat, pulled the swing arm and the rest of the exhaust. While the swing arm was off I went ahead and cleaned and repacked the bearings in the swing arm and took some time cleaning the chain lube that had deposited on the back side of the block. It was at this time that I promised myself this would be the last chain driven street bike I would own. Drive shafts have their advantages!



The next day the Ohlin's parts arrived! Once the swing arm was back on the bike I worked on hanging the new shock. The Ohlin's unit has an oil reservoir that is connected via a braided line. This line was rather stiff so it made finding a nice spot to hang the reservoir a bit of a challenge.

I ended up fitting it on the subframe and once the side pod was mounted the reservoir didn't look "that" out of place on the bike. I had to cut part of that tray in order to adjust preload on the spring and I also had to cut the bottom of the rear hugger so I could my hand around the rebound adjuster on the bottom of the shock.

I have been playing with the adjustment on the shock for a little bit now and I believe I have right about where I want it. It is so nice to be able to fine tune the shock now for my riding style. If only Yamaha would have included an adjustable shock on the bike from the factory.

Another item on the to-do list was to check the valves to see if they needed adjustment. The bike has over 30,000 miles on it now and to my knowledge they have never been checked. So we took the bike to do a friends shop in Albemarle, NC to see how they were. This motor will spin up over 12,000 RPMs and after 30,000 miles of riding they were all still very tight. No need for adjustments this round!

PARTS ARRIVED! It was like Christmas again! Bearings, seals, sprokets, chain, oil and various other parts.
For the new sprokets I went with an aluminum vortex sproket. The stock was a 46 tooth and to account for the extra weight when pulling the trailer and just because I wanted a bit more pull off the bottom I went to a 47 tooth rear. Didn't want something as excessise as dropping 1 tooth up front and I felt like 2 teeth in the rear would be too much. The new chain is a Tsubaki Alpha Gold which we have had amazing luck with on our dirtbikes. When Dad put one on his KTM the chain hardly ever streched. After the intial break in, the chain was never touched again. An expensive chain, but worth every penny.

After riding the bike with the new gearing, I must say I wish Yamaha would have geared it this way from the factory. The RPMs are a much better range for riding the corners aggressively at a moderate speed. The bike accelerates a little faster now, but nothing crazy and its like a freaking tractor in first gear. You can just let the clutch out with no throttle to get it moving now.

To make the front end of the bike as nice as the rear, I replaced the factory springs with a set of 0.85 N/mm springs from Ohlins and added a set of Race Tech Emulators. This required a little work to install, but so far that have shown to make a world of difference!
Showing the new sprocket and chain on the bike....

Another addition was the Acumen DGV, which is a gear indicator and voltage meter. I really didn't care about the gear indicator as much I did the voltage meter. When the added electronics, I am constantly worried about the charge on the battery. For use on the FZ a small diode has to be added to a wire in the harness to prevent the neutral light on the factory cluster from coming on everything the clutch is pulled in. This unit also has a neat dimming feature that dims the indicator at night so that the light is not bothersome.

Now that the emulators and head bearings had arrive it was time to pull the font end of the bike apart, starting with the forks.

I have never pulled a set of forks apart as we have always had a guy in Salisbury, NC do the work on our dirt bikes. (Bruce's Suspension) These forks are much simpler than those on my dirt bikes and unfortunately Bruce was recovering from a hip replacement. So with my lack of time available I decided that Dad and I should do the work ourselves. I wasn't aware that Dad was very familiar with these type of forks and after talking with Dad one evening we decided that we could tackle this one on our own.

Race Tech recomends that damping holes in the damping rod need to be opened up (ALOT) and more hole should be added. This was basically removing the damping abilty in the damping rod and letting the emulator do all the work.

Using a 5/16" drill bit a drill press at Timmy's shop we successfully open up the damping rod...

Below you can see where the emulator sits on the damping rod. It is then secured by the spring which rests on top of the emulator.

When assembling the forks and putting the new fork seals in place, Dad and I managed to damage one of the fork seals as I discovered a leak on the left tube once I took the bike back to Charlotte. However I was thinking some changes needed to be made regardless as the front end seemed a bit harsh now. I had 15w fork oil, the emulators set with 3 rounds on the yellow spring and 124mm of preload. When the new seals were added, I made a new set of preload spacers (120mm) dropped the fork oil to a 10 weight and took a half round off the spring. Alot of changes at once, but I think I really like where it is now!

Next in line were the head bearings. Yamaha's factory ball bearing did not seal very well and ultimately rusted after a year or so in use. These bearings were replaced with tapered rollers made by All Ballz. It took a little work to get the old races out and the new ones in, especially on the lower side. In addition we had to get Alan to remove the old race from the steering stem and press the new one on.

Overall, I have a completely different bike now! I have rode the bike a hanful of times since the work was completed (200 miles max) and the combination of all the changes have made a huge difference. The bike has so much more feel now and responds the riders input so much better now. I never realized how numb feeling the bike was until the changes were made.

Now that the bike is done, it is time to work on the trailer. I have made a contact with a guy in Salisbury that will be welding the trailer. Once some modeling changes are made and the design is checked with a FEA program, building will start. (Early March)

In addition to the trailer build up I have been thinking and talking a lot with Dad about rides for this coming year. For the past couple years we always start talking about what we want to accomplish in the year ahead.

After last years ride to West Virgina, I have become extremely fascinated with that area and look forward to making another trip up that way. I would like to spend more time at the Green Bank National Radio Observatory, eat another 12.00 banana split at the Green brier and would like to spend some more time riding through coal country.

Another goal is to cross the Mississippi River. I have been wanting to do this for sometime now and I am about bound and determined to do it this year. Mom has talked about going to North Dakota for my graduation ride for some time now. Realizing that this might not be an option, I have really started looking towards going to New Orleans. Ride through Nashville on the way there, cross the Mississippi and then go see what New Orleans has to offer.

A must do this year is to join an elite club known as the Iron Butt Association (IBA) to join this a rider must log over 1000 miles in 24 hours which is known as the SS1000. There are other goals that can be accomplished once in the association, but the SS1000 in the entry level. Dad and I have talked about this for a could years know and after plans were changed last year, we are bound and determined to do it this year!

On the FZ6 forum there are talks of having another Deals Gap ride around the first of August which I will try to attend. For the past few years I have made one trip up to Robbinsville, NC each season. I hope to continue this pattern and hopefully start making the trip more often.

As far as the MTF is concern there is a ride going on somewhere in The Smokies', however it is over Labor Day weekend. Not 100% sure on riding that area at that time as traffic will be a bit heavy and I tend to get frustrated when stuck behind slow traffic on fun roads...

But either way, plans are to ride and to ride alot. Once the last semester of my college career is over I will begin the job hunt and really my riding will depend on how that goes. So we shall see.

A few updates....

Mid October; such a beautiful time of the year especially up in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. However, with this view means the coming of cooler weather which usually results in the bike getting parked for the winter. However there has been a new addition to the bike closet this week, the Kilimanjaro by First Gear. More details to come later, but I have a feeling my riding season has just been extended by a good month or two now thanks to this jacket.

So just to give a few updates as I have not been keeping up with this too well this year:

Once I got back from the West Virginia ride managed I managed to sneak in a few other day rides around the area before I replaced the Avon Storms which I had put on back in April. I had the tires on the bike for a total of 125 days and put roughly 7000 miles on them! I was extremely pleased with the performance of these tires; however I do wish that their life was a bit longer. With that being said I would not turn anyone away from these tires, I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a longer life “performance” tire. They did very well in the corners and did not give me a single problem in the wet. They warmed up extremely quick and held the heat pretty good as well.

Just before I went back to school I went ahead and put a new set of rubber on, but this time I went the dual compound route. I decided to put on a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2’s. I have heard nothing but good things about this tire especially when it comes to their life expectancy. Once again my goal for a rear tire is 10,000 miles and from what I hear, these should do the trick.

The weekend before school started up I got a little more riding in which included a RTE breakfast in Spartanburg, SC for the start of the Iron Butt Rally. Mike Brown gave me a call earlier in the week asking if I would like to attend and with out thinking about where Spartanburg was, and the fact that this was a breakfast event, I said yes. Then he told me to meet him at the local McDonalds in Harrisburg at 5:30 am… sigh. Yes, I did make it on time and was functioning enough to ride. Thankfully I was still in my sleep pattern from work, so waking up at 4:45 wasn’t too much of a stretch.

I have never felt like such a wimp in all my life! When we arrived at the hotel where the riders for the IBR were staying I was in shock at the number of bikes and gadgets aboard them. Most, if not all the “competitive” bikes were set up with multiple GPS’s, auxiliary fuel tanks (totaling 11.5 gallons of fuel on the bike) radar detectors, intercoms, cameras, hydration systems, etc. I mean seriously, it felt like I was at an Inspector Gadget convention. However it was reassuring to see the number of sport tourer’s running PR2’s on their bikes. If they work for those highway bandits than they should more than suffice for me! There were several people from the WVSR there taking part in the breakfast and snapping pictures, so I made my way trough the group bench racing and talking gadgets with most the riders and “groupies.” Once again, the more I talked to the riders involved in the ride, the more I felt like a pansy… Put it this way, these riders were about to take off on a ride that would last a week an a half and in that time they were going to put more miles on their bikes that I am lucky to get in a year! (~10,000 miles) Imagine a cross country scavenger hunt, in essence that is what this ride is about.
We left Spartanburg around 11 am and I followed Mike and Kevin back up 85 till Hwy 321 when I pulled out and went north to Boone, NC. While at the Rally I was texting Alicia and decided to ride up that way for lunch. And yes, Boone is on the way to Charlotte from Spartanburg…

As I stated earlier, school has started back up and is in full swing. I am now in my senior year with plans to graduate in May. (We hope) One of my major classes this semester as well as the following is Senior Design. For this class each student has the option to come up with their own project or join a team and work on a project as a group for a company in the region. I was a bit tired of doing the team thing for a while and I really wanted to work on something related to motorcycles so I decided to work alone. What I came up with was to design a trailer to be pulled behind my FZ6 that will be able to carry the essentials for a weekend camping trip. This is slowly coming along and is proving to put my knowledge from the past few years to the test. And yes I will be building a prototype and have it completed by the spring. I will have pictures and such posted as they come about.

My riding has slowed down tremendously since this summer; however I have been making trips to Boone, NC on a normal basis now. It is football season and I have been spending every other weekend in Boone to do some tailgating and watch the Mountaineers play. I have been having a lot of fun with this, sometimes too much, but in the process I have reconnected with many people in which I haven’t seen or talked to in years and have made many new ones as well.

Currently I am sitting in Alicia’s apartment watching the rain fall and the leaves fall from the trees. I am on fall break right now and with a series of events going on up here this week I put it together so I could spend my break up here with Alicia. (App State’s Homecoming on Saturday and several concerts within the music department) While Alicia is in class I have been out riding and exploring the surrounding area enjoying the foliage. Friday, I spent the morning/lunch time in Shady Valley, TN playing on The Snake and getting my twisty fix in. Then later that afternoon I picked up Alicia and we went leaf looking up around the parkway and such.

Back to the Kilimanjaro jacket. Last week Dad was able to get a hold of a few Kilimanjaro’s and they have made a nice addition to the motorcycle closet. I brought my jacket up here to Boone in order to test its limits as the weather channel was showing some low temperatures during the first of this week. Yesterday evening I put on my Underarmor, a couple long sleeve shirts and t-shirt. I left the fleece liner in the jacket, zipped up the vents and along with my winter gloves and neck sock I was sweating. I passed a bank sign that had the current temperature to be 53 degrees when I was pulling into Alicia’s for the night. So I am thinking that my limit is now going to be mid 40’s this winter…

I think in a nut shell that is about if for my riding/motorcycle related news. Hopefully the weather will clear up this evening so I can get some riding in tomorrow before I go back to Charlotte tomorrow night. Until next time, ride safe!

West Virginia Summer Mtn Ride

The posts below are a recap of my most recent ride, the West Virginia Summer Mtn Ride hosted by the MTF.

I apologize in advance for the pictures. I am not sure why they are only showing half the images in the blog. If you click on them they will open to full size in photobucket.

Enjoy.

Day 1 (8-6-09)

Not too long back I was browsing through the MTF website and noticed a thread about this West Virginia ride that was coming up shortly. So I spent some time researching it and made a few phone calls to those members who I knew would probably be attending. It didn't take long to figure out that if I got a roommate to split the hotel costs that I would be able to do this event. I had been wanting to get up to WV for a while now and this was a great opportunity to do so. A week or so later I had a roommate lined up and I was registered for the event!

I contacted Mike Brown about when he would be leaving to head that way and what route he would be taking. Well since I was Lexington, he would be heading right through my back yard to get there so we made plans to link up on his way up. Due to some prior obligations, Mike and his group wouldn't be able to make it up till around lunch time. This was fine by me as it gave me some time catch up on my beauty sleep...

The ride up was rather uneventful aside from Mike threading his bike along with the trailer between a truck and a bridge guard rail and then again in Mt. Airy but this time is a light pole and a car. (he was going slower this time)

A few hours later we were at the hotel unpacking and introducing ourselves to those that were already at the hotel. We spent the evening in the meeting room having a few drinks and "bench racing." I learned a lot that evening about the street bikes from back in the day...

Day 2 (8-7-09)

In the past week, Mike Brown and I had been discussing some places to go visit while on this trip and one of those was the Green Bank Radio Telescope. Mike felt that our first day out would be a good time to do visit it and on the way in we could stop by the Greenbrier for a banana split. I have never turned down ice cream before, so why start now…

Friday morning it was surprisingly warmer than I thought it would. So I left my long sleeve shirt in my tail bag as we headed off towards Green Bank with a planned stop at the Cass Railroad for lunch.

The group for this ride consisted of Mike and his wife, Kevin, Rick and his wife on a Gold Wing, John and Rick with the FJR and me. Now like I said before it was warm at the hotel, however as we started working our way up the mountain it quickly became much cooler, to the point where I was starting to get the shakes. Thankfully, we were approaching the New River Gorge Bridge so we pulled off there to layer up and snap a few shots while we were there. Due to time constraints we didn’t stay long and got back on the road headed towards Cass.

For the life of me I can’t remember how we got there, but some how we did through a series of winding West Virginia back roads that were a pleasure to be riding on despite the gravel in most all of the right hand corners. In some areas the DOT had put down rock on the shoulders which semi’s and other large vehicles pulled up onto the road. It didn’t but a corner or two to realize that this was going to be a constant issue.

A couple hours later we ended up at the Cass Railroad to grab some lunch. In this small area there were several shops a nice diner and a train ride that would take you around the area. This place was a play ground for the cameras so we spent some time and snapped a few shots before heading in for lunch.

The food was good but the service was a bit slow. But with that crowd slow service really isn’t a problem. Mike is never short a story or two… and knows how to embarrass us all. He had the waitress laughing so hard she ran into a pole behind the table.

It took us about an hour to finish lunch and we worked our way back out to the bikes. On the way out we heard the train whistle blowing in the distance. We stood around waiting for it to show up and as it rounded the bend it greeted us with its steam whistle.

While watching the trail I noticed a good spot to pull the bike up on the tracks for a couple quick shots…

On the way from Cass to Green Bank a song came on my iPod that I hadn’t heard in a long time. “A Hymn for the Lost and Living” by Eric Ewazen. This piece was written after the 9-11 attacks as a tribute to those that perished and a promise to carry on. Our high school was one of the first schools in NC to play this after it was published and I had forgotten how emotional this piece was. If you would like to listen to this you can below. I was a low brass guy, so the 5 minute mark is what got to me that and I can still remember hearing Drew and Will, my best friends who played trumpet, playing this piece and seeing their emotions as well.

http://www.imeem.com/cornydog/music/A2GamV9v/eric-ewazen-a-hymn-for-the-lost-and-the-living/

I know this has nothing to do with the ride and I know it is bringing the mood down, but for some reason this song just really got to me that afternoon. I think I listened to it like 3 times back to back. Something about that country side at a slow pace and that song just went hand in hand.

But anyway, it was a short ride over to Green Bank and once there we went inside and looked around the exhibit area and snagged a few pictures from outside. Rick on the wing needed to take a break to get his blood sugar up, so Rick (FJR) and I went to a few other exhibits before heading back on our way to get some of the world’s best ice cream at the Greenbrier.

Kevin and I stopped on the out of Green Bank to get a few more shots of the satellite from a distance. I would really like to return there at some point and take the guided tour around that massive thing! The dish alone apparently spans over 2 acres!

It was a nice country ride over to the Greenbrier where I was in for some more culture shock. We pulled up to this gated area and had to park in lot across the street and wait for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to the hotel. Why you ask? Because the motorcycles bother the polo horses… On the way up Mike begins story telling and fills me in on what his place really is. (I had never heard of it till that day)

When we walk into this place I immediately felt way out of place, apparently Kevin did, too. Let me set the scene for you….

Nice plush dark green carpet, silk drapes with chords of all colors everywhere. The staff was wearing the green suit coats while the female guests were wearing nice Lilly dresses and heels and the guys were sporting the polo’s with khaki shorts and Sperries. Then in walks a group of 8 people, 6 men and 2 women. Most wearing ball caps and wearing Kevlar and Cordura based pants, motorcycle T-shirts and heavy boots. We stuck out like a sore thumb to say the least…

We end up at the ice cream parlor in the back of the mall down stairs; yes there is a freaking mall in the bottom of this place! The wait staff was extremely friendly and they got a kick out of our special ice cream trip. Most of us all ordered the banana split, John was the only smart one, he got a milk shake. The split was huge…

Our shuttle driver filled us in on the prices for that hotel as we were leaving. For a basic room at that place it costs around 400.00 per person, per night! Like I said, I was way out of place!

Back on the bikes we were now heading to eat dinner with the crowd at a rib shack. (Are you catching a pattern here?) We took Hwy 60 back towards Beckley as the restaurant was located next to the New River Gorge Bridge. After all that ice cream and sugary goodness one of two things was going to happen. I was going to end up on a sugar rush like no bodies business or I was going to crash (not the bike) and be in a sugar coma. Those are always the best naps…

Well fortunately I was able to stay awake. Hwy 60 turned into a three lane mountain road with two of the lanes going my direction! I got on the radio and told Mike that I would meet him at the top, I’m was coming around. As I went by, John and Kevin both jumped out and tagged along for a spirited run. I looked in the mirror as I came up to the first tight corner which was going left to see John working his way up towards me. A quick look over the shoulder to judge his position, kicked it down two gears, a bit of throttle and tucked her in dragging the foot peg all the way through. I didn’t look back again till I was at the top. Ah, what a rush! That section of Hwy 60 was a hoot and to my surprise Kevin, who was on a Gold Wing wasn’t too far behind me and John only a couple corners back from him! I was impressed.

We ended making it to the dinner right as everyone was leaving, due to our other eating stops, lol. But that was fine by me. We talked a bit with everyone as they were leaving while we waited on our tables to be available. I got to meet the “Mama Bear” for the first time (Grizz’s wife) and got to see the new scoot as well. Once inside I ordered my first set of ribs, yes my first. 22 years old, born and raised in NC and I was eating ribs for the first time. They were very good, along with the baked beans and potatoes. Keep in mind we just got done eating that massive banana split about an hour or so ago.

Afterward it was a nice late evening cruise back to the hotel. The communal cooler came back out and the B.S.ing began. After all that food, I slept good that night!