gggGary

The front bakes are working on the ole' 99 but I want more. I'm thinking SS lines, a smaller bore MC and some tasty HH pads. I find myself using more rear than I prefer mainly because the front lever requires too much effort to get serious stopping done. I admit I have a front brake fetish, I like a light effective lever. So what have you guys done, and what were the results? If you had it to over??? Kinda related I think the rear is a bit TOO powerful, I've skidded the rear tire a time or 3, anyone else think that increasing rear effort a bit would be a good thing?

There are two ports in the MC, the big one, and the tiny little equalization port, that little one is the likely source of your problem. While sticky pistons will create drag and poor brake action they will NOT cause a rock hard lever. Please do a full R&R, it's time.

I will call it luck but have never blown a front. A few years ago I stupidly ran a rear bald on a Shadow 1100. The tire blew, 70MPH, I94 center lane, trucks on BOTH sides. So loud I thought it was a truck tire blow out till the rear started to weave. Just cutting the throttle was enough to upset the bike, the weave started to intensify, I had to get back in the throttle to damp the weave and you can bet I was pushing on the bars. I was able to GRADUALLY slow down let the trucks pass and CAREFULLY and ever so slowly steer to the shoulder. where I was able to limp it a half mile to to a rest stop. I was very fortunate, the spoke wheel shadow had safety beads. These keep a deflated tire on the rim, without them the tire can completely unseat and get caught in the chain/fender/swingarm, basically tossing the bike down. For any "dresser" rider when looking at tire wear just looking in one spot is not enough, you need to check all the way around the tire. That shadow had bags and an extended rubber flap below the fender. Even after one spot had gone through the cords till the tube blew. other areas of the tire still looked "ridable". Probably had slid the rear under hard braking some time in the past, putting a thin area on the tread. I was in a hurry to make a meeting that day and delayed looking into an increased vibration I felt as I left home. Could have been my last day on earth. When the RSV rear got thin on the recent trip to Barber it was the same story there were bald and "not so bad" tread areas. It is pretty easy to slide the rear under hard braking on the RSV. On that trip luck and bit of wisdom found me a trailer ride home so I could put a new tire on. More than 40 years ago I blew the rear on a Honda 305 with a fat kid on the back fortunately we were going slow at the time and other than some serious left right wobbles we stopped safely. For more on why handlebar pushing works; google aviation PIO more than a few have died chasing control oscillation. One more "story"; back in the day I WERA roadraced a CB900F with some miles on the front tire the bike would weave on the front straight at Road America above about 100MPH or so, pushing the bars damped it out. Being a "poor" kid I got out the belt sander and ground the cupped "side" tread blocks smooth, that stopped the weave till a new front tire was fitted.

Since this sounds like 101 stuff. Does that battery go down while you are riding it or only when parked? I got caught a couple of times because the RSV ignition switch is off | acc | on. If you turn the key off just one position to the left it, shuts off the bike but continues to power the radio, cb etc., there are no dash lights lit so it's easy to walk away and come back to a dead battery. I added an LED to the fairing so I know the key is still in accessory position. Serves as a reminder when I am charging a helmet or phone at the campground. The LED is kind of bright and lit in both ACC and On position. I think I can move the (LED ground) to a lighting circuit so it will only light in ACC position. I will mess with that the next time I pull the fairing (new steering bearings are here).

With a snowy, cold, salted roads, winter season, all my stuff sits in the shed for months. I do about 2 or three rounds a winter with the battery tender, about 7 or 8 batteries between bikes and farm, lawn equipment. That's it, they all start and go back to work in the spring. I have a Stihl pole saw that was ornery after sitting till I found it was a 4 mix and set the valves, it's a happy camper now.

A competent DB programmer can easily port all that streets and trips info so it can be used on about any GPS. The streets and tripos data files are not hard to get at. Used to work with it doing bus routing software. In the you are not alone category; Had my phone go fubar several times when android pulled a software update while I was traveling in areas with crap cell signal. Hey I'm busy changing features into "must pay extra" options here, you don't need to phone home.

Yes firm push forward on both grips has worked for me to damp out both wobble and weave situations. Back in about 1974 on an early XS650 Survival was not a given when it happened to me at 80 MPH. The front tire was hopping up in the air and landing a few inches to one side and then the other. In that situation PUSHING forward hard on both handlebars will go long way to damp out the oscillations. Pulling on the bars will make it worse. Figuring that out on the fly was a matter of luck that probably saved a lot of hide if not my life. Watch your loading, while I don't have any photos the event above was during a March spring break trip to Florida and back from Wisconsin. I can only guess there was a bunch of stuff tied to the luggage rack. Prolly Dunlaps, tread cupping can cause weave. That weave wobble video is all old bikes on Dunlops, just say'n....

Not always easy to find the small colored "lightest point on tire" ring it's only on one side of the tire.

Generators........

Was battery full charged by a shore tender/charger when you did the load test? I would be closely checking all battery cables/ ground connections. Get a volt meter on the bike and watch it while you ride for a while. I smell something other than the battery being wrong. But by all means if the battery tests bad replace it. Weak batteries put a lot of load on the rest of the charging system as it tries to charge the unchargable soon causing other problem$.

Yes heavy scratch removal will go through the film. Did that in a couple places on my scratched 99 stock shield. Still using it 2,000 miles later. Tried the "shorter" bagger shield, not for me, the dark lower part blocked too much "close to the bike" from view it was too loud for me up or down, not much rain protection. Like riding looking through shield, well not really but sure like the quiet that a tall shield gives. Ran one of the wider shields liked it, but the one I used had a light tint and I hate tinted shields. looking at the $80 19" tall shields on fleabay, maybe next year.

99RSV put Shinko 130/90/16 777HD on the front about 2,000 miles ago. The PO's new rear 404 was bald at 4500 miles one up, varied riding. Too bad that I tried to get a last trip out of the tire and didn't make it. Couple things came together and I trailered it home last 800 miles. Now have 300 miles on a 150/90/15 777HD Shinko rear $100 delivered next day, bikebandit. Easy to mount reasonable amount of weights to balance. Impressive looking amount of tread. Handling seems good but still need to put in steering bearings... End of season is near here, cutting firewood is my fall "leisure activity".

We interact with a much greater range of cultural norms these days, polite in the hinterlands may be an invitation to a mugging in some cities! A middle age Walmart employee took my cart as I finished loading groceries in the Venture yesterday. I said "Thank you sir!" He kinda looked like he was deciding if I was a nice guy or a smart ass.

You guys ARE just getting old, the words used change over time (this is good) the meaning is unchanging and solid. Think about it; some person acted politely, did something nice, they didn't use your preferred method of acknowledging your thanks, so now you're mad at them? Hint; Good on you (mate) is an acceptable thank you /congratulations, also.

I have 4000 miles on an ebay H4 LED in my main headlight, much brighter great light pattern lower draw. BroView S5 8000LM 9003 H4 LED Headlights pair for $45. Uses copper strips for cooling no fan needed, spent some quality time in high heat road construction backups, no probleemo.

Many years ago riding an air horn equipped Honda 750 in the Pacific Northwest; a ford wagon pulled out of a gas station right into my path. LAID on the air horns long short long and that poor SOB near killed himself getting out of my way. I suspect he thought I was a logging truck. Lesson learned To paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt ride quietly and install loud horns. Full disclosure; I replaced the RH horn on the RSV with a louder snail horn and relay, still need to do the other.

Put about 1500 on the front shinko 130/90/16 777HD so far very happy. good mix of freeway and country curves, wet and dry. 170 pound me and camping gear. Ridden at a moderate pace. Had to haul bike home from Barber when the rear Dunlap 404 was bald at 4500 miles, probably would have blown before I got the 850 miles to home done. Fortunately a friend with a trailer was going my way. 150/90/15 Shinko 777 HD on order.

The biggie about Here is it works off line, download the (USA, or state by state, whole world available) maps when you have wifi. you don't need/use data on the road. Hopefully it will remain a free ap, Nokia sold it to a European automakers consortium. which is good cause they will keep improving it.

I like the Here We go GPS app on my Galaxy S5 and an 8" Galaxy WIFI tablet. The S5 does have the goes nuts in rain issue. the here app is single destination routing only I kinda work around that by finding the next few destinations in the morning so they are in the drop down menu to pick next as I arrive at each destination. I can also click on addresses in email I have sent to the phone the GPS then opens with them in the destination. The blue tooth to my helmet is wonderful. I have removed the cassette and have a tray to slip (hide) the tablet in now.

The ABS isn't so bad IF you change the brake fluid now and then. On the LTs it's not that bad to do I blew a front brake line and changed lines and bled the system, aside from a hard to get to bleeder or two it was straight forward. Yes ABS is great It is one thing I want again on my NEXT bike. I stand corrected the following is not true On BMW I think if it is a K bike it has the lay down dry clutch motor. What he says, they went to a transverse motor, There are some issues with the final drives also.

I drive an I5 turbo diesel sprinter van so watch diesel. generally you pay about 15-20% more for diesel, about the difference in energy content. When I bought hte van aobut 10 years ago diesel was less than regular. But after they forced the sulpher out of diesel it went up to about the 20% more level and has stayed there. Diesle prices tend ot more a bit slower than regular so the spread is less when prices are rising and more when they are falling. My full size but lightly loaded van has achieved many tanks of 27MPG but I plan at about 23MPG 17 or so pulling a horse trailer.

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/mcy/5765499447.html This bike has been begging for a new owner for quite a while now. Just say'n.

He got all 48 done on the Connie last fall still a few Provinces and Alaska to go. He also did all 48 on a Roadstar 1700 He Don' stop rolling much.

Cowasaki Concours.

Toilet paper filter canister and Micky D's fryer oil.