Saturday 17 January 2015

I love my 19 inch tall memphis fats. From a distant, it looks like a head cowling. It makes my rides so much more comfortable. Yeah it will set you back by $300 usd which is really expensive. The lucite in my opinion was much better than the high impact crap national cycle has. It scratched even with a new microfiber towel.
I Got my windshield at close outs on ebay for about $120 usd. It looked better and was wider than the national cycle touring heavy duty my friend had. National cycle edges had a better finish, the metal straps were chroms instead of being high polished, Being poly carbonate, I believe it might help during a crash.

Being said the windshield will not block the wind to my chest. The wind came from down under, where the signals are and will blast you unbearably. It is so strong it can flip your visor open. After various experiments, I went to order the lowers. They would set you back by $80usd. Again, i sniffed a deal for $60usd. Im pretty sure it would work fantastic if it clears the highway bar.
Engine oil is something Im willing to splurge in. My bike uses a 10w40 and takes in 1.8L with or without the filter

It gives you more reliable start up,makes clutches be easy to anticipate, shifts better, runs smoother and helps you get Better mileages.

I burned my clutch tackling the hills with rotella t6. And after my premature change mixing my mobil 1 with a $5 top up oil, i changed back to rotella t6 and it ran less powerful. To start it off, mobil 1 felt too thick and sluggish as compared to the castrol power 1(which has low 40deg viscosity)

Decided to try maxima pro plus which i got 3.3L a gallon. Took it on a 2000km trip and she burned off about 300ml which was hardly anything. Shifted beautifully and purrs sexily. Even more whenever I had to top her up with new oil. Amazing how after the trip the oil started to have a an acidic smell and a dark colouration. I know these should not be my basis to decide that the oil is bad but Im OLD SCHOOL. Bit the bullet and told myself the oil will get changed at 4000KM despite it. For the record, I was running the 99% full throttle for 10 hours and my journey to work which makes up most of my journey is 7km away. Surely thats severe conditions right?

I wanted a botique oil. It came down to amsoil, silkolene, motul, maxima extra and redline.

Initially, I was unsure of the price of the amsoil but expected it to be no more than $20 a  quart. Silkolene and motul was $24. Maxima extra came in a gallon and costs $17.

I had decided on amsoil. Getting to the exclusive distributor was a hassle. It was going for $26 a quart. A $30 annual membership gets you a lube and degreaser and takes $2 off  a quart.

Due to the question of amsoil base oils and many who compared them with redline preferred redline, I decided that redline was the way to go. I liked their water wetter too. Some questioned if amsoil had followed the PAO is synthetic oil route like mobil 1 and amsoil failure to address that lost my trust in them.

400km more to my change.. cant wait..

Friday 16 January 2015

Urgh time for tire replacements again.

The rear had about 1.8mm and after a 2000km trip, it was left with 0.8mm
Front was still good but from my experience, would probably wear out in two months. Since they were wearing out equally(which is rare) I decided to replace it in a pair.

After replacing the stock dunlops with the shinko, I realised how much more less nimble the dunlops were.

I wanted the bridgestones and the parallel importer could get them at $230SGD. Since the shinko tourmasters ran for $200.

He made me wait 1.5hrs for on my once a day off a week to tell me he ran out of stock. I decided to give him a miss.

Went to metzeler distributors. Well, the distributor for some reason have an awful inventory. I had to place my order in advance and a deposit. It would take a month for the rear and two to three months for the front to arrive. Fair enough as that would be after my payday. These tires had the best reviews(metz 880). It will set me back for $270 without installation.
Dynabeads

The focus have been on the tires lately as i noticed the rear threads are running out. Shops were not willing to balance my wheels and those who do will charge 50% more for the tires. So when I came across these, I thought why not. $20, lasts many future balances to come, no online used-and-hate it threads.

The website didnt state that removing the tire core was necessary. So I had to find that out myself and luckily for me, a buddy had the tool to remove them.

Got her installed and took her for a ride. What a difference. I didnt notice there was vibrations from the wheel until this was installed. In short, the ride was smooth! Never rode this smooth before.

Most remarkable, when I took my hands off the handlebar it doesnt shake at all like it used to.

But as i free wheeled into my carpark, I realised that it doesnt bring me as far as it did when i was with the wheel weights.

Saturday 8 November 2014

Iridium VS Normal nickle/copper plugs

And so I thought I'd save much time working on the plugs if I had to change them every 12 000km. Besides, i wont have to be spending any more money on trying to get the honda specific plug tool.

Iridiums were kinda cool in the 1000 mile trip I took, perhaps one of the main reasons for the shocking performance. Starting up was also a breeze. Something I wasnt able to replicate again.

Here, on the left are the Iridiums I got, They cost about 4-5 x your normal plugs


Well they were supposed to last 50 000km. At 14 000km, they started misfiring. When removed, they had some build up around the iridium tip, oil after the gaskets. Well, I had them replaced and they started just right. They were really cheap too.

I would have gone with the denso's the next time around.
Maybe their U groove techonology works?


 Plugs were showing that I was running lean.. So i decided to richen it a little.
Wow, engine runs much cooler now.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Coolant horrow

4 months ago, I decided to get a "real coolant" and get

Prestone AF2100 Extended Life 50/50 Antifreeze from amazon. $10usd for a gallon, from my trusty amazon and it says its a 5 year coolant. What could go wrong right?



4 months ago, I decided to open up the reservoir cover. To my horrow, i saw this.

Mud in my reservoir? Googling that pointed me to a direction of a head gasket leak( oil and coolant cross contamination) Those few months were easy miles. So I googled prestone and long life coolant. To my horrow yet again, dexcool is known to cause non chemical removable sludge. Some say if its exposed to air or mixed with another coolant, this will happen. I googled prestone dexcool and it seemed that this yellow bottle probabbly is dexcool.

I did a vinegar flush(which i still think is a waste of time doing it for the 2nd time)
Did a 40L tap water flush.
Filled her up with the normal green coolant.

Damn it.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Gravity fed oiler


Here is my simple gravity fed oiler. Im not willing to pay $200 for a set of ready made scott oiler.
Adding vales and sorts will just add to premature failure of the system and leaks.

How it works?
When I squeeze the bottle, the oil flows down the tube, but i stop when it is 3/4 down the hose. Upon release, Excess will be sucked back in to the reservoir and the remainder will drip onto the inner run of the chain. In this system, it drips really fast as there is nothing to resist the flow.

You will get flings but ive learn to deal with it.
Also, you will have to clean the chain at least once every 2-3weeks.

Editors tip,
Use 85-90w gear oil only as it maintains the best balance between cleanliness and protection.
Drip must land on the inner run of the chain to avoid flings.