How do I ride this thing?

Just thought I'd update this post.

Iv'e put about 2500 miles on it. It's getting more comfortable to ride with every outing. Weight shifting has helped a lot. I've just started hanging a butt cheek off the seat. This helps even more.

It seems to cruise well at 3500 to 4000 rpm. Shifting is much smoother getting it up to 4000- 4500. I tried Randy's advice and have shifted w/o the clutch. It's much better- no clunk when shifting but I don't know if it hurts anything?

Today I fucked up not paying attention. The road around Lake Stevens used to have posts on the centerline. It still has the mounts and I hit one. It launched the back end up and to the left and had me pointed off to the fog line. Recovered with a bit of a pucker.

I'm still learning but I love this bike. Getting as comfortable on it as I am on the 700

 

IMO clutchless shifts are fine provided you let off the throttle as you shift up. That takes the load off the gear engagement dogs and allows them to smoothly engage and disengage. Doing the same with the power on would be harmful to the gearbox. Those fancy quickshifters on newer bikes allow full throttle upshifts but accomplish the unloading of the gears using an ignition interrupt.

 

Rob it is okay to hang off but this is what the pegs are for. Put pressure on the outer peg when turning, aka "trying to stand up with that foot." The seat is a higher center of gravity than the peg is, thus it is not advantageous to move on it. Keep centered. Subjugate hanging off for the track where it creates a pressure front and allows the bike to steer tighter at extremely high speeds. Look up Keith Code's technique of putting riders on the fixed-handlebar bike! What you will realize is that by shifting your weight left to right you are inadvertently affecting your input to the bars, and that is what is improving the steering.

You should be squeezing the tank with your legs to completely take all downward force off of your arms, another advantage of maintaining a centered position. Downward force on the arms, which I get a lot of when tired and not paying attention, transforms steering into mud. All hand force should be lateral, left to right. When we are doing all of this properly, this light touch frees up the bike to steer like a superbike and u-turn right in place.

Lots of opinions on this. I would say there is always dog damage when clutchless shifting. It may be small enough it is never noticed or it may build and create a problem. Keep in mind that a rebuild of this tranny means to buy and insert an entirely new engine. I would not do it.

I don't recall other conversations so I will mention that a proper tune of the starter valves maintains the smoothest off idle response. That affects our ability to make all of these maneuvers.

Also do you have stock gearing? Depending on how much city riding you do it can help to shorten the gearing.

 

I'll give it a try Knight, thanks.

 

Checking those naughty starter valves and only hanging off a little of your buttcheeks should get you there and back. All this unless your butt cheeks are flapping and you get looks of love from some harleydoodchica.

Try just a little pressure on your shift lever when upshifting. A preload if you will. Clutchless upshifts are nothing new. The thing to keep in mind is with "most" bike clutches they are in constant motion. ie spinning.

All those books are great. No one of them is the end all to end all how to ride a given bike on a given day under given conditions. Save up your pesos, make sure you have more than adequate rubber on your bike and head down to PIR and take one of the schools. A good local one is by Mike Sullivan.. Mike is a real fast guy. Find that and a whole bunch of other local info on "SoundRider" For a few pesos less sometimes advanced rider courses are available via DOT.

This one's a little confusing..Quote:

I have a hard time keeping it from "lurching" from 2nd to 3rd when I'm off the throttle and letting the clutch out. I've tried to give it some gas when letting the clutch out and it helps a little but I haven't mastered it yet. Suggestions?

When I don't feel like blipping the throttle while shifting coming to a stop, am I just getting too old?



Do you mean downshifting from 3rd to 2nd (or other sequentials) when coming to a stop (or engine braking) ? Best IMO there is to use that clutch.. A busted dog in a tranny can cause some serious damage. This sort of shifting is for the fast guys who are faster than most of us and do not have to pop to the local Honda-san stored for multipeso parts.

 

Got the books, taken CSS once. Just a slow learner.

 

Some of this is muscle memory. Your bod is telling you that you are riding your old bike when your brain knows better. No more two strokes in my man cave but I go from a 1200 to the mach 1 91 to a bored out SR500 to a overly farkled BMW R100RS mit Krauser, that I have been riding for years. Takes awhile..

For real fun is when ya get on some of the old iron with a shifter and rear brake on the "wrong" side, have only three speeds and maybe four and the shift pattern might be up or down for first cog.

The schools are great but in the initial "groundschool" phase, I have sensed a reluctance by the students to ask questions along these same lines in fear that they are asking some dumb question that "everyone should know the answer to" . The instructors are there to instruct and they are more than aware that this happens. Hence "There ain't no dumb questions" only fragile egos..

If ya have time, hit some of the local "bike night" gigs save for the assholes who have to do the I90 bridge at warp one.. The one in Ballard is good. Ballard being the center of the universe and all... hipwaders are of course optional in some conversations in those venues..

 

Yeah, the Mt. Baker tunnel heading east at ludicrous speed is a gas. Make you feel like Luke Skywalker flying down the Death Star.

 

If I remember correctly, The Force didn't quite agree with 3 or 4 of those dudes and away they went to Planet Zorg.

A more apropos analogy IMO, would be the closing frames of the last episode of "Sons Of Anarchy" , Where Jax Teller and his trusty HD meet a Kenworth (made in Seattle) Truck and trailer.

 

Lutefisk. What the fuck is wrong with those people....

 

adding 2 teeth to the rear spocket makes take off much easy

 

Sow, what the fuck...

 

Hey Rob, sounds like your getting used to the nuances of your 6th gen. Nice ride by the way, and thanks for posting pics ( with a little nudge, lol!). A lot of modern bikes suffer that low rpm/light throttle jerkiness, usually due to lean air fuel programming for emissions. As someone mention earlier, a Power Commander 3 or 5 will take care of most of that and will also smooth the the vtech transition. There is also an item called "Throttle Tamer" that I have read about that sounds interesting. It replaces the stock twist grip with a unit that has a nonlinear pull, in effect it makes small movements of the throttle less noticeable. Cycle World did a build on a Yamaha FZ09 a while back and a Throttle Tamer was one of their mods, when the project was finished and they evaluated all the improvements that had been made, some of test riders commented that the TT was a game changer for them. Enjoy your ride amigo.

 

The bigger issue might be not riding with ear plugs. Wear ear plugs and the helmet noise is minimal. Don't wear ear plugs and you WILL lose hearing. The longer you ride without them, the more hearing you lose in time. FWIW.

 

Another pearl white!

yes, below 3k in anything other than first is just st horrid. And there is no happy 100. It's right when the VTech kicks in, with stock gears. Easily shifts without a clutch,just have to have a feel for it, and a blip in the gas. 19k miles, running strong, original clutch.

 

In Ballard the lutefisk/lefse taco has replaced jo-jo's.

 

Lutefisk! Lutefisk!
Lefse! Lefse!
We are the Fishermen, sure y'ar you betcha!

(Astoria High School cheer)