Y'all just hatin' on my 75mph top speed

[Edited on November 15, 2010 at 11:59 AM. Reason : forthcoming 75mph top speed, that is]

11/15/2010 11:59:16 AM

Has anyone done a valve adjustment on an SV650? Depending on whether the previous owner followed the maintenance schedule, I'm either about due or 14,000 miles overdue.

It seems like it'd be worth the money to pay a mechanic to do it.

11/15/2010 6:06:33 PM

I just bought my first bike. '01 Ninja 250* with approx. 7200 miles

*cue the haters

The previous owner says the carbs have been cleaned, but it seems to have some bad gas from sitting for a while. Therefore, you have to leave the choke on for quite a while before it warms up. What's the best way to remedy this? Fresh tank of gas and carb cleaner additive?

11/15/2010 7:06:02 PM

That's step one

Step two is to pull the carbs after step one doesn't work

11/15/2010 7:09:59 PM

Alright so i got around to this.





My 1974 CB750 - at a friend's place in Seattle.



Can you tell we were traveling? This is route 12 out of Missoula and on the way to Moscow, Idaho.

Deal's Gap has nothing on that fucking road...and it was more like 200 miles.



PCH

Did 13k miles in 70 days, bike didn't blink. I, however, have a shattered spine.

[Edited on November 15, 2010 at 7:34 PM. Reason : Fail.]

11/15/2010 7:28:21 PM

Awesome. I'm gathering my gear for a small tour pretty soon.

11/15/2010 7:40:26 PM

Quote :

"I, however, have a shattered spine."

Wait, wut?

11/15/2010 10:10:39 PM

I was being hyperbolic. My back hurt a little.

11/15/2010 10:51:46 PM

You ever sell that CB500? I imagine the CB750 is a much smoother ride.

11/15/2010 10:57:21 PM

Quote :

"Has anyone done a valve adjustment on an SV650? Depending on whether the previous owner followed the maintenance schedule, I'm either about due or 14,000 miles overdue. "

It's not that difficult. Assuming they're shim-type valves, you just need to remove the valve covers and measure the clearance between the cams and the shims.

Its just time-consuming, due the amount of parts that need to be removed. Might be pricey from a mechanic.

11/16/2010 12:52:09 AM

Quote :

"I was being hyperbolic. My back hurt a little."

I lol'd.

And awesome bike dude! We need a UJM thread in the Garage. However, I feel this general thread has monopolized the whole genre. (See: videos thread)

11/16/2010 1:14:38 AM

Quote :

"Has anyone done a valve adjustment on an SV650? Depending on whether the previous owner followed the maintenance schedule, I'm either about due or 14,000 miles overdue. It seems like it'd be worth the money to pay a mechanic to do it."

It is pretty expensive to have a shop do valve adjustments. I've yet to do it on mine, but it's due for it. Most of the user experiences I've read say that they really don't need any adjustment for the first couple check intervals, so I'd get to it as soon as you can, but not be worried about riding it or anything. Being shim-under-bucket, they are easy to check, harder to adjust.

[Edited on November 16, 2010 at 11:08 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2010 11:07:14 AM

Quote :

"e36turbo Veteran 102 Posts user info edit post Alright so i got around to this Did 13k miles in 70 days, "

Plz post details. I want to plan a semi-long trip for the next year, depending on how my PTO goes. One of my buddies is planning to take off across the states starting in MD, so I may just do the first leg of the trip with him, but i will probably be looking at other options. A ride to the Missoula area is not out of question

[Edited on November 16, 2010 at 11:20 AM. Reason : .]

11/16/2010 11:17:44 AM

I adjust my valves every 500 miles, but they don't use those stupid shims.

11/16/2010 11:29:37 AM

Om, we left on August 21st and got back on Halloween night. Giant counter clockwise loop around the states; the vast majority of which was non-interstate highways...although occasionally we needed to make good time. For example - when we are doing the Saddle Sore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hours) from St. Paul to Butte and my friend (on his '76 CB750F) dumped his bike at midnight in the Montana bad lands severing his front brake line and bending his front triple a little. We were 500 miles and 12 hours into the challenge...and then the next town had all its gas stations closed so we run out of gas around 2 AM in the middle of fucking nowhere.

So 4 hours later we end up in Miles City, MO at 6 AM with 400+ miles to go and 6 hours to do it in. We promptly get on the interstate in the speed tourism capital of the US and set the backs on "as fast as they will possibly go" and do that for...6 hours. Blistering through Montana as the sun rose and being a little delirious after 18 hours of riding was pretty safe.

Keep in mind, my friend was doing this with bent triples and no front brakes.

But yea, the trip had a lot of shit like that happen. Riding these old bikes with luggage all over them just invites people to come up to you as well. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 85% of our gas stops (approx every 100 miles) involved someone coming up to us and asking us if our bikes were Ducatis or Triumphs and that they used to own one etc etc.

Ya I sold the CB500 for 800 dollars + some rims I had painted and relaced (but not trued). I found this particular CB750 not running with 5000 miles for 600 dollars. Was orange with highway bars and a giant windjammer and some other touring gear...which i promptly ripped off, turned into a little cafe thingy, and then went touring on ; )

[Edited on November 16, 2010 at 12:23 PM. Reason : derp]

11/16/2010 12:21:40 PM

Did you guys camp or stay in motels for the most part? Did you plan in advance for participating in the events such as the Saddle Sore, and in general did you have some checkpoints and dates set up, or were you riding with a general direction in mind but no particular schedule? How detailed was your actual route, did you end up doing lots of research in order to hit the best country roads and then stuck to your route (other than the time you had to take the highway to make time) or did you just head out to the next destination on your itenerary via the first non-interstate road you encountered? Did you navigate via map or GPS?

11/16/2010 2:00:46 PM

Quote :

"Did you guys camp or stay in motels for the most part? Did you plan in advance for participating in the events such as the Saddle Sore, and in general did you have some checkpoints and dates set up, or were you riding with a general direction in mind but no particular schedule? How detailed was your actual route, did you end up doing lots of research in order to hit the best country roads and then stuck to your route (other than the time you had to take the highway to make time) or did you just head out to the next destination on your itenerary via the first non-interstate road you encountered? Did you navigate via map or GPS?"

We paid for places to stay twice: A campground on the outer banks, and a campground in Canada. Every other place we stayed was with friends scattered around the country, strangers that offered us a place to stay, or camping. I would say friends for the most part, followed by camping, followed by kind strangers.

We bought a US map and marked places we had friends that may put us up, as well as shit we wanted to see and roads we wanted to drive on - we came up with a fairly succinct counter clockwise loop. Most of our road research involved google maps and making fairly broad assumptions based on what the road looked in a few areas. Basically what you said - we tried to keep it interesting with the roads (IE non-interstate) but we always had a general direction to be headed in. We navigated by map - my smart phone has GPS but we refused to use it on principal (other than navigating big cities (IE New york, Seattle, Miami, San Francisco etc). Our east coast itinerary was pretty tight as we had a lot of friends to hit up, and since most of them had jobs and tight schedules - we had to plan well. After New York it became less frantic.

11/16/2010 2:25:34 PM

Sounds like an adventurous way to do this. Also sounds liek ya'll pulled it off on a shoestring. Did you stay under budget, and what did it cost you (if you dont mind sharing)?

Did the roads planned via Google Maps meet your expectations? I've been riding in a new to me area and finding some of the roads with the Google maps using "find the twistiest road" approach, and it worked out for the most part so far. Although one time i came up to a turn with a pretty decent speed only to find out that after the turn the pavement ended and gravel started. Luckily i was able to keep the bike straight, but if there would have been any traffic coming the other way i would have been f#cked. Nowhere on the google map it said that that the pavement ended.

11/16/2010 2:52:36 PM

Definitely hit or miss. Minus the bike prep in order to get ready....we spent about 1000 dollars on gas and another 2 or so on eating a drinking.

11/16/2010 3:11:49 PM

^so 3grand total, and no hotels?

damn, so much for that idea.

11/16/2010 6:36:19 PM

These guy financed their road trip with cash from a drug deal hidden in the gas tank. They also didn't bathe much, as I recall.

11/16/2010 6:55:33 PM

Well we could have done it cheaper, for sure.

Everytime we stopped for a few days in a cool city with friends we would buy them a meal, and get them some drinks (in thanks for letting us crash on their floor or whatever)...on top of our own. We hit up something like...7 friends each, so this happened at least 14 times..so we lived pretty rock and roll.

I mean, you can't roll through some of these places and not hit up the breweries.

There were also a lot of strip clubs.

It would be possible to do it much, much cheaper.

11/16/2010 7:58:47 PM

11/17/2010 10:20:40 AM

11/17/2010 10:32:03 AM

The 70's bikes just keep coming.

11/17/2010 10:55:21 AM

Joel did you really get that? haha I can NOT imagine you on one of them no matter how hard i try

11/17/2010 11:14:27 AM

What is that? Looks like a cl100/125 but I'm not so sure...

[Edited on November 17, 2010 at 11:37 AM. Reason : nvm, filename answered my question]

11/17/2010 11:36:41 AM

hell yes igor dont know what I am gonna do with it but should be interesting! its a 72 model cl100.

11/17/2010 11:38:12 AM

If you ever sell it, shoot me a pm first

11/17/2010 1:32:44 PM

11/17/2010 5:07:04 PM

Anyone thinking about going to Daytona for bike week this year? Happens to be on spring break for those still in school. (March 4-13)

11/17/2010 5:18:08 PM

cb175 update:
1. Cut/filed front fender
2. De-rusted the tank
3. De-rusted and polished the front fender, grab rail, and front wheel
4. Cleaned all old gasket residue off the engine
5. Stripped, primed, and painted motor and peg mounts

The ready-to-go part pile is growing quickly! I'm just hoping to have it back together before I get 9 kinds of cancer from that damn aircraft stripper. That shit is serious

11/21/2010 12:37:23 AM

I like the aerosol aircraft remover. When it mists in your face you can feel your flesh melting. That's how you know it's working.

11/21/2010 2:01:08 AM

Seriously. I got a little "blowback" on my wrist (note to self: get longer gloves) and it pretty much felt like it caught fire instantly.

11/21/2010 2:13:25 AM

Quote :

"Did 13k miles in 70 days, bike didn't blink. I, however, have a shattered spine."

On that little bike w/ no fairing? Hardass

11/26/2010 12:05:12 PM

got my bike down to just frame and suspension. putting in a new motor from an 05... doesn't fit exactly and I'm gonna have to fab a mount point, but at least I'll get a functioning transmission and a new slipper clutch

11/26/2010 2:22:26 PM

Quote :

"On that little bike w/ no fairing? Hardass"

I mean...




It was also kind of the point - we could have easily gotten a modern (or at least more modern) comfortable bike with a fairing and cruised the interstates.

But considering life is easy enough as it is, we think it's prudent to add some self inflicted hardship now and again.

Next stop: Mongol Rally

[Edited on November 26, 2010 at 6:16 PM. Reason : for rl]

11/26/2010 6:12:29 PM

The air craft stripper burn feels good

11/26/2010 7:10:08 PM

check out that aerosol paint remover, too

11/26/2010 7:24:54 PM

Helped my cuz pick up an XB9R Firebolt this weekend. This one has intake/exhaust/custom tune. This little bastard sounded evil. Will be interesting to see how the performance will stack up against my stock xb12s after he gets some new tires for it.

11/29/2010 11:05:13 AM

Quote :

"A ride to the Missoula area is not out of question "

Hell yeah f00 come visit me!

11/29/2010 2:55:52 PM

did about 150 miles on the BMW yesterday


^^ I kinda want an XB9R...either that or a Triumph Daytona (either 600/650, or a 675 triple)...or I'd pick up a Ducati, like a 748, if I happened to find a great deal.

11/29/2010 6:48:19 PM

Duke, you always have to go for those little bikes haha

Here is the shitty cellphone pic of the new unit btw





[Edited on November 30, 2010 at 4:55 PM. Reason : .]

11/30/2010 4:54:13 PM

Quote :

"I kinda want an XB9R"

you don't want an 80hp 450lbs bike. only buell to buy is the 1125R

11/30/2010 7:16:12 PM

still too new and expensive, and I just can't seem to warm up to the looks of those stupid looking scoops.

also, i have no problem with 80 hp, and that 450 lbs is wet. i just looked up the dry weight; it's 385 lbs...so it's not appreciably more than any other middleweight sportbike.

11/30/2010 7:24:28 PM

Talk to me when you're riding a 80 HP 550 lb bike

11/30/2010 7:49:21 PM

Mighty windy and slippery tonight.

11/30/2010 10:34:16 PM

that gen Buell always had a super solid frame to me, that was my impression after riding them.

11/30/2010 11:10:25 PM

Quote :

"still too new and expensive"

Those dropped in price more than the XB did after the new ones were available at huge discounts at the end of last year.

Quote :

"and I just can't seem to warm up to the looks of those stupid looking scoops "

Im with you on that one. Same with the stock exhaust pipe. I never thought i'll see a bike that looks more odd than some BMWs, but here it is.

For all it's shortcomings, there is something about the harley engine that makes it feel right on a buell. May not have the top end power of some inline fours, but with the torque it makes and the gearing, it pulls just as hard for any kind of street riding. I owned an R1 before, and this XB12 is definitely more fun on the street.

oh and from the OP:

Quote :

"NO BUELLS too slow "

LOL.. although Squirt's experience was based on a Blast, and I do have to admit that bike is a POS that was only built so the harley dealers had something to use in the MS safety training classes.

[Edited on December 1, 2010 at 7:44 AM. Reason : .]

12/1/2010 7:44:08 AM

some people like their twins. how much faster is the 12 than the 9. I only rode a 12r with mods before. It was fun but hit redline too fast for me.

12/1/2010 7:24:32 PM