Yeah they've been the worst. Ducati as a factory is a joke though. I keep reading all this stuff about Preziosi sending riders to shrinks when they start complaining too vocally about the bike. I don't want to see Spies on a satellite Ducati, but he got a pretty raw run of luck last year, so I guess it's good that he's still on a GP bike at all.

Hopefully Rossi can at least be competitive before he decides to retire.

1/4/2013 3:10:50 PM

I really thought spies was going to SBK for a year. I watched him dump it in the corkscrew front row center and when he got off the bike, he looked like he was resigned to the fact that dumb shit like that was going to happen. He didn't even seem that upset. He needs a step back and a confidence boost.

1/4/2013 4:02:29 PM

Spies did look like he almost expected that swingarm to collapse like it did. It's kind of a downer. I didn't expect him to shred GP like he did the SBK competition, but he's had serious failures right in the middle of more than a couple decent runs in races. I know you can't level the blame on Yamaha, but man, I don't think anyone had quite as many catastrophic failures this past season. I just hope he can make something work on the Ducati.

[Edited on January 4, 2013 at 10:31 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/4/2013 10:30:57 PM

Bike almost has 35k on it. Bout time to replace the grips...

1/11/2013 1:34:20 AM

Got one this weekend! Friend gave me his Kawasaki EX500. Now...I learn to ride.

1/15/2013 10:00:53 AM

That's a good starter bike, easy to ride and easy to work on, pretty bulletproof and with a ton of internet discussion boards specific to that model. It is not the fastest, and the tech on it is from the late 80's, but it's fun enough and you won't get bored with it too quickly. Yours in particular looks pretty clean. Have fun learning!

1/15/2013 11:16:19 AM

IMO, one of the best starter bikes for anyone with a cursory understanding of how to ride a motorcycle and the maturity to use it. Light enough to safely learn on, powerful enough to keep you satisfied for years to come. Good find, welcome to the club.

Go on NC Sportbikes' website and peruse a bit to get an idea of the shops and resources available in the area. There are also a lot of members on there that will do things like valve adjustments and tire changes for a fraction of the dealer cost.

Also, take the MSF if you can - a weekend well spent. The NC Bike safety course mentioned a couple pages back is good too.

[Edited on January 15, 2013 at 3:25 PM. Reason : .]

1/15/2013 3:24:14 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGsTcmLG7dU

1/21/2013 4:02:25 AM

^how does he sit on the bike with balls that big

1/21/2013 9:09:10 AM

^I'm sure it's no different from his rider stance; tucked.

1/21/2013 7:03:27 PM

so after 5yrs of ownership BMW has sold Husqvarna. Thoughts?

i liked the baja concept

2/4/2013 5:10:45 PM

i was only into their supermotos

2/4/2013 5:13:39 PM

Should be a solid lineup. I know a guy with a BMW/HUSKY and he says after all the off road racing he's done, it's been solid.

2/5/2013 4:06:35 PM

Fuck. I thought I had 2k more miles on the rear tire. More like, 200 miles on the rear tire. It ain't gonna pass inspection next month 11k miles + 1 track day on Pilot Road 2.

Not too shabby?

2/6/2013 9:31:37 PM

I don't think I'm gonna get near that with my ME880s (at least the rear won't, I ride that bitch hard haha) so for Pilots I'd say ya done well

2/6/2013 9:55:25 PM

That's pretty average for a PR2. With the SV, I got 12k on the last one before I was into the wear bars, and I'm at about 9k with no end in sight on this one.

2/7/2013 8:06:46 AM

haha, i used to wear out wears on my GSX-R about every 2500-3500 miles, with fronts getting somewhat more (maybe 5k?)

2/7/2013 9:52:35 AM

the stickier the better

i was happy to get 4k out of my rears

2/7/2013 9:55:12 AM

Quote :

"I'm at about 9k with no end in sight on this one."

Yeah, my fronts have about 50% life left in them...

2/7/2013 1:20:15 PM

whats your favorite local road to ride?

i am a big fan of Virgil Rd just over the wake/durham county line. coley rd, Norwood rd, raven ridge rd and possum track rd are fun too

2/7/2013 4:26:20 PM

Quinn and I did our share of riding this weekend. We even rode through some snow.

I can deal with 35* weather. Hell, even 32* is tolerable. But when it dipped down to 22* and I couldn't start a fire with a fire starter log and had to resort to gasoline out of my gas tank to keep warm... Yeah. Fuck that shit.

Ambition turned into foolhardy in a split second.

2/17/2013 11:31:01 PM

Just got back from Raleigh. Picked up a new project. 2002 VFR800. Hopefully I'll have it up and running in the next week or two.

2/27/2013 10:56:54 PM

Interceptors are cool in my book. Other than the missing fairing, what all is wrong with it? Was it wrecked?

2/28/2013 3:33:53 PM

Guy ran it into a guardrail at low speed. All the front fairings were messed up. Other than that, the gas tank is leaking around the fuel pump. Just spent the past few hours out trying to get it fixed with no luck. Thankfully the bike was cheap.

Depending on if I come across any other speedbumps, I can probably get it on the road at the minimum with a new front upper fairing, mirrors, gas tank and maybe a fuel pump.

Since I'm set back with the whole gas tank thing, I'm gonna start going over everything on the bike and see what else may be wrong tomorrow.

2/28/2013 9:45:07 PM

I like:

Nautilus Horn: 139dB

http://www.solomotoparts.com/Stebel-Nautilus-Compact-Dual-Tone-12-Volt-Motorcycle-Air-Horn-139-dB-Black-or-Chrome/?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=organic&zmam=92312807&zmas=1&zmac=1&zmap=53174_308583&gclid=CKb00YC127UCFQXnnAodrmwA1A


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8xGBYECMFUY#t=300s



OEM is shit.

[Edited on March 1, 2013 at 6:28 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 1, 2013 at 6:29 AM. Reason : .]

3/1/2013 6:27:04 AM

headed to the NC mountains on the 10th! w00t

3/3/2013 11:40:16 AM

probably still gonna be cold up there, especially if you plan to ride wearing only your tidy whities

3/3/2013 11:45:16 AM

^they calling for a high of 68F on sunday in marion

3/3/2013 1:55:08 PM

As long as it isnt 20 degrees. I don't think I want to ride a fully loaded street bike in snow ever again.

3/3/2013 3:04:08 PM

Headed to the Diamondback and Tail of the Dragon tomorrow through Friday.

Hopefully I won't die.

Again.

Should be fun!

3/5/2013 11:03:23 PM

^nice, make sure you hit NC80 also

3/6/2013 4:10:48 AM

Managed to get the gas tank to hold a seal, filled it up with a couple gallons of go juice, and got the bike to fire up. Time to get an upper cowl and some mirrors. Time to get her inspected and registered.

3/9/2013 1:45:00 AM

so the top 1/3 of the mountain on 80 and 226A was covered in sand yesterday from a recent snow. there were a few oh shit moments but didnt drop it. also the BRP was closed

3/11/2013 11:31:26 AM

so, how do you get a bike registered without an inspection and how do you get an inspection without registration? that's my predicament right now.

3/11/2013 2:00:21 PM

Contact the DMV. You can get a 10 day trip permit to get the motorcycle to an inspection station if you don't have a trailer. I think they'll send you to a license and theft bureau office.

3/11/2013 2:26:30 PM

PSA: I'm still alive.

226A was TERRIBLE. All those tar snakes were like riding on ice. I was rode up Wednesday and stayed the night in Robbinsville. I rode around Thursday on 129 up through ToTD and took sideroads (starting with Happy Valley Rd) that paralleled the Foothills Parkway, which was closed, to try to get to Gatlinburg. Unfortunately, I was 15 miles away from Gatlinburg when the sun told me to head back to Robbinsville... Thursday was a good day of riding. Friday on the way back I stopped by the Diamondback and took 226A up to little switzerland, thinking it would be open for lunch (wrong ) It was terrible. 226A was sketch as hell... tar snakes are sticky in the summer, but like ice when I went. I had a couple oh shit moments, even at slow speeds (10-20mph) around hairpins... One threw me off the pavement when I was going around a right hand 10mph turn with a cliff just 4' or so from the edge of the pavement. fortunately, I got lucky and with a little man handling kept it straight through the gravel/dirt as if i just cut the corner on the apex and kept on rolling through. I rode 226 down and it was fine.

I've got go-pro footage, but it'll be a couple weeks before I can edit and upload a summary of the trip... I've got like 16 hours of footage to cut down to a nice 3-4 min clip.

3/12/2013 5:34:10 PM

Fuel pressure regulators aren't supposed to pour gas out of the vacuum fittings, right?

3/20/2013 3:06:54 PM

^^my pants would have been full of the doo-doo

3/20/2013 4:25:41 PM

so you can pay 15 dollar bucks to ride your bike on the go kart track and parking lot. this seems like a good idea

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Upper+Crust+Pizza+Parlor%2C+Silas+Creek+Parkway%2C+Winston-Salem%2C+NC&hl=en&sll=36.068519%2C-80.265523&sspn=0.001453%2C0.002401&oq=upper+crust+&t=h&hq=Upper+Crust+Pizza+Parlor%2C&hnear=Silas+Creek+Pkwy%2C+Winston+Salem%2C+North+Carolina&z=12

3/24/2013 10:02:39 PM

Ninja 250 territory...

3/24/2013 10:14:56 PM

^or dr650sm

3/24/2013 10:22:27 PM

That's pit bike territory

3/25/2013 5:01:01 PM

Looks like you may get the chance to let your locks flow in the breeze in NC this summer.

http://www.wral.com/helmet-law-rollback-moves-forward/12270439/

3/27/2013 6:33:09 AM

Lets cut up seatbelts next.

3/27/2013 11:08:04 AM

Don't they have time to argue about stuff that's worth arguing about? I'll keep my damn helmet on... now onto the next topic of public concerns... Why do lesbians get fat?

3/29/2013 5:50:53 AM

^^^I'd have no problem with it if they didn't have the insurance requirement. That's absolutely asinine because they know insurers will raise rates on everyone to pay for all the new claims they have to cover. What would have been a few scrapes and maybe a broken bone here and there is now a massive uptick in traumatic head injuries that 10k won't even begin to cover.

Now if they'd allow insurers to deny claims where you're not wearing a helmet, then we're getting somewhere. Natural selection does its thing, and the rest of us with gray matter worth protecting aren't stuck with the bill.

4/4/2013 1:39:18 PM

Some of the shots from my trip to the mountains last month (03/05/13). Just a couple ToTD shots. I really enjoyed these pictures...












I picked up the bike on Feb 28, 2012, so for our 1 year anniversary I treated myself to a vanity plate, which took a full 4 weeks for me to receive:







Some shots from just this past weekend... Quinn and I went for a ride to the Troy/Asheboro area. At one point, I look back to make sure Quinn hadn't fallen too far behind me when I noticed smoke. A lot of smoke. My first thought was "SHIT, I'M ON FIRE!!!!" I flipped the kill switch and pulled over... Here's what the pictures of the aftermath:










So ironically, about 1/2 a mile before this incident, we decided to do a small stretch of "offroading", about 50 yards worth that paralleled the main road. Nothing serious. I can't recall hitting anything or going over anything that I couldn't see as Quinn took point and I followed his tracks.

I rode back on his SV to that point where we got back on the road to see when/where I started leaking, as I assumed that the offroading is what damaged my cooler. Right at the point when we got back on the road, I spotted a few drops of oil, but nothing big. This goes on for about 3/8 mile. In the last 1/8 mile before I pulled over, that's when the oil cooler nipple must have broken off completely, possibly from the engine/road vibrations/bumps, because the drips turned into a POURING trail.

I never saw the low oil light and about another 1/4 to 1/2 qt spilled after I pulled over. A local shop said they could repair the original unit and pressure test it for $45. So, hopefully I'll be riding again after tomorrow. I can't imagine not ever being able to ride again... I pray the engine is as tough as they say. Here she is as of now ... I've ridden just under 14k miles in 13 months, and she's sitting right at 37,xxx miles...






[Edited on April 9, 2013 at 4:23 AM. Reason : .]

4/9/2013 4:09:07 AM

I've never quite seen anything like that happen. I think you dumped three quarts in 300 yards. It was rooster tailing up in the air off the rear wheel. Its really difficult to get your attention to pull over / not run you over when you spill trying to turn with oil coated rear/ not Mario Cart spin on the oil slick you're making.

I think I'll buy an air horn.....

4/9/2013 8:45:43 AM

you should be fine, I doubt it did any damage since you caught it pretty fast.

Lucky you didn't try and lean it into a turn with a wet rear like that.

4/9/2013 3:08:59 PM

Good on you for catching it so quick. Hopefully you'll be good to go soon.

VFR is running and back on the road.



Now I just need to find a somewhat decent deal on some fairings, or deal with the shit from China.

4/9/2013 4:59:02 PM