You know I only just got that joke not so long ago BTW your spelling is carp moran I'm not that good at the old navigation side of it but it was where we went up, then along then came down a really long downhill. I may plan my next bike trip up to Cape York. Def wouldn't snow up there. Ya know despite all my moaning about the cold, all I've thought about the last couple of days is saddling up & riding again. Doesn't help reading the ride reports section. I think this year I'm gonna take a bit more time out for myself & do a couple of long weekend bike trips - it really puts a new perspective on life. In fact if work doesn't pick up soon I may just have to do another one soonish. I'm hankering to get to Titirangi bay - the outermost point in the sounds. I reckon the roads would be pearler.
Strange. I went to my friendly mechanic to ask about my clutch problem & sure enough it worked perfectly fine this morning. He couldn't think of any thing that would cause it to act like that. He thought I might be onto something with the sticky piston so I'll drop it out & give it a cleanup. There was a far bit of smoke blowing out of the exhaust when I started it this morning- it has been sitting on the side stand a bit.
I saw you & your boy(?) on a KTM ride past us as we were running by Clifton Terrace School. You both had the hunched over 'lets get this highway riding over with' riding posture How long didya reckon it would take to get over there & back? Better as a 2 day trip?
Wait 'till you see the vid from the Lammamoors... It looks like an extra from a Cheech & Chong movie...
they do that,,,if its disturbing dont get an old K bike,they much worsererereer.Before you go a vest try the heated grips....they make an amazing difference esp if you have a screen keeping the worst of rain/wind off
Yeah I have some wrap around ones & they're great but didn't fit them as (foolishly) I thought the winter gloves I took would be overkill. Generally my hands weren't bad. I'll search for a little givi screen like nordie has on his DR that I can take off for pottering around in Summer. I took the carb out last nite of the KLX (DRZ) 400. What a mission. It sits bloody tight under the frame. I want to find out what jets I have in there as although it runs bloody well the fuel economy is shocking. I should have got around 160-200ish off a stock tank whereas I'd be getting 80-100 before hitting reserve. With the safari tank I can just about watch the fuel disappearing. Wathch this space.
That was my broinlaw mountie, We'd just come thru the Rainbow and we were gunning it to get on the French Pass road and home for a homebrew. Titirangi? easy day trip ,theres a loop out there as well that goes thru private road but everyone seems to use it. Best after the loopys have gone home as its hard work dodging them.
OK back to me - looking with your eyes, listening with your ears That's better... First up Jeff Buckley hallelujah. Only got turned onto this reasonably recently. When I first saw it I thought 'who is this pretender?' Halfway thru the vid I realised I was watching a tender moment in history. Back to bikes. I'm sure a lot of you have heard or read of Stagehands exploits with his R100GS. He races a number of rallies local to him in the States. He is inspiring with the placingshe achieves with his bike. I was hoping to ride on his coattails & post a pic on his thread of Schmidt racing in the beach races this year but unfortunately they didn't happen. Here's a vid of him going hard during one stage of a recent Sandblast Rally. His thread is entitled Spanking the Cow on the oldskool forum. Where's this going you inquire?... Well I've been tossing around ideas as usual & was thinking about how to get a Schek type bike to work as well as it looks The biggest thing is how to get as much rear wheel travel as possible with a mono lever. There have been many threads but I have yet to properly research & document the maximum achievable with a UJ & how that compares with similar offroad bikes. Why I am interested is that Schmidt was hitting everything on off road bits on the dusty butt. Admittedly the pegs are lowered & it has the centre stand fitted however I was surprised with it's low height. I'm also wondering whether an R65 would be a good platform to start with. I can't see the point tho in only having 650ccs driving a bike weighing as much as a 1000cc however they are cheap to come across. The other negative is they come with mags - ugh! I'm just throwing things around here, like I do but it's an interesting distraction from invoicing & reconciling bank accounts as you were...
A G/S is a classic adventure bike not an off road demon. It will go most places, but will do it slowly. They are pretty good on gravel and entertaining on sand.
I wonder what the ground clearance is on those isdt bikes Actually I get what you're saying now. There must be a point where the length of the swingarm negates the ground clearance as it makes the bike too long for the tight stuff. I guess it's the limit of movement of the UJ before it starts eating itself. Maybe you'd have to replace it with a big jobbie that would give the extra angle of movement so you could have the same driveshaft length but more ground clearance. Or some kind of rubber universal like I had on my windsurfer nearly 30 years ago. Then of course there's the raising & angling of the engine block Koko I'm thinking of how to make an off road demon out of an airhead. (relatively speaking you know not compared to a new dirtbike ) It most probably won't come to fruition however nice to think about. BTW do any of you other flat twin riders have hard knotted lumps attached to the inside of your shin bones? I swear they weren't there before I started riding Schmidtty
Were you hitting things cause you were going over big lumps or because your soggy suspension didn't have enough damping and spring rate to stop it bottoming out on the smallest of bumps? Putting in more suitable springs and playing with oil viscosities and volumes may yield much cheaper easier yet still noticable results. I followed various recomondations found online for the front forks of my 800 G/S and the results were worth far more than the $15 of oil it cost.
Nah it wasn't the shocks it was riding over & thru lumps & bumps & noticed the bottom of the bike was hitting a lot of stuff. You gotta remember that I swap between the DRZ & Schmidtty - they are worlds apart in various ways. The similarity in both is that they are both high now (I'm on the balls & toes of my feet when seated) due to raising the seat on the BMW. It highlites the advatages & defiencies in both bikes
Try searching some of Rucksta’s posts here. He talks about gaining more travel from his standard length monolever through some slight geometry changes. Here’s a start: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=9497333#post9497333 I think he mentions stresses in the frame somewhere in another thread, so some strengthening/gusseting would be advisable, I guess. See here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16723406#post16723406
That Jeff Buckley's hallelujah is pretty magic aye mate, bit of a weird dude but wickedly talented some of his sounds were a bit hauhting/out there, just sit back with a doobie and go along for the ride shame he died young, he had a lot more to offer. as you were gentlemen
Cheers guys. There is a bit going on at the mo on different sites re suspension refits. Gsers comment on KB was interesting how he's carving the sides off the UJ to get more movement. Good to think about. I carried on down the rubber universal path & wondered if it was possible to make a UJ out of something like wire rope - something that could still twist & transfer the power at a more acute angle without damaging itself. I went for my usual hinterland wander this avo & took Schmidt offroad along some of the dirt tracks that seperate the highway from the forests. He went remarkably well. The ground clearance issues only became a problem when cresting clay summits with steepish sides or riding shallow ruts with rogue crusty lips sticking out.. With a bit of experimenting a happy dose of throttle on ascending small lumps tended to raise the guts of the bike at the top. After a while the effort of input into riding offroad lessened as I used it's momentum to maintain a steady track thu the hard dry rutted clay. As I didn't notice the suspension at all ( apart from a fork bottom out over a deep culvert) I would say it's doing its job admirably. I got a little stuck exiting the track onto the road... I really need to get the throttle overun fixed tho...
that is a good older bmw riding technique i used to ride my K100RS like that and i ride a little but like that even on the road... OUCH!
Yours is a paralever, isn't it? For the R1150GS you can get an adjustable paralever brace. Not sure if this is available for the R80GS You could probably shorten one a little bit to get a lift.
