ultimate motorbikes

[SykomantiS]

Well, I hope you get it sorted.

And isn't squat related to spring stiffness? Or is the stiffness also linked to the angle?

[WiK1d]

Well, I hope you get it sorted.

And isn't squat related to spring stiffness? Or is the stiffness also linked to the angle?

Squat is related to spring stiffness more-so, but also swingarm angle. If you raise the swingarm you're decreasing the distance between the mounting points of the shock, which will result in squat.

[SykomantiS]

That makes zero sense

[WiK1d]

If you raise the swingarm, you're decreasing the swingarm angle by flattening it out, which will make the rear sag or squat.

[GreyWolf]

Saw a motorcyclist get knocked down on the highway this morning. The worst part was seeing the rider's limp body sliding along the tarmac. Stay alert guys, the roads are hostile towards your kind.

[WiK1d]

Saw a motorcyclist get knocked down on the highway this morning. The worst part was seeing the rider's limp body sliding along the tarmac. Stay alert guys, the roads are hostile towards your kind.

Never nice to see/hear these things. Thanks for the heads-up GW!

[DarkStar]

Right, I'm in the market for a new motorcycle.

I've pretty much exhausted all of my options in getting reliable transport, and my boss has come forward with a plan to give me a short-term loan to buy myself transport.

He's agreed to lend me a maximum of R15 000. (There will be a contract signed between us, in case anything runs afoul).

I will be selling my DT180 soon for about R6000, so this gives me in the range of R15k to R21k to purchase a NEW bike. I refuse to get a chinese/indian brand bike. I will only get one of the Jap (or other any other big brand) brands.

So, what can you guys recommend? I'm unwilling to get a 2-stroke (as I'm past that phase, and I'm not looking for raw power and speed here).

Basically, I'll use the bike for basic commuting (12km a day average), and if possible the occasional breakfast run.

What NEW bike can you recommend for between R15k and R21k?

Thanks in advance.

[WiK1d]

New? Almost nothing.

Honda e-Storm postman's bike. Yamaha SR250 postman's bike. That's about it.

You said no Chinese/Indian, but I would actually really consider the Bajaj Pulsar 180

[WiK1d]

So on Saturday 30 July 2011 I had my first ever race. It wasn't a massively serious race, but it was still fantastic. It was a team endurance of 90 minutes total with 3 riders. Thus, about 30 mins per rider which isn't THAT much.

I was teamed up with Cassie Annandale (Suzuki GSX-R600) and Nienke Ferguson (Yamaha R6) in team #7 Pinkies and the Brain sponsored by Mark and Lidah (Thanks a lot guys, it was a bloody fantastic day!). My mum dubbed us as the Ladies and the Baby, I prefer the former :p

We went out to the track on Friday to get some practice in, but it didn't really help as it was incredibly cold. The wind was blowing the whole damn day and there was no heat on the tarmac. Overall it was a pretty sh*t day out. Weather reports said that race-day would be better, so we crossed our fingers and left the track.



I'm not really the stressed out type, but I was already awake at 04h30 on Saturday morning worrying about the racing and about a bunch of stuff that still had to happen and what could go wrong and and and...

Cassie and I left Pretoria just after 07h00 bound for Redstar Raceway. We got there just after 08h00 and Nienke actually managed to beat us there, shocking! Pulled my bike out of the closed pit (Thanks Jacques for allowing us to store our bikes there over night!) and took it to have the rear tyre changed. Cassie was kind enough to donate a 180 Pirelli SC3 so the 190 was off (and finished after the practice on Friday). Went and listened to Rider's Briefing and we all argued about how the endurance rules should work and didn't come to a conclusion. We then just decided to go out and ride.

(Under our interpretation there should have been a team average laptime calculated based on each member's fastest lap. Let's say there was a 2m10, a 2m20 and a 2m30 the team average would be a 2m20. Then the team average during the race should also be as close to 2m20 as possible as this wasn't a race to see who could do the most laps, but rather who was most consistent. So if each individual stuck to his time the team average would remain the same. Turns out it didn't work that way. They measured the deviation around the fastest lap of the team for the entire race. Which to me is a bit silly, as that means all the team members need to go as fast as the slowest person to keep the lap around a specific time. But okay, whatever)

Roll on qualifying. Only 10 minutes per rider, so it was hammer down from the start. Cassie went out first, Nienke second and I went out last. The 180 tyre is just SO much better on the bike. I could put the bike where I wanted it to go, not where it wanted to go. In fact, it was so great, without pushing that hard I knocked a second off my previous best. First flying lap I was down into the 2m12's, 2nd flying lap was a 2m12.323s which is a new personal best. I then slowed down thinking I stuffed up our team average laptime by going too fast. (At least, that's how we interpreted the rules)



We finished qualifying at just before 11h00 and our race was only at 13h00. During lunch we had the draw to determine starting positions for the race. I was called to draw for our team and managed to pull out 3rd! That put Cassie on the front row which was superb!

The next hour and a half was spent having a bite to eat, drinking something to give me energy and getting our team strategy right. Nienke made us a fantastic pit board which was really simple to use. One side it had an arrow and on the other side it said PIT. Thus, you get an arrow pointing UP it means you need to pick up the pace. If the arrow is HORIZONTAL you're running consistent laps and should just continue as is. If the arrow is pointing DOWN you need to slow down a bit to try balance the average out. The PIT side is self explanatory.



We approached 13h00 and started getting everything ready for the start. Pit lane was opened and Cassie went out to line up on third spot on the grid. 1min board, 30s board, 5s board, Red Lights on, Red Lights off!! Cassie made an absolutely CRACKER of a start for us sticking with the front guys into the first turn. Sadly we were all on 600's and pretty much everyone else was on 1000's so almost everyone went past her on the straight. Not to worry though, consistency is key!

Started the stopwatch when Cassie came past for the first time and waited anxiously for the next lap. Started taking down the times and lap after lap she got a horizontal arrow. She was so consistent it was insane! Well friggen done! I worked out when we needed to call her in. After 9 flying laps she was given the PIT sign and made her way around for the last time. She pulled in, I ripped the transponder off, stuck it on Nienke's bike and pushed her off down pit-lane. Great, quick change and it was less than a minute between Cassie coming in and Nienke going out, smooth pit-stop that was!

I ran off to get ready while Cassie kept time. Nienke was also really consistent and got the horizontal arrow for most of the laps, until she had a cracker of a lap going 3 seconds faster than her qualifying time! Well done on that one Nienke! She also did 9 or 10 laps before she was called in. When she was shown the PIT sign I started getting my bike ready as I had about two and a half minutes. Helmet on, gloves on, warmers off, front stand down, on the bike. Nienke came in and Cassie promptly transplanted the transponder onto my bike. Out I went for my first ever race.

In one of the earlier races of the day a bike dumped oil down the back straight and through turns 3 and 4, so there was cement dust on the bloody racing line. First lap out through that section was really nervous times, but I was able to take the corner really tight on the inside and there was a little bit of tarmac between the cement and the rumble strip, so I chose that as the spot to go. After my first lap someone else came out of pit-lane just in front of my on a ZX10 (turns out it was Nienke's husband!). Bike felt good and I managed to quickly pick up the pace and had a good chase with the ZX. For the first few laps I got the horizontal arrow until suddenly I got a down one. I was like, sh*t, wasn't supposed to do that. Lifted a bit on the straight and that seemed to cancel it out as next time 'round I got a horizontal arrow again, all right, back to business. Next time around I got ANOTHER down arrow, heck I was stuffing everything up for us! Slowed down again, and this time I slowed down too much. So I got an up arrow that time around. Then it seemed to level out. Through all this shenanigans I still managed to pass about 4 people, mostly on the brakes into the corners, especially turn 4!



About 4 laps to go and my fuel light came on, oh oh! Not good! I was praying for the race to come to an end 'cos I would have been utterly gutted if I were to run out of fuel! Then I got stuck behind Yolandi on her S1000RR. Closed up in the turns every time, but she had a good race line and I couldn't get by as she pulled me on the straights time and again. Then I lined her up to take her down the pit straight into turn 1, boy was I wrong. Entered the last turn wide so that I could apex late and pick the bike up as soon as possible and get on the gas down the straight. All still well, then suddenly powering down the straight I got into a MONSTER of tankslapper. It was like being at the bloody rodeo! The whole bike snaked under me and zigzagged across the track for about 20-30 meters. I kept the throttle pinned and got ready to make a massive crash. Then suddenly it all settled down and the bike straightened out. Thank bloody goodness! Through all that I didn't notice the last lap board and just took the next lap gingerly. I bashed my right foot and knee quite heavily into the bike and I'm sporting quite a few bruises today! Closed down on the BMW again during the lap, only to see the chequered flag being waved. WHOOHOO! We've done it, and I didn't crash! Also, the one time I DON'T put a friggen GoPro on my bike something spectacular happens, stupid!



As I came in to pit almost everyone was clapping and waving at my save, turns out they were just as amazed as I was that I managed to keep that one upright. I just went and sat down on our pit floor for a little while as I was still shaken.

In the end we ended up in 6th place, which isn't that bad considering the pace the other teams were running. We're all really happy with that!

Overall it was a bloody fantastic day! The down arrows were there for a good reason, as I managed to do another new personal best around RSR, a 2m11.823s! I am very very pleased with that time. I should be able to break into the 10's now, once I can get a clean line through T3 again.

Last night my foot was really swollen and I was worried that I might need to go to the hospital to get some X-Rays done. Drank some Mybulen and put it on ice for a couple of hours before I went to sleep. Woke up this morning with almost all the swelling gone and MUCH less pain. Superb! Could spend the entire day on the couch watching WSBK live from Silverstone!



(Bonus points if anyone can spot which TV series I'm watching :p)

Thanks so much to our sponsors and my team mates. Without you guys the day wouldn't have realised I wouldn't have had this fantastic experience. It was great! I'll put up some more photos once Grant pops them up on Facebook!



Roll on the next race, I'm hooked!

[SykomantiS]

Wow wik, simply awesome!
Love your write-up, and I'm glad you managed the slapper without going down, serious kudos man! (Would have loved to see the footage from that though- keep the gopro next time)

Mind telling who is who on the other 2 bikes?
Err- wait, scratch that.




I wish I had a track bike

[WiK1d]

I'm so disappointed that the GoPro wasn't on hey, friggen hell! Anyhow, here's a similar situation, but mine was apparently worse and just came out of nowhere.

[SykomantiS]

Worse? That that?? Are you kidding me?

[WiK1d]

Worse? That that?? Are you kidding me?

I wish I was. Bike whipped from side to side about 6 times for 20-30 meters down the straight. You should see the tyre marks on the tar, they're like a meter, meter and a half apart. I almost bit the dust BIG time there.

[SykomantiS]

Well, glad you didn't then- that would've been off (pardon the pun)


Eh, it just dawned on me- wik, does your bike have a steering damper?
If yes, then...

[WiK1d]

Hehe, yeah I'm very happy I didn't go down Would have sucked.

And yeah, it has a damper, but as most stockers, it's a piece of *****. So I need to do some work on it now and get heavier damping fluid in there.

[SykomantiS]

Ya, I was just about to say the exact same thing

[WiK1d]

Will invest in a Hyperpro damper later on, but for now that's way outta budget!

[Hman]

Good job on the race and well done on managing to ride the bull there



So, this weekend I attended the Steam Rally in Barberton on saturday. It was a small rally but that's expected on it's first run, but it was fun with some games and partying going on. Unfortunately I left for my chalet at 8:30 the evening as the flu medication and the beers weren't playing nice, and thus missed out on a great jol with a live band playing till the wee hours as I've heard later.

Sunday morning I decided to head home early as I gathered most people would be suffering from a hangover so no great conversations were expected.

I left for Nelspruit around 10:00am and in no rush to get home I cruised at about 110Km/h. With very little traffic on the road and a nice sunny morning I enjoyed the peacefull ride back. Climbing the pass was effortless with the bike in 5 gear pulling smoothly from 50km/h hour in the slow corners hitting 90km/h by the next corner.

So a great weekend in all.

[SykomantiS]

Right now my budget is being spent on fixing a blown fork seal

Stopped at home on Tuesday to find my front right disc, pad and caliper drenched in fork oil. That is not on. 1 grand (and hopefully only today) later it should be fixed. Going to replace both, and have the pads checked. My bike now has a bit over 12 000 km on it and as far as I know I'm still on the original pads. (I have no idea what the lifetime of a brake pad is)

[Hman]

That's not nice normally those seals last for ages. Check the pads yourself, lots of companies would tell you they're toast just to make a quick buck. One of my friends was told by a shop to replace the pads on his '05 K1300GT. He bought them at BMW, cost R3.5k or something like that. Meanwhile the pads were still fine.

Mileage will vary according to use, so I can't comment on lifespan.

[SykomantiS]

I'll be replacing the pads myself regardless of what they look like, I'm just having them check the pads. And ja, having the seals go now is nbot what I expected.

[WiK1d]

12000km isn't too bad on a set of pads. Mine is now on just over 7000 and they are finished, but they also have 2000 track km's on them, so it's expected.

That blown fork seal is not cool though, check the fork legs for scratches or debris that might have caused it.

[SykomantiS]

Will do. All fixed now. And apparently the pads still have about 50% life left.

[senile]

[GreyWolf]

WHAT IS THAT?

MORE IMPORTANTLY: WHERE CAN I GET ONE?