Archive for the ‘Kawasaki’ Category

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Playing It Safe

Monday, November 9th, 2020
cb750 custom, concours, v-strom

I love having three bikes, partly because they’re so different and each has its own strength.

I maintain the iron rule that I ride each of my motorcycles at least once every single month. (I did finally miss two months following heart surgery two years ago.) As such, when we get to this time of year it pays to be preemptive. You never know when the weather will turn and your plans to ride next week get shot to pieces.

The weather so far in November has been spectacular. Plenty of time to get in at least three rides. So on Monday I was planning to ride one bike, then a second on Tuesday, and the third on Wednesday going on an RMMRC ride. Then life stepped in.

Judy and I had been hoping to squeeze in one last camping trip this year and on Monday she said let’s go camping–today. There was no way I could say no to that, nor would I want to, so Pawnee Buttes here we came. I can ride later.

Of course, that shot Tuesday as a day to ride as well but I could still go with the RMMRC on Wednesday.

Then I woke up on Wednesday feeling decidedly under the weather. Of course probably the first thing most people think of at this moment when they feel sick is, is this Covid? I didn’t figure it was but even if it was just a cold I saw no reason to share it with others so I did not ride with the RMMRC. Besides, I felt like crap.

Now the situation was turning. The weather forecast said the nice days were going to end soon. Snow was projected for Monday. Fortunately, on Thursday, I was feeling quite a bit better. Is that all this cold has to throw at me? Hah! That’s nothing. So I went out on the CB750. Then on Friday I rode the Concours.

On Saturday the cold–which is what I had deemed it to be by this point–came back to bite me and I was not feeling good. But I had that V-Strom to ride and snow was still being forecast for Monday. Sure the likelihood is that after a brief cold spell things will get nice again, but I’ve learned not to trust that assumption. So on Saturday I rode the V-Strom. I made it serve double duty as I stopped off at Walgreen’s to pick up some throat lozenges and Tylenol. And then Sunday I was still feeling like crap, spending most of the day on the couch trying to breathe through all the sinus congestion.

But I got the bikes ridden. I sure hope that’s not the last riding I do in November, but if it is, I did get each one out.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you make your bike payment before any other bills are paid.

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

A Different Kind Of Throttle Lock

Monday, September 28th, 2020
Kaoko throttle lock

This is the Kaoko throttle lock he had on his ST.

I was riding with the RMMRC recently and there was a new guy on his first ride with the group. I didn’t catch his name. What I did catch was that he had a throttle lock I’d never seen before.

throttle lockOf course, the large percentage of modern touring bikes come with cruise control built in. Cruise control is superior to a throttle lock because you set the speed and the engine revs more going up hills and less going down so you stay a constant speed. With a throttle lock, unless you adjust it, you’ll slow down going up and speed up going down.

Plus, in my experience, they have a tendency to slip so you periodically have to adjust them.

And I do have extensive experience here. I have throttle locks on all three of my bikes. Two of them are the type that clip on the bar and to set it you snap it shut. With a flange braced against the box that houses your kill switch and starter button it stays in place and keeps the throttle from backing off.

throttle lockThe other kind, which I have on the V-Strom, is just a lever that rotates when you turn the throttle. To set it you push it forward with your thumb so when you release the throttle it rests against the brake lever, blocking the throttle from backing off.

The first kind, which I have on the CB750 and the Concours, works best. It can slip but you can tighten it. Still, I’ve never been able to get it set on the Concours so it doesn’t slip. The second kind would probably work best if it tightly grabbed the bar but at least on my V-Strom it does not. So it slips a lot and there is no adjustment. Basically I have to speed up more than I really want, set it, and then I have a short time to relax my grip before I have to do it again.

So I was very interested in this throttle lock on this Honda ST. It is made by Kaoko and it’s more expensive than the others: about $130 versus $15 to $20. What the guy told me is that he had to take the weight off the end of the bar and then jam the coned end inside the plastic tube that allows your throttle to rotate on the bar. Then to use it you push the knob forward and set the throttle where you want it. Then let go.

How well does it work? He didn’t say a lot about that but he sure didn’t complain about it. If you ask me about my throttle locks I’ll tell you about their deficiencies and well as their benefits.

So will I try one? Oh, maybe, but spending $130 on something that might not be better than what I have is a hard choice to make. What I would really like would be if the company offered to either give me one or let me try one so I can then test it and write about it. That’s how I get a lot of my gear. But if I do end up with one, one way or the another, you can bet I’ll be telling you about it here.

Biker Quote for Today

If I was a motorcycle, a Vincent red Rapide, I’d ride around to your house, baby, get you up to speed. — Mark Knopfler

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, Motorcycle Gear, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

The Hills Are Full Of People

Monday, September 14th, 2020
Model T and motorcycles

The Phillips 66 in Morrison is a big meeting place and this morning it was packed with two different bike groups as well as a group driving their Model T Fords.

Kudos to Bob for planning and leading an RMMRC ride that went well off the beaten track and introduced me to roads close to town that I had never known existed. One over-riding aspect of this route was the demonstration of just how fully built out the hills west of Denver are. I had heard before that if you flew in a small airplane above the foothills you would see that there are people everywhere. This ride really proved that out.

We started out from Morrison, jumping on C-470 briefly to get over to U.S. 285 heading southwest. Very shortly we turned off at the Tiny Town exit onto Turkey Creek Road. Just past where Deer Creek Canyon Road runs off to the left we made a right turn that took us up into the heavily developed (relatively speaking) area between Turkey Creek Road and 285. Following a variety of local roads we looped through the area and ended up back on Turkey Creek Road probably only a mile or so from where we got off. But in the interim we would around through a very nice area on some nice roads. With houses all along the way.

Continuing south and west on Turkey Creek Road we then turned off to the south on Hilldale Drive and into another area of houses. Here, though, the road climbed and we ended up on what is aptly named City View Drive. The city and the plains are clearly visible from up here, as is U.S. 285 off to the north.

City View Drive

This aerial view doesn’t really show you what City View Drive is like but it goes high and you can see a long way.


This is where things got a bit out of kilter. Looking at the map today I see what I think must have been Bob’s planned route. If you make the right turns–GPS probably your best bet–you can work your way over to Pleasant Park Road and back onto 285 at Conifer. Bob’s GPS was not serving him well. We made several wrong turns, ended up on dirt roads and generally groped our way until we found our way back to where we had turned off Turkey Creek Road.

But we were still seeing some roads and some views we had never seen before. I had no complaint. I was on my Concours, which generally hates gravel, but in fact it really hates loose gravel. Because this was hard-packed dirt I had no problem.

Besides the demonstration of just how full the hills are of homes I was also struck by how very many people we saw out walking, either on their own or walking their dogs, along these roads. They were everywhere and for the most part they were very friendly and waved–and in one case even cheered– as we went by. I suspect they don’t get many motorcycle groups cruising through their neighborhoods.

We then followed Turkey Creek Road to where it terminates back at U.S. 285 over by Meyer Ranch Open Space Park. That ended the first segment of this ride and the other segments warrant their own space so I’ll save them for later blog posts following this one. There is one other thing I want to mention here, though.

This was a fairly lengthy ride altogether. Bob had promised “111 miles, 1 million curves” and that really gives you an idea of what this ride was like. With that kind of promo I knew I would be most comfortable on the V-Strom but I had not yet ridden the Concours in September so despite knowing the V would be the better bike for the ride, I rode the Connie.

That was OK because I’m a pretty skillful rider and I had no problem maneuvering that big bike through the many switchbacks and tight curves we traversed. To my surprise, though, by the time I got home I was exhausted. Riding a motorcycle is not a passive activity the way that driving a car can be, and hours of steering a big bike through serious twisties adds up to significant effort. I got home just in time to go to my appointment at the gym and by the time I was walking home from the gym I found myself stopping every place I found shade to rest. I was tired!

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 03. — Expansion slots have Genuine Harley-Davidson bike parts installed in them.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Kawasaki, motorcycle clubs, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

That First Long Ride

Thursday, September 10th, 2020
motorcyclists

Judy and me with the Concours on the Canada trip.

Judy and I had been married for three years when I bought the Concours. She had ridden with me numerous times on the CB750 but those had been mostly just short day rides of about 100 miles, plus one over-nighter we did just down to Manitou Springs.

After I bought the Concours it seemed the natural thing to do was join the Concours Owners Group (COG). And if you’re going to join a group you pretty much ought to figure on going on some of their rides. So when a day ride was announced we decided to go along.

What we did not know about this group was that the general approach for a day ride was to really take a ride, as in a long day. We got up early and jumped on I-25 down to Colorado Springs where the group was meeting up at a cafe. We didn’t know the route, we just figured we’d follow the leader.

From Colorado Springs we headed southwest to Penrose and then took CO 67 down to CO 165, down to I-25 again down by Colorado City. Along the way we stopped at Bishop Castle, which was our first visit there. This is why you join a riding group because they take you places you don’t even know are places.

Somewhere along this route–I don’t remember where–we stopped for lunch at the home of someone the ride organizer knew. This was pretty nice of them considering that there were probably about two dozen of us.

On I-25 we headed south to Walsenburg and then turned off onto CO 69, which heads up through Westcliffe. It was at this point, on a break, that Judy heard one of the other women riding behind that for the last hour all she had been able to think about was putting her knees together. Judy hadn’t been thinking about it but from this point on it was very much in her mind, too. At this point we had gone about 200 miles, which was the longest ride she had ever been on. And we were nowhere close to home.

We continued on CO 69 up to Cotopaxi and U.S. 50. We took 50 east to Penrose again, where we stopped for gas. Most everyone filled up but I figured we were fine so I didn’t get gas. We backtracked northeast to Colorado Springs and at this point people started peeling off, each going their own way. We got on CO 83 rather than take the interstate back to Denver. By this time we were on our own.

I knew we were low on gas but I figured on getting some at Franktown. But we didn’t reach Franktown. About five miles south the engine sputtered and we coasted to a stop in front of a farm house. Oh crap.

Fortunately someone was home, and they had gas to sell us, so with a gallon poured in we made it on to Franktown and a station. Then home. Altogether we did about 400 miles that day. I mean, to put that into perspective, in 30 years of doing the OFMC rides I’m not sure we have ever done a 400 mile day, and if we have we’ve only done it once or twice at most. Judy never did another COG ride with me, and I never did another COG ride of that length. I’m sorry, some people really enjoy that but not us.

Not that we don’t do long rides, we just break them up more. Two years ago we did 3,000 miles in about two weeks, up to British Columbia and back. But that comes out to just a little more than 200 miles a day, on average. Certainly we had longer and shorter days on that trip but only one of those was over 300.

Oh, but it’s all about the stories, right? If we hadn’t done this I wouldn’t have this story to tell.

Biker Quote for Today

She hugged me tight, burying her face into my back and the longer I drove the tighter she held and though her eyes were closed I knew she was smiling. I could just tell. — Atticus

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, motorcycle touring | No Comments »

But It’s Good As New!

Thursday, July 2nd, 2020
1999 Kawasaki Concours

How can you call this an old bike?

Maybe you’ve had this experience. You buy a brand new motorcycle and you ride it. And you keep on riding it. And then one day someone mentions that you sure have an old bike. What? This is not an old bike! But then you count the years and . . . yes it is.

My 1999 Kawasaki Concours is like that. I bought it new from Vickery in ’99. About 10 years or so later I took it over for service and they told me they don’t generally like to work on older bikes like mine. They fired me as a customer. Aurora Honda had done the same some years earlier.

I will interject here that recently I learned that you can sometimes get your older bike worked on at a dealership. But it’s iffy.

So I turned to Mountain Thunder Motorsports for all my service needs. Joel was operating out of a building on old Hampden over near Federal Boulevard for many years and he became my go-to guy. Then his landlord terminated his lease. This may have been a boon for Joel because he now works at home–no rent!–and he tells me he’s very busy. The one hassle is that he now has to pick your bike up, take it home, do the work, and then bring it back to you. But he makes it work.

Anyway, my Concours needed a new front tire. I want to ride it on the OFMC trip in a few weeks and that old tire was not going to make it. For good measure, I asked Joel to also do a complete tune-up, something the bike had not had in probably way too long.

This morning I took it for my first ride since Joel brought it back and oh man, what a difference! I pushed the starter button and it fired up instantly. That was what it used to do when it was new but it hadn’t done that in a very long time. And it ran so smoothly. Plus, now it has a brand new front tire. How nice to have tread.

So now it’s just like new, right? Unfortunately, no.

When we were getting ready two years ago to go on a trip to Canada with Willie and Jungle and some other folks I arranged for Jungle to put a new rear tire on the bike. When he got the rear end opened up he showed me that some seal back there had failed. He packed the rear hub with grease and said that would take care of it but at some point I would probably need to have some work done.

I mentioned this to Joel and asked him to take a look, and he did, but he said while there was clearly a leak somewhere he couldn’t tell where without removing the radiator and other stuff up front. His advice was to clean away all the oil and dirt accumulated down there and then watch to see where new leakage might be coming from.

But oh golly, when I was riding the bike this morning it was just like new. How can you call this an old bike?

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: One gets in no trouble for storing disassembled pieces of the motorcycle in the basement.

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Posted in Kawasaki | No Comments »

Low Gas Price Was Short-Lived

Monday, June 29th, 2020
motorcycles getting gas

Here’s an interesting shot from some years ago in California. Notice the gas prices.

It sure was sweet, wasn’t it, when gas prices dropped so low. Those days are over.

Back when everything was shut down AND Russia and Saudi Arabia were having a price war I watched as gas prices at the pump dropped lower and lower. Holy cow, what a great opportunity to save some money. Only problem was, like everyone else, I wasn’t going much of any place to use the gas I had. And I didn’t need gas. Between my car and three bikes, none of them were anywhere near low. But I really wanted to buy gas.

I finally reached a point where it made sense to fill my Honda. On May 8 I put 3.57 gallons in the Honda, at $1.189 per gallon. Total for the fill: $4.24. Terrific.

Then four days later I filled the Concours. It took 5.38 gallons and I paid $1.339 per gallon: total $7.21. I could get to like this.

I rode the Honda a good bit and filled it again on May 13. This time I paid $1.6999 per gallon. It took 3.35 gallons for a total of $5.69. Still not bad.

By June 14, when I filled the Kawi again I paid $2.269 a gallon. This time it cost $7.96 to put in 3.51 gallons. I don’t like the direction this is heading. And then on June 24 I put 3.09 gallons in the Suzuki and it cost $7.72, at $2.499 per gallon.

Welcome back to the real world. We knew it wouldn’t last but it was nice while it did. And I’m glad I got to buy at least a few gallons really cheap. I mean, $1.189 per gallon? In 2020? No one would have believed that a year ago.

In the meantime, the last time I put gas in my car was February 23. That’s the one I wish had been close to empty on May 8.

Biker Quote for Today

It takes both pistons and cylinders to make a bike run. One is not more important than the other.

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, Suzuki motorcycles | No Comments »

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