Decent Weather Coming Down

Well, decent for wintertime around here.
Typically, it reaches a high of 35-40 degrees during a winter day, with a low of about 15-20.
For today through Sunday, we're forecast to reach 50 degrees during the day, and that's OK by me.
It will probably feel like a freekin' heat wave in comparison to the usual weather. :)

I'd like to take my WR-250XX for a spin to sample the newly worked-on shock, but, all of the sandy salt on the road in a turn-off.
That stuff corrodes metal in the blink of an eye.
Just one speck leaves a mark, and once good weather comes and you get to stare at the corrosion you made by riding the bike on salty roads the previous winter because you had a bad case of cabin fever, the sight of the blemish makes you ask yourself if it were truly worth it.

Supposed to be another shortened day at jerk, as far as I know.
No UPS Ground deliveries today, and only Next Day and 2nd Day Air packages, if there are even any.
Still, I have a couple hours worth of shit to do with parts returns that never seem to stop piling-up.

Off to jerk,
-John

234: Something Shocking in Store

It's quite a shock.

That's the rear shock absorber from the WR-250XX.
I got it back yesterday from Go Race suspension in Virginia, and I just finished putting the rear of the bike back together.
Travis, the suspension shop owner, not only reworked the internals, but also installed a softer spring which, according to him, is better suited to my weight.
That's why the spring is now red.

All I have to do now is install the new drive chain, and I can then take the bike for a test ride if I so choose.
The thing that may stop me from doing that is the sand and salt recently spread on the roads around here.
I have no fear of the actual riding on it, but one speck of sandy salt on the bike, and the metal corrodes - even stainless steel and aluminum, metals that are supposedly rustproof.
We'll see.
Either way, now that the bike can be rolled, I'll be able to get that one up in the house here, too, and proceed with the rest of the work planned.

Off to jerk,
-John

233: Fly, and Be Free

This pic comes from 1991.
The bike is a 1990 Yamaha YZ-250A1.

What I find strange about the Yamaha designation YZ-250A1 is that the 2011 YZ-250 is called that, too.
To me, this is potential confusion, calling both the 1990 model and the 2011 model the same thing.
Here's what I mean and the reason why they do this:

Back in the 1960s and until the early 1970s, Yamaha motorcycles were given model designations that made it difficult to tell what model year it was (or even how many cc the engine was), and you had to be a Yamaha guru to know this without scouring books to find out.
The designation DT-1CMX doesn't exactly tell me any of that important information too easily.
So, in 1974, the Yamaha factory got with the program and adopted a system of simply going through the alphabet, and changing the letter each year.
In 1974, the YZ-250 was called the YZ-250A.
1975 was the YZ-250B.
1976 was the YZ-250C.
1977 was the YZ-250D.
1978 was the YZ-250E.

Do you get the drift, there, Lenny?

This was a much, much easier way for everybody - from the dumb kid who barely knows how to put gas in the tank to the salesman in the Yamaha shop to the guys working in the factory back in Japan - to tell at a glance and tell other people he's talking with to know exactly what model and year the bike is.
This is a very good system because it's so simple and foolproof.

Foolproof unless you do this:

We're now starting the 3rd trip through the alphabet with this changing the letter bit.
The first year for A was 1974, and that 1974 YZ-250 was the YZ-250A.
The second year for using the letter A was 1990, and that bike in the above pic was the YZ-250A1.
The A versus A1 makes it easy to tell which is a 1974 model and which is a 1990 model, even though both bikes use the letter A.
Well, 2011 marks the start of the 3rd trip through, and you'd think that the 2011 YZ-250 would be called the YZ-250A2.
Not so.
Somebody decided to use YZ-250A1, just as it was in 1990.
See the potential confusion?
This goes heavily against any kind of Japanese techno-think, where everything is intended to be scientifically exact and precise, the way they'd been ever since I'd started working with parts for these bikes in 1987.
Maybe somebody back at the factory has been effected by Shirley MacLain's new age religion website.
Or, maybe the guys in charge of keeping things neat and orderly as far as that stuff goes have finally retired or have taken a reprieve from life and are now residing six feet under. ;)

Off to jerk,
-John

232: Snow Shoveling for You

And me, too.

We got our blizzard last evening and through the night.
Results?
Looks to be about 6 inches of snow on the ground.
Even though the gusty winds we had along with the falling snow makes for blizzard-like visibility, 6 inches ain't what I would call a lot of snow, either, not that I'm saying I wanted more.
I could do with none very nicely, and the warmer weather that comes with it. ;)

Off to shovel,
-John

231-derful Posts

The puny-sized 42-tooth sprocket that comes stock on the WR-250XX.
Way too small for acceleration that I like.


Aaahh, that's more like it.
49 teeth.
Your dentist would be proud. :)

You are no doubt asking yourself, "Hey, John. Why does Yamaha Motor Co. stick a 42-tooth rear sprocket on it and gear it to the moon so much that acceleration suffers? They don't want to be known as "Your Slow Bike Company", do they?

Well, no they don't.
The reason this is often done with street bikes is because the EPA regulations the bikes must meet have gotten so ridiculous, gearing the bike overly tall helps it pass a drive-by sound test that the bike is subjected to during it's pre-production phase.

Say the bike has to drive past the sound equipment in 3rd gear at a steady 25 miles per hour.
If you gear the bike tall so that it's practically idling past, it will be quieter than if it were rippin' past doing a wheelie in the powerband (like it should be).
The catch is that the bike must be produced with this overly-tall gearing.
I don't like it.

I've mentioned this very thing (the drive-by sound test) on message boards several times.
Some people are sharp and understand.
Some are dimwits who can't wrap their heads around it.
One guy wrote in, saying that the guy riding the bike past the sound equipment should have just upshifted into a taller gear instead of having the bike geared tall with tiny rear sprockets.
Apparently, this dimwit failed to realize the difference between a bunch of hicks getting together on a Saturday afternoon in farmer Billy-Bobs's corn field and using a Radio Shack sound meter on each other's bikes and the guys from the EPA in the white lab coats conducting a scientific test on a potential product from a mega-billion-dollar corporation like Yamaha Motor Co., Japan, LTD.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that cheating by upshifting would not only not be allowed, but I think those guys conducting the test would certainly be the ones riding the bike in the first place.
Sheesh. :)

*******************************
231.
Yeah, it's been that many, already.
I started in May on a whim, and now look at where I am:
231 awesomely incredible posts that are definitely worth your time to read, over and over again.

-John

Christmas Eve up my Sleeve

It's amazing that it fits up there. :)

Went over my old buddy's house last night after jerk to shoot the shit, a guy I've known since the 4th grade.
Nice-mannered guy who wouldn't hurt a fly.
David likes motorcycles, too, and we used to ride off-road a lot together from 1983 until about 1992.
These days, Dave rides a big Honda Gold Wing touring motorcycle and we just don't get together very often, but, last night we vowed to take a few street rides together this coming season.
I'd like that and look forward to it. :)

Today is supposed to be a shortened day at jerk, where we're aiming to close at 4:00pm.
This typically only happens if the place is empty at that time, and, since I won't leave until all of my stuff is done, I'm not sure when I'll get out of there.

We've got Saturday as well as Sunday off, and I plan to do some wrench twisting on my WR-250FY.
Fun, interesting, and inside where it's comfy. :)

Hip, hip, hooray!
I got the call from Travis, the guy who runs the suspension shop where my WR-250XX shock got sent to.
He did the rebuild/revalve as well as installed a softer spring, something he feels is necessary since my 150 pound weight is under the recommended rider weight for the original spring.
I'll take his word for it, and, I'm anxious to see how the bike feels with the overhauled shock in place.
I estimate, with the holidays upon us, it will take a week for the shock to get back to me.

Off to jerk,
-John

It's the Third Day of Winter

I think winter really sucks.
Have I ever told you that?

I realize it is a part of nature.
It's 100% natural.
I've been taught that it's due to the Earth's 23.5 degree axis tilt, and right now, the tilt is tilted away from the sun, spreading the sun's light out over a broader area, thus weakening the light energy at any one spot.
It's a matter of physics, and while that's just fine and dandy in the physics world, and I can understand the theory, this particular theory is a cold pain in my ass. :)

Still waiting for either a phone call or E-mail from the suspension shop in Virginia that's modifying my WR-250XX rear shock.
The guy claims just a few days (I've seen him write the words "three days" on message board posts) turn around time, so, hopefully, it will be soon.
He got the shock delivered to his shop one week ago, today, so I'll allow a few days extra for getting it unpacked from the shipping box, pouring a cup of coffee, and also since it's the Christmas season.

Once I get the shock back, I'll put the rear of the bike back together (along with it's freshly-greased rear suspension bearings and new drive chain and considerably larger rear sprocket, which will give approximately the same drive ratio I liked on my WR-250R) and most likely take it for a test spin to see how the shock feels compared to the original feeling.
Then, after that, I'll wheel it up here into the house with the WR-250FY and commence to the rest of the wrench twirling I have planned for it. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

228: Ain't the PC Great?

Well, maybe not great, but most people do use one fairly often, especially younger people.
In fact, I believe every single younger person I've met in the last 10 years can type pretty well (at least as far as speed goes - can't vouch so much for accuracy and punctuation) and uses a PC quite a bit.
Not surprising since they basically grew up using them.

For me, I first used a PC waaaaaay back in 1979 while in the 9th grade.
It was a Radio Shack TRS80, nicknamed the Trash 80, and even back in those crude days when PCs were slow, it had a reputation for being slow with not much computing power.
But, it was still a personal computer, and that was enough to get the real computer geeks in class all worked-up.
They'd basically point at the monitor screen while jerking each other off after one of them "wrote" a program where the word "HI" continuously scrolled down the screen.
To these geeks, that was an awesome sight and a really interesting topic and a fantastic way to spend your time.

I thought the PCs we used were crude and a joke, and I probably wondered where all of these super computers that were actually useful for something were being hidden away at.
In fact, the typical PC of today, like the one I'm using right now, is what I somehow expected to be using, one where you can actually use it for browsing for and reading and viewing interesting things, uploading pics and sending pics, communicating with others, etc.
Basically, I wrote-off the PCs we had then and lost interest in about a half-hour.

Luckily, by the time PCs got like they are today, along with the Internet as we know and use it, I bought one for myself and made myself into the Internet Man that I am today. :)

And, in fact, I used my PC to post my comments on a site called Motorcycledaily.com , where there was what basically amounts to a back-slapping advertisement for a new Honda motorcycle coming out for 2011, called the CBR-250R.
It's a single-cylindered street bike all dressed-up to look like Honda's top-of-the-line sport bikes, but in reality, it's a budget bike that doesn't bristle with techno-tricks like a good suspension or brakes, and probably comes with a fairly wheezy (in stock form, anyway, like my own WR-250XX) engine that is so muffled that you can barely hear it run while riding it.

The article was yet another in a long line of articles written by paper magazine and Internet authors over the near-30 years I've been reading motorcycle magazines and websites.
Basically, it introduces the new bike, makes it sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread, exaggerates the good points, and downplays (or even doesn't mention at all) the bad points, like the one about the bike feeling completely weak and gutless while in traffic and fighting for a spot.

Historically, 250cc single-cylindered street bikes (or even ones with bigger engines) were flops on the sales floor, so, I'm curious to see how this one sells.
And we all know, it's not how well you personally like a bike that really gauges it's success in the manufacturer's eyes.
No way, Jose.
It's how many they sell.
Sell, sell, sell.
Because, you know, corporate types only live to sell, sell, sell.
It's part of who they are.
It's in their blood.

Off to jerk,
-John

227: Winter Heaven

The FMF Ti Q muffler from the WR-250FY, all repacked and waiting to be bolted back onto the bike.
Notice the custom "pin striping" on the side panel just above the muffler.
This is one of the remains of the original owner of the bike, and something that I should replace to truly make it all my own.
I actually have new plastic body parts waiting in a big box here inside the house.
I should make this one of my to-do projects over the winter.

*******************

Or, is that actually winter hell?

I woke up this morning to find the front door had been blown open by a gust of wind overnight.
I guess I didn't latch it securely, and I was able to get a bit of fresh air inside while I slept.
Too bad the fresh air was about 25 degrees. :)

Not much new.
Just wanting to bolt my WR-250FY muffler back onto the bike as soon as I get a moment when I don't feel after-work tired.
Will tonight be the night?
Tune in and find out. ;)

Off to jerk,
-John

New Work Week

Yeah, we're starting another week in our lives, ain't we?
Also means another week of crap weather is down, and we're a week closer to springtime.
How's that for positive thinking, huh?

Yesterday, I rearranged the inside of the house to make room for when I eventually roll the WR-250XX up in here.
This basically means throwing out some useless crap I had laying around underneath one of my tables as well as putting stuff I want to keep (but was still in the way) into another room.
Much better now, and I've now got the space for both bikes, my tools, and a place for parts to be put while wrenching on the bikes.
Gee, ain't coping with a winter riding layoff cool?
Literally cool. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

225: My Brain is Alive

I remembered to make a post, and here it is.

Today, I didn't stress myself too much.
Did my usual Internet surfing and message board reading and writing.
Also repacked the FMF Ti Q muffler on my WR-250FY, and now I just have to bolt it back onto the bike.
I'll be unbolting it again, anyway, when I take the rear half of the bike apart in order to remove the shock absorber when I sent it off for a service.
Probably sometime in January or February.
No rush, as long as it's done when March rolls in, which can't happen soon enough for me.

Speaking of rear shock absorbers, the one for my WR-250XX may be back in my hands at the end of this week.
That would be nice, which would allow me to put the rear half of that bike back together and wheel that one up here into the house, too, where I can complete my planned work in warmth.

And peace.
The garage where I do my bike storage and maintenance during most of the year is over at my dad's house next door, and he's often got one of his granddaughters (also my niece), who he spoils rotten, and her dopey, punk boyfriends hanging around up in the house above the garage.
Makes for lots of silly kid-like bullshit coming out of their juvenile mouths, which often need to be washed out with some heavy-duty soap, or a hefty steel-toed boot, whatever seems most appropriate at the moment. ;)

-John

A Pattern Develops

Get the fire extinguisher.
Firebreather in da house. :)

I see that I'm simply forgetting to enter a post like clockwork every morning as I did since I started this bloggly little blog way back in May.
Well, I think it's just because since we're practically in winter now, there just ain't a whole lot happening other than getting up, going to jerk, eating, sleeping, and repeating.
Believe you me, I'm very much looking forward to better weather coming back so there will be more to life other than those bare necessities.

I do plan on getting my firebreather WR-250FY up into the house today, and I really should because the weather is downright normal, which means about 35 degrees at 11:49 am.
Assuming I do, I'll post a pic as proof. :)

Edit:
As you can see from the above pic, I got 'er done.
Now, I'm free to wrench on the bike to my heart's content as the winter passes it's cold ass by, one day at a time.
More pics to come as I perform certain tasks on the bike in the coming weeks.

-John

I Skipped Another Day

Not intentionally, but I simply meant to do it, but forgot.
Again.

I send my original WR-250FY forks off to the guy who bought them for $159.
Nice to have a few bucks back in my PayPal account because for the past eight-or-so months, I've had none.

I still haven't got either of my bikes up here into the house.
I wanted to this past Saturday evening, and even got my ladder and loading ramp out, ready for action.
But, I chickened-out at the moment, thinking I'd drop the bike trying to push it up the ramp all by myself onto the front porch, which is about four feet above the ground.
However, after a few more days to mull it over, I now believe I can get the WR-250FY up without trouble since it's relatively light in weight.
I'm determined to do it this Saturday when the temperature is forecast to be a balmy 38 degrees.
Water skiing, anyone? :)

The WR-250XX is gonna' have to sit down in the cold garage until the rear shock comes back from the suspension shop in Virginia.
I estimate it will be back here in my hands about a week from now, so, we'll see when I can get that one wheeled up in here.
To be honest, I may be better off enlisting the help of a buddy to assist with pushing that one up the ramp onto the porch.
Why not just ride it up the ramp?
Well, I did that with my DR-Z400SMK9 a couple years ago, but, the condition of the stairs which would support the weight of the ramp and bike and me has gone downhill since then, and until I rebuild the stairs, it's just my weight that I want to put on them.
I mean, it may hold or it may not, and I'm too chicken to find out the hard way. :)

Yesterday's weather was about 25 and windy.
Felt like crap weather.
Today, it'll supposedly be 35.
Oooooohh.
Heat wave comin'. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

Room 222. That Used to Be a TV Show.

I was very young when it aired as a current (not as reruns) show, and I don't remember much about it.
So, I can't tell much about it.
Pity, isn't it?
Guess it will just have to do as help serve for the title of this bloggy post.

Since I'm using a set of Phase 4-valved forks on my WR-250FY, the original forks went up for sale on a message board about five days ago.
They got sold today to a guy from California for $159, so, tomorrow I'm boxing them up and sending them out.
I didn't ask for the moon for them seeing that I didn't feel they were really in big demand, and I felt that the most likely candidate for them would be another WR-250FY rider looking to repair his somehow damaged forks by simply replacing the whole shootin' match.
Hope the new owner likes them.

Since I didn't post this until 9:38pm out here, I'm off to bed for some beauty sleep.

-John

221, and Some Wintery Fun

This is my kind of cold weather motorcycling as of late.


Even though the WR-250XX I just bought is in excellent shape, there are parts in there that need a periodic greasing if you want them to remain in excellent shape.
Cleaning off the caked-up chain lube and road grime never hurt anybody either, unless you're allergic to getting dirt under your fingernails.
Shall I fetch you your reading slippers, too? :)



This is a lot more like it:
Clean, greased, and ready for installation.



Well, it would be installed by now, but, that thing with the black spring over it (the rear shock absorber) is being sent off today to a suspension shop that knows these WR-250XX shocks.
I'm not happy with the way the rear shock performs, even on the easy-going rides I had on the bike so far, so it's getting an overhaul and a revalve.
The supposed results are a shock that works properly.
I'm anxious to feel this for myself.

Yes, time for some off-season maintenance on my bikes.
The WR-250XX is the first to be delved into, although the WR-250FY is getting some work done to that, too.
With that bike as well, the rear shock is going out for a service, which is simply a freshening-up of the fluid, gas pressure, and replacing any worn parts, not a revalve or a changing of how it currently works.
I like very much how it works, and this merely keeps it working that way.

I haven't gotten either bike up here into the house, yet, and since the rear end of the WR-250XX is taken apart, that one is staying down in the garage until the shock comes back from the shop and it can roll once more.
The WR-250FY, I plan for today after jerk, will be drained of it's gasoline, Stabil-treated gas poured into the tank, the bike run for a few minutes, and then wheeled up into the house.
I'll have to drain all of the gas out of it so it doesn't stink-up the house, too.

Off to jerk,
-John

220: The Weather's Awful Funny

Actually, it's just a rainy, late fall day, with temperatures currently about 45 degrees at 10:41 AM, with a supposed high to be around 52.
Myself, I wouldn't mind if it were rainy, cloudy, and around 50 all winter long.
We have had winters like that in the past twenty years.
In fact, there were some winters around 1990 where people would comment about how we weren't getting any snow like we would ten years before that.
If we were to relive that this winter, that's fine with me. :)

As you can probably notice, the reason I ain't been describing any Pachaug rock pile rides on my WR-250FY firebreather is because I ain't been going for any the past two weeks.
The weather is basically turning too cold for my trail riding liking as of late, and even though I could physically still get out there and do it, the real topic of the subject is:
Would I still enjoy it?
As I get older, I like the cold weather less and less, and so far this cold weather season, I wish the cold would stay far, far away.

At least the WR-250FY is already washed spotlessly clean and is (as always) in top shape, so, if I decide to skip even the ice riding out on the frozen pond (that's still a toss-up) this winter, storing it for the winter means merely having to drain the straight gasoline out of the fuel tank and carburetor, pour in some Stabil-treated gas, running the bike for a few minutes, and removing the battery and putting that on my battery charger.

I went for a ride on my WR-250XX for about an hour yesterday afternoon.
Temperature was around 42, which was only normal for December 11th, but compared to the conditions of the week previous, it felt almost warmish.
The bike was only OK in performance, seeing how it's still 100% stock and loaded with lots of performance-robbing EPA parts and features on it.
By the time March gets here and I roll it out for the first ride of the 2011 season, it will basically be a mirror image of the WR-250RX I rode for the year before as far as modifications go, and I expect it to feel mucho better than it does now.
Right now, the throttle response feels lean and doggy, not sharp and immediate.
The gearing is super-tall, not intended for acceleration and performance, but for keeping noise down by keeping engine RPM down.
The air inlet is plugged-up, as is the muffler.
All to supposedly help the environment while making the bike run relatively poorly.
The hilarious thing is that once the mods are done to make it run very well, it still runs cleanly (cleaner than Al Gore's private jet, I'll bet) and is still quiet enough for me, and I do dislike loud motorcycles for street or trail use.
So, the EPA Nazis can kiss the part of my body that meets the chair I'm sitting on. ;)

Off to the garage for some enjoyable jerk,
-John

219

Hmmm.
That's a short and to-the-point title for this post, ain't it?
It really tells you everything you need to know about this post.
That is, it's the 219th that I've done so far with this snaky little blog of mine.
I also noticed that I forgot to post an entry for Friday.
I must be getting old. :)

I'm really not too fond of the name blog.
Never have been.
To me, it degrades the feeling one should have when thinking about delving into either reading or writing a description of what they're doing in their life, whether it be funny or serious.
Blog sounds like something thought-up by some self-professed whizz kid.
Also sounds kind of computer geeky, too.
Maybe it was dreamt-up by a self-professed whizz kid computer geek.
One who somehow wants to make a profit somewhere.

No, if I had it my way, it would simply be called a log or a diary, like I'd learned in grammar school from some level-headed people who didn't seem to me that they'd been brainwashed by any kind of new-age propaganda, hadn't gotten burned-out from too much weed, and just seemed like they wanted to teach you something worth knowing.
Like I said, those school days were in grammar school, mind you.
By the time the 1980s came around (actually 1979) and I started high school in the (relatively) big city, I could immediately feel the difference in the way the teachers behaved.
The younger ones (baby boomers and younger, born during or after WW ll) all seemed to be effected to some degree by new age beliefs, where morals written in books like the Bible were to be tossed out the window because they were just too old, too restrictive, and simply not hip with the times.
The thing that made me notice this the most is that, because they were so preoccupied with trying to act like their own personal version of Shirley MacLaine and act all new-agey, the quality of their teaching sucked.
Sucked big time.
In fact, if I were to accidentally stumble into a room where all of my ex-high school teachers were sitting around a table and yakking (if they could all still be alive, that is) and they turned and asked me what I though of my four years there and if I thought I'd learned anything, I'd positively say, "It was a waste of time that I was forced to live through.", and, "Hell no!".

Really.
Thinking back on it, the quality of the education was pretty poor.
There were a few older teachers who didn't agree with this new sucky way of teaching kids, I have to assume, and they seemed like decent people trapped in a school of idiots, basically.
They might not have said that out loud, but I'd think they thought it in private.
Of course, the whole reason for such lousy education to start with comes from the top and goes down to the schools like I went to.
Groups (or councils, organizations, boards, panels, committees, or whatever fancy name you care to hang on them) of people who believe that they are so superior to you and so much better than you in every way (not to mention having swindled lots of money into their own bank accounts) want you to get not just a shit education, but want you to basically serve them and what they want from life or fuck-off and die.
Literally.
If giving every kid a good education to the same level that these elitists' kids get was truly important to them, I think all kids would get it.
But, you may as well expect them to pour the money out of their bank accounts to help relieve some needy person who is struggling with all of the taxes they are told they must pay in order to live.
Taxes created by these same elite people.
I mean, where do you suppose the vast majority of your tax money goes to?
I mean, the VAST majority.
It sure as fuck doesn't go into making the paved roads in my town, the neighboring town, or the town after that any better than they've been since they were first paved back in 1930-something.

Hell of a system we live in, ain't it?

-John

Time to Get Used to Feeling Cold

Even though we're in December, and the official start of winter is in 12 days, the weather we've been having for the past week is a bit below normal in temperature.
They call this a cold snap.
I don't know what's so snappy about it, and I wish it would make things snappy and get the heck out of here.

The older I get, and with each passing year, I like the cold less and less.
My hands often feel cold, I wear my winter beanie hat a lot (even inside), and I just feel uncomfortable.
Putting up with that for months sucks.
Not to mention missing riding my motorcycles with good weather and good ground conditions.
Last winter, I did a fair bit of riding the WR-250FY out on a local frozen pond with ice screws screwed into the tires.
The way I feel about it right this very minute, I'll be surprised if I decide to do that this winter.
Time will tell.
Stay tuned.

I still have yet to bring my WR-250XX up into the house and start my planned winter maintenance and modifications.
I should do it this Saturday toward sunset, as I just may take it out on the streets for one last ride.
The forecast is for a high of 42 degrees, which will feel almost like a heat wave compared to 32 degrees.
I just may bring the WR-250FY up into the house, too, as there's some winter maintenance I want to do to that bike, as well.

On both bikes, for instance, the rear shock absorbers are being removed and sent out to different suspension shops.
The WR-250XX shock is going to a place called Go Race Suspension, down in Virginia.
This place is run by a guy named Travis, who claims to know how to turn the WR-250XX (and WR-250RX) suspension from budget performers (pretty poor compared to the WR-250F) into good performers.
Some riders on the WR-250R/X forum have had Travis do his work to their forks and shocks, and they say it is excellent.
I decided within the first 2 miles of riding the WR-250XX that the rear shock is a pogo stick and simply feels very cheap, so, the money spent to make it good will be money well spent.

The WR-250FY needs no such work to improve the performance, but simply a service that's required every so often to maintain that excellent performance it has.
I'm going to sent this shock to either Race Tech in California (who I've used in the past with other bikes) or a place called Factory Connection up in New Hampshire.
Both places are reputable.
The New Hampshire location may win out do to close proximity.

Off to jerk,
-John

217: Newbie: I Wanna' New Bike That's Mean

That's what you often read on message boards or hear in person from riders new to the scene.
Whether it be somebody looking to get into dirt bikes or street bikes, they usually want to get a bike that an experienced rider would want to ride, not something that's beginner-friendly.

Why?
I feel it's due to two main reasons.

1) They automatically want a bike that gets the performance headlines.
Because they don't know anything about it, they simply don't realize that hopping on a firebreather of a bike will make learing the basics of riding a motorcycle more difficult.
Ever try teaching a newbie to riding a motorcycle on a Yamaha YZ-80?
Yes, a teeny, tiny, little 80cc bike.
I did this once.
Since a YZ-80 is a motocross race bike with a lot of power for it's size, and since there's no free lunch in physics meaning making a lot of power from 80cc means having a relatively narrow, hard-hitting, and non-beginner-friendly power character, a newbie on a YZ-80 is a recipe for lots of stalling, falling, unwanted wheelies, feet flailing off the pegs, and lots of comments like, "Holy shit! Can we go home, now?".
You see, holy shit is not what a beginner needs because instead of learning the basics about riding, they're simply trying to survive the ordeal.

The same can happen with a new rider hopping on a Yamaha YZF-R6 sportbike, the street bike equivalent to the YZ-80.
Unless the newbie is naturally talented and seems to take to the bike like a fish to water, they'll be puttering around hoping they don't crash this $10,000 bike when they try using the front brake for the first time.
Making a U-turn in a parking lot is something to be feared.
Starting off on a hill is to be avoided because they might screw up and tip over in traffic.

2) They fail to seriously realize that your typical beginner ain't gonna' handle a YZ-80 or YZF-R6 very well at first.
They basically don't want to look in the mirror and have a heart-to-heart conversation with the guy or girl they see in there.
The thought of a mild-mannered and easy-to-ride (relatively speaking - they'll still need to master the basics on any motorcycle) bike like a Yamaha TT-R125L or Yamaha XT-250 or XV-250 is a turn-off because they think of those bikes as too boring and slow, even though they don't yet know their ass from their elbow with motorcycles and riding them.

Today, I read a post from a guy on a message board, asking for advice on buying his first off-road bike.
He has lots of street riding experience, but none off on bona-fide trails.
I wrote my two cents in, and you can probably guess what the jist of my post was.
Yeah, I tried to recommend that he put his imagination and pride in his pocket for the time being and buy a dirt bike that is not a firebreather, but, one that has a reputation for being user-friendly, not a race bike.
I'm curious to see what the response is.
Typically, the guy will be leaning toward high-performance bikes because he believes he's ready for it.
He'll even get lots of recommendations for high-performance bikes from other guys riding high-performance bikes, and it's always centered around the theory of don't-get-something-too-small-and-wimpy-because-you'll-just-grow-out-of-it.

To me, that's how it's supposed to work, versus being basically fearful of the bike and losing interest.
I'm sorry, Mac, but you probably ain't gonna' be clearing the 75-foot triple jumps any time soon.
Not until you learn how to ride, first.

Off to jerk,
-John

I Can Brush My Teeth and Type at the Same Time

I'm a very talented fellow, you know.
Better stand back. ;)

While I was at jerk yesterday, I saw an old buddy I worked with at another motorcycle shop back from 1997-1998 or 1999.
Last I knew, he had a kid and has just left a car salesman job to start his own lawn care/landscaping-type business.
Now, he's got three kids and his business has been going for 9 years, he says, and is going well.
Good for him. :)

Yeah, from day-to-day, time can often seen to drag slowly by.
Then, you suddenly realize that ten years has passed, and it seems like only five.
Funny, that old man Father Time.
I wish he'd make up his mind.

I also saw another ex-coworker who I worked with at this very same shop.
I have no idea whether or not they still read this bloggy blog, but if so, hi! :)

I rode my new-to-me WR-250X to jerk yesterday.
It went as I knew it would:
It was fun to be able to feel a good bike on the street, again, but the weather was so cold, I had to wade through considerable discomfort in order to get it.
Plus, and this is a very big thing, the sport tires on that bike will not work as they are able to when the weather is at least 60 degrees (with the best tire performance on the street coming with temperatures in the mid-70s and higher), so leaning the bike over far and getting on the gas and brakes hard was not in the plans.
Bring on warmer weather, please. :)

Off to jerk,
-John

215: Winter Weather is Mean

Here's a pic from one of my old-time dirt bike riding spots.
It only about 2-or-so miles from home, and it's a place where the local paper recycling mill once dumped the waste you get when recycling paper.

Yeah, that's right.
Even when you recycle stuff, you get waste.
What, did you think it was some kind of 101% clean operation, or something?
Uh-uh, Bucky.
The fact of life is, if you want to take advantage of the physical properties of the elements and minerals found on the planet, modify them for your own usage, and enjoy having a car to drive, fuel oil to heat your house, a plastic bottle for your designer spring water, or to made recycled paper for reading the latest copy of Teen magazine (which goes double if you run a company that makes a profit from selling you these products), you are gonna' end-up with some non-natural and 100% man-made by-products that won't be used.
This shit is called waste.

Now, just what do you think happens to this waste?
Do the little waste fairies come in the middle of the night, scoop it all up, and transport it to some place far, far away with a flick of their magic wand?
No.
It gets dumped in the ocean or burned in an incinerator and up a smoke stack or buried in the ground.
What else do you think corporations would do with it when they want it out of their sight for the lowest cost to them?
They just won't be advertising that part of the operation, that's all, even though they'd like very much for you to believe in the waste fairies.

The above pic is an example of paper pulp waste that has gone to that great waste dump in the ground.
Look way, way back into the background in that pic.
You can see a round hillside with grass covering it.
Looks all nice and cozy, huh?
Well, in reality, that is a 100% man-made landscape.
That rolling hillside and nice, green grass wasn't there before the paper company did their waste dumping to the area.
You see, for decades, they simply brought dump trucks in and just dumped the gray-colored, stinky, smelly, warm-and-wet-paper-mache-looking waste onto the ground.
When the area was covered with it, they'd let it dry (where it then looked like dry, gray-colored paper mache that stunk to high heaven), bulldoze it around, smooth it out to make some room, and start dumping some more.
This went on for so long, that nice, green hillside was not even a hillside back before 1960, when I think the mill was built.
That hill is literally made of waste that's piled up over the decades, and all that you are really looking at is a giant pile of this disgusting crap that's been covered with a layer of dirt, grass planted, and a hush put on it.
Ssssshhhhhhhhh.
The kicker is that directly across the street from this place is the main waste dump, which is 10 times the size of this one.
I should snap a pic of that one, too.
You'd get a kick out of it because all you see is a sea of planted green grass.
It looks nice to somebody who doesn't know the history of the place.
To me, it's a field of mushy, smelly waste that is hidden from view.

I get a kick out of this kind of stuff because even though we are in the midst of a whole lot of environmental dogma, lies, and lots of holier-than-thou people trying to tell you that YOU are hurting the environment just by driving your car to work, in reality, it's the very same big companies that print nice, friendly, we're-into-recycling-and-saving-the-planet-over-here-at-Joe's-Paper-Recycling-Plant ads you see in enviro magazines or on TV during Oprah (gross!) that are buring this mess in the ground, and then hiding it from you, making it look all pretty and cozy on the surface.

To me, it's just another case of double-speak, or being a serious hypocrite about the environment.
This is why I don't want anybody telling me that I need to do a single thing about protecting the environment, because I know that the big-time, wealthy corporations that run the world care less about it than the average guy does.
They'll just cover that fact up - literally. :)

I didn't ride in Pachaug yesterday because the weather certainly wasn't as warm as was being predicted mid-week.
Instead of 44 degrees, we got a high of 32 for about 18 seconds at mid-day.
I did go for a quick, 20-minute ride on the WR-250XX, but that was cold, too.
I simply felt cold all day, and just didn't feel very comfortable.
If I'm lucky, we'll get normal weather (should be in the low-to-mid 40s for a high) at least one day this coming weekend, as I'd like to get one more ride in on the WR-250FY at the rock pile before I pronounce the Pachaug season for 2010 over.
We'll see.

Off to jerk,
-John

214: Born to Ride (in Warmer Weather)

Wintry cold weather is here, folks.
Right now, it's in the low-to-mid 20s, and it is forecast for a high of 36.
That's just average winter weather, but, it's cold enough for me at middle age. ;)

I decided to take the WR-250XX for it's maiden voyage yesterday after I did what I consider the minimum checking and work required before pronouncing a new/used bike road worthy.
I changed the oil and oil filter, serviced the air filter, checked tire pressure, lubed the clutch cable, adjusted throttle cable free play, bled air out of the forks, lubed the drive chain and checked it's free play, cleaned the brake rotors, checked the brake pads, and, basically, gave it a scrutineering eyeballing.

Everything is rock-solid, I'm happy to say.
I'll probably take it out for another ride, do another oil change to help rinse out the remains of the old oil that was in there when I took delivery, and then wheel it up into the house, here, and gradually do my planned winter maintenance and modifications.
While wintertime sucks in my opinion, wrenching on the bike and having an eye on the first ride of the 2011 back-and-forth-to-jerk-with-a-side-trip-here-and-there riding season through the winter will help pass the time.

To be honest, it doesn't look like I'll decide to ride the WR-250FY in Pachaug today.
While the weather ain't Admiral Byrd South Pole cold, it's cold enough to knock the wind out of my sails, and I don't even like sailing.
As I get older, I seem to prefer warmer weather.
While riding off-road, especially when it requires loading the bike up and driving out to the riding spot, I prefer the temperature to be in the mid-40s, at least.
Sure, I could decide to ride at 36 degrees, but, would I actually enjoy it?
Only a few more hours time will tell what I decide to do.
Either way, I'm riding something, today. ;)

Maybe, I'll compromise and decide to take the WR-250XX out on the Pachaug dirt roads.
These are very smooth (compared to the actual motorcycle trails) dirt roads that you can drive your typical car down, so maybe riding the WR-250XX with it's smooth street tires will provide enough kicks to make it seem worth while.
We'll see how I decide.

-John

Another Bike for Me :)

It's my new (new to me, anyway) 2008 WR-250XX.
3,911 miles and in excellent condition.
Luckily, the previous owner didn't do much tinkering with it, and appears to have simply ridden it on the street without actually touching it too much.
Unmolested is the way to pick up a used bike.
I'll do the molesting, thank you very much. ;)

I feel good that I decided to get this bike.
When I bought the WR-250RX that I was riding up until September, this WR-250XX is actually the bike I wanted at the time, and I bought the WR-250RX only because the price was hard to pass-up.
Since I already have the firebreather WR-250FY for riding off-road at the rock pile, I feel no need for another bike to ride off-road, and that's why I rode the dual-purpose WR-250RX on the street as if it were a street bike.
It may not have been anywhere near as good-feeling as the WR-250FY when off-road, but the WR-250RX made a fun street bike, and that was with the 21" and 18" dual-purpose tires, too.

This WR-250XX, with it's state-of-the-art 17" radial sportbike tires and big front brake, will be even more effective on the street for sport riding.
I'm familiar with this kind of bike (motard) because I owned the Suzuki version called a DR-Z400SM from October of 2008 until October of 2009 if you recall.
That bike, once I got done doing the mods I wanted to do to it, was lots of fun, and with the Michelin tires mounted to it that I like so much and it's big, nasty Brembo front brake parts, was a very good sport bike on the twisty roads around here.
I'm expecting more of the same good feelings from this WR-250XX.

The only real bummer right now is that we're at December 4th, right on the verge of official winterdom.
The bummer is that we've got to wait three month for March to arrive, my typical start to the street bike riding season.
The good part is that the time it will take me to clean and lube and adjust every part of the bike to my liking, as well as buy the parts I want in order to do the modifications I want, will go a long way to helping pass the winter.

Off to another freebee Saturday at jerk,
-John

It's New Bike Time...Again! :)

The 2008 WR-250X, designated as WR-250XX if you want to get technical.


You might remember that I owned, up until September, a 2008 Yamaha WR-250RX dual-purpose bike, which was the bike I rode back and forth to jerk and for street kicks in general.
Well, today, I'm bringing home it's street-only sister bike, the Yamaha WR-250XX, a 2008 model.
Some guy traded it in to our shop with 3,911 miles on the odometer, and it looks to be in perfect shape (thank God in Heaven). :)

What makes the WR-250XX the sister to the WR-250RX?
It's basically the same bike with radial street tires as found on a sport bike, a bigger front brake rotor for more stopping power, and some cosmetic differences (black fork tubes and black frame and swingarm).
The idea is to be like a dirt bike with street tires and brakes, and the result is, basically, a light-weight sport bike for the street.

Bikes like this are often called "motards", which is short for "super motard".
Super motard is a form of motorcycle racing that got popular in Europe (which is why the word motard sounds European), and caught-on over in this country.
To be honest, though, the USA is where racing dirt bikes with street tires and brakes got started, way back in 1979 with a once-a-year race on TV's ABC Wide World of Sports, called the ABC Superbikers.
Top motorcycle racers from motocross, road racing, and flat track would be involved, and usually, the guys winning the main events were motocross racers (the one exception was when former 500 GP World Champion Eddie Lawson won on a motarded-out Yamaha YZ-490), and the bikes winning were always the motocross bikes with the street tires and brakes.
So, this was the start of this whole motard thing, waaaaaay back 30-something years ago, and I enjoyed watching this event on TV.

Since I rode the WR-250R for 14 months, I know exactly what needs to be done to the WR-250X in order to rid the bike of the stupid, performance-robbing EPA bullshit it comes with.
Stock, the performance is doggy and weak.
Uncorked with a different exhaust pipe and muffler (but one that's still reasonably quiet), an electronic gizmo to reset the fuel injection mapping for performance (not so it's set to satisfy Al Gore the wealthy asshole hypocrite), the air intake modified in order to actually let air into the engine, and a larger rear sprocket to gear the bike as it would have come if not for these ridiculous regulations, the performance of these bikes is good.

The bike has a good balance of light weight (light compared to other street-going bikes) combined with adequate power.
Factor in the sportbike tires and front brake, and you have a bike that wants to be "held on" through the corners, which simply means not slowing down much, if at all, while going down curvy roads at a spirited pace.
You make time by basically getting the bike up to speed and keeping it there, no matter how sharp the corner may be.
This is where a light-weight bike shines.

Where it doesn't shine, in comparison to most street bikes, is expecting to be able to slow down to nearly a stop, and then expecting to get back up to speed in a split second.
No, there's about 30 horsepower at the rear wheel (and that's at about 10,000 rpm), so doing that is where a 1,000cc sport bike rules, which would have over 30 horsepower at idle speed. :)
So, you get it going and keep it going.

I'll post a pic of my actual bike when I get it home.
Since we're now in December, I'm not in a hurry to start riding it just yet, so, this is my winter project.
As always, whenever I bring a new bike home, whether it's actually brand-new or used like this WR-250X is, I basically take it apart, lubricate all of the chassis bearings, change the fluids, adjust things to my personal preferences, modify things to my liking, and then start riding it.
I imagine I'll get it out regularly starting around the first week of March.

Off to jerk,
-John

211: We're in Postin' Heaven

This pic was taken in 1991, just a couple miles (literally) from my house.
This is at a waste dump where the local paper recycling plant dumps the waste you get when recycling paper.
Pretty smelly and ugly-looking stuff, too.
The bike is a 1990 Yamaha YZ-250A1.
It was a good bike.

Back in the days when the above pic was taken, 99.9% of the motocross bikes and any off-road bike that was intended for serious usage was one with a 2-stroke engine, and probably liquid-cooled, too.
This was simply the norm, and was expected in a dirt bike.
There were 4-stoke dirt bikes to be sure, and they were popular, but most people agreed that the 4-strokes at that time were a step down on the intended performance ladder.
Typically, the 2-strokes were lighter and put out more power - two main ingredients in a high-performance dirt bike.
The 4-strokes were heavier and put out less power.
The factories that built the bikes knew this, so the typical 4-stroke dirt bike was intended for a bit slower riding and came equipped with, usually, suspension and brakes and even engine technology that was a step or three behind.
Back then, the thought of Yamaha or Honda coming out with a 4-stroke motocross bike would be scoffed at because motocross bikes were always 2-strokes, and 4-strokes were supposed to be play bikes.
Period.

Back then, there were plenty of urban legends, old wives tales, and rumors and speculations being tossed around about how, if you were to buy one and start riding one, riding a modern 2-stroke motocross bike meant being on top of the frequent maintenance they required.
This was due to their high power output from a small engine, and since there's no such thing as a free lunch with physics, if you have a bike that makes a lot of power in a tiny package, it simply won't last 100,000 miles before an engine overhaul is needed.
Guys were always bitching and moaning about having to "do my top end", or "rebuild the crank".
Some guys (OK, lots of guys) who didn't know the meaning of the word "maintenance" were always seeming to have trouble with their bikes, although they were the guys who'd piss and moan about how much of a drag it is to clean and oil their air filters.
So, basically, it was perceived that the 2-stroke motocross bike was for serious riders only, one that could ride and maintain it.

The 4-strokes of the time were very much thought to be the opposite.
By comparison, since they made less power, would last much longer before the engines demanded to be looked at.
They had a reputation for being able to start one more time and be ridden before it blew-up for good, which was all a lot of casual dirt bike riders wanted.
A lot of these guys probably were not aware of that thing buried deep within their bikes called the air filter, probably knowing only where the handlebar and fuel tank cap were.

The reason I write this is because these days, if you read what's being written on the typical dirt bike message board, the opposite is now being told:
The 4-stroke motocross and high-performance off-road bikes of today are the ones to be feared in the maintenance area, and the 2-strokes are now the ones that are easy to live with as far as required work goes.
The 4-stroke motocross bikes of today rev much higher and make a lot more power than the 4-stroke play bikes of the past, and as mentioned above, there's no free lunch when it comes to making power with a small engine.
Also, in order for the parts to last while they move back-and-forth at very high speeds inside the engine, the amount of work and knowledge it requires to maintain those parts has increased.
An example of this is the old-fashioned threaded tappet valve adjustment method versus the modern shim-under-bucket method.
The modern method is muuuuuuuch more reliable at high engine speeds, but the down side to this for many people is that they're scared to even attempt simply checking the condition of these parts, never mind making an actual adjustment, if needed, since word on the street has it they're very complicated.

See, now the urban legend has it that these 4-stroke motocross bikes are maintenance-intensive, and if you want to ride one and have it last, you're gonna' have to know what you're doing, while the 2-strokes are much simpler and have less moving parts to go wrong, mainly the lack of that complicated valve train and all of those itty-bitty parts under that valve cover.

Off to jerk,
-John

Another Late One

Didn't post again this morning for some reason.
Maybe because there wasn't anything pressing on my mind.
Good question, really.

Weather today was warmer than normal, but, as is always the case when we get warmer weather in December, it was because rain moved in.
Rained pretty hard at times, too, so I'm counting on some water and some wet leaves out on the trails of the ol' Pachaug rock-n'-roll pile loop this weekend.

I'm off for some beauty sleep.
-John