The cream horn.
Mighty tasty, although this horn doesn't make many tooting sounds.
Unless you have gas because of it. :)
Yesterday morning before jerk, I stopped and picked up a 4-pack of yummy cream horns, also called cream twirls.
Totally delicious going down, but how I feel afterwards sometime ain't good.
That's what happened yesterday, because after I ate all four of them, I felt a bit under the weather for the remainder of the work day.
When will I ever learn? ;)
This morning, I was getting a kick out of seeing pics of the motorcycles of other riders, especially when the pic shows the exact same model of bike I currently own or have owned in the past.
I saw a couple pics of WR-250Rs, the same bike I rode on the street last year.
You know what gets my attention most when I see this bike in other riders' pics?
It's how much stuff the bike is loaded down with.
I'm talking about piles of tents, sleeping bags, tennis racquets, kitchen sink, and who-knows-what-else.
This is often in addition to heated grips, tank bags, saddle bags, tea bags and douche bags. :)
I suppose it's simply fitting, then, that some of the WR-250R riders out there discovered the hard way that a certain area of their bike was worn without them discovering it until the damage was already done.
Specifically, the drive chain was wearing through the bottom of the guard that protects the swingarm from the chain.
I don't mean just wearing through the guard material, but literally sawing right through it and sawing into the metal of the swingarm, itself.
This was, and in fact still is, an issue bandied-about on forums that cover the WR-250R and WR-250X.
Most of the riders who were surprised to find this on their bike had no idea how it happened.
It's believed by most that it is caused by switching to a smaller front sprocket (12 teeth vs. 13 teeth) to achieve lower gearing and better acceleration and better gear spacing for off-road use.
(In my opinion, the bike needs lower gearing even if you stay 100% on the street.)
The belief is that the smaller-diameter front sprocket brings the bottom of the chain into stronger contact with the guard, and over time, will cause the chain to saw away at the guard and swingarm, itself.
Because of this, many well-to-do riders - the ones that will create websites devoted to their WR-250R or WR-250X and load the site up with lots of personal info about what they think of the bike and what modifications they've done and/or deem necessary - outright warned other WR-250R and WR-250X riders to steer clear of putting 12-tooth front sprockets on their bikes.
Myself, I don't agree with staying away from them because my own WR-250RX had a 12-tooth front sprocket on it for nearly all of the time I rode it (the bike had 7,500 miles on it when I sold it last September), and it was still on it when I sold it.
The chain was not even close to wearing through anything, and the chain guides and guards showed only normal wear that all chain guides and guards show after any kind of use.
So, why were some riders getting this saw-my-bike-in-half wear?
My opinion has to do with two key issues:
1) The bike is simply being overloaded with shit piled-up on the rear fender, causing the rear suspension to be constantly sagging down three times as far as it usually does.
This puts the drive chain in contact with the swingarm a whole lot, especially when combined with issue number 2.
2) The drive chain is being kept too tight, with insufficient slack.
This has been going on with many, many, many, many, many, many, many riders since long-travel suspension came out in the late 1970s.
Long story short, the longer your rear suspension travel (movement), the more slack the chain requires when the rear suspension is unloaded.
This is because the rear suspension arm (swingarm) pivots not around the front sprocket but behind the front sprocket, and the geometry and physics involved dictates that the drive chain slack will decrease as the swingarm moves upward.
So, when you plop your fat ass and 354 pounds of "camping gear" on the back of the bike (which weighs 275 pounds, itself), if you're one of the many who keep their drive chain too tight, you'll basically be adjusting the parts of your bike to eat away at each other.
The amazing thing to me is that most of these riders aren't aware of what they're doing.
And, this will probably make you ask, "Well, why in fuck's name are these guys adjusting their drive chains too tight to begin with?!"
Answer:
I believe it's because they automatically think that the chain should have zero (or close to zero) slack or free play in it when the bike is unloaded.
They probably assume the chain will derail from the sprockets unless it's tightened right up snug as a bug in a rug.
I've actually seen more riders adjust their chains like this than ones who did not, even guys working in the Service Departments of official Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki dealers.
Really.
Sounds like a lot of hootin' and hollerin' over a trivial subject, but, look at the grief it's caused more than one rider.
Off to jerk,
-John
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