What did you do in your garage today..? | Page 205 | GTAMotorcycle.com

What did you do in your garage today..?

Normally if you're fiddling with shims, there's only going to be one or two choices that will get it within spec ... unless you have (and need) some of the 0.025mm-increment shims that come in bikes as original equipment but don't seem to be in anyone's shim kits!

I removed one bolt and removed the slip-on muffler from the beast ... necessary for clearance to remove the rear wheel. If I do one tiny thing each day, maybe I can stretch out this tires-and-brakes job and have something to do until spring! (more likely I'll get ambitious at some point and just get it done, and then have nothing to do for three months)

Update. All of the originally planned bike projects are done, but a couple new minor things popped up, and one expected minor job just turned into a bigger nuisance.

The horn on my ZX10R has been intermittent for a while. Last week it did absolutely nothing when I pressed the button. OK, time to swap the horn. I have a couple lying around, took it off the bike. Hmm, better check power and signal with a meter before getting too excited. Signal wire has continuity to ground when I press the horn button but the power wire has no power. Then while pulling the clip of my meter off the connector, the whole connector came off along with a piece of the wire that previously resided inside the harness. So the real problem is a broken wire!

The nuisance is that the wires to the horn pass through a plastic/rubber tube that is taped into the wiring harness in order to protect said wires from abrasion from the forks and triple clamp (the horn is attached to the lower triple and moves with the steering).

The issue is that this plastic/rubber tube has hardened up with time (20+ yrs and 145 000 km) and has decided to do all the flexing in one spot, which is now visibly rubbed through right at that spot.

The nuisance is that I haven't decided how I'm going to fix this. Doing it properly means the upper fairing has to come off in order to gain proper access to where that part of the wiring joins the main harness, so that I can replace the entire affected section of wire (to avoid having a solder joint or other connection right at the spot where the wire needs to bend) and replace the entire section of plastic/rubber tube (in order to have something that's actually flexible and doesn't have a hole abraded through it).
 
'Couple days ago... 'Hooked up one of those Chinese Diesel heaters my buddy bought from Amazon.
He's got a well insulated 20'x40' shop, but up until now... Unheated.
'Seems to work very well... Throws a lot of heat.
If it keeps up it'll be a nice warm winter hanging out in the shop.

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I've been remiss. I added a 1960 watt loudspeaker system along with all my old stereo gear to my workshop. Now I have enough sound pressure in there to make myself completely deaf (not kidding, rated at 127db at one meter at full power). I filmed a brief video of it from the day I got it together, along with costs.


It's been successful. Every time I turn it loud on the weekend, I get the locals popping over with beers. This winter I'll be firing up the wood stove and foosball on weekends. :D
 
I've been remiss. I added a 1960 watt loudspeaker system along with all my old stereo gear to my workshop. Now I have enough sound pressure in there to make myself completely deaf (not kidding, rated at 127db at one meter at full power). I filmed a brief video of it from the day I got it together, along with costs.


It's been successful. Every time I turn it loud on the weekend, I get the locals popping over with beers. This winter I'll be firing up the wood stove and foosball on weekends. :D
I'm confused. I am assuming powered speakers fed by mixer? HT amp is just being used as a switcher for tape and cd? Why not tape and cd straight into mixer?
 
I'm confused. I am assuming powered speakers fed by mixer? HT amp is just being used as a switcher for tape and cd? Why not tape and cd straight into mixer?
Right in all cases except that I decided not to do them straight in for a few reasons - A) I really have no desire to mix them and yes I know that I could turn the volume of the ones I'm not using to 0, B) I had all the equipment in question, and C) the amp is not pushing any power to the mixer (though the volume control works, oddly) but it has atmospheric effects if I wanted it, and finally D) the amp cost me $60 years ago which is probably less than conversion cables from the components.

Basically I knew this setup would be flexible and also inexpensive, so I just ran with it. Being a nerd, I wanted to add some Bluetooth stuff.
 
If it turns out that the Michelins are bad in the winter, we can always pick up a set of winters and run the all-weathers the rest of the year. They perform just as well as a typical all-season in the summer, get excellent mileage, and will last just as long.
Michelin X-Ice series are nice...but once I switched over to Nokian, I dont think I can go back to Michelin.
These Nokian Hakkapelitta's were nice and squishy with grip on the cold roads for my rwd vehicle. Love them!
xTFYl0j.jpeg

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Mind you, they tend to be a bit more expensive that the X-ice series.
 
Michelin X-Ice series are nice...but once I switched over to Nokian, I dont think I can go back to Michelin.
These Nokian Hakkapelitta's were nice and squishy with grip on the cold roads for my rwd vehicle. Love them!

Mind you, they tend to be a bit more expensive that the X-ice series.
Every time I am due for a set I try to find hakkas but normally end up with xice. Xice are decent and I haven't been able to justify the price difference.
 
I usually only deal with Billy or Benny from Tires23 so maybe they give me a bit of a discount lol.
However you are right - it is still a couple of hundred dollars more for a set of 4 vs the x-ice.
My last set I found used. Not a lot of used hakkas and when people are selling them, they believe they have gold bars. I think I paid 200 for xice on alloys with enough tread to last three seasons comfortably and then burn them off in the summer.
 
Michelin X-Ice series are nice...but once I switched over to Nokian, I dont think I can go back to Michelin.
These Nokian Hakkapelitta's were nice and squishy with grip on the cold roads for my rwd vehicle. Love them!
xTFYl0j.jpeg

2rs16IK.jpeg


Mind you, they tend to be a bit more expensive that the X-ice series.
Had those on both my Genesis Coupe and WRX.

Love those tires.
 
Thought i would drop this here before winter hibernation season. Yea they recommend baking at 200F but for smaller parts that isn't too much of a issue.

 
4 snow tires on a rear wheel drive is better
4 snow tires on a front wheel drive is a safety thing... put 2 snows on the front and go for a drive in the snow and the thing will continually swap ends (fishtail)... by virtue of how snow tires work

snow tires are not the same as winter tires
How a SNOW tire works is they trap snow in the tread and that snow gets traction on the snow... the tire doesn't "dig" snow, the tire packs with snow, that way there is no temperature difference between the tire and the snow, so the snow doesn't melt. a "mud" tire does the same thing.
... so, counter intuitively, if you have a front wheel drive and only 2 snow tires: the snows go on the back.

and if you're going to put a bag of sand or gravel (or whatever... I think kitty litter works best) in the back of your car for traction, the weight HAS to go between the axles. Putting it in the trunk BEHIND the rear axle will make it fishtail worse, by way of the pendulum effect... it'll get better traction in straight line but cripple you in the corners
 

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