Other XS750 Projects

Found a couple of other inspiring XS750 projects to keep me motivated on mine:
XS750 and Virago 750 cafe racers
Spirit 7, very clean XS750 cafe racer
Lots of good XS750 tuning info here
And one last link for Yamaha Triple Information.

Rally Racing

When most people think of motorcycle racing, the first thing that comes to mind is either MotoGP -- the motorcycle equivalent of Formula-1 racing -- or motocross. For the last year, I've also been intrigued by gymkhana, similar to autocross, which is a timed race around obstacles on a course that emphasizes balance, coordination, and handling skills more than outright speed.

All of these types of races are awesome in their own right, but I've been drawn towards Adventure motorcycling pretty much since I started riding. Therefore, it is no surprise that the race that has drawn my attention the most is not MotoGP, nor motocross, nor even gymkhana, but the rallies such as the Dakar Rally or the Baja 500/1000. I like the idea of a multi-day race (the Dakar is roughly two weeks long). I like the fact that it's not just who can go the fastest, but who can cope best with the different environments and terrain encountered in the race. I am drawn to the endurace required to finish such races. Furthermore, I am drawn to the idea that the race is difficult enough to finish, much less to win. In fact, I would love to participate in such a race, not because I believe I have even a snowball's chance of ever winning, but rather because simply finishing the Dakar or Baja 1000 is a major accomplishment. In MotoGP or motocross, one guy is the winner, and everyone else is an "also-ran" (not that I am disparaging the other riders -- they are far more skilled than I to even earn a position on the race track). However, it is no exaggeration to say that every person who crosses the finish line in the Dakar Rally is, in the truest sense of the word, a winner. If you disagree, then in defense of my claim, I humbly recommend that you watch the BBC Race to Dakar series. Roughly two out of every three racers quit the race. That's an incredible attrition rate!

Unfortunately, for a working-class schmuck like me, it's probably not realistic to enter the Dakar Rally due to costs (one participant in the 2012 race estimated his budget to be about $50,000 -- yes, fifty THOUSAND dollars -- to run the race) as well as the time required to prep for and run the rally. (However, if anyone wants to fund a complete unknown racing n00b, riding a rather inadequate rally bike, shoot me an e-mail, lol)

However, I can't help but wonder how difficult would it be to put together a much more modest, local event?

Yesterday evening, I decided to look up a term I had heard used at several motorcycle gatherings. What, exactly, is a "poker run?" (Answer: a rally-type ride to several locations where you gather "cards" to make a poker hand -- best hand wins, regardless of time to reach the destinations). Researching a poker run led me to a couple of Wikipedia entries about similar, non-motorcycle races, such as Rogaining (hint: has nothing to do with hair loss, lol) and Adventure Racing. Reading about these types of races as well as signing up for the Equinox-to-Equinox Rally got the wheels turning in my head a bit. Suppose, rather than orienteering, or multi-sport races, one were to design a rally where various sites in a geographic area were assigned points based upon how easy or difficult they were to reach, and participants had a period of time -- say a weekend, or maybe an entire week -- to score as many points as possible. Some of the checkpoints could be single-track trails; others could be long-distance endurance rides, so that no one type of bike had any particular advantage over any other. Checkpoints could be distributed so that participants in different cities would have destinations distributed as equitably as possible, or perhaps the competetion could be categorized so that riders in one area -- say, Anchorage, for example -- only competed with other riders in their area, while riders in another location -- say, Fairbanks -- only competed with other Fairbanks area riders.

Seems to me that such a rally would be great fun. What do you say...any takers? :)

Tire Updates

The new tube arrived in the mail for the XS750 project the other day, and this time, I managed not to pinch the tube as I reinstalled the tire. In about an hour, I had the new tube installed, and inflated. I'm starting to get pretty good at removing and reinstalling tires with all the practice I've had lately :/

However, nothing I tried would get the bead to seat on the V-Strom's front tire. I finally took the front wheel to the guys at All-Pro just up the street from where I work, and they were able to seat the bead for me. The tire has been holding air for a couple of days now, so whatever caused the leak in the first place (I suspect debris between the sidewall and rim) has been fixed. They also had Continental Trail Attack tires on sale -- 10% off! -- in the right size for the V-Strom. I'm planning a possible looooong road trip this summer, and the Shinko 705's I've been running would be less than ideal for the trip, so I picked up the Conti's while I was picking up the front wheel. Expect a review some time this summer!

E2E 2013 Rally

I was doing some vicarious motorcycling over at ADV Rider and found a link to the 2013 Equinox to Equinox Rally. I'd never heard of it before, but basically, it's part scavenger hunt, part photography contest, and part motorcycle rally. On the web site, there is a list of things to find. When you find them, shoot a picture of your bike (or whatever bike you rode there) next to whatever it is you found, and submit it to the web site. No cheating and shooting a picture of someone else's bike that just happened to be there, or trailering you bike to the shot! :) Sounds like fun, and hey, it's an excuse to ride!

Unfortunately, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage. Since this is an equinox-to-equinox event, the rally has already started, and the current leader has already shot 133 photos. Meanwhile, I am staring out my driveway at this:


'Sall right, though. If it didn't still look like February outside, I'd be having a fit because I still haven't completed winter maintenance, lol.

First-World Problems

I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago about the problems he was having with his fleet of motor vehicles. He needed to charge the battery and change the oil on his motorcycle. He would need to get his RV ready for summer soon. The canopy on his boat had been crushed by the weight of snow over the winter, and would need to be replaced. His SUV was having some mechanical difficulties, and his wife's car was in the shop, too.

I'm in a very similar situation myself. I own two motorcycles, a '77 Yamaha XS750 that I'm rebuilding into a cafe racer, and a '09 Suzuki V-Strom 650 that is my "let's go exploring" bike. Spring is almost here, but neither bike is rideable at the moment. The Yamaha has been significantly disassembled during the rebuild process, and it will need a lot of work before it's ready to hit the streets again. The V-Strom is in much better shape, but it needs a new front sprocket, new wheel bearings, a new chain, and some work on the front tire (I can't get the bead to seat to save my life). Likewise, my Nissan Frontier is having some drive-line problems. It's running, but it's making some noises and is occasionally snatching when I'm in stop-and-go traffic. My wife's Ford F-150 is also acting up; she'll be taking it to the shop later today.

After my friend finished his litany of mechanical gremlins, he kind of gave me a wry smile and made a comment about "First-world problems."

Yeah, we've got it tough, don't we? I currently own five motor vehicles, only one of which -- my wife's '77 CB750A -- is running properly right now. The repair bills to get the vehicles working again sure are adding up. Man, it totally sucks to be me...

Unless you're the child in Honduras with Pepsi bottles tied to your feet for shoes...

Or the mom in Somalia who has no idea how she is going to feed her five children today...

Or one of the children in Uganda who has been forced into either prostitution or the army by the LRA...

Or one of the babies in Mozambique who was left to die at the dump because his mom already has more children than she can support...

As I was griping about having to spend $200 on a new chain and sprockets for my V-Strom last night, it occurred to me just how lucky I am to have such problems. For those of you living in a modern, Western culture -- and if you're reading this blog, I can just about guarantee that that includes you by virtue of the fact that you are sitting at a computer in the first place -- congratulations! You are one of the wealthiest people in the world. If you are starting to feel frustrated by your circumstances, consider that your problems would probably be considered blessings by much of the rest of the world. After all, you won't need $200 worth of parts to get your motorcycle back on the road this spring, if you weren't wealthy enough to own a motorcycle in the first place.

Amirite? ;)

Still the Season for Wrenching...Fortunately

The XS750 project is officially on hold for now.

There's still a lot more work to do (and a lot of money to be spent, sigh...) before the XS750 is ready to hit the road. However, spring is here, and while the roads in Anchorage are still under about a foot of fresh new snow, courtesy of a storm that hit over the weekend, it won't be long until it's time to get the bikes out on the road again. However, since the Yamaha won't be ready at the first blush of spring, I need to finish up all of the maintenance that I have been putting off on the Wee-Strom over the last year.

The first order of business is the rear wheel bearings. I'm not yet certain that those were the source of the odd squeaking noises that I heard on the Strom near the end of last summer, but I suspect it is. Wheel bearings are cheap (although the bearing removal tool wasn't), and the OEM bearings are only sealed on the outside, so last fall, I picked up a set of All-Balls sealed bearings to replace the OEM bearings. Popping out the old bearings in the rear wheel was beyond simple with the Pit Posse kit (for better instructions that I can provide, see this post over at the V-Strom Riders International forum). However, the Pit Posse kit doesn't include a drift for the larger diameter bearing in the cush drive (grrr...). Fortunately, I found a shop here in town that is willing to pop that bearing out for me. Once that's done, I'll need to find a threaded rod and some 1 3/4&qout; (+/-1/8") large-area washers to gently pull the bearings into the hub. You don't want to just press-fit them and tighten up the axle, because that puts the load on the inner races, rather than the outer races that are being compressed into the hub. The bearings are plenty strong radially, but they aren't designed to withstand shear between the inner and outer races, and therefore, using the axle to pull the inner races together can lead to premature bearing failure.

Photo of the rear wheel hub with the cush drive and inner bearing removed.

The running wisdom over at Stromtroopers is that a chain and sprockets should last between 20K and 25K miles. At 16K+ miles on the odometer, I'm starting to get close to the 20K mark, and while I've been pretty good about keeping the chain lubed, I haven't been quite so good about keeping it clean, and sand is a pretty effective abrasive, so I thought I'd look into a new chain and sprockets while I was prepping the bike for the new riding season.

The rear sprocket doesn't look too bad, and the chain hasn't been stretching much...

...but daaaaaaang! The front sprocket has got a pretty wicked hook on it!

Fortunately, Bike Bandit had steel front and rear sprockets for the V-Strom from JT Sprockets for a very reasonable price. I've been enjoying the moto-gymkhana thing, as well as playing around on unimproved gravel roads every chance I get, so I went with the stock (15 tooth) front and a slightly larger (48 tooth, vs. stock 47 tooth) rear sprocket for the bike to give me a little better torque, acceleration, and low-speed control, albeit at slightly higher revs -- and therefore, most likely at the cost of some degree of smoothness -- on the highway. Honestly, going from a 47 tooth rear sprocket to a 48 tooth rear sprocket shouldn't make a lot of difference; I'm kind of skeptical whether or not I'll even notice. Unfortunately, it's best to change your chain($$$) with your sprockets, so I ordered a new Ek 525 X-Ring chain and screw-type master link, as well.


And that's how the poor Wee beastie sits tonight, as I get ready for bed. The front tire still needs to have the bead set. The rear wheel needs to have the bearings pressed in place. The cush drive needs to have the old bearing removed and a new bearing pressed into place. The Wee desperately needs a new front sprocket, it probably needs a new chain and it maybe needs a new rear sprocket...and then, there's the yearly maintenance items like air filter, oil and oil filter o_O

"See a Need, Fill a Need"

When my daughter Kylie was born, my wife and I suddenly found that our video collection changed from "The Matrix" and "I, Robot" to "Finding Nemo" and "Monsters, Inc." This wasn't all bad; I actually enjoyed many of the movies that we bought for our daughter. I particularly enjoyed "Robots," in which the main character, Rodney, learns that the best way to be successful is, "See a need, fill a need." That is, if you find a niche market that nobody is filling, rather than whine about it, do something yourself to fill that need. To that end, I have recently found myself wondering if I am alone in wishing for a motorcycle that no one seems to make?

I love "adventure" motorcycling. Long before I earned my motorcycle endorsement, I was drawn to the brawny look of BMW's GS series motorcycles. Those bikes just looked like they could handle any kind of terrain that the rider threw at them. However, when I began seriously looking for a ride myself back in 2009, I was somewhat disappointed with the specs of the Beemers. The G650GS seemed to be too short, and I was concerned about the vibes from a single-cylinder engine for the long-haul rides I wanted to make. The 1200GS was just too much, in just about every respect -- too heavy, too big, two expensive, and too complex. It is a technological tour-de-force with electrically adjustable everything, but I really didn't want to find myself stuck halfway up the Haul Road with an electronically adjustable suspension that wouldn't adjust out of a freeway setting. Furthermore, I read a lot of criticism about the maintenance costs of the bike. The F800GS looked to be much more reasonable, but it was still basically a street bike in hiking boots :) Yamaha had not yet introduced the Super Tenere Stateside, but even if they had, it had some of the same problems as the big Beemer -- too big and too expensive (although by all reports, it's an exceptionally good bike).

Suzuki and Kawasaki were a little closer to what I wanted with the DR650 and KLR650, respectively. These two bikes were the opposite end of the spectrum from the bigger BMW bikes. Small and roughly 400 pounds, wet, with for-real dirt bike suspensions, these were both very capable bikes. Unfortunately, they were also very underpowered thumpers, and like the G650GS, I was concerned about being able to comfortably ride the highways for long distances. Yes, people have ridden very long distances on both of these bikes -- far longer than I have ridden, in fact -- but neither the Suzuki nor the Kawasaki are ideal for long stretches of slab.

Consequently, I ended up buying my V-Strom 650, which in truth has proven to be a pretty good bike for my riding style. However, as good as it is, it could be...well, better. For one thing, even though it's a tall bike, ground clearance isn't great for off-road adventures. I've high-centered on rocks a couple of times -- fortunately, my skidplate protected the oil pan and exhaust pipes -- even though I've never taken it truly "off-road." Furthermore, the cast aluminum wheels are less than ideal for an "Adventure" bike, especially since the front is only nineteen inches in diameter, rather than twenty-one as found on most *really* dirt-worthy bikes (DR650, KLR650, KTM990 Adv, etc.). Even worse, the Strom is rather top-heavy, as well as just plain heavy. It's fine once you are moving on pavement, but it's tippy enough that it just gets uncomfortable on sketchy terrain like mud or steep, rough, rocky roads. And even though I've never had much of a problem picking it up on those few times (only three!) that I've dropped it, I can see how it would be tough to right on steep, rugged terrain (or mud), especially if fully kitted out for a multi-day trip. Finally, the suspension is adequate, but not great. I've bottomed out the front forks on a gravel road(!) at about 35MPH, and while you can adjust preload, you cannot adjust rebound or compression damping. The suspension could be greatly improved with some help from Race-Tech Suspension if one were willing to throw enough money at it, but you would still have a top-heavy bike without sufficient suspension travel or ground clearance.

The Wee-Strom is good, but like the F800GS, it's really just a gussied-up street bike. What I really want is a lighter V-Twin with spoked wheels (21 inch up front, 17 in the rear), and a longer, higher quality, adjustable suspension. About the closest thing that I am aware of that exists today is Triumph's 800XC. Honestly, if that bike had been available in 2010 when I bought my Wee, I'd probably be a Triumph rider today. However, even the Triumph's suspension isn't quite up to dirt bike standards (220mm travel front, vs. 300mm for several of the KTM models I've scoped out lately), and it's only five pounds lighter than my DL650K9.

All of which brings me to my main point. Am I just a one-off? Are most riders content with the line in the sand between true street-legal, off-road bikes (KTM690 Enduro, DR650, KLR650) and street bikes with dirt-bike pretensions like the BMW GS series, the V-Stroms, and even the Triumph 800XC? Or are there others who would like to have a twin-cylinder dirt bike that is comfortable enough to ride 500-1000 miles on the slab, but light and manageable to take well off the beaten path when the asphalt ends? Something like the KTM 690 Enduro or Husqvarna TR650 Terra with the V-Strom 650's engine would be great.

If only I had the skills to build a bike from scratch...