High_Sides Trips and Pics

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#221 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

Wow, that is one, really unsafe tire my friend! Glad you chucked it and will be getting something else! Which Bridgestone (Battleaxe?) were these?

BTW - I am a big fan of the Bridgestone Spitfire S11's. Awesome tire in bias-ply. :revv:

I've read really amazing things about this one here: http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/ ... -Tire.aspx . I'll have to try it out when I get a bike and if it fits it.

http://www.shinkotireusa.com/product/product.php?id=8

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#222 Unread post by High_Side »

totalmotorcycle wrote:Wow, that is one, really unsafe tire my friend! Glad you chucked it and will be getting something else! Which Bridgestone (Battleaxe?) were these?

BTW - I am a big fan of the Bridgestone Spitfire S11's. Awesome tire in bias-ply. :revv:

I've read really amazing things about this one here: http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/ ... -Tire.aspx . I'll have to try it out when I get a bike and if it fits it.

http://www.shinkotireusa.com/product/product.php?id=8

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Mike
Wow - those have some pretty great reviews. I'll have to look in to them a little closer. As for the VFR I currently have about 5K on the Pilots Roads and although they instantly improved the bike, they are also showing more wear than I am used to (I've owned over a dozen of them). When I hit 6.8K on the Pilots (the point when the sh!tsones went bald) I'll take a comparison photo and post it. :mrgreen:

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#223 Unread post by High_Side »

Well the best summer weather in Calgary history is finally wrapping up with some cooler weather this Thanksgiving weekend. What a great year - I managed three great bike trips and a lot of km! There were new bikes added to the stable and a few more mods to the old ones. I've managed to collect quite a few pictures and stories to share over the summer but haven't stopped to take the time to put them in here. Hopefully there is some new territory covered that is interesting for those of you who have bothered to read this stuff the past several years :mrgreen: So as it's the end (of the season) we'll start with the end and work our way back, around or something like that....

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This near-end-or-season ride was west of Turner Valley Alberta near the end of September. When I say "end-of-season" I really mean "end-of-the-good-stuff". More often than not, it's possible to ride in to December in Calgary but it is cooling off quick, and this particular day was of the 28deg. variety - about perfect for Jen and I.

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And now about the Superduke: I've now had this bike for a few seasons and am still completely in love with this bike! It's the bike Ducati would like to build but just can't manage to. Right out of the box this thing runs like a champ, being somehow as raw as you can imagine a modern street-bike being, but with comfort, reliability, and very little weight all wrapped up with acceleration that will rip your arms off. My new VFR has 50 more hp but feels nowhere near as fast (or as fun). The suspension is truly above anything else I ridden, including the Ohlins spec upper end bikes. And did I mention 300km out of a tank? It's a great ride -now I'll stop gushing like a school girl about it!

And now for a little on our baby Monster - a love it or hate it bike. Jenn loves it, and I see it as a big disappointment when compared to her last Monster. The key word back in the previous sentence is "her". Therefore even though we bought her a more touring oriented ride this year (more to come about that later on), she has decided that she wants to keep it. So, three years in to the "new"-Monster experience we've decided that it is a keeper. NOW then, let's get down and fix the painful things that come about as part of new-Ducati ownership that we have been putting up with while siting on the fence :mrgreen:

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First off - it sounds like shyte. As bad as the Superduke sounded stock, this thing sounds horrible. After watching for a sale I picked up the Arrow cans above/\. Stock they sound slightly louder and deeper than stock. With the quiet insert removed they are almost too loud but sound much better. Guess which way I like it? :mrgreen: I believe Jen likes it better that way too - and it is "her" bike after all..... :wink:

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This issue with this bike, and my last Ducati as well, is that they come incredibly lean from the factory which makes for one cr@ppy running motorcycle. The open cans don't help that, so this winter I am working on getting opening up the air-box and getting the ECU reflashed to match the changes. This will hopefully make up for the worst remaining issue with this bike. If you are thinking of buying a new Monster and were wondering what I meant by "worst remaining issue", I mean that we already fixed the seat issue - which was solved by replaced the stock down-hill ski-slope with an excellent Sargent aftermarket item. This is a must if you buy a new Monster IMO.

Back to the fall ride...

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The window for fall colours this year was unfortunately short, with the great weather holding so late in the season, the trees didn't turn until the end of September, and a quick storm removed most of the leaves immediately. There is a whole lot less green that the past few years with the lack of rain in the area, but that also makes for great riding - you can't have it all.... :D

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That's it for this post but I have a back-log of pictures and rides to post that I will be working on over the next several weeks to get this thing up to date. Hopefully there are a few more pictures to be taken too before the bikes get tucked in for the winter.... :mrgreen:

Cheers,

High_Side

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#224 Unread post by sapaul »

Cool stuff HS, pretty country.
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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#225 Unread post by High_Side »

sapaul wrote:Cool stuff HS, pretty country.
Thanks Paul :righton:

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#226 Unread post by sapaul »

On the tyre issue, we know that different tar compounds can affect the wear. Some of those roads look like "large gravel pour" and not "fine tar". could this be a contributing factor?
I spent my therapy money an a K1200S
The therapy worked, I got a GS now
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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#227 Unread post by High_Side »

sapaul wrote:On the tyre issue, we know that different tar compounds can affect the wear. Some of those roads look like "large gravel pour" and not "fine tar". could this be a contributing factor?
Possibly - but the results line up with my Bridgestone Sucks rant so well that I just ran with it.... hehe. A good rant always makes me feel better... :mrgreen:

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#228 Unread post by totalmotorcycle »

High_Side wrote:
sapaul wrote:On the tyre issue, we know that different tar compounds can affect the wear. Some of those roads look like "large gravel pour" and not "fine tar". could this be a contributing factor?
Possibly - but the results line up with my Bridgestone Sucks rant so well that I just ran with it.... hehe. A good rant always makes me feel better... :mrgreen:
Rants are good but tourquoise bikes are better!

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#229 Unread post by High_Side »

totalmotorcycle wrote: Rants are good but tourquoise bikes are better!
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Are you hinting that your new mystery bike is turquoise? :tongue:

BTW - I took the pic you posted in 1994 of my '93 ZX6E! Both the building and the bike are long gone. You really must have dug deep in the archives to pull that one out :P

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Re: High_Sides Trips and Pics

#230 Unread post by High_Side »

Ohhhhhhh deeeeerrr.....
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The first tour of 2012 would be with the lovely Jennifer and my brother in law Chris. We managed to persuade Grammy to watch the kids and headed south west in early June. This year, things would be different with a new VFR1200 replacing the awesome old VFR750 that had originally started as an e-bay fixer-upper winter project but ended up filling many of the pages of this blog. I have high hopes for this bike, with Honda seemingly dropping a lot of money on developing a bike that got mediocre reviews, and was constantly criticized for it's lack of fuel range. The looks didn't really do it for me either but they grew on me over the two years it took for the retail prices (at least south of the 49th parallel) to come in to reasonable range. The thing about bike reviews however is that they often consist of a new bike being thrashed for a short period over their initial break-in period by journalists who may or may not get the concept of what the bike is all about. Still, it was a stretch to think that they could all be wrong and I went in with my eyes wide open with regards to the likeliness of needing to do some upgrades in order to get things working the way that I wanted.

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While I have already given s short glimpse into a couple of the issues in the previous page of this blog, there are two key things that need to be addressed by every owner of a VFR-12. The first is the ridiculous engine restriction that is built in to the bike from the factory to severely limit the power below 6K rpm in the first two gears. Having been a Ducati owner, I am used to buying bikes where the engineering is half baked and it is up to the owner to sort it out. In this case however, it's like Honda had engineered and awesome piece of machinery that was caught up by the lawyers on the way out of the factory and "tamed" so the potential geezer clientele of the bike would not harm themselves if they inadvertently opened the throttle! The resulting choking-engine-to-heavy-6K rpm-hit transformation actually made the bike more difficult to ride than if they would have just left the damned thing alone. No matter - around $70 later I had installed the Bazzaz eliminator to straighten the entire thing out with the only downside being that the gear indicator would read "3" any time the bike was in 1st or 2nd gear. It's no wonder the bike got mixed reviews in the way that it came from the factory. It's a damned shame that they shot themselves in the foot so badly with such a silly idea.

The second key issue with the VFR-12 is the tires. This issue was only fully understood a little later in the story of my 1st summer with the bike, with the understanding growing throughout the tour I will cover now :D

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This tour is over familiar territory if you have been following this blog, but out there riding it, well, it never gets old :) We would start the day with a wash-job killing ride in the rain to Pincher Creek where we could pick up Chris. After we meet-up we head south of Pincher for a riding through the rolling hills to the border near Waterton National park. This really is one of the sweetest spots in Alberta, where the road winds through the foothills in the shade of the Rockies. Still lovin this road after all of these years.

Blue sky opens up for long enough to get some pics:
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These tours with Jen and Chris are a nice mix for me, where I can pick my spots to jet up front with Chris or hang back and smell the roses with Jen. Both are great riders but while Chris is getting faster each year, Jen is exercising much more caution which is fine with me. As it turns out that caution would be a good thing later on this ride :wink:

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I was optimistic this past winter when I picked up the Givi windscreen for the baby Duck. Jen has decided that she loves the bike (with all of it's flaws) and we were going to take every effort to improve how it works out on tour. The Givi screen looks the business, and even comes with bike specific brackets. Unfortunately out on the road the difference is minimal below 140km/hr. The simple solution would have been to set up shop at 150km/hr. but the Gestopos would have likely taken issue with us. Not that I have anything against the meter-maids tasked with "keeping us safe from ourselves" - nope, not at all..... :mrgreen:

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After a night spent in the Best Western in Polson Montana we cruise down to Missoula and south to the Lolo Pass. The rain and drizzle are on and off but it's finally here that I get to push the Viffer on a familiar road. A few "whoa" moments ensue as at different times I feel both the front and rear start to break loose when pushing in the corners. The Viff is a big bike (relatively) with shaft drive and I'm really working to understand if I'm really just that I am asking it to do something that it wasn't meat to do. It's the kind of thing that makes me question if it's something with the road not being fully dried or something spilled on the surface, but after the first few times it seems it really was the bike - or more so the tires. The crazy thing is that I would have easily been able to keep a faster pace on the old VFR right up to the point that the road straightened out and the new Viffer left it for dead....

Stopped to ponder whether we can trust the weather along the Lolo
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At the west end of the Lolo we stop in Lewiston for lunch before going to play on the "old spiral highway" that I have covered multiple times in this blog. Its still great, but given the traction issues I am having on the new bike I ride with a whole new level of caution, missing some of the fun that I have had here in previous years. Still there is never a bad ride around Lewiston Idaho:)

I stop for a breather and grab a pic of Mrs. High_Side playing on the Old Spiral Highway

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After leaving Lewiston the weather decided to suck the fun out of our ride to Sandpoint by being chilly and raining on and off for the first hour before finally breaking loose with torrential rain. We are timing our gas stops based upon my knowledge of the new bike thus far and end up quite nervous with my fuel-light flashing at the 240km mark. It's at this point that I end up getting that sinking feeling when I find that the gas station I was counting on out in the middle of nowhere has shut down and we are out of options. With a quick calculation in my head we I determine that we can't make it and stop at the local pub and were lucky enough to buy a couple of gallons of gas from a local.

With our near-disaster behind us, the last hour in to Sandpoint was when we finally found the limits of what "rain-resistant" really means. While the Tourmaster suits were holding up fairly well, my rain resistant gloves were saturated. The hotel hot-tub was beckoning and we set up for the evening in Sandpoint.

Even with all of the rain this would be the only dam I pass on tour this year that is not flowing over the spillway
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Refreshed and dry our final day began with a beautiful ride down hwy 200 along the Cabinet Gorge Reservoir as we made our way to Libby. As we begin to ride along the Koocanusa Reservoir I lead the group on the VFR and start to have a little fun with the traction issues on a familiar road. Coming out of the corners and on the throttle the bike was actually breaking the rear loose in a somewhat controlled fashion. It's great fun, but common sense prevails and I dial it back as to not finally earn the name I keep on TotalMotorcycle. :shock: :lol: Not much further down the road though I noticed the Ducati has vanished from my mirrors and my heart sinks as I race back to find Jen and Chris at the side of the road :(

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Of all the people I know Jen is always the one who notices the wildlife before anyone else. As fate would have it though there was no chance to respond to the deer who jumped in front of her mid corner in a right-hander as we rode along the Koocanusa. Chris had a front row seat as it happened, and witnessed the deer complete three circles on it's side as it slid underneath the guard-rail looking seemingly dead after hitting her. Jen, as it turns out managed to keep the Duck upright as the deer had hit her on her kneecap armour, jamming her leg and hip. From her point of view, the deer didn't even hit the bike which makes it even that much more amazing that she kept it upright while the deer took such a spin. Once we were sure that she was going to be OK (although in a lot of pain), we went to check on the deer who had apparently overcome his injuries and ran away. Another few centimeters one way or another and this could have ended up much worse for both of them. I am very relieved that Jens knee and hip pain went away after a couple of weeks. Scarey - and a great reminder to take it easy.

Not bad considering.... And you shoulda saw the "other guy"!

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More tours to come after I sort through all of these damned pictures.... :mrgreen:

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