motorcyclebloggers.com

I am having to learn all over how to jet carbs on bikes.  It has been since 2000 since I have had to jet a motorcycle.  It sucks at first, but I have a better understanding of how stuff works now.  For an excellent techie look at what attribute of the carb affects performance at a certain throttle position, click here.  I have been using this graph for years now and it is the absolute bomb when it comes to understanding jetting.

I am going through my bike now and trying to sort the jetting. This is the history to date:

1. As purchased (used & stock performance parts with Keep reading >>

Actually, I would consider mself having pretty good luck, but not today.  See my wife is going out of town for one week, with the kids, starting this Wednesday.  I have huge off-road plans for me and my dirt bike.  That might have just changed.

Since we planned on riding on Sunday versus the normal Saturday excursion, I decided to check out the fueling and how easy the bike starts after an oil change.  The bike fired up on the first kick and idled very nicely.  I took my daughter out with me as I rode around my subdivision to warm up the oil to ease the draining process.

After the oil change, I went to kick the bike to get the new

Gone.  I had that bike for about six years now and she treated me well…after my broken ankle of course.  It was a love-hate relationship.  I hated it in the beginning until I spent time researching and fixing the Gremlins in the beast.  Afterwards, I have to say it was pretty good.  The bike never broke down or left me stranded. 

Over the years I learned to predict how the bike was going to react to upcoming events and simply rode it well.  The 426 to dirt was what the 900RR was to the street - revolutionary.  It was the leader in what is now the norm - 4-stroke motocrossers.  It just took a little time to dial it in and the

I finally finished the building of my new (to me) dirt bike.  I decided to go through the entire chassis and start over.  I also did a full service / maintenance on the bike because the previous owner was a tool even though he should not be touching them.

For new parts, I added a full exhaust system, an autoclutch system, a desert tank, brush guards, other protective wear for the bike, new rubber, and had the carb rebuilt by ZipTy Racing.  For maintenance, I changed out the fork oil, engine oil, coolant as well as greased all the chassis bearings.  I figured that I should draw a line in the sand for a fresh start on everything - knowns versus

It happens with every used motorcycle purchase I make - buyer’s remorse.  This time, I am diagnosing my 2006 YZ450F purchase.  For me, its usualy about money.  I got the bike for about $4k and have about $1300 of goodies waiting to be installed.  Doing the math, and considerring future purchases (heh - tomorrow), I’ll have $5500 into her.

There are two bike that are haunting me for very different reasons:

The first was a 2006 that was desert raced at the expert level for half of a season.  The bike was owned by a motorcycle shop owner and well maintained.  It had every goodie that I wanted (I think) except for the suspension.  He was a little heavier than me, but running

Let me start out by stating the obvious:

No pics at the moment as the bike is torn down to the frame and engine…and I’m lazy.

Even though I am building a dirt bike, this applies to street bikes too.  It’s the process of buying a perfectly good motorcycle and taking it apart in an attempt to make it better.  Actually, I call it personalization.

I recently purchased a pretty much stock 2006 YZ450F, rode it once, and took it apart.  Since buying a used dirt bike off of a stranger is a crap shoot, I wanted to have a complete set of ‘knowns’ with regards to maintenance and had to add a bunch of goodies.

For maintenance, I’m doing the following:

• New engine oil
  Keep reading >>

I found this website while browsing the ‘net and something caught my attention.  As the title states, its a guidebook about the Sturgis Rally experience.  Big deal right?  Now I have never been to Sturgis, but know many who have.  From their stories and reading many others, its about bikes, partying, and women.  And while I’m not a big partier…I love bikes and women.

What I found that was different is that this is about riding.  I can’t say that any of the Sturgis conversations I have had revolved around riding except the highway commute to get there.  This appears to be different.  Take a look at this partial description:
The Sturgis Rally Guide Book is your guide to the

One of the things I have struggled with is how to make motorcycling a family sport.  My wife likes to ride on the back of my street bike every now and then, but hasn’t in the past six years - ever since she found out she was pregnant with our first daughter.  Back then I had a Valkyrie, and ever since the bikes have been more sport oriented and not so-comfy looking for the passenger.  I now have two daughters, three & five, and as they get older I want to introduce them to the sport.

This weekend my wife went skiing in Denver with her family and I was solo with the kids.  It just so happened that a bunch of folks

As I’m holed up in Fairbanks, AK for work reasons, not much thought is going out towards motorcycles.  As I’m surfing the ‘net, in my hotel on  a river (no idea which one), a whole bunch of snowmobiles go flying by.  Ah yes, the sweet sounds of motorsports. 

Even though my dad had a cabin up north when I grew up in Michigan, we never got into snowmobiling.  We always had dirt bikes and a huge garage with plenty of space.  I guess my dad was never a cold weather creature…that means that we weren’t cold weather creatures as kids. 

My dad must have impressed upon me his dislike of snowmobiles.  He was always scared about not being able to see what’s

It seems that I have finally found the soultion to undergarment comfort when riding a motorcycle - street or dirt.  Heh - I have been WAY wrong my whole life until recently.  The reality is that I did not figure this out on my own.  A veteran rider pointed it out to me and its made a huge difference in comfort, especially when riding all day or when sweating.

I started out riding with the normal cotton underwear as the 1st layer of choice.  Why not?  That’s what I wear every day.  In fact, cotton is probably the worst thing you can wear for comfort and temperature control in both hot and cold weather.

Next, I moved on to compression shorts.  Back