I know my limits!

OK, I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with my 748 for some time now and finally gave up and took it down to GP Motorcycles so they can figure it out. For those of you who don’t know, when I bought the bike the brakes were pulsing. I figured that it was just warped rotors and replaced them and the pads. This cleared the pulsing but created another problem in that the wheel did not want to spin freely. It would turn but you could tell that something was causing the wheel to not spin totally freely. But it stopped just fine so I figured I would take it to the track:

Well, it ran fine but was still binding. A few weeks later I attended another track day but the problem persisted and actually got worse.

It has been at my buddy Kyle’s place for the past few months as we traded all of his parts for mine (he had crashed his 748 at that last track day). We just could not figure it out. We tried replacing everything and finally replaced the axle. Well, that helped a LOT. We got it to spin pretty well but could not get the “squishy-ness” out of the brakes no matter how many times we bled them. We also noted that the left rotor was actually bending when we applied the brake. So, I finally admitted defeat and took it down to get the pros to look at it.

Wish me luck!

Brakes…I don’t need no brakes!

I recently bought a 748. I got a great deal on it and even rode it at the track. Now I am having brake problems. The first symptom was when I first bought the bike. It had a lot of shaking when I would apply the brakes. I figured that it was simply my rotors and I replaced them.

Well, I lost the shudder and shake but the calipers were really binding. Damn! My buddy Kyle completely disassembled my calipers and they looked just fine. Last night we reassembled everything, added fluid, bled the brakes…and they still were binding! We noticed that the left one was really grabbing. So much that it was actually flexing the rotor. Our next thought is that the caliper is bad so we swapped it out with one of his good ones. Still binding and flexing the rotor. Hmmmm…

Our next plan is to replace the other one too with our thought process being that the one caliper is over compensating because of either a block in the hose or the other caliper. Man, I really miss that bike and cannot wait to get it up and running again!

748 in its natural habitat…the track!

I recently took my “new” bike to the track. The day started off really rough for me though. The bike just did not handle well at all and was very much less than confidence inspiring. I ended up taking it to Dave Moss from Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning who came out to our track day. WOW! That is all that I can say. Dave just did an amazing job of setting the bike up and getting the suspension right. I could not believe the difference that it made in my riding and my confidence in the bike.

Enough talk…here are some pics. My body positioning still sucks though. I really need more track time and some more schooling to help me with that.

DOCSD Track Day #2

Took the 748 to the track yesterday and had a great time. We were at The Streets of Willow for this track day which is a much tighter and more technical track than the big track. The 748 did really well although it took some time for both me and my bike to get dialed in. My suspension really needed setting up and I went to Dave from Catalyst who was available. For $20 he sets the sag, rebound, and compression. The rear was really off of where it should be and setting the sag made a big difference for me. The front was pretty good but he made a couple of small rebound adjustments and everything was perfect after that.

Well, almost perfect. During the second to last session of the day my bike started to cut out. I thought that maybe I was low on fuel (although we did not get many sessions in that day) and I managed to limp it back to the pits. Once there I checked the gas and it was fine. I then tried to start her again and nothing but clicks. So, the troubleshooting is going to begin. I will take the battery in to see if it will hold a charge. If it will then that means that something else is wrong. I just ordered the Haynes manual and hopefully that will help me shed light on the problem. Thank goodness I own two bikes!

I will have pics posted in the next few days along with a possible update on my bike!

My “new” 748

So, I have obviously been slacking in my duties on this site. I have finally got off of my lazy butt and took some pics of my “new” 748. I really like this bike but have not had much of an opportunity to ride it much. It needs new front brake rotors as the existing ones are warped. Other than that it seems to be just fine!

My primary motivation for buying this bike was my desire for a more track oriented bike. My Multistrada will do 98% of what I want from it but that extra 2% needs a more track focused bike. That is where the 748 comes in. The riding position is much more condusive for moving around on the bike and lowering my center of gravity. That combined with higher pegs will allow me to go faster much more safely on the track. I like the 748 specifically because I am able to really wring out that motor and use most of if not all of the power it has.

Well, enough writing. Here are the pics:

I’m such a slacker…

I was supposed to have pics by now but I have just been too lazy to do them. But, it is Festa this weekend and will be taking plenty of pics of both the Multi and 748. In fact I am going to be heading down to TJ this afternoon to pick up my plastics. Thanks a million Pedro! He pushed my work through really quickly so it could be done by Festa and I really, really appreciate it.

After a week of riding the 748 I got back on the Multi. Man, I forgot just how much I love that bike. It is such a fun riding machine. I always get a grin when I ride her and it really makes me appreciate her handling, acceleration, riding position, etc. She is just a great bike that is so confidence inspiring.

I am also teaching myself HTML and CSS. I figured that I need to learn that so I can improve on this site more and more. I want to create a nice photo album but I don’t like any of the plug-ins that are available so I will need to just start from scratch. Wish me luck!