Half Moon Bay Pescadero mini tour
Had a short day at work and got to blaze out the door with Green Magic!
It was a beautiful day.
Creepy abandoned or semi abandoned cabins found on creepy old dirt road.
Posted in repair, Uncategorized by green
New tires installed! New chain and sprocket too!
Mileage: 62470
Just finished installing my 3rd set of tires. This time I got to use a friend’s pro tire machine. It was awesome! Both done in under 30 minutes. I never used a machine before it was pretty easy.
Airing up to set the bead was pretty simple too – a first for GM wheels which have been super hard to set in the past.
Next day I struggled trying to get the chain master link rivet style to install without the proper tools. Lots of swearing and help from friends… finally used a small socket and a C clamp that had to be borrowed as I just broke my own one trying to do the same thing.
Pressed in the pins through the plate, and then used a very tapered punch with a small anvil behind the chain and punched in / deformed the master link pins.
Was a huge relief to have that done!
Now I can go ride GM without being terrified the chain would snap and take me out or go through the cases and blow my engine. Been a nerve wracking few months here.
The SunStar aluminum rear 46 tooth sprocket was so much lighter than the all steel JT 48 tooth sprocket I put in. Incidentally, this is the first time I’ve ever ridden a ZX6E with the stock sprocket setup 16/48 teeth. GM came with a 46T on the rear.
Beautiful new JT gold X Ring chain. Hoping this setup lasts a long time!
Rode out today and my steering was completely messed up. Something was definitely wrong. Well, after hwy at 70 mph and 102 turns in the mountains I got to the destination and by this point knew my front tire was real low.
How low can you go? 6 psi front, 20 psi rear. Not good. I had no way to fill the air up last night – racing to get it done with borrowed tools.
“how fast can you change your tires with the machine?” (Me): “Uh… like, maybe 20 minutes (I had no idea – never used a machine!).
It’s all good today though. Looking forward to return trip with proper inflated tires!
Here’s the chain a few months on – and the hand bashed in master link:
Posted in repair by green
Damn, man, tired of tires.
Soo… two sets of Dunlop Q3 tires for Green Magic.
Love the grip. Love it. Blows away the Battleaxe BT016 or 023 or whatever came on the bike when I bought it.
In fact, I hit a turn I do at 50mph all the time at 35mph on a cold day and for no reason lost the front end. Bike was almost flat horizontal in the turn, I was going down and crashing, and SOMEHOW the front tire held it’s grip and I made it out crash free. In fact, I haven’t related this story anywhere yet, and I’m going to post up what the tire looked like in the slide. It was crazy. (I examined the turn at great length. No ice, no water, no oil, no reason to have a slow barely leaning bike wash out on the front end. Only thing was there were a few lined up ridges in the corner – perhaps it induced a mini speed wobble – although the handle bars didn’t shake, the bike just nearly went down to pavement suddenly.) Can’t explain but it was crazy.
What’s also crazy or driving me crazy is the service length of these tires. Both sets are completely shot at 8000 miles. I’m talking steel showing on the rear tire shot.
I only got 8-9 months on this last set. This is not my scene. I can’t live like this – at least not changing them myself with my little ghetto tool set. ( I have to go to a lending tool library to get huge wooden C Clamps to break the beads, and my wheels are a complete bitch to set the bead on – due to age / wear I guess. They always hold back setting until 60-70 psi or more which creeps me out).
Posted in Uncategorized by green