Hondamotard

Richard Dawson, the British photographer, NOT the game show host, recently got his Supermotarded out XR back from the shop. With a severe problem on my end in making some quality time to post, I reckon this would be a nice quick one.

This bike looks like so much f'in' fun I can't even stand it.

Editors are good

L. picked up on my mistake of branding the W650 a Yam instead of a Kwak. Thanks.
It is still too early, and I'm at the day-job, to ramble on how being multi-japanese dealer probably lends itself to not being able to sell bikes that don't fit the sport/cruiser/atv/dirt norm, but I reckon there is some meat to it.

It's all just a hunch, but I don't think the MT-01 presents the same challenges and opportunites that the W650 does.

Meanwhile, there were some issues that cropped up regarding my ABS I system on the BMW K100RS. I typically only write about the Beemer when something has gone wrong and thats a shame, because it has been a solid daily driver, a kind of executive sedan as I like to refer to it, but great for hauling the girl or just getting me to work or the store. It has 94K miles on it (I got it at 76K) so bits and pieces will need replacing here and there. I performed some diagonistic tests by following Brian Curry's ABS fault article, and then reported my findings to the IBMWR email list.
Suggestions and advice returned.

The next step is to remove the tank, open up the electronics box and examine/test the relay. If that is toast it might be a pricey replacement, but not as bad as the brain and I would have saved myself a bunch of time and labor costs.

Opportunities

If the Feb. '05 issue of Motorcyclist (US) magazine is any indication, Yamaha USA is a company that is happy being known for making Harley and Suzuki clones. I say this because of some comments from Bob Starr, corporate communications manager on the possibility of the interesting MT-01 muscle bike coming to America. The bike is not planned for US release so the mag, having preseted a 10-page cover story, asked him, John Hoover, COO of the AMA, the head of trans design at ACCD, a student at ACCD, a Yamaha dealer and a random rider what they thought of the bike and its chances over here.

The rider, student and trans head said the bike looked rad and would do fine. The man from Yamaha gave a dry non-commital answer comparing it to the FJR1300, how public demand can sway the company from not importing to importing. While saying this though, he did say that he suspects this bike will be a different "situation". Which I took to mean that while people wanted and wanted the FJR, and eventually Yamaha imported it, that he did not feel the MT-01 had the same future. Blah.

The COO of the AMA sounds like a familiar old school grump. We're a sportsbike and cruiser country, he states, the MT does not fit in. He also speculates on how many bikes a company needs to sell and the legal requirement that they support the bike with parts for seven years. This of course costs money that if the bike is not a big seller, it is not worth the outlay.
The dealer compares its to a bike that Kawasaki (corrected from Yam) made to replicate an old British bike, I mean really replicate, not create a new version of or a stunning new item like the MT. His fear was that, like the W650 a bike that looked exactly like a 40 year old Triumph save minus the leaks, people would love it but not buy it.

All this nay-no irritated me for a few days, until I realized what an opportunity this could be for a company that was not as concervative as Yamaha seems to be. I think that the idea that this country is only about sportbikes and cruisers is self-fulfilling. I think its easy for Yamaha dealers, often large multi-brand dealerships to stick to this plan because it is like selling used cars and helps in terms of volume. Salesmen don't have to do much actual selling except figure out if a buyer wants to tear around, cruise around or muck around in the dirt. Why should Yamaha spend time and money, maybe losing money, on a Very Cool Thing?

Because if they won't then someone else will. Someone else will take the time to make a great product, maybe introduce something different, new or challenging, while taking the time to expose people to it and giving their dealer network the tools needed to sell the dang thing.

KTM's head honcho Stefan Pierer: "You can't compete with established companies in the streetbike market by copying thier products. You have to do it your own way, or not at all." Amen.

Droppin' the tranny

Welp, Stizzle has been the fuse that finally dynamited the old XT engine out of the frame and onto the floor. It was then moved to a makeshift table. While I'm still getting spark, the compression is long gone.

So far all we have done is, besides resetting the cramped work area and buying some new tools, is move the rest of the bike to the side and take the lid off of the guts. Once we had it on the makeshift work bench the top of the engine was cleaned reasonably well, well enough that there would not be large chunks of gunk falling into the belly of the engine once it is opened.

The next tentative steps were to remove the rocker covers and then the rocker box. This involved trying to set the valves at the desired position and then carefully unloosening about 10 bolts, some hex, some not, in a particular pattern as per the manual. Then we could remove the rocker box and stare down at the bare camshaft and the top of the valve springs and the timing chain. It's all shiny, but dark metal, real innards.

And thats where we left it. Suddenly I could not seem to make heads or tails of what the manual was telling us to do next, and it was getting late and our bellys were growling after a long day of junior wrenching.

Since then we have gone in halves on an Ultrasonic Cleaner, a peculiar electronic gadget that supposedly cleans on the molecular level. Stizzle had been interested in these things for the last couple of months so he researched 'em on eBay and we bit.
Unfortunately this weekend will see zero progress as the house will be tented for termites. The girl and I are headed for the desert.

Bike Week

The AMA racing season starts this Saturday in Daytona, Florida. The week before it is called Bike Week, and sounds like an older version of Spring Break.

Anyway, from the Duacti list I am a member of, I was pointed to Arch's growing gallery if images from his sightseeing this week.

Here.

There are a bunch of shots of the teams setting up, contemporary race bikes and such, but also a grip of shots of the vintage racers. Man!

1200R

A gallery of images of the new BMW K1200R. Boom.

If you nav around a touch, change the language settings to english will help, Michael has a grip of pics of the K1200S (not just promo pics either).

Lookin' cold over there.

Mayhem

Noted this morning over at BoingBoing is the new series to be found at MNFTIU, "MOTORCYCLE MAYHEM".
Only two episodes so far, so get in on the ground floor!

More Loud

In addition to it being a lovely day here, there is a new post over at Steve Munro's Loud Bike.

A bit of vicarious living is involved here as Munro has a number of things that I wish I did now and am working toward in the future; knowledge and skill in moto-repair, a cool ass place to work on 'em, a few extra bucks available for sending some bike bits out to be professionally upgraded or restored, and a collection (past and present) of frikken nice machines. What comes with the territory, unfortunately, is how he recently got jacked on eBay by some chump.

It's a cool site with some good stories about nice gear. The only thing I would change would be to make sure the pics were a bit smaller (k) wise. I'm a frequent checker of the Loud Bike.

Meanwhile work has begun anew on the Yamaha 500 XT. With a bunch of help from Stizzle I got off my tail and we put the carb and airbox back on the bike. We cleaned a few more parts and then filled it with motor oil. We put some gas in the tank and tried to start it.

No luck.

My hopes were almost non-existant as I just know that the compression is low to none. I should be able to stand on the kick starter for a few seconds or so before it slowly pushes through, as is, we can move it through its range of motion without even messing with the compression release.

But, we are almost certain that the fuel delivery system is ok. The carb was cleaned out last year and rebuilt and there is a new air filter. The last we checked there was spark. Although this should probably be rechecked.
What is involved next? I am not sure, but I think it may have to do with taking the motor out of the frame to take the head off. Yowza!