Pics of your bike(s)

I manage an automotive paint supply house and the black Raptor Liner is the gold standard and the only liner that we sell pretty much.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Yeah, tank is next on the list.  Didnt have room on my table to shoot the tank as I disassembled the bags, did the rear fender, side covers, and 2 different front fenders.  I did it on a golf cart last year and it looked great.  The rationale on the road king was two fold, I like the "different" look of the liner on the bike and bike needed new tins and I know I can't do "legitimate" paintwork (Raptor hides minor bodywork flaws) and the cost for good paintwork on tins can be quite prohibitive.    Got a Road Glide to do next, debating on black again or a color.  Just waiting on the state to approve the rebuild so I can go out and enjoy it

Fat tires, studs, frozen nose hair.
 

Out checking out all the flood waters last week. 

Raced the JCTRA Hangover Scramble at Washougal MX park for the first time on January 1st.  Banger of a hangover, missed our start time and started over a lap down.  Luckily it was so miserable that almost everyone quit early, so all I had to do was tough it out / be dumb / not crash out.

Can't wait to do it again, probably with studs in the tires, though.

crankwalk (Forum Supporter) said:

Fat tires, studs, frozen nose hair.
 

Sounds like fun

Got 'em all in the garage this winter...

Don't think I've posted a picture of the FJ in a while.  Still running strong.  

won my class at the Mint 400 on the big girl, and got some roadbooks in over the holiday on the 450

In reply to gearheadE30 :

Please feel free to detail your Mint experience.  I'm not much of a desert racer, but that event is definitely on the bucket list.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the SJMC Desert 100 in Odessa, WA this year on one of the vintage bikes.

New Grips

Woot

Last summer I was looking for a nice, as near stock as possible M900 Monster. Instead I bought this. A beat to crap nowhere near stock 900ss.

The good: Ohlins shock, FCR flat slides, superbike forks.

The bad: Everything that isn't a shock a carb or a fork. 

It is a complete POS. I knew it was beat up when I bought it but dang. Negative valve clearances. Lots of play where there shouldn't be any. Brake caliper mount worn half way through by a loose bolt. Bent this, cracked that. It came with a bunch of spares. They're pretty much all junk. 

I'm trying to decide if I want to continue down this road or write it off as a parts bike. So I'm back here poking around the forum again, considering finally buying a Miata and doing tracks days in a car instead. Because buying a Miata and all the associated gear makes much more sense than spending another grand or so over what I thought this bike was going to take to get back into shape...

DesmoDog said:

I'm trying to decide if I want to continue down this road or write it off as a parts bike. So I'm back here poking around the forum again, considering finally buying a Miata and doing tracks days in a car instead. Because buying a Miata and all the associated gear makes much more sense than spending another grand or so over what I thought this bike was going to take to get back into shape...

Me 17 years ago:

Today:

Although there's nothing that matches the thrill of going fast on track with a fast bike, the consequences of falling down can be severe.  And if you're going to go fast, you will fall down.  Going fast in a car is pretty close, though.  I don't regret going to four wheels.

Everyone I knew that tracked Ducatis seriously eventually switched to Japan, Inc.  I owned an ST4S for a couple of years and it was awful.  Still love them though... LOL.   That 900SS is cool.  And I'm sure the sound is fantastic.  

In reply to Rodan :

I rode Ducatis exclusively from about 1995 to 2019 when I bought an Aprilia RSV-R to use as a track bike.  

I never bonded with it so I sold it and then bought the 900ss. In the meantime I used this for a couple track days;

I also ran my 996 and a Monster 1200S on the track. I've ridden a Japanese 600 at superbike school and a couple other Ducatis as demos. I'll never switch to a Japanese bike. Nothing against them really, I just like riding Ducatis. 

The big issue I'm struggling with switching to a car would be space and transportation. My bike trailer stores up against a wall and I can keep a bunch of them in my walkout basement in the winter. Plus I already have mulitple helmets, boots, gloves, etc...

Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado said:

In reply to gearheadE30 :

Please feel free to detail your Mint experience.  I'm not much of a desert racer, but that event is definitely on the bucket list.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the SJMC Desert 100 in Odessa, WA this year on one of the vintage bikes.

I tried to send you a forum message, but got an error back. don't want to clog this thread up too much, but here's some quick thoughts - the Mint is definitely a good bucket list race, though logistics with tech and such in Vegas and the race out of Primm can be a handful, especially if you do the parade. This year the bike course was separate from the truck course, which was a huge plus in my book. Kept the speeds down a bit, though it was very soft and whooped out by the end. Also, the race ends in the dark so lights are good to have.

Quite a few of my buddies have raced the desert 100 and they keep going back; I'm sure that would be a great one.

In reply to DesmoDog :

Sweet Aprilia. My first bike ever was a 2000.5 Rsv 1000 Mille R. By all accounts the worst bike for a new rider by every metric but I was so afraid of it that it taught me to respect the throttle of everything. Most everything else has felt kind of slow since. 

Though it is a work in progress 

2006 Kona Coiler 26" with a Rock Shox Pike U-turn 426 front shock, Fox DHX 5.0 rear shock, Shimano 105 rear derailleur and a Truvativ front sprocket. Rest of the specs is a bit of a mistory since I got it as box of spares

Here are mine: 1962 Honda 90, Me 1987 Honda MT125R, Mongoose California GT, 93 Cannondale & 2011 Beta 520RS.

Added a new one to the stables today.  2003 CRF150F with a supermoto kit.  Seems like it's pretty well set up with cr85 forks, aftermarket rear shock, and enough springrate for a healthy American adult.  Going to dip my toes into the local minimoto scene for a bit of cross training, but it will also absolutely see it's fair share of dirt ovals.  

In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado :

Ooh; nice! So...MAC track? Bol d'Oregon? Perhaps I'll see you out there!

Decided it is finally time to stop alternating between staring at this thing in amazement and being terrified of it, and got it back to starting/running today!
(Now I totally understand why some rich collectors have Italian bikes they keep inside the house, pay somebody else to maintain, and ride 1-2 times a year.) 

Not totally tuned yet, and certainly helped in starting by a bit of ether, but much closer. I've still got to check that the throttles are balanced, fine-tune the idle stops, find the tuning cable, and then connect up the laptop with the cable to check settings on the new TPS I recently installed. I'll probably take a peek at fueling and ignition while I'm in there, just to see what sort of maps are currently loaded in the ECU.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Curious your thoughts on this bike once you get some miles on it. 

New to us FT500 project!  Looks like Trouble.  :-)

In reply to sanyarcosean :

I really like that!