SwampNut

Meguiar's was my absolute favorite until I tried the Crystal Glo.

Depends on how long it takes me to put on the gloves and helmet. 15-30 seconds I guess. If your XX isn't ready to ride the second you start it, you should fix the problem it obviously has.

Anything with PTFE is a scam. Dupont stopped selling Teflon to people like this because even they said it's just a scam; it can't work when applied this way. Crystal Glo bike polish is the best thing I've found. Amazingly slick polymer coating. Their bike wash even removes Chain Wax. Highly recommended. See the reviews section of the site for links.

Love competition. Watch Cycle Gear for sales, then the prices get phenomenal. The end-of-season stuff often goes for 50% off, sometimes even more.

No problem at all. You can also order the flash-to-pass switch assembly through your dealer. Part number is on the site.

I'm one tooth down on the countershaft. I like to pass WFO and accelerate hard any chance I get, as well as riding around on one wheel whenever possible. However, when riding fast around corners, I don't know how hard I'm riding out of corners. I mean, I like the acceleration a lot, but I try to be very smooth and trade the cornering/lean for acceleration slowly as I straighten up. I do know that road surface makes a big difference too.

That reminds me. On the ride I noticed just what a HUGE difference the re-valving makes. The XX behind me was stock, and his headlight was really annoying bouncing all over the place like crazy. Mine was rock steady.

My pressures have been 37-38 in the rear and 36-37 front. I think that higher isn't always better. I know with car tires at some point higher pressure results in more center wear. I don't know if this is true with bike tires. Here's something to think about...maybe with higher pressures you get more slippage under high loads, which wears more than simply having lower pressures? I don't KNOW this to be true, but think it's a reasonable theory. My contact at Avon says he runs his own at about 36/38. I don't do burnouts, but I do wheelie a lot. I've got edge-to-edge wear but I also commute a lot and do long touring rides, so the center is worn much more. At 7650 miles now, the center barely has a hint of groove left. This is more worn than I normally take a tire, but I couldn't find one on the road. Seems fine though, no sign of any issues. I know I've seen people ride them to the cords, so I guess it's safe unless it rains.

I had this problem on the way to Cody...right after I pulled the tank bag down with the key still in the fuel door. :shock: I got the Leatherman out and straightened it, then had to file some small burrs off of it. That could have really sucked. Like others said, compressed air cleaning followed with some powdered graphite should do it. Ace or any locksmith shop will have a $1 tube of powdered graphite, just sprinkle a bit into the lock and/or on the key. It's something you should do as a preventative to all your locks anyway.

Well, at just over 7500 miles (corrected for speedo error) my rear is definitely shot. You can barely make out the tread lines in the center. The front, as with most of the Avons, seems to be good for about two rears, or nearly so. The rear is flattened but gently, so there isn't a ridge as with all the other brands I've tried. It is still neutral in turns, except right in the area of a slight lean where it rolls onto the flatter center. Phenomenal performance, and the life is nearly as long as the crap touring tires like the D205 and BT57.

Air tools. Man, working on the bike is so much easier with those.

BTW, the sugar industry coalition announced last month that it will sue the WHO if they publish the new recommendations they have sitting on a shelf, because it includes a suggestion to seriously reduce sugar intake. The WHO has already seen the link between these problems, but the study and recommendations are shelved due to the political and legal pressures. The sugar industry says there is not enough evidence and promoting this would hurt their business. :burn: Lynx, when TJ gives an explanation like he has here, I find that it's a great answer I can use, unlike most other sources. I've taken his info to be able to do more research, and find everything to be perfectly accurate. If you're concerned about this, then just read his info a couple times and fully understand it. I don't recall you being around before, are you eating low carb yet, or just starting to think about it?

Yeah, but remember I'm not a "real" hispanic. I'm whiter than you are...pure Spaniard. It think the hispanic/diabetes connection is from the American Indian mix, isn't it? I know they have huge diabetes problems themselves. Never ate any of that stuff, but our diet does include a lot of carbs in the form of rice and black beans, yuca (a starchy root), and of course all the desserts. Funny thing though that we don't generally have fat issues though we eat fat like crazy. I mean...pork skin fried in pork fat should be a coronary in a bag. That's the first concise, understandable explanation I've ever seen. Oh, shit, I remember and use what you told me about fried breaded foods all the time. For some reason I didn't connect the ice cream with that. Who'd have thought of ice cream as health food?? :grin: Never thought of that. That's right, they live a zero-carb diet through lack of availability. Is that culture/diet worth studying a bit? With my mom, it was easy. She immediately cut back on carbs when she found out about the diabetes (though it is apparently mild). This was before she knew what I was doing. Then I explained to her about ketosis and the value of not just cutting back, but going to near-zero. She's doing it, quite faithfully. Lost 20# right away (good for 5'2"). My uncle is a lost cause, but his wife is going that way. My dad makes fun of us low-carbers. He's never been diagnosed diabetic. On a lark, and kind of as a "control," we tested him one night to compare to ourselves. He was 187 after a meal. :shock: He does change habits when presented with necessity, and he quit smoking cold turkey, so he may be easy to change. So if I properly get the gist of what you say... Even though 147 is outside the normal range of after-meal blood sugar, I shouldn't worry about it? The sugar symptoms I had before I started this diet though, aren't they some indicators? I mean, I always had sugar problems, but didn't know it until I cut them out.

No, that's fine, just change the front sprocket.

Add a link? :shock: That would be a challenge, and I've always heard you should not have two masters for some reason.

All aftermarket rears are aluminum. They will wear very fast on a heavy, powerful bike. The stock rear is good for at least two chains. It's much easier to go down one in the front. AFAM makes a decent sprocket, I'm on my second one (third chain). But on your question...no, the stock chain won't fit.

There's also a "watch this topic for replies" link at the bottom left of every thread. That will e-mail you when that thread gets a response. If it gets 10 responses before you come back though, you only get one e-mail. Also, at the top right of the main page there is a "new posts since last visit" link.

I'm trying to figure out two things. First, why I feel so crappy and tired when I eat "normally." I have lots of the diabetic symptoms. Second, why my blood sugar after eating is exactly the same as my mom's, who has diabetes. Resting sugar level is normal though. The testing for diabetes seems dubious to me.

Interesting. I expected the spike more with the simple sugars. Would activity levels, or other things, cause the reaction to carbs to be different?

TJ, I figure you have some info on this since you seem to have all the carb-related info anybody could want... Pretty much everybody in my family is diabetic. Just learned in the last few months that my mom has it, and may have just accidentally discovered that my dad does too. Uncles & aunts do, though not grandmother. Now, much of this I'm sure is partly due to all of them being overweight, but it was enough to worry me. I did have some diabetic symptoms anyway (though most went away on the low-carb diet). So, I bought a blood sugar test kit, and on a cheat day stuck myself. 147 about 90 minutes after a meal with higher carbs than usual. Shit. That happened twice. Each time I also had my usual symptoms of eating carbs; drowsiness, thirs. However, yesterday I ate a decent amount of ice cream, and 90 minutes later was only 104. No sugar symptoms. Weird. My fasting level is around the 90's, perfectly normal. So...any idea if eating low-carb then "shocks" the body into not being able to handle the carbs? Was it just a matter of my body not being ready? What's a decent way to get some accurate test results (don't say "doctor" because they have been totally useless so far on my sugar/tiredness issues). Besides, from what I can see, they don't do much more than what I can do at home. I need help interpreting the results, but two docs have been useless at that with my grandmother too.

I'm very happy about it, and shocked at how easy it was. I mean, it took a lot of conscious effort to learn about foods and how they affect the body, to come up with suitable meals, etc. But it wasn't "hard" in the sense of cravings or feeling like I was hungry or unhappy about my food intake.

I've had all these, and my order of preference/protection level would be: Givi Cheetah Stock Double Bubble varieties (had ZG and Powerbronze) I still have the Powerbronze, anybody want it cheap?

It's all about power levels. Fine for the small bikes, MIGHT make the clutch slip in more powerful bikes. Note that if you have very minor slippage you may not notice but will just wear or glaze the clutch sooner.

Doesn't hurt anything. But if you ride my bike and do that, I'll come bust your kneecaps with a ball peen hammer after I spend 30 minutes checking all my fuses.