Mykl

I think you guys are right. I put the bike on stands and put it in gear. The chain was all over the place when the throttle was applied to accelerate the rear wheel. The chain should be nice and tight against the sprockets when power is being pushed through it, right? It's irritating because the chain is almost brand new. I replaced it last Fall. But since the bike hasn't been ridden too much I haven't been lubing it nearly as much as I should. The bike sits outside under a tarp. I guess maybe the moisture got to it and some of the links got rusted. At least I *hope* that's all it is. It seems to make sense....

My bike has 27,000 miles on it. It sat for a month, I started it up and went for a ride and it was making a bad sound. The best way I can describe it is like a chain rubbing against a hollow metal pipe, like an exhaust pipe. But it's not the drive chain, it's adjusted correctly. When I bog the bike down in a higher gear at 2000 RPM's and accelerate it does it quite prominently. Otherwise it mainly only does it at part throttle beginning at 4000-5000 RPM's and does it on and off until redline. It makes the noise at full throttle, but not so much, not so loud, and still on and off through the rev range. It doesn't seem to affect rideability at all, because the bike still rides great and there's no loss of power. The noise doesn't appear to be vehicle speed dependent, although I can barely hear it in the first two gears. That makes me think that it's engine speed dependent, but it won't make the noise if the bike is free revving in neutral. I'm going to change the oil tomorrow to make sure there's nothing bad in the crank case. But if that's not it, what the heck could it be? I'm stumped and I'm trying to sell this bike. I want the money, but I really can't sell somebody a broken machine. I changed the CCT today... and the noise is still there.

Yeah man, because I wasn't actually just posting my opinion of what looks good and what doesn't... I was actually just trying to insult YOU. :roll: Saved!

Yeah man, because I wasn't actually just posting my opinion of what looks good and what doesn't... I was actually just trying to insult YOU. :roll:

I don't clean my chain very often, maybe ever time I change the oil. I just keep it well lubed.

I think it looks really tacky. But that's just me.

Mykl you need to set your suspension up alittle better or have someone do it for you. If your pushing coming out of a corner, raise your forks a mm or 3 and see if it helps. Mines raised 5mm in the triples and the back is up 7-8mm. She handles and corners quite well for a heavy fat pig! I run through a set of tires on the RC every 2000-2500 miles, its normal for the tire eaten RC with me anyway. I run soft to medium tires on her all the time. Well, something else I found out recently was that my stock shock had an other than stock spring on it. I didn't know any different, but apparently the stock rear spring is red, and the spring on mine is blue. I have absolutely no idea if it's harder or softer or whatever... So really it's hard telling what exactly is going on with my bike. I have the rear raised about 5mm's and I haven't messed with the front. The suspension is five years old with nearly 30,000 miles on it so I'm thinking about doing some major work to it soon.

I'm really curious to hear about the mileage people can get out of Pilot Powers. If I can get 4000-5000 miles out of a rear, I think I could be content with the longevity. Also, concerning tire slippage and the Avons... aside from as a result of a few ham fisted downshifts I haven't been able to get my rear tire to lose grip. What I do experience is understeer. Maybe it's because I'm taking the wrong line, or my front suspension is worse off than the rear suspension is, but when I start rolling on the juice my bike always starts to push wide well before the rear gives me any negative vibes. As you can see in my signature, I am pretty aggressive.

My RC51 killed a rear M1 every 2000 miles. I wish I could let myself go with something more aggressive than the Avon 45/46 combo for the XX. I'm sure that'd make my runs up highway 28 to Deal's Gap all that much more fun. Maybe when I get out of an apartment and into a house where I'll have a place to do tire changes I'll try something more sticky.

I'm thinking about dropping mine back down. With all the hyperextensions and straight leg deadlifts I've been doing at the gym my back is now the very last thing that bothers me while riding.

http://www.aerostich.com/product.php?produ...&cat=266&page=1 I bought this one recently. So far so good.

Man, I love my EBC HH pads and Galfer SS lines. I swear I felt the rear tire skimming off the ground this last weekend going into a couple of turns at Deal's Gap. Did you still think that exhaust was too loud even with earplugs in?

Hopefully my bike came from the factory with these self healing skills.

I just did the wire brush thing today, just because I didn't have any baking soda. First thing I did was made an attempt at checking the memory. I used a wire in the service check connector. I turned the ignition on, with the kill switch in the "on" (flipped so the bike would start) position. I got nothing, the FI light stayed on, no blinking... just solid. I tried it with the kill switch in the other position, and the FI light wouldn't come on at all when I turned the ignition to on. When I tried to reset the memory, still no blinking, which may be what happens when there's nothing to reset. I'd pull the wire out of the service check connector and the FI light would stay on, and wouldn't turn off. If I pulled the wire, and plugged it back in, same result... light stayed solid, no blinking. I took a wire brush to the battery terminals and the ground wires that connect to the frame right by where the gas tank bolts to the frame. They didn't look *bad*, the positive terminal certainly looked like it was a lot happier after cleaning it, but it didn't seem like it was bad enough to cause a problem. Same thing with the grounds, not perfectly clean, but not horridly bad either. But I'm not sure how bad it needs to be to cause any issues. After I got everything buttoned up again I started the bike, and let it run until it got hot. FI light stayed dead. Maybe this whole thing was just a fluke. What I tell my customers at work is that if I can't duplicate the error I can't fix it. I suppose the same logic holds true in this case.

I guess I'll bring the pressure up to 41F/43R to see how that feels if you guys are saying the tires will last longer that way.