I finally got around to doing something I should have done months and months ago!   I decided this morning that when I got off work I was going to take my bike over for repairs!  As my last post proclaimed, “In with the new,” evidently meant, into my house, not onto my bike.   In addition to getting the new tires installed, I’m also having them look at my front wheel speed sensor, which I believe is the problem (my speedometer and odometer stopped working last summer).   This means that I have no idea how many miles have passed since the displayed 41991 miles.  My front brake lever is messing up too, not activating the brake light properly.  So hopefully all will go well, and the damage won’t be too significant to my wallet! 

One thing of note, when the mechanic during checkout got back from the bike to get the mileage, he said, “That’s the most miles I’ve seen on an SV!”  And I think I’ve got another 5-10k miles that haven’t been registered!  Take that you fair weather riders!:)

The new upgraded tires, Avon Storm ST. A dual compound sport-touring tire, that is supposed to change shape based on what area of the tire is making contact. Hopefully yielding better performance, and a longer wear.

Powered by Zoundry Raven

The Shinkos will soon be on their way out! I’m not sure what kind of mileage these stupid Shinko Raven’s have, but lets say I’ve been less than pleased with their wear patterns, and performance, from day one. They were cheap, and that’s seriously about the only thing they have going for them.

The front tire has had irregular wear patterns, that I’m pretty sure were there from the manufacturer, and have actually got slightly better with mileage. When first installed, on deceleration if you realeased your hands from the bars, the whole front end of the bike would start to wobble badly. It was freaky the first time I noticed it coming down a hill at 60mph. The front has developed cracks in the rubber as well, they’ve been on the bike over since the summer of 2006, and have been quite weatherbeaten, through hot desert conditions, high humidity in the Midwest, tons of rain, and cold weather (parked outside).

The rear Shinko hasn’t done much better, showing center wear after only a couple thousand miles, now sporting a nice, wide, flat spot down the center of the tire. This isn’t a desired feature for instilling confidence in the rider on sweaping corners, where the tire can feel skiddish when the road surface hits that transition on the tire tread. As with the front, the rear shows signs of rubber deterioration, cracking, etc, and inconsistant tire wear.

Here are a few photos of the old tires:

I finally got around to replacing my brake pads on the SV. I was over at Aurora Suzuki picking up some oil changing products, and just asked if they had the pads in stock. They did. I have to say up until the last month or so, the current pads were still doing a pretty good job, but seriously, how far can you push the bike’s original pads. That’s right, I was still riding on the originals, after aproximately 50k miles. I’m not sure how long they’re supposed to last, but I’m guess most people would have had them replaced a while back. Anyway, I had some trouble with the back caliper, the piston kept pushing out, it took a long time to get the timing right, to wedge a large flat bladed screw driver in there, push the piston in, then quickly wedge the pad assembly into the space. After doing some hard test stopping over the past 100 miles, the pads have seated nicely, and are providing some excellent stopping power.

This is just a notice to anyone looking at my blog…I’m sorry that the photos aren’t showing up.  I’ve been posting photos on here since I started this blog, by using a link to the actual photo on my Smugmug account.  Well, this has been been a problem lately.  Photos haven’t been showing up consistently, and right now, I’m noticing that the smugmug website is actually down.  I’ve been hesitant to upload photos to WordPress, not knowing what limitations they had, but found out that they allocate 3gb of space, so uploading photos shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve tried it tonight with several posts using different programs to upload the post and photo directly to the WordPress site.  It seems to be working, so I’m going to go with that.  In addition to simply finishing up my posts regarding our Utah trip, I’m going to have to go back and modify current posts, and upload the corresponding photos.  It may take a bit, but please keep checking back, and hopefully you’ll see some fun/cool photos you hadn’t seen before.  Thanks as always for looking at my blog, and if you enjoy a post, leave a comment, it at the very least lets me know if something is wrong, or something is right, either with content or performance of the blog.  Thanks!  Anders

-posted via Windows Live Writer beta-

So I was was on my way to work on the SV the other morning at 5:30a.m.  I pull onto the freeway, accelerating down the onramp.  I’m I’m not sure how fast I was going (my speedo/odometer still aren’t working), but I would guess about 60mph, from the engine speed and gear I was in.  Over the noise of the bike and the wind, I hear this really loud screeching/scrapping noise.  What was that!?

I look in my right mirror, and see my right side case sliding down the road, behind me.  I immediately slowed down and stopped on the shoulder.  I walked back in the dark and retrieved the case, which apart from being a little scraped up, appeared to be otherwise intact.  It didn’t come apart, and no structural damage was noted.
Though it could have been a lot worse, especially if they bag had gone out into a lane of traffic, or hit a vehicle in the air, it was pretty funny to see it sliding down the road in the mirror!

Afterward, I think I can remember this vague thought in my head, when I attached it to the side rack, that the “click” when I attached it, sounded odd.  Possibly because it didn’t fully engage the locking mechanism.

I guess the main point, is that I have not only lost a helmet off a cliff while it was on my bike, now I’ve also lost a piece of luggage from my bike.  What else…?:)

-posted via Windows Live Writer Beta – Uploaded photo

So I was was on my way to work on the sv the other morning at 5:30a.m. I pull onto the freeway, accelerating down the onramp. I’m I’m not sure how fast I was going (my speedo/odometer still aren’t working), but I would guess about 60mph, from the engine speed and gear I was in. Over the noise of the bike and the wind, I hear this really loud screeching/scrapping noise. What was that!?

I look in my right mirror, and see my right side case sliding down the road, behind me. I immediately slowed down and stopped on the shoulder. I walked back in the dark and retrieved the case, which apart from being a little scraped up, appeared to be otherwise intact. It didn’t come apart, and no structural damage was noted.
Though it could have been a lot worse, especially if they bag had gone out into a lane of traffic, or hit a vehicle in the air, it was pretty funny to see it sliding down the road in the mirror!

Afterward, I think I can remember this vague thought in my head, when I attached it to the side rack, that the “click” when I attached it, sounded odd. Possibly because it didn’t fully engage the locking mechanism.

I guess the main point, is that I have not only lost a helmet off a cliff while it was on my bike, now I’ve also lost a piece of luggage from my bike. What else…?:)

met of mine and a piece of my luggage fly off my bike:)

-posted via blogdesk-

Last night was pretty fun! We went into the championship game against a team we lost to twice, before we finally won near the end of the season. We were all stoked to be playing and couldn’t imagine loosing this game, to these guys!

We came out skating, putting the first goal of the game in the net around four minutes into the game. Four minutes later, the Ligers came back and scored a tying goal. We were kinda irritated about that, as we didn’t give Kevin much support on it. Two minutes later, the “Mexican Line” got it going again, with Juan Scoring a nice goal, and that line scored the next 3 goals, putting us up 5-2 in the 3rd period. The Ligers scored once more, but that wasn’t enough! Jay scored a final goal with about a minute left to put us up 6-2, and we finished the game, with the bench celebrating onto the ice!:)

2008 GSHL Div 8 Summer Champions – Gang Green

I’m meeting some teammates over at the ice arena in Renton to watch the above teams duke it out! Whoever wins this game plays us for the summer championship next Monday. I’m hoping that we have a good turnout to watch the game!:)

The next ride is going to be up to Mt. Rainier on Saturday! I’m super stoked, this is only the second real ride this year so far, the first being the penninsula ride I did back in May. I haven’t really planned any specific route, I suppose I’ll figure that out the morning of. I’ll post some pics and such when i get back!:)