New Season New Issues?

FINALLY the weather is Ok for riding!
It was a LONG Dreary winter and getting on the bike has been such a relief.

BUT... First I had two oil leaks.

One from the left side of the crankcase from the Starter Clutch Cover. Why? Who the fuck knows!
It started over the winter and wasn't too bad but any leak is a problem so I had to fix it. lucky for me i accidentally bought a starter clutch cover gasket when what I wanted was a Clutch cover gasket . i could have sent it back but at the time i figured hey why not? It was only a few dollars.

GOOD CALL  :) .

Number two leak was the drain Plug. I didn't document it but I had striped the oil pan threads last year during an oil change . I know, I know rookie move.  Being a little rushed (by me ,part of my personality issues?) I went with a self taping replacement drain plug. I would have prefered a helicoil but that wasn't possible at the time.It worked great but the provided washer was a soft washer and not so hot and it was leaking too. BTW this is after an oil change that i had to do to replace that starter Clutch cover gasket. Why didn't I change it during the oil change you say? I forgot to get a new gasket. And as I don't have my own place to work on it I was in a friend's driveway ,inconveniently distant from a place to get one.

I  decided to replace it with a copper  washer thinking that would be a much better solution.

NOPE

So after Draining the oil replacing the soft washer with copper and refilling the bike with the drained oil. It was if anything WORSE.  I revisited Canadian Tire got a fresh lot of Oil ,filter and a soft washer. Did yet ANOTHER oil change( using Castrol 4 stroke Motorcycle oil rather than my prefered Mobil1 Full Synthetic.  Due to cost mostly. 1/2 price and i wasn't sure it wasn't going to leak all over after all this)  .

Success ! No leaks for a almost a week and about 500 Km's.

All Good!

Or Not so much?

On Sunday I took San out for Brunch on the Bandit. We then did few errands ,on the way to our last stop suddenly the throttle got sloppy I was pretty sure that my Pull throttle cable had broken as it has been frayed since last year. I have a replacement but it's a bit of a job getting it on so I haven't tackled it yet. So after we got home I took  the bike over to a close by culdesac and pulled the tank to have a look. lucky me the pull cable had just come loose on the carb mount and is was just a few minutes to sort out. at least a couple of hours to change the cable ,I have to remove the carbs to do it.

After a little adjustment it was better than ever :)

But I noticed something interesting while I was doing this work. Could it be that my poor old Bandit had a Cold? Or was it spring allergies? Or...

Well not literally of course , if you think motorcycles have allergies or get colds maybe your grip on reality is a little loose?

It DID sneeze though!

For Reals!!

Only it's not allergies or a cold of course. The Bandit had what is known a a "Lean Sneeze" over a Maximum Suzuki . A well known condition bandits are prone to ,especially when stock and running very lean. What happens is that due to the lean condition a cylinder will fire prematurely while the intake valve is actually open  sending a little explosion back through the carb. This is NOT a good thing. Now I  am not stock ,I have a Holshot Stage 1 jet kit so I was not expecting to see the rubber intake pipe bulge while i was looking at the left side of the engine close up and listening. However it definitely "Lean Sneezed"

The good thing is as I said it's a known condition. The first thing to check is the idle mixture screww so i checked and it was pretty much the 3.5 turns out recommended by Dale Walker. I'm not 100% certain I've fixed it but I've sent the idle mixture screw on Cylinder #1  to 4 turns out instead of the 3.5 turns and preliminary results look good. The Bike actually felt a little stronger  on last nights ride and one of the most annoying noises it makes appears to be gone. I've been looking at the other 3 cylinders to see if it was happening on them too but so far so good:)

That's enough for now. More to follow

RAIN!

Got caught in the rain last night.

Normally no fan LOL

Last night after my usual trepidation and worry I suddenly got it. It just stopped being a worry.

Maybe because I was following someone slow I was able to relax and just build up to speed.

On the way home I was on the 401 going faster than I can remember in the rain. It was a bit of magic. I felt so alive.

And wet. But Alive.

It was an affirmation of life .

An affirmation of me.

After the emotional roller coaster i put myself through the last month or so It was so good to feel that connection to my passion again.

I plan on connecting again. Maybe in safer conditions . Or Not.

PD13

Friday the thirteenth in Port Dover .

Had NO interest in going this year but a good friend wanted a riding companion so I went.

It was not a classic ride. 407 to Burlington and 403/6 the rest of the way.

But it was great ride. My MP3 player was serving up great tunes all the way there, it was sunny and warm and the highway was empty most of the way. My friend was riding very well with me and I never had to worry about where she was. The OPP were out in force but we had no problems .

Somewhere in Oakville I had a bit of an Epiphany . I was looking at a Field of yellow flowers and it dawned on me that i have a great life. Yes people I love have cancer and I was just dumped and it hurts. But I had 3 three great months with a great woman already this year and I've had lots of great moments over the last two years with a couple of others. Some people never get that . I've felt as though I've touched some souls. And definitely felt loved . Nothing in life can compare and I am so lucky to have had that. After a bleak period I am looking forward to more relationship adventures . It may turn out as bad but I think I can handle it now knowing that the pain is worth the connection. And it is.

As for Dover? Same old thing .  Cruiser after Cruiser after Cruiser with a scattering of scooters and real motorcycles . :) Sportbikes in other words!

I bought a t-shirt ( NO Skulls,No Knives,No Choppers It has a spark plug. Ftting for a guy with the Nickname Tinker) I saw  a few friends and we left at lunch time getting home before the rain.

A very good day .

Jets

I finally got those new jets in.

Fuck me i love it.

Smooth as silk on acceleration.

And no popping on Decel. I fucking hated that.

Great bike made better.

Sanity

The bike keeps me sane.
there's no other Way to put it.
The weather is driving me mad right now .
Intellectually I know it's early April and riding weather is unlikely on any given day.
But the few warm days we have had have spoiled me .
I NEED to ride SOON.
And guess where I will be over the long weekend.
200km's away from my bike that's where.
They better have Rum.

The Bandit

So about the bike. It (not SHE it’s inanimate!) is a 2001 Suzuki Bandit GSF 1200S, it has 54000 or so Km’s on the odometer and I absolutely love it. It does not have a name. I don’t get the name thing.

It’s not perfect. There are more comfortable, faster, more fuel efficient and possibly better looking bikes. But not by enough to make a difference to me. I’m just not skilled enough to hit these bikes limits. Someday maybe but not now maybe after I go to a race school. .
This particular bike was bought used in 2008 for $4700. I could have got one cheaper but that’s life and I don’t care. It is a second generation Bandit 1200 and 2001 was the only year they came in Red in Canada. I have no idea why as the red is spectacular. Really, it looks way better than the far more common silver and blue. Of course YMMV on the colour. (Red is the FASTER colour of course)

The basics are this. Inline 4 Cylinder engine 1200cc’s (Ok 1157 sheesh!) DOHC, 16 valves, 485 lbs and it’s RED.

I want to Mod a bunch of things but have not done everything I want to yet. I’ll be on a newer Bandit before I get everything done unless I win a lottery. Of course that brings up the question “If it’s so great why mod?” To which I answer because I can. If I had a Harley (No Chance but that’s a whole other topic) I’d be chroming it up like mad. Because that’s what Harley guys do. Ok that’s my impression but I do have some evidence. If I had a BMW I would be modding it, Honda likewise. And so on. It’s a customizing thing that every rider I know does. Different Seats ,different exhaust (YOSH RS1 installed last night within 20 minutes of it hitting my hot little hands) different windshields etc,etc.

I can’t articulate what it is about being on this bike that gets me. Just getting on and out the driveway puts a smile on my face. A lot of life’s difficulties seem quite trivial when I’m moving. Being leaned over and focusing really makes me happy and glad I’m on the planet. I don’t always feel that way so it’s pretty important to me. Now almost any bike gives me some of that . Bikes are like that, riding is like that. But I’ve ridden quite a few bikes and none are quite what my Bandit is. My brother in law and a friend both have 1200 Bandits and neither one does it for me. The brother in laws is a first generation and I find it vibrates too much. My friend’s is a 2002 and it just didn’t fit, it should have but it didn’t.

And that’s about it I suspect I’ll return to this again. And Again.