Risers and more

[Rich Weyand <weyand@xxxxxxx>]

Hi All:

Had the dealer install the Gen-Mar risers, as I didn't want
to play around with bleeding the brakes and such.  One problem
they had was that the supplied brake line had a thinner banjo
fitting than the stock one.  For a similar problem, Ducati 
provided a spacer washer, and my dealer is a Ducati/Triumph/
Cagiva/KTM/Aprilia/etcetcetc dealer, so they had the spacer
washers handy.  They charged me for the labor time, of course,
but no separate charge for the spacer and the six crush washers
(four bottom, two top).

The Gen-Mar risers do take a lot of weight off my hands, and
I am much better able to have a light touch on the bars.  This
also makes right-hand numbness/wrist fatigue much easier to
avoid.  Before I was not able to keep the weight off my hands
without feeling it in my back.

On another note, yesterday I took my son to a dentist appoint-
ment on NotRed.  I don't do very much two-up riding, and
surprised myself when I caught air on an assertive launch at a
stop light.  This was not a clutch wheelie, but a roll-on
wheelie, clutch out, throttle only.  His additional 160# on 
the back moved the CG far enough back to make first gear 
roll-on wheelies a simple matter.  I have become used to my 
not inconsiderable mass keeping the front down no matter what 
I do, so that was a surprise.  Probably only got about three 
inches, but it seemed like a lot when it happened!  I much
prefer two wheels to one.  Backed off and put the front end 
back on terra firma, caught second, and motored on a little 
less assertively.

After his appointment, we motored about for a while, taking
the long way home.  The usual idiots were out in force, so we
took it easy and stayed with traffic.  Yesterday here was one
of those clear sky very windy days.  Westbound 60 mph seemed
more like 100, while eastbound it seemed more like 20.  Curves
changed the angle of the wind to the bike, and sometimes it
would tend to want to stand the bike up, and others to further
lean it over, as the angle changed around the corner.  Add in
a lot of gustiness and it was somewhat disconcerting, as it 
made the bike feel less predictable and less stable on line.
Gustiness on the straights wasn't so bad, the bike keeps its
heading and just leans a bit into the gust, but on the curves
it felt like I was fighting it all the time.

We arranged things to be home at five, just as the rush-hour
craziness started.


Rich Weyand      |  _______   ___,---. ---+_______:_   |Rich Weyand
Weyand Associates| |_N_&_W_| |_N_&_W_| |__|________|_  |TracTronics
Comm Consultants |  ooo ooo ~ ooo ooo ~ oOOOO- OOOO=o\ |Model RR Electronics
weyand@xxxxxxx   |     http://www.mcs.net/~weyand/     |weyand@xxxxxxx

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