BlakeBlog

Track Day, Interrupted

After riding around on the street for 1,800 or so miles I took my '18 Triumph Street Triple RS to a track day Saturday at Thunderhill Raceway in California. It was my first track day in 10+ years, so I enrolled in the slowest (B-) group. The weather was going to be rough—a high of 107° F and winds up to 18 MPH—but I was still looking forward to knocking the rust off of my asphalt skills and seeing what the RS could do on a closed circuit.

My first session was limited to following an instructor around the track for two laps at an easy pace, but that was fine by me since I hadn't been on this, the East, track before. It has a wonderful, pucker-inducing turn called The Cyclone which is much like the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca: a climb up a hill, make a blind turn-in just before the crest, and then apex at the crest before the topography reveals the track dropping away from you down the back side of the hill.

Back at the pits after my instructor-led laps I swung by the Dunlop tent and asked the guys there about tire pressures for the day. They recommended 29 PSI at the front and 26 PSI at the rear for my stock Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SPs. I duly dropped my pressures and then swung by Dave Moss's trailer to see if he could twiddle my suspension. There were enough folks already waiting for his services that I would have missed my next session had I hung around, so I decided to first run a session on Triumph's recommended "Sport" suspension settings to see how they felt.

My God it felt good to be back on the track! I gradually gained speed as I learned the track and started being able to link a few corners together here and there. Letting the bike rev out down the straights had me wishing for more wind protection, as I was still too unsure of my braking markers to get in a full race tuck. But, wow does the RS pull like mad at the top of the rev limit! Hang on hard and keep your toe snuggled under the shift lever to snap off upshifts with the quick shifter sooner than you are used to.

Coming back to the pits at the end of the session I took a moment to catch my breath, chug some Gatorade, and inspect my tires. Satisfied with the recommended tire pressures, I watched the racers in the other groups for a bit before a red flag started flying. Someone in the "A" group biffed hard and the ambulance was getting called onto the track. Taking advantage of the extra time before I'd be back on track, I made my way again to Dave Moss's trailer to get his suspension advice.

I'd watched a few of Dave's videos online, including his initial impressions of the RS, and if anything he's even more friendly in person. He's also very practiced at what he does, and within a few minutes he'd sorted my suspension into something that certainly looked much better when bouncing the bike at rest. For my 200-pound carcass Dave softened the front and rear preloads from what I'd set them at using the classic Race Tech method, suggesting heavier springs or a diet may be in order. He softened the rebound damping at both ends, but left the compression as it was. Dave also noticed that my steering head bearings were a bit loose and suggested being extra soft at the start of acceleration and braking to limit the amount of angle shift in the suspension until I could tighten them properly.

Eager to try out the new settings, I switched the ignition back on and hit the starter switch but was surprised to get no reaction from the bike. Hmm. Clutch in, transmission in neutral, side stand up, but still no engagement of the starter when hitting the starter switch. A few other racers noticed my befuddled behavior and came over to assist without success, and eventually Dave also came over to try to solve the mystery. However, the bike would have none of it, so with dread in my heart I wheeled it over to the track mechanic.

We checked the switches. We checked the fuses. We vented the gas tank. We tested the battery. We were stumped. ("Ehh, it's a Triumph. I dunno these as well.") At this point I was ready to toss a bag of chicken bones to see if they could provide any guidance. Conversing with Dave again, he suggested I call A&S Motorcycles in Roseville, California to see if they had any ideas. I reached the service department and we spent 15 minutes trying different ideas to see if we could somehow get the bike running again. Huge kudos to A&S for spending their valuable time on the phone with a total stranger, but sadly nothing worked. My day was done after less than a dozen laps of the circuit.

Hot, sun-baked, and pissed-off, my wife and I loaded everything back into the pickup and headed back to my dealer in Reno. They were quite apologetic, promising to look at the bike first thing Tuesday morning.

Reflecting on the day's events while driving home left me with a mix of feelings. While exploring the worlds of adventure and dirt riding over the last decade, a small ache in my soul had begun to grow. The ability to hone and perfect a line across perfect pavement is something I think I'll always love, and the experience had been missing from my life for too long. Not that I'm giving up the unpredictable excitement of the off-road world, but maybe I'll find a better balance between the two.

Will the Triumph be up to the task? I bought a brand-new bike in part to avoid the unknown reliability of a used one, but it seems that my gamble has failed to pay off. Was this just teething pains, an unfortunate one-off, a gremlin to be exorcised once and banished forever? Or, is this the tip of the iceberg and the start of a series of disappointments? I'll know a little more once I hear back from the dealer, but until then I'll gladly remember the little bit of joy I was able to achieve on Saturday and eagerly look forward to my next time out.

LEDs Can't Replace Halogen Headlight Bulbs

Back when I attended the Northwest Overland Rally a few months ago, Cyclops Adventure Sports was there selling LED replacement bulbs for H4 and H7 halogen headlight bulbs. While the stock headlight on my KTM is pretty good for a motorcycle, riding at night has made me want more illumination if possible, so I took a chance and bought their 3600 lumen H4 LED bulb.

I know that most folks say you can't simply replace a halogen bulb with an HID or LED "bulb" because they emit light from different locations and in different directions, so the reflector becomes ineffective. I was hoping that Cyclops had figured out an ingenious solution--certainly their triangle-shaped emitter is unique. The product seems like it's high quality, so my hopes were high.

Unfortunately, my hopes have been dashed (click to embiggen):

While this may be a great option for folks who don't ride on the road, the loss of the horizonal cut-off and the resulting glare that would hit every oncoming driver just isn't acceptable. Adjusting them low enough to reduce the glare ends up with a focal point that's too low, meaning that the LED headlight won't light up objects on the road as far away as the halogen H4 will.

Unfortunately I had to make modifications to the rubber dust cover on the back of the headlight to fit the Cyclops bulb, so until I can get a replacement cover I'm stuck with the LED bulb--and consequently riding only during the daytime.

It's a real shame, but physics doesn't lie.

Antigravity Battery Now in My KTM

My Antigravity battery for my KTM 690 Enduro arrived yesterday, and even though I own another LiFePO4 battery that I use for amateur radio stuff I was pleasantly surprised at how light it is. If I didn't know better I'd have thought it was an empty shell, like a store display version without any lead or acid in it. The case is nicely finished and the brass terminals are robustly sized, designed, and marked for polarity.

I got the YTZ10-12, which has the same external dimensions as the ubiquitous Yuasa YTZ-10 that's standard in my KTM and many other motorcycles. Antigravity actually offers two variations in this same case size, an eight cell version for the ultimate in weight savings, and a 12-cell version for extended performance. The weight savings, while very nice, was not my primary reason for purchasing the Antigravity battery. I wanted a battery that wouldn't die every couple of years like the Yuasas seem to, but both versions claim the same lifespan (three to four years in one place, four to five years in another place, if not discharged too deeply). What pushed me toward the 12-cell version was that it has a little more reserve for starting a thumper motor and would have a little more robustness to it in cooler weather or if I accidently leave an accessory on.

(I ordered mine directly from Antigravity, and only later found out I could have saved $30 by ordering one through Amazon. Doh!)

It arrived fully charged, and it dropped right in place. Within a few minutes of heading into the garage to do the install my bike was quickly turning over and starting like a champ. It really was just as straight-forward as replacing the Yuasa with another Yuasa. There was no foam to cut to try and pad the battery compartment to make it fit (although the battery comes with a couple of pieces of foam just in case), unlike many of the other LiFePO4 batteries out there. The only differences from the OEM battery were that:

1. The terminals are a little more flush with the case, so some of the leads that had an angle to them needed to be straightened out, and
2. Again, because the termnials are shaped differently the OEM positive terminal cap doesn't fit in place.

Antigravity stresses multiple times in the instructions that you need to make sure you don't have any parasitic drains on your electrical system. Their batteries don't have the same amount of energy available, they just can deliver what they have much faster and more completely than lead acid batteries, so a drain you might not notice with a lead acid battery could quickly deplete an Antigravity battery. I don't believe I do have any parasitic drains, aside from the usual CPU maintenance power, but I have installed a few accessories so I'll need to monitor the battery for a few weeks to make sure it isn't dropping below its resting voltage of 13.2V.

The only other thing to consider about LiFePO4 batteries is that they can't be charged with traditional lead acid battery chargers. LiFePO4 batteries benefit from different charging curves, and they can get damaged by the desulfating or "quick charge" (overvoltage charging) features popular in lead acid battery chargers. Antigravity recommended (and I purchased from them) an Optimate 2 battery charger/maintainer. Optimate doesn't claim on their website or in their instructions that the Optimate 2 works with LiFePO4, but both Antigravity and Internet forum scuttlebutt claim they work just fine. (Optimate do sell an LiFePO4-only charger, the Optimate Lithium, which looks just like the Optimate 2. My guess is they're the same hardware, but the Lithium version''s uniquely able to reset the battery management system (BMS) that some LiFePO4 batteries use.)

I hope that I'm now set in the electrical department and don't have any more awful experiences of getting all geared-up to ride on a beautiful weekend day, only to face a suddenly dead battery.

Adding Standard (SAE) Sockets to Your Tool Collection

As long as I've been wrenching on cars, bicycles, and motorcycles, I've needed only metric tools. I've never owned an American car or motorcycle, and although my bicycles were made in America they still used metric-sized fasteners and parts. In grad school I had to get serious about vehicle maintenance—I certainly couldn't afford to pay a mechanic to do any work on my '85 VW GTI—and the theft of my motley collection of tools gave me a chance to start over with a complete collection of new tools.

Craftsman hand tools strike a great balance point between price and quality, and their lifetime guarantee means that even if you bubba something and break a tool, Sears will give you a free replacement. So, I spent quite a bit of time pouring over the Craftsman Tool catalog trying to figure out how best to replace my stolen tools. When this happened back in the early 90's there were dozens of standard (SAE) tool collections to choose from in the catalog, but just two or three that contained only metric tools. If you wanted metric tools you bought a complete SAE tool collection, then added-on one of the supplemental metric collections. Reality, a/k/a my meager budget, made the decision pretty straight-forward, but it was fun to dream about the "master" 3,000-piece toolsets that came laid-out in rolling tool cabinets.

Fast-forward 20 years, and a browse through the online Craftsman Tool catalog shows a slightly smaller selection of tool collections. Interestingly, they all contain both metric and SAE tools and, most frustratingly, there are no collections of just SAE tools! To compound the problem, their website doesn't allow you to search for SAE-only—it'll bring up any socket set that contains SAE, or SAE plus metric.

So, as a service to anyone else who may be looking to add SAE sockets to their collection of metric tools, here are the part numbers you'll probably be interested in:

Item Number	Description
934550000	10-piece 1/2"-drive 6-point standard depth sockets
934576000	9-piece 1/2"-drive 6-point deep sockets
934565000	9-piece 3/8"-drive 12-point standard depth sockets
934539000	9-piece 3/8"-drive 6-point deep sockets
934531000	10-piece 1/4"-drive 6-point standard depth sockets
934561000	9-piece 1/4"-drive 6-point deep sockets

Garage Day Yesterday (and Again Today)

So I finally took some time yesterday to finish cleaning-up after my previous motorcycle adventure, which I just realized I haven't even blogged about yet, and then turned my attention to my used-up KTM. All the fluids were due for a change and the air filter could have grown some nice vegetables given the amount of Medocino National Forest dirt that was covering it. The grips used to have some rubber on them, but I'm down to the hard plastic in all the critical places on those.

So yesterday I cleaned the air filter and set it aside to dry overnight. I also changed the coolant and brake fluid, but that was all I had the energy to do yesterday.

Today it's time to check the valve clearances. I had the dealer do the first check since there was some other dealer-y stuff I needed done at the same time, but I ordered the Hot Cams shim kit this time so that I could do it myself. The dealer who serviced my bike the last time did a great job, but I just feel better doing the work myself. I know that it's been done, and done right, and I can record what the clearances had tightened up to. Or, at least I know what I've screwed up and what may be marginal.

The bike did a wonderful job, as usual, during my trip so I thought I should reward it with a nice set of handlebar risers and a Scotts steering damper. Underground Machine make very nice risers, to your custom specifications if you wish, but I went with the standard 2" set. Without the risers I always felt too hunched-over when standing on the pegs and got tired pretty quickly. My hope is that a 2" rise will get me into a sweet spot while standing, yet not ruin the great street performance the bike normally enjoys.

I hope to get the valves squared-away today, then re-oil the air filter and get it back on, and then run the bike long enough to burp the coolant system. Don't know if I'll have the time to tackle the risers and damper, as it requires a little Dremel work to fit, and I know I won't get to the new grips today as I plan to add heating elements under the new ones, but I currently lack the relay to do the job right. Oh well, something to look forward to for next weekend in the garage.

Man I Needed That

I did a 220-mile ride yesterday, running down 101 to 25 to Panoche Road, then catching Little Panoche and stopping at the entrance to Panoche Hills across from the Mercy Hot Springs. There I talked with a beekeeper who was just leaving the area after watering some hives. (It turns out that the big bee die-off seems to have been caused by low amounts of protein in the pollen the bees have been eating, so supplementing with high protien pollen patties has helped tremendously.)

The area's closed to vehicles until October because of fire hazards, but I've heard that it's a good place to go for some long-distance target shooting (1,000 yards or so). It takes about two hours to get there, but that's shorter than the trip up to the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center.

After a brief break to drink water, I continued on Little Panoche until it hit I-5. Going south on I-5, I went two exits to the Panoche Road exit and then got back on Panoche Road going west. For the first 14 miles it's a graded dirt road with some areas of fine silt and one slimy water crossing. I was still running street tires (Pirelli Scorpion MT 90/ATs) at street pressures so they didn't hook up real well, but I made it through with just a couple unintended slides and no crashes.

Shortly after Panoche becomes paved again is the Panoche Inn, where I stopped and rewarded myself with a $1 ice cream cone. (I didn't think you could get a hand-dipped cone for a buck anymore!) With some dessert in my belly I continued on Panoche back to 25 and then 101 to home.

It was a great ride that let me brush off my rusty skills, and a perfect example of why I love my KTM for the fun roads around here—patched and re-patched until they're as bumpy as a teenager's face, with edges collapsing or covered with falling rocks from above, occasionally turning to graded dirt or gravel. If I'd still been riding my Sprint ST I'd have turned around at the dirt and been beaten-up by the bumps, but the long suspension travel and offroad design of my 690 Enduro let me enjoy everything the roads threw at me.

I also got to use my new SPOT personal tracker. It worked like a charm mounted on the front of my seat, reporting my location every 10 minutes to a Google map that's password protected and shared with my wife. It gives us both peace of mind when I travel by myself.

Oh, and yes I did break down and get a new Arai XD3 helmet—this time in medium instead of small. It fits much better than my old XD, with none of the forehead pressure I'd get after wearing the old helmet for several hours. The redesigned beak also catches the wind less, so although it was never really a problem for me even at highway speeds, it is nice to feel less wind resistance. The helmet also seems quieter, and Arai finally has a factory solution for an anti-fog face shield—the Pinlock system.

Thinking of Winter Riding

Warning: Rambling ahead!

I saw my motorcycling buddy a couple nights ago while he was in town, and as we talked I began to realize how little riding I've been doing lately. Between traveling a lot for work, and now working from home whenever I'm in town, my mileage has been minimal. As in 3,000-miles-per-year minimal. That stinks! I used to ride four times that much each year when I first moved out to California.

I'm gettin' the itch bad, and think I may just have to hop on the bike for a day trip this coming long weekend. I've even plotted out a "three passes" ride: Sonora Pass on Highway 108, Monitor Pass on Highway 89, and Ebbetts Pass on Highway 4. Google Maps claims it takes eight hours and 48 minutes to complete (non-stop, of course). I figure if I budget for 12 hours I should be good. It's tempting, even though there will probably be a lot of traffic this weekend (Labor Day and all) and it's a long day in the saddle for someone who hasn't been riding a lot lately. I'll have to ponder it. Maybe Sunday?

Anyway, all this has me thinking about the coming winter months. I still need to wire up an electrical outlet on the KTM for my heated vest, and the original grips are getting pretty worn so they're ripe for replacing. While replacing them I'll throw on a set of heated elements underneath them so I'll have heated grips, too.

My Arai XD helmet is five years old as of this month, and I usually like to replace them every five years. Road Rider's having a sale this weekend, including discounts on helmets, so maybe I'll pick a new one up? I've been thinking of trying a Shoei Hornet DS to see if it fits my noggin better than the XD; even after five years and some creative smooshing of the helmet foam my XD is tight on my forehead. It's not painful any longer, but there has to be a better fit possible. The only thing that has me leaning towards the XD is that the new models are Snell M2010 certified, which I think is a better standard than the M2005 which tended to create helmets that were too stiff, passing more of the impact trauma to the head.

My Aerostich Darien's getting long in the tooth as well, and is pretty grungy. I flirted with getting a Motoport jacket this time, as it will be much cooler to wear during the summer months yet still provides a waterproof, zip-in liner for cooler weather.

After toying with all these new equipment ideas, though, I've decided to say "forget it" and just go riding, darn it! I don't need any more gear right now—I need to be on the road riding. Maybe if I get my mileage up then I'll be at the point where I can justify some new gear. Until then, just ride.

A Good Day Ends with a Shower

On the left is one very squared-off motorcycle tire. It's the rear knobbie that I took off my KTM this afternoon. With winter fast approaching (and "winter" also known as "the rainy season" here in this part of California) it was time to put some fresh rubber on the bike. I threw on some Pirelli Scorpion MT 90 A/T's that I'd used briefly last winter before I put the knobbies on to go exploring the Lost Coast over Memorial Day weekend. Both tire changes went more smoothly than ever, so it seems like I'm finally getting the hang of dealing with tubes and tire irons.

I also decided to put a new rear sprocket on, dropping from a 45T to a 42T. This will reduce the RPMs a bit and should help make all my highway travel a little less rev-happy. Right now the motor spins at around 5,200 RPM while I'm going 70 MPH; I'd like to drop that a bit to help the engine last a little longer. I'll see how this new sprocket works and if I have any trouble launching from a stop. If this works well I also have larger front sprockets and can drop the RPMs even more in the future.

After getting the new tires on I changed the brake fluid at both ends, too. I like to change it every year, but it'd been about 18 months since I got the bike and I still hadn't changed it out yet. (Busy, busy…) The front fluid looked fine, but the rear fluid was very dark, almost like maple syrup. I wonder if the rear reservoir doesn't seal too well, or if there's something else going on. I'll need to keep an eye on it.

Anyway, all the above took about five hours to do and by the end I was sweaty and filthy. I hadn't even bothered to shower earlier in the day, so a long, hot shower was well overdue. Matching it with a nice, close shave had me feeling pretty good! It reminded me that some of my favorite days are those that require a shower at the end. I feel like I've really accomplished something tangible on those days, which is a refreshing change from my etherial, software-driven job.

One of Those "Good News, Bad News" Sorta Things

There seems to be a lot of good news/bad news stuff happening in my life recently. The most recent example is the clutch on my KTM 690 Enduro. While riding home from work on Wednesday I noticed that the engagement point had shifted radically and I had to pull the clutch lever all the way towards the handlebar to get the clutch to disengage just enough to be able to shift. It's a new bike with a hydraulic clutch, so there isn't a cable that would stretch and cause the problem.

This morning I popped the top off the clutch fluid reservoir and found it significantly low on fluid. I added a little brake fluid, pumped the clutch lever a couple dozen times et voilà—the clutch engagement point is back where it should be. So the good news here is that it appears to be a simple fix.

The bad news? Am I losing clutch fluid somewhere, or did the dealer not top off the reservoir when they prepped the bike for sale? I traced the line and didn't see any obvious leaks, so my hope is that the latter answer is the correct one. I could see how the system could function OK with low fluid in warm weather, but with unusually cold weather the fluid turns more viscous and exposes the problem.

Fingers crossed, it's off to work I go.

UPDATE: There appear to be some bubbles in the line now, as the friction point gets closer to the bars after a blast on the highway. I also found out that brake fluid's the wrong thing to put in the clutch reservoir; had to suction it out and re-fill with ATF. [sigh]

Re-lighting the Garage

One of the nicest things about living in a house (as opposed to an apartment or condo) is having a good-sized garage. Since I prefer to do most of my own vehicle maintenance I need a place that's out of the sun and rain, offers a little more warmth in the winter, and ideally even has some good music to keep things moving along. I'm fortunate to have all these things in my current accommodations.

When getting down to real work, there's another very important thing a garage needs to provide: Good lighting. It's hard enough to work on my own vehicles and I don't need it to be made more difficult by not being able to see the task at hand. My garage came with two eight-foot, twin-tube fluorescent lights to light up the main floor and a single four-foot, twin-tube fluorescent light over the workbench.

These worked quite well over the summer as I settled in, but in the past couple of months the lights started intermittently going out. First the workbench light went out. I figured it was just a matter of replacing some tired bulbs, but while removing the first bulb one of the plastic terminals snapped from old age and a sticky prong. Drat! Off to Home Depot, where I found a nice replacement that included a mirrored reflector and used T8 bulbs instead of T12s.

T8? What's a T8 bulb? Let me share some fluorescent facts with you. The "T" value is the diameter of the tube in eighths of an inch, so a T8 bulb is one inch in diameter. Most older fluorescent lights use T12 (1.5" diameter) bulbs. The smaller the diameter the more efficient the bulb can be, producing more lumens per watt. The T8 bulbs have another advantage as well: They can produce light in much cooler temperatures. The old T12s have a hard time lighting up below 50 degrees (F), which is why you may see them flicker in cooler temperatures until they warm up. The T8s can start all the way down at zero degrees.

The replacement fixture also uses an electronic ballast, as opposed to the old magnetic ballast, so the lights turn on instantly, to full brightness, just like an incandescent lamp. No more waiting several seconds for the bulbs to flicker and come to life. (It's a nice effect in scary movies, but annoying as heck in everyday life.) The electronic ballasts are also silent, so there's no low hum when the lights are on, either. Since I got to buy new bulbs to go along with the new fixture, I chose ones that produce light with a color temperature of 5,000K.

5,000K? "K", or Kelvins, is a measure of the pure colors that combine together to produce the "white" light. The higher the number the colder, or more blue the light appears; lower numbers produce warmer, more yellow light. (Yes, it's a counter-intuitive.) 5,000K is a little on the cool side, but it is pretty close to natural sunlight at mid-day and it's what I calibrate my computer monitors for, too.

After learning all these fun fluorescent facts and replacing the workbench light I thought I'd be done, but no. As the days started getting cooler the big lights started flickering and, eventually, going completely out. Again I hoped it was just tired bulbs, and this time I was at least half-right: One of the fixtures simply needed new bulbs, but the ballast on the other light was shot. It wasn't terribly surprising since it proudly proclaimed technology copyrights from the 1950's on its yellowed label.

I could have simply replaced just the ballast, but the old fixture didn't have any sort of reflector and I really like the efficiency and performance of the new T8 bulbs, so I decided to replace the entire fixture. It's pretty hard to find eight-foot long T8 bulbs, so I went with a pair of four-foot fixtures with twin bulbs that can be mounted together in a row (four bulbs total). The old T12 fixture without a reflector shoots 9,300 lumens any which way they want to go, but the new T8 fixtures with a reflector direct 11,400 lumens down at the floor and along the walls in a pleasing pattern, making it a real joy to work underneath them.

The job was pretty straight-forward and now I have plenty of instant-on, 5,000K light in the garage to get me through the winter. Now let's just hope that I'm working in there on fun things, not fixing broken stuff!