keithu

I was intrigued by the specs of the new Ducati Multistrada V4 when it was announced. Ride reports are starting to appear and it sounds like a pretty damn good sport touring bike with a little capability off pavement: 2021 Ducati Multistrada V4 Review – First Ride On Ducati's ADV Flagship The much-hyped 2021 Ducati Multistrada V4 is finally here and it... It looks like a V4S with the stuff I would want is around $25k. I know it's not as rational as the S1000XR ($21-23k) or the Tracer 9GT ($15k), but man it sounds like a lot of fun. Talk me down from the cliff.

I am interested to learn more details about the Pan America next Monday. If the rumors flying around are true, H-D might have a legit home run with this one.

I hear you. I work among some of the top engineering recruits in the world, I see what graduates of these top universities can accomplish. There is equipment on the ISS that came out of the building where I work. Some of the things they're building were science fiction just a few years ago. I wish H-D and Polaris would hire some of these folks.

I think you have to be lucky enough to have a good custom seat builder nearby, though. I believe @betoney and I have the same seat builder, Mr. Ed's Moto. I live just five minutes from the shop, but I don't think everyone has this luxury. But yes, if you are this fortunate a custom seat is 100% the way to go.

I hope it works. I would actually buy one if they're not terrible. I wish they would get rid of the weird front brake though. Yes, it's a cool concept, but it would be a lot smarter from a business sense to just go with a more conventional setup that we all know works, like Brembo Stylemas or something.

We have two: H-D and Indian (Polaris).

I may continue to carry a CO2 inflator and a couple of cartridges on long trips, just because they are easier. But from now on I'll always have this manual pump as backup.

I don't know about California but I doubt there are any major desalinization systems in Oregon or Washington. We have plenty of fresh water, no need to bother with the ocean. It seems like everyone is looking for someone or something to blame in Texas. I think it's way too early for this. This is a natural disaster, they need help.

Sorry to hear about the damage @texscottyd, I hope insurance covers most of it. I can say I don't own a snow shovel here in western Oregon. I've lived in this house for 21 years now and I've had to shovel snow maybe 5-6 times. I just use a regular flat shovel. The last time was, hmm, 3-4 years ago? We've had some pretty mild winters in recent years, we were even spared from this week's ice storm that hit Portland so bad. I went for a ride on Monday.

Here's my current repair kit. The tube is a Neely rope plug kit purchased at the local moto shop, and the mini floor pump is from Nuetech.com. It has a built-in stick gauge and should be a lot less tiring than a standard bicycle hand pump. I put both of these items in my tool roll, but they are small enough that I think they'd fit under the Tracer seat. The deck of cards is shown for scale. Full disclosure: I haven't actually used either of these yet. I purchased them after my dismal experience with CO2 cartridges and my old plug kit last summer.

Right. We have 50 states and every one of them has their own licensing system with widely varying fees. Sales tax rates also vary not only by state but even by local county and city. Sales tax on a new motorcycle in the USA can range from 0-10% depending on where you live. So the US MSRP set by Yamaha ($14899) doesn't include freight, setup, sales tax, or licensing. Whether a dealer charges you for freight and setup is entirely negotiable. I live in Oregon which is one of the cheaper states. We have no sales tax, and license fees are relatively low. When I bought my 2015 FJ-09, state fees were only $250 which included four years of registration.

Very true. A modest USA-assembled washer-dryer set cost around $800-1000 in 1981. Today a modest USA-assembled washer-dryer set costs around... $1000-1200.

If it has four wheels it'll be considered a car by US DOT, EPA, and most states. That means it needs to meet safety and emissions standards for cars; it can't use HOV lanes, or enjoy many of the other benefits of a two- or three-wheeler. I know some EU countries treat 4-wheel ATVs differently from cars, and a few US states do as well (Montana is one), but I don't see the four-wheeled version being a viable product. The three wheeler could work though.

I had a puncture last year. Before that my previous motorcycle tire puncture was in about 1993.

That's true, but unlike CO2 inflators bicycle pumps never run out of air.

No, not really. Most modern cars are OHC with hydraulic valve adjusters. See the diagram posted by @Lone Wolf, which shows the system on an OHC Honda motorcycle from the 1980s. The hydraulic lifter is pretty small. BTW, hydraulic lifters are one of the reasons it's so much more critical to follow the engine manufacturer's recommendations for oil viscosity. Remember when you could just run 10w-40 in everything and you were fine? With hydraulic valves, if the oil's viscosity is too high it can cause excess pressure inside the valve lifter. Valves get held open a little bit and eventually burn. The 3-cylinder motor used in the Suzuki Swift and Geo Metro was famous for this.

That lead time really doesn't surprise me. My company has a wafer fab at the campus where I work; it's an incredibly expensive facility to build and run, and the tools inside the fab are a massive capital investment. It's no trivial matter to expand capacity in these facilities. Our fab mainly produces wafers for inkjet printhead nozzle plates, which take about 30 days to build up. And making the wafer is just one part of the process. Factor in post-processing of the wafer, component assembly, and production scheduling and yeah, 26 weeks sounds about right. This is just a wild guess, but I would expect motorcycles to be less affected by this shortage. Yes, they use many chips, but not nearly as many as modern cars. And since motos are lower volume they probably need even longer lead times than the big volume, big money car manufacturers. If motorcycles are affected I'd expect to see more delays in new 2022 models, especially the more tech-heavy ones.

And a Madstad windshield.

Post of the week, right here. Excellent tip!!

They're PIAA LP550s. Honestly, they wouldn't have been my first choice because they're so effing big, but they were $50 on Craigslist. They throw a lot of light down the road. Lily says "Wrank wryou!"

Okay Todd, you win the Internet. Thanks for proving we're all morons.

I finally checked my steering head bearing torque after 37k miles. It wasn't loose so I'm not sure this was absolutely necessary. Peace of mind, I guess. I ordered the special socket from the UK off eBay. It worked as advertised. The final torque is 18nm, or 160 in-lbs. The socket is 1/2" drive but my inch-pound torque wrench is 1/4" drive. You can never have too many step-up and step-down adapters. It's chilly today so I fired up the garage heater.

Another recommendation for the Gilles Tooling adjusters. They are simple and high quality. The Gilles adjuster is cheaper than the Lightech adjuster (which I believe is what the OP has) and not prone to the same failure since there is no nut on the end to vibrate loose. I ordered mine from Belissimoto in Las Vegas.

You read correctly. I've had two Kyoceras, the original Duraforce and later a Duraforce Pro. While they are very much waterproof they really aren't up to the task of long-distance navigation. Even in mild temps Google Maps used so much processing power on my Kyocera phones that the battery would discharge even with the phone plugged in to a charger. I love having a ruggedized waterproof phone, but the Kyoceras are so buggy I actively recommend against them now. Their phones are bombproof but their implementation of the Android OS is a terrible mess. I now have a Blackview BV5500 Pro, another ruggedized waterproof phone. It doesn't have the greatest performance either, and it's virtually useless for navigation. But it's waaaayyyy less buggy than the Kyocera phones and only cost $140 unlocked. This phone, my Garmin 396, and my Fujifilm X30 camera all together still cost less than my wife's Galaxy S10, which after 2.5 years is close to EOL.

I try to avoid arguments on the Internet these days, but you are really talking out of your ass on this one. I've been a mechanic on F/A-18s, I am currently a technician on multi-million dollar industrial printers, and I've done maintenance and major repairs on countless cars and motorcycles over the last 35 years. This exact issue happened to me on my FJ-09. If I made any mistake it was in following Yamaha's torque spec of 108 ft/lbs on the rear axle nut. I know many people believe that Yamaha's spec is ridiculously high, but due to my background in aviation maintenance I am always inclined to follow the manufacturer's spec. This is a pretty clear case of Yamaha providing a poor-quality part and/or giving bad info in their technical specs.