koth442

I think you are in that awkward spot where you have to slab it to the mountains. No other way about it.

+1 for the Hot Cams kit. Great customer service too. My kit was missing a couple and they promptly mailed me a whole lotta that one size. Which ended up being great because that was the size I needed haha.

VIR or another track?

Yeah, I'm not really sure what to do today to be honest. We've got about 5" of snow on the ground and it's only going to get colder.

The clip-ons are more like "helibars" with a 1" or 2" rise as compared to typical sport bike clip ons. If you're able to lane share / filter, the clip-ons are more friendly for that dipping below most car mirrors. Since you have an Tracer, personally I'd go for the "S" model. Get that low(-ish) sportbike feel. The N would feel a bit more like the Tracer and might seem a little redundant IMO.

I really like the SV650, I've had 3. Two first gens and one second gen. Definitely lighter and more flickable than the FJ. They're more roomy than a hardcore sportbike like GSXR. There's also to variants of the SV, S and N. The S is a bit more sporty while the N is a naked upright. You can purchase accordingly.

Man, I wish I was backed up to woods like you are.

A well designed fairing plus a well designed windscreen makes for a great riding experience!

I tend to lean towards Dunlop, but all the positive feedback makes me think Michelin Road 5's are certainly worth trying.

IMO the 'ole pump & dump works just fine. Only the trackbike ever gets a full disassembly & clean. That's only every few years.

Haha! I too have "accidentally" bought a motorcycle. Years ago, I looked at a Husky SM610. When I got there, it was in rough shape. The owner was a very nice guy and simply didn't know what he had nor what to do with it. He asked, "knowing what you know, how much would you give me?" I said $1500. He countered at $2k, I walked because I was moving out of state in about 6 months and really didn't need another bike to take. A few days later he calls me up and says, "$1500 this afternoon, I'll drop it off." For reference, at that time a well sorted SM610 was $4 - 5k.

Congrats!!

That's pretty nifty!

+1

Glad you're alright!

I looked into doing a front end swap a few years ago. I was considering a more sporty set up though, like from a Multistrada. Never went anywhere with it. I'd be curious to know what you find though!

Super cool! Really opens the design freedom. So fun story which requires some background, I work with metallic 3D printing (additive manufacturing), specifically titanium alloy(s). We had a part that wasn't adequately fixtured. The residual stresses were so high it was shearing the heads off certified grade 8 bolts. I can't really share a lot of details, but I lost count how many failed.

Merry Christmas to you too!

I'm a bit late to the party, but just FYI these things exist: https://www.amazon.com/EEEKit-Splitter-Cracker-Pressure-Extractor/dp/B07MV7NQ1N/ I haven't had to use mine yet, but hopefully it will be easier than cutting the nut off.

YCRS programs are amazing!

In my opinion, you'll be fine.

I'll just leave this here...

You have great taste in mods!

I never worried about damaging the kickstand, but it sure scratches the hell out of my garage floor or driveway. Only reason I don't do it regularly. Steel is kind of amazing stuff. It can be very thin but yet still incredibly tough. For cylinders, the stress concentration is distributed around the outside, called a "hoop" stress. Stress only goes down as you go towards the center in a solid cylinder. Therefore, if the outer ring can withstand the stress, no reason to fill the whole thing in. Compressor tanks and other pressure vessels are designed by a "leak before failure" criteria. Therefore, the wall thickness has to be much thicker so if a weld failed or puncture occurred, the whole thing wouldn't blow up all at once. Since the kick stand isn't a pressure vessel, it can be a whole lot thinner and still very strong with respect to the weight of the bike. That being said, wall thickness certainly helps when dealing with non-axial loads. If you dropped the bike while doing this, in the direction where the kickstand can't just fold, it might bend or break. However, if you execute this maneuver correctly, the reaction forces will be torsion from the spin and axial from the weight of the bike and everything works just fine. I'm writing technical reports this week... Can you tell?

Zip tie is my go-to, great pro-tip! Also, sharpie mark the chain and cam sprocket so when you reinstall everything lines back up.