KrustyKush

Harley big twins, major klunk going into first. Much worse than Tracer.

Ok, yes, I observed this on my 21GT. After an oil change. Eyeing the oil level for a couple days afterward, darned if the oil level didn’t climb in the sight glass just a mm or two. It stopped rising, though. Stabilized. I figured this had to do with slight variations in bike position on my garage floor. The tilt, or off-level nature of it. Or maybe some other thing in the motor that was affected by alternating between side stand and center stand. I decided it is a nothing burger.

I bought my 21 GT last January. I’d never seen one before that. No test ride (I don’t put much stock in short test rides). I didn’t care for it at all on the 12 mile ride home from the dealer. I had a great deal of trouble with gear shifting. Couldn’t reliably get my big boot under the shift lever. I spent a week dicking with the shift lever position and then gave up on that because of limitations imposed by the QS switch. I hated the saddle. It reminded me of the bed of nails FJR saddle. A half hour on this bike made my body ache I didn’t like the sound of the motor except when accelerating hard. Just riding around easy the bike sounded to me like a toy. I had a heckuva time figuring out the clutch friction zone Not sure why. But, even after a month and 2k miles I was still screwing up a simple take-off from a stop. Irritating. Most of my problems had to do with all my riding since 2015 being on a Harley tourer. Night and Day.

I lowsided my 92 Concours at 45 mph, many years ago. Broke collarbone, but that cheap Connie pannier did a very good job protecting my leg, which was relatively unscathed save for bruises and rash. The panniers are an important crash guard, IMO. Nowadays, I wear better boots: 200k mile Sidi On Roads on the left, recently replaced by the lovely Gaernes on right.

Ooops just realized the opener doesn’t likely run off of 12vdc. Never mind.

Don’t hardly need a horn in any case. Maybe remove the horn and wire your opener device with that 12v that drives the horn. Let me know how that works out if you go thataway. I might do it myself.

That may be a blessing because of the break in time. I had to ride to Albuquerque and back last month and was really hoping to get the saddle for the trip. Now, if I had put the Corbin on brand new and taken off for Abq on it I would have been in significant pain for quite awhile. As it was the Corbin arrived a couple days after I got back. And the stock saddle was plenty comfy for how I ride.

I've had my new Corbin on the bike for a couple of weeks' riding, maybe 500 miles or so during that time, before ear surgery temporarily stopped my riding last week. The 500 miles made a huge difference in the saddle. I also found that "comfort" required a movement of the handlebars back towards the rider, just a bit. I bought a HeliBar adapter, and it made a lot of good diff, but I could still use another few mm of rearward movement. In the near term I am going to keep it as it is because I generally prefer to "break me in to the bike rather than break the bike in to me." The riding positions are so close to perfect, I don't believe I would achieve much by going to all the trouble it would require to install new handlebars. The saddle itself is as good as any Corbin I've owned in the last 25 years, and that is several of them. Maybe a half-dozen. Build quality on every Corbin I've owned has been top notch. Each has taken a thousand miles or more to get well broke in. No Corbin I've owned has been comfy on Day One. But after a few weeks and a thousand miles, they will settle down to sweet. I had to install a couple washers on the saddle's latch bracket to get it tight, but now it appears I will have to remove the washers. I reckon the seat pan adapts to the curvature of the bike's mounting location over time. The pics were taken with the saddle in "new" condition. After a few hundred miles, the imprints of my butt are more noticeable. I chose gold colored piping, trying to bring out the gold in the forks. That didn't work out as I expected, but it still looks great on the bike.

Hi. Seems like a good idea, but one that could create electronic havoc if undertaken without a fair amount of knowledge of the bike's system. I opted for a simpler solution. It isn't pretty, but velcro allows me to remove the opener when I need to for security's sake, such as when I park the bike outside the house for any length of time. I've ridden beyond 100 mph several times, and the opener stays put. Simple. Cheap. No interference with the bike's electricals.

Ok so I just watched the video. There are so many things wrong with that, it’s hard to begin. At the end when he said oh the scratches are on the INSIDE OF THE WHEEL so freebie on that, you know he’s a noob who is about to have a leaky wheel. Besides, the video is only about bead breaking. Anybody who actually has done tires knows breaking the bead is usually the easiest part. It is the removing of the old tire and the installation of the new tire that is mighty hard without tools and supplies to say nothing of knowledge. Which the poor guy in the video is obviously lacking.

For sure AAA is last resort!! My argument is that there is nothing to be gained by removing the wheel from the bike. I have been doing my own tires for 25 years. I started on the floor with simple irons. I then went to a No-Mar for many years and recently bought a Weaver which I have used once, to do new tires on my Tracer. I fully understand tires. In my mind, imagining that you could remove old Tracer tire and install new tire, out on the road, without quite a few tools and helpers (like copious amounts of tire lube, for instance) is ludicrous. Where, for instance, would you find the air to set the bead on the new tire? Maybe on a round the world trip one would imagine such a thing. A roadside tire would be imaginable with a softer sidewall tire and a smaller size wheel/tire. But a 180/55-17 radial? Even with lots of tools, a Weaver changer, and knowing how to do it, that’s a bear of a job.

Shouldn’t have such objectionable vibes on this bike. My 21GT is very smooth all over. Yes there is some vibration. But it is actually much less vibration than I would have found tolerable. I mean, it’s a three banger. It must be balanced very well. there almost surely is something out of whack on your bike. Could be a broken motor mount. Could be a lot of things. But vibration is not, IMO, something to be complained about on a properly functioning Tracer.

Ok, so you get a flat or other tire damage out on the road away from home. You brought tools along sufficient to remove the wheel (presumably the rear wheel) out on the road. Then what? You're gonna repair the tire out on the road? The best you could do in this situation would be to push a plug of some sort (maybe a screw if you have no tire repair stuff with you) and then re-inflate with the compressor you brought with you. You don't need to remove the wheel from the bike in order to accomplish this. That's why I don't carry those heavy tools with me on a trip. I do carry a small compressor, and a plug kit. And if those don't get me going again to ride to a service shop, then it's AAA, baby. But, to remove the wheel completely from the bike? Waste of time. And therefore, to carry several pounds of tools on this light bike, just for the sake of that extremely unlikely event, is also a waste.

I bent a front wheel on a CBR1100XX by hitting a car in a low speed impact that was more of a tipover than a collision. The bend in the wheel looked a lot like the OP photo. There was a bit of discussion about repairing the bent area, but I replaced the wheel with an oem. Didn't want to take an unnecessary chance.

I've got a new Corbin in process of breaking-in. It is doing nicely, but still a ways to go. A few days ago I ordered a new Shoei Neo-Tec helmet to replace my aging Harley (HJC?). Then, progress interrupted by this: Big piece of left ear removed (4th surgery there in 5 years) yesterday because Skin Cancer. So, can't ride, can't try out my new helmet when it arrives on Monday, because can't get it on my head. The first surgery I had on this ear, I had just bought my new FJR and couldn't bear not to ride it. So I forced a medium RF900 onto my stupid haid and tore out stitches. Not gonna make that mistake this time. I'm slow to learn, but I do learn.

Climate change is real. The disbelievers are tucking tail, now that it is easily observable even by the deliberately blind. Still, I can remember living through several very strange winters and summers, growing up in central Texas. Searing hot summers with eggs being fried on sidewalks to prove how hot it was. Hurricanes uprooting trees 200 miles from the coast. Hail storms in summer that left ankle deep piles of ice rocks and every window in town busted. Winters, sometimes two in a row, so cold in Texas with temperatures into the low teens for days on end. People were starting to talk about a new Ice Age way back in the early 70s. I remember the weather because I was always on a motorcycle, and therefore always in the weather. A motorcyclist knows the weather the way a pilot knows it. Riders don't doubt climate change. They have been observing it directly for, as in my case, many decades. The weather changes, and extremes are extremely unsettling. But what goes up comes back down. Whether the temperatures, or gas prices. Sure as shootin'

Will the motor turn over with the side stand down and trans in gear? Mine doesn't. Must be in neutral for the bike to crank if side stand is down. This argues against the side stand switch. Weird problem for sure.

Back in the days of long distance traveling on chain drive bikes, I carried a small pump oil can filled with motor oil. This was before o-ring chains. I was a kid in my 20s and didn’t care what anyone thought about me squatting with a tiny oil can, looking like highway trash I suppose. It didn’t seem odd to me because, for instance, my fav bike of those days was a 2 stroke Suzuki water Buffalo. I was already carrying along a bottle of Castrol 2stroke oil for the gas mix! I traveled on that bike from Texas to Beloit WI on one fall trip, and back again, in five riding days, oiling the chain and sprockets every 100 miles or so. A couple years later with the bike at around 30k miles it still had the original chain and sprockets on it, admittedly worn out. the chain is how power flows to the wheel. I want it smooth and clean from day one to day dead. Don’t want to have to schlep around on a nasty noisy dry chain screaming for oil. I’ve considered an auto oiler. I may yet buy one. Based on my reading the oilers are not perfect and many days of messing with them required along the way. I figure the simplicity of hand oiling is the better way to go. For now.

It's been a long many years since I had a chain drive bike. They've been shafts and belts for well over 20 years. Going to chain on this bike was a bummer for me. After a few days it dawned on me that the chain is going to be a big PITA. For sure, oiling the chain out on the road is a PITA. No it doesn't take long, but I like to sit while I oil, and sitting on the ground in my Stich seems a little undignified for a 73 y/o geezer. OTOH, riding a motorcycle may also strike a lot of people as undignified, and yet I do it gladly. At home, I will oil the chain most every day. I ride average of 100 miles every day, so that's about how it works out. I'm not much of a long distance rider any more, but I did a 1900 miler last week, and it worked out to about 200-250 miles between oiling. That's once per day. Usually in the parking lot at the motel. While it may be a PITA, I get a certain joy out of making sure all is well back there. Eyeballing every link, every day. Tire, the wheel, other stuff back there. It gives a nice opportunity to make sure things are where they should be. It takes no more than ten minutes max. If you're careful you only put on the right amount of oil so there is very little fling.

This new Corbin saddle is as hard as they come. I've been sitting on it for days now and it is still like lumber. And it is probably true that I need a little more rearward movement of the bars, with the Corbin, than I'm getting with the Helibar adapter. In order to make that happen, I'll need a longer clutch cable and a longer front brake pipe. I tend to adapt myself to a new motorcycle rather than adapt the bike to me, so I will give this some more time before looking for new handlebars. Yeah, it's hard for me to take pics of things. I'm so busy making history I don't find the time to document it.

Motorcycles have always had to be transportation first for me. I could never justify buying a bike for recreation only. And I've been brutal about it, always riding the bike to and from everywhere no matter the weather or other unsuitabilities of the machine to the task. I would tell the wife, honey look how much $ we will save on commute gas. Knowing full well that bikes are always more expensive to operate than a typical econobox. Now that I've been retired for 11 years, bikes are nothing BUT recreation, though I still insist on using the bike for everything possible it can be used for. I really don't care that much how expensive the gas is. What I need is supply. As long as there's plenty of gas around, I'm pretty happy.

I haven't seen anything close to $8/gal here in southern CA, unless $6.70 is considered close, which I suppose it is come to think about it. I'm just happy there are no fuel shortages. In the distant past we had shortages AND high prices. Anyways, in the past week I've installed my new Corbin saddle. This caused me to need handlebars a little further back, so I ordered a Helibar adapter online. The thing arrived from ME to CA 36 hours later!! The 21 Tracer has a different front brake hydraulic set-up compared to the instructions that came with the Helibar, so a little improv was required. Once installed, the Helibar solves most of the ergonomic trouble caused by the new saddle. The Corbin takes a lot of break-in, and that is what I will be doing for the next few days!

Regarding the lever travel: I think you said you went with aftermarket pads? If they are a mm or so thinner friction material than what you had before, could cause this. Ride it for awhile and see if it “normalizes.” You couldn’t have gotten air into the line if you didn’t open the line. Even if you did get air into the line, front brakes usually “bleed themselves” as the air bubble rises into the master cylinder over time. As long as you’re getting good brake action, don’t sweat the increased lever travel at least for a couple hundred miles. It will probably resolve itself. If nothing else, your hand will get accustomed to it.

I’ll pass 8k miles this morning on the trip to a Dr. Typically hand oil my chain every 100 to 200 miles. On recent cross country ride through hot country, I oiled it every 200-250 miles. I hand oil with Scott oil using one of those little plastic garden droppers, and get oil on each link. Try to let it sit for awhile and rotate the wheel a couple times to let the oil work in. So at 8k my chain is very good. No tight links yet, and only the tiniest areas of “tight spot” on the chain length. It looks great from all the oil. The worst thing about all the oiling is cleaning the flinging, which I do most every day, to keep my rear end clean. With less frequent oiling the chain and sprockets will get nasty sooner. I like them looking and rolling smooth and quiet.

Same here. I just did almost 1900 miles of interstate highway on the stock seat. By the time I got to this trip I had pretty well made peace with the stock seat. Even so, it bothered me just enough that i ordered a Corbin, which hadn't arrived before my departure. I did get butt burn here and there on the stock seat. Usually at the end of a 250 mile riding day. I would be fine with the stock seat long term, but the Corbin is much better looking and is more comfy to me though it induces a few other changes in riding posture.