An unexpected side effect of suspension/tyre upgrade...

[Stew]

So, the bike feels great now, with the new suspension, and I am absolutely loving these Pilot Road 5's . It is around 40-50f here lately, and raining a lot, and gales have brought the leaves down big time (and the trees on some of the wee back roads)

With the feel from the bike now I was riding along today, squealing with pure joy, as I was going along my favourite twisty road, riding pretty hard, and getting the bike over quite a bit, considering I'm working on getting me over more and the bike less.

Then it hit me.

My fuel consumption has dropped. Cos I am able to use that delicious engine a lot more. In lovely summer bone dry warm weather, I was getting nearly 5mpg (imperial) more , hahahaha, who'da thunk it.
So, to sum up. If you are holding back on upgrading suspension, or putting up with tyres (tires) that don't feel good, why? You, and your bike, deserve it.

Sowwy Gweta (not sowwy)

 

[kilo3]

Hey Stew, do you have "winter gas" over there?

In the northern states here they switch to a winter blend of gas which has some lower emissions stuff but also less mpg.

[Stew]

Just now, kilo3 said:

Hey Stew, do you have "winter gas" over there?

In the northern states here they switch to a winter blend of gas which has some lower emissions stuff but also less mpg.

nah, 95 octane all the way. The price of a gallon (imperial) would make you weep

 

[SKYFLIX]

The fuel economy on ALL of my bikes has always gone down after a few months of ownership. I chalk it up to all of the reasons that you mentioned. We become more familiar and confident with it, or upgrade tires and suspension, so we tend to push it a little harder.

[Salish900]

Awesome post @Stew. I did a ride last night that made me feel the same way. New Road 5's up front, new fork springs and oil, and all my other recent upgrades, and I was just a giddy little kid on a fast and comfortable bike zipping along on lovely rural roads here in great state of Washington. I can't get over how and why it feels so good to be on a great machine, but it does. Happy winter riding for all of you in the Northern Hemisphere. 

[Stew]

Just now, Salish900 said:

Awesome post @Stew. I did a ride last night that made me feel the same way. New Road 5's up front, new fork springs and oil, and all my other recent upgrades, and I was just a giddy little kid on a fast and comfortable bike zipping along on lovely rural roads here in great state of Washington. I can't get over how and why it feels so good to be on a great machine, but it does. Happy winter riding for all of you in the Northern Hemisphere. 

I had the front wheel off the ground at a 3 figure speed (closed road and kph ) and it felt amazing, I was proper shrieking with joy.  And I went round a few really tight wee bends today that I always kind of clumsied my way round, but thos afternoon , ooooft, I was in attack mode.

Bikes are brilliant eh  

See all this covid and elections and terrorism and asteroids and all the rest of the spoilsport things, they can all beat it, I've got fossil fuels to abuse!

[knyte]

As a friend is fond of saying, "mileage goes back up when the novelty wears off".

...but what if the novelty doesn't wear off

[Salish900]

I can't say I've ever paid any real attention to mileage, finding I'm much more focused on performance. Meaning, if the bike is running smoothly and well, I'll get about whatever mileage that engine can give me. I realize I'm speaking from a place of privilege where a few dollars of gas here or there don't impact my food supply, but philosophically, I just don't fret mileage on bikes. I'm finding my 900 computer is telling me 45 to 47 average. It has no impact on how I ride it. If it said 35, I'd only be concerned that the engine is in poor tune. 

My riding style, as my family would loudly complain about, is that I love G forces. I don't give a hoot about speed. But damn, I love G forces. Starting, stopping, turning. My one speeding ticket was taking a posted 25 smooth curve at about double that on my Connie, and it had perfect visibility, no structures or humans within a mile, and could have been taken easily by a skilled rider at 90. Total speed trap. Officer parked at apex of corner behind a tree. Guilty as charged. 

[BBB]

17 hours ago, Stew said:

ooooft, I was in attack mode

I’m all for riding bikes quickly and enjoying them. I don’t use mine for commuting so my riding is heavily biased towards enjoyment. But, I also know that the times I’ve been too far in the flow, attack mode as you put it, I’ve ended up not leaving any margin for error, shite on the roads or eejits around me. It’s the closest I’ve come to total wipeout when I met a car on my side of the road and I had nowhere to go as I was riding too fast with no visibility of the road ahead. My error.

I’m not saying that your making the same error @Stew, I’ve not seen you ride. Enjoy your rides, but leave a bit of margin for the unknown. Personally I hate leaves on the road and much prefer clearer winter tarmac.

[Stew]

3 minutes ago, BBB said:

I’m all for riding bikes quickly and enjoying them. I don’t use mine for commuting so my riding is heavily biased towards enjoyment. But, I also know that the times I’ve been too far in the flow, attack mode as you put it, I’ve ended up not leaving any margin for error, shite on the roads or eejits around me. It’s the closest I’ve come to total wipeout when I met a car on my side of the road and I had nowhere to go as I was riding too fast with no visibility of the road ahead. My error.

I’m not saying that your making the same error @Stew, I’ve not seen you ride. Enjoy your rides, but leave a bit of margin for the unknown. Personally I hate leaves on the road and much prefer clearer winter tarmac.

Aye, I appreciate that @BBB , I ride within my limits. What is insanely fast to me would probably be pedestrian to most other m/cyclists. There are tractors, mud, pheasants and cyclists so if I don't have the visibility on a bend, I assume there is a tractor with big sharp pointy bits just sitting around the corner.

One of the scariest things I ever experienced was , when young, going round a corner and a car coming towards me on my side of the road. I had a sheer drop on the left, or swerve to avoid them, which would put me on 'their' side of the road, where hopefully they were headed again.
I can't remember how it ended, other than that I parked up a few minutes later to smoke and to stop shaking

[2and3cylinders]

Stew,

When you wheelied, was the TC off?   I always forget to turn it off for comparison.  I've run 520 pitch on my last 2 chains and sprockets  (DID ZVM-X Gold) and Superlite steel sprockets (SprocketCenter.com) but this time went 15T F & 44T R = +4.1% Tq and I'm liking it and not feeling to hit A mode as much.

My worst road (vs track) mishap was in 1973 on my 61 BSA Goldstar in a Rickman-Matisse frame, Vesrah shoes in the drums and Dunlop K81 doughnuts (the hot ticket back then).  In the early spring I was off Rt 9 in the San Bruno Mountains camping illegally in Big Basin State Park northwest of Santa Cruz.  I discovered a really serpentine roller coaster of  a glorified almost  2-lane goat trail, really hot dogging it during the first oil embargo.  I came zipping up to what turned out to be a 90 degree turn that entered a single lane bridge over a creek.  The drums over-heated and it straightened up while trail braking and moved out to the outside edge where I hit some mud and, woop, can you say Highside?  The Beza went one way and I did a somersault the other landing on my right visor pivot screw and bounced doing a backflip.  I remember the sounds more than the visual imagery.  I lept to my feet and ran to the bike concerned about leaking gas, as the stations were on an odd-even plate # dispensing schedule and often shut down early after often running dry till Monday's delivery of the swill they served and still do in CA, as it was a weekend.  I picked it up and amazingly it fired on the first kick (no need to tickle the Amal) and I somehow got into the hilly woods on a muddy trail, and got lost.  I was trying to get back to the Park where I was camping illegally because they don't open till the winter deadfall is cleared.  I kept sliding out in the mud, as K81s are not the hot trials ticket.  Suddenly I came out of the woods and asked a lady cleaning up her yard how to get back to the Park so I could get my backpack and sleeping bag.  Somehow I found them and headed straight back to San Francisco up Rt 1 past Half Moon Bay.  After 110 miles I don't remember, I rolled my BSA into the coach house and went upstairs to the 3rd Floor Victorian walkup that had a killer view of the Bay.  I remember taking off my bomber jacket, navy flight suit and buckled steel-toed Engineer boots, and washing my face but couldn't get the dirt off.  I then collapsed on the mattress on the floor of my room early Saturday evening and woke up in time for work Monday morning.  It was not until years later I realized after my 3rd concussion that it was not dirt on my face (I had removed the face shield on my Shoei full face, the first they imported in to US) but my skin was ashen colored as I was in shock, and shouldn't have laid down.  I shared the flat with 4 other people I didn't know, who maybe would have discovered my body a few days later due to the smell...

I was a bike courier for the architect I worked for a 50 Green Street off the Embarcadero in SF, and if you can survive that, you've developed a 6th sense and good downhill broadsiding technique and lane splitting skills.  If I've rambled, it's due to the 4 Valium I took earlier to get through my cervical MRI.  They worked, as I slept through it.  I'm still stinging from the catheters run up the front and back for the bladder test I had before the MRI.  I crashed pretty good a few times at Leguna Seca, Sears Point, Brown Field, Willow Springs, Riverside and Ontario MSW (the latter 2 long gone) but never got hurt significantly (ah to be young again, resilient and flexible and stupid).  So now on the street since I got my FJ (due to back and neck issues), which I find it pretty tame compared to my other 2 scoots, one being a 2-smoke, I clearly know my limitations and the pitfalls of road riding.  Hopefully after my surgeries next year I'll be able to pick up the pace a bit but you never know what's over that next rise or around that blind turn...

[Stew]

Oooooft, that sounds wild.  Glad you slept through the MRA and all.

off to start a fireside chat on crashes

Take it easy, you'll be out riding like a hooligan again soon

 

[maximo]

On 11/3/2020 at 7:25 AM, knyte said:

As a friend is fond of saying, "mileage goes back up when the novelty wears off".

...but what if the novelty doesn't wear off

And all along I thought that my wife was referring to my age when she calls me her "high mileage husband."