rritterson
wish I was the bike
Yesterday I decided to take a loop from the city up 101 to Petaluma, then down Point Reyes Rd to Point Reyes Station and back to SF via 1. Great ride, if you are looking for a ~100 mile loop.
In Petaluma I stopped by Alan's shop to say hi, since I'm not normally in the area. While I was there I got a basic adjustment and look-over of my 2000 mile R6, and holy crap! He already does the regular service intervals on my bike, but this is the first time I'd gone for adjustments.
I had known that the brakes were mushy and the throttle was a bit slacky, and he fixed those problems easily.. He also discovered that my clutch cable was completely dry, my tire gauge was off by 10% (I was at ~31/33 instead of 34/35), my chain was underlubed, and my chassis was out of alignment (my swingarm notches are off by 2mm relative to each other). He also discovered that my suspension was set to 'mush' and that the compression settings on the fork weren't the same, finally laying to rest the squirminess the bike exhibited on bumpy roads.
I relearned a few things along the way. For example, a slack throttle makes it hard to be smooth, mushy brakes make it hard to be progressive, and a mushy suspension, despite the softness, actually fatigues you much faster due to the more extensive body movements it causes. After he was done I went riding and ran over some railroad tracks and was blown away by the compose the bike had now but didn't have before. It was kind of like sex: the first time you have it, it seems good, but it's not until later that you find out what it really can be.
Many of you are probably better mechanics than I and could fix those problems yourselves. I suspect many of you are like me, though, and don't know you even have these problems until someone points them out to you.
There are bad mechanics who fuck things up, good mechanics who do what you expect, great mechanics who go beyond, and then there are people like Alan: expert enough at what they do that they'll let you watch and teach you something while they work. It's worth every penny.
In Petaluma I stopped by Alan's shop to say hi, since I'm not normally in the area. While I was there I got a basic adjustment and look-over of my 2000 mile R6, and holy crap! He already does the regular service intervals on my bike, but this is the first time I'd gone for adjustments.
I had known that the brakes were mushy and the throttle was a bit slacky, and he fixed those problems easily.. He also discovered that my clutch cable was completely dry, my tire gauge was off by 10% (I was at ~31/33 instead of 34/35), my chain was underlubed, and my chassis was out of alignment (my swingarm notches are off by 2mm relative to each other). He also discovered that my suspension was set to 'mush' and that the compression settings on the fork weren't the same, finally laying to rest the squirminess the bike exhibited on bumpy roads.
I relearned a few things along the way. For example, a slack throttle makes it hard to be smooth, mushy brakes make it hard to be progressive, and a mushy suspension, despite the softness, actually fatigues you much faster due to the more extensive body movements it causes. After he was done I went riding and ran over some railroad tracks and was blown away by the compose the bike had now but didn't have before. It was kind of like sex: the first time you have it, it seems good, but it's not until later that you find out what it really can be.
Many of you are probably better mechanics than I and could fix those problems yourselves. I suspect many of you are like me, though, and don't know you even have these problems until someone points them out to you.
There are bad mechanics who fuck things up, good mechanics who do what you expect, great mechanics who go beyond, and then there are people like Alan: expert enough at what they do that they'll let you watch and teach you something while they work. It's worth every penny.
...NApe