Labor Day run

[grizld1]

OK, Denny, here's one for ya, just a bit of an idea of how we get our jollies out here in the hills 'n' hollers. The run commenced at my place SW of Carbondale, IL, on Labor Day morning. One of my friends had just taken delivery of a brand-new 2.3 liter Triumph Rocket 3 and decided he needed to get his tires broken in. The proprietor of my home shop, Jim Jarvis, who did some Pro-Am roadracing in his younger days, took my XS650 for the first leg of the run, while I rode my SV650 Zook. We ran to Chester, IL to hook up with our fourth rider, on a big ole Hyabusa.

We ran west into the Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest, then south. Traffic was light, pavement was clean, weather was perfect. We caught a late lunch at Bixby, MO after a hammer-down run on County Rd. DD and MO 32, sticking to twisty tertiary roads as much as possible, taking little breaks at the route changes for the big Trunch power cruiser to catch up. The big 'Busa blew the smaller bikes away on fast sweepers, of course; on tighter, rougher pavement, the little bikes had it. It took awhile for Jim to start really trusting the Yamaha's handling, as he'd ridden more than a few of 'em over the years and was looking for the usual problems, like bad oversteer at deep heel. (I had worked on those problems for a few years, however--13.25" Works Suspension shocks, Race Tech cartridge emulators and .80kg Traxxion Dynamics fork springs, 18" front rim, Daytona tweak bar, and the usual goodies in the steering head and swingarm). His comment: "I just kept taking it deeper and deeper, and it just kept feeling solid. That chassis needs another 15 horsepower." And "It steers like a 350!" From the 'Busa rider: "That thing's amazing. I couldn't catch it on the tight stuff. I didn't think it'd even keep up."

We finished the run with a sweep south and east to Cape Girardeau, MO and back to my place, with Jim taking the SV while I took the Yam. The trip went a bit over 300 miles, with quite a few stretches of, ah, extralegal speed where traffic and absence of driveways and crossroads permitted; the old Yam was in triple digits more than once (how much more I ain't sayin'), with sustained cruising between 70 and 85 (don't try this at home, kids; nobody on this run had less than 30 years of experience). It didn't miss a beat and came home with the same oil level it left with.

Postmortem, Jim and I agreed on a bottom-line assessment of the two 650's. For really choppy, tight backroads with limiting speeds of 50 to 70 in the turns, the Yam would be the ride of choice over the Zook. For higher-speed work and general performance, the Zook had it. It's hard to argue with 26 years of technology. If it came down to the grim option of having to choose just one bike (an ugly thought!), it would be the SV. But the Yam had it in the area of creative satisfaction. You can't just buy one, pick stuff out of a catalogue and bolt it on, and have a ride that will give modern iron a run for its money on the twisties. You have to identify the issues, think them through, and refine.

The engine that came with my old bike's frame was ruined by a moron, which leaves me with my winter's work. I have an engine I built with a late crank on kick-only cases during a period when I thought a leg injury would improve enough to let me fire up a mill with 700cc bore-in pistons at a 10.5-to-1 compression ratio (A Shell #1 grind cam and ported head complete the package). The cases that match my frame need a good crank and topend, and my fresh topend and spec crank need pushbutton cases. And there's 2 or 3 pounds of wire and superfluous crap that could be eliminated by running a simplified harness.

And that's the joy of it--there's always one more thing to do.

[bikermandg]

Ok Griz, you really stepped in it this time, you've gone and made me jealous! I can't think of anything that I'd rather do than ride with a couple of friends with experience who know how to pick a line thru the twisties. The Busa sounds like fast company, but I'd ride along anytime. You can't buy a day like that with money, it has to to be earned by years of experience. Did I understand you to say that you are going to put the 700 in a frame this winter? Should be an awesome ride. Gottnee photos of the trip? Denny

[grizld1]

Yes, Denny, gonna do the do this winter. Had to get the chassis right first, and that's done. Come December it'll be time to give it some giddyup; I'm missing the responsiveness of my Mikuni straightthrough 38's anyway, and I'm tired of just looking at my Shell billet aluminum carb mounts. I'm running an '81 engine in my D-model frame at present; the D's headcover was warped by an idiot who thought the way to cure an oil seep at the head was to crank down over the leak, and since head and headcover are linebored, if you trash one you've trashed both. The fool had also installed the cam about 1/16" off center, with the predictable result--the cam lobes and followers looked like they'd been on the rough stone of a bench grinder. So all I'll be using of the old D engine is the cases and maybe a few tranny parts if they look good. I won't be using the crank, because I have one (out of a whole bunch that got set on V-blocks and checked with a dial indicator) that shows no--zip, zero, nada--runout at the journals, and is at the close end of Yam journal spec at the flywheel edge. The result's gonna be depravity cut loose.

The 'Busa was a rocket on fast sweepers, but for the really tight stuff it was a bit long in the wheelbase, and the heavy nose (designed that way to counteract airfoil at insane speeds) makes it a handful on choppy pavement.

Nobody was packing a camera. If you wanta see the Ozarks you're just gonna have to make a trip out here and do it! You can park your cruiser in my barn and ride a scoot that's got dancin' shoes on.

[bikermandg]

How about I just bring my 81 XS650H, it's got some sticky tires on it and I spent the past 10 years hustling it thru the twisties on Rt. 9 here in Ohio. We know each other pretty well by now. I'd trust it to go to the west coast and back.

[grizld1]

Whatever ya want! Let me know if you want to run the Ozarks. Any weekend's fine except that of 9/23--I'll be in Tennessee for the Rendezvous then. Sticky tires are good, but the H with stock wheels and suspension is still a handful and pretty limited on ground clearance. Compared to other upright twins of its period, the Yam 650 doesn't steer too stably at deep heel unless you get the tail up and the nose down, and unsprung weight makes for heavy steering; but if you got forearms like Popeye you'll be OK--otherwise you'll be pretty sore from pushin' it down and pickin' it up. Jim was still grousing today about sore arms. I just grinned and said "That'll teach you to use your feet!" (My legs were as sore as his arms--got the old horseman's habit of putting the legs into the ride, so I use the pegs heavily in steering-- but I didn't let on.)

[bikermandg]

Yeh, you are right, the "H" can be a handful. I have a very relaxed riding style in as much as I use my butt and hips to move the bike around. Over the years I have learned to go into a zone when I'm riding the twisties, instead of getting caught up in the heat of the moment, I am able to slow things down in my mind as if they were in slow motion and I let my reflexes take control. I am able to block out everything except what is in front of me. No doubt you know what I am talking about. The fact that the old XS650 has a ton of bottom end torque helps my style too, it's not as busy as an inline four, and with my bum knee, the old XS650 is perfect because it doesn't require as much gear change to get thru a curve. Fifth gear is good from 40 mph right on up. You gotta love how an old 650 forgives an old geezer like me for doing stupid things like yanking the throttle open at 40 mph in fifth gear, it just picks up and goes. I'd love to ride with you guys sometime. Denny

[grizld1]

Just tell me when. Prime seasons are late fall and early spring, when the leaves are thin so you can see through the turns and it's cool enough for full body armor. If you like a wide power band, you gotta get that V-Strom you were eyeballing. I love my XS650, but the 650 Zook V-twin has usable power across a range of more than 6500 rpm--that's more than the whole range from idle to redline on the XS, which usually pulls well in stock form between around 4500 and 7000 in a good state of tune. And the Zook tranny is smooth as butter--just twitch your ankle and you got your gear. Besides, you have to do something with all the money you made from that D-model before you squander it on something useless like groceries!

[bikermandg]

Griz, yep I looked at the V-Strom 1000, but it is a ton of money, I don't know if I can justifie $9,000.00 on it or not. I have to admit, the "D" money is burning a hole in my pocket, but groceries....never. Beer...maybe. ;D

[grizld1]

What?! You were looking at the liter bike, not your sacred displacement, the 40-incher? I'm shocked. But given the teeny, tiny little bit of weight you pick up with all that added displacement, who can blame ya? Try what I did when I bought my SV--shop online close to Christmas for the leftovers, when the cycle sellers are lean and hungry as winter coyotes (I know about that, having been one in a previous incarnation).

[bikermandg]

I looked at the 650 also, but don't know if it has enough ponies to do some sport touring. It's not much smaller than the 1000...if any. What do you think? BTW, I was with the Lewis and Clark expedition in my last incarnation.....

[grizld1]

The V-Strom 650 has plenty of git, Denny. It's an 8-valve liquid-cooled 90-degree V-twin with electronic fuel injection, and runs pump gas at an 11:1 compression ratio. It has the same chassis as the 1000. The output's a little lower than the SV version of the same engine, but not much. Enough ponies? The beast will cruise at the ton all day and get there in a hurry; I've had my SV for almost two years now and I don't know what its top speed is because I don't want to go there. I can tell you it has a whole bunch of throttle left at an honest 110, at which speed it still feels rock-solid on the pavement. We're not talking "some" sport touring here, we're talking all ya want. I don't know what kind of magic Suzuki used to mix that kind of output with the broadest powerband I've ever experienced, but they did it. How can I explain this? Let's see--take a good Harley XLCH engine from the sixties, remove the noise and vibration, leave its low-end grunt intact, stretch its redline to 11,000 rpm with a flat power curve, give it two more gears just for fun in a silk-smooth tranny, and drop the whole package in a modern perimeter frame. Yeah, I know; you don't believe it, and neither did I till I rode it. I had to adjust to the throttle response; you don't just crack it when it's off the power band and lump up to speed because it's never off the power band, and the engine braking is immediate too.

The only major reliability issue I've heard of is from guys who race and run like racers (sustained high-rpm running). The regulator-rectifier unit tends to get annoyed at the abuse.

[bikermandg]

Griz, thanks for the input. I was to three bikes shops today trying to get another look at either of the V-Stroms, nobody has one at the moment. I put about 75 miles on the "H" just going from shop to shop. The difference in price between the two sizes is about $3,000.00 at list. I don't want to make the same mistake as I made with the V-Star. Don't get me wrong, the Star is a good bike, but it's not my cup of tea. I also have issues with Suzuki that I have to get my head around, but that's another story and pretty gruesome. However every bike manufacturer has it's problems and I'm willing to give Suzuki another chance.

[grizld1]

A bad Zook in the background, eh? Sorry to hear it. I've owned, let's see, 7 of 'em, and every one was a solid machine. But Suzuki has made some bikes I don't think highly of, to put it very mildly--the Savage singles, for starters. Putting out a big single in a cruiser configuration with a garbage suspension was obscene, there's no other word for it. Can't do a thing with the frame they used. And then there's the old GT750 Water Buffalo--it takes some real engineering genius to build a top-heavy 2-stroke and contend with the Kaw H1 triple for the title of World's Most Dangerously Squirrely Overpowered Motorcycle. I've only owned two Hondas in my time--but when I try to think of a Honda model I considered a real stinker, I can't come up with one, although I worked for a Honda-BSA dealership for a couple of years and saw plenty. Never owned a Kaw, probably never will; the SR500, RD400 and XS650 are the only Yamahas that ever had any real appeal for me; the first two because of the bikes Yamaha built, the last because of what I could do with the XS650 platform in spite of what Yamaha built.

Anyway, that 90-degree V-twin's been in production since '99 and has turned in a good reliability record; there's a lot of consumer experience data out there. Wish you could make it to the Rendezvous--I'm taking the SV and you could ride it and see what you think.

[bikermandg]

In the spring of 2002, I bought a new Suzuki VZ800 v-twin chain drive off the showroom floor. At 200 miles it was running hot and the cooling fan would come on at 50 mph, it also had a flat spot right off of idle that would snap your neck. At 400 miles it developed a high pitched whine in the gear box that sounded like an air raid siren between the speeds of 45 and 65 mph. It would blow holes in your ear drums. The dealer promptly told me that it was my after market windshield causing a turbulance type noise and took it off to prove his point, breaking it and scratching the tank in the process. I blew up and got in his face big time. He refused to admit the bike had a problem, so I took it to another dealer who rode it for half an hour and said it was in the gearbox and it would most likely seize up on me. He said if it started to nose over, I should get it off the road. Thats not very comforting when you are on I-77 35 miles from home. I spent many long hours on the phone with the Suzuki service center in Brea Cal. trying to get something done about the bike, but they have a discouraging way of stone walling customers. The dealer had the bike three weeks while I waited for a factory rep to show up, but he never did show. I traded the bike in on the V-Star in the spring of 2003 and lost my arse in the process. The VZ800 had 960 miles on the clock. I'm smart enough to realize that every bike manufacturer has it's lemon, so I'm willing to try another dealer and take a long look at the V-Strom.

[grizld1]

Ouch! That's the worst one I've heard in a while: vandalizing your bike, then claiming a factory rep. has to look at the bike after another of the company's dealers has already diagnosed the problem, with company tech. support orchestrating the whole lousy shuck. Consider this in future: they don't tend to stonewall lawyers when you get one on the case to enforce a warrantee because then they get to fix the bike, pay your lawyer, pay their lawyers, pay court costs, and score bad press. I'd be holding a grudge over that number for a long, long time.