Well I shimmed my rear shock before yesterday's track day and definitely loved it, the bike definitely lost stability and gained cornering eagerness, beside the occasional wobble from the worst pavement a racetrack could have best mod for close to nothing. I would suggest a damper specially for high speed road use, since it gets a bit unstable at certain speeds. The more clearance it gave the pegs and exhausts is welcome, but after a bit, scrrreeeeechhh !! Oh well it only goes so far...
Time for my 20 $ oil change too !!

Getting ready




These a re muscle car era alignment shims


Torquing to 33 lb/ft

 

How thick is the shim stack?

Did you pull the fork tubes up after you installed the Racetech springs?

Just curious because I've got my shock shimmed 4 mm, I pulled the tubes up 11 mm in the triples after changing springs. Got the same free OAL spring + spacer as I had stock.

The suspension compliance still kinda sucks with the original rear shock. I haven't done a track day but have run pretty hard in the mountains and been up to 130 mph and haven't had any wobble.

 

Yeah the rear feels weird compared to better sprung bikes. It feels like the swing arm pivot is stuck...I may want to check that too... I get like one inch movement jumping on and off the bike even with the damping set to none.
The stack is 6.2mm and the forks are still at the top, they may stay there for a bit since the clearance still sucks. I need to move my exhausts and remove the pegs track markers.

 

Yeah I remember the post you did when you installed the springs and I think you went with longer OAL for the new springs and spacers. I think you said you weigh about the same as me, and I'm guessing here, but if you didn't lift the tubes I wonder if you aren't a little high in front even with the shock spacer.

PS did the $20 include the ale?

 

It became a tradition for oil changes and boring mechanic jobs to drink some beer to make it more appealing, the problem is that I messed up two of the three jobs I did that day, I pinched the oil cap O-ring and forgot to tighten some muffler clamp and dragged my exhaust all around the track, I threw some fireballs cutting the ignition while holding the throttle for the show
The ale was about 20 bucks, but I call it co-lateral pleasure and I just had 2, I keep some in case I get some friends coming to "help"

I guess I could drop the forks, but my head bearings are shot and taking some more rake angle off will make the bike dangerous to ride IMO

 

I changed my oil yesterday.

4 quarts of Super Tech 15w40 @ $1.48 USD each purchased 6 months ago. $5.92
One Super Tech 7317 filter $2.77
One 375 ML bottle of Braidenwood Estates Merlot from the 99 cents only store $0.99
I drank the whole thing.
Total $9.68 But I've still got a few ounces of 15w40 left over!

 

Do you guys all run 15w40?? I run mobile 1 10w40. I've read in motorcyclist about guys that even run lighter weights in their rc51's to get better gas mileage.

 

Yeah, good thing you had some 15-40 left, because after a whole bottle of wine...that oily feeling on your lips...DOH !!
You guys are lucky to have proper ground to produce quality wines and not to pay 5X the value in taxes, here in freeze land the seasons are too short and our wines sucks so we drink beer and for the occasional wine bottle we can mortgage the house



Many of us run Diesel oil in our bikes, the standard is 15-40, but yes the thinner the oil is the more mileage you get, but the improvement is small.

 

gboezio;

Yes, good California wine is affordable, but the $0.99 at the closeout store was a find. I stocked up!

I know the Napoleonic tradition of government requires high taxes, but a French speaking province where good wine is too expensive to drink? That is very, very wrong!