Shiny's adventure with dirtbikes

[shinyribs]

Originally Posted by RS_Raz

Sorry to see you've had a collision mate. Glad you're okay
Dents and cracks give a bike character. Probably.

Thanks Raz. All just part of the game, so it's all good. I just saw your thread the other day with your Fazer,etc bike. Those aren't models I'm familiar with, but it looks like good stuff. I'll be following along. How's the mighty YZ doing?

[RS_Raz]

Going strong. Put a lot of miles on it recently coz I now have a full unrestricted license

[shinyribs]

Originally Posted by RS_Raz

Going strong. Put a lot of miles on it recently coz I now have a full unrestricted license

Very cool. Rep'd for that

[shinyribs]

Hopefully done crashing for a while, so I decided to wax my bags last night. They look and feel so much better now.





Decided to stick a biscuit in my bag and go take a ride this morning. Found a nice little pavilion at a church and stopped there to eat breakfast and consult my pitiful map.

A bit later I stumbled on to this. Furnace? What?


Wasn't really dressed to do a 10 mile hike in 90+ temps...

...but I walked out a couple miles to check out a few of the falls and to see what the furnace was all about.


So this thing was built in the 1840's to make iron. Very cool to see. I was imagining what it must have been like showing to to work here when this was cutting edge technology.




There was slag still laying all over the place. I grabbed a couple small pieces and on larger piece to sit on my shelf. The larger piece of glass has a rusty chunk in it, so I've got Roaring Run made iron from the mid 1800's sitting on my shelf now I think that's cool.

Shiny like black glass. I reckon it's the limestone/sand content that causes this.




Check out the ingredients list! Whoa! Oh, and now I know why they call it pig iron. I always wondered about that.



Noticed someone had decided to start stacking rocks beside the railroad in Eagle Rock.


Not sure why they started it, but I added my contribution.


Very fun way to spend the morning. Was planning to take a spin for an our or so...ended up leaving a little after 8:00 and getting home around 2:00 About another 100 miles on the bike today. It doesn't mind the heat at all. I think this is gonna be a good bike. I reckon I'll mow grass tomorrow...

[Casper]

More small adventures!

[shinyribs]

Hard not to sound cheesy, but everyday is an adventure. As long as you go outside and just have a look around. Log off and leave the shop. I see so much cool stuff plodding around back roads. Barreling down the highway zips you past things you don't even know are there. Ain't nothing fancy about this 30hp bike, but it easily soaks up the types of roads I find myself on.

I'm not at a place where I can take long trips, and I don't think I'd want to anyway. I'm very happy going out and having a blast every single day, even if I never stay more than several hours from home. Yeah, I'm cool with small adventures.

[Casper]

Sorry...

Post more pictures of small adventures!

I checked out one of those forges in southern Ohio, the hills are full of them. Very cool idea to process raw materials where they are needed.

[shinyribs]

No reason to say sorry. I know what you meant and didn't mean anything by it.

[shinyribs]

Tag bracket broke again! I really thought the Kydex would hold up, but it only went about 500 miles. I was going up a hill over some pretty rough washboards one day and suddenly heard this horrible RarRarRarRarRarRar sound...my heart sank. It sounded like something in the transmission was eating itself alive. Imagine my relief when I pulled over and just found the rear tire chewing on the tag/bracket where it was lodged in the swingarm Suprised the bolt didn't chew the tire up.



Tag mount v.3. Not exactly what this stuff is. It may be some old conveyor belt material, but I think it's a belt from a bailing machine. Either way, its stiff rubber and I can't see vibration killing it. Doubled it up in the "hinge" area....a real piece of craftsmanship



I dunno why, but this bike is just damn fun to ride. The other two bikes have been doing a lot of sitting this summer. I'm even jumping on this thing to ride my trails at home vs taking the actual dirt bike Honeymoon phase, I reckon. This thing doesn't have much top end pull. I may look into some cams with slightly longer duration. It's such a fun bike I don't mind needlessly spending a little cash on it. I'm in it cheap anyway.

[shinyribs]

Oh, the RFY shocks. The damping was weak out of the box, but not horrible. Offroad they were pretty cushy, but they would let the rear end get a little too active on open roads that were kinda rough. I've been playing with the nitrogen charge and am surprised how effective such a simple change can be. I'm slowly raising the pressure a bit at a time and it always has positive results. Currently at 150psi and it really firmed up the damping without causing any harshness. The bike will occasionally get a little loose feeling over successive bumps at speed...gonna try another 25psi and see how it feels. I don't think I'll ever have to go inside them. The damping actually feels pretty progressive. They are short travel and I can bottom them offroad without a lot of effort, but I knew that going in and is totally my fault. So yeah, I may open them up at some time to see if I can coax some more travel out of them, but I really don't have any complaints. I'm actually good at tuning suspension and am kinda picky. For a shock, it's a very nice shock....for a $56 pair of shocks, it the fucking deal of the century

Gotten pretty used to how it handles now. It's a dream on the road. Super smooth and neutral handling. Brakes are good, but rear pedal leverage is bad. I'll redo that if I'm ever willing to park the thing. COG feels surprisingly low considering I'm 6'2" and can't flat foot the thing anymore. On gravel the front end will feel pretty vague if you carry much speed, so you absolutely HAVE to sit forward on the seat. But if you slide all the way up on the tank the front tire will track like it's on rails and the ass end will swing at a flick of the throttle. It's an absolute hoot :lol3