cOoTeR

I had a stroliner for about a week before I let my dad ride it and total it. It wasn't a deluxe but it was awesome for a cruiser. I rode a buddies street glide I think ( front fairing radio hardbags.) on a 555 ride. The only thing I liked about the Harley over the stratoliner was it had radio cd player and cruise control. Compared to the stratoliner the Harley felt under powered and handled like a log. Eventually I'd like to get stratoliner deluxe but i really prefer sport bikes and the budgets not there for a third bike.

I didn't pay for a membership. I paid for a trail access pass. If I can't access the trails, I'm not getting what I paid for. Pretty simple actually.

I don't find it lame at all, although I never bitched about anything. Simply letting you know your facts are not actually facts.

For those who aren't getting a paycheck (for any reason, not just gov't failure), let me know what you do for a living. I'd be more than happy to help you find a job.

If you are receiving a paycheck and the gov't failure hasn't impacted you, but you still use it as a pawn in a fruitless argument; get bent.

Well I'm a government employee and I am "required to report for duty" but the people whom process the payroll are considered non-essential so I won't get a paycheck for awhile. If they get this crap fixed by Friday I may be ok but otherwise it will be at least a month between checks before I get a paycheck. Luckily I pay most of my bills out of my first check. I've got a bit put away but after looking at the savings balance and the out going for bills and living essentials its a little scary looking ahead. I'm hoping if this goes on too long my car loan and mortgage company will allow me to defer payments without a negative hit to my credit. I've got coworkers that have scheduled leave (vacation days) scheduled for over a year and they have been cancelled. Even though they made plans to fly and paid for tickets they are still required to report to work.

I will eventually get a check for the time I'm working now but I don't know when. It's hard to budget for that. Then when I do get paid its going to be on 1 check and in a higher tax bracket. So basically the government is going to make money off me.

So Casper you know what I do if not I can PM you but what have you got job wise in my field? What's the pay look like? I like my current job and pay I get now when I receive it but wouldn't mind being back in Ohio.

Squid? He has on his leather vest for protection he's good.

Probably saw the video of the chick falling off the seat and getting her hoo-haa force fed into the rear shock. He said ugt-uh I'm not getting any twater juice on my rear shock.

Gotcha I was confused.

There is a round about at the exit for my house down here. It's somewhat common to watch a car come up to the roundabout and either not stop at all or stop and then turn left into the wrong direction. Stupid and bad drivers isn't localized to a city or a state, it's an epidemic.

I thought the whole point of roundabouts was so traffic doesnt stop?

If so then she should continue in her lane, match speed and merge behind the truck on the ramp. Stopping means that she now has to race to merge with the traffic BEHIND the truck. Either way, stopping in a clear open lane with a green light is NOT the way to do it.

And do you agree that being on a bike at the back of an unexpectedly stopped line of traffic is a bad place to be?

It looked to me like the truck was right on the center line. She's probably a chicken shit driver that is soo overly cautious she doesn't realize how she makes it dangerous for others. Saw big truck and in her mind it was probably turning into her lane and she could have died had she not been soo safe and stopped. That's the mentality a lot of drivers have and you've got to deal with it. I'm not saying its right but its expected especially in that area 36/37 + 71 bring out the stupid in people especially on the east side of 71 there infront of the truck stop. Another awesome place is the sawmill 270 interchange i couldn't tell you the amount of people that have stopped in front of me while merging into moving traffic there. I can see why she did it but think it boils down to her being scared and an under aggressive driver. The type that will hit their.brakes on the highway because someone merged into their lane even though there is significant space between them. Or the type that will slow down because there are deer grazing a 1/4 mile from the road in a field because the don't wanna hit one.

My guess would be the semi making a wide turn intimidated them and they probably didnt feel like racing to get ahead of it before the merge. Just a guess though.

So day 2 we woke up and it was raining with no sign of it clearing up. 1 guy was hesitant to ride but decided he would go. Then we were all ready to go and the1198 would not start. We tried several fixes from the forums to no avail. The only option was to input the override code but the my friend had no clue what it was because it was at home in his safe with his spare keys. So he said he was fine not going out and the guy who was timid about riding in the rain decided to stay back with him.

So 2 of us set out to ride in the rain. We took the million dollar highway to ouray where it finally dried up. We headed upto Ridgeway where we hoped on 62 to placerville. We hopped on 145 to telluride and it started raining on the way but the road was pretty fun regaurdless. The road was pretty awesome to rico and would have been even more of a blast if it was dry.

Last weekend a group of friends and I went for a weekend trip to ride in Colorado. We stayed in Durango at a hotel called the iron horse inn. Named for the steam engine that passes through every morning. Ok hotel with a decent price.

Saturday we rode the million dollar highway interstate 550 from Durango to Ridgeway. That section of road was awesome with long open sweepers and really tight corners and hairpins. Most of the curves had cliffs right off the side of the road so there was a nice incentive to stay on the road. Then we continued on 550 to Montrose where we grabbed lunch and stopped for gas. Between Ridgeway and Montrose was pretty open and boring with a couple of sweepers here and there. We passed several bikers going the other way that warned us of the state trooper up ahead so we had slowed our pace to a reasonable speed. Just before Montrose we had a close call with a trooper heading the other direction but he didnt take any notice of us.

When we left Montrose the guy on the Ducati 1198 had issues with the high speed anti theft device and the imobilizer would not allow the bike to start. 2 of us didn't know he was having trouble and started down the road. When we noticed they werent behind us we rode slow hoping they had just been held up by traffic leaving the gas station. But then we missed a turn and had to go around the block to get back on track onto 149. Now we didnt know if they were ahead of us or still behind us. We assumed they had made the correct turn and were now ahead of us. We started trying to catch up assuming if they had an issue they would have called us.. We came to a section of road construction and were stopped for about 20 min waiting to go through. Then when we went through they had the road tore up and it was all gravel. So we rode about 10mph in traffic for about half an our on a gravel road. Then when we cleared the construction zone we had to work our way through the traffic that had backed up due to the construction zone. This wasn't too bad due to traffic giving room to get by and in Colorado they allow you to pass on curves that you can see through regardless of how tight they are. So that was a lot of fun. Once we cleared the traffic the road was very nice with some open sweepers. Then as the road tightened up it began to rain but my Michelin Pilot Power 3's held great. We came to the town of Lake city and stopped for gas and decided they would have waited for us there so we waited and got some coffee. They showed up a little while later and explained the issues they had.

We continued on 149 to pagosa springs having a blast weaving through the mountains in the rain. We hopped on 160 which was nice because it had quit raining but the roads were still damp. The ride to Durango was pretty uneventful other than a close call with a state trooper parked on the side of the road. We were cruising around triple digits and came over a rise in the road where he was sitting. I was the last to see him and grabbed a handful of front brake and started to endo before letting off. Then when the rear came down it was locked and started squealing and smoke as I slowed to a legal speed. I thought for sure I was going to get a ticket for reckless op and speeding but we never saw lights so he must have been impressed with my stunt work. We reached Durango after 398 miles since we filled up in the morning.

My battery is dying so I'll fill you in on days 2+3 later.

I thought the prisons were privatized... how would that be a government scheme?

Not all have been privatized and its been around for awhile.

Evey job ive had since graduating high school ive been drug tested. Thats both in private and government jobs so I have no issues doing the same with welfare recipients. Welfare gets abused by enough people to justify it in my opinion. I think the threat of losing their cash cow would be enough to straighten some people up.

Magz we already use inmate labor especially in Ohio. Look up OPI Ohio Penal Industries. If that company makes an item all state offices have to buy it from them. Their labor cost is about $30 per month for each inmate and the price they charge for items is about 4 times what is charged in stores. Nice little government scheme.

Different tires perform better with different pressures. My Michelins I run 32f and 34r and they do great. There is a vid on YouTube showing how to interpret tire wear vs. pressure.

Don't worry about chicken strips and do a track day you'll learn more about tires and cornering than you can by reading the internet.

Crazy shaped heel guards. Pretty basic but some people would like them. Or "shorty" levers without the ball on the end. I dont know why but a lot of guys on the Zx10r forum including myself hate how the ball at the end of most shorty clutch levers hits your ring finger. Or similar to what crazy skull crusher said you could make tie down hooks that bolt on to replace the rear pegs of sport bikes. Or make an adjustable rear shock link. If you can design it some sort of gps/smart phone mount that isn't crazy expensive.

I think some of you might be over doing the it's too tight thing.   here's a pic of ben spies R1.   it's not that loose either.

 

So you ride as well as Ben Spies?

I bet his suspension is way better for how he rides vs. your suspension. My point is riders at Spies level ride right on the edge of almost crashing and out of control. So setting your bike up based on a pretty picture of his probably isn't the best way to go.

Tight is slow and a good way to crash when driving out of a corner

I know what that's like.

Get with midget Todd and the other guy from delta. It'd be worth the ride upto their shop to pick their brains and learn alot about firearms and safety.

Damn and I'm just a little too far away to fit that in my schedule. ^^^^^

Pics of said mom? Might help get people there.

Think Coot was joking since he lives on the other side of the continent

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Sorry couldn't resist after the domestic dispute thread. Lol.

I am willing to. But if you didn't see here that got me. I'd rather not revisit.

 

Yeah it was more of a poking with a stick/stirring the pot comment. Lol. But thanks. I do know someone that would pay that here but after you deliver it you'd probably be in the hole.

The dealer fixed everything. But first told me the windscreen was supposed to be shaped like it had craters under/around the bolts. So I told them I wanted to speak to the general manager and get refunded for my service contract. The guy I was talking to told me the people I wanted to see were upfront. The General manager was talking with someone else so I waited. While I was waiting the service manager came running up to me from the back. He was very apologetic and said that he personally would make sure that none of the B.S. that has happened would happen again. He will check my bike over after every service personally to guarantee its done right. He told me that he didn't realize my earlier complaints were from me because I talked to a different person the first to times I called and he quit so he thought my complaints were two different customers. He was embarrassed because of all the crap I've had to deal with. He explained to me the windscreen is supposed to be that way in their opinion but they were ordering me a new one anyways even if I still wanted to cancel my service contract. We talked about everything and he promised me that that's not the level work they do back there and doesn't know what happened as to why my stuff was so screwed up. I said the first thing you need to know about working on sportbikes is how to remove and install fairings, its one of the easiest things. If they've screwed that up most of the times I've been in there how much of the other stuff that I can't see or don't know did they screw up? He said he understood and feels bad that I feel that way, I shouldn't feel that way and he'd like the chance to prove to me they are better than that. I told him that I'd give them another chance but if the smallest thing is screwed up I'm going to go off in there infront of everyone and complain and write letters to every higher up with their company and kawasaki that I can get an address for. He said he understands and promised he wouldn't let me down. Then he and I went into the service bay so I could point out everything that I was not 100% happy about down to minor scratches so he could take it up with the techs. Then he replaced a few bolts just because they had tool marks on them. So hopefully he's good for his word.

I bought my bike a year ago brand new from a dealership called Ride Now. I wanted a new bike so a dealership was my only option. Down here they have a horrible reputation. I didn't know this until after i bought my bike since I was new to the area at the time and didn't know to many other riders yet. For some dumb reason I bought the prepaid 2 year service plan since it was discounted.

After my last service i noticed my they had missed putting one of the screws back in the airbox. This wouldn't bother me too much but its the center screw and without it in there is a hole that goes into the airbox allowing dirt to get behind the filter and potentially into the engine. I also noticed they had cross threaded one of the 2 bolts that hold the gas tank onto the subframe. I called the service department at the dealership and was told "I'm sorry about that. I'll see when we can get you scheduled in and I'll call you back. We will fix that for you." I never got a call back.

I had some unrelated issues with getting my ECU reflashed so I just said screw it I'll deal with it at the next service and covered the hole with tape.

As I was getting a dyno tune I noticed the radiator was leaking even though there was no damage to it. So I took it in for warranty work on it. When I dropped it off (July 8)I politely told them about being upset about the airbox and subframe issue and mainly being told I'd be called back and never being called. I got the "were sorry we will fix it". A couple hours later they called and said it was going to be covered under warranty. They also said they couldnt find where the screw was missing from the airbox. I told them it was the center screw under the piece of blue tape. With a bit of attitude they guy says "well I guess we will look again. Long story short I was told the repair would be 5 days max. After 7 days I called and they said it'd be in tomorrow. Then after that the radiator was on back order according to them. Then they got it in they called and told mei would be able to pick the bike up "tomorrow" (the next day). They called me the next day to say the radiator was damaged during shipping.But they'd have it fixed soon but the radiators were backordered again. Then a friend of a friend that works at a Kawi dealer in TX sent me a screen shot showing the part is actually in stock in the Kawasaki warehouse in Michigan. A few days later they say they were able to order it so I don't know if they just came in stock when the guy in texas checked fo me or if they were always in stock. I gave them the benefit of doubt. Well exactly 30 days go by from when i dropped tge bike off and they call to tell me its ready (on Aug 7). I work 3rd shift and it was close to their closing time so i said i'd come by the 8th to get it. I picked it up the evening of the 8th. Then they tell me the engine ice I asked for was $20 more than I was quoted. Then they told me that I was misquoted for the 2 half gallons and showed me the price of each. Well the price they were charging me was $3 over what it should have been. They then said "well your bike didn't take all of the second one do you want it?" I said yes I would.

I honestly was polite and asked them if my service contract could be taken elsewhere. They said no why? Acting concerned and insulted. I explained that I was not happy with the service and pointed out the issue with the bolt and screw from earlier.I also told them I thought that 30 days was absurd to replace a radiator. I also informed them that another dealership informed me they could order the radiator before they ( the current dealership) told me they could order it. But iwasnt going to make a big deal about it since there was a chance the radiators just came in stock right before the other dealership checked on it. Then they said well what can we do to make it right? I told them id rather just go elsewhere because I expected better service. I told them I'm not the type of person to make demands and I didn't want to play a guessing game of what they are willing to do. I said it was their decision to do what they though was right. The guy said "well I don't know what you want us to do. I told them well i was not happy with the work and service I've been getting and I also didn't know how they could change the way I felt. Reading this it may seem like this was an argument but it was a regular conversation.

I rode the bike home and parked it. Yesterday morning after work I decided I was going to pull the stock shock off and send it out to be revalved and resprung because the stock shock is notoriously weak on the 2011+ ZX10r's. I then noticed the windscreen bolts were too tight and had the screen bent out of shape around the bolt holes. So I backed them out and noticed the "crater" shape around the bolts didnt come out even when I backed the bolts all the way out. I also noticed every bolt on the windscreen was missing the small washers that go between the bolt and windscreen and tge bolts had cut into the windscreen. This is an almost brand new zerogravity screen so I'm pretty pissed about that. To get to the shocks top bolt you have to take off the rear cowl seats and get under the fuel tank. I took the rear seat off and noticed the rear cowl/fairin was missing the bolts that held it in place and they had been replaced with those plastic rivets that you have to push the center in to get them loose. Another little thing that tick me off because where the hell did they put the bolts and get these? Also thats not the right parts. I go to pop them out so I can get the shock off because I want that done before my trip in 2 weeks. Well the rivets are too big for the holes they are in so I can't push the middle in to get them out. So i call the dealer and they say "we're sorry just bring it in and we will fix it". I said Are you kidding me? You guys had my bike for a month and now I've got to bring it back and its just so you can just fix it? I live an hour away and that's it I just have to take 2hrs plus out of my day because you guys screwed up again and your just going to move the bolts around? Well sir just come in and we will make it right.

I've lost my patience with them now and I'm going to talk with a manager about all this crap. What the hell do i tell him if he says how can we make it right? Also is it worth it / will it do anything to call kawasaki customer service and complain? I just really don't see myself being as nice as I have been with them when I go in which is why I waited to take it in. Because yesterday I needed to chill out before going in. This is kind of one of those issues of little shit adding up to piss me off. The straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

Will you deliver this?

Well I got the call today saying they finished. Right about at 30 days to the hour since I dropped it off. Depending on how theyact tomorrow will determine if I try to seek compensation.

They called me today and said they may be able to get one next Tuesday according to "kawasaki".

Well I'm waiting to hear back from a lemon law attorney. But I heard from a guy that works in a dealership in TX that the radiators are in stock in the warehouse in Michigan.