redkow97

yeah, but i'm part-time so I only have 3 finals ...which equals about the same amount of work as 5 grad class I'll try to throw it in the tool box tonight so I don't forget!

that's not stopping me! Final on Wednesday of next week, and then 2 more on the monday and tuesday thereafter

Eddie's still injured badly enough that he was asking WERA peeps if having a thicker grip would make it less painful to grab the throttle. Jeff's fast as shit, but when healthy, Eddie's a few tenths a lap quicker. At race distance, that adds up.

if you're coming to Nelson this weekend, I have leftover heat tape from insulating my coolant reservoir. Cost me $15, and I probably used about 18" out of 20' I had the same problem with the titanium headers, just not on my bodywork (yet). Depending on how clean/smooth the inside of your bodywork is, you may want to consider using some kind of high-temp glue or goop to hold the adhesive tape down though. Silicone might work best, due to the heat involved.

Those guys are stupid fast. it's not even real to me. I was trying to explain to someone how fast Eddie and Sam are (not that Jeff's far behind), and the best I could come up with was, "Eddie Kraft and Sam Gaige fight for first in every race within 6 hours of us. Everyone else is racing for third." Lately it seems like Jeff is starting to make 3rd a foregone conclusion too. The rest of Sam's team aren't slouches either.

I don't think morally is a debate. I am talking legally. Change the circumstances a little - say you do a stopping and fly over the bars. You go over the car even. The car completes its left turn as if nothing ever happened. no contact is made. You're saying the rider is at fault for the wreck despite the fact that the car is the one who failed to yield the right-of-way. that may indeed be the law, but it does not add up for me.

i dunno about any racing, but I will talk shit and drink beer all day long.

proof would still be required. I just find it hard to believe that people here wouldn't feel I was responsible if I attempted to cut them off, and they wrecked as a result. Say someone makes a left turn in front of you on your bike, and you "lay it down" to avoid the accident (like the cruiser guys do). You wrecked before ever contacting my vehicle. So I'm not at fault. It's just not adding up for me...

and if you removed Obama from office, we'd be left with Joe Biden as President. that'd be greeeeaaat.

if you want to feel truly humbled, take a look at some of the WERA lap times. I get to watch Sam Gaige ride this weekend. If it's dry, he will break 1:08 at Nelson... My goal for the season is to get under 1:15 (I think - we'll have to see how slow I really am on Saturday!)

But do we agree that they should be?

That's bogus though. You're telling me if I run a red light, and cross-traffic (with a green light) slams on their brakes to avoid hitting me, and is then rear-ended, I'm not at fault because no one ever contacted my vehicle? Bullshit. I ran the red-light. I broke the law. I caused the accident to occur. If I hadn't run the light, the accident wouldn't have occurred. They MIGHT cite the driver who rear-ended someone for failure to maintain a safe following distance, but the car that braked to avoid hitting me wouldn't have any fault whatsoever. The black xterra failed to yield the right of way. She broke the law. She caused the accident.

uh, dropping a tooth up front will raise the cruising RPM. Dropping in the rear would lower it. I'm not worried about 6k RPM if that's normal, just trying to make sure his clutch isn't slipping when the power starts to kick in. 75mph @6k isn't unheard of when the bike redlines around 12k and tops out at 135, it just sounds a few hundred high to me. The naked SV's are geared slightly taller than the faired models to begin with, I think.

geez... I'm about as cynical as a person has right to be, and even I think a lot of this is pretty harsh. As the OP is finding out, cruiser experience doesn't fully prepare you for the power of a large sportbike - but it's not like everyone here was born dragging a knee and accustomed to 160+ hp at the wheel. the comment about doing 150 is asinine, but otherwise everyone's putting words in his mouth about cornering low, etc... welcome to the site. Hopefully you stick around past your intro thread.

yeah, i'm happy for him. He just moved out to Seattle and got on his feet working for Boeing. I knew a new bike purchase was in his future, but the '99 ZX2 behind the bike needs to be replaced soon, and he just spent a lot on filling his apartment with "grown up" furniture. I figured a new bike wouldn't be in the cards until after this riding season. He was waffling between an FZ6 or an SV650 and found this one for a decent price (and about $2k less than he had planned on spending for the FZ6 he was looking at). Rode it home last night, and is already loving it. Anyone know what RPM an SV650 should be at in 6th gear at 75mph? He said his is around 6k, and I am wondering if stiffer clutch springs might drop that by a few hundred RPM...

650. but you have to remember, he's only ridden my EX500 and his XJ600; maybe my dad's GS500 a few times as well. By comparison, 363 lbs., 72hp, fuel injection, and a suspension that's not 15+ years old makes this SV650 feel like a fucking MotoGP machine.

Since he's a Washington resident now, I don't feel like I'm stepping on his toes by posting this. Nothing too fancy, but it's a serious upgrade from his 1993(?) Yamaha Seca II (which currently has an effed up rear brake caliper, and a broken chain) 2006 with 9k miles. It's hard to see in the cell phone quality picture, but there is a huge touring wind-screen currently mounted. That's coming off, but will be kept for long trips and colder weather. He said it was great on the highway yesterday, but I imagine it kills gas mileage to have a giant wall in front of you...

are they hiring? I work my ass off when properly motivated.

what kind of engine work have you done?] If the bike is stock, I'm seeing 118hp (probably at the crank) on its best day... Is the longer swing-arm really necessary? if you show a good machinist a swing-arm extension for another bike, and then take VERY precise measurements of your swing-arm, I agree that fabricating something wouldn't be out of the question. I doubt it will be terribly cheap though. I don't know what the kits run, but have you tried contacting the manufacturer of the kits? They might say "send us your swing-arm, and we'll send it back with an extension kit. we'll just charge you the same price as a GSXR 1000." Pit-Bull did that with their axle pins for the trailer restraint system. There were a bunch of bikes they were willing to machine pins for; they just didn't have access to every bike in the world to get the proper dimensions.

was one of the smaller two sleeping in the back window of your accord(?) on the way to your trackday? I didn't know they had such a back story! my wife and I are on foster dog #10 (asleep in the corner as I type this) after failing at fostering our first dog (we adopted him instead ) Having met so many great dogs over the last couple of years, it makes me wonder how people can just turn them loose... Great picture.

i bet our site sponsor and in-house attorney could confirm who is correct. I don't think you guys are wrong when it comes to the practical and probable outcome; i just wish you were. If I were able to argue the victim's side in front of a jury, I think there would be a legitimate shot at justice being served, but only 3% of cases actually make it to court.

my size 44 one-piece is also for sale.

you're fighting a ton of instinct in a split-second situation there. It all sounds good in theory, but I saw this go down in a matter of seconds this morning. There's no way this lady had time to think, "gee, I should probably let our cars touch so I'm not at fault." Besides, if she had let that happen, the Xterra would have been tapped in the left rear corner at 60mph on a slick (rain soaked) road. I would bet almost anything it would have rolled multiple times. eve IF you had time to go through the full thought process, it's not worth it.

If that's the case; and it might be, that's terrible policy. (wouldn't be the first time) That means the law is encouraging you to allow a 2-car accident to definitely happen, rather than attempting to avoid it and creating the possibility for a 1-car accident. Even if the Xterra driver didn't "cause" the accident, she is guilty of other traffic offenses - the question will be weather or not she can be charged based on witnesses accounts. She could be for other crimes, so I don't see why not. But i reject the argument that contact is necessary to be "involved" in an accident. This is a perfect example of how a driver's negligence (failure to check her blind spot before starting a lane change) forces another driver to take an evasive action that ends in an accident. "But for your negligence, I would not have gotten into an accident." The legal question will be whether or not the victim's reaction (over-correcting and essentially getting her grand prix into a 'tank slapper') will be deemed an "intervening cause," or simply a reasonable reaction.

well like I posted before, if nothing else, the cop believed her story because of me. That's something. Maybe it saved her from getting a reckless op ticket, and maybe it even motivated the officer to actually look harder for the Xterra driver. He said all the victim was able to tell him was "a black truck." I had the make, model, and full plate number, so they know exactly who was driving. i have a feeling the driver will shoot herself in the foot by admitting something when she's contacted, and it should unravel from there. How the insurance companies handle that is up to them. I doubt there will be much "justice" there, but like I said, at least I feel like I did my part.