Harb67

I'll give that a try. I never loosened the steering stem when I was trying to straighten it back out, so maybe that will help. I'll grab my service manual and see if I can't get things back to normal sometime this week. *edit* Argh, I meant to post this as an edit to the last post...

I'm fairly sure the handlebars (I don't have clip-ons) aren't bent. I'm using an aftermarket bar that is really heavy and thick...i'd wager that these bars are one of the toughest parts of my bike. Plus, these bars have never hit the ground or anything hard.

Tried that with my dad actually. I loosened the upper triple and kept the lower tightened, and i wrenched on the bars and he pushed on the wheel. No improvement :\ I might try it again with both the upper and lower very loose. I don't know much about the internals of the steering stem and triple tree; is it even possible for the upper and lower to go out of alignment or is it all one solid piece that should always be straight?

So the top of my triple tree and my front wheel are out of alignment. Not by much, but when I'm riding in a straight line with the front wheel going straight ahead, my handlebars are pointed maybe 2 to 4 degrees to the right. This is not from a crash, as far as I know. Last season someone tried to steal my bike (i think). It looks like they tried to turn the front wheel so hard that they would be able to break the steering stop/lock mechanism and ride off, but they clearly failed as I still have the bike. After that, I noticed the steering was off ever so slightly. I recently had the forks off the bike and I tried to straighten things back out while I was reassembling it, but if anything it's unchanged or a bit worse. I don't think the fork tubes are bent; I didn't notice any damage to them when I had them off. I think what might have happened was they twisted in the triple a bit and now the upper and lower triples are out of alignment? Does anyone have any idea what may be up and how to fix it? If anyone around Columbus would want to take a look at it and maybe get things straightened out, I could pay in the typical college student fashion: beer and/or smallish amounts of money

I appreciate the offers for bike transporation dubguy and Todd, but don't reserve space for me just yet. I'd feel bad claiming a trailer spot before I actually signed up, and I think I might put that off till after the STT day at Gingerman. I think after that day I'll be in a much better position to decide if I want to do both days or just one of the days with NESBA...it's a hard call to make right now considering how I've never done a track day Who knows...being a newbie there's always a chance I'll be coming home from Gingerman with a big twisted lump of metal instead of a bike :S

I checked out their website and I think I'll stop by and see what they can do. I'm hoping I can spend a little extra cash and have them attatch the new zipper in roughly the same way that the smaller one is. This isn't a project I want to skimp on Thanks!

May 29th? Awesome I'd sign up today if I had the money, but I've gotta wait till my disposable income accumulates a bit...

I need some tailoring done to my jacket. The jacket/pants I have are both the same brand and really belong together as a 2-piece suit, but for some stupid reason Joe Rocket didn't bother to sew a 360-degree zipper into the jacket to zip to the 360-degree zipper that came on the pants. So I need a zipper sewn onto my jacket. Attached are pics of what I have to work with: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b28/Harbinger67/DSC01161.jpg (<--much bigger pic, slightly different view) As you can see, I've got the part of the zipper I need sewn in, I just need someone with the material and skills to make this happen. If anyone knows of a person or business that can do this and do it well, please let me know. The closer to Columbus the better, but I can get these things wherever they need to be in order to get this done.

How soon do we have to sign up for this, and do we have to do both days? I'm extremely interested, but it's tough to make the call just yet. Is there a kind Columbus-area soul also doing this track day who has an extra spot on their trailer? I can more than likely provide my own transportation for everything but the bike, but I don't own a trailer or a trailer-friendly vehicle

Thought I'd add to the thread. Took my forks and front wheel over to Paul this past weekend to have valve emulators, new springs, new oil, and new fork seals installed and a new tire put on the wheel. Like any project that appears simple enough from the start the forks had an unexpected problem pop up, but Paul went the extra mile and got things sorted and everything ended up working out very well. I'm very happy with the work he did and the experience as a whole, and I'll certainly keep DucRX in mind any time I need further work done on my bike, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Paul to a friend. Thanks again Paul!

1. Me TwiztedRabbit (Jason) Intermediate 2. TwiztedRRgirl (Theresa) Intermediate 3. Dubguy (Andy) Intermediate 4. Kawasaki Guy (Josh) Intermediate 5. jbot (jinu) Int. 6. skrewloose (kevin) Adv. 7. e-flores (eber)-advanced 8. Rslocum(rob) trackday virgin 9. Hoblick (ryan) - Novice 10.SJC1000rr (?) - Intermediate 11. Harb67 (jareth) - Novice

Really good idea, way to go Nate

So this thread is 12 posts deep and not one reply has been even remotely on topic. Gotta love this site

Wow that ride was a ton of fun! It was great meeting everyone and riding with you all It sucks that the Katana curse struck again, but thankfully it was mostly just machinery that was hurt and Rick seems to be taking it quite well. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to make the next CSBA ride because that's the same weekend of the O-R trackday at Gingerman and I'll probably be heading up to Michigan on Saturday I'm definitely going to try to make others this season though! Depends on which waitress you got

I'm just north of Lane and High and I'm always up for a decent ride as long as it's none of the "ride loudly up and down high street 20 times then stop at Taco Bell and talk about how sweet our bikes are" nonsense. The twistier the better, and my weekends are almost universally free Except for the one that this Applebee's thing is on...I'm heading up to my parents house to do a bunch of work done on my bike. Shoot me a PM any time people from around OSU wanna head out on a good ride False. I sent you a text around 2 PM yesterday asking about a meeting place/time but didn't hear back from you I'm Jareth; I emailed you about the meeting time/place as soon as I heard that the club was active again and I joined the new website already.

My 650r has a square, metal, powder coated brake reservoir, not a cool round transparent one like all the supersport machines out there, so I can't do the wristband mod. This has been my primary reason for considering selling my bike and buying a 600cc SS bike.

Glad the girl is OK. Not surprised that this happened though. Before I even looked at the address, I expected it to have happened on Neil a few hundred yards down the street from the actual accident, but 19th is close enough. There are TONS of bikes around there and there's always that one douchebag who feels the need to impress everyone by hauling ass away from the bike parking despite the extremely heavy foot traffic during peak hours. It was only a matter of time. I'm just hoping that there aren't any anti-bike measures taken by OSU because of this idiot

"Better" as in "so good I drove into the back of a Civic earlier this month"?

Are you fucking joking? Get off the road.

I think the real question is "why bother stopping?" Not to pull a quikzx9r or whatever that idiots username is, but I'd assume that the only place someone would do that speed is on the highway. By the time the trooper clocked you and got on the road to pursue, you'd be long gone and he wouldn't even have a chance to see your plate and you could hop off at the next exit. cmon todd...the story must be told!

License Status as of 04/07/2010: VALID ENDORSEMENTS: MOTORCYCLE RESTRICTIONS: NONE **************CONVICTIONS************** C1 IN-STATE CONVICTION COURT: JOHNSTOWN VLG MAYORS CRT COURT CASE: 9TRD00127 OFF. DATE: 04/18/2009 CONV. DATE: 05/13/2009 POINTS: 02 OFFENSE: ASSURED CLEAR DISTANCE C1 IN-STATE CONVICTION COURT: FAIRFIELD CO MUNI COURT COURT CASE: TRD0804502 OFF. DATE: 05/22/2008 CONV. DATE: 06/06/2008 POINTS: 02 OFFENSE: SPEED 090 MPH IN A 65 MPH ZONE ***************ACCIDENTS************** A1 ACCIDENT DATE: 04/18/2009 COUNTY: LICKING BMV CASE: 96311383 ***END OF DRIVER RECORDS*** I still believe to this day that the 90 in a 65 was bullshit. He got me by pacing me, so there was no radar slip so it's his word against mine. But I know my bike, and I also know that A) when I'm doing 90 it actually reads ~100...something that I would damn sure be aware of, B) when doing 90 the bike vibrates a HELL of a lot more than normal highway speeds...enough to catch my attention even if I was asleep at the bars, and C) I was on 33 just coming back from 400 miles in Hocking. After that many miles of high speed twisty fun, why the fuck would I be doing 90 to get back to boring old Columbus? Damn money-grubbing Lancaster X-(

I'll bite, mostly because I'm in an altered state of mind and have nothing better to do I own an 07 Kawasaki Ninja 650r Likes: 1. I can commute on it for pretty much any situation. Work, class, shopping, its great. 2. I can tour on it comfortably. 400+ highway miles, only stopping for gas? Not an issue. 3. It's awesome for backroads blasts and fast group rides through the twisties. For all but the most suicidal of riders, common sense kicks in before you outride the machine. 4. 50 MPG. 5. Functionally, the banana seat is awesome. Pillon or cargo = no problem. 6. There's a surprising amount of storage in the tail and under the seat. 7. It's comfortable machine, plain and simple. 8. Lots of spots under the tail to hook bungie cords/nets to. 9. Handlebars have a shitload of space to hook gadgets to. I have a GPS position that would make most other riders jealous. 10. Cheap to repair, relative to other popular bikes (600's and such). 11. Low-end torque to spare. Off the line, it's as quick as almost anything else out there (though it quickly loses any lead...) 12. Gauges are effective and very easy to read. 13. Quite easy to work on. 14. Sounds great with an aftermarket pipe. 15. Very reliable; after 13k miles it still runs and rides like the day I bought it. Dislikes: 1. Definitely is a budget bike. 1a. Plastics feel cheap and can rattle. 1b. The finish on the frame/swingarm/top triple is very easy to wear down. 1c. The suspension is good quality but is also ancient tech built to a low price point. 2. Nothing up top. In daily riding it's plenty fast, but a 600cc I4 will embarrass it in a straight line. 3. Somewhat limited aftermarket (everyone makes the same stuff) 4. Really hard to get any significant power gains from the motor with mods. 5. Rear shock setup forces you to buy 650-specific shocks; no cheap way to upgrade it. 6. Uninspired looks. It's not bad, but not good. 7. Banana seat looks silly, bordering on ridiculous. Overall, I'm happy I bought this bike and while I am certainly tempted by the exotic allure of a Daytona 675 and a few other bikes, I still enjoy this bike enough that I probably won't upgrade for at least another season unless I suddenly make a ton of money. It's a very solid all-around machine that may not stir the soul like supersports do and may have its shortcomings, but in the end it is so good at everything it does that I can honestly say I'm still happy with it four seasons in. I'd wager that for the money, it's the best bike out there.

I rode it today myself. From Chesterhill to 78 was pretty messy; lots of small broken sticks and all sorts of stuff that looks like either it was thrown up onto the road from road work alongside the road or it fell off of a farm truck full of crap. There was some gravel and cinders too. BE CAREFUL if going south on 555 from 78; there was one particularly nasty blind corner with a significant amount of fine gravel right in the worst spot in the lane. I wish I had a more accurate idea of where it was located, but I didn't think to stop and mark it in my GPS. Keep your eyes open North of 78 all the way to Zanesville was very nice. As soon as you get off of 78, the road cleans up very nicely and there was no more gravel/dirt than you'd expect from 555 at any other time of the season. One thing I did notice is that people that live on 555 must be quite used to seeing bikes. Lots of people were out doing yardwork/mowing the lawn today, and the majority of them either gave me a wave of some sort or gave me the "rev it up" gesture. I was sort of expecting those folks to be rather anti-bike given the popularity of 555, but they seem friendly

An hour? If you live in Columbus, it takes an hour just to get to any good riding areas.

http://ohio-riders.net/showthread.php?t=56348 Guess you missed that particular thread It was a damn good ride, FWIW.