Miles, miles and 'mo miles..... Options

[Warchild]

... which is why I ain't been posting much lately, cuz I've been on the road. I have a goal of breaking 25,000 miles in the first year of K8 ownership. I have four months remaining, do you think I'll make that goal?





These last 8 days, I've been riding around most of the Desert West.... Great Basin and Death Valley, in particular. Here's a shot at the edge of the Great Basin, near the California/Nevada border... pity the smoke from fires in northern California blotted out the clear blue sky:






Death Valley, not too far from Furnace Creek:





This is the "Devil's Cornfield" in the center of Death Valley, It was about 9am here, and 105 degrees F:






Well, I'm outta here tomorrow to head over to Colorado..... going to meet up with 300 of my closest friends there in a little town called Golden. Perhaps I'll see some of y'all.....

[greg97224]

Looks like you will make it by the end of the month. Probably lots of long lonely straight roads out there, just right for a Busa.

[Warchild]

Looks like you will make it by the end of the month.

Actually.... it's more like by the end of the week.

[SockMonkey]

Looks like you will make it by the end of the month.

Actually.... it's more like by the end of the week.

Looks like you might make it (by the end of the week), but that front tire is looking questionable..!

(Edit: This was my 600th post which was my goal before I headed off to NAFO. It's all about priorities, right? )

[ngarider]

What kind of miles are on that front tire?

[Warchild]

What kind of miles are on that front tire?

Truth be told, that front tire is the old Dunlop Qualifier that was on the bike during the Utah 1088. Recall the rear Qualifier didn't make it; on the back of the bike is a Conti Road Attack I had to put on in SLC in order to get home.

That front Qualifier had about 5500 miles on it when this photo was taken. While it looks (in the 3rd photo down) like it has no tread left, it actually does.... look at the Devil's Cornfield photo, and you'll still see tread grooves on the front Qualifier....

Regardless, both the rear Road Attack and the front Qualifier are off the bike now; I just mounted up a fresh set of Avon Storms yesterday for the run to NAFO tomorrow night.

[keithaba]

You are undeniably some sort of freak!

I rode my blackbird (with VFR bars and a corbin seat) for 400 miles Saturday, and I thought I was going to die.

I stated several times to myself, how the hell does Warchild do it?

[Warchild]

I rode my blackbird (with VFR bars and a corbin seat) for 400 miles Saturday, and I thought I was going to die.

I stated several times to myself, how the hell does Warchild do it?

1. Conditioning
2. Isometrics while underway
3. Dedication
4. Motivation
5. Ibuprofen

Last but certainly not least: an incredibly awesome Rick Mayer seat!!!

Which happened to be my first stop in this week-long Odyssey! It all started with a Ride-In appointment at the Rick Mayer Ranch just west of Anderson, CA on Friday, July 11th.

Here is Rick Mayer working on my stock seat pan, trimming away some excess foam:






Here is Rick cutting my basket-weave vinyl seat cover - all by hand - while the Busa sets waiting in the background:






And... the final result!!

[FJR@DTS]

Wow, nice looking seat Warchild, the color and texture of the seat really blend in well with the color of the Busa!

[mmonroe]

I went for a 700mi ride on my 1993 ZX-11d Friday. Mostly backroads and whatnot. Got started around 9:30am and got home that night around 11:30pm. The bike is stock with the stock seat and whatnot. I was tired afterwards, however, I think the ZX-11 is as comfortable as the FJR.

Riding the back roads of North Carolina and surounding states, it takes a lot of hours to ride 500mi, 700mi or even a 1000mi. Heck, even with 80-90mph averages, it takes a lot of time.

I envy those who have the hours to put into riding. I will probably have to get fired, be laid off at work or retired to get enough hours.



Mark

[FJamR]

You are a nut, Death Valley in July! I usually hit it in April.

[03HiYoSilver]

GO....WC...Go!
You never cease to amaze me and what a nice looking setup you have, very impressive.

Have a Great Trip.

[Niehart]

Hijack, Saturday, I meet the young man that bought your CBX. He was kind of surprised when I knew you & the bike. He's damn proud of that bike which is very cool.

[FZ/FJR Mike]

WC, I admire your abilities highly & will give the best compliment I know, you're a true motorcyclist to the core!!!!!!!!!!!

[Warchild]

WC, I admire your abilities highly & will give the best compliment I know, you're a true motorcyclist to the core!!!!!!!!!!!

Appreciate the comments, gentlemen.

I find there are few pleasures in life that equal taking a big, fast sport-tourer across the vast American Desert West for thousands of miles...

[RenoJohn]

I find there are few pleasures in life that equal taking a big, fast sport-tourer across the vast American Desert West for thousands of miles...

You certainly have figured it out way beyond what most people could ever imagine. I was surprised to see you in DV though. ...not just the heat but most stay away from the summer months because of tourists. That place is certainly magic anytime. Good on ya for taking a few pics. You must be getting older :-)

Fun doing ride-in's at Rick's place. Especially now that he's put that little extension on the shop and has all the race videos, internet access etc. You got is trademark stitching and the same material I use.

And really, at our ages, who else is going to want to take a picture of our ass? ....and really, think about it, ...is there any other dude you'd let take a picture of your ass? I think not, but OK when Rick does it.

Took this pic of a buddy of mine during one of my many ride-in's to rick (this one when he was doing it out of his garage, before the new shop):

[mmonroe]

Hey Warchild,

Is that a slipon or a full header setup that you went with on the Busa? Any tuning and/or powercommander required for it?

How loud is it?

What were the various ones that you researched and what made you finally choose that one?

Many thanks,

Mark

[tstaff]

Hey Warchild,

Is that a slipon or a full header setup that you went with on the Busa? Any tuning and/or powercommander required for it?

How loud is it?

What were the various ones that you researched and what made you finally choose that one?

Many thanks,

Mark

Here

[mmonroe]

Hey Warchild,

Is that a slipon or a full header setup that you went with on the Busa? Any tuning and/or powercommander required for it?

How loud is it?

What were the various ones that you researched and what made you finally choose that one?

Many thanks,

Mark

Here

I had seen that thread but it didnt answer most of my questions. Perhaps I should have asked my questions on that thread versus this one, however, this thread was "fresh".

Mark

[Warchild]

Hey Warchild,

Is that a slipon or a full header setup that you went with on the Busa? Any tuning and/or powercommander required for it?

How loud is it?

What were the various ones that you researched and what made you finally choose that one?

Many thanks,

Mark

That is a Yoshimura 4-2-1 R-77 Carbon Fiber exhaust system.

In a rare show of engineering prowess, the Yosh setup is so perfect out of the box, many reputable tuners acknowledge that this system does not substantially benefit from a PC-III the way most full systems do... the full systems adds about 6-8 horsepower, but a PC-III on top of that only adds a whopping 2 hp.

The canister is shipped with the noise baffle installed in the pipe. It is a deeper tone that stock (obviously), but is still amazingly quiet. If you remove the baffle, the tone is significantly deeper (it "growls" more), but it is still not obtrusive. As with most pipes, once the packing starts to wear away, you hear the pipe more.

I researched a bunch of systems.... but my goals were different from many: I just wanted to dump the massive weight and hideous looks of the stock bazooka mufflers. Wasn't all that concerned about increasing horsepower... with 173 hp at the rear wheel (bone stock), I am not exactly hurting to move the bike down the road. The whole stock exhaust systems weight 52 lbs... this entire Yosh 4-2-1 setup is 14lbs, total.