Moderator YamaHead Posted September 4, 2007 Moderator Share Posted September 4, 2007 My Boss (not the wife, but the 1 who sign's my paycheck) told me I had an extra 8 hours of work to get down over the weekend.......So I went to work @ 4am Saturday so I could finish by noon & have the rest of my weekend Free'd up. Was out the door @ 6am on Sunday for a ride along the Clackamas river again..... Never get tired of this area..... Got found memories of railin' on my RD up here ...... This is what you see just over that guardrail ...... My timing seemed to be impeccable......as there was NO traffic to speak of!....Even though the campgrounds were all full!......Most peeps musta been sleeping off their overhangs from Saturday night I reckon. Having been up here plenty of times in the past......but not always with the use of my son's Digi-Cam.....I took advantage of this opportunity & captured these views that I've always wanted to....... Both from this wide spot in the road.... Finally took a break here before I headed back downstream..... & NO, that's not a funny-looking picnic table! It's actually a Launch Ramp for river Rafts..... All in All, a great morning for a sprint up the Clackamas! Glad I went & ordered some new tires for the XT though ..... Feels a bit sketchy goin' round corners on squared=off DS tires! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrhendryx Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 looks like a good run. ive only driven through the gorge area, never ridden. this coming summer (after i get a slightly larger bike) im going to take hwy 14 (wa) out past hood river. really pretty area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator YamaHead Posted September 5, 2007 Author Moderator Share Posted September 5, 2007 Done that route before myself Jr Ever been up to Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens? .....it's alotta fun!....with some awesome scenery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrhendryx Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 Done that route before myself Jr Ever been up to Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens? .....it's alotta fun!....with some awesome scenery. cant say that i have. at the moment i have to stick pretty close to rural highways with speed limits around 55. 55 mph in 5th gear on my bike is right at about 5k rpm, and it hits redline at 8500. up around 60-65mph it feels like its going to shake itself apart, running at around 6k rpm. so, for the time being, its just local rides for me. i would also like to take a ride down through the fossil/john day area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator YamaHead Posted September 6, 2007 Author Moderator Share Posted September 6, 2007 55 mph in 5th gear on my bike is right at about 5k rpm, and it hits redline at 8500. up around 60-65mph it feels like its going to shake itself apart, running at around 6k rpm. so, for the time being, its just local rides for me. i would also like to take a ride down through the fossil/john day area. I used to have an XS400 Special with those same symptoms! ......I can relate Ya know.....a sprocket change might help that poor un-balanced twin relax a bit more out on the open road? Yeah, Eastern Oregon is another place I definitely want to visit more ........ I've had a blast riding over in Central Oregon this last year ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I sit here looking and knowing that I'm missing out. My uncle lost his farm when Mount St Helens went up. Now completely buried. Has anyone else got good pics like these of their journeys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrhendryx Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 you mentioned a sprocket change, would you suggest something other than stock, or just changing them out for a new set of stock ones? and also, (my lack of motorcycle knowledge showing here) why would changing out the sprocket help to balance it out? Part of my problem is that, for lack of a better word, the bike feels kind of...... twitchy.... at anything over about 50mph, and it seems like its straining really hard once it gets up that high. the stock manual puts its top speed at 110, which i assume would be right at redline.... if it redlines at 8500, and it hits almost 6000 rmp at about 60mph, it seems to me as though there should be more than 2500rmp difference for an additional 50mph.... not that i intend to ride this bike at 110, but it would be nice to not feel like its going to pitch me off or explode at anything over 50mph. im not offering a lot of good data here, all i know is how it feels, and it feels kind of twitchy. does 6000rpm sound like its running too fast for 60 mph? maybe its just me not being used to gearing/rpm on a bike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator YamaHead Posted September 6, 2007 Author Moderator Share Posted September 6, 2007 Depending on what your stock sprocket sizes are........maybe try for a larger primary (front) sprocket......trying to keep @ least 1 sprocket with an odd number of teeth as this prolongs chain & sprocket wear. Making this change will gear it taller & make life alot easier on the motor as it won't have to spin quite as fast @ highway speeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator mervin Posted September 6, 2007 Moderator Share Posted September 6, 2007 Scott you are posting those fantastic pictures of your local scenery again and making me jealous, hope life is good out there. i do not even get too scotland now with the truck just boring belgium/holland and france merv Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcspecial650 Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 Great Pictures!!! As far as the sprockets go, I'm going to simplify this the best way I know how! First of all, with scenery like that, you don't need to go over 45, but anyway, we all know you need to get there too! Let's start with just changing one sprocket: Everytime your enging burns, your countershaft sprocket turns... Try to think about in terms of a 10 speed bike, "how would that make my "cruising" speed change?" Most of us have ridden a ten speed bike(yes I know it's old school) in our time. Anyway, take the changes slowly, because one tooth in the front, and one tooth in the back can be much more than you expected!! Good Luck I hope you can ride those beautiful roads at any speed!! Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlieRider Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 Serious scenery envy going on this side of the pond We've got some pretty good stuff too (I'm originally from Northumberland so am well used to coasts, castles, hills and Roman invaders!) but it's all a long ol' way from fairly boring Suffolk where I live at the moment. Best o' luck with the techie tinkering. Amanda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 We've got some pretty good stuff too (I'm originally from Northumberland so am well used to coasts, castles, hills and Roman invaders!) but it's all a long ol' way from fairly boring Suffolk where I live at the moment. Amanda Amanda you naughty girl! Suffolk has hills and is the blue sky county. I have been to the highest place in Suffolk, the home of a Harley rider and on his house wall is a scribed line denoting the 1000 foot mark (asl). Also it is the land of watermills, woods with aliens, good beer and docks. Suffolk has been invaded by Americans, Romans, Germans (ww2) now Lithuainians, Estonians and what-have-you. Now what more could a girly want? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator YamaHead Posted September 7, 2007 Author Moderator Share Posted September 7, 2007 Scott you are posting those fantastic pictures of your local scenery again and making me jealous, hope life is good out there. i do not even get too scotland now with the truck just boring belgium/holland and france merv Merv..... Good to hear from ya mate! Shame you don't get to Scotland anymore! ......some great scenery there!.......Mr. Rose is 1 lucky bugger! Well, @ least you get to leave the UK on what seems like a fairly regular basis..... I can count on only 1 hand......how many times I've been outta the states. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlieRider Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 Oops I've upset Yoda, that's me well and truly told off, I'll go and stand on the naughty square for a while (my primary school, which yes was in Northumberland , had one) and contemplate the error of my ways Meanwhile all you folks the other side of the pond who haven't done so yet get travelling abroad, you're soooo missing out! Yes I know there's heaps to do within your own borders (we lived in LA for a coupla years and PCH1 was great fun on the way to the Superbikes at Laguna Seca plus I loved Lake Tahoe) but we don't bite over here, honest We're planning a haul from Suffolk to Crete hopefully sometime in 2009, hubby even sez he might just buy a BMW GS for the trip and sell it on afterwards, yikes! Amanda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator YamaHead Posted September 7, 2007 Author Moderator Share Posted September 7, 2007 Yes I know there's heaps to do within your own borders (we lived in LA for a coupla years and PCH1 was great fun on the way to the Superbikes at Laguna Seca plus I loved Lake Tahoe) but we don't bite over here, honest Lake Tahoe?....now you've gone & re-sparked the interest in my other Love.............SKIING! Tahoe's a beautiful place!.........but so is this lake......which happens to be the deepest fresh water lake in N. America Up until a few years ago.......there was places in Crater lake that they had'nt yet found the bottom! Water's about as blue as the Medaterrainian Sea off the coast of Italy..... @ least that's what my brother tells me......& he works there every 3 weeks or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlieRider Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 Hey just how much salt do you just wanna rub in our wounds over here Yamahead?!!!!!! Amanda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted September 8, 2007 Share Posted September 8, 2007 The lake might look like the Med. but the water temperature doesn't get much above freezing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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