Category Archives: Bike

Blue SVS

Purchased in September of 2003, this bike had 4 miles on the odometer. Having a bit of experience buying vehicles now, and armed with the dealer price sheet from SocalSVRiders.org, I negotiated a pretty decent deal. I might have done better, but I’m content.

After my crash in June 03, I was considering a GSX-R 750 for its suspension (and cause it gets the chicks), but I couldn’t get full coverage insurance on a sportbike with a crash on my record. Luckilly, the SVS is considered a standard, so I had the option of an SV1000S or an SV650S. I went with the 02 650, because I’m not a fan of the 03 styling… Its growing on me a bit, though.

 

GP Shift Mod

I found myself wanting to shift in a reverse pattern, so I tried out GP Shifting… It was very easy to set up on the SV. Before, during, after…

June 30, 2003

Was out for a ride with James and the SocalSV crowd yesterday. I wasn’t riding as fast as the group, so I decided to call it a day rather than push or be left behind.

Right after we split off, about four corners past the forest service station, I lost it going into a right hander at about 40mph. Toad was behind me, said my line looked right, then he saw my front wheel go side to side and my front end tuck… Best guess is that I hit a rock… I dunno. James said he’s been riding for 200,000 miles and this is the first accident he couldn’t explain.

Toad said it was a perfect lowside, with me kicking away from the bike, then we went off the pavement and onto the dirt.

Bike and I cartwheeled. Toad said I was about five feet in the air, and the bike was about ten. Bike came down on my right foot, which hurts, but is not broken (Thanks to AlpineStar!).

I came to rest on the dirt lip at the edge of the embankment, bike went over, slid down 10-15 feet, upside down, facing back the way we came. Forest service guys later said it was still on and leaking gas… Good thing they turned it off and brought me the key, else I might be paying for a forest fire.

Toad was right there after the crash to check on me. We tried to wave the next passerby down, who slowed down to a crawl, got a look at me, and then took off. James gave him a two hand, two finger salute.

A nice old couple and a guy in a minivan came by next. Minivan went back to the forest station and got help, old couple brought water, helped me get my boots off, gave me a wet washcloth to keep the flies out of the scrape in my side.

Forest service showed up. I said I didn’t need airlift, but we left it up to dispatch… It would have probably been an hour wait and then an hour ride if we’d gone with ground ambulance. (I later learned that the pilot of the airlift used to fly with my dad.)

I got buried under dirt by the helicopter and james has holes in his t-shirt and probably some rocks in his back.

BTW, they don’t like it when you try to walk to the helicopter.

An expensive ride, a bunch of x-rays, some lidocane, vicodin and motrin later, I have rash on both my knees (wore a hole through the kevlar in my draggin jeans), my left elbow (wore through my jacket above the padding (this arm was being dragged behind me as I slid), and my right side, just above the waist where my jacket rode up on me. My fingers are stiff and sore but not broken, my knees don’t want to bend but aren’t broken, my ankle hurt like a SOB but isn’t broken.

James said from the cartwheeling my bike did, the frame is probably too bent for salvage. I was told the right side fairing was gone and the clip ons are bent out of place. I didn’t get a good look at it, it was in some shrubbery a bit down the hill.

My HJC CL-12 helmet has a nice scrape, my violator pro’s are scraped up and I have a small nick in one knuckle, alpinestar boots are scraped all to hell, toe sliders are flat on the right and well used on the left, I have holes in both thighs of my draggin jeans and a hole through the kevlar in the right knee… my frank thomas jacket is cooked, literally… zippers worn down, both arms shredded, hole in the armpit… and bits of nylon fused to other bits of nylon… that jacket didn’t fit me right, so I’m sorta happy with it.

All in all, I faired damn well. My gear is all toast, but it kept me alive. My bike has seen its last ride, I’m sure…

Thanks to James for being there, thanks to Kim, Tony and Barry, the airlift people, thanks to the docs at county, thanks to the forest service and the passersby (the ones who stopped)… You guys all were great.

pics are currently here and here

April 18, 2003

I rode out to Fry’s today to get a couple fans for my system, one was making some noise (and the noise went away when I stopped the fan with my finger (Ouch!)) and my system had been unstable when my room was hot.

So, I ride over the pass into the valley, and I’m enjoying my first ride in a couple weeks. On my way down the back side, I get stuck behind a black pickup, who is stuck behind a red harley. I decided to chill and work on my line, rather than duck past the truck and harley (there were occasional gaps where I had room in the lane to slip by.

As we neared the straights at the bottom of the hill, a bicyclist that I had passed at the top of the hill pulled in front of me.

I laughed for about two miles.

So, I pulled the bad fan, plugged in two new case fans (and dialed down the speed on them, ’cause they were about 50db each at full speed), dropped in the pci slot fan and discovered that the CPU fan is now what’s making the nasty grindy noise… Sounds like I need to make another Fry’s trip.

February 1, 2003

I’ve already put about 250 miles on the bike and there’s about 100 left before I can rest, all of it through rush hour traffic on the 5 north and whatever freeways I choose as my route through LA toward Ventura. My back is sore, my knees are killing me… Its been a while since I’ve made a trip like this (LA to San Diego), and I don’t think I’ve ever made it twice in one day.

I waver between the 5 and the 405… I’ve done the 405 a few times and its generally smooth sailing until the 10 or so. My friend James is a big fan of the 5 and told me how much better it is for splitting; nice wide lanes.

I didn’t get very far past the split before I discovered he was right.

I dive down the white line between #1 and #2, breaking my rule about never splitting past first gear… The miles roll by and I’m getting up to 40 or so… There’s just no end to the traffic; its insane.

Some guy shuts me out against a big wide load semi and I get a bit ticked off… Finally blow past him and I just have to express myself with a 1 finger salute… Unfortunately the traffic doesn’t really permit a full open clutch here, so I have to salute with my right hand… Probably looked like I was flipping off the semi…. Sorry about that.

Sailing along toward whatever is south of bell gardens… I don’t know the area at all… I’m bursting up to 50 down the line, now… Totally in the zone, and loving the wide lanes… I’m diving across the #2 lane to split #2-#3, then back across to the 1-2 gap when it opens up again… Beautiful.

Some fucker in an SUV blocks me out on the 1-2. Again, there’s no question that its deliberate. I’m watching as he rides the line, showing no sign of letting me by.

Glance left.

I dive around him on the left side. There’s no shoulder, just a foot or so of pavement beyond the dots, and then wall… I don’t care, its smooth sailing and I’m past him with no issue.

As I clear the SUV, I glance right and see another biker blowing past this guy on the right side. We’d split him on either side; it was beautiful.

This guy is on his shit, I’m riding a nice bit of quiet anger, so I dive down the line after him… I’m hitting 60 in the wide open wake he’s leaving for me, and he’s opening a gap… Finally, I lose sight of him.

The road opens up wide and I’m just running in the #1… I see a bike get on and give him a peace sign… He shows up in my mirror in the #2, so I peace him again as he passes…

He slows as he goes by to give me a look and a very enthusiastic thumbs up, then takes off. Take it easy, mr black and white gsxr with motul on the side and groovy reflective visor… I think he took the 710 interchange.

Its the big split, now… 5, 101, 10, 60… Do I stay on the 5 or try the 101? I go with the 101… I figure, if its open, then it’ll be a smooth shot into the 170, which is better than the 5. If it isn’t open, then I get to split more… which is appealing to me at this point.

As soon as we pass through the second tunnel, past the spring st offramp, traffic slows… I don’t think I’ve ever driven this during the day, let alone rush hour, with the sun setting off toward the West (as sunsets tend to do). The white line looked very picturesque as I made my way along it, only stopping as I neared Universal…

Up the 170 to the merge… I’m splitting at the merge to fascilitate lane changes… Then the 118 west and I’m cruising with the flow of traffic… (A bit less, don’t want to draw any tickets my way; I’d seen a ton of police activity all day and I just don’t understand how I didn’t get pulled over)…

Home and I am exhausted. Gloves, helmet, jacket, boots all come off… I go soak in a bath tub for a while. I call james to tell him about my adventure… and enjoy a hard earned night’s sleep.

What a blast.

November 19, 2002

Doing an oil change on the bike this week. I’ve decided to either pick up some Mobil 1 (preferable) or stick with the box of Castrol GTX that I have already (will work just fine, but I can save it for my next change in the mitsu). I’m also going to go with the Suzuki OEM oil filter, as they have real good reviews.

November 10, 2002

I just hit 4k miles on the SV; due for an oil change now, but my oil catch pan is in thousand oaks with the mitsubishi. Today was the first bit of sun we had in a while, so it seems like everyone with a motorcycle was out and about.

I started off aimlessly… ended up at the Balboa DMV, hoping to check out the dreaded cicle (the dmv motorcycle test), which I haven’t ridden, since I did MSF and got the waiver for my license. The area was roped off, but I wandered back on foot and took a look… I can see why people hate it.

Oh, this is out of chronological order, but gas station air pumps really aren’t meant for motorcycle tires…

So, I made my way down toward potrero, where the SCA holds some of its san diego events… I had been to the war, and remembered the road out to the site, so I decided to check it out. Most of the road was dry, just a few moist patches in the shadow of the mountain. This is a view west along the canyon, and this is what the road looked like where I snapped that first picture.

A familiar sight or two, for my war friends. I wandered up north of the camp site to see what was there, and found…

Thar be dragons here.

The way back. Mountains.

Me. No really, its me.

4000. 4000 from a distance.

Requisite milestone pictures.

Oh, and now here’s the signs of wear on the bike…Day 1. Today.

September 29, 2002

Stolen from a shirt:

Choose a Bike, choose a helmet, choose an iridium visor, choose some leathers boots and a pair of gloves, choose a fucken big bore kit and a race pipe, choose gas flowing, bigger carbs and over sized valves, choose an ignition advance, mega wild cams, braided hoses and a pair of tyres, choose a road, choose to race along the queens highways against anyone anywhere, choose the white line when the roads are busy, choose going to the front at all the lights and queues, pissing off all the clones in their cars, choose pure abuse, choose doughnuts, burnouts, wheelies and stoppies, choose not to stop when pursued by the police, choose like minded friends, ride outs, race meetings, dance music, alcohol and good quality drugs.

Choose your future.

CHOOSE A BIKE.