224 mile night ride report.

Left home a few minutes after 9pm took 68-80 west thru russelville ky, danville ky, elkton ky, past the Jefferson Davis monument, thru hopkinsville ky, and on to land between the lakes. Stopped at the very very dark welcome center that was closed and stopped to smoke a ciggarette. I got the hebie jeebies. LOL I was just very very dark, no people around at all out in the middle of a big forrest. Put my stuff back on and got the heck out of there.
Saw the largest herd of deer I have ever seen. There must of been a least 40 of them. The brakes on this bike are awesome. I slowed way down for every animal I saw out tonight.
I saw a herd of 5 deer, another herd of 3 deer, a momma fox and one cub, I had slowed to about 15mph and it was a good thing, since right as I am getting to where they crossed another cub come waddling all confused right up next to me, I passed in front of him and went on my way. Saw another herd of 4-5 deer, a coyote, some more deer off away from the road, then in the park the 40 or so deer leaving, then another coyote, and a possum.
The comfort seat is still hard as a brick. Hopefully it will soften up over time or at least mould to my bony butt.
Anyway it was a fun ride.
Bike is over 1000 miles in 12 days. I like it alot.
I am going to bed.

Edit, got into the garage at exactly 2am

Wow! Did you drive through a zoo?!? Well OK, the deers move at the night time. But come on. LOL Anyway, nice trip you did.

I usually drive in daytime so I'm lucky if I can spot some birds and a few cows on a field. But the elks are a real trouble here when it comes dark. (An reindeers in northern Finland...) But atleast we don't have any polar bears walking in the streets.

DANG, I would not want to hit a elk. It would be cool to see, but that would be a huge worry.
Land between the Lakes has a huge fenced off natural grasses prairie with a elk herd and a bison herd. We drove the truck thru it with the kids, those things are MASSIVE.
The deer are very thick here. There are no real predators but man, and hunting is underallowed. I think more are killed by cars than hunting.

here is where I went.

hmm...now Corbin made the Yamaha FJR comfort seat, I wonder if the same goes with the FZ6. Corbins are notoriously hard. They work in some, but still are much harder than some people would ever expect something comfortable to be. My custom saddle on my FJR made by Bill Mayer Saddles is the most comfortabe seat I have (car, bike or couch) and is rather firm.

Did your but hurt after the mileage?

Not after I get off, just while I am on it. LOL
I rode another 175 tonight. I went to west Nashvegas to see a friend from ninja250 forum. His bike was acting up, and he rode in from New Jersey. I took my tools down, we adjusted his valves, and now it seems to be working right. It starts, and runs well anyway. LOL
Avg. 95 miles a day so far. LOL
Cleaned and lubed the chain again today. Checked the adjustment and it still is sitting right a 45 millemeters. Tire pressure was down though in both tires. No more than a pound but wondering why. Maybe they just take a long time to seat, and seal all the way.

I noticed something. It may just be my riding style, and there is nothing anyone can do without seeing it.
Then again maybe someone else has noticed it.
I have a strip about 3/4" on each side of my rear tire that is unused lean angle. On the front it is signifigantly more.
Is that because of the sorta silly wide tire, not having the same profile as the front tire. It looks like to use all the front tire I would be up on the cornor of the tread/sidewall on the rear.
Am I just worried about nothing or is this something others have noticed too?

wrightme43 said:

Not after I get off, just while I am on it. LOL
I rode another 175 tonight. I went to west Nashvegas to see a friend from ninja250 forum. His bike was acting up, and he rode in from New Jersey. I took my tools down, we adjusted his valves, and now it seems to be working right. It starts, and runs well anyway. LOL
Avg. 95 miles a day so far. LOL
Cleaned and lubed the chain again today. Checked the adjustment and it still is sitting right a 45 millemeters. Tire pressure was down though in both tires. No more than a pound but wondering why. Maybe they just take a long time to seat, and seal all the way.

I noticed something. It may just be my riding style, and there is nothing anyone can do without seeing it.
Then again maybe someone else has noticed it.
I have a strip about 3/4" on each side of my rear tire that is unused lean angle. On the front it is signifigantly more.
Is that because of the sorta silly wide tire, not having the same profile as the front tire. It looks like to use all the front tire I would be up on the cornor of the tread/sidewall on the rear.
Am I just worried about nothing or is this something others have noticed too?

Click to expand...

Well, riding style has some things to do with chicken strips, but I think it has more to do with the profile of the tire. Are you on the Bridgestones? They are pretty round in front...I wouldn't worry about it. On our FZ6 it seems pretty even so far, but I haven't taken it on any of the fun twisties yet.

Lean man leannnnnnnnnn...... I have those strips to... lol gotta get the knee to the ground to get rid of em...

Dennis

Ok I went for some agressive parking lot practice tonight. Tight circles, figure eights, the triple coffee cup with rocks in them (poor mans cones) swerves, max braking, and u-turn practice.
I got the rear down much closer to the edge but the front is just not going to go all the way. I think if it did get to the edge of the front the swing arm would be scraping the ground. I pushed it under me at very slow speed to do tight turns wieghting the outside peg. I snapped it thru cones set up at the start of a two car parking space, the middle and the end. I ran it around two light poles in a figure eight. I did this for almost a hour, ended up covered in sweat. Then took off and rode to Portland TN and back. I am at 1299 miles now, in 15 days with the bike. I am very impressed with it. It does require much more effort to do slow speed manuveres than the ninja 250.
Yes it has the bridgestones 020 battle ax. I am thinking I will try and wear them out and get some Avon Storm ST tires. I put a pair of super venoms on my ninja and I loved them. They stuck like glue and laughed at 4000 miles you could hardly tell they had been used.
The brakes on this bike are outstanding. Ten hard braking runs in a row, and all they did was get better. Just outstanding. I know they changed them for the 07 model, what do you all think of the older setup?