What did you do with YOUR hour?

[Papa Lou]

"Reading about chip-seal road work makes me hear all the little rocks bouncing off everything on the bike."

Oh, yeah... I remember being disappointed by having to slow down for new chip seal in some lovely curves near Eureka Springs. The disappointment was punctuated by the "ping - ping -ping" of those little rocks. And my wife was not happy when I, as lead bike, kicked up a few into her windshield. She had to back off from her usual slot pretty quick.

Loved riding Arkansas when working in Russelville. Thanks for the memories, Brad.

Ride well.

 

[Coyote Chris]

Hmm. Belt drive on a Strom? Not as good as shaft, but for street running it would be an improvement in maintenance time required.

An improvement, at least until the chip-seal road repairs show up. You know, sharp little rocks drowned in hot tar that get into the works and tear up the belt.

I replaced three belts on a Harley FLHT one year while working in Idaho where they use that road surface extensively. But for most of the 120K miles I put on Harleys, the belt was the least impacting of my too-frequent mechanical problems.

DirtFlier's technical perception is noted, but Seagrass and I are of the same mind, I think. The shaft drive of the NT is a most welcome relief from chain maintenance.

Frosty holed his BMW GT 800's belt with a sharp stone but continues to use it. I am not sold on belts until they enclose them. But they can enclose chains too. And if chains are so good for off road, how do you explain the Tenere and the BMW 1200?
Chains are for racing bikes and for those bikes built to a lower price point cause they are cheep to make. But not cheep to replace, and do take service. And most chains need to be broken to install them with a master link. I looked at the "instruction book" for the typical inexpensive breaker tool. It was small, hard to read, ambiguous. It was written by Alexander Gram Dumbell.
Now if the sprokets were placed just so, you could replace the whole chain and sprokets without a breaker by taking off the rear wheel. But getting the angles correct between the swingarm and sprokets would be tricky.
Bottom line is no one is going back to the clip master link
Chains are cheep up front and expensive in time and money to maintain.
Shafts rule. Does anyone remember a trio of Hondas that had the same engine but some had chains and some had shafts????

 

[Papa Lou]

Or, you could have both like me....

Best of all worlds. Once upon a time I, like you, had the decision of "Which do I ride today"? It was a awhile ago though. I'm jealous, but must live within the more limited means of my retirement now.

And I'm 100% with you on the "shafts rule" perception. Many bikes seemed to be headed that way in the early 1980's, but then the manufacturers backed off. Disappointing to be sure. IMHO: Shaft drive is what "the rest of us", the non-racer guys & gals, really could use the most when we just, simply, want to ride.

That what this thread is all about, isn't it? Spending an hour cleaning a chain when you could/should be out riding!

 

[Coyote Chris]

Best of all worlds. Once upon a time I, like you, had the decision of "Which do I ride today"? It was a awhile ago though. I'm jealous, but must live within the more limited means of my retirement now.

And I'm 100% with you on the "shafts rule" perception. Many bikes seemed to be headed that way in the early 1980's, but then the manufacturers backed off. Disappointing to be sure. IMHO: Shaft drive is what "the rest of us", the non-racer guys & gals, really could use the most when we just, simply, want to ride.

That what this thread is all about, isn't it? Spending an hour cleaning a chain when you could/should be out riding!

My first shaft bike was a circa 1980 750 (!) Yamaha Virago. Black. It wasnt an expensive bike. It was easy to maintain. Shaft oil changes, engine oil changes, valves, it could hardly be simpler.
That was a very nice engine. Kind of a half way chopper but with real world ergonomics.
Kennewick will suck all your retirement money away on air conditioning bills....
Regrettably, I was never blessed with kids so I have all this money to try and spend before I die...I am not doing a very good job....

https://youtu.be/NJdQXRqlH_0?t=23

 

[Papa Lou]

My first shaft bike was a circa 1980 750 (!) Yamaha Virago. Black. It wasnt an expensive bike. It was easy to maintain. Shaft oil changes, engine oil changes, valves, it could hardly be simpler.
That was a very nice engine. Kind of a half way chopper but with real world ergonomics.
Kennewick will suck all your retirement money away on air conditioning bills....
Regrettably, I was never blessed with kids so I have all this money to try and spend before I die...I am not doing a very good job....

https://youtu.be/NJdQXRqlH_0?t=23

Wow! Thanks for the blast from my past. I bought a new '83 Virago 750, all blacked out but with gold-colored chrome trim, in Charleston, SC. Rode it daily there and when transferred I rode it rain, snow, or shine while I was a military instructor in Virginia Beach, 84-86. I rode it to work in the car tire tracks made in the light snow there on the morning of NASA's, and the world's, loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Oddly, one of the things I noticed in the video was that the gas tank badges for Yamaha were missing from the 81. I removed them from my 83 and replaced them with badges of my own creation. The ones I installed read "Beowulf", which is what I'd named that machine. In my collected moto stuff I still have the Virginia license plate from that bike with the same moniker.

Take a minute and picture leaving work on a cool evening in early autumn. As you walk up to your V-twin Virago engine you see something on the bike is...not... quite... right. Getting a bit closer you see that it's a water moccasin snake that had curled up on the black cylinders to soak up the heat remaining in the metal from the sun's daily heating. The snake didn't want to leave his cozy spot, but relented with enough harassment using my riding jacket as a buffer between us.

Really happened. But why did it happen to me?

I loved that machine for many reasons, and one of them was the shaft drive. In the years I rode it the machine never let me down and I spent my non-work time with family instead of wrenching on it in the shed where it was parked. (There were no garages in military base housing.)

Is that your video? Thanks for the share, either way. I really got a kick out of it.

Ride well.

 

[Papa Lou]

Your second one? What happened to the first one?

A set of 1" or so handlebar riser spacers and pulling the bars back a bit will help with the pressures on the wrist and alleviate some of the numbness in the hands. Such as these - KEMIMOTO 7/8" Handlebar Risers 30mm

Belongs in another thread, perhaps, but for closure I want to thank you for the feedback & info. I extend that to Phil for his clarification on cable limits.

I installed a riser assembly on the new (to me) 2011 NT. Same ones I had on my 2010 NT a few years back. But this time I rigged for 3/4" rise instead of the 1" rise. The clutch cable was just a hair tighter than I was happy with for this installation using the 1" assembly. Not sure why it was different between the 2010 model and the 2011 model. Perhaps a matter of difference in cable routing from the previous owner or factory. Perhaps it was just my own sensitivity to the tension I felt. Whatever the reason, I backed out of the 1" assembly and went with the 3/4" rise.

The difference was noteworthy during my ride to put new tires on this NT today. "Mo' bettah" on my old wrists!

Thanks all. Ride well