Roadside repair

On my way home from work yesterday, the rear tire felt like it slid (big time) around two turns. This seemed too coincidental - that there were two slick spots, both in turns at lighted intersections - so I pulled over to inspect.

My chain was crazy-loose.  After some deliberation, I decided the axle must be loose enough to slide around when I roll-on.  But I don't have my breaker bar or rear stand - how am I going to fix this?  So I roll the dice and spill the contents of the SV650's toolkit onto The asphalt.

-BAM!  Pliers - I can remove the rear axle nut's cotter pin.

-POW!  24mm wrench with extender.  I had to work at it, but I was able to break the rear axle nut.

-BOOM!  An open-ended wrench that fits the chain adjustment nuts at the ends of the swing arm.

A few minutes and some greasy hands later I was back on the road conquering off-ramps - rear staying true.  I guess it's a little late for me to be learning this, but you can do a lot with the stock toolkit on a motorcycle.

o-`o

Mayorga Coffee

I wanted to side-step rush hour traffic last Friday, so I spent the 2nd half of the day working from a coffee shop near Battley Cycles (where Motus Motorcycles graced us with the status of their ambitious work).  I figured if I was already in the Gaithersburg area, it would be easy for me to roll a few extra miles to get to the event at 5pm.




And as luck would have it, I located a coffee shop of note not too far away in Rockville, MD - Mayorga Coffee Roasters.


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All Mayorga coffee is roasted a few blocks away from this coffee shop.  You can find Mayorga coffee beans at Costco, Giant, and lots of other stores.  So the product is local to all us DelMarVans.  The baristas were very friendly, made me 2 double-shot Americanos in a small cup (which were very good), and talked up motorcycles at the end of my stay.  Nothing like good conversation across a granite bar serving up joe.




I have to be honest, I don't plan on frequenting Rockville.  But I can guarantee you that, should I find myself there again, I'll be making a B-line for Mayorga.

You can finally buy the SLS!

When I first got the ZX, I was not impressed with the luggage solutions available. Was I surprised? I mean, it's a super sport, not a tourer…

Anyway, one of the rays of hope I had discovered was the SLS mounting system by thecycleguys.com. It was a neat semi-hard saddle bag system that mounted in place of the passenger foot pegs. They seemed pretty stylish and functional, so I followed them for many months until they delayed the product release so many times that I had lost hope.

But check it - they can now be had for a few select applications!
   

I still think it's a neat product, no doubt. A few positives that strike me:

• Stylish
• Expandable (can fit a helmet, but doesn't have to)
• Good design - reusing a solid, load-bearing mount

But there are some negatives too:

• Can't really lock them
• Pricey

Unfortunately, the lack of security pretty much kills the deal for me. But the price is a serious detractor as well. I'm all for the ingenuity, and I hope they are really successful with these! Get people using those screaming inline 4's to get somewhere more than just the coffee shop! Congrats to The Cycle Guys for finally getting this one out the door!