Another Pelican

My wife has the more reliable and efficient of our bikes - a 2007 Suzuki SV650. It's a beautiful black and red beast with 2 spark plugs per cylinder and fuel injection! I'm so easily impressed by modern automotive technology...



Anyway, we aim to turn that bike into a touring machine. If we want to two-up on a trip to visit family (maybe to save on gas or to add excitement to our many 200-300 mile trippers), then we'll have a bike that's up to the task. The first requirement that comes to mind is luggage space. In my opinion, the simplest solution to sturdy, lockable luggage is a top case. I previously mounted a top case on my first-generation SV650 by mounting a Pelican 1550 directly to my passenger seat. I've been really happy with the result, but my barbaric approach rendered my passenger seat useless. Unfortunately, mounting hard luggage while still retaining use of the passenger seat means spending more money (because I'm not interested in manufacturing a complete solution myself). So I purchased the SW-Motech ALU-Rack from TwistedThrottle.com, with the intention of mounting a Pelican 1550 to it. The SW-Motech ALU-Rack is supposed to be used with a conversion plate specific to the kind of case you are going to mount (like a Givi case or other motorcycle-specific container). However, the rack happens to have three conveniently-spaced holes:



All of my plans were first okayed by the bike owner. While I can take credit for most of the ideas here, an exception can be found in the color of the Pelican case. But hey, that's cool! To each her own.

Installation was quite simple - little was left up to assumption given the single picture in the ALU-Rack manual. Aside from having to grind down 2 aluminum spacers and losing one of the provided nuts, the rack was assembled without issue. Mounting the Pelican 1550 was also a simple task. I went with the very straight-forward method of bolting the 1550 to the ALU-Rack via the 3 available holes. After drilling 3 holes into the case and picking up the necessary hardware, the case and the rack became one. The final product looks acceptable and, as expected, does not prevent use of the passenger seat.




The question is, will the rack support the weight of a Pelican 1550 (~10 lbs) full of traveling gear and supplies (? lbs). Only time will tell, and I plan to test this setup tomorrow when I head to work. Should this arrangement prove useable, we plan to incorporate the SW-Motech Quick-Lock side racks. With two top-loading Pelicans on the sides, we may have enough room for a weekend trip!

It gets better every time!

Every track day is more fun than the last one - this is definitely something I need to do more than 3 times a year...



...so on November 23rd, we found ourselves warming up to the tune of high-revs in the paddock at Carolina Motorsports Park. An unseasonably cold weekend had us doing our first session in thirty-some-odd degrees, but the fun-factor did not suffer!

I spent most of the day working on form, as my inside foot touched-down first at my last 2 track days this year. I wanted to be sure that, if I carved the corners hard enough, my knee would be the first thing to feel the track. Unfortunately track day number five goes to the archive and my knee pucks still look brandy new. Oh well - maybe next time.



On the upside, I had a wicked-cool track coach that was nice enough to tail me for an entire session - with a video camera! Watching yourself in third person is an amazing learning experience. The ability to critique with all distractions and fear removed - amazing! I've come to two major conclusions after watching this video. Number one, I turn in and apex way too early on a lot of corners. Number two, I have a world of throttle to go before I get dangerous, so it's time to apply some aggression (<--Mike's terminology).



Technical assessments aside, it's always a good time meeting the motorcycle experts for a weekend of action :)

Swapping treads myself

I finally committed...I've been wanting to get into changing motorcycle tires myself ever since a buddy of mine began doing it. I was sick of paying the shop $30 to swap a tire (especially since I was removing the wheel from the bike). Opportunity always strikes when you're not looking for it, as such was the case when I stumbled upon a used tire changing stand on craigslist.org.

About $180 later, I had everything I needed to remove the rear tire on my SV650:

• $50 - used MRP tire changing stand (appears to be an older version of this)


• $10 - pair of tire irons the guy threw in


• $100 - No-Mar Mount/Demount Bar


• $10 - Balancing weights


• $10 - shipping

$180/$30 = 5. The math says that five tire changes is all it will take for me to recoup all my expenditures. Awesome.



So I took on the challenge this wonderful Sunday morning and removed the rear wheel from the SV. I then banked on the information I found here about using 2x4s and a car to break the bead. I cut a 2x4 into the necessary pieces (keeping an 8-footer in its entirety for leverage) and went at it. Of course I emptied the tire of air before playing the bead-breaking game.



Then it was into the basement where I had my tire changing stand and related tools. I messed around some, called my friend, and realized after we hung up that I never actually broke the bead. That was hard for me to believe, seeing as the bead was sliding up and down the inside of the wheel when I was working it over with the 2x4. But sure enough, the bead maintained a seal throughout all that! Wow...



After looking at pictures of tools meant for breaking tire beads, I realized my primitive 2x4s needed improvement. So I sharpened, if you will, the short piece that actually makes contact with the bead of the tire. This ended up being a winner, as I could hear the seal give way when prying and the little air pressure that remained seeped out. Score!




I mounted the wheel onto my tire changing stand and grabbed my No-Mar Mount/Demount Bar. Now, let me first mention how impressed I was when I received my shipment from No-Mar. I ordered their mount/demount bar, a set of wheel weights, and a free DVD they have showing off their products and how to use them. When I opened the box, I found the 3 items I ordered, plus a 2nd DVD, a spray bottle of tire mounting lubricant, and a jar of lubricating jelly for tire installation. And to top it off, the mount/demount bar came with 3 (three!) replacement demount tips (the tips are made of a non-marking material). I definitely felt like No-Mar took care of me, and I'm not easily impressed.

I watched the video and payed close attention to how I should use the mount/demount bar when removing the tire. Unfortunately, the video did not translate so well to the Pirelli 160-60ZR17 I was working with. In the video, No-Mar was able to use the mount/demount bar alone to get between the tire bead and the rim to ultimately pry the bead up over the rim. However, I had no hope of working the demount tip of the No-Mar bar between the bead and the rim. The bead would just go wherever I forced it, and never fought back! So I had to pry the bead away from the rim with a tire iron and then squish the demount tip of the No-Mar bar into the opening made by the pry bar. The first time I was successful getting the demount tip where it belonged, I ended up ruining the demount bar tip as the picture above shows. I was pretty upset, but realized even a fine tool like the No-Mar bar is rubbish if one does not apply common sense. Basically, you should only pry with the No-Mar bar if the fat portion of the demount tip is what makes contact with the rim. In my case, I had pushed the bead so far down, that when I began to pry, the contact point on the No-Mar bar was the actual metal bar! This put intense stress on the connection of the demount tip to the metal bar. Thankfully, No-Mar provided 3 replacement tips in the package! So I swapped demount tips and tried again (making sure the demount tip was in contact with the rim when I began to pry the bead up and over the wheel).



So I got the tire off the wheel and learned how to use the tools I have (without permanently ruining them). I should be picking up a fresh Pirelli SuperSport tomorrow, so I'm pretty sure my tires will pass tech at CMP next weekend.