[PiZdETS]

Bike Running Cr@ppy?
Let me guess: You put your bike away in (pick one : Novermber, December, January) and it was running fine. You (did, did not) put Stabil or somesuch in the gastank, and on your first ride of the season, it's runny poorly, spitting back, feels like the plugs are fouling, hard starting....any of these sound familiar?

Outside of flat batteries from not having a battery tender or taking the battery out during the off season; the poor running bike is the most common complaint on the first ride(s) of the year.

Go drain your tank. I use a kerosene siphon because I can prime it by hand (rather than getting a mouthful of 89 Octane) and it's made clear, so I can see what's coming out of the tank (like water, insect parts, dirt, rust, ect.)

Now, go put some FRESH GAS (not the crap from the lawn mower that you bought last July), preferably some Chevron (with Techron) (Gas Man? Any others?) and go run it for a while. You may need to put a tankful or two of fresh gas through it before it runs right. Gas stabilizers work OK for preventing the gas from turning to laquer, but they won't do much for all that condensation at the bottom of your tank.

For munged up carbs, I use a few ounces of Yamaha carb cleaner in the first couple of tankfuls; it will remove laquer in mildly sticky carbs. You may need to drain the grunge out of your floatbowls, and maybe do a carb rebuild if you don't stabilize your gas during storage.

Yamaha also makes a great FI cleaner for non-carb systems.

Remember; do the preventitive stuff in the fall so you don't have to be mucking about with this stuff in the spring when you could be riding.....and always do the cheap/easy basics before you go tearing into the major rebuilds... unless you like wasting money and riding time.
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Jumble
Normally, I post about just one topic, so this one is going to be a little out of the ordinary for me, in that it is about a lot of stuff, some of which may seem unrelated, to the sane mind.

First off: Got to do A BUNCH of riding this weekend; WHOOHOO. I met up with Marko on Saturday; we hooked up in Gettysburg and road the South Mountain area looking for a string of interesting roads for a group ride. As he posted; we found the Good , the Bad and the Ugly. Some of my old favorites were covered in tar/chip, some stuff I hadn't been on before was real nice, and one section of formally nice road was so washboarded we stood on the pegs for a couple miles with the bikes bucking below us like motocrossers on the whoops..............

Secondly: I got to ride with a TWF'er!!! I enjoyed riding with Marko...he's smooth, fast and competent, and likes the same type of tight stuff I do. He has a nice easy style without a lot of gymnastics but still moves along at a good pace. Thanks Marko...that was fun!

Thirdly: Got to put some miles on the GSXR600, both Saturday, and then about another 300 miles on Sunday up in the Clearfield, Pa area. Let me say this for all you new folks worried about "outgrowing" a modern 600 sportbike in a year or so:

If you do "outgrow" your R6, Gixxer6, 636 Ninja or 600RR in the next year or so, you are a far, far better rider than I will ever be; perhaps you should hurry out and get your "Expert" AMA license and go get sponsors.

I know, you can't keep up with your buddies R1's when they roll 160 down the interstate. I guess if pure top speed is all you care about then you are right. But how many of us live at Bonneville, or only ride to and from the dragstip?

You are can spend years on the twisting backroads trying to extract the full potential of these modern middleweights. They are just that good. The difference in the quarter mile between the middleweights and the litre bikes is less than half a second and 5-8 mph terminal velocity; yet the difference between the nimble 600's and the litre bikes on the backroads is another world. Light weight, quick turn-in, and managable power delivery are the hallmarks of the 600 class.

Real world, the roads we drive on day to day are not billard table smooth with perfect traction; just the opposite, they have varying surfaces, sand, critters, bumps, ripples, traffic, pedestrians, ect. This weekend, if I had been on any of the modern "big" bikes I've had, I'd have spent more time trying to keep the bike from getting out of shape than actually enjoying riding.

If you look at laptimes of Supersport bikes vs Superbike on all but the fast (Daytona, ect) courses, you will find the top riders times within a second or so. The reason is, what the middleweights give up on top end, they take back in overall handling and cornerspeed.

And you need to be able to ride to extract it. Riding is more than plopping your butt in the saddle and twisting the throttle.

JMHO