What have you done for your T7 today?

[williestreet]

My stock front was getting scalloped and the vibration was getting worse, so with a 1200km ride last weekend I decided to swap it with a TKC80 I had waiting.

I only had 7500km on it, but I made a trip a few weeks ago and the pressure was a bit low which I suspect aggravated the wear and allowed the scalloping to get started.  

TKC80 felt much better than the stock tire ever did.  Hopefully it lasts.  

 

 

[DWEL700]

3 hours ago, Larson627 said:

Added Acerbis engine guards, you can imagine my delight when the bolts you have to remove from the engine were enough to make oil leak out
 

If you are installing these, wait until you are doing an oil change, apparently! Fully expecting a continuous weep from this spot now. 
 

 

When installing engine guards if you keep it on the sidestand it will leak.

If you have someone hold it upright while you do the left side little to no oil will come out.

Or put it on the center stand if you have one.

[winddown]

2 hours ago, DWEL700 said:

Or put it on the center stand if you have one.

The center stand was the best thing I did to this bike, parking in the dirt by creeks, in the garage oiling the chain, even washing the bike is easier with it up on the stand.   Totally secure.

Edited June 28, 2022 by winddown

[Larson627]

4 hours ago, DWEL700 said:

When installing engine guards if you keep it on the sidestand it will leak.

If you have someone hold it upright while you do the left side little to no oil will come out.

Or put it on the center stand if you have one.

Wish I had thought to just lean it the other way, would have made install easier too! 

[Larson627]

7 hours ago, advsquid said:

Does that have a mounting bolt at the bottom? Looks pretty high to be leaking oil, at least while the bike is just sitting there 

It does, lowest bolt on the cover. Could have surely done without it! 

[Ray Ride4life]

Washed him and made a slightly bigger loop around the house to the garage to get a bit temperature in the oil to drain it.

 

This is up for this weekend...

[NeilW]

1 minute ago, PNGL said:

Today? Welllll... today I decided to go through all of my emails and made a spreadsheet of every single thing I've bought for or related to my Tenere, which actually started the day before I got it on 5/5/22. This was a mistake. I should have just left it in my emails. 
I paid $12200 for the bike. My current total is $17259.63; granted, that does include a new helmet, jacket, and boots. Nevertheless 

…and the smiles, priceless!

[PNGL]

Today? Welllll... today I decided to go through all of my emails and made a spreadsheet of every single thing I've bought for or related to my Tenere, which actually started the day before I got it on 5/5/22. This was a mistake. I should have just left it in my emails. 
I paid $12200 for the bike. My current total is $17259.93; granted, that does include a new helmet, jacket, and boots. Nevertheless 

#IfYoureGoingToBeAnythingYouShouldBeThorough

Edited June 30, 2022 by PNGL

[Ray Ride4life]

I'm not even going there, just my suspension was about €2800, exhaust 417 and a Rapid Bike Evo is on it's way at the same price as the exhaust.
Did over 8000km on the T7 this year and almost the same on the CT and next week i start a 8500km trip (hence the pile of parts for this weekend).
Last year was 34500km total over 3 bikes, don't want to know what that totals as long i can buy healthy and fresh food.

[Lewie]

Rally seat fitted

much comfier 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Lewie

[Wintersdark]

Good lord; never, EVER track how much money you spend on motorcycles.  Just don't do it.

 

And don't think "Well, if I bought that bike I wouldn't have "needed" to change so much."  That's just lying to yourself.  

 

But this is fundamentally where most of us bust the myth of "motorcycles are cheaper than cars".  Sure, insurance, gas, and base purchase price are lower, but unless you just buy a bike and ride it as is with the cheapest, longest lasting rubber you can find, and never bother getting good gear.... Well, motorcycling is an expensive hobby.

 

Of course, you can get a used bike, a functional ECE rated but cheap helmet, mid-range jacket and gloves and wear them till they fall apart.   That way can go cheaper, overall.  But it takes a certain kind of person to actually do that (or just one with a severely limited budget - but that person isn't likely to be on a forum dedicated to a new motorcycle )

 

But for the majority of us?  I'd argue most of us wear at least $1000 in gear at any given time, and items get replaced every few years.  An average of a set of tires per year seems fair - though that can vary wildly on how much of a filthy casual/crazy bastard you are.  Then, The Farkling.   It's really easy to just go shopping online for your baby, drop $50-$200 at a time with random stuff that looks cool and doesn't really cost a whole lot... but that adds up quickly when you get lots of them.  And there are lots of options.

 

More philosophically, because I'm feeling needlessly wordy:

 

Personally, I've been moving away from random farkles over the last couple years and have actually de-farkled my bikes to some degree, but it's still a problem.  There's this weird desire to "make it yours" and customize it, but IMHO in a lot of cases one tends to change things that didn't really need changing, and often actually make the overall picture worse in the process - or at least don't actually improve anything.  I had a lot of random farkles that I added to this (and my Tracer) that theoretically added functionality but that I realized I just never actually used.  I keep contemplating getting a 25l gas tank, but I've never once struggled with bringing enough fuel at any given time, and if I was going somewhere I'd need it, a Rotopax would be cheaper.  I had a ton of extra lighting on my Tracer, but almost never ride at night outside of commuting to/from work which is well lit by city lights anyways.  

 

I'd gotten to thinking, traditionally I'd buy a bike, stripped down excess stuff "to save weight" then immediately started bolting on tons of guards lights and bits of bling to look cool and "make it mine", resulting in a bike that weighed more than it did originally, looked exactly like everyone else's "builds" (because we all buy the same farkles in the end), and left my wallet a lot lighter.  It's fun, but a lot of money and honestly never really made the bike significantly better. 

[Ray Ride4life]

32 minutes ago, Wintersdark said:

An average of a set of tires per year seems fair

What?????
Yeah, maybe... just maybe on my Crosstourer now the T7 is the main bike but on the T i'm happy i get 3 months on a rear and 5 to 6 out of the front.
 

[Tenerider]

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

Good lord; never, EVER track how much money you spend on motorcycles.  Just don't do it.

 

And don't think "Well, if I bought that bike I wouldn't have "needed" to change so much."  That's just lying to yourself.  

 

But this is fundamentally where most of us bust the myth of "motorcycles are cheaper than cars".  Sure, insurance, gas, and base purchase price are lower, but unless you just buy a bike and ride it as is with the cheapest, longest lasting rubber you can find, and never bother getting good gear.... Well, motorcycling is an expensive hobby.

 

Of course, you can get a used bike, a functional ECE rated but cheap helmet, mid-range jacket and gloves and wear them till they fall apart.   That way can go cheaper, overall.  But it takes a certain kind of person to actually do that (or just one with a severely limited budget - but that person isn't likely to be on a forum dedicated to a new motorcycle )

 

But for the majority of us?  I'd argue most of us wear at least $1000 in gear at any given time, and items get replaced every few years.  An average of a set of tires per year seems fair - though that can vary wildly on how much of a filthy casual/crazy bastard you are.  Then, The Farkling.   It's really easy to just go shopping online for your baby, drop $50-$200 at a time with random stuff that looks cool and doesn't really cost a whole lot... but that adds up quickly when you get lots of them.  And there are lots of options.

 

More philosophically, because I'm feeling needlessly wordy:

 

Personally, I've been moving away from random farkles over the last couple years and have actually de-farkled my bikes to some degree, but it's still a problem.  There's this weird desire to "make it yours" and customize it, but IMHO in a lot of cases one tends to change things that didn't really need changing, and often actually make the overall picture worse in the process - or at least don't actually improve anything.  I had a lot of random farkles that I added to this (and my Tracer) that theoretically added functionality but that I realized I just never actually used.  I keep contemplating getting a 25l gas tank, but I've never once struggled with bringing enough fuel at any given time, and if I was going somewhere I'd need it, a Rotopax would be cheaper.  I had a ton of extra lighting on my Tracer, but almost never ride at night outside of commuting to/from work which is well lit by city lights anyways.  

 

I'd gotten to thinking, traditionally I'd buy a bike, stripped down excess stuff "to save weight" then immediately started bolting on tons of guards lights and bits of bling to look cool and "make it mine", resulting in a bike that weighed more than it did originally, looked exactly like everyone else's "builds" (because we all buy the same farkles in the end), and left my wallet a lot lighter.  It's fun, but a lot of money and honestly never really made the bike significantly better. 

Agree to every single word!

 

Keep that in mind, guys. But don't stop farkling

[AZJW]

Agree with @Wintersdark and @Tenerider. I track maintenance and farkles, but I NEVER share that info with my better half and certainly don't post it publicly.  That's a license to someone who knows you to blackmail you in any way they want by threatening to send that list to your bookkeeper!  

[Ray Ride4life]

Made a start with the weekend works i had planned to get the bike ready for the trip.

Yesterday i washed him and let the oil drain  and today i cleaned the K&N air filter ad filled the oil.
Went for a in between torque for the oil drain bolt at 30Nm and cut the inner part of the snorkel of the air filter.
Didn't want to take the whole snorkel off because i don't like openings where things just can fall in but the part on the inside made no sense to me.
This way i get a little less restriction but keep the possibility for a pre filter.

 

Clean with fresh oil.

 

This makes more sense to me.

[williestreet]

Took the forks off and removed 3mm of extra preload spacers I installed a month ago.  I was trying to eliminate some fork dive when just touching the brakes.  It worked, but made the front a bit harsh and the front was sitting a bit high so out they came and we will try something else.

 

Fork oil was changed even though it had only a few thousand km on it, but happy to see it was very clean with no debris/dirt or discolouration to the oil.   Trying a different oil height, so we will see if that makes any difference to the ride.  

 

New front tire last week was a pain to balance, so I re-balanced it again today with slightly better results.

 

Every time I have the wheel out I get annoyed by the design failure Yamaha did on the front caliper spacing.  

I decided to fix it for good by removing the mounting bracket and increasing the rotor to caliper bracket clearance.

Just used a flat file to take approx 0.7mm from the inside of the bracket.  Now the rotor has plenty of clearance and I won't be pissed every time  I remove that wheel.

 

 

[NeilW]

3 hours ago, williestreet said:

Took the forks off and removed 3mm of extra preload spacers I installed a month ago.  I was trying to eliminate some fork dive when just touching the brakes.  It worked, but made the front a bit harsh and the front was sitting a bit high so out they came and we will try something else.

 

Fork oil was changed even though it had only a few thousand km on it, but happy to see it was very clean with no debris/dirt or discolouration to the oil.   Trying a different oil height, so we will see if that makes any difference to the ride.  

 

New front tire last week was a pain to balance, so I re-balanced it again today with slightly better results.

 

Every time I have the wheel out I get annoyed by the design failure Yamaha did on the front caliper spacing.  

I decided to fix it for good by removing the mounting bracket and increasing the rotor to caliper bracket clearance.

Just used a flat file to take approx 0.7mm from the inside of the bracket.  Now the rotor has plenty of clearance and I won't be pissed every time  I remove that wheel.

 

 

When I wrote my first T7 review for Ultimate Motorcycling I mentioned my issue with front end dive on braking. I am a front braker and it was very annoying. I have to figure out what I am doing differently but I don’t notice the front end dive any more. Hmmmm.  

[Wintersdark]

15 minutes ago, NeilW said:

When I wrote my first T7 review for Ultimate Motorcycling I mentioned my issue with front end dive on braking. I am a front braker and it was very annoying. I have to figure out what I am doing differently but I don’t notice the front end dive any more. Hmmmm.  

For me, just replacing springs with appropriate ones for my weight fixed the brake dive right up.   Made a huge difference.  

[Tenerider]

5 hours ago, NeilW said:

When I wrote my first T7 review for Ultimate Motorcycling I mentioned my issue with front end dive on braking. I am a front braker and it was very annoying. I have to figure out what I am doing differently but I don’t notice the front end dive any more. Hmmmm.  

I have completely accustomed to front brake dive, doesn't bother me at all.

When riding behind a buddy recently, he was very surprised how much I dive at traffic lights, but I don't realise it any more.

 

[Ray Ride4life]

15 minutes ago, Tenerider said:

I have completely accustomed to front brake dive, doesn't bother me at all.

When riding behind a buddy recently, he was very surprised how much I dive at traffic lights, but I don't realise it any more.

 

It's not the dive what you addressing but the consequences it's just the dive what's noticed all the time.
When the front dives it means that it will be at its end very fast when going on a bit more bumpy ride and it also takes away a lot of stopping power and that might be the most important to address because in an emergency those meters can be the difference between standing still in time or hitting that car.

[Tenerider]

Good point Ray.

How is front dive with your Touratech cartridge?

[Ray Ride4life]

It's much less, maybe a third but maybe we should meet up when i'm back from my trip so we can compare some things we did different.
Might be also interesting for the rest here?

[DT675]

14 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

For me, just replacing springs with appropriate ones for my weight fixed the brake dive right up.   Made a huge difference.  

I agree.  I was going to do a write-up on just that but I'll piggy back your comment instead.  I had earlier made my own pre-load spacers and it helped dive “a little” but made the action a bit more harsh too.  This past winter I finally put in the correct springs for my weight (just the next size up if I remember correctly) and it made a very nice noticeable difference.  Not only do I get less brake dive, it allowed me to be able to reduce my compression dampening too, giving me a nicer ride on the road.  Win win all round.   

[BikeBrother]

9 hours ago, Ray Ride4life said:

It's much less, maybe a third but maybe we should meet up when i'm back from my trip so we can compare some things we did different.
Might be also interesting for the rest here?

I already thought about a meeting for dutch/german/belgium riders in our area to make a ride and compare bikes. Can be a day or even a camping weekend.

[Tenerider]

13 minutes ago, BikeBrother said:

I already thought about a meeting for dutch/german/belgium riders in our area to make a ride and compare bikes. Can be a day or even a camping weekend.

Fantastic idea, I'm in.