So I bid goodbye...

[Rushiku]

To my whisper quiet, sewing machine sounding scoot.

And bolted on the Leo Vince Ti SBKs that finally came in after 6 weeks of being on backorder. No more whir, whir, whiiiiir!!! for me.

I feel guilty about the cat elim pipe, but, try as I might, I couldn't get the cans straight with the OE cat pipe installed. The new system is just a few mms different at the cat pipe, which translates to 'eww, I can't ride around looking like that' at the tail end. (it looked like having one eye where it should be and the other about an inch higher and crooked). sigh.

Start up gave a nice throaty growl, revving it up had my 15 year old grinning from ear to ear and me giggling like a school girl.

The sound is, well, louder than I was expecting, but after the dearth of sound that was coming out of the bike before, just about anything would sound loud at first.

The low RPM grumble, as I try to sneak out of the neighborhood, seems to echo in my helmet, "Ain't nobody sleepin' now" it seems to say. Acceleration seems to be a pretty standard sportbike-with-custom-exhaust sound, though there's a interesting low, rumbly, howl from about 6 to 8K under hard acceleration. Though, it's so hard to judge any of this, as I am on the bike...there's no way I can say what it sounds like from other perspectives.

I disconnected the battery to reset the computer (I think that's all I need to do?), but the idle is still a little jumpy and engine braking is grumpy with a little deep popping sound to it, not at all bad, I just don't think it was there before...

 

[FZ1inNH]

Nice!!! Great job lining them up too!

So.... what's the little number with the single can under the tail buried in the corner under a mattress?

 

[Rushiku]

So.... what's the little number with the single can under the tail buried in the corner under a mattress?

Oh, uh, , 'that' is a pocket bike, which belongs to my wife's cousin. I have a link somewhere...here it is, it's the green one. It's large enough for an average adult to ride and it has: an actual 4 speed transmission - with a clutch, front and rear brakes, lights, signals, horn and the pure, unadulterated power only a 49cc powerplant can provide. Did I mention the gear indicator? (hmm, either I'm wrong about the 49cc, or they changed the engine size for '09...looks exactly the same...15 more ccs and they could put it in the MotoGP)

I've topped it out at 40mph on flat, but the cousin insists the speedo can be pegged (70mph), provided you have a large enough hill to ride down. But I'll tell you what, 40 mph that close to the ground seems pretty fast Though, if you've ever dragged a knee, you've probably been closer and faster.

Honestly though, I owe that bike. It had been years (and years) since I'd even been on a dirt bike when I climbed on that thing this Spring - I really didn't think I could handle a bike anymore. But after a few days of tooling around the neighborhood on that glorified lawn mower, I had enough confidence to get a real bike (much to the neighbors' delight...until yesterday, that is )