An idiot, and his TCLOCKs

[Falkon45]

I've been moaning and groaning about how my KPM200 just seems too slow. Mostly blaming it on my weight, because chubby guys make extra friction and wind resistance.

Well, on the way to work today, I noticed that bike felt a little more wiggly than normal. This led to some concern for the return trip home, so I stopped at the gas station to air up l. Front tire was at 18 and rear was at 12. Then I realized, I never once checked the tire pressure on this bike in the two years I've owned it. BOY, and I am idiot!

Anyway, since the suggested tire pressures aren't in the swingarm, and the tires only list KPA, and I'm too lazy to convert to psi, I just picked 35f and 38r. I tell you what, the bike hit every bit of 70mph easily. I can do 65 in 4th when it was a struggle to hit 60 before. And the bike finally started going where I pointed it with few complaints.(until it starts getting a little more spirited)

Moral of the story... Do you TCLOCKS every ride. Don't get complacent like me.

[Vlad87]

Does slightly kicking a tire a couple of times counts? )

[Falkon45]

Originally Posted by Vlad87

Does slightly kicking a tire a couple of times counts? )

Not gonna lie, I did that a few times, and said "good enough".

[cheesy]

Every frickin’ time.

[su98]

should check tires once a week. Ditto on my rear & paid for a new inner tube.

[JerryHawk250]

I just walk up to the tire and give it a little squeeze. If it don't give, I'm good. I do actually check the tire pressure about once a month.

[Sport Rider]

I use a cheap tire pressure sensor setup. it's solar powered, so no battery connection needed. the readings are not accurate, but it's relative. as long as I don't see a drop in the pressure readings, I know I'm good.

[Falkon45]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

I use a cheap tire pressure sensor setup. it's solar powered, so no battery connection needed. the readings are not accurate, but it's relative. as long as I don't see a drop in the pressure readings, I know I'm good.

I've been looking at those on amazon. I should probably invest in a kit for the Lifan.

[2LZ]

I hear ya. The biggest problem with being old and fat is when I was young, I was about 6' tall. Now? I'm at least 12' tall and the ground is way the hell down there, as are the tires!
I'd also like to find the bastard who taped this beach ball to the underside of my shirt! Makes getting off the ground a true chore!

Here is how Mrs. 2LZ found me last time I checked my tire pressures.

[tpelle]

Originally Posted by 2LZ

I hear ya. The biggest problem with being old and fat is when I was young, I was about 6' tall. Now? I'm at least 12' tall and the ground is way the hell down there, as are the tires!

I have been wearing eyeglasses since I was in the third grade (I'll be 70 in November.), and was very nearsighted. The thing with a nearsighted eyeglasses prescription is that they require a negative diopter number correction, which causes everything to appear smaller than it actually is. This is due to an effect called vertex distance, which is the distance between the front surface of your eye and the corrective lens.


(If you wear glasses, look at an object, say, across a room, and then, while looking at the object through the lenses and slip the eyeglasses and move them farther away from your face. If the object gets bigger, then you are farsighted and have a positive diopter correction (magnification). For me, if I did that, things appeared smaller (minification).)


Anyway, in January I underwent cataract surgery. The corrective lenses are actually implants that replace the natural (cloudy) lenses in my eyes (which get emulsified and are vacuumed out). No more vertex distance. So my feet and the floor looked closer.


I walked around for a few days lifting my feet way up with each step until I got used to it.

[Falkon45]

Part 2:

Tension your chain....

I put it off for about a week, because it would only kick off every once in a 100 miles. Well, friday night/saturday morning, I paid for being slack.

10pm friday, I get called into work, because a pump seized and wouldn't run. Typically, I'd say no on the weekends, because that's when I have my youngest kid. Thankfully, for them, he had a sleepover at his friend's house that lives across the street from me. I figured a two hour job, and I'll head back home. Well... jokes on me. I didn't finish until 4 am. Anyway, on the way home, at the last light, before the 25 minute stretch of country road to get to my house, my chain kicks, and locks up my back tire in the middle of the intersection. I push the bike off the road, fix the chain, hop on the bike, and 5 feet later, the chain kicks again. Now it takes me 15 minutes to get the chain loose and back on. I get it back on, and ride. 3 minutes later down the road, I go around the roundabout, and the bike revs to the moon with no movement. I pull off and look down... The chain snapped. My new turner motorsports chain, that's supposed to be better than the china chain, rated way higher, snapped. Okay, my fault for being lazy. I can accept that as penance for procrastinating on maintenance.

What upset me, was that at 5 am, I couldn't get a tow truck. At that by 630, when I could finally find someone to tow the bike and it was gonna cost $460 (a cost I was willing to eat, because I just wanted to get home and sleep), the guy calls 20 minutes later and cancels, because he didn't have straps to tie the bike down.

Thankfully, at about 7 am, one of the guys I work with, who lives in my area, passed by me, and gave me a ride home. Since my truck is down, I had to ask the neighbor to help me pick the bike up at about noon (because I needed some semblance of sleep) with his truck and trailer. Paid him $80 for the help.

Thankfully, I had the o-ring chain that came with the sprocket set leftover, so that went on, and I'm back on the road.

So yeah... don't procrastinate on chain maintenance. lol.

[2LZ]

Originally Posted by Falkon45

Part 2:

Tension your chain....

I put it off for about a week, because it would only kick off every once in a 100 miles. Well, friday night/saturday morning, I paid for being slack.

10pm friday, I get called into work, because a pump seized and wouldn't run. Typically, I'd say no on the weekends, because that's when I have my youngest kid. Thankfully, for them, he had a sleepover at his friend's house that lives across the street from me. I figured a two hour job, and I'll head back home. Well... jokes on me. I didn't finish until 4 am. Anyway, on the way home, at the last light, before the 25 minute stretch of country road to get to my house, my chain kicks, and locks up my back tire in the middle of the intersection. I push the bike off the road, fix the chain, hop on the bike, and 5 feet later, the chain kicks again. Now it takes me 15 minutes to get the chain loose and back on. I get it back on, and ride. 3 minutes later down the road, I go around the roundabout, and the bike revs to the moon with no movement. I pull off and look down... The chain snapped. My new turner motorsports chain, that's supposed to be better than the china chain, rated way higher, snapped. Okay, my fault for being lazy. I can accept that as penance for procrastinating on maintenance.

What upset me, was that at 5 am, I couldn't get a tow truck. At that by 630, when I could finally find someone to tow the bike and it was gonna cost $460 (a cost I was willing to eat, because I just wanted to get home and sleep), the guy calls 20 minutes later and cancels, because he didn't have straps to tie the bike down.

Thankfully, at about 7 am, one of the guys I work with, who lives in my area, passed by me, and gave me a ride home. Since my truck is down, I had to ask the neighbor to help me pick the bike up at about noon (because I needed some semblance of sleep) with his truck and trailer. Paid him $80 for the help.

Thankfully, I had the o-ring chain that came with the sprocket set leftover, so that went on, and I'm back on the road.

So yeah... don't procrastinate on chain maintenance. lol.

Wow! That really sucks! What bike was it on????

[Falkon45]

Originally Posted by 2LZ

Wow! That really sucks! What bike was it on????

The KPM200. I beat that poor bike to death. The MT-10 has been a track queen all year, except for 3 days of riding the street on slicks. Lol.

[Magician16]

I don't understand motorcycle tires. In a month I will constantly lose poundage in my tires and have to air them back up. I ran a Kawasaki in the 70's, and I put over 12, 000 on the bike in a couple of years with the tire pressure constant the whole time before changing tires.

[TominMO]

Originally Posted by Magician16

I don't understand motorcycle tires. In a month I will constantly lose poundage in my tires and have to air them back up. I ran a Kawasaki in the 70's, and I put over 12, 000 on the bike in a couple of years with the tire pressure constant the whole time before changing tires.

I'm guessing cheap Chinese tubes. Maybe the valve cores are not up to the job. Try replacing just the cores and see if it helps.