Well, I tried my second 24 hr rally down at Borrego Springs (east of San
Diego), the annual Fish & Chips rally. My first goal was to not run out
of gas (like I did in the Utah 1088) and secondly to finish. Both goals
accomplished plus I ended up taking 3rd place! Surprise, surprise!
Probably something to do with the turnout being light, since it was
right after the Iron Butt and 3 flags, but did incude the winner from
the Utah event.
Things I discovered:
- Metzler MEZ4 rear doesn't last 6,370 miles of hard riding - had cord
showing on the center 200 miles from home on the way back following day.
- Hollister (home of Corbin and July 4 motorcycle rally) doesn't have a
motorcycle shop or dealer, closest is Gilroy.
- tire handled great in the twisties even though flat spotted towards
the end of the rally.
- when the say the check point is off I17 North towards Flagstaff, that
doesn't mean it is in Flagstaff (as I learned the hard way), it was in
Phoenix.
- I took out the K&N air fliters and reinstalled the air box. However I
drilled a series of 5ea 3/8" holes in the bottom front corner of each
filter housing (left & right) to allow ram air to enter from the front,
over the cylinder head. The bike ran great! At 5k-6K rpm it wanted to
just take off. It seems to have made a difference at speed, but can't
say for sure.
The K&N's didn't really change the performance, other than give a
raspier sound from the unmuffled intake.
- my mileage ranged from a best of 46.7 mpg (hotfooting downhill from
Flagstaff to Phoenix) at speed to 38mpg when it was mostly uphill and
twisties. Surprisingly, I got only 40 mpg tip toeing home at 60-70 mph
(because of the bad tire) on my last leg.
--
Dave Biasotti // Fremont, CA
Dir of Procurement, LSI Logic Corp.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
'83 Honda 650 Turbo // '93 Yamaha GTS1000
