You guys are great. Thank-you all again for a welcome introduction. The best bike is your own. For my kind of travel, lighter is better. In the above pic, that is all I carried for three weeks. The DR weighs a 100 lbs.less than the NH. Less stuff means less to lose and is easier to keep track of. I lost three bicycle locks during that time. Replaced at Walmart in Texas and later at Home Depot in Mexico. Three locks!!! to secure my helmet to the bike.
Help with a question. I warmed her up on a cold morning yesterday to find a puddle underneath the right muffler right at the muffler weld. I was thinking of plugging it, but thought what a great position to prevent water build up. Hole by design or gravity? She is a 2003, but only in my possession for two weeks. If P. is not in the cards, Dapple (name of Sancho Panza;s burro) will have a going over to evaluate. No carb mods planned. I do not mess with a good thing. The DR however was a whole different thing with pot metal bolts, etc. etc. The essentials on my list are handlebar risers to take some pressure off of my lower back. Up and closer should do it. Then to check to see if cables and brake tube have enough give. Best trip prep is take a longer one than the last. Stretch your horizons, each subsequent trip will be an adventure with the best prep possible. I fretted the summer only to find my Mexico romp a pleasure. Over thought that one. If not P. then I plan to ride it south for as long as I can. Store it, fly home, and continue later on when the timing is right. On Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 9:31 AM, EGrider <gevan...@gmail.com> wrote: > Watch out: my posts are almost always too long. > > My best additions to my Nighthawk have been (in no order) a cramp buster, > throttle lock, Plexifairing 3, highway pegs, and 17-tooth front sprocket. > > You might try the thing where you drain the bowls, fill them with Seafoam, > run it a second to get the Seafoam up into the jets, and then let it sit 24 > hours or so. Mine runs fine in the 40s, but I don't remember ever riding it > at 32, so I don't know about that. > > If you want to sync your carbs cheaply, all you need is 3 air fittings, > some tubing from Home Depot, some ATF, and YouTube. > > One of my favorite quotes is, "The things people regret most in life are > the things they didn't do." Well, I regret plenty I've done, but I think > the saying holds. Go for it. Tracing the coasts of Florida was one of mine, > and now it's safely crossed off (got home yesterday). > > You don't have to be a commercial jet pilot to have a second career. And > just about anyone would rather hire a retiree than an inexperienced kid > into a part-time position, I imagine. Me, I only work about 20 hours a week > officially, but I've always got so many projects lined up that I feel like > I've got an overtime schedule. Buy some of those $200-500 bikes on > craigslist over the winter and ...never a dull moment! > > I'm sure Javier's right about the dirt roads, but it doesn't mean you > can't use them without knobby tires. I just wince every time I hear a good > ding! come from my pipes. Still, I might take a KLR650 if I went just for > the extra large gas tank, although I'm not sure how the extra weight of all > that gas affects balance. I get more worried about the cruising range than > the roads (and nobody told me about the 100 miles with no reserve on my > PC). Knobbies still get flats, too. I hit a rock off-road in Bolivia that > pinched the tube and subtracted hours from my vacation in the hot sun > (screw drivers are also good for pinching tubes). The takeaway for me was > to stick to paved and light gravel roads. There are still plenty of > breathtaking vistas that can be taken in from roads that don't require > standing up on the pegs. > > Lastly, having a ratty and inconspicuous bike is not a bad thing in > general. At night, I get the bike behind a gate and breath easy, but I > think of times when I have to park it in a bank parking lot while I get > some cash or out on the street when I stop for lunch in a restaurant. Any > bike weighted down with gear and sporting a US license plate is going to > look out of place and draw attention, just as twentysomething backpackers > do no matter how ratty they look. At those times, I would prefer to have my > stuff safely locked up in aluminum panniers. No use tempting the devil with > low-hanging fruit, the way I see it, but to each his own. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/nighthawk_lovers/-CSsUSU83QI/unsubscribe > . > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. 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