August 31st I had another opportunity to let loose on a racetrack. I was fortunate enough to ride with a young man who had a goPro setup. I passed him on his second lap and stay in view for almost a full lap. If anyone is interested in watching the lap he posted it to youtube.

I pass him at roughly 2:15. 2002 CBR600f4i.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFiaq8T54To&t=135s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFiaq8T54To&t=135s

Well, curse you all. And Ebay.

I had ridden for several blissful years having never heard of RLETs. Then, I buy this bike in April, and suddenly I'm less of a man for not having them. I wrestled with it for months, watching you all make your welcome comments to the new owners, saying "Nice bike, now put some RLETs on it!"

I had tagged a set on Ebay, but they came and went. Read you all commenting more about RLETs a few days ago, and my phone buzzed. The Ebay app said "An item you were interested in was just relisted!"

Well, shoot. They would almost make sense on the Bonneville. It's a tight squeeze between my wife's right taillight and my garage door spring to wedge it into its parking space. I pulled the trigger on four of them to cover both bikes.

They arrived yesterday. When I got home from work, my wife was doing some medical charting at the dining room table. "I'll be done in ten minutes, then let's go for a walk."

I said no problem, I'd check the mail, then I'd have a five minute project in the garage, so I'd be done and ready for our walk at the same time.

Opening one of the packages, and holding it next to the brake lever, I thought "How in the world is this thing supposed to go on?" I lubed up the inside of the rubber bit and the ball on the brake lever with some slippery rubber preservative, and started shoving. For the next fifteen minutes.

Shove-plink-go fish it out from under my car.
Shove-plink-go fish it out from under my wife's car.

Keep in mind, that the CB is parked behind my car, so whatever I'm doing is well within "hey neighbor, whatcha doing to your bike?" conversation range. And, it was prime "just got home from work, let's walk the dog" time. So first neighbor asked. Second neighbor asked, and added "So, which bike do you like better?" To which I muttered under my breath "Hell, I dunno, which one of those chihuahuas do you like better, because they both bark too loud." I was becoming aggravated at my lack of progress and the interruptions.

In my fervor, I missed seeing Sonal, my wife's favorite neighbor, walk by with her dogs. She was obviously concerned about my gesticulations with the small bits of rubber, and must have texted my wife, because she came down to the garage a few minutes later and said "Let's go for a walk around the lake. Whatever you are doing, you're scaring the neighbors."

Fine. This is one of those "come back later when your head is clear" projects.

After dinner, I boiled a mug of water, and dropped the four RLETs into it to soften them up. Then, I grabbed a rag to get some grip, and started shoving again. POP! On it went. Other side... POP, on it went. Success!

On to the Bonneville, which has a larger ball at the end of the levers. No worry. I'm good at this now. POP, POP, on they went.

I went back upstairs, and celebrated my manhood by binge watching John Wayne WW2 movies. I fell asleep sometime around when Kirk Douglas gets blown up in the B25 in "In Harm's Way."

I did not drain or wash the mug I used to boil the RLETs. No. I made my coffee in that water this morning. It tasted like he**, but I figured it was the closest thing to drinking the blood of a horrible beast that I had just slain.

This has been discussed before I think but there was a good article in
Road Racing World (sept. 2019 ) Excellent magazine for people interested in racing.
I always drained my oil hot but will change to draining it cold.
Short of the story : Drain Hot 4.5 % oil left
Drain Warm 6.8 % oil left
Drain cold 0.3 % oil left

Hi all,

I can't find any info around so just going to start a new thread on this. I am wondering how frequent you guys have to drain oil trapped in the Airbox drain hose? I notice that for my bike, i need to drain it about everytime after i have ridden any single day trip above 500km. But if i rode short distant trip, its not required even after i rode 2000km (lots of short trip over a long period of time). I believe those oil are from the hose connecting cylinder head cover and the airbox. and the inner part of airbox is coated with oil because of this. I am wondering if its ok to connect this hose to another capture device instead of going into airbox....

So back in March I traded off my CB for a larger more visible bike after one of my Sailors was killed on his bike. Totally an emotional decision. Fortunately today I was able to buy my bike back from the guy who bought from the dealer I traded it to. That’s the good news. Bad news is they somehow messed up the front brakes (and a whole host of other things) and I need to replace the rotors. Does anybody have a good lead on oem or (quality) aftermarket brake rotors? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

because it was not allowed on the premises to parking from the tree nursery



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This was too cute not to share.

My wife and I live in a fairly tight-knit condo complex, and everyone's garage opens into a cul-de-sac or a courtyard.

At the end of the street opposite of ours live "The Ewoks." My wife coined the term. A couple and their young boys, around six or so. She calls them that because they are always running around the neighborhood together, dressed alike, on matching conveyances, such as skateboards, kick scooters or little bikes with training wheels. Up until now, Dad has always come along with them to keep a watchful eye, but he's giving them a bit more independence to roam around our street, and all of the neighbors keep an eye out for them.

A few days ago, they were rummaging around in the bushes next to my garage door when I rode up the street coming home from work. I asked them what they were doing in there. "We saw a huge spider run into the bushes, and we're looking for it!"

As I took off my gear and pushed my Bonneville into its parking spot between my wife's car and the wall, they stared into the garage. One said "I like the red one!" while the other said "I like the black one!" I thanked them both.

Then, one of them said "How come you get to have two motorcycles?" I didn't really know how to explain it to a six year old, so I just said "Maria is very nice and lets me have two of them."

They bounded off on their next adventure, which I believe was watching the neighbors walk their dogs. Later, they came to the door and knocked. They explained that they went home, and asked their mom if they could each have two bicycles. Mom said no. Since I have two motorcycles, they didn't think that was fair.

"Sorry boys, I can't help you on that one."

Hello all.

I have just completed my 600 mile service on the bike and starting to become more familiar with it and all of its pro's and quirks (if you will).

One thing I have really noticed is throttle hesitation at certain times in my rides. Coming from the Kawasaki z900RS only amplifies the experience for me. Dont get me wrong, I really enjoy the bike and find it very comfortable and I know there is more power to be had with optimal tuning.

I have been reading threads about re-flash service and seem to only find reference to 2014 and older models... maybe I am overlooking some threads?

Thanks for your time

Using this photo of a bunch of CB 1100's at the East Coast Rally as my screen saver right now.It looks great full screen. Love this pic



Click on pic to enlarge and then click on box in upper right corner to see full screen

Some of you may remember me asking about the Bandit 1250. Well, my coworker bought it and we went for a 215 mile ride Saturday over Utah's famed Mirror Lake Highway. We went the counterclockwise route from the southwest approach in Utah north over Bald Mountain Pass onto the north slope and into Wyoming. We started out at 4,200 feet in elevation and crested on the pass at just over 11,000. Weather was beautiful, in the 70's, almost no bugs and little if any traffic along most of the route.

I posted this pic about 2-3 years back when I rode it with another friend.



I'd been riding the new to me Road King for the past few days but wanted something that could stay in the same time zone on the climbs as the Bandit:



I opted for the CB.

On the way to Bald Mountain Pass at about 10,600 feet in altitude


On the other side looking at the Hayden/Oestler Peaks area.



Once off the Mirror Lake highway we stopped in Evanston Wyoming for lunch and afterwards set the pace on Interstate 84 and 80 as we hammered west, homeward bound. I literally coasted home on fumes.

Got back at 2:30 which gave me plenty of time to clean myself up, relax, put the XR on the floor jack and do some detail work on the rims and lower part of the bike and then head over to the bike show at a local tuner shop in Ogden Utah.



An eclectic group of bikers showed up. Overwhelmingly they were under 40, and about half looked like they were in their 20's. Somewhat surprisingly, close to almost everyone in this age group, including the HD riders rolled up wearing helmets. Although the shop specializes in Harleys everyone was welcome. It was a pretty relaxed atmosphere with no liquor allowed. Many cool bikes that the youngsters wrenched on themselves...Here are just a few.







Really like this setup



This was probably my favorite bike there. Young guy, looked like mid 20's with his girl friend rode in on it. Lots of nice touches on this HD 72. Note the blue Valkyrie in the background. On the right side of the street in the background are my daughters and her boyfriends Sportsters. All in all a very good time with a young crowd that's really into motorcycles and not fixated on the brands people ride.



A pretty good way to spend a Saturday.