Last Wednesday I picked up my freshly painted seat pan for my Silverstone SC bike. I had left the seat with John from Prism painting at last weekend’s Battle of the Brits show with instructions to paint it black. I ran into John last Wednesday night at a local restaurant and he told me the seat was done. Knowing I would pick it up Thursday afternoon, I earlier in the day swapped-out the stock CVK carbs for a set of Keihin CR-II’s. So I have the last part on the bike painted and a new set of carbs to experiment with. Point me to the open road!
Saturday was a rainout, so I used the time to catch-up on paperwork. Amazing how it can stack up on you when all that is on your mind is riding motorcycles. I’ll be snowed-in soon enough, so you’ll understand if I prioritize time for personal enjoyment over professional growth every now & then.
Sunday finally rolls around and the weather turned out to be perfect. Low 70s with slightly cloudy skies. The roads were dry and the bike was clean and polished. Now where I live near metro Detroit, one must ride well outside the city to ride anything close to what can be called a winding road. Thing straight N-S/E-W running surface roads with 90-degree intersections and massive potholes. Boring. There is however, one destination known to SE Michigan riders for it’s biker-friendly roads and pup, Hell, Michigan.
Hell is a quaint little town, with a novelty store (yep, you guessed it – “I’ve been to Hell” T-shirts and such), an ice cream parlor (with more T-shirts) and the Damn Site Inn. It’s the latter that serves as the hub of excitement. Typical biker bar with a ‘devilish’ flavor. Any decent weekend afternoon, you’ll find the place packed with Harleys and other V-twins. I love stopping there, especially if I’m on a Triumph. All those V-twin macho guys trying to look so cool… straining to sneak a peek of my bike without telegraphing to others that they’re giving a non-Harley the time of day. Pathetic, in an ego boosting way.
I lucked out and got a window seat today. I could see out into the lot were my bike was parked and riders milling about. They sure were a lot of riders checking out my bike. I watched several of them stroll laps around it checking out all the goodies. After lunch, I walked outside and glanced down the lot to where I was parked. The same group was still around the bike, and as I approached my bike to leave, they moved away. As I was putting on my gloves and helmet, they just watched be from a park bench like I was some circus act about to perform a trick. No one said a word. Creepy.
For you tech-o junkies out there; I installed CR-II carbs on my Silverstone SC (2004 T100), but I left the stock airbox in place. It’s got a UNI filter and both the internal plate and snorkel are still in-place. I’m using #58 slow jets and #105 mains. The bike started and idled immediately. In fact, the jetting seems to be spot-on. An interesting phenomenon occurred; the exhaust note dropped about an octave. The bike is running strong, yet the exhaust note is much deeper and hence, not as loud as before. As time allows this week, I’ll experiment with bigger main jets to see what happens.
posted by RaceDweeb @ 11:00 PM
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