FZ1 Sprocket Exchange: Part I – The Shop

Posted on | August 26, 2010 | No Comments

I’ve been sitting on a new Renthal 15 tooth front sprocket for my 2006 Yamaha FZ1 for a while now. I had been a bit reluctant to do it and also a bit reluctant to purchase the necessary tools for the job.

After the abrupt throttle roll, my biggest complaint about the 2006 FZ1 is that I rarely get into the “fun zone” of the rev range. These past two years I have been doing a lot of urban riding and while the FZ1 is very comfortable it can be a bit of a bore when not speeding through scenic sweepers.

I think I got tired of waiting. Last night I went to Sears and I purchased the tools for the job. I performed tasks in the following order:
- remove left pedal and gear shift assembly
- remove sprocket cover
- flatten sprocket lock washer
- remove front sprocket nut (I’ll go into a bit more detail later on this one)
- remove front chain guide
- loosen rear wheel axle
- move rear wheel adjusters in to create slack in drive chain
- remove stock sprocket

- insert new sprocket
- replace lock washer
- replace and tighten front sprocket nut to 100 foot pounds
- bend lock washer
- hand test chain and sprocket
- replace front chain guide
- adjust rear wheel to proper chain tension
- check wheel alignment
- tighten rear wheel axle to 50 foot pounds
- run engine in gear to check sprocket and chain behavior
- replace cover
- replace left pedal and gear shift assembly
- take a quick test ride

DONE!!!

The above is how it should have gone, and mostly did go. After adjusting the chain I noticed a loose section and a tight section. To remedy this I walked the chain down a tooth on the rear sprocket toward the tight section. I then proceeded with the rest of the list.

As for removing the front sprocket nut: For this I started the bike on the center stand and using an 18″ breaker bar and a 36mm socket tried to remove the nut. This quickly propelled the bike off of the center stand requiring me to catch it. Plan B: On the side stand, holding front break, repeat…. nothing. I then grabbed a fence post type bar and used it for additional leverage. Grabbing the bar about four feet off axis made it easy to smoothly loosen the nut.

Stay tuned for Part II – The Ride, coming soon.

AFI / Green Day Concert

Posted on | August 17, 2010 | No Comments

I am not going to embellish the truth and say that I am a tight or close friend with Hunter, the bassist for AFI for the last 13 years. I will say that he and my brother were good friends and were in a punk rock band in high school, Little Seizures (I think that’s correct).

I have been following Hunter on Twitter for a while now and noticed a tweet of his referencing Boston in August. I contacted him, he replied, and after a few more DMs I had two complementary tickets to see AFI and Green Day.

I then invited my friend, Nick, who was flying back to Boston from California that day. He agreed to come and after picking him and his family up at the airport, we left for the concert. That is in large part why we were a bit late to the show. We showed up about half way through AFI’s set and then spent the majority of the remaining set in queue for tickets, security, and being ping-ponged about by ushers telling us where are seats were located. It turned out that we had tickets to the pit. You will notice from the photo of the ticket (see below) that both “GAPIT” and “Section GA8 Seat 19″ were listed, hence the confusion.

AFI sounded great. In truth I preferred their sound to Green Day’s. It was more balanced, whereas Green Day’s kick drum was over powering.

The sound aside, the show was awesome. I tried to ignore the vulgarity and over the top religious mocking and I did so successfully. Green Day has been together for 22 years and it only shows in good ways.

I really enjoyed the show, but I more thoroughly enjoyed conversating with Hunter, who is a very friendly and gentle soul. We discussed AFI’s songwriting process, and other professional developments that I may not be at liberty to divulge. I am sure it is nothing that anyone who cares would already know. So talking with Hunter and also his friend, now our mutual friend, Jenni was by far the best part of the show.

So, thank you, Hunter, and I will keep my eye out for AFI in the coming years. I hope for great things for you.

All photos taken with iPhone 3G using Camera+ app.

MotoGP and ME

Posted on | August 15, 2010 | No Comments

I have not watched much motorcycle racing outside of the Isle of Man TT and I haven’t even watched that much. I have been trying to get more into it this year but have found it difficult. I am sure part of the problem is I live in the USA.

I have several motorcycle websites I visit at least once a day and on motorcyclenews.com there was the above photo. It imediatly struck me as a very beautifully composed shot and also amazing the lean angle that the motoGP riders acheive. “That looks like fun,” I said.

I will continue to work my way into the sport I am sure.

thanks for reading and happy riding.

1974 Triumph Trident

Posted on | August 13, 2010 | No Comments

After the kid went down for her nap today, I went out to try and start the old girl. For the last five years, I have been made steward over my father-in-law’s 1974 Triumph Trident, which he bought new. I rode it as a daily commuter for two seasons but then got tired of the kick start and the attention hogging manual idle adjustment.

I try and start the bike a few times a year in the summer. This time it started in two kicks. It ran pretty well too. I even took it around the block a few times and I can tell you that this bike is not confidence inspiring like most of the modern bikes out there. The handle bars are rather wobbly and the front brake is very squishy. It probably needs several new rubber parts, like the handle bar mounts and a seal for inside the hand brake assembly.

It is a blast to ride all the same and comfortable too. Maybe in 15 more years I will decide to restore it. As of now everything is stock.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.

New Hampshire Meetup

Posted on | August 3, 2010 | 2 Comments

I am a member of the Boston Sport Bike Meetup.com Group. I have only been able to go on two rides so far but they have both been fun.

I have been “planning” on doing a New Hampshire trip on my own this summer. I even have the route all mapped out and loaded in my GPS. But I wasn’t getting out the door. I was unsure of whether to do it in one day or two and I wasn’t sure how much money it would cost and so on. It would have also been my longest ride to date and I may have been intimidated by the miles in my route.

One day I see a scheduled meetup to do a slightly shorter version of my planned trip. I decided that since I wasn’t able to motivate myself to go on my own, I would make myself go on this ride.

We met in the morning, north of the city. It took a bit of getting used to for me to adjust my timing to allow for many riders, up to 15 at one point. I normally ride solo, and as we all know traveling in groups can be a bit of a hurry up and wait situation. There was a bit more futzing around than I would have liked and lunch was much longer than I would have liked but I enjoyed riding with the group and therefore the slight inconveniences were worth it.

I used my Garmin 60CSx to map my route. At Lincoln, NH several of us decided to head home while the rest continued on a bit more.

My Route:

View Larger Map

For a graphic showing the approximate speed and elevation of the ride go to me Garmin Connect activity page.

The Kancamagus is a lot of fun. It is almost as good as so many roads in Northern California. If it weren’t for the cars it would be a fantastic road. I put together a shorter video of some of the twisties. Recorded using a U-bolt camera mount and a Flip Mino. The bike you see most of is Tim’s Ducati 848. I, of course, am on my 2006 Yamaha FZ1.

I hope to get up there on another ride this summer. Hopefully following the route I have mapped out. I would be more than happy to do a smaller group ride of maybe 4 to 6 people. It seams that the best size for motorcycle trips is also the best size for project teams.

Thanks for reading and happy riding.

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