Ladies and gentlemen, I declare the riding season 2012 in Finland officially open!

Went to the garage today to get the bike`s service finished as I got the last needed parts this week. The first thing I did was swap my KAPPA-rack to a Top-Move one since I found a new rackbox for 39,90e, which was a total steal! It is meant for scooters so the rack is a little too small for the mount it sits on, and it`s partly visible under the plate, but that doesn`t bother me... Then I tackled with the chain. Man, that old one had totally given it`s everything and then some, which just further underpinned my picture of the PO, that has done absolutely NOTHING to the bike other than fill`n ride... The masterlink`s lock plate was holding on for dear life, all I did was showed it some angle grinder with a flap disc, really just brushed the greases off of it, took a flathead screwdriver and a hammer, gently tapped the head behind the plate and gave it a little turn, and the plate went "dink" onto the floor...



The front sprocket looked exactly I imagined it will, more wavy than a Hawaiji shoreline. Man, that thing was tight in there, had to pry it off by wiggling from both sides.



The rear sprocket was not at all as bad that I expected it to be, could be that it is newer than the front one. One thing I noticed though was that the new sprocket, even though it`s a steel one, weighs less than half of what the old one does... I took the chance to wash the rear wheel thorougly since it was off the bike, but during assembly I managed to get black pawprints all over it, so I have to wash it again next time I wash the whole bike...



The masterlink of the new chain did NOT want to go in there, so I had to dig deep into my box-o-tricks and really get innovative to get it in there, so I deviced a stand out of a floor jack and pushed the lock-plate onto the link using a column-drill vice and two nuts. I still had to hammer it in there hitting the vice jaw to get in level to the ones on both sides of it. I used an oak plank and a piece of flat iron on the back side of the link as an anvil to hit against when I hammered the axle ends flat to hold the plate in place. It came out pretty good IMO, a little higher than the ones next to it, but I`d reckon it`s not going anywhere...



So here`s me, in all new gear, ready to go for a test ride.

Things I`ve done/bought during the winter:

Bike:

-HI-FLO 303 Oil filter
-Castrol Power 1 4T 10w-30 oils
-Denso U27FER9 (C9EH-9) Plugs
-Fortè Air filter (didn`t take the number up)
-DC Chain & AFAM Steel sprockets
-Had the seat re-upholstered (totally worth it, it´s not as slippery as it was and it`s more comfortable to sit on due to the added padding)
-Top-Move rack-box.

Me:

-HANX FLAME 2011 Edition Jacket
-SWEEP Omega Pants
-RPM Gloves (already had those)

As a keen eye could see, I didn`t wash it very thoroughly just yet, it`s so wet and muddy here as the snow is still melting that washing it would be pretty useless... I was pretty surprised how comfy and warm that new gear is, they`re still pretty stiff since they were on me for the first time today, but as I got on the bike and into riding position, they kinda fell into place. The only things that was cold (+4c out) was my ankles and throat. Gotta get my Buff and put it on the balaclava (stupid word IMO...) and put thicker socks on next time.

Still to buy/do:

-New helmet, prolly gonna get a Nolan N90, but not sure just yet...
-Figure out why the fan fuse was blown, they don`t just go for nothing normally...
-Wash & wax
-Re thread one of the fairing bolt holes, snapped a thread stud(?) there trying to do it.
-Adjust the fairings, they`re not sitting 100% right...
-Put the front sprocket cover on, forgot...

-GET A SPARE KEY DONE!!!

That pretty much sums it up, now I just gotta wait for the weather to warm up; you can ride already, but prolly not going to very much until it gets a bit warmer...

E: On the background: two of my cars, the front end belongs to my `99 Volvo S80, which is currently out of order cause the aircon compressor exploded, taking the power steering pump and cam belt tensioner`s bearings with it, and the starter motor needs to be changed also, the parts alone costs in exess of 1500e, which I cannot afford at the moment, so I bought the `97 Citroen Xantia behind me. One of it`s hydraulic pipes between the power steering pump and the steering transmission was rusted through and costed me 240e, but even with that I paid just 640e for it! And it`s in totally mint condish! The "chrome" in the side strips boils a bit, the front spring-***** and right side ball-joint could be changed at some point, no rush though, a few parking lot collission marks here and there, but nothing that affects driving. Gonna give it to my wife when I buy a new one.

 

Great job on bike prep.

Proceed w/ vigor!

 

After seeing the pic of the rear of the bike, I was glad to read what you said above!
I was about to post "damn Mattson, give that dirty girl a bath!!"

I hope the DC chain works out - you should be happy with the life of the sprockets.

 

Seems pretty decent, although when I got it up to highway speed I could feel the chain in the foot pegs, so I have to re-adjust the tension tomorrow. The oddest thing is going on here right now: my wife that hates bikes is actually sitting on the floor beside me going through a helmet & jacket catalogue! She swears never to drive a bike license, but we`ll see if that f2 is staying in the family when I upgrade some day...

 

Thats some good prep mate!

Have a grate season!!

 

First trip of the season succesfully done today. When I left about @ 12:30 it was on the verge will it rain, and if, what, but I still decided to go since my wife was going sleeping for the night shift, and being totally quiet at home didn`t sound good this time, I had to go somewhere, so off I went without any kind of planning where I`m going. When I was visiting my moms a mile away filling the bike (had some gas in a can there) I decided to take a quick peek here with my phone if there would be a completable challenge in the motorcycle fun-topic, and there it was: self storage facility. So my goal was set: Lahti. Know a place there cause I do some removals and have taken stuff from and to that warehouse, so I decided to drive there, although didn`t take the straightest route, but drove along some little rural roads instead. It was pretty dang cold for the first 50km cause I had to drive the highway 4 or E45 to Heinola where I could switch onto the old road following the new motorway. When I got to the warehouse I called my friend what he was doing, and he invited me for a cup of coffee, so I drove from Lahti to Villähde right next to it, spent an hour there, and continued my journey. During the visit the sun came out and the temp instantly jumped from +4 to near +10, so the second leg of the trip went a lot more comfy than the first. One thing shadowed my trip: a rattle from downstairs. In the fall i thought it was my old beat up chain rubbing onto my center-stand, but now that it is sorted, and the sound is still there, and only when I twist the throttle a little harder a suspicion crawled under my helmet at the shape of the three most dreaded letters of a CBR owner: CCT. It`s not very bad just yet, but I fear a failure is afoot and a major service lingers upon my wallet and the upcoming season... Really, is it bad to do? I`ve had my fair share of grease in my fingers, for example have changed two motors on cars, completely rebuilt an NS125R several times, Bombered a Cagiva Freccia, Changed a rear axle onto an MI16 405 pug etc etc... Just don`t want another project laying in the shed, just ride the dang thing for a change...

Anyway, the ride back home had started, and since the sun was up, I decided to take the other route home, which goes through the Pulkkila Ridge, that is a narrow sand ridge covered in forest, and slices through the lake Päijänne in three sequential parts connected by two bridges. I drive through there to and from work every day, but It`s usually at 5am, or late at night so I get to see it in sunlight very, very rarely. When I approached the Karisalmi-bridge I slowed down to see that the little gravel road going under the other end of the bridge has melted from the sunny side of the bank enough to get a bike in there, so I decided to stop for a while. When I got there I spotted a pair of biggish birds on their migration in the edge of the ice. There is a little current under the bridge even though it is the same lake on both sides, so the ice usually melts from the other side faster than from the other, and very often birds land onto the molten water for a breather. I stopped the bike right next to the birds, recognising them most likely to be Canadian geese, and took my camera from the rack box. At first the birds were really wary of me, but after about fifteen minutes standing still behind my bike, they figured I`m not a threat and carried on with they`re lives. I managed to get some pretty good pics from them using the rack-pack as a stand to shoot from. The situation seemed like the male bird was trying to woo the female...











...which apparently didnt`go according to plan so the male took off to try the next girl on the other side of the molten area...

I managed to get one picture of the bridge...



...before my camera`s battery died -again. It`s a good camera, but goes through ridiculous amounts of batteries. It has this idiot-proof interface that doesn`t allow the user to make any major changes to the settings, and when you`re filming at an overcast weather it constantly goes bzz-bzz-bzz auto-adjusting the settings which consumes a ton of power.

So, off I went, and continued through the remaining part of the ridge back to dry land, and almost all the way back to Sysmä when I came to the Virtaa- river and to the powerdam. I figured that I had a phone in my pocket that has a camera, so I took another stop to get some frames from there, only to discover the parking lot and the fishing bay is still mostly covered in snow, and therefore inaccessible by a road bike, but I managed to get a few pics next to the town vet`s ATV that was also inspecting the fishing area (notice the matching colors )






Some of you might recognise the bridge from this picture taken from the other side a few months back at -32c!



Lastly, here`s some "off-topic" pics of why I love the Pulkkila ridge and especially the Karisalmi-bridge. All of the following pics are from or near the bridge.













Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! I`m just an amateur photographer so the horizons are a bit tilted and the "golden ratio" and other fancy photo-tricks are not always perfect, but I`ll try to learn as I go...

Not to mention the training I get with my english writing here...

 

Gossshhh thats one awsome ride you had!!!

And for me not a very good photograph eighter these pics are awsome!

Nice overall! Enjoyed reading that! Had few laughs too (Y)

And I know very well about the idea of another project LOL

 

I had a chat with a few friends at work who has been around CBR:s and since the rattle is audible at gear only with gas turned, and none at neutral even if revving, so it most propably is not the CCT, the 100tkm driven transmission is propably just so worn it gives a bit of rattle out. They suggested me that I should change my fully synthetic oil to a mineral one since the engine is originally designed to work with that, the light smoking is propably caused by the synth oil being too lean when hot and slightly seeping over the piston rings into the chambers. See if that does anything and get worried just after if not...

I was planning to go to work today by bike, with a weather reserve, so my wife could use my car to come shopping to Lahti when she gets up.
At 4 am, I woke up, trudged into the kitchen, put the coffee maker on, opened the shutters, closed them again and texted to my wife:

"sorry, hon. No way above or below I`m riding to work @ -4c...."
The nights are still very cold here, and the forecast has promised some sleet the next two days so gonna go till weekend until I can ride again...

This morning I almost went via Heinola and the motorway cause I was a bit late due to the weather, didn`t have my car in "leash" so all the windows were iced up. I decided to go through the ridge again, and really glad I did, cause what I got was propably THE BEST photos EVER to be caught on my film! Here are a few raw drafts, gotta still do little photoshopping (straighten, adjust colors etc...) but pretty dang good IMO, and glad I was late too, the "sweet spot" lasted only for a couple of minutes, the last pictures already go too light and all yellow...









Hate the cold, love the view...

 

Stunning pictures!

 

Omg, feel so totally dumb... Found a propable cause to the "transmission rattle" this morning... The chain seems to be rubbing onto the center stand. Didn't see it when i changed it cause the bike was standing on the stand, but this morning I noticed it's hitting the leg... Gotta test the theory on the way home by pushing the leg down a bit while accelerating.