Saturday, November 12, 2016

More Jakob Motorcycling

Today we made some good progress with Jakob's motorcycling.  We got in a lot of seat time and he's looking good out there, gaining some confidence, and having a whole lot of fun.  So much fun he was singing loudly while riding out there.

Big progress, he's starting to stand up and ride all on his own.  I've been after him to start standing up on his bicycle and he doesn't have the confidence to do it, but started doing it on the dirtbike without any prompting from me.



I like this shot of him railing a turn.



Then we found out that splashing mud puddles is fun.



He rode and rode and rode once he figured out he could do that.  You can see his huge grin inside his helmet in this shot.



All in all a great day.  The weather was fantastic and we had the place all to ourselves for about two hours before the next kids showed up.  All the kids were great out there riding around the different skill levels, including the two kids who showed up on matching Honda's and were seriously fast out there.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

First trackday on the new DRZ

Finally got the new DRZ out on the racetrack.  I took advantage of a spot that opened up for one of the last trackdays of the year put on by Ridesmart, the day before Halloween.

I started off the day with a little off track excursion as I failed in my attempt to pass a Gixxer down the straight.  Didn't quite pull it off but the DRZ handled the dirt/grass with ease.

Weather was great, unseasonably warm, but I'd rather it be on the warm side because that makes for sticky tires and a sticky track.





Here's the aforementioned gixxer on the right of the photo.




Looking over the official photographer's photos, it seems that while I wasn't the fastest guy out there, I was pretty good at being consistent while hitting my apexes pretty well.



The cone marks the apex in the turn, you'll notice that my tires are almost on the curbing so I'm using every inch of track to get there.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Jakob moves up to the CRF70

A while back I came across a deal on a Honda CRF70 and had to jump on it.  As it didn't have a throttle restrictor I opted to keep Jakob on the CRF50F for a while longer until he got used to using the throttle.  Having the CRF70 was nice though because it enabled me to chase him around and work with him, as well as being right there in the case of a crash.

Last time we were out, we got him fully unrestricted on the CRF50F throttle, so while out this past weekend, I thought it was time to let him try out the bigger bike.



Well, now he wants nothing to do with the old bike.  Thanks to a bigger frame and bigger wheels, he says that the 70 is "Less wiggly."  He's doing a lot of riding on the sand, and having ridden both bikes in said sand, I can agree with his assessment.  It's also good to see that he can feel the difference in that manner too.

So, now I have motivation to get my bike up and running as I'm NOT chasing him around on the 50, I'm way too big for that bike, and it needs to go up for sale so we can get mom a bike.

Also note, he's already grown out of his expensive pants!  Same pants in the picture but with a different pattern on them.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Jakob's introduction to motorcycling

Jakob turned seven this year and it was time to get him introduced to motorcycling to see if he likes it.  We started off in January by going to the motorcycle show as we usually do, but with the intention of letting him sit on bikes to see what would fit him.

Seems he's at an awkward dirt biking stage.  Most of the 50's are a little too small for him, but he's not big enough to move up to the bigger bikes like the 65's with the exception of the DRZ70, which seemed like a good fit.

Yamaha, not a bad fit.


KTM 65 is too big.


Honda CRF50F is pretty good.


Suzuki DRZ70 is really good, but I worry about the bigger motor, and they aren't easy to find.


Ultimately, I found a Honda CRF50F in really good condition for a good price locally.  MJ and I went and picked it up and then proceeded to hide it in the garage until his birthday.

Here he is with his first ever motorcycle.

MJ snapped this picture of us going over the various controls and me answering all his questions.


Then it was time to get him some gear. We went to Cycle Gear to just get him a helmet and boots. 

Mom went a little crazy. At least he looks good standing still.


Alas, pretty though she may be, a ten year old bike does need a little work done on it. Wasn't long till I was getting to know the bike and finding a few items that needed attention.

Teardown in process.



The carb got a good cleaning. The air filter was junk. And I found the culprit of the fueling issues, a dry rotted fuel line that was sucking a lot of air. I put in an order online for all of those parts and a few other fasteners and things that needed replacing.

Parts that need to be replaced.
 

Wasn't long till it was running pretty good and looking very pretty at the same time.


While all of this was going on, we were also waiting on some decent weather to let us get him out to play. The best closest riding area was still under water from the overflowing nearby lake from all the rain we've had the last year and a half. In the mean time, a deal came along on a CRF70 that I couldn't pass up. This would be the ideal bike to move him up to next, and could let me chase him around on it in the meantime. It was maintained by a friend of mine and mechanically was in a ready to ride condition, much better than the 50 had been. I drove halfway to Houston to meet up with him and bring it home.

What's a spoiled kid to do?


He's been out riding several times now and after starting off with a bad crash that had him wanting to quit, I made him go back out again and he was ok. Now he is really starting to really love it and is asking me always when we can go out again. I think I've got him hooked.

Sweaty after a hard day riding in the Texas heat and some abnormally high humidity.


Last bit for this post. The tires he had were pretty worn and not giving him much confidence in the sandy terrain we have locally. I ordered up some Dunlop MX52 Geomax Intermediate/Hard Terrain Tires in the following sizes:
Front: 60/100x10
Rear: 70/100x10
Paired up with some new tubes.
STI Heavy Duty Motorcycle Tube 2.50/2.75x10

This really helped him out especially since things have been quite dry lately and the sand was very loose.

Final image of this post, the old tires with the new.


A couple of videos of him learning to ride.

Second time out.

Most recently.

New DRZ434SM

A couple of months ago my buddy Doug hit me up with a deal I couldn't refuse.  He's selling his baby, his highly modified DRZ400 Supermoto.  He bought this bike, modified it, then sold it, then bought it back again and threw more money and mods to it and got it where he loved it.  But alas, bigger and better came along and his now Aprilia SXV 550 had taken the primary sumo spot in his garage and he was ready for the DRZ to move along to someone else who would appreciate it.  That's me.

 Here it is in all it's glory on arriving home from Doug's house.



One week later it was headed for Deals Gap for a family vacation.




I only managed to get out for one ride while there due to a number of reasons.  That said, it was a blast, even if I wasn't totally comfortable on it yet.






Still haven't gotten it out to the race track, but I've had some fun zipping around the local roadways.  Track days to come for sure!




Mods:

Exhaust
Exhaust MRD Pro Comp
Carburetor
Carburetor Keihn FCR MX 39
Brakes
Front Caliper KTM 2008 Superduke 990
Front Pads Brembo Race Pads
Front Rotor QTMI
Front MC Brembo 15 RCS
Cams
Intake Hotcams DRZ400S1-AE
Exhaust Hotcams DRZ400S1-AE
Overbore
Cylinder Millenium Works 94mm - 12.0:1 Comp
Piston JE JE
Gasket Kit Cometic C7806-EST
CDI
CDI Suzuki E-Model
Harness
Harness Suzuki Modified 2013 Harness
Digital Guage
Computer Trail Tech Vapor 752-301
Surround Light Dashboard Trail Tech 022-PDA
Big battery mod
Battery Yuasa YTZ10S
Case Shields
Clutch Side ThumperTalk BP_TT_DRZ400CS1
Ignition Side ThumperTalk BP_TT_DRZ400IS1
Flasher upgraded
Petcock backwards
Free power mods
Battery Tender pigtail

And more I'm probably missing.