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The fool looks @ the finger that points @ the sky
Posts: 26
Houston
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Clearly I am new here, so, hi. I have been lurking for quite a while, trying to find the answers to my questions, but now have a few things to say. Let me start of on a critical note and attempt to rectify the problem. I am not a man to just ask a question and hope I get the right answer. I research until my little black heart is content. The search function on this site does not seem to be very effective. I dont know if there some problem filtering the thread data or it the data therein is just not organized enough to show up when searching. I found much more information by simpky reviewing every thread for the past 50 pages or so. Having said that, I will attempt to rectify that problem for two or threee of the common topics/issues with this bike.
There are a few problems that are well documented with the savage/s40, of which you are all aware. The 5th ( fifth ) gear issue seems to be hit or miss... kind of like the petcock. Well, when I got my bike the previous owner was using dino / conventional oil. I am extrememly anal about oil and use only full synthetic in everything, changed as though it was a commandment at 3,000 miles in cars/trucks, 1,500 for bikes. At my first oil change I switched to rotella synthetic 5w40. Let me back up... I was pretty sure the bike was not shifting into 5th gear. I had mentioned it to a couple friends and even remarked that I was going to sound like a total jackass at the shop when I walk in and ask if they can tell me if my bike is shifting into fifth gear. Well, motorcycle gears are pretty chunky, regardless of manufacturer or class. When I kicked up to fifth, it was really smooth... too smooth. AND I didnt feel like there was enough travel. I wasnt sure about the engine revs but I was 80% convinced it wasnt shifting. Not once did it go into 5th. I did my oil change with RotSyn and later that day I up shifted and it went into 5th! This confirmed my previous suspicions. It didnt do it all the time though. If it didnt easily shift into 5th, I would hold up on the shifter for between .75 and 1.25 seconds and it would finally click in. Now, about a month and a half later, after the synthetic has found its way into the recesses of all that needs lubed, it shifts easily about 50% of the time. That is a HUGE difference. My only hope is that my percentage of successful shifts continues to increase. And for search purposes here is the word " shift " with no suffix... and thats all I have to say about that.
My bike is a '06 S40. Its a bobber as you can (hopefully) see in the pic. The pic isnt great but it is from about 20ft away, digitally zoomed, through a window at starbucks, on my phone. So with those circumstances I guess its a great pic. Yay iphone4 (I love you). The bike, you might be able to see in the pic, has rigid struts, a rigid seat, a trailer fender, side mounted taillight and license plate. Intake, jet, plug and harley muffler. Unnecessaries have have been removed and the guts cleaned up a bit. Its satin black, and actually the front rim is currently painted black too( this is temporary). Im running a silverstar headlight and taillight (brighter and makes a nice light on the ground). I just got some new mirrors which are not installed in the pic, but are on now. I post a pic tomorrow, mb. My bike is down on the south side and I might forget to shoot while Im there. My only plans at the moment are to powdercoat the rims red, the spokes / hubs flat black and to slap some whitewalls on it. Which no one makes.... This brings me to my last point.
The 140/80-15 is a rare tire to begin with... the whitewall ( white wall , WWW , WW ) version is so rare that it doesnt exist. Boo. Nor does anywhite wall that will fit! No 150/80-15 , no 160/80-15 and increasing the rim size to accomodate a tire that does come in whitewall will be just as futile are buying a whitewall with an aspect of 90 because they will both me too tall, long, whatever... too big. This problem is compounded in my situation bc my fender is fixed, which is great for measuring clearances. My tire is bald, which is bad for measuring clearances. I have a 19mm gap between the bald tire and fender at their closest point. I assume the tire has about 5.5-6mm of tread depth, leaving 13mm for a larger tire. 140/80 = 112mm, 140/90 (available in WWW)= 126mm FAIL. 150/80= 120mm WIN!...but no whitewall. 150/90 (available in WWW)= 135mm FAIL. After many a furled brow and the brink of resigning myself to whitewall paint, I stumbled across a website.... I want to give props to the biker at the 24 hrs starbucks for pointing me to mooneyes, which lead me to make my discovery elsewhere. There is a company called diamond back in South Carolina that vulcanizes whitewalls onto existing tires. Not just whitewalls, 3 layer whitewalls with a stain / leech blocking layer, so your walls STAY WHITE! This service is primarily for restorations, hot rods, rat rods, etc, but there is a pic on the site about tires for trikes and a small blurb about motorcycles... and to call for info. Tab is the man to talk to. He is truly a good guy. He is ordering the avon front WWW and bluffing and polishing it for me because he says the factory whitewalls have what he calls a sharkskin texture to them the traps dirt/grim making it near impossible to clean. He is doing this out of the kindness of his heart... and charging me his cost on the front tire plus shipping, obviously. In summary, I get a Dunlop K555 150/80-15 with wide white walls and an avon 100/90-19 WWW for $408 shipped to my door. Im the only kid on my block with 15" WWWs!!!! They can apply any width whitewall you want. I told him to use his descretion in regards to whitewall thickness, not to match the width of the front, but if it is so wide in the rear that it will look funny, to make it a little skinnier. I think he appreaciated the free reign. Folks. We can have whitewalls, any kind we want! Im not spamming, btw, Im just completely stoked. I got off the phone with them just before this post. I wanted to make sure all was good before my proclaimation. Ill post the number it anybody wants it.
Doh: pic too big.
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