exhaust and forks

Back at work today, so the past few days have seen me prep both bikes with some new items acquired... first off, the supermono now has a new front end. A set of marzocchi adjustable forks straight from Italy. These are essentially identical on the outside to the stock forks, so they bolted right in to the triple clamps, and the wheel and caliper slid right on. However these forks are adjustable for compression and rebound -- one in each fork leg. No preload, but they seem pretty good as is, with the adjustments 2 clicks out from max.








I'm a bit heavier than most (all) 125 pilots, so perhaps some heavier weight fork oil will help get my settings somewhere in the middle of the adjustment range. Going to leave as is, as there is a race this weekend and I hope to get out in one of the sessions to really test it out!




As for the 999, when I got back from the Black Hills I realized that more comfort and more noise were required of the bike. Well, the noise was there, just the wrong kind -- the dry clutch makes a real racket with the stock exhaust. To the point at which some teeny bopper girlie working at one of the parks informed me that, "there's something wrong with your bike". When I told her it was supposed to sound that way, she said it sounded like "crap".

Normally I wouldn't put much stock in the opinion of a 19 year old girl, but Mike and Don even mentioned that when I pulled up behind their cruisers, they heard the rattle of the clutch and not the exhaust. Something had to be done.



Turns out that a fellow DOCC member from la Belle Province was selling his Termi 1/2 system, including link pipe, for a fair price. So I bought it. The next step is to get a power commander installed to make sure the thing is fuelling properly. No going up 2 jet sizes for me! Compare the size of the exhaust outlets with the pic of the stock system below. The system eliminates the two separate catalytic convertors in the stock system, which should do wonders for cooling the whole thing down (as in not cooking my backside). The muffler is essentially a straight through affair -- straight baffles to the other side. It is still decently quiet, but sounds a lot better.

Finally, I was able to score some Heli bars. They are used, but the pics showed them to be in great shape. These are in transit and as soon as they arrive, I'll install them and see if there is any improvement in the comfort department. Apparently they raise the bars up 1" or so. Even a bit would help. Here is a pic of my smoked double bubble windscreen. Used it to "commute" for the first time today. Makes getting up to go to work much more exciting!