Tales from the Emporium

[NordieBoy]

The secret is to stick way more foam on than you need and then start removing it until it looks like a seat again.

This fine-tuning yesterday made a huge difference.

[NordieBoy]

I came in from doing blisteringly fast laps at a fun natural terrain MX today on my XR and my brother says "That front tyre dosn't have much grip".
I thought it was fine but then realised he was talking about the DR...

Apparantly it handles the tabletop well and the full throttle section through some bumps but washes a bit in the powdery corners with the E07 front

So I had to go out and do a few laps as well

Wow!

Nice seat!
Nice suspension!
Nice brakes!
Nice engine!
And a suprising amount of grip from the E07 rear.

(All compared to a 1979 XR250)

[NordieBoy]

Getting closer to the end product

[NordieBoy]

The beginning of the end!

[NordieBoy]

The end of the end...

[NordieBoy]

Also put some CR-High bend bars on which are a bit lower than the mini-bike ones I had on there but they're probably about 2-3cm wider each side and the grips are about 4cm or so further forward.

[Wolf]

Fucking nice job of the seat, there. Heh, my dad had an old heavy-duty Singer like that, also had a couple of seriously robust electric machines.

[NordieBoy]

We battled for over an hour to get the vinyl to sit properly in the curve of the seat.
I never knew there was so much physical effort involved in upholstery

And then having to rivet it all on.

[Wolf]

I never knew there was so much physical effort involved in upholstery

Ohhhhhhh, YEAH!

And that's just over foam - when you get to covering steel-springs it gets really interesting...

Watching dad at work was a real education. And helping haul a large canvas awning aorund to feed it into the sewing machine is a prick of a job even for two people...

[NordieBoy]

Gordon (in the pic) was telling me (in between swearing at the seat) stories about things like glueing and stapling a door liner and then finding someone had filled the stapler with long staples...
Completely attached to the bench

[Wolf]

Gordon (in the pic) was telling me (in between swearing at the seat) stories about things like glueing and stapling a door liner and then finding someone had filled the stapler with long staples...
Completely attached to the bench

The swearing seems to go with the territory but I think stapling things to the bench is optional.

Shit, that would've pissed him off.

[NordieBoy]

Went through the Maungatapu to Pelorus and back today for a bit of practice.

Met up with 7 cyclists, 1 KTM, 1 twin shock XL500, 3 BMW's, and 3 cars.
The track is getting cut up a bit but is still sweet.

Gave Jantar's rock a good kicking for him

Tried lower pressures but I think 20psi front and 25psi rear is sweet.

The verdict on the seat?



It's so comfy you don't want to stand up.
Other than to pop the front wheel over some of the bumps for fun that is

[cooneyr]

Went through the Maungatapu to Pelorus and back today for a bit of practice........ ...........Tried lower pressures but I think 20psi front and 25psi rear is sweet.

I think you are running trailwings or similar so this probably doesn't apply to you but anyway - . When I had the MT21's on I found the rear could spin on the rim when I was fanging it on gravel. This was with 22 psi on a gravel road with a little bit of bedrock exposed. I think that was power sliding and managed to spin it when it caught a bit of rock. I know not to do that so much now

I now have rim locks but I would recommended that if you have knoblies of any type you either do rim locks or about 25-27psi in the rear. I'm not overly aggressive on the front brake but front tyre at 22 psi didn't move.

Cheers R

[NordieBoy]

Mitas E07's.

Didn't really notice any more grip going lower than 20/25 so will probably stick with that.
I use 25/30 for everyday riding and the side knobs were compressing up but no hints of a slide tootling through the Queen Charlotte or that nice right hander at the start of the hill just out of the Rai heading toward Nelson.

One thing I have noticed is that with the CR-High bars there is quite a bit of wobble in the bars.
I think it's due to more leverage as the effect is not there if you only use 1 hand or hold the bars closer in.

[far queue]

It's so comfy you don't want to stand up.

That's a nice looking seat, I don't blame you for not wanting to get off it.

Didn't really notice any more grip going lower than 20/25 so will probably stick with that.

I run 22/25 on the road, as the manual recommends, and find it to be good. But I run around 13/15 off road and find there's a huge improvement in traction. I'm using Mitas E09's, rim locks, and heavy duty tubes.