Date: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 11:28:56 -0400
From: Mark Bergman <bergman@phri.nyu.edu>
To: GTS-List: ;
Subject: tires, misc...


Some notes on tires.

I put Avon Azaros on my bike. I liked them a lot (compared to the
stock Dunlops, anything would have been an improvement). At about
5,000 miles the rear tire was almost down to the wear bars! Of that
mileage, about 1/2 was 2-up (or solo) with luggage, in hot weather
(90+), at high speed (80+). I suspect that's what did the tire in so
fast. The tire wasn't too "square" (I did Deal's Gap the day before
changing it out), but was uncomfortably low in the center for 350
miles in Kentucky and then 1000 miles of slab (OK, some twisties in
West Virginia) home to NYC.

I put on a Dunlop Sportmax II (the only rear tire of the right size
that the only shop in Glasgow, KY had in stock). 

At about 7,500 miles, the front still looks good. It's obvious that
the GTS is a heavy bike that "pushs" a lot on the front end, but
there's still plenty of tread left. I assume that [soft compound]
rear Dunlop and the [older] Azaro front will wear out at about the
same time. The question is, what to put on before taking the bike
onto the track for Keith Code's class (the last weekend in
September)?

Minor modification:
	I cut down the chain guard (not the rear fender) in a line
following the top of the swingarm, from the front of the chain guard
to where it meets the rear fender (about 7"). This allows much
easier access to the rear shock...you can now see the shock, and the
shock wrench gets about another 15~30 degrees of movement, enough to
"click" the shock to the next position without resetting the wrench
into another hole. Very easy mod with a Dremel tool...

Throttle lock:
	Mike Weaver's got the nicest looking throttle lock assembly,
but I came up with something that works too. I took a standard throttle
lock (for dual cables), and turned the thumb lever around.  I then
installed the lock with the thumb lever in the normal position, so that
the tab on the bottom of the throttle lock is now pointing towards the
end of the clip-on, not towards the steering head.

I found that the plastic in the throttle lock itself was thick enough
to cause the throttle to bind, even when the lock was disengaged. I
sanded down the plastic where it made contact with the handgrip (on the
faces of the throttle lock, not inside the circle that clamps to the
grip).

I safety wired the throttle lock into place so it wouldn't rotate, and
I was all set. The description took almost as long as the
installation.

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Throttle assembly without throttle lock:
			Hand grip
		        |
		   [    V
Enclosed cable	##||============]
assembly --->	##||============]
		## [
		##  



Throttle assembly with throttle lock:

Thumb lever -->	 @@@
		  |[
		##||============]
		##||============]
		##|[
		##L_

		  ^
		  |
                  Tab from throttle lock, angled away from the
plastic enclosure housing the throttle cables. The safety wire goes
from the tab around the plastic cable enclosure.

-------
Mark Bergman		bergman@phri.nyu.edu				
PHRI			212-578-0822
Unix System and Network Administrator