Yes !!
Made it out yesterday with my son. He rides an '08 Suzuki SV650, very nice bike. I did a solo run in the morning, as he was too 'busy' with his girlfriend (where's the priorities!!), then we rode together after lunch. My wife said it was too cold, so the heck with her! Wuss.
Total 237 miles, all in. We went down to Starved Rock State Park, which is a fantastic ride along the scenic Illinois river valley, but alas the Park was closed. Not exaggerating - it's about 20 to 30 feet under water!!! This happened last year as well. Seems we are getting far more rain than is normal (global warming?).
The ride was well worth it anyway, as it contains great twisties, and uphill / downhill blind curves and such. If you stay along the roads that parrallel the river, it's great. We then went over the big old iron bridge on 178, just south of Utica, to visit Buffalo Rock State Park, but the road leading into the Park was closed. Not a good day for State Parks.
Riding through the main drag of Utica, all the sad, sad posers that ride Harleys were packed to the rafters inside the Taverns and Pubs. At least 75 Harleys parked in a long, neat row outside. Why on earth - on such a sunny, beautiful riding day - would you want to ride your motorcycle to a dark, dank, smoke filled bar-while the bike sits on the curb outside-and get loaded? Different strokes for different folks... right? Not a sport bike, or Brit-Bike to be seen in the long line of bikes, all HD's or clones thereof. Weird, but I do accept that it's none of my business.
No issues whatsoever with the bike. It ran absolutely beautiful, better than expected on the first test run. I mentioned earlier I totally gutted the "airbox", added a secondary entrance to the K&N Filter, installed Velocity Stacks inside the box, and added a second manifold spacer, and re-jetted. Very nice, crisp throttle response, just a tad lean I think in the middle, top end is fantastic, but no issues. I may need a shim or two on the needle, we'll see.
MPG I don't want to say until about 6 or more fill-ups. Too much varrooming and testing right now to achieve an accurate reading. Thus far though, it seems about the same as before, somewhere's between 45 and 50 MPG... depending. I'm guessing that if I rode decently, I would get 50+, which is the ultimate goal. In my strange and demented world, if you think you are "improving" the performance of your bike, but are losing MPG, you are .... not really improving anything. I always shoot for improved Volumetric Efficiency, and let the "other" cards fall where they may. Haven't been dissapointed yet!
At any rate, this thread wasn't about modifications, so please ignore what I've said - it's about getting out in the fresh air and riding. It was great.
Weather was excellent yesterday, about 50 or so, but very bright and sunny all day. More like a cool fall day than pre-spring. Tuesday it's supposed to be 65 (!), but like you guys I have work commitments, so I'm looking forward to Saturday!!
See ya!
