I have not taken any recent pictures but enclosed is a link to the facebook album where I have posted some of them.  I bought it in several boxes and have been doing the ground up restoration over the last couple of winters.  The pic of the entire bike in the album is one that I found online so it is not my actual bike.  Tank and plastic parts are out getting painted as we speak and I hope to get the engine in the bike in the next couple of weeks. This model was never available in the US, only Canada so parts are more difficult to source locally.  Many of my parts have had to come from the UK where there is a cult following for this bike.  Interesting too is that Paul Manson(another listener) has one of these bikes too!

Pictures available at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.412275535659.214893.692950659&type=3&l=26447bfedd

My friend Paul just ordered one and when it arrived, he brought it into my office for me to look over and take some pictures. He was also kind enough to let me try it on.

The helmet fit me pretty well in size Large; it seemed to fit well for my roundish shaped head with no apparent pressure points or hot spots. I’m just coming off of 4 years wearing a Shoei Multitec. This helmet feels lighter than my old Shoei and has a similarly sized outer shell. The internal lining and padding felt good, and I didn’t experience any “face squish” from overly large cheek pads. Vemar seemed to pay attention to detail of fit and finish.

The controls for the visor, modular chin bar, vents and sun visor all seemed easy to use and intuitive. I did not try to use the controls with gloves, but given their placement and ease of operation, I suspect there will be no issues. The snow shoe style chin strap latch was also able to be opened with one hand using the convenient pull tab. A very nice feature, indeed.

When the chin bar is open, one can easily see the mounting and routing of the flexible boom microphone. Also, the charging jack is prominently placed in the front for ease of connection. Open the chin bar, plug in the helmet, wait for charge. No battery or device removable is necessary. Again, a nice bit of attention to detail.

I will ask Paulie to keep me updated on the bluetooth system’s ease of use, volume and sound quality, and the helmet’s wind noise levels.

The Vemar Jiano is available for around $175 from various online retailers.

If you’ve listened to the show for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Pinlock. I’m hoping to get eyes on this helmet and test fit it. What a great package, on paper.

More information is available at The Cycle World site, or directly from Vemar.

That’s right, the 2012 Pace Motorcycle Podcast’s riding trip has been decided. We’re doing the ‘Dacks. Plan on a long weekend in and around lovely Lake Placid, New York, home of the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Adirondacks offer some wonderful scenery, some great riding, and a plethora of places to unwind after a day in the saddle.

The trip is planned for a long weekend, July 27th through the 30th. Anyone wanting to join the ride up is welcome. We’ll plan on leaving the Wilmington, Delaware area early on Friday the 27th, and arrive in Lake Placid in time for dinner. We’ll be home-basing at the Econolodge in the town of Lake Placid. As the time draws closer, we’ll be planning day-ride routes, group dinners and hopefully The Pace will be able to set up a few microphones and talk to some attendees.

Please share your route and must-see destination ideas. Tracy Road is already on the list. So let’s hear it – routes, restaurants, day-stops, overlooks, etc. What’s on your list? Let us know at feedback@thepacepodcast.com.

Hey Guys,

Do you read MCN? I ask because the back cover of a recent issue had a write-up on the Ricor Intiminators, a drop in compression valve/shim stack for damping rod forks which features an inertial valve which is intended to limit brake dive while also allowing effective high-speed bump absorption. In effect, the inertial valve allows the fork to have 2  different compression damping curves depending on which direction the suspension travel is occurring. The matching IAS Shock also has an inertial valve which affects rebound response instead of compression.

I did some homework on the KLR650.net, ADVRider and SV forums and found numerous positive reviews w/ no complaints, so I decided to give the Ricor parts a try.

I purchased the Intiminator fork valves and matching shock for my KLR in December under a winter special. The shock was shipped with a 300lb/ft spring which is on the soft side, but it seems to be working fine for me @200lbs in gear and with the panniers installed.

Install was straightforward. No modifications to the OEM damping orifices are needed, which means the forks can be returned to stock w/o replacement of OEM parts. I’d imagine you could install them w/ the forks in the clamps on the pre-08 KLRs but it’s better to remove them to drain the forks completely. The rear shock was also fairly easy  – the KLR’s upper shock mount nut is captive, which is a good thing since the airbox blocks direct access to it. Total install time with 2 guys working on the bike on a lift was about 2 hours. At home, I’d guess it’d take a half-day working solo, assuming you have the correct tools including an oil level tool for the forks.

I’ve had them in for a few weeks now and have logged around 500 miles since install.

In my opinion, the benefits of the combo are significant. The dive control under braking is really effective, but the forks are still fairly compliant over square-edged bumps. On local dirt roads I find that the front is far less scary over rough washboard/bumpy surfaces. Overall, the valves work exactly as advertised.

The shock is less cut and dry. The IAS system helps to slow forward pitch on the brakes relative to the OEM shock. Traction seems very good, even on wet and bumpy surfaces. The rear compression is stiffer than stock but it’s also less prone to bottoming. The improvement is definitely valving-related, as the 300lb/ft spring is only slightly stiffer than the OEM spring and I’m not running any more preload than I did with the OEM shock.

Where the IAS shock is strange, but effective, is over the wide speed bumps used in my local area. On the OEM shock, it would get launched out of the seat over those bumps at anything over 25mph (I can hit them much faster on the Aprilia BTW). The OEM shock simply had too little high-speed rebound to prevent kicking when most of the travel was used. The IAS shock exhibits far less of this behavior. The shock seems to extend quickly enough to track the back side of the speed bump as there is nearly no wheel spin after the crest of the bump, even at 45mph, but the kick is far less. Where it’s interesting is when the bike settles and then rebounds, it does so slowly and without a second or third oscillation.  To put it simply, the rear suspension seems to respond quickly when the rear suspension unloads over a bump, but rebounds slowly when dealing with chassis weight.

Compared to OEM, the bike is less pitch sensitive, less prone to bottoming, is slightly less plush over minor pavement imperfections, and is far easier to ride on bumpy gravel roads.

Post-sale, I’ve had a few questions or concerns. Brian @ Ricor has been responsive to my needs and has offered a spring rate change/revalve free of charge if needed (which I’ve decided it’s not). There may be limitations on those policies, but I’m still impressed with my interactions with their company.

Would I recommend the combo? Definitely, as long as the purchaser isn’t expecting KTM Adventure suspension quality… the kit on high-end dual sports is still superior to the modded KLR, but the gap is far less now and even with mods, I’m at ½ the cost of a used 950 Adventure and still less than the going rate for a used F650GS.

http://store.ricorshocks.com/

As reported on UltimateMotorcycling.com, the MIC Tire Guide is available as a free downloadable PDF, or you can order packets of the booklet to hand out at your club events, shop, etc.

To give you an idea of what we’re looking for, here’s my kit. I used a RoadGear tool roll and replaced most of the OEM tools with better quality stuff, then added things that I know my bike needs and that would make most road-side repairs easier. This includes a ratchet, a selection of the right sizes of sockets, some hex-head sockets, pliers, wrenches, wire cutters, screw drivers, etc.

Tool roll, closed up

Tool Roll, opened up

And for good measure, here’s a link to the Road Gear tool roll…

http://www.roadgear.com/Accessories/Bike_Maintenance/Sport_Touring_Tool_Pouch/

In light of this, The Pace Podcast has chosen to no longer participate in, nor support, the online forums at http://thepacepodcast.com/forums, and will be taking down the forum software some time in the next few weeks.

A redirect page will be posted in place of the forums to direct traffic to the show’s Facebook page. Some of the information will be pulled from the forums and posted on the show blog for the sake of archiving.

If you have a specific topic or discussion thread on the forums you would like to see archived, please contact the show hosts at feedback@thepacepodcast.com with a link to the thread in question. If possible, the thread’s contents will be posted and archived.

This should not be perceived as any sort of problem with the show. This is simply a matter of concentrating the attention and interaction with the listeners where it makes the most sense, and where the listeners choose to interact most.

As always, thank you for listening and supporting the show.

Chris & James
The Pace Podcast

Tilted Horizons

We talked a little bit about controlling fog inside the visor this week. I thought I’d post a link to Doug’s excellent  Pinlock review.