Muse back!
May 01, 2006 / Monday
Stealth Weeble
I bought a stock exhaust for Weeble last week. The gaskets for it came today, so I installed it after work and went for a ride. It sounds so much better! Yes, better. The Vance & Hines exhaust on it before didn't do much for the bike, except to make it sound like an angry lawnmower. It screamed, "Hey, look at me! I'm annoyingly loud and SLOW!"
Annoyingly loud no more. It sounds normal now. What does this mean for me?
1. I can start and warm up my bike outside my garage, instead of having to push it from the very back of my building out to the street first. The apartment manager lives above my garage, you see, and I don't want to piss her off.
2. I won't scare the crap out of unsuspecting drivers anymore when I creep up on them at stoplights and take off as the light turns green.
A couple notes about the post-install ride...
1. My mountain bike lowside in the parking lot got to me more than I thought. I don't trust my motorcycle tires as much as I should, or used to. I'll learn to trust them again in time, but as of right now, turning right at speed is not at all fun.
2. If you head west on Stevens Creek Blvd and continue onto the street it feeds into you end up at a concrete plant.
I guess the only other thing to note is that the slightly heavier stock exhaust was enough of a weight difference that I noticed it when I first sat on my bike and lifted it off its sidestand. I stopped noticing it after 10-15 seconds. I'm amazed at how the brain is able to notice the change in weighting, adjust, and quickly reprogram so I stop noticing it.
Comments
If you need anything for Weeble, Road Riders having a big tent sale this weekend (Saturday?). I was there last weekend and discovered a nice little breakast place on the street. There were a bunch of people who eat breakfask there and cross the small street to store.
Posted by: -april at May 2, 2006 07:11 AM
Next time, veer left instead of going into the concrete plant. ;) (Veering right puts you on Montibello, which is a fun road past vineyards, but it dead-ends at a gate on top of the hill...I need better bolt cutters...).
You'll continue on Stevens Canyon and will shortly come to a stop sign. Go right to follow a narrow road alongside a beautiful creek; go left to head up into the hills and see some gorgeous houses with equally gorgeous views.
Mmmm, Stevens Canyon.
Posted by: Anonymous at May 2, 2006 07:47 AM
That was me. I don't know why it called me Anonymous. *cry*
Posted by: carolyn at May 2, 2006 07:48 AM
LOL! Yeah, I was headed for Stevens Canyon, but I was curious as to what was beyond Stevens Creek. It was kind of surreal, actually, because it gets a little unpopulated just before the plant, and then all of a sudden you see all these big concrete plant structures looming ahead.
Road Riders, eh? I could use a back protector. And a leather suit ...
Posted by: Viv at May 2, 2006 09:09 AM