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2021: What did you do to/with your NC700/NC750 today?

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Nice, 18k miles is impressive. Next time you're in the Deal's Gap area, south of the gap is a road called Wayah Road. One of the best, scenic roads I've ridden up that way. Winds along by a beautiful creek, old farm land, around the Nantahala Lake and up and down a mountain or two. We rode it a couple weekends ago while we were up there, and will definitely ride it again. We rode it south down to 64 and went back west into Murphy, NC and back by the Ocoee River on the way back home. Really enjoyed that route.
Yes, I know Wayah road. Speaking of Ocoee River area, yesterday I rode highway 30 that heads north away from the river. It is really nice, too.
 
Yes, I know Wayah road. Speaking of Ocoee River area, yesterday I rode highway 30 that heads north away from the river. It is really nice, too.
TN30/315/ Mecca Pike is one of my favorite roads. For a nice gravel road there is Kinsey Mountain Hwy that runs east-west from 68 to 30. It comes out at the Greasy Creek community store on 30.
 
Yes, I know Wayah road. Speaking of Ocoee River area, yesterday I rode highway 30 that heads north away from the river. It is really nice, too.
We rode 30 to 315 to 39 to Tellico last two times we rode to Deals Gap. I love that route too. We have started stopping for lunch at Ironworks Grill there in Tellico at the head of the skyway. Great food and beautifully situated on the edge of the creek.

Last year we also went tubing on the Hiawassee River with Hiawassee Outfitters located there at that old church or school building (can't remember which it is), before you turn onto 315. Looking forward to doing that again this year, it was a blast. 3 hours floating on a tube over some class 2 and 3 rapids, was actually quite exciting.

As soon as you turn onto 315 and cross the bridge, there was a really cool place on the left to eat there on the edge of the river, and we ate there last year after we tubed.....now it is closed. Guess it didn't survive the pandemic. Shame because it was a really cool place to eat, chill, and have a beer after a day on the river.
 
Got my brackets for the new Shad SH-35's welded up today. A little wrinkle finish and they were good to go. The originals held the cases out at least an inch too wide on each side. I was able to suck them in to within 1/8th inch of the bodywork. These bags are large, like BMW R1200RT touring cases large, so minimizing their footprint was important to me. Side benefit is the mounts kinda double as crash-bars for the rear end.
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Monday I took a day trip on the bike from Yokohama up to Nikko and back. 405km—I left at 4:30am to beat the traffic—and got home at 5:30pm. That's a long day for a lazy person like me. I saw some new things, though, so that was nice.

Weather ranged between 16°C and 20°C (60°–68°F) but rainy season is coming, and humidity was up around 90%. I wore my new Klim Induction jacket and gloves, and my old Aerostich Darien pants I bought a few years back. Pretty comfortable compared to the whole Aerostich suit, but when it starts getting above 30°C with the brutal humidity here there's no doubt I will be suffering. So far, I would recommend the Klim jacket and gloves. Not cheap, but I knew I could never face summer here without something designed for the heat.

The only quick way to get out of town and into the countryside seems to be via the toll roads, which is really expensive—like 3–4x—compared to the U.S. So I took a mix of roads up and back, only really hopping onto the tollway about 60km outside the Tokyo/Yokohama area on the way home. Top speed on the expressway was 100kph, and I was doing 120kph with the flow of traffic for a while. Wow! so fast, I thought, till I got home and looked it up: 74.5mph! That’s the fastest I’ve driven here so far. Still . . . not really that fast. Ah well.

In a recent thread, people were comparing shift points and mpgs. My mileage so far has been not great (60–70 mpg), especially given my pretty mellow riding style. So as an experiment I followed the “eco-mode” suggestions on the speedo, trying to stay in the green zone even when it felt to me like the engine was lugging. By the end of the day I was used to that 2–3K rev range, and for the first 2/3 of my trip I was getting 72.5 mpg. That’s a record for me so far. And this was with quite a few hills. So from now on I’ll probably go back and forth between my previous 3–4K rev range and more frugal revs, depending on my mood.

Also, I finally installed the Eastern Beaver PC 4CS fuse panel kit I’d bought several months back. It was nice to have switched power for my navi, and for the drive recorder I will surely get around to installing one of these days.
 

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Today I washed the bike. Simple green, wipe and rinse. Works great on the bugs and chain. I just returned from a trip up to NH from Philadelphia, about 1000mi total. The weather was perfect! I will post a trip report in the next few days.
 
I finished popping on the new Two Brother M-2 Black Series slip-on, 2" risers, Givi Bars and radiator guard... Test run was in light rain at 70-75mph, and through some rough back streets to see what might fall off... So far; so good!

 

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Got my brackets for the new Shad SH-35's welded up today...
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I like how close you mounted these. Never understood why so many side cases are mounted so far out from the bike. The cases are "universal" but the manufacturers make bike specific racks, so it seems like they could design closer fitting racks to shave an inch or, sometimes several inches, in width.
 
I think in this case Shad made the brackets so they could be used with their top case rack as well. Logically, there should be multiple mounting holes and locations, or a "flip-over to use for this application" built into their mounting brackets. Too much "engineering" I guess. Took me about 10 minutes to noodle through how I was going to mod these. Go figure.
 
(long time lurker, finally decided to register and contribute)

After two rear punctures in 3 weeks (first a nail I could patch, then something that left a 1/4-in hole, going flat in a few seconds at 60MPH), and about 16k miles on the front, my good girl got new shoes.
Bought it used with new tires 16k miles ago, lost a rear to a nail within a month, then ran one to the cords, and now its replacement died with plenty of thread left because of covid (20 months old).
Expensive bad luck.

Given all the recent forum discussions (thanks!), I settled on a Shinko Raven at the front and a Road 5 at the back.

That's ... different. The first few turns with the Shinko were surprising. Gotta get used to it ...

Acid test tomorrow on my usual Saturday commute along the top of the Santa Monica mountains, going East just before sunset.
 
So the front Shinko Raven didn't kill me, but the way it turns is so much lighter and eager than the old Pirelli, it's just weird, and initially scary. Took a long time to feel comfortable in the faster curves.
Took my super-curvy road to go see some friends. Technical, fun, and quiet (except, briefly, for the roar of a Lambo having had the same idea). About twice to distance and three times the duration of the highway solution: Totally worth it. Highly recommended for the mix of landscapes, roads, and the views (inland and ocean). I was late ; I'll take pics next time.

I also saw another NC parked at the side entrance of Malibu Creek SP around 6 (Mulholland side). Red one. Not sure if that's a member here.

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Clutch lever swap (upgrade?). I'm not usually keen on aftermarket levers. It just makes me think the bike has been crashed and the levers were bent/broken. But after adjusting the clutch cable tension, I just felt like I couldn't get the friction point in the right spot. Either the clutch cable was too loose and the lever was flopping around, or the tension was good but the reach was too far. I ordered these from China on eBay; another member had posted the link and said they were happy.

The quality is nice. They are anodized a grey color, and the finish looks even and durable. The machining is not A++, but very good. After a test ride, my only complaint is that there is a bit more up-down slop in this than the OE lever. Fine for the clutch, but I will probably stick to my Honda brake lever, since that is adjustable already. Plus I don't think I would like the angled shape for the brakes, I prefer the smooth taper.

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Does it look lame to have mis-matched levers on a bike? :)
 
Yesterday and again today I took out Dasha on my wife's NC700x. As my bike has a Dale's rack replacing the rear seat it probably would be far less comfortable for her to ride pillion on the back of my bike. She loves to ride, eventually wants to learn how for herself. We also had some helmet fun with our foster son!

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Just out of curiosity, does anyone else scrape pegs on ONE SIDE but not on the OTHER SIDE?

I tend to scrape the foot peg on LEFT turns but never on RIGHT turns. Is that because the left is typically a wider diameter turn and I lean farther over because I take those turns at a slightly faster speed? Never really thought about it much until tonight.
 
Just out of curiosity, does anyone else scrape pegs on ONE SIDE but not on the OTHER SIDE?

I tend to scrape the foot peg on LEFT turns but never on RIGHT turns. Is that because the left is typically a wider diameter turn and I lean farther over because I take those turns at a slightly faster speed? Never really thought about it much until tonight.
I've never dipped far enough on my NC but on my Suzuki C50T Boulevard I scrape my left side a lot more than the right. I have scraped the pipes before though.

I'm also much more comfortable with left turns in general. My left U-turn skills have always been significantly better than right U-turns.
 
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I decided I'm not going to do this on purpose anymore. Seeking out dirt on the NC. It's a stinker off pavement.

I wish I had the money to strip the ADV pretensions from the NC series and make it look more like the pavement pounder it is.

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I keep thinking about the common refrain of my shop teacher. "Use the right tool for the job"

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Swiss-army-bikes chafe my caboose in ways a new saddle won't cure. I'm not going to avoid fire roads on road trips, but I won't be seeking them out either.
 
Just out of curiosity, does anyone else scrape pegs on ONE SIDE but not on the OTHER SIDE?

I tend to scrape the foot peg on LEFT turns but never on RIGHT turns. Is that because the left is typically a wider diameter turn and I lean farther over because I take those turns at a slightly faster speed? Never really thought about it much until tonight.
Left curves and right curves are the same only flipped. When ridden correctly, they are entered the same, apexed the same, and exited the same only in the opposite directions.

A typical lane is 12' wide. If 2 curves have similar radii measuring around the outermost line on each will be the same, measuring on the innermost line around the curves will be the same.

It may be that you just prefer left handers and therefore take them faster. The faster you go, the more you have you lean to complete the turn, therefore scraping the left peg and not the right.
 
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