| Author | Message | ||
     Tattoodnscrewd |
If ever there was a love-hate relationship ...... here it is !! That broken stud last weekend led to big problems ... One week away from the Slimey Crud Run ... look forward to this ride every spring and fall .. definite highlight ride ... Two days after that is an Inside Pass at Road America. .. REALLY looking forward to that ... Neither one is a certainty for me now .. yes - I can take my M2 on the Crud Run .. but not the race track .. that is reserved for the S1 ... That broken exhaust stud led to a nasty exhaust leak while limping it home ... and when it first broke I was in the middle of some pretty hard revs through some nice twisties ... so the damage was probably done immediately ... Aside from the normal engine noise I now have a higher pitched metal clanking around in the front head .. and with the help of an electric stethoscope it has been narrowed down to the exhaust port of the front cylinder.... which makes sense - that is where I broke the exhaust stud and lost my exhaust gasket ... Now with only a week to spare ... I have to pull the head, figure out exactly what is wrong ... fix it/have it fixed (If I can't do it - and that is what it appears to be - consensus is that its needing a new exhaust valve seat to be pressed in as that is probably the culprit) put the bike back together, test to make sure all is fixed ... and get it track ready ... Love-hate .... and right now it's a definite hate ... that's' about all I can say ... wish me luck that it's a fairly easy fix with not too much financial drain so I can get my revenge and wring it's neck on the track !! | ||
| Oldog |
Sorry to hear about the problems. Good luck ! | ||
| Nocompromise |
I feel your pain Brian. As I wrote in earlier posts, I definitely have a love-HATE relationship with my current S1. Since I bought her a few months ago I would guess that my wrench to ride time ration is somewhere around 10:1.  Even after all the money and work I've put into her, I have had thoughts about getting a Japanese  bike. When a S1 runs well on a beautiful twisty road, it's a little slice of heaven on earth. But when they break it makes you want to push it off the lip of a live volcano. The thought of having a bike that only requires gas, oil, and tires can be soooooo alluring! Good luck with the latest problem! Let us know how it turns out. | ||
| Rocketman |
Well, if anyone is in a better position than me to have a love hate relationship with an S1, someone let me know. I think I qualify pretty high up, if not the highest, for perseverance in the face of S1 adversity. All that mumbo jumbo said, I've been searching in my head and my heart for nearly as many years as I've owned my S1W for something better to come along. Without getting into how many bikes I've ridden since I bought my S1W new back in 98 I can best sum up the way I feel about my S1W by telling you I have succeeded in my quest, finally. There simply isn't a bike that is anything like an S1W. Try as I might, and there have been many bikes I have experienced in recent years, I've not found one! Each can do certain things better than the S1W, but not one has the magic to do all the things that make up what really appeals to me most about the S1W. I can make my S1W faster and more powerful. I can make my S1W handle better still. I can make my S1W more reliable, even though it will never be totally so. All the stuff I've ridden in recent years, searching for the ultimate buzz better than the S1W, has shown me one thing. No one has built a bike that is as raw and alive as an S1W. It is so old school, a phrase I keep hearing often these days, that no one making motorcycles today is ever going to go backwards to find the magic the S1W has in abundance. It comes from strapping a big lumpy old engine into a skeleton frame. No one is daft enough to do that in the 21st century, and maybe, just maybe, that's why no one in the 21st century has captured the alluring magic of the S1W. Yes my S1W is a right royal pain in the arse often. No doubt something drastic will happen to something in the future, spoiling weeks or even months. No doubt something simple will fail in the future, spoiling my day, or several of them. But on its day absolutely nothing can touch it, and that is what my 9 years of heartache and joy have taught me. Perseverance is the key. So I have given up my quest to find something else that does for me what the S1W does, but only better still. I don't believe such exists. Except there is a solution to the dilemma of looking elsewhere only to be disappointed. Stay with what you've already got. So yet again I am going in search of more power - and reliability, and I know when I get it, it will not disappoint in the very long run. Yeah, deja vu I know. But someone has to be a sucker for punishment so it might as well be me seeing as I still see all the magic that got me into the S1W in the first place, despite the heartache. If anyone owns an S1 my advice would be to get a second bike as a back up. That is the ultimate solution to regretting not having kept the S1 for the rest of your biking days! Rocket | ||
| Ducxl |
Hey...uhh.Rocket? Don't you own a 916? | ||
| Smoke |
i'm with you Rocket, the S1 is a hoot when on the boil and there is nothing else like it. when the rest of you want to give yours away, i'll pay shipping to my house! ;) i gathered up spare top ends and now i'm gathering spare motors and bottom ends for when a hard problem hits. my advice, keep em and pick up a 2nd bike. tim | ||
| Glitch |
How many 2nd bikes do you have Smoke?  | ||
| Daves |
Hey Rocket, didn't know you were back. | ||
| Mikexlr650 |
nice read. mo should hire rocket! | ||
| Rocketman |
Still got the 916, yes. Got the V8 bike too. Not sure what the future holds for the V8 though. I don't know what happened this summer. I took out the 1098S and the 910 Brutale, back to back, for a right royal thrashing, and they woke me up to what I'd been missing - good vibrations. Smooth as you like just doesn't cut it for me. Another bike I rode recently, and a great bike it is too, but it did little to entertain me, was the BMW GS1200. I tried hard to buy a 1993 Fireblade streetfighter too just recently. He wouldn't sell it. Scruffy old piece of junk, but it did appeal. I must confess I was somewhat lured into wanting to own what was known as the 'Widowmaker' over here, it killed that many. I think all bikers that have that Streetfighter thing under their skin want at sometime to know for themselves they tamed a beast. You know what I mean. Perhaps it's fate that I couldn't buy the Widowmaker then. That said, the S1W has taken 9 years, and I'm still trying to make it wilder still, just so's I can tame it. I guess the S1W was always meant to be. These days I've all but given up complaining, lol.  I dunno. Whenever I go in search of something more thrilling two wheels, I always seem to end up realising I already own it. Rocket | ||
| Rick_a |
I've broken about all there is to break on mine at least once. At only 22,500 miles I have to replace a fairly fresh top end and the crank. I still love it the same...when I'm done probably more. | ||
| Chasespeed |
Hey Rocket... here is a 93 'Blade    Sure isnt a 900 anymore though... Chase | ||
| Rocketman |
Yeah Chase, but it's the 16 inch front wheel that got it the nickname! Do you still have all 16 inches, lol? Rocket | ||
| Chasespeed |
Nope, 17s front and rear.... I had tried to convince the owner to let me convert the rear to a VFR SSSA.... But, sadly, those pics are from a little less than a year ago, and, the bike is still in the same condition... He ran outta money, and, what he gave me was barely enough to cover the parts and the machine work on the block... He wont sell it to me though, to cover the cost of labor I have in that bike... Chase | ||
| Rocketman |
Well Chase, the first Blades had 16 inch fronts, which many over here blamed for so many 'get offs'. Some not so good. Hence its Widowmaker nomenclature! Rocket | ||
| Buellzebub |
it's an illness... S1's still rule! | ||
| Chasespeed |
Well Chase, the first Blades had 16 inch fronts, which many over here blamed for so many 'get offs'. Yep, the 17s came off a 98 Blade Chase} | ||
| Smoke |
dave, right now i have 11 2nd bikes but when i come to ATL and pick up the 1125R it will be 12. if i could figure out how to pay for 2 at a time there is a Confederate local at a killer price of 15 thou and it's been there for 4 months that i would like. (and an xb9r, and on. LOL) have fun next weekend. tim |
