Robin: In this episode, before you begin, namely the GSX-8R valve check article, contending with your wardrobe, our bodies change, and there are things we may or may not want to replace, at least temporarily speaking. Let's get on with it. Opening announcements, news, corrections, and banter. The announcement for this episode. New thing that I just want to do because sometimes I'm so inspired. So, random song in a minute. Tuck of the Town by Fred again and Reggie. I'm guessing MC Reggie. That was indeed very random. It's a hell of a strutting tune. And I'm going to do random song in a minute from here on because it needs it. Got to tell people here's something fresh, new, inspiring, grooving, strutting, corrections. Tell Jordan to relax, okay?

Brian: It's okay, dude. It's all right. Isn't that great though?

Robin: Like, look at this. Look at this. I love this. This is fun. And I can hear him. I'm not going to try to do his voice anymore, but I can hear his voice. He'll just insult like Jordan with his Chicago accent. I need to submit a correction on the Daytona 70 facts. By 1972, the rules changed again to allow full 750cc two strokes and four strokes. The power was way up as was the weight of the bikes and tire technology was not up to these stresses. So in 72 and 73, while Kawasaki ran the H2 750cc-based models and Suzuki ran GT 750-based bikes, they all failed due to tire issues, which did not phase the Yamaha TR3s, which won the race in 72 and 73. But by 74, Yamaha had come out with the TZ750 when Giacomo Agostini, aka Ago, won in 74. He was on a Yamaha TZ750. Basically two TR3s stuck together to make an inline four cylinder two stroke. I'll add that Norton was back in the race with the John Player bikes and they almost won except for chain issues and BSA and Triumph still had ignition problems. There's the correction. I don't know where the correction is, but it's fun to read his stuff. I was, I was going to ask what was wrong.

Brian: It's okay, buddy. Relax, buddy. It's okay, Jordan.

Robin: The fun part is if we leave that in there, and I will, he's going to explain the correction and it's going to be three times as long as the correction that we can't find in this. That's a risk I'm willing to run. News. The Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum has a new cafe. This comes from Motorcycle Consumer News. It stood out to me like, wait, MCN? What? It's a museum in New Milton, England. I went to the Facebook thread about this and was looking at all the comments. I'm hearing all kinds of cottony and all right, if you have deep pockets, great cafe, great location, good food and drink. If your priority is saving money on cafe-style food, then you will always find someone doing it cheaper, et cetera, et cetera. Brilliant museum Sammy has built. Immaculate examples of bikes from the past. Here's the one. Lovely museum. Good cafe, but very overpriced. But that's just Sammy for you. Can't you people just be happy? Come on. More news. There's a review on Visordown for the all-new 2026 Triumph Trident 800. Now tested. The 2026 Triumph Trident 800, the naked roadster sibling to the acclaimed Tiger Sport 800 Sport Tourer. Sharing the same punchy 798cc triple-cylinder engine, this review highlights the power plant's flexibility and the chassis' neutral handling, traits that directly translate to the touring capability of the platform. For sport touring fans, this confirms the midsize triple's potential as a versatile everyday road companion, even if wrapped in a stripped-down package. Also, Triumph news. New model for 27. The Triumph Speed Twin 1200 Starbucks Brappuccino Racer Edition first look. They did a cafe racer. This is on motorcycle.com. I'm shocked I am. Triumph has unveiled a limited-run Caribou Light Roast Racer Edition of the Speed Twin 1200 RS, adding a dedicated sport focus to the modern classic platform. The new model features clip-on handlebars. That's kinda cool. Might be able to drop those. Rear-set footpegs and a bespoke Competition Green livery. That's properly British. They don't do enough green on their bikes. I have things to say about Triumph. Shifting the ergonomics from relaxed roadster to committed sport rider, while retro in style, it boasts modern road-biased performance with top-tier suspension and braking, appealing to riders who want a sleek, engaging machine for spirited weekend blasts rather than long-haul highway duty. Look that up on motorcycle.com. Kudos to them and visordown. Love the independence we have to talk about these things freely. That's what I got. Banter.

Brian: Mr. Brian, tell me all there is to tell. So, speaking of Triumph, on Saturday, I attended the local new 2026 Triumph model launch down at the local Triumph dealer, Triumph of Indianapolis. Friend of mine bought a Tiger Sport 800, and it's still sitting on the floor there. I got some pictures of people being very disrespectful to his new ride. The big news at the model launch was, the things I really noticed was, you just mentioned at the, I think they're not calling it the Trident here, but they're calling it the 800 Sport. It's the naked 800 Sport. That was kind of the biggest news, and I got to sit on one, look at it, taste it, smell it. It was absolutely, it's a gorgeous bike, and I know that platform, I know that engine is amazing. Can't wait to see them out and about. Second thing I saw was they, and I haven't found it on the website yet, they have a new version of the Speed 800 that's coming out. That's got like a little fairing on the front, and it's got like a tail fairing. I mean, it looks good. They're going to sell the hell out of these things. Oh, and the other thing about the naked 800, list price in the U.S. is $99.99, under 10 grand. Well done. That's crazy. So then what about the 400?

Robin: Yeah, they're calling it the Thruxton. 2026 Triumph Thruxton 400 does have a really good looking half fairing. So you still have motor access. I like it.

Brian: The one I saw had a, like a silver and red paint scheme. Triumph has just knocked it out of the park as far as their finishes and the bikes, the styling, you know, they make you want to get onto things and ride. And I think they're doing an amazing job of that. I'm still scared of their immobilizer though. Not playing. It's been 10 years, but yeah, maybe they, hopefully they figured it out. But yeah, those are the two big ones. And they just look, they're going to sell a million of them. They're going to be everywhere. And I really hope they do. And also, yeah, hooked up to computer. Finally got a chance to watch Yalla Habibi from the guys at Fort Nine. I have not seen it. Would you recommend it? I would highly recommend it. All right. It's not what you would expect. Okay. It's not so much about the motorcycles, but it is, there's some impressive riding. There's, there's, you know, it's about the journey. It's about the people, like any good, any good story. And it really should have been about four times longer. But then again, how many, you know, I mean, how much can you listen to one guy complain about his, how his feet hurt and his feet stink? I don't know. I'll leave it with that. It's a new kind of thing. It's a fantastic, I just love seeing new movies that about motorcycling. So get out there, pay your damn 10 bucks and watch it. There's that.

Robin: And we know that Shade Tree Surgeon is going to do this thing with the Chinese dirt bike. There was something else that I've never seen that popped up. And I'm like, wait a minute. I've got a stack of motorcycle movies I can kick back with. And I'm thinking it's about time. Because one of the things I got for over the past holiday season was a $60 video projector, smart projector, and a fold-up screen that hangs on the bedroom wall. I can just cash out in bed, getting ready to go to sleep and put on a motorcycle movie and dream of motorcycling. What's happening in your world? Robin, haven't talked to you in a week. I have managed to isolate better advertisers for the website. So things should show up that are actually worth clicking every now and then. Remember, we try not to bombard you with pop-ups. So you're welcome, Cleveland. Nice. I've actually been tensing up thinking about our commercial tours, one of which being Trip Sevens, because at first we had four out of five interested. Now we've got two spots left. Okay. We have three definite people signed up for this tour. Two spots remaining, which leaves me thinking, okay, I got to decide before it will offend anyone, whether or not it's actually going to happen. I've already secured three bikes that I could ride, which is great. The one I'll likely choose, believe it or not, is a CF Moto, and that could be just fine. I've got no beef with that. Tall around it with dual 17s and plenty of luggage space. Who cares? I'm just going to go do what I do. If I can convince anybody down here to join me at perhaps a discounted transportation included rate, maybe I'll bring some newfound friends from this area to that area and bring my own damn bike. Nice. So yeah, 777 plus other tour concerns. They're all in the plot. It's just everything kind of going to be in different locations. I'm excited. These are frustrations and concerns to be grateful for. Think about how lucky we have it. Which reminds me, sir, you are signed up for this tour and need to email me your waiver.

Brian: Okay. Sorry, man. Yeah, I'll get that to you. If anybody listening, if this is any help, I'll be going on 777s. If it's not any help, forget you saw me. I'm just some guy that's...

Robin: Brian Ringer has officially signed up for his very first 777s tour. He's arrived at the tail end of it to rescue someone three times now, and now he gets to do the tour. Other than that, I've got a fork oil change coming up. I know it's in the mix there. And I'm just looking at it like, yeah, I'm either going to end up hoisting the front end of the bike and rocking a Joe Godin. And if anybody doesn't know what that means, it basically means we're just going to dump out the oil and pour in what we took out and call it done. And for a Suzuki with Showa's, I'm quite willing to look at it that way. But in the end, if I were in Brian's garage, we'd go through the full motions. We'd do the spring compressor, pull the stanchions, get the thing done right. I am always wondering, why is there no outlet at the base of the suspension? I understand that they are USD, but at the actual end, vertically, if you can pull the wheels, if you can pull the axle, why is there no oil release at the bottom of this thing that would allow me to drain all the oil out and put some spec amount back in? And I understand there's all kinds of cartridges and stanchions. What would you recommend about this fiasco?

Brian: Well, a couple of things. Older bikes, as you know, used to have, there'd be a little screw at the bottom of the fork and you could take the cap off the top. You could drain the oil out and you could dump some more in. I don't know why we lost that, to be honest. I think, you know, it may be that they just want you to do a more complete job. Second thing I would say is, I think the plan to take them off, dump out the oil, and then whatever, you know, and refill it is fine. Two details there. One, lazy man's oil change. If the oil seals are fine, go with it. It's fine. Get an extra bottle of fork oil, dump some of it in there, work it back and forth, dump that out. Do that a couple of times to kind of flush out those particles of metal and insects and whatever. Contaminants. Do that a couple of times. You're going to waste some fork oil doing that. And the second thing is to remember fork oil amount doesn't matter. Fork oil level is what matters. Get like a big sheep syringe. Go to your sheep store there in New Mexico. Go to your farm store. Get a big sheep syringe that you use for sheep duties. And, uh, I try not to go wrong here. There are websites for these fetishes as well. I will list them now. A piece of tubing, figure out what your fork oil level needs to be. With the spring out, fork's collapsed, you're supposed to fill into a certain level and then slurp it out. And that's the accurate way to do it instead of just dumping in some amount because the spec is actually pretty precise. You have to be within a millimeter.

Robin: Well, cause you're getting into airspace. It allows for the compression. The math has to be correct. And what is happening when the spring load takes a charge?

Brian: Yeah, the airspace basically acts as a secondary spring. So you want to get that right. It's easy enough to do. It takes $5 of materials. It's so easy to do. Why bother?

Robin: You can always do the thing, as long as you can get the bike suspended, where you can run a measure to the point where the oil starts and keep track of that measuring point. So then you can clamp off, measure what that distance is, then feed everything out. I think that this is worth experimenting with over time. But in the end, it's more just about like, I want to ride the damn thing. I love riding that bike. Here's my question for you, Brian. Did you ride this past week? No, I drove a snowblower. Hey, that's exciting stuff. Well, funny you ask. Cause I did. I rode Silver City with a couple of friends down here. Went to a place called, big shout out to the Cuban guy, which is a restaurant where they make these amazing Cuban flatbread sandwiches. My God, the Cuban guy. Feels like you're eating a small mammal. Just the lead. You kind of are. Yeah. There's really something truly great when you get to ride with people who are smooth and predictable. The person that I was riding with, they are smooth and they are predictable in the best possible way. Upper level, medium salsa pace. It was great. Very reliable. Predictable. Yes. Go on. You ready for some pretty cool freaking listener questions and or questions from the wild? Absolutely. Robin, lay it on me. What do we got? Well, it looks like we have a listener question, but before we get to it, first off, if you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser and send us a message. Now I see we've got one listener question here. Is that for real?

Brian: It's a question from the wild to be precise. This one's simple. Should be a pretty quick one. SD asks, do I need to change the bushings when I change fork seals? If the bike doesn't have a lot of miles on it, you can usually get away without it.

Robin: Okay. And then explain to the general public, what are bushings and what are fork seals?

Brian: The bushings are pieces of metal that sit inside the fork. They have a Teflon coating and they reduce the friction and they kind of give a wear surface for the chrome fork to slide against. So the chrome on the fork is super duper hard. It will last for hundreds of thousands of miles, but the material of the fork leg is generally aluminum. So there's a, there's a piece of metal in between there and it's kind of, it's, I'm not going to get into what it's made of, but anyway, it's got like a softer surface that is very long wearing. Normally they're sort of a coppery stuff and they're coated with Teflon. So you'll see one on a normal or regular, a right side up fork, like in a vintage bike or something like that, there's one of them is kind of clipped onto the end of the fork tube. And one of them is sits at the top, just under the fork seals at the top of the fork leg. They can last a very long time if the fork has not been subject to a lot of debris and crap that gets in there. I've seen them last for easily 80,000 miles, that kind of thing.

Robin: Somebody riding nothing but washboard.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. They generally, you know, but if you let the fork seal go for a long time running out of oil, or if there's just a lot of garbage in the fork or whatever, they may be worn out. They tend to be a little expensive, but a lot of times if a bike doesn't have a ton of miles on it, I'll kind of roll the dice and take it apart anyway. You know, normal mileages are usually okay. So when you get over 50,000 miles, then maybe stop and order some new bushings. Usually they're only available OEM, but Racetech and a few others do sell them for some models. So I guess that turned into a long answer. But yeah, a lot of times, yeah, you can get away with it and the fork police aren't going to come and haul you away. Here's another question from the wild. I can already hear the angels singing now.

Robin: AD asks, what kind of gear do you have a bunch of, but you just keep buying more? I'm going to say gasoline.

Brian: Well, okay. Fine. The more gas you burn, the better, but come on.

Robin: Tires. Okay. But these are consumables.

Brian: They're talking about the thing.

Robin: Yeah. They're talking about like the thing that you just can't seem to resist capturing. Like, oh, maybe this is the one. Things that go on your body. Yes. Well, it doesn't have to be that either. I think it's more about things where you haven't quite come up with the perfect solve. Well, yeah. You keep buying another version of it that may or may not resolve the issues you've had with the previous, you know, you keep getting closer and closer to the solution of whatever it is that your goal is. That makes sense. You just keep swapping out or whatever. And then you got this pile of whatever. I'm trying to think of a good one. I've got nothing. I, I'm the one that found this question and I can't answer it. So you'd answer it.

Brian: I'll think. I'll answer this one. For me, it is boots. Oh, okay. For the reasons that you talked about where I have a pair of waterproof touring boots. I have a pair of boots for the track. I have a pair of boots that are easier to walk in because I was in airports and had to walk through airports and so forth. So they're kind of touring boots and they're kind of more, they're easier to walk in. I have a pair of off-road dual sport boots. I've got something like six pairs of boots and it's really kind of a problem. So each one of those is for a different situation. And sometimes, you know, I've got boots that I wear to work or, or, you know, where I'm commuting or going to the hardware store or whatever. For me, that has an answer. Yeah. There's an answer in it. I've also got more jackets. I, I got more jackets than I need mainly because they were on sale. Accessorizing. Absolutely.

Robin: Total mall ratting. I've got, these are on two very opposite sides of the boundary. USB chargers. S-E-A USB chargers. Like, oh, this is the perfect solution. This is the one. This fixes all of my issues. Right. And the one that I like the most was a single port USB charger with an on off button that was VP 6.7 volt rated, whatever that means, you know, like it's waterproof. Right. But here's the trick to the Chinese conundrum. Honestly, the Chinese products that you see, wow, what a great design. So you'll see something that that's the thing. Why aren't we making this better? Their concepts are incredibly sound. The execution is what it is. And it happens the way it does. Some things are great. Some things not so much. Every time I get a USB charger that has the properly well thought out, oh, that's a freaking click button. The question always is going to stand. How long is that going to last me? I mean, we have this lengthy article where I was like, finally, I found it.

Brian: And then it craps out. Yeah.

Robin: Yeah. You give it a year and it's like, why does it not have a fuse? Oh, it's not. It's a non-replaceable fuse of some indescript nature. But then you get like the battery tender junior version. Who is it makes that? Deltran. The S-A-E to USB-C. That one is the one that tends to do the most. It's quick charging. It lasts the longest. I've finally decided that that's the one to go for. I need to update my article to go with that. I also need to update the editing in this to make sure that I don't sound culturally insensitive. It's just something that the world knows about the typical Chinese purchase. It's like, is this one going to last? I don't, you never know.

Brian: Maybe it will. I don't know. We'll try it. Well, you remember in Kentucky when your charger crapped out and eventually I think I dug out five and in my, I dug five different ones out of my, so yeah, I feel you here. I get this. You just keep them in the tire and they balance and then you take them out when you need them. It's like, oh yeah, here's one. Oh, here's another one. Here's another one. Try this one.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: It got kind of stupid. Yeah. And I, I'm like, why am I carrying all these? What was your other thing that you had?

Robin: Opposite that I would say computer tech. We had a spontaneous product review where I opened an envelope with a thing that I had ordered and was happy about. It was a folding keyboard that weighs barely six ounces. I've got an iPad that I can use that with. So instead of a laptop, now I carry the iPad and this folding keyboard, which is a modular solution. So it takes up less space. Nice. The funny part is then I ordered a protective jacket for the iPad and made it as thick as my laptop and barely an inch shorter. It was bulky. So I have since decided to order a different cover. Okay.

Brian: Nerd talk. Nerd talk. Has anybody come up with a good SFTP and code editing app for the iPad? Last time I looked, I couldn't find anything. Like if you need to sit down with your iPad in the middle of nowhere, you find a scrap of wifi from some shack nearby.

Robin: Shit we do not yet know and have not yet geeked about. Yeah. One more time. If you'd like us to field your questions, visit email.tro.bike in your web browser. Send us a message. We promise we will cover whatever the topic is to the best of our ability. And it might even be correct. Segment one. It's called before you begin the GSX-8R valve check article. I've been working on this article for quite some time and I'm going to do us both a solid and I'm not going to, we'll talk about it and I'll make a note of it as we go, but I'm not going to open up the editing device. All right. We're going to look at it as it stands. Yeah.

Brian: And that's, that's fair. It's not complete yet. There's still stuff to do, but you've done a ton of work here.

Robin: Well, so a magic thing happened while we were working on this, and this is something that I want all you intermediate level wrenchers out there, such as myself, I would say I'm a lower level intermediate wrench. I've got the bollocks and the bold bravery to check my valves, but what I don't know does scare me. So I always call a friend. I've always got, I'm not a mechanized problem solver. In this case, one thing that happened, what we've written so far for this article is we are at the valve cover. That's where we're at. And believe it or not, if you get this far and you have a friend who's done such things enough that they look at you and they know what you've been through that day, and they know you've gotten it right. They know that you've focused, that you've gotten organized and work has been done to get to the point where you're going to unscrew the lid. And they say to you, Hey man, I don't know if you know this or not, but we're 90% done. In my case, that's Brian. And it is extremely calming. It's just, it's truly, it's time for you to know you've done it. You know, you've gotten to the source of the thing that you need to do.

Brian: Getting through the scalp and sawing off the skull. And then you've got the brain in front of you and you can, and you can cut into it. With this bike, that was the hardest part. It got done.

Robin: There are plenty of jokes to be told within about how like the radiator fell to the floor and I just lost my shit, but held it in. So it was like, and you just know that that man is unwell. I held it in and we got it done. But the truth of the matter is, is that we, we had a finite amount of time that we contained ourselves to my baby to work on. And Brian was there to help me. We made it happen all this good. There's a version of me that could read through this entire thing. Yeah, that's one of those things where like, I'm not a Kiss fan, but do you remember when they all had to do their own solo album?

Brian: Like it was homework.

Robin: Like even Peter Criss had to do a solo album. It was like, okay, make sure you bring your work back to school tomorrow. Like, okay, I'll make that an effort in an episode where I'm going to read this entire thing out loud and try to have a, you know, a little bit of influx to the humor and all that stuff. But the point is we'll, we'll kind of summarize some things here.

Brian: This is going to be the article that everybody who has one of these engines is going to look at. This is thorough. Yeah, not the bike, the engine. This is thorough. I will say that you give absolutely wonderful, specific advice on how to excavate through all those layers of plastic. And that is much needed. The information here that really helps you is here's the list of parts that you need to have on hand. And you even give the page numbers in the manual, because that's one thing you need a lot of parts that you don't really think of. And again, they're just little stuff, you know, seals and so forth. You need spark plugs. You need, uh, gaskets, O-rings. You need some extra coolant. I had some on hand.

Robin: Well, you, you were also kind enough. We were going back and forth prepping to do this thing. And you were like, Hey, we're going to need this. We're going to need that. We're going to do this and that.

Brian: Yeah. So the parts, you know, like nobody ever tells you this. The other thing is the information is scattered all over the damn manual. And that's something you have to really figure out as you go. That's the fun part. I mean, it's all over. The tools are easy part. I mean, this is just normal stuff. Yeah.

Robin: Well, I'm going to go through all the H2s, which are the dark black text. We'll go through that first. Then we'll try to expand on it. When we run out of time, we run out of time and work on it. The article's not quite done yet because we actually don't do the valve check yet. This is just getting prepped.

Brian: The valve check is easy. I was reading the article and then I got to the end and I'm like, Oh yeah, this is the part. Anybody who's done a valve check knows, you know, I didn't really think about it. I'm like, Oh great. This is. Oh wait, this is not what everybody. Everybody needs to know this is, for me, this, you know, this goes through all the hard parts. So again, you're 90% done with this article.

Robin: It's just like before. It's the same thing. You know, now we just write about the simple process of not getting inverted with your measurements. Yeah. It's a four-heading article right now. You got to deal with your wallet and what needs to be bought. You got to make time and make yourself patient, forcibly, violently patient. You need to gain access. So beginning the entire process is all about the plastics. And then once you're under the hood, you got to find top dead center and go through the, what might seem daunting, but really isn't so much once you really know what you're doing. So that's the basic outline of the whole article. And I tried to keep things lighthearted, but once you get to a certain point, you're really just dealing with steps and there's no joking about, you just need to have fun intro and soften the blow, make sure people feel comfortable with what they're setting up to do. So the first thing to do is three versions of buy the service manual. This is a little bit of fun. It's just, you know, number one, buy your Suzuki factory service manual for this bike. Then two, order the Suzuki factory service manual for this bike. Lastly, we want you to purchase the Suzuki factory service manual for this bike. Whichever version of the 270 degree crank machine you have, you're going to be happy you did. Yeah. Next, it just comes down to your wallet and getting all the parts. There is an excess of gaskets, not because they're specified in the process, but because you're going to be putting hands on those gaskets, anything could happen, and if you find that one has been, well, compromised, you're going to want to replace that. That is a Bryanism that I took to note and made a point of. And then Bryan had already gone into the fiche and was like this, this, this, this, this, oh, and bourbon for afterwards, which that got interesting.

Brian: Yeah. And the parts are scattered all over the fiches. And again, this article, I tell you what, man. He's got links to everything. And a lot of the parts like the valve cover gasket can be reused most of the time, but you might as well have it. It's there, you know, the seals that are under the valve cover. You do need to replace those. Those do get crushed. The O-rings that are under the cam caps. You do need those. The spark plugs are considered mandatory, et cetera, and so on. Like this cam chain tensioner gaskets, eh, they're reusable, but you should get them. You should have them. You should have all this on hand. Just goes in general when you're, when you're doing this stuff. And again, they don't make it easy. The information's scattered all over the place. So, so I've got for the parts list, shim kit, it's 9.48 millimeter shims.

Robin: Uh, the valve cover perimeter gasket, the valve cover seals, the O-rings, the spark plug, cam chain tensioner gaskets, just so you have it, the magneto cover O-ring, the Suzuki X-Star, super long life, cool, Suzuki X-Star, whoop ass. You know, basically I want to say it in Japanamay style for like Ninja scroll, just whoop ass, X-Star, super long life stuff, push pin rivets out the wazoo. So those are the engine components. The fun gets into the tool is the first thing on the list. Multicolor adhesive page markers. You're going to need shop towels, bent nose pliers out the wazoo, zip ties, dual lock. The list goes on and ends with large puppy pads, basically floor diapers that you would get for a dog just because of the coolant leak that can happen if you, well, frisbee it.

Brian: And this is very important. Whenever Robin and I enter a garage together and lay hands on a motorcycle, fluids hit the floor. It's important.

Robin: One way or another, there must be a chemical threat. There will be. Chemistry is happening. Mercury? The answer is yes. Ask us when and how, but we found mercury on the floor. That was you? Okay. Oh my God. It was your carburetor sink tool. It was the mercury was just rolling around there and balls of whatever's that. Does this taste poisonous? Yeah.

Brian: I mean, it's like any Japanese bike. The tools are, the actual mechanical tools are pretty basic. Decent garage should, should have all this stuff. A little magnet helps a lot. And also having a, having a torque wrench, because you do have some very light torques in several spots, especially in putting on the valve cover that are important. And also when you put the cap over the, uh, there's like this arrangement. There's this metal blob that goes over the, over the camshafts and the torques need to be pretty precise there. That's the one thing most, some people may not have. Yeah.

Robin: When, when somebody busts out a torque wrench, know that they mean it. Let them. Do not question it. Just let it happen. Even if it's for the most minuscule, ridiculous thing that requires a hand tightening, they want to be exact. Let them go for it. So the first major thing now that we're about to almost get started, we need to make time for it. Here's what I want to say about this in the most in-depth way. I knew that my time was finite. I had a brick and mortar foundation of timing that I had to get this done within. If you're going to do that with uncertainty, have a friend on hand. Brian was ready to be the cushion for every calculated flaw and we made it work. So make time to the third freaking power it direct from the article. In my own garage life, there've been several occasions where I've had no choice, but to take a deep breath and hold it for the exact minimum emergency only allowable time duration of some complex wrenching task. Don't be that guy. So eye the odometer horizon and barter with your date book accordingly. See who's available to make sure, see who's available that you trust that'll get it right to be around if you have boundaries that are completely inflexible. Because it got done. We were both good enough to do it. It worked out. So here's how we do this. We begin the Gx8R, you've figured out when you're going to do it. You've figured out when you're going to do this. Here's how we get her done. Let's begin the GSX-8R valve check. All right. First, you got to get to the upper plastics. Now you may like me, you may have modded your bike to no avail. You still need to be able to access these upper plastics. So you got to pull anything off of the dash that's in your way. You know, I've got a Ram ball mount in the down tube with a phone mount on it. There's no getting to the very first plastic, but the very first piece of plastic I cannot reach because of my own modifications, get everything out of your way, so you're back to bone stock as if it's on the dealership floor. The origami on this bike is not so bad. It really isn't. It's time consuming the first go, but Brian asked me a couple episodes ago, like how fast do you think you can get it done now?

Brian: I anticipate that even right now in complete ignorance, 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, but I remember like, uh, there was, we got it all back together and everything, and then I think the next day you were like, I think I forgot something or whatever you went out there and a half hour later you came back and like, okay, I got it, you know, like you were just bingo, bingo, bongo. It took all day and you were documenting as you went, it slows you down. And that's why, like when I work on somebody else's motorcycle, and again, this is another article that's coming. I will almost always make them, if it's a really pretty bike, I'll make them deal with the plastics. I don't want that liability. I don't want that on my conscience. Take that evil off my soul. I don't want it, but yeah, get me down to the engine and I'll be fine. Yeah.

Robin: The trick is just knowing, and I'll tell you something, it's funny when you're documenting something like this, it may take five times as long, well, more than that, it'll take half a day, but the exhale as you are typing into a notepad about what needs to happen is extremely zen. It's very calming. That actually made things easier. You know, basically you have to slide a front nose cover off the tank, you got two bolts under that. Everything is either Allen, some combination of button or push-pin connector, and I'm not going to lie. I find the push-pin connectors, the return to, satisfying. I'm very happy to see those Suzuki push-pin connectors because I know them. I understand them. I know how to work with them. You can hate them all you want, but I'm like, oh, I know you. It's uniform. Yeah. The front panels that are over the tank, they're not part of some main fairing. They actually pull outward off the tank. You just gotta get the bolts off and pop, it is off, but it still fastened to your lower plastics. So you need to undo your lower plastics to some extent first, so that you can then access the remainder of the tank cover, you know, and this is all just to get to the fuel tank, it takes more wording to describe than to actually do, but the little intrinsic, those little intricate details as to like, before you lift the tank up, you need to unstrap some of the hosing and wires that are fastened together because there's not enough flex for you to gain access to the bolts. You need to remove to pull the tank itself. These things matter. And that's why the article is so damn verbose. You know, once the tank's off, you can set that thing anywhere. Just plop it on the ground. Nothing's going to hit the ground. It's all well and good. And I do mean throw it. No, I'll edit that out. The lower plastics gets you access to the radiator on and on and on and on and on. I'm scrolling quick now because you arrive at things that you feel like should be easy to access and they're just not, you know, that the pairs are going to be in the way. I'm going to be ditching those pairs next time, but don't worry. That's 30,000 miles away. So I'm not worried about it now, but you've got pairs to get to. You can't get to the pairs unless you pull the regulator. Here's the point. This yarn ball of psychological entanglement that we're discussing right now to access these things. Every step involves simple bolts and remembering where they went and letting the thing that they're attached to dangle. It's not painful so long as you keep track. And it's just a matter of getting to where you're actually going to go under the hood. And it got harder at this point in the effort when I didn't remember what I'm looking at in the photo or why, discovered my Google doc notes about this process and was able to isolate, oh, oh, oh, these, these photos are out of order. They look like they're in order. They look like they make sense. You're like, this is going to be fine. And you're like, why did I number them this way? Well, because you, you can't access this one Molex connector. If you don't flip the bike upside down for a split second. For example, to get to the pairs, you got to pull the regulator. It's three bolts. Just let it hang there. Now you get to the pairs. Oh no, not going to do it. No, so what? The pairs are simple. Although they are an operational step. You have to disconnect the Molex. Then you can unfasten them out. Once the mount is unfastened, then you can slide the pair system off. What do you do with the mount? You leave it where it's at. Yeah. And now we have the moment of truth where the radiator can be dealt with, pulled apart, set aside, or in my case, overhanded into the floor. Everything goes where it's supposed to go. It's time to realize you're out of breath. I need it. You know, the last episode, we talked about the relaxation response. I had to go take a break, take meditation, take lunch. Brian, talk me down, man. That's where we're at in the article, which there's not much too. It's that crankcase bolt. What does the number 10 mean on that?

Brian: Yeah. Top dead center. Like this has like been the same on almost every bike for 50 years. So now we're in like, oh, this is super familiar territory. Set TDC, you know, make sure your cams are in position where you can measure. And this part here, I mean, it may seem weird, but I'm, I'm sort of glossing over it because this part to me is a little bit easy, but there are things you need to be aware of, and if you don't have that experience, you have to think more about it. Yeah. Feeler gauges. You need a feeler gauges that are in metric. Do you have an opinion on go, no-go? For what you're doing here with the shim system, they're not the best. If you're setting clearances using a screw and lock nut, which is not many bikes nowadays, they can be helpful. You can set it so you get slight drag on the, on the go, you know, but... On the no-go? Yeah. You need more resolution, basically. You need to know, you know, feeler gauges go in steps and you need, you need at least a couple of steps between your, your clearances to understand where you are and what you need to do next. And that's the thing, you know, doing the shim math is...

Robin: There it is.

Brian: That's, that's challenging for a lot of people. You explain it. I understand it. Then I get it backwards again. I know how to read and I have since I was four. And so I make a really crappy reading instructor. I found that out the hard, you know, I found, I was, I tried to volunteer for a reading literacy place. Anyway, but yeah, the idea is, you know, your, your, your clearances tighten up over time. And so you measure the clearances. They're too little. So you need a smaller shim to increase the clearances.

Robin: Okay. Yeah. Getting that in your head is tough.

Brian: I know, I know. The important part here, what valve clearances do is ensure two things. That the valve closes completely. So you need clearance there. You need to have a little bit of clearance to make sure that it's always closing completely and not leaking. The second thing it's a little more subtle is that you need to make sure that the valve makes contact with the valve seat down inside the cylinder. That it stays in firm contact with the valve seat long enough for the heat to come out of the valve and go out into the engine and get carried away by the coolant. We need enough clearance for that, for the heel of it, they call it the heel of the cam. So the side, the ass end of the egg, the ass end of the egg is round. It's, it's, it's part of a circle. And so during that time, you want that to make sure that it's making firm contact and that it stays in contact the whole time until it's time to open again so that it can get rid of the heat. And so valve shims, there's a bucket over the top of that. Inside the bucket between that and the valve is a little shim, and that helps you set these little tiny clearances that you need to ensure good contact and to ensure that it stays in contact long enough, and I'm oversimplifying. But you need a certain clearance and nevermind how the engineers tell you what that is. As engines pile up the miles, those clearances tend to decrease because the valve tends to go up into the head just a little tiny bit more as miles go on. And again, these are tiny, tiny distances. So it's not the shim that's wearing out. It's the actual valve. The yeah, the valve and the valve seat. So basically what happens is a valve face where the angles contact the valve seat or above the piston, basically valves tend to recede over time. And I call it, they go up into the head.

Robin: Now we're going to torture Joanne no further because it is time for the Armory brought to you by gearchick.com with Joanne Dahn. What has this conversation done for you besides a sleep remedy?

Joanne: I was digging deep into my service manual because I need to recharge my batteries. So I took my batteries out of my little bike.

Robin: Owners or service manual?

Joanne: I have the actual service manual in my triumph.

Robin: Nice. So you're one of us.

Joanne: Yeah, I've had that for a while. So I have the actual service manual and I was actually looking up, I think the coolant reservoir excess reservoir is under my seat next to the battery.

Robin: Like an overflow?

Joanne: Yeah, it's a little overflow tank. And I didn't realize that that's what that was. And when I looked at it, when I opened, I mean, I've opened my seat a lot. It's not like this is the first time I've taken my battery out, but I never paid attention to it. So when I looked at it, I was like, huh, this looks empty.

Robin: So I'm like, what is this?

Joanne: And then when I looked it up, oh, is this like a spare fuel tank? Like you could just fill it up with extra fuel and store it. Like, I don't know, I don't know. No, it's the excess reservoir.

Brian: It's for your bubble gum. Yeah.

Joanne: I'm like, what is this? Cause you can take it out. It's got a little strap and I could unstrap it and pop it out. But I didn't, I just popped the top off to see what, what liquid was in there. Cause it's a clear, it's like a white container. And I, I, when I read the manual, you know, it said, well, it's excess and you could put some distilled water. So later I'll do that anyways. Yes. Prepping my vehicle, trying to figure out, actually we have some pies here of like 59 or 60, but it's twenties in the morning. The lows are low. I have to go to Vegas on Saturday for a client, but before that, I'm going to try to take it, what day is it? Oh, it's already Wednesday. I'm going to try to whip it out for like an hour, but first I have to see if anything fits my body. That's going to be my next. Yeah.

Robin: Tell us more.

Joanne: My body's changing. Let's just say that I'm of an age and things aren't what they used to be. Things are different now. And I am not replacing that closet. That closet has been restocked and redone and I don't have $10,000 to restock it. I can't, I can't restock that damn closet. It's already been restocked. So I got to figure out how I'm going to sandwich myself into some clothes. I wish they had Spanx for motorcycle gear. I'm not going to go out to the mountains. I mean, even if it's 60 here, it's like 40 degrees up there. And I'm not prepared for that kind of riding. I have heated, but not like that.

Robin: So you're supposed to enjoy yourself.

Joanne: Exactly. And I can't, right. And I don't have like all the heated things. My plan was just to twiddle around town, maybe go visit the bison or the Buffalo over at the Rocky mountain. Is it the wildlife preserve? No, no, no. It's the rock, the arsenal, Rocky mountain arsenal. It's a park and it's just flat and, but you can drive through it. We did it in the summer with the top down. We just like drive around and like wave to the Buffalo and wave to the animals.

Robin: If you had to pick one outfit, like there's going to be a midsummer you and that midsummer you is going to put up a fight and you're gonna be like, I'm freaking doing this and you're going to, you're going to end up in this. You've got all the kit in your closet that is like ready for you. You know this, you'll be able to fit it in again, but there's also winter you. And winter me will wreck a cake. I'll do it. Like if you had to pick one outfit that is for peak winter, you, that was the time. You don't have to replace 10 grand worth. It's a temporary solution for the rider, the winter rider in you.

Joanne: I don't want to though, because I have the peak outfit for winter. I have it in my closet. It's right there. And it, and it's a very expensive outfit.

Robin: Is it $10,000 expensive?

Joanne: I think it's now a $1,200 outfit. It's a Gore performance show. So it's a laminated shelf.

Robin: Nice.

Joanne: It's awesome. Ladies got to recommend the lamina Gore-Tex out there and the men's version called the echelon, which is amazing also, but it's a really good lightweight Gore show. And I have a heated jacket liner that I've kept for years. So, and have he had grips. I am a proponent of heated grips and winter glove versus heated glove. And so the reason I recommend that I personally like it, but I also recommend it is because there is not enough heated gloves out there for everybody and the heated gloves that do exist are not great from a protection standpoint, they're not the most protective. You're not going to get the best fitting ones. You're not going to get the ones that fit the best on a sport bike. You'll get good ones. I'm not saying there's not options, but what I'm saying is if you have to choose between a good winter type glove and a heated glove, there are far more options for winter type gloves that have better protection, better dexterity, better fit than heated glove choices. So for like, what is the, I think rock bottom for $50, you can get a basic set of heated grips. Now you won't be able to change the heat levels. It's on and off.

Robin: I've got a three level over grip that Velcro's on and it's 30 bucks.

Joanne: That's the other option is you can do an over grip. Now that does change the grip. And for a tiny hand lady like me, I can't do that. That would make my grips too big. So I have, at least if I could come up with a name, but they're sportier. And the really cool thing is they have a controller that's only under the thumb instead of a full mounted controller, because my bike has very, very little room for, it's a little real estate on the handlebar. Like I don't have all this space. I don't have a KLR, fancy beamer. I don't have room.

Robin: Wait, did you just lump KLR and fancy beamer into the same sentence? Have you met Brian Ringer?

Joanne: Hello? Because why? You have an actual handle bar with space and I don't have that. My little handlebars are packed with all the crap from my little sport bike, right? I was using Oxfords on my SV, but on the Triumph, there's just no space. Koso, that's it. K-O-S-O, Apollo, heated grips. The controller is all at the thumb. Yeah. So you don't mount anything but the grip.

Robin: I like what you just said, just fueling the fire for conversation. I want to hear what you have to say. The pros and the cons, and there it is. There's the link.

Joanne: You know what? You need what you need. This looks like it just does what you need it to do, which is awesome. Where's the controller for that?

Robin: It is a separate entity that you, you fasten to your mirror mount if you have bar mounts, but it has an L-brace. It's a metalized L-brace that you bolt someplace and then you tape.

Joanne: Does it work?

Robin: I love it.

Joanne: Hey, it works. That's fantastic. I mean, look, if you're on a budget, you're on a budget, so you got to do what you have to do. But if you don't have real estate to mount anything else, that's why the Kosos are great because it's all in one into the hand grip.

Robin: Oh, these are beautiful, Joanne. These are awesome. Yeah, those are great.

Joanne: And also listen, I'm a vane. I always used to tell my customers, there's nothing wrong with being vane. There are some of us out there who just want to look amazing. And I want my bike to look just as good. My bike looks hideous when there's an ugly ass controller sticking out of it, right? So I'm very particular about- The wrist controller from Fallout. That's why I've got Rizoma parts. That's why I've got, you know, a vane Italian parts because it looks good on my bike. And if you don't have room, the Kosos are great. Any, listen, any human grip is great. The wraparound is great. On my old Ninja 250, I put on the $20 flip on and off ones. But I am a fan of heated grip and then warm glove because protection for me is utmost and I can't maximize protection on a heated glove. I want hard sliders. I want really good knuckle protection. I don't want a soft, flimsy snowboarding glove or snowmobiling winter glove when I ride my motorcycle.

Brian: Those tend to be so bulky too. You know, a lot of winter gloves get so incredibly stupidly buckled. Get your hippo hands on.

Joanne: If I had to, of course I would, but I don't ride like that, but I would do, I did 40, you know, I did a little bit of forties and some thirties riding when I was younger and I would, you know, like years ago when I did heated grips and glove and it, I mean, it worked, you know, I was able to make it work.

Robin: Fun question. Inspiring question. But this actually brings up a point is when I look at the Kosos, which look fantastic by the way, and they're, that's a good price. I noticed that, you know, the controller is on the grip on the inside of the grip. Now, I personally, I've never asked this question of anyone, and I'm curious to know between the three of us, when I ride the outside of my palms tend to leave the grip and go wide. I don't ever tuck into the inside of the grip. So those controls being where they are is fine for me. Does anybody here do that?

Joanne: I do. The reason I hold my hands closer to the grip is because my hands are small, but also because I get, I have more finite control over the throttle. If my hand is sitting too far out, then the tendency to just to roll on harder when your hand is further in, it's also something I would tell my students in MSF classes, bring your hand in because then your thumb also helps, I guess having that leverage up against the inside of the hand grip, then you can modulate the throttle in much smaller increments and really modulate the throttle carefully, especially when they were first learning clutch action. Like how far out do I open the clutch? How much gas do I give? Like that motion of throttle on and then clutch out, you really need to learn the refinement.

Robin: And it also seems to be in line with your shoulders too. It's like wherever you are naturally.

Joanne: Yeah. For me, it's all about, it's just to have the most finite control that I can on my throttle. Just so that I don't over throttle. Cause that bike just wants to like wheelie every 10 seconds. Like I can't, I can't do that.

Brian: Say that like it's a problem.

Joanne: It would be a problem.

Robin: Afterwards, the wind down, whoever said it, Brian, you're in charge.

Brian: Pressure's on. I honestly got nothing. I do have an idea though. Spring's coming, summer's coming, looking ahead. I've got some goals this year. Joanne talked about her goals. Get her bikes out, get out there. Replace $10,000 worth of gear, whatever it takes.

Joanne: I am going to try to add a solo ride on my goal this year is to do a nice week-long solo. It's been a minute.

Brian: Get out there. Yeah. And not just like, I want to ride here and there. It's like, what do I want to learn? What do we want to talk about? What do we want to do differently? What do we want to do the same? Planning out the year and just talking about how do you do that?

Joanne: I think my next segment is going to be, okay, you don't have $10,000 to replace your entire wardrobe. Or you don't have any, or you just don't have a big budget to buy new gear. So I'm going to give you out my tips to shop gently used motorcycle gear. That does include helmets. So I'm going to tell you what to look for and how to find it and how to find stuff that isn't broken or damaged.

Robin: Everybody ready to get out of here? Let's get out of here.

Joanne: Yes.