yammerhammer98

Thanks for the info!

Any suggestions on where to rent a motorhome to use for a week at Glamis? I'm looking to pull my own enclosed 16' trailer to the rental place near the dunes, then use the motorhome from there. I would schedule the trip for an off weekend next February or March.

I think the height should be about right. I've always felt it was a little low in front anyway. It will especially help when I'm running my rock/dirt tires instead of the paddles. They're taller, giving me some much-needed ground clearance over the rocks.

Sorry if this is a re-post, but the Search function didn't come up with much. I recently picked up a set of used TCS remote reservoir shocks that came off a YFZ450, planning on trying them on my 97 Banshee with stock A-arms. Any tricks or pitfalls I should know before installing these?

Just one more reason to hate people that trash our riding areas: I was riding with some friends at Pismo last Saturday night, and the old Banshee was running great. I was going around the top of a slip face, almost topped out in second gear, when I heard a loud thump under me, and the quad stopped immediately. I had seen something fly out behind me, but didn't know what it was until I stood up and looked back. I had run over and popped up a glass Starbucks bottle which was completely buried in the sand. The bottle hit just right and snapped my chain, without even breaking the glass bottle! Luckily the chain didn't get bound up and break something else. We had to tow the Banshee back to camp, simply because some low-life piece of sh*t decided that the dunes were a good place to throw away a small glass bottle. The death penalty is too humane for these scumbags!

Nice old enduro bike that just needs some time and energy. All original bike, including white plastic. Original enduro lights, in working condition. Good wheels, tires, brakes and cables. Clear CA title and 2008 Green Sticker (I purchased bike from original owner/ family friend in 1998). Blew the original piston at Pismo last summer and started rebuild, but ran out of time and desire. Fresh cylinder bore done by Yamaha of Modesto, with new pistons, rings and bearing ready for reassembly. Spare parts: Seat cover (NIP), Rear fender w/light (NIP), rear sproket (NIP), 17" paddle tire (never mounted), 17" rear wheel (used). Will consider trade for smaller Buddy Bike, project or running. $500 firm. Delivery available in the Modesto area. http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...65/P3040005.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...65/P3040004.jpg

Yes, it is recommended. I went there last summer without a reservation, and they wouldn't let me camp since they were "Sold Out". It's a $270 fine if you get caught camping without paying. They're only allowed to sell a specified amount of "reservations", and they don't really care if there are no-shows. Once they hit that specified number, they're done for the night or weekend. I'm sure that Independence Day and Labor Day weekends are sold out. You're not actually getting a specific spot, you can camp anywhere you like after you cross the river.

A group of us went to Pismo for Father's Day weekend. The beach was packed with a bunch of idiots parking right on the tide line, which made entering and exiting an adventure, but the dunes themselves weren't really that crowded. As long as you're not making an ass of yourself, like speeding through someone's campsite or pulling wheelies on the beach, the Rangers don't bother with checking for red stickers or spark arrestors. It's pretty obvious when the drag 'Shees go by with open pipes that there ain't no screen in the way! Not much to burn with a few million tons of sand out there, anyway. Get your camping reservations through www.ReserveAmerica.com and save yourself a lot of hassles. They sell out of camping "spots" on weekends. Make sure you have a flag and stay away from the beach and the Rangers will definitely ignore you. I've never had my bikes checked in the dozen times I've been to Pismo. The sand was like baby powder, and I saw trucks getting stuck that you would expect to be going everywhere. Air down the tires while you're still on the beach and take it easy. http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...shee/IMG004.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...shee/IMG011.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...ee/P6170027.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam.../Pismo_PD_4.jpg

I used to live near Mt. Pleasant, IA. Sure don't remember any supermodels in the area. There is a mental health hospital in town, if that's any kind of clue!

Since lousy customer service has become so rampant these days, you would think I would just be used to it by now. I ordered a street bike jacket on-line from Competition Accessories , and received it yesterday. It was a great price on a Miline Fortuna replica jacket. Didn't know anything about the brand before, but decided to take a chance. I know that European sizes run small, so I ordered the biggest jacket they advertised, Size 54, even though I'm really only about a 48 or 50. My AGV Sport is a 50, and I have a Fieldsheer mesh and Firstgear waterproof that are 2XL that fit great. I get the jacket and it's labeled 5XL (wholly sh*t, Batman!!). The thing is so small I can barely get it on, and when I tried to zip it up, I figured out the problem. The zipper is on the wrong side! These guys shipped me a Women's jacket! I call them this morning and tell them I'm returning it. The f*cktard in charge refuses to pay for the shipping! He tries to tell me that all jackets made in Spain have the zipper on the other side, and that Miline doesn't make women's jackets. This clown is buying and selling women's riding apparel, advertising them as men's gear. It's not a purse, it's European!! It cost me $8.30 to ship this worthless crap back to Ohio. Don't order anything from Competition Accessories!

I drank a couple bottles of Molson yesterday while I watched the Houston Supercross coverage. Does that get me into the Canuck Club?

Another bank "scam" to watch out for is Overdraft Protection. I have a Bank of America credit card which is a lousy high-interest account I never use, just so I can have overdraft protection on my checking account. Go to the ATM, take out, say $100, not realizing that you only have $90 in the account. The bank then transfers money from the credit card account to cover the overdaft, and charges you a $10, $20 or $30 dollar service charge. Doesn't it make more sense to just disallow the withdrawal transaction since you don't have the money in the account? But the bank wouldn't make any money off that common sense solution, they'd rather penalize their customer for not keeping track of his account balance.

So many lousy drivers are complete creatures of habit, just blindly driving along in "their" lane, no matter what might happen to be in it. Just look at how many police officers and construction workers are struck and killed, even with flashing lights and orange cones to warn oncoming drivers that they might actually have to wake up and pay attention to what they are doing. Damned lucky nobody got killed. Always expect the worst, you'll never be disappointed!!

Mike Yamaguchi? Isn't that the guy from the movie "Fargo" that was trying to hook up with the pregnant cop?

Finally got around to cleaning the 'Shee this past weekend. Took it up and down the street a couple of times to dry everything. Ran like crap with the B7's in it. Definitely detonating from the hotter plugs. Put the B8's back in and it ran great. I'm probably running a little rich. I'll do a real plug check next time I get a chance. Thanks for your help.

18% of the population of the UAE are millionaires, and a huge portion of the rest are pretty well-off as well. The UAE government provides everything to the people; Health Care, College Tuition, etc. Not exactly fertile breeding ground for recruiting disgruntled ragheads to strap C-4 to their backs. Besides, if real terrorists want to get to the U.S., they'll simply fly into Juarez, Mexico and walk across the border. They can pick up their guide books and maps at the local Chamber of Commerce office. The friendly representatives of the Mexican Government will probably supply Camelbacks full of Gatorade and Powerbars to make their trip more comfortable. As soon as they get to California, they'll be welcomed at the nearest Hospital Emergency Room where they can get free medical treatment for any scrapes or scratches they may have received while climbing the fence. Oh, that's right, THERE IS NO GODDAMNED FENCE! Anyybody overly concerned about a legitimate business transaction by a company based in the UAE is looking in wrong freakin' direction!

I actually had my first chance to compare the two, back-to-back, this past weekend at Pismo Beach/Oceano Dunes. It was my first dunes trip on my '97 Banshee that I bought last fall. Basically stock, piped and jetted with paddles. Absolutely had a blast on the dunes with the engine running great and the Sand Skate II paddles hooking up very well. My friend had a brand new (like 3 days new!) Special Edition 700 Raptor that he let me try out. First off, the power delivery was incredibly smooth and controllable, and 2nd, 3rd and even 4th gear wheelies were effortless. A +4 swingarm would be awesome! You could scream up hills at crazy speeds, or crawl up the same slope in 1st almost down to idle. Very forgiving powerband. Piped and jetted (oops, I mean "chipped") the horsepower available would be scary! Good suspension and ride, and I fit pretty good (I'm 6'3", so the 450 MX quads always feel a little tight). Definitely sits much higher than the Banshee, and might even feel a little top-heavy, but I bet you would get used to it pretty quickly. The sand was really chopped up due to the heavy President's Day traffic, and the stock suspension wasn't really any more comfortable than the Banshee, but more controllable (better rebound damping?). Overall: I still love my Banshee, but that Raptor was sweet! Yamaha hasn't drug me over to the Darkside yet, but it's getting harder to resist! Unless you're going to the dunes or the desert where you can open the Banshee up, I'd say get the Raptor. Much better trail machine, and the fuel injection makes it zero set-up for differences in altitude. http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...ee/P2190019.jpg http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e238/yam...ee/P2190009.jpg

The temperature was about the same, but it was definitely more humid than we normally get in the valley, especially with the rain in the Pismo area this weekend. You probably diagnosed the situation correctly. Didn't notice any detonation at all, but we were running 100 octane fuel, which would help that. As long as there is no detonation, any chance of burning a piston with the B7s? We're both pretty conservative riders, no drag racing or long WOT stuff. I try to wind it up a little every few seconds, just to keep it running clean and not loading up the plugs.

This has probably been covered before, but I'm too lazy to read dozens of unrelated threads. Just got back from Pismo last night. Had so much fun I can't wait to go back! Situation: My friend and I have basically stock, piped and jetted Banshees that run great here in the Central Valley of California. We're barely above sea level here (10-1000 ft. where we usually ride). First time with these machines at Pismo. He's running Blendzall, I'm using Bel-Ray Si-7. After about 30 minutes of riding on the beach and dunes, his 'Shee started crapping out. The NGK B8 plugs were seriously fouled, so we put in a set of B6 I had in my toolbox. The thing ran great the rest of the weekend. About 15 minutes later, mine started running like sh*t!! Pulled the plugs and they were dripping with fuel. We had to run out to Angelo's and get some more plugs. I bought B7, put 'em in and the 'Shee absolutely ripped for the next two days. Still got the grin on my face to prove it. Is it normal to have to run hotter plugs at Pismo?

Bush Fails To Prevent East Coast Blizzard; Minorities Hit Hardest By: Brian Williams NBC 02/12/06 As President Bush and his staff cowered in the White House, the snow continued to pile up on the many poor and African American victims who could not afford to get out of town or to safety in Florida. Crucial supplies of blankets, hot cocoa, popcorn and dark rum, so essential to surviving the stress of any major snowstorm, lay in stores undelivered. "Where is the government? I need my sidewalk shoveled so I can get out to buy my damn lottery tickets!" said one D.C. resident from his living room. "Why are we wasting money in Iraq when we could be spending it here on me?" Progressive blogs blasted the President for his inaction. "We find the timing terribly suspicious. Just as the Domestic Spying hearings kick into high gear, what happens? A major northeast Blizzard. Why now? Coincidence? ", wrote one blogger. Hearings into the Blizzards' effect on the poor are almost a certainty. DNC Chairman Howard Dean has suggested he will call for an investigation, once his new medications kick in, and Sen. John Kerry took a break from the sporting activities of the glamorous super-rich in some exotic locale to call for new legislation outlawing snowstorms. (Reportedly Senator Kerry was spotted cheering on the Canadian Curling Team in Torino, Italy, and rumor has it that Teresa Heinz-Kerry is very fond of the French Ice Dancing contingent) "The Republican Congress has dropped the ball once again. I have always been a staunch supporter of anti-snow legislation, except for certain locations where I ski. Snow has no business on our roads and the President and Congress knows that.", stated the Senator. Calls for impeachment over "SnowGate", as some are calling it already, are mounting as deeply as the snow itself, and what will be discovered underneath will prove to have a truly chilling effect on the Republicans, as the inevitable thaw proceeds. Or something like that. More breaking news...... Al Sharpton wants an investigation into why snow is ALWAYS white. VP Dick Cheney has stock in Tru-Value Hardware. Do you have any idea how many SNOW SHOVELS they sold today to the unsuspecting consumer? Who's raking in profits from the misery of the less forunate? I demand to know why FEMA has been so late in reacting to this storm. THEY KNEW IT WAS COMING! And yet they failed to have crews in place to fix the electricity as soon as it went off. It just shows that Bush and the Republicans just don't care about the people of New England. The Senate needs to investigate this by appointing a Special Investigator to question White House administration people under oath. I'll bet that the Junior Senator from the great State of New York has opened the doors of her home to all of the heatless poor of her neighborhood and is busy baking cookies for them, while her husband contributes to the cause by applying body heat to the nearly frozen teen-aged girls.

That's awesome! It's great to see Bailey riding again. I was never a big fan (don't care for Hondas!!), but he was THE MAN when he was in his prime. For a short time there in the early 80's, Honda had Bailey, Johnny O'Mara and Rick Johnson as a dominate AMA outdoor team.

I actually sold my Kawasaki Big Horn 350 in 1976 when Iowa passed the helmet law. Couldn't stand to wear one. Now, I wouldn't even think about riding dirt or street without a helmet. Amazing how time and aquired wisdom changes our outlook, isn't it?

I went to my local Suzuki dealer last year to get the parts to replace my streetbike's chain and sprockets. The kid behind the parts counter: a. Didn't know what a chain breaker was. b. Didn't know that streetbikes come from the factory with a continuous chain. c. Couldn't help me convert my oddball-size factory stock setup to a common size (532 to 530). d. After I looked up everything for him, he tried to sell me a non O-ring master link for my O-ring chain. When I called him on that, he told me to just use the O-rings off my old master link! Duh, I didn't have an old master link, remember? Even if I did, that wouldn't work anyway, since the link wouldn't fit. After I got all the information I needed, I went home and ordered everything from Dennis Kirk. And dealerships wonder why they can't compete with the online vendors?

I have Thor T-20's, and I don't like the buckles. They seem kind of cheap, and are sometimes hard to get un- buckled. I believe the T-30 uses the same system. My vote: Go with Alpinestars or Fox. You get what you pay for.

finman, Don't bother with those painted hose clamps. I wasted my money on a set of those for my FMF pipes. They are simply a decent quality steel hose clamp with rubber hoses painted whatever color you order. Perfectly usable clamps, but they are worth about $2 each, not the high price he's asking for them.