Planned on going to the IMS show Friday evening, meantime, I'm waiting for a set of Zard silencers for the Guzzi to arrive by Fedex. About 2pm, they show up. Plenty of time to get them on before I want to leave. I get the left stocker off in short order, but it's got a seal on it that I need to get the spacing right on the new muffler. Trying to get it out, I demolish the thing. They usually come out quite easily. I guess I must've overtorqued it the last time I took it off, What to do, it's too late to get a newy, but wait, I have some aluminum tape to fill the gap, so I wrap the tape around the pipe and try to slip the new silencer on. It won't go, too much tape. This thing doesn't need the spacer! So I cut the tape off and and get the new pipe on with a light application of the big orange hammer! It's bolts up OK, so, after a bunch of wasted time, I'm off to the other side. It's a bit more of a pain to get off because it hasn't been off. The left one has to come off to get the axle out to change tires. The new pipe goes on easily enough, but the bracket won' line up to get a bolt though it on the inside of the bracket like the other side. I loosen up a crossover pipe so the exhaust pipes can be moved closer together. A little more Orange hammer work.
I fiddle and push and pound to get the bracket to line up, then note that it is becoming a monstrous task, so I contemplate making the bolt hole bigger which will take time, then decide to just put the bracket on the outside of the hanger. That works. Everything situated and tied down, I still have to unpack a helmet that UPS delivered ten minutes after the pipes arrived.
I bought a new silver HJC with the sunshade and wanted to check it out, too. So an hour or so after I intended to, I finally got to leave for the show.
The pipes still have the db blockers so are even a bit quieter than the stockers. They will be removed today!
The helmet seems to be slightly noisier than my old HJC, and it ventilates better. But the reason I got it was the built in sunshade. Heading west to Long Beach in the late afternoon proved to be a great test ride for it. It worked very well! I got the silver one to be cooler in the summer. I read something here recently that white helmets were ten degrees cooler internally than black one in hot weather. Most of my other helmets are black or other dark colors. I abhor white, so I compromised for the silver.
In another thread I mention the show, which I did enjoy, but the ride over and back really made the day. It was a bit chilly, but totally refreshing. Just a great evening to be on a bike!
Bare