June 29, 2018
INTRODUCTION
Summer officially started in the northern hemisphere. That means sweating on your bike while wearing full gear. Better safe than sorry though, so stay safe and stay hydrated! As school holidays begin you might have a family vacation (aka non-motorcycle vacation) coming up. I know I have. Don’t dispair though; we’ll keep the MIR’s coming for you to scratch that motorcycle itch.
In this week’s MIR we talk about reliability vs owner satisfaction, adv vs off-road, a dangerous epic route, chain slack, bluetooth remotes and a very special mother-in-law!
Before getting into the details though; Jasper, Tom and myself have had some funny discussions on whether our bikes are male or female. Jasper and Tom refer to their bike as ‘her’ while I use ‘him’. How about you? Is your bike a ‘him’ or a ‘her’?
Now, without further ado, let’s get rolling…
Guido
EPIC ROUTES
The Triple Nickel
Warning: this route is not for novices
Just south of Zanesville, Ohio lies the sleepy town of Brush Creek. This is the starting point of the ‘Triple Nickel’. Just put Chesterhill, OH on Scenic as your final destination and fire up your engine.
The Triple Nickel is full of very tight twisties and while cruising at low speed can be great fun, I’d prefer to do this route on a Triumph Speed Triple. Unexpected turns and some gravel on the road shouldn’t spoil the fun! Here’s a detailed ride report on the Triple Nickel.
Tom
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Motorcycles
Reliability vs Owner Satisfaction
Ever wondered what the most reliable motorcycle brand is? You might be surprised to hear it isn’t Harley Davidson. Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda are at the top of the reliability ranking based on failure rates for 4-year old bikes. Harley is fairly high up on another list though; Owner Satisfaction.
Jasper
MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE
Fixing Chain Slack
In the last 10 months I drove about 10,000 miles (16.000 km) on my KTM and while the sprockets and chain have been nothing but smooth, I started noticing some chain slack after a while. A somewhat looser chain isn’t going to slow you down a lot, but it could potentially come off the sprocket and cause some serious damage.
Experts recommend to check chain tension every 500 miles, but every time I lube my chain, I try to check whether it’s time to tighten the chain a bit. With the right tools, adjusting the chain is a simple task that every rider can do.
Ari Henning at Motorcyclist Mag put together this awesome video on how to tighten your chain.
Tom
GADGETS
Bluetooth Remotes
Operating an iPhone while riding motorcycle requires special- or adapted gloves. Not to mention it’s challenging and potentially dangerous to try and tap at the right spot when riding. That’s why I’ve been exploring alternative methods to operate the Scenic App. I’ve looked at ‘wave’ gestures using the proximity sensor of the phone (the one that’s used to turn off the screen when you bring your phone up to your ear), but that wasn’t reliable and didn’t work in landscape mode. Enter bluetooth remotes, like these from Sena for example. The Sena ones only work with the Sena com systems obviously, but imagine being able to control essential Scenic functions with such a remote. Maybe a not so distant future ??!
Guido
MOTORCYCLE CLOTHING
Adventure vs. off-road motorcycle gear: How to choose
Do you know the exact difference between the two? What distinguishes an adventure helmet from a dirt bike helmet? Spurgeon Dunbar wrote an interesting article explaining adventure pants vs. dirt bike pants, adventure boots vs. dirt bike boots and adventure gloves vs. dirt bike gloves. An enlightening read for anyone who ever wondered what the subtle differences are.
Jasper
PIC OF THE WEEK
Mother-in-law
It may not be the most beautiful picture of all submissions, but anyone that gets his mother-in-law to clean and fix his motorcycle is an absolute hero in my book ?! Here are all pics we received.
Image by Guido
What’s your most beautiful / funny / crazy motorcycle shot? Share your pic with us and we might just put it in the next Moto Intel Report.