Zach’s Garage

Pit bull rear stand

July 9, 2007 Maintenance No Comments

I have been missing the center stand that was on my Ninja, so this was a late birthday gift from the parents. Other than making chain maintenance possible, oil changes will be a lot quicker since I won’t have to keep tipping it up to level to check the oil. Its so stable on here I don’t think I could knock it over if I wanted to. Works great with the Motosliders swingarm sliders. I like the design of this forward handle model since I’m able to get it up on the stand by myself.

Motosliders

July 9, 2007 Modifications No Comments

This should have been the first thing I bought for my bike, but they have been out of stock until now. Arguably the best sliders for the SV, I got the set that includes frame sliders and swingarm sliders, which double as spools for a rear service stand. I don’t think they look bad at all, and should give me some cheap insurance. The frame sliders also double as a nice way for a quick stretch of the legs while on the highway.

Viper exhaust

July 2, 2007 Modifications 1 Comment

I finally got my Viper slip-on last week, and went about installing it. I rode the bike over to a friend’s metal shop since they have a Sawzall and any other metal working equipment I would need. First hurdle was the heat shield with those welded on bolts. I took a forum member’s advice to just snap them off with tons of pressure on the wrench, which worked great. Next came the cut. The sweet spot turned out to be about 1.5 inches from the weld at the header pipe.

I applied plenty of Permatex Copper and slipped it on. Everything lined up great, but trouble came when it was time to clamp it down. The clamp at the header pipe worked fine, but the one at the muffler simply wouldn’t do its job. I would tighten it down to the point where I felt it was about to break and the muffler could still be slipped right off. Something wasn’t right. I was out of time so shot an email to the site I got it from. The next day I had a reply, they suggested cutting a couple more slits at the muffler’s connecting pipe (There was already one there). This was pretty easy with my Dremel, and solved the problem completely. Nice and snug now.

The sound is perfect. Not too loud, but nice and throaty. Really unique sound too when normally all you hear are screaming inline fours or Harleys with open pipes around here.