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It was about time! Last week, I passed the 20,000KM mark on my odometer. The rear tire was showing signs of wear pretty bad. The front tire isn’t as bad and still has tread. These were the original Dunlop D220 that came with the bike. I don’t ride that hard so this give pretty good tire life. I know have a Metzeler RoadTec Z6 on the rear wheel. The only difference I’ve noticed is the sound. I’ll be testting it’s rain handling capabilities later today has we have some heavy rain forecasted.

Today marks the first day of riding to work for 2007. I probably won’t be taking for the rest of the week but this morning it was warm enough to ride safely without risk of hitting a frozen puddle of water.

During the weekend, I did the un-winterizing of bike which consisted in checking the spark plugs, cleaning the air filter, checking the tire pressure, oil change, putting the battery bake in and firing the beast.

I took this opportunity to switch to synthetic oil. Not sure yet what the difference will be in bike maintenance and engine performance. If I notice anything I’ll let you know.

My last ride of the season in 2006 was on December 24th. Yes that’s right, on Christmas Eve 2006 I was out riding. The picture above was taken at that time. I had a lot of people looking at me and waiving and giving me thumbs up in my neighborhood. I’m looking forward to another nice season. So far my longest trip planned would be to Trois-Rivières this Summer for the Colloque des ingénieurs.

Well I was able to install my lower fairing this weekend. Besides a few bolts that were very hard to unscrew, the installation process is fairly well documented. One thing they could improve is the identification of the parts. All the bolts are identified by part number on the cardboard but on the installation sheet, they are labeled by letters. Not too hard to identify but still it would make it easier if the same labeling was used between these two.

There’s a slight hue difference between the fairing and the bike but since my bike has been exposed to the Sun and weather for 2 years, it is easily explained. But the difference isn’t too bad either.

Thank you again to Xtreme Suzuki in Ohio and my generous donators from Motorcycle-Journal.com

On the weekend, two of my friends and I went for a little ride. The thermometer showed about 5 degrees Celsius and there was a little bit of sun. We headed towards Wakefield but with hindsight, it wasn’t such a great idea. This was a little higher up in the hills so it was colder and there was frost on the road sides and we even hit a fairly big patch of ice and slush which scared me a little. I was riding in 2nd place and when the 1st person saw the slush he braked, when I noticed, I was on the ice but since he slowed I had to brake as well in order to not slam into him. The 3rd passed us on the left side avoiding all this. I didn’t like it too much when I felt my rear tire give and move sideways.

No harm done and besides that, it was a nice ride.

The project is on the verge of completion! I just called Eric Wright at Xtreme Suzuki to order the lower fairing for my SV! They don’t have it in stock so this means that I’ll probably receive it early December. Of course the motorcycle season here will be over (or almost) but I’ll have my lower fairing!

Thank you to all my generous donators and Eric at Xtreme for a great price!

I’ll do my best to document the installation process and be sure to take some picture when I get it!

This year’s weather is much colder than last year. Well, at least it feels that way. This morning, I rode in at -2 Celsius and I can tell that after 20 minutes, my gloves aren’t so effective anymore. According to the Weather Channel, when riding at about 80 km/h at -2, this produces a wind chill factor of about -15 Celsius. Can you say Brrrr.

Of course there are a few things to help cope with the colder temperatures. Heated grips and seats and even electrical jackets. I certainly would’ve appreciated heated grips this morning and warmer riding pants. I don’t think I’ll ride too often in such a low temperature. Of course, this means much less riding even when the afternoons are nicer. Today, the high is at 12 Celsius and nice sunshine.

Back in September 2005 I started my SV650S Lower Fairing Project to help collect the amout required to dress up my bike. After the 1st 6 months, I had collected $81 USD which was both a tad disappointing because of the small portion collected but also encouraging because I had no real expectations at first.

So after this first 6 months I posted an update on the forums of Motorcycle-Journal.com and this boosted my amount collected drastically to about $240 USD!

Things have slowed down and now at 11 months into the project, I have collected $311 USD. Unfortunately, the price for the part jumped higher too and while my best price was about $360 last year, this year it is $440 USD. Shipping for the item, as I am buying from the States (see the project page for the reason) is apparently about $40 USD bringing the total to $480.

I’m trying to think up of ideas to help me reach my goal but in the meantime, feel free to contribute!