I should have my man card pulled.
Yup.
I do not wash my bike that often.
I do not keep my chain up as good as one should, however I never take a risk when it comes to safety. Nope. Never... at least never with a sport bike.

But this Tiger has made me lazy.
Very lazy.
The bike is a turn key machine. 34000 trouble free miles.
I got it inspected a little while back and the inspector just looked at me and shook his head. He pointed at my rear brake and continued his inspection.

I run to the back and snag some new EBCs off the shelf and run back to my bike. Installed before he finishes the inspection. Woohoo! Kinda.

No damage to the rotor... but there was no pad left at all on the rear brake.
NONE!
Usually I burn through three sets of frint before the rear needs attention. But the tiger is fun to slide. It is fun to just about do anything. SO I burned up my rear brake. No biggie.

He hands me the passing slip and let me know the front brakes are next.
SO I bought pads and rode home. Never even looked till tonight.
Did they pass inspection? Yup.
Should they have passed? Yup.
But Legal does not me good.
I replaced my pads this evening and I can already feel a tremendous difference in the the brake lever in the garage. HOLY CRAP!

I took laziness to a new level for myself. I am embarrassed, but feel like sharing just as a reminder for everyone to check their own. My bike made no indication there was a problem when riding. I noticed the lever was coming further back, but over the course of a couple years, it is not a drastic change.

Lastly...
these were the original brakes.

I did the same thing with my rear stock pads on the 919 a few hundred miles ago. 29k miles on stock rear pads. They got so low that I was starting to scorch the rear rotor.

Good deal. Now take soap and water to that thing.

You're a better man than me. I'm a sucker when it comes to brake and tires on bikes. It may be very stupid of me, but I change them at the half way point.

Now put down the pint tonight and wash the bike.

I would skip the tires and brakes and do a track day.

slacker.

That is why my brakes last 30+ thousand miles. I know when to use them and when not too.

Ask Snicker boy how many times he sees my brake lights on a spirited ride.....

But since you brought up track days....

Trackdays were how my sport bikes stayed in perfect mechanical shape. I went over them carefully before every track day. Always inspected tires for wear, heat discoloration, etc... Checked brakes to ensure they could hold up for another weekend of abuse, changed oil every other track day, etc...

Wow! One more argument for trackdays! Thanks Mike!

I....., I just don't know you any more Mike...

U suk!

My new resolution will be spell checker.... sorry guys, juyst reread my first post. I suck.

Bring all your half-used parts to E'ville and I'll drive over to pick them up;

I give my bike a good look over regularly...It's the Tech in me as thats what I do for a living and just habbit. Same way with my cars.

Maybe if you stopped cramming track days down peoples throats as if those that don't do a track day are in the wrong you'd get a better reaction...

Hav-a-goo-day Mike

i'm over 300 miles from a track... and dream of getting a track day, but alas... the RC is coming out of the garage tonight to kill the streets!! i've had a month to look at it and make sure it's ready, but i'm not quite to the point of washing it

You are right, it is far better to check over your bike and make sure it is safe then to i don't know...

Train the rider to make sure they are safe.

But I guess you may need a 150hp for some reason....

Oh yeah, to talk about riding....

Just remember, everytime you break 100mph.... a track day is cheaper than the potential ticket.

That's just insane ludacris speeds. Who would ever ride that fast?!

Apparently I do all the time

Pre-ride checklist always includes tire pressure. While your checking the tires it only takes few extra seconds to look at the pads.

How do you hold onto your bike when going that fast? Wouldn't the wind turbulence blow you off?

wow ... i didnt know bikes went that fast...


are ya'll serious they will go over 100 mph... i read somewhere if you went that fast the pressure of the wind would kill you because you couldnt breathe...



talking about track days... thats a nice way to sharpen and perfect your skills...

but to go you have to have full sets of leather or equivilent

then buy new tires when your done

safety wire the whole bike killing the resale (trust me.. we used to have lots of them coming for trade in with safety wire... automatic 1000 off the trade value)

then last and certainly not least if you go down on the race track and wad up your precious bike your insurance company is gonna tell you to suck it..

cause that is specifically a no-no in your policy..

All my hard work in the gym has given me super human strength

I only use the brakes for doing stoppies and burnouts...at the track of course

isnt that "sthhuper human ssthhrength"...

Alright...enough already...we all have our own veiws...this thread is going downhill quick. Hondaf4iguy, I understand you rant with track days...some will go, some won't...If an owner of a sport bike doesn't do a track day then so be it...it is his choice...No need to throw it in his face everytime you see him.

Truths

Not being an a-hole. Just trying to clarify a few things. Trackdays are a great thing. Even if you aren't "Ricky Racer" ... get out there and have a blast!

I love listening to all the "poser" riders that tell you how fast they are and how they can ride any road and smoke anyone and how they can ride the wheels off there bike ...

Don't feel to bad, I had the same situation with my 919.

Changed the rubber late in the season last year and discovered the rear brakes were toast. Not bad enough to wreck the rotor, but further gone than I was comfortable with.

Dropped new pads in front and rear and discovered the fronts only had about 1/3 or less left as well. Wow! What a difference it made. And if I knew it was as easy as it was to swap them I would have done it a long time ago.

Whatever you do make sure your visor is fully closed, if it comes open you will instantly back flip off the bike, this goes double for your passenger. And then they will be on here posting pics of their rash and trying to convince everyone that having an open visor is dangerous.

I recommend duct taping the visor shut, or even better superglue.

Riders who can do this are few and far between, and the few you actually meet will likely NOT be the ones who are talking about it.

uhm, so youre gonna start doing trackdays again then?