SA Dealers News and opinions about topics in general

Trouble Shooting Suspension Problems.

Adjustment locations: Forks

Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located near the top of the fork. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located near the bottom of the fork. Spring preload adjustment (if applicable) is generally hex style and located at the top of the fork.

Lack of Rebound

Symptoms:

• Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and traction

• The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting the turn causing fading traction and loss of control.

• When taking a corner a speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss of traction and control.

• Aggressive input at speed lessons control and chassis attitude suffers.

• Front end fails to recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces.

Solution: Insufficient rebound. Increase rebound “gradually” until control and traction are optimized and chatter is gone.

Too Much Rebound

Symptoms:

• Front end feels locked up resulting in harsh ride.

• Suspension tucks in and fails to return, giving a harsh ride. Typically after the first bump, the bike will skip over subsequent bumps and want to tuck the front.

• With acceleration, the front end will tank slap or shake violently due to lack of front wheel tire contact.

Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound “gradually” until control and traction are optimized.

Lack of Compression

Symptoms:

• Front-end dives severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or during aggressive breaking.

• Front feels soft or vague similar to lack of rebound.

• When bottoming, a clunk is heard. This is due to reaching the bottom of fork travel.

Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase “gradually” until control and traction are optimized.

Too Much Compression

Symptom:

• Front end rides high through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide. It should maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering geometry to remain constant.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until bike neither bottoms nor rides high.

Symptom:

• Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to incorrect oil height and/or too much low speed compression damping.

Solution: First, verify that oil height is correct. If correct, then decrease compression “gradually” until chattering and shaking ceases.

Symptom:

• Bumps and ripples are felt directly in the triple clamps and through the chassis. This causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until control is regained.

Symptom:

• Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or entering turns.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until control is regained.

Adjustment Locations: Rear Shock

Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located at the bottom of the shock. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located on the reservoir. Spring prelude is located at the top of the shock.

Shock: Lack of Rebound

Symptoms:

• The ride will feel soft or vague and as speed increases, the rear end will want to wallow and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers.

• Loss of traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock returning too fast on exiting a corner.

Solution: Insufficient rebound – Increase rebound until wallowing and weaving disappears and control and traction are optimized.

Shock: Too Much Rebound

Symptoms:

• Ride is harsh, suspension control is limited and traction is lost.

• Rear end will pack in, forcing the bike wide in corners, due to rear squat. It will slow steering because front end is riding high.

• When rear end packs in, tires generally will overheat and will skip over bumps.

• When chopping throttle, rear end will tend to skip or hop on entries.

Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound “gradually” until harsh ride is gone and traction is regained. Decrease rebound to keep rear end from packing.

Shock: Lack of Compression

Symptoms:

• The bike will not turn in entering a turn.

• With bottoming, control and traction are lost.

• With excessive rear end squat, when accelerating out of corners, the bike will tend to steer wide.

Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase compression “gradually until traction and control is optimized and/or excessive rear end squat is gone.

Shock: Too Much Compression

Symptoms:

• Ride is harsh, but not as bad as too much rebound. As speed increases, so does harshness.

• There is very little rear end squat. This will cause loss of traction/sliding. Tire will overheat.

• Rear end will want to kick when going over medium to large bumps.

Solution: Decrease compression until harshness is gone. Decrease compression until sliding stops and traction is regained.

Mark Thompson has spent the past 20 years racing motorcycles and managing Race teams and riders. He now runs the Trackbikes Website along with a number on Internet Ventures

Posted under Motorcycle news

Everyone has wanted to sell a car at some point and in the age of Internet auctions, there are more options than ever when it comes to selling your car whether it’s an ’05, ’78 or a ’20. With this ever expanding world of options comes the need to make delivery after you’ve sold the vehicle and that requires a car transport service.

Depending on the auction service, you can list that shipment of the item is completely up to the buyer’s discretion or offer a method of transportation to fold into the final price.

The first is often more preferable to buyers because it allows them to shop various car transporters themselves to find the one that suits them best. However, if you decide to fold the cost of the shipment along with a hand picked transporter into the auction of your car, there are some things you need to do.

First, you need to narrow down your selection of transporters in some fashion that incorporates not only their price ranges but also their reliability and service records. Remember, that by folding in the selection of the transporter to the auction, you are in some way taking responsibility for the shipment both before you deliver it to the transporter and after.

Second, to simplify the matters with regard to the auction, make sure you have all the information about your selected transporter at hand. Include this information in the auction information. When buyers look through potential cars to buy on auctions they are as concerned about the cars they are looking at as to how they might get there.

Some buyers may not want to use the transporter you have selected; you may or may not wish to include that as an option to turn down on the buyer’s part.

Finally, when you are ready to list the car as well as the transporter information, be sure to include a series of price quotes from the transporter from the car’s location to major hubs on both coasts, the mid-west and include both upper and lower sides of the coasts, mid-Atlantic and so on.

This will allow the buyer to guess based on their proximity to one of those locations what the cost will likely be. Always be sure to list that the quotes are not exact and are not final until the buyer’s shipping information is received.

It may seem like more work than it’s worth to go through all of this prior to listing the car that you want to sell, it will pay off at the auction’s closing. As the seller, you simply wait to confirm where the car is being transported to and confirm a final quote from the transportation company.

Once the seller receives the payment from the buyer they can get the car to the transportation company of their choice and not have to worry if the buyer chooses a transporter that will be a hassle for you the seller.

While most buyers and sellers work in fairly cooperative relations in order to receive the item sold and the payment for the item, sometimes having the game plan set will save a lot of time.

Discover vital information and advice about car and auto transport services. Find out what you must do, and what you must not do. Click http://www.auto-transport-101.com/

Posted under Uncategorized

So while it may seem that no work has been going on with the Ford Falcon XR6, well ….. no work has been done!

My father (bless `is kind `art) has been doing a bit more work and has managed to track down a scrap yard that has a XR6 with rear end collision damage.

Going to go have a look this weekend (24 January 2009) at the car which is in Middelburg. Hopefully I can get all I need off of it, at a  fair price!

Otherwise the poor Ford will have to stand a while longer gathering dust.

If I can’t get the parts at a reasonable price I am considering using the car as a donor for a Lotus 7 replica see what I mean at www.locost.co.za. A 4 liter straight six ought to do pretty nicely in one of those!!

Seems that not that many XR6′s were sold, meaning that most scrapyards just don’t have anything for them, I placed an ad on a classifieds site for spares and the ONLY guy that answered told me that lights cost R 1 500 a piece, and there’s 4!!! Bloody hell.

Anyway need to get spares soon cos my neighbour is going to teach me how to weld with a MIG welder, because I upgraded his PC for him and did not charge him anything. If I do get the spares then he will also help out by fetching the spares with his bakkie and trailer (I just have to pay for petrol)

Of course nothing is ever easy so when I do get the spare I have to make a plan to finish the gate I started making. I am going to put it up next to my house where I have a precast wall running between the house and the perimeter wall. I am going to take out the people gate in that wall and one section of precast slats, then put the gate in there. This way I can park my wifes tazz in the ‘backyard’, which is where we keep our dogs. That should make it harder for anyone to steal another car from my house!

Until the gate is up though I will probably have to leave the spares outside, quite possibly in the rain.

Ho hum….

Posted under Project Falcon

Whether interest rates are high or low or it’s the end of a model year with lots of incentives, motorcycle buyers tend to make the same mistakes when shopping for a motorcycle loan. Here are four common mistakes motorcycle buyers make with motorcycle loans.

Shopping for a motorcycle before shopping for a motorcycle loan. Many motorcycle buyers enter the showroom looking for a motorcycle before they determine how much money a motorcycle lender is willing to loan to them for the purchase of a motorcycle. There is no need to shop for a $20,000 Harley Davidson motorcycle, if a lender is only willing to provide a loan amount of $10,000.

Additionally, once motorcycle buyers enter the showroom slick salespeople often pressure them into motorcycle loans with much higher internet rates than they could have gotten had they shopped for a motorcycle loan at a bank, credit union or online. Salespeople do not like motorcycle buyers to leave the dealership to get a motorcycle loan. In the salespersons mind this only increases the chance of loosing a sale and commission. Therefore, salespeople frequently try for a quick sale which normally results in pushing motorcycle buyers to get motorcycle financing at the dealership.

The bottom-line is that it is always best to shop for a motorcycle loan before entering the showroom.

Diving into the unknown motorcycle loan. Motorcycle buyers often jump into motorcycle loans that they do not completely understand or may not be the best alternative for them. For instance, in today’s age manufacturers frequently run credit card motorcycle loan promotions on their private-label credit cards. But these promotions typically offer a low interest rate for a short term like 12 or 24 months and have a much higher interest rate after the short promotional term. On a credit card promotion if motorcycle buyers can not afford to pay off the loan during the short promotion period, then they are typically better taking a slightly higher interest rate on an installment motorcycle loan for a longer term.

Borrowing too much.

The most common mistake the first time motorcycle buyer makes in not having a clear sense of how much motorcycle they can afford. This is especially true for young motorcycle buyers who look to buy the top sport bikes that cost up to $10,000 – $15,000. What they fail to realize is that financing a $10,000 – $15,000 motorcycle can stretch them to thin, resulting in them having little cash to enjoy themselves and the motorcycling lifestyle. They may also have too little cash to pay for insurance, maintenance, registration or new accessories for their motorcycle.

Not asking the right questions.

The first warning sign that motorcycle buyers should see is that if they do not understand the type of motorcycle loan, then they should be sure to ask a lot of questions.

Here are some good questions to ask:

• Is the interest rate fixed or variable? If fixed how long will it be fixed for?

• Are there circumstances that can make the interest rate on the motorcycle loan change in the future?

• What happens if a payment is 30 days late? Does the interest rate increase?

• What happens if a payment is 60 days late? Does the interest rate increase?

• How long is the term on the motorcycle loan?

• If the loan is an installment loan, does it use rule of 78 or simple interest? (Simple interest is always better because it does not penalize the motorcycle buyer if the loan is paid off early.)

• What is the down payment requirement to get the motorcycle loan?

• Is full coverage insurance required?

• How much is registration and are these fees included in the motorcycle loan?

• Are there any administrative fees to get the motorcycle loan and if so how much are the fees?

Overall, motorcycle buyers can avoid these common mistakes by spending a little extra time focusing on shopping for a motorcycle loan and asking lots of questions.

Copyright (c) 2004, by Jay Fran This article may be freely distributed as long as the copyright, author’s information and an active live link to http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com is published with the article.

A complimentary copy of any newsletter or a link to the site where the article is posted is greatly appreciated.

Jay Fran is a successful author and publisher at http://www.motorcycle-financing-guide.com. A comprehensive resource on how to have the best experience and get the best deal on motorcycle financing, bad credit motorcycle loans, high risk motorcycle loans and motorcycle buying.

Posted under Motorcycle news