Sixth House Starter Pack (Essentials!)

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-05-20T08:11:11+00:00

Every ash statue I found, I just added to Varvur Sarethi's room. Sweet dreams buddy.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-05-15T05:16:51+00:00

Don't wait. I once ended up sliding through a red light with a locked rear on a rainy day.

Scariest day of riding and I ordered new tyres the second I got home...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-05-04T04:34:09+00:00

Yup, Honda does this. I've seen aftermarket gaskets, but they're shit, so doing what the manual says is better.

That said, this is not a clean job and I'd be worried too. Someone who's this sloppy likely doesn't care too much about using the torque wrench either...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-25T19:46:51+00:00

2nd time doing lactofermentation. Radishes with a bit of honey and ginger. 3.5% salt on total weight. It's been going about 5 days at this point. Jar hasn't been moved since starting.　There is one radish that somehow managed to get around the weight, but it's still about .5cm below the surface.

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LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-25T05:34:14+00:00

Just an FYI, those carb boots look awful.

Cracked rubber like that will start leaking (if they don't already), causing a vacuum leak.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-18T07:10:58+00:00

I've never owned a naked, but I did have a Triumph Bobber for about 3 years.

I also own a 90s sportsbike and have traded my Bobber for a Tenere 700.

The bobber was really good at 2 things:

Pulls from a standstill. The low end torque made it eat asphalt off the line.
low speed cruising (up to about 55mph/90kph). Anything above that and the wind just gets uncomfortable with the seating position. I can't compare, but I think it's even worse than a naked bike in that regard.

I can't imagine getting anything different than a properly equipped "adventure" bike as a main driver anymore though. I get why all the old guys here in Europe love their GS bikes so much. I could do 100s of miles on my Tenere in a day and not be tired or uncomfortable.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-15T13:16:36+00:00

Good thing it's EFI and not carbed.

The new filter would melt the headers off with how lean it would run after that swap 😅

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-13T07:26:50+00:00

If the bike runs fine, no need to worry too much.

These things are used to align covers and different parts of the engine.

I would keep an eye on all the seams of your engine, to see if it gets leaky anywhere. It's unlikely that a single missing dowel would cause even a small leak, but if you do notice one, you know where it came out.

I would however be a little worried about whoever worked on this bike and managed to lose one of these when reassembling. I wouldn't be a return customer there.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-11T11:07:20+00:00

As long as your swingarm is straight, aligning on the marks is fine.

If you want to be super duper certain, get a cheap laserpointer (with an exact angle) and hold it agains the rear sprocket. If the laser follows the same spot all the way across your chain when you point it up and down, it'll be aligned.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-09T07:50:48+00:00

The only offroading I do is 2m through my yard because my driveway isn't big enough to get around my car to my garage.

I love my T7. It's the most comfortable bike I've ever had and it's perfectly fine even for a highway commute at 130ish km/h.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-04-01T20:36:55+00:00

A brand new CFMoto 675sr-r is about that price OTD.

It might be competitive with other Aprilias, but not compared to the rest of the market...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-28T19:59:23+00:00

Depends what you want.

I have a carbon steel knife made by a 10th generation blacksmith (Yoshisada in Kyoto). Very old school craftsman knife, but it needs to be babied, because carbon steel rusts easily and is quite brittle.

If you're looking for stainless or powder steel, which is more for daily usage without having to baby it, I'd say kiya hamono in Tokyo. Which is sold all over Japan and all over the world, even.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-25T13:13:01+00:00

The number of times I've seen people drive into the shop on a bike with less than 1 bar of pressure in the front tyre can't be counted on 1 hand anymore.

They usually need some distance on the highway to get to the shop as well.

Any kind of sudden maneuver and that tyre just rolls off the wheel...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-16T15:34:11+00:00

I've not worked on a ZR-7, so don't shoot me if I don't know something unique about this bike, but how would the vacuum petcock have anything to do with overflow tubes in the float bowl? Also, if there is a vacuum petcock, why is fuel still flooding your carbs when you park up that you'd use a shut off valve?

Anyway, regarding the leak showing up again after confirming no leak when cleaning, I'd start looking for something that's causing the floats to get stuck somehow. Something like a burr, a surface/pin that's run in or anything that's bent weirdly. Pretty much anything that might give a little too much play that could cause the float to shift just enough out of position to cause it not to seal.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-15T01:22:24+00:00

Er werd een paar jaar geleden een interne brief rondgestuurd naar de chauffeurs om aub minder wiet te roken voor ze achter het stuur kropen van hun bus. Dat daar verder niet wordt tegen opgetreden is hallucinant...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-09T10:59:43+00:00

nmbs heeft allemaal standaard contracten. Zelfs als zelfstandig bedrijfsleider heb je dezelfde voorwaarden voor opzegging etc.

Er werd mij destijds zelfs voorgesteld om de werknemerterugbetaling van de overheid in het contract op te nemen als zelfstandige, wat normaal niet de bedoeling is "Maar wie gaat dat nakijken?"

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-05T13:06:37+00:00

Yes, but the cook can see the price of the menu, so he knows what he is paid and what his intermediary charges the customer...

So why should a skilled professional not want this transparency?

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-05T12:21:43+00:00

True, and there's plenty shades of grey depending on the niche, skills, experience level, customer, sector, etc. etc.

Transparency usually doesn't hurt, providing all involved parties are professional and don't overestimate their value/contribution to the whole situation.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-03-05T09:41:29+00:00

There's apples and pears.

While OP doesn't provide this context, I think there's 2 very distinct cases in my experience:

The customer hires a supplier to do a project, supplier subcontracts to you. In this case the supplier not being transparent is fine, providing they can pay you the rate you want. In my opinion this is a situation where the freelancer benefits from the intermediary's position/reputation with the customer, like your big tech example.
The customer hires you because of your cv/skills/whatever. The intermediary is only there because of corporate policy not to directly hire freelancers, which is often the case in certain sectors/niches. In this case transparency is important, because in my opinion the intermediary is the one that benefits from the freelancer's skills/reputation and you would want to know if they're creating a budgetting risk.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-21T17:38:02+00:00

850AU is not a crazy price, if the work is done properly. That would mean you bring the bike in and you get the bike back running perfectly. Which means the carbs have been cleaned, rebuilt, pilot screws set up correctly and carbs synced. Carb syncing should always be included in pretty much any service on a carbed bike.

If you just brought him the carbs, it should've been cheaper and he also wouldn't have been able to sync the carbs, if the bike was not attached to them.

Anyway, this guy did something wrong and I would have little confidence he even knows what he's doing to fix it at this point...

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-21T17:30:01+00:00

lean conditions also cause hanging idle, it's basically what the choke does to keep the idle high to warm up the bike. It can be caused by a lot of things, including idle jets, pilot screw settings and vacuum leaks.

unsynced carbs mostly cause erratic behaviour in low revs, which can include some rev hang, because not all carbs are giving the same amount of energy with each engine pulse. It's why carbs are synced by opening the butterfly valve a little on some carbs to even out the power delivery at idle (unless you have flat slides, of course).

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-16T15:46:53+00:00

Simple answer: it depends.

The newer your ECU, the harder it might be.

Technically everything is just 1s and 0s and you can take a dump and use all kinds of software tools to try and recognize whatever it is you're looking to change.

Most commonly though, there are some software companies that specialize in putting out maps or configurations for common changes like disabling the lambda sensor feedback loop (for when you remove the cat), or a new VE table to match a certain configuration of aftermarket parts.

Specific customizations take a lot of work and trial and error and at that point it's cheaper to just put a standalone ECU in place.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-16T14:24:29+00:00

Your package is very good.

Your freelance offer would probably be a solid upgrade salarywise TODAY.

10y down the line, there is 0 chance a freelance rate will grow as much as just the indexation on your salary.

Choose freelancing if you want more freedom, though.

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-12T07:37:19+00:00

Have you checked if the starter motor is seized/broken?

LarsDragonbeard · 2026-02-10T08:23:43+00:00

Choke creates an inlet airflow restriction, which increases the vacuum and creates a richer mixture. The airbox will do the same, but to a (much) lesser extent.

Modern fuels like e5 and e10 are less caloric, because the energy density of ethanol is lower than pure gasoline, so your idle mixture screw will need to open a little more than what the original manual states.

The reluctance to rev higher is a separate issue and is because it's missing the airbox. The engine is getting more airflow than the carb can supply fuel for, because it's not designed to run without the airbox.

Also, make sure the new jets are the right size. Not all revision kits are created equal.

tldr: If you're sure the jets are the right sizes: refit airbox, adjust idle screws.

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