04/29/03 I was in a bike store recently and one thing that caugh my eye is slimline aftermarket turn signals. The 748 came with rather clunky Government-mandated units that look a bit out of place with the bike's sleek lines. The replacement signals were cheap (under $10 a pair), so I decided to give it a shot while waiting for the new master cylinder to arrive... The installation of the rears went very quickly and to my eye improved the look quite a bit.

The fronts, because of the way they are mounted, required a bit of disassembly of the front fairing bits. The signals should probably stick out further but the look is again improved as far as I'm concerned.

The new units echo the lines of the mirrors and the rest of the bodywork quite well. A cheap and rather painless cosmetic upgrade.

While I was taking things apart I also cleaned out the air filters. The majority of the bike's service items are designed for great ease of maintenance. Not so the air filters, surprisingly. There are two, and to get to them a whole bunch of work is needed. The mirrors have to come off, and both side fairings - pretty quick work due to quarter-turn fasteners. Then the front fairing comes off with just two bolts. And then...

One is faced with long plastic ducts that are held together by long philips screws. Eight of them per side. To make things more interesting, the screws are in deep recesses so it is not possible to use a power screwdriver. Also, quite a bit of pressure is required to avoid stripping the heads. And as a final touch, the turn signals have to be unbolted to get to the forward-most screws. Once all that is done, the filter is revealed on each side - a piece of thin foam supported by a rather flimsy plastic frame.

Mine were pretty dirty and I cleaned and oiled them before reassembling the whole mess with the new turn signals.

Now if only the clutch master cylinder would show up.....

04/30/03 Since I hadn't heard anything from the dealer on the master cylinder, I decided to give them a call. They looked up the order, and there wasn't one. Bummer. Then the parts guy saw that they had one in stock for a 2000 model 748. Fourteen bucks more, apparently the same part. I sure wish they had figured that out to begin with!

A quick run down there, five minute installation and the clutch is operational again. I'll just focus on the positive. The bike is now ridable and tomorrow should be a nice day.

05/22/03 Another bike track day. This one went fairly well and I got back into the groove a bit. There is another bike day a week from today where I hope to start moving forward again. I'll probably get new tires between now and then also, since these are 2 years old and have 5 track days on them...

Turnout was pretty good, with 25 bikes per session. The 'middle' group in which I ran was pretty quick today and I got passed as often as I did the passing. A video illustrates. There was a neat Honda 125cc two-stroke racer there and for some reason it looked particularly appealing to me.

Every now and then I keep thinking about getting one of these just for track use... Maybe someday. On a down note, after the track day was over I realized that my cellphone jumped out of my velcro-closed pocket somewhere on the track. Not practical to look for it, and even if I found it chances are it's not functional anymore. Calling it showed that it is not alive (the phone was on and fully charged the last time I saw it). So now I have to order a new one... Which effectively just doubled the cost of the track day. Oh well.

05/24/03 Since my tires were now two years old and after 5 track days were starting to show some wear, I replaced them with a fresh set of Pirelli Diablo Corsas in preparation for a track day next week. While waiting for tires to be mounted I test-rode a 999 on my favorite twisty road (it just happens to be 5 minutes from the dealership and I took it both on the way there and back on the 748). I must say I'm very impressed. The bike felt light, nimble and compact. Made my 748 feel clunky by comparison. And of course there's lots more power, although I rode at a moderate pace and didn't use the throttle too much. The curves were fun though - instant confidence and the bike connected with the road in a very natural, flowing way. It's almost enough to let me see past the heavy-handed styling...

Once the new tires were on, an issue came up - the rear turns out to be taller than the Michelin it replaced and interferes with the carbon fender. The mechanic did his best to tweak it so I could ride home but I will have to come up with a better solution. Also I was advised that the chain is nearing the end of its life and that I should replace it before doing another track day. Since I'm not up to that at the moment I decided to skip Tuesday's track day (already doing a lot of driving/riding in May!) and attend some of the later ones. Fortunately there are plenty of available track days this year.

Back on the twisty road on new rubber the Duck feels more easy-going somehow and more confident. I'd say it's now half-way between what it was on Michelins and the 999. The Pirellis have a much rounder profile than the nearly-triangular Pilot Sports and so don't fall into turns as sharply nor 'fixate' on a particular lean angle nearly as much. The bike is more willing to let you pick whatever amount of lean at any given time and make adjustments at will. It still feels relatively tall and heavy compared to the 999 though. Overall I'm quite happy with the change (assuming I get the fender sorted out), but a definitive impression will have to wait till the next track day at the end of June. That gives me some time to get the chain issue sorted out.

06/13/03 Received the replacement chain for the 748 today so decided to put it on. As an aside, when earlier I inquired at the dealer about the chain, they offered me a 525 size at $165. I didn't buy it at the time, then went home and checked the manual. My year 748 uses a 520 (the 916 used a 525). Went to the garage and double-checked on the bike, sure enough it's a 520. So did some online searching and bought a DID 520VM chain for $99. Pays to check. Also got a heavy-duty chain tool from the same place.

First the old chain had to come off - quite easy, except that the drive pin on the 'heavy duty' tool had mushroomed in the process and was a real pain to get back out of the chain. Lesson learned - grind off the rivet heads in the future before pressing them out. Then the new chain had to be cut down to size. It came with 120 links and the bike needs 94.

This went pretty easily. Then put the new chain on the sprockets, insert the master link, press the the endplate on using the tool (not TOO far though so as not to bind), then rivet the link pins again using the tool. Not too bad.

A fairly straightforward procedure that took about half an hour. No doubt $100 labor at the dealer. One thing that is a bit of a concern is that the master link rivet pins appear to be made of some kind of brass-like material. I can't imagine how they could be as strong as steel ones, though supposedly they are? Hmmm... It is something that I will definitely be keeping an eye on whenever I lube the chain.