90,000 kilometers

[davenowherejones]

I had a bit of fun yesterday. I went out to take pictures of my odometer when it clicked over to 90,000 km.

I started the day by taking off the muffler to see where the rear brakes were at. I keep a spread sheet for my 2014 Forza. The rear brakes were at 9700 km. I expected them to be worn out but they looked almost new.

I had tried to put my fibre optic sewer cam in to take a look but I could not tell how the pads were because of a bit of brake dust.

So off came the muffler again. I took the caliper off and to my surprise the pads looked like new. I hit the brakes hard every once in a while and they work perfectly.

The front pads are easier to see. I have a ridiculous 68,000 km on the fronts with lots left over.

When I first bought the Forza back in June 2015 the brake pads were wearing out quickly. It looked really bad. Eventually I re-greased the callipers and things became better. I think they were assembled wrong in Thailand. I also think my forks had no oil when it left Thailand which lead to the original owner dropping the practically new scooter in a parking lot.

The Honda muffler gasket I put on cost me $19.18. I bought a spare one recently at $33.59. I think the recent trade war between the USA & China etc will probably increase the parts prices a lot.

I did the brake inspection first thing in the morning to let the mountain passes get above freezing.

I was going to go to Merritt and then Princeton to back home. It was a blue sky day (rare) and warming up nicely.

I made a decision to try to go to Sun Peaks ski resort. Because of my late start it meant that I would have to go full throttle all day to do the distance. My gas mileage really sucked. I got 64, 63, 74, 68 mpg Canadian or 23, 22, 27, 24 km/l. I normally get about 80 mpg or 28 km/l.

The 90,000 km marked clicked over on the approach to Kamloops by the weigh scale. I stopped beside the highway in a very dangerous position to take pictures. I also stopped 1 km away for lunch but I wanted exactly 90,000 km for the pictures. Stupid.

I pushed really hard to get to the ski resort. I did a lot of stupid things but I got there. I walked around the little village and thought about staying the night. It is the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. The only place available was the $350 a night suite. I said thanks but no thanks.

I had a slice of pizza and watched the people for a while. I had a cup of Starbucks coffee. There was a wedding in progress. Lots of men and the bride, no girls???

I had to push hard because sunset was coming. I stopped at Merritt Walmart for a few groceries and a break. I hit Othello and it was dark. I have LED's instead of the Forza bulbs but the reflectors are slightly wrong. By the time I got in the driveway it was very dark.

About 500 km with a late start. Coquihalla Summit was 4081 feet, the Surrey Lake Summit was 4738 feet and the Sun Peaks base was 4117 feet. I was wide open throttle most of the way at 120, 130 km per hour. It is a four lane highway except for the ski hill road. I slowly passed way too many 30 wheel trucks. The Forza is not really a highway scooter. It is too under powered.

It was a really stupid, dumb, dangerous trip but that is the story of my life.

[Mel46]

I learned a lot in life by doing dumb stupid things and then thinking about it...and asking myself if it was worth the risk. I also had to wonder if I would have succeeded at anything if I hadn't tried. Still, that may have been the end of all of your questions if something had happened. I learned by questioning risk vs benefit. You may learn the same way. Hopefully this won't be a repeat performance. I am glad that you made it back though, so congratulations on that.

[davenowherejones]

I would do it exactly the same way tomorrow if it was sunny!

Who wants to live forever and then die on the toilet like my father did?

Yahoo as I slide into my grave sideways.

[davenowherejones]

I did oil change number 8 on the Forza today. What a mess. Clumsy me. Just to freak you people out I am in Starbucks. I needed to get rid of the used oil. I took the truck. I am lazy or tired today. Some of you guys are too anal about oil. I used a custom blend of Honda GN4 10W40, Lordco semi-synthetic 10w30 and Lucas Oil Synthetic 10w40 with moly. Whatever that was leftover on the shelf.

[Old Grinner]

Being on the edge is living. . .everything else is just waiting for time to run out.

Kind of like the wise words of Steve McQueen in "Le Mans".



That was an awesome trip. . .but if it were me I'd have a lot more of that pizza!

[87112]

I did oil change number 8 on the Forza today. What a mess. Clumsy me. Just to freak you people out I am in Starbucks. I needed to get rid of the used oil. I took the truck. I am lazy or tired today. Some of you guys are too anal about oil. I used a custom blend of Honda GN4 10W40, Lordco semi-synthetic 10w30 and Lucas Oil Synthetic 10w40 with moly. Whatever that was leftover on the shelf.

what the heck kind of oil combo is that? I have now run over 300 miles on cheap dino oil and see no need for synthetic oil in my Forza as I ride 4k per year and change it once per year.

I now feel there is no performance bonus with syn oil. Its all in our heads.

[davenowherejones]

I did oil change number 8 on the Forza today. What a mess. Clumsy me. Just to freak you people out I am in Starbucks. I needed to get rid of the used oil. I took the truck. I am lazy or tired today. Some of you guys are too anal about oil. I used a custom blend of Honda GN4 10W40, Lordco semi-synthetic 10w30 and Lucas Oil Synthetic 10w40 with moly. Whatever that was leftover on the shelf.

what the heck kind of oil combo is that? I have now run over 300 miles on cheap dino oil and see no need for synthetic oil in my Forza as I ride 4k per year and change it once per year.

I now feel there is no performance bonus with syn oil. Its all in our heads.

Like I said I emptied several partially filled bottles. The Forza will run with anything.

I did check to see if there actually was oil in them. I used to be a member of the Abbotsford Flying Club. One of our local surgeons needed oil for the club plane. He found a bottle in the plane and dumped it in. To his surprise the bottle was partially full of urine not oil. I am surprised he noticed the difference.

[E. Foster Salsbury]

Wow 90,000. Is that in 3 years? Honda recommends changing the final drive oil every 2 years. Have you only done that 1 time in 90k? What oil did you use?

[davenowherejones]

Wow 90,000. Is that in 3 years? Honda recommends changing the final drive oil every 2 years. Have you only done that 1 time in 90k? What oil did you use?

I did the final drive after I bought it at 2200 km because I did not know if the previous owner did it. I used whatever 10W30 oil I had around in 2015. In 2017 I had some 10W30 Synthetic around so I used it for a final drive oil change. I should probably do it again.

I bought the Forza used in June of 2015 with 1450 km on it. If it isn't broken then don't fix it.

[E. Foster Salsbury]

So about 45,000km on the final drive oil before changing. Impressive.

What psi are you running on your front City Grip? I ran at Honda's recommended 25psi and between 75 and 85kph it sounded like the bearing was going bad but when I hit 90kph it would go away. Now I'm at 29psi and I don't hear the howl anymore. The howl was kind of handy because I knew when I was doing about 80kph without looking down at the meter.

[davenowherejones]

So about 45,000km on the final drive oil before changing. Impressive.

What psi are you running on your front City Grip? I ran at Honda's recommended 25psi and between 75 and 85kph it sounded like the bearing was going bad but when I hit 90kph it would go away. Now I'm at 29psi and I don't hear the howl anymore. The howl was kind of handy because I knew when I was doing about 80kph without looking down at the meter.

I run at the Honda recommended tire pressures of 25 front 29 rear but I also have a tire pressure sensor on the valve stems. The front will go up to 28 at speed but the rear will climb to 35.

The front was at 13C temperature when I came home and the rear was 29C. The muffler heats up the rear tire quite a bit. Some of the temp is just the sensor getting hot from the muffler but the tire is definitely hot to my hand touch.

The FOBO sends the data to my iPhone via Bluetooth. It even sends me messages when I am in a restaurant from a fair distance away sometimes.

I am hearing impaired since 2 years old so I bet my Forza makes all sorts of bad noises that I never hear. I recently switched from an Icon Variant helmet to a much quieter Klim Krios. I don't know what I hear now.