Then again £6000 worth of car could walk away from both supercar and superbike.
Your point being? 25 insert Heli-coil kits (containing everything you need including drill bit and tap) can be found for about £20, if you're serious about maintaining your own bike (which clearly you're not) then there's no excuse for paying less than a quid everytime you make a mess of a thread.
No not everyone puts pointless shit on their vehicle, you do, I haven't yet. You're the one who keeps saying that common mods for bikers are for cosmetic reasons, so by what you've said most bikers are ricers to an extent.
Road use. :rolleyes: And you'd still have to dress up like a powerranger to use it. Couldn't exactly arrive at the pub in one of those, could you?
Quite clearly... I don't have a spare £25, at the time having just spend £2250 on a bike. My "seriousness" about my own bike is my own business, not yours. Seen my garage? No? Stfu.
Then again your vehicle isn't worth more than the piece of proverbial paper we're writing on.
Every time someone posts a picture of anything modified, you call it rice.
As for mods, well...
Braided hoses : Improve feel and look good
Sintered pads (normally EBC) : Provide better stopping...discreet.
Exhausts : Improves power, sounds and looks good
Scottoiler : Discreet. Oils your chain. Practical, no?
Heated Grips : You can't even tell a difference from normal ones in most cases. Keep yer hands warm.
Progressive springs : You can't even tell if a bike has these by looking at it. Improves handling and feel.
Braided Hoses - Feel improvement is marginal. You probably can't actually feel it, but you might think you can. And yes, I driven cars and bikes with and without them. They weigh quite a lot, and chafe through everything.
Pads - EBC do not make brake pads. They sell lumps on the cheap to subsidise their coffin production run. Do not use. No matter what vehicle you have or what other people say.
Scottoiler - Makes a chain last 3 months longer. When you rely on it, it'll probably run out or stop working.
Heated Grips - For girls. Probably only pregnant girls. As you say, they don't work anyway.
Progressive Springs - Chances are it actually buggers everything up (like on cars). But sounds trick and feels stiffer. Unlikely to do massively good things to tyre loadings or rake angles. Unless you're very lucky indeed. Also ideally requires hugely expensive dampers that can cope with the changing spring rate properly.
Uhh? I had them fitted to my Z and they were fantastic, good bite and I had no fade. Sintered HH ones..
It not only means you don't have to spend 15 minutes lubing your chain every 150 miles. I've been using the same scottoiler for 8 months and it works. How can it not work? It goes into the vacumn tube and that lifts a little thing which allows oil to flow down a tube. It even worked fine after I took it off my Z and put it on the SV. Did 14k before I wrecked my Z and it had a scottoiler fitted most of it's life. I've heard of chains lasting for 25k with a scottoiler, normally you can get 15-20k no problems, you can expect perhaps 10k from a well maintained manually lubricated chain or perhaps 5 or 6 depending on weather if you don't bother at all.
I meant they look no different, as Alex says everything is for looks. It's a practicality and is very comfortable. Nothing more irritating than riding around with numb fingers. Also means you can use thinner gloves on colder days so you still have good feel..
They don't affect the rake as you simply open up the forks and exchange the springs.. makes a notably good difference when compared to a standard SV. Doesn't sag so much, feels.... well, much more progressive.
I don't mean rake as in the trail of the front wheel, but rake as in the attitude of the bike itself. A parameter of bikes that massively controls how it behaves. Excess sag can be cured with more preload or a new spring!
So the springs have probably messed the geometry under various circumstances. I wonder (and doubt) if professional riders/bike teams use progressive springs. If they did, you can be sure they did stuff to the rest of the bike to make it work again.
The swearing is most likely "Oh f**k, not another tree!"
If you're racing you tend to fit just stiffer springs or you have adjustable suspension so you don't need to worry... so no they don't.. well, as fair as I'm aware the don't. :o
On the road progressive brings the best of both worlds..which is where most people ride their bikes. On the road.
Geometry or not I can sure tell you it feels much better than an SV without them fitted. Way less wallowey, doesn't dive under brakes so much.. everyone owner recommends them to everyone else so I can't see there being a geometry problem, and if there is it's a "good" problem.
Sort the machine before you accessorise it. There is a minimum safe level that any vehicle must be prepared to, more so one that gets used hard, and hoping that a cross threaded bolt will stay put is way bellow the level of basic safety required in any form of automotive engineering, you may as well not bother to torque your wheelnuts because you couldn't afford a torque wrench.
Your point being? The only modifications I've made to my vehicle are basic safety measures (harnesses and a fire extinguisher) and parts necessary for looking after the car (rev counter). Having said that I have got a set of alloys in the garage for it, which have little advantage over steel wheels, which I couldn't find in width and PCD I wanted for sensible money, they'll be a little stronger the kerb weight will be reduced, I highly doubt I'm going to notice that effect though.
If it's been modified for looks then yes I would say so. That's not to say the result can't be quite nice (though more often or not it just makes it look worse than it started). I do see why people change things for looks, it's not something that appeals to me, but if you want to do it don't then claim you're any different from the driver of the Corsa with 20" wheels and a bodykit, he to is modifying his car for looks not to make it better by any other margin, just like a lot of bikers...
Definitely rice when they're put on a vehicle they're not installed for a specific purpose.
Better brake pads are not rice. EBC pads are generally regarded as being rubbish though, I'll find out soon got a set for a tenner for the Cougar, certainly wouldn't pay full price for them though.
Negligible, definitely rice, even more so.
It's a comfort/laziness thing, not rice and detrimental to performance. Got to strike a balance though to make your machine usable, any gain from the exhaust will definitely have been negated by lugging this thing around.
As above.
Not so much rice as misguided by marketing bollocks, very unlikely to make anything better unless originally used by the engineer who designed the chassis and dampers. As with most suspension and damper 'upgrades' unless there is a substantial change of use from the original intended by the manufacturer or the cost price of the components is enormous then the chance of actually getting an improvement on a machine that has been designed around the original components is very unlikely.
Not if it's a Ford 4 pot, then it just sounds like farting down a rusty pipe.
If its a fairly large bore V8 under the bonnet, yeah, but a special 'zorst in, but if it's a Fiesta, don't bother, it looks daft.
Makes me laugh when people take the 'zorst off their 2 stroke scooters, they don't realise how much power this loses them, just for the price of a few extra decibels of buzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was a bolt holding the seat on. I tried with some pliers to pull it off and it would not budge. It had somehow cross threaded about 3/4 of the way to being fully tight. It was safe, I couldn't even tell it was "loose".
You're making assumptions and you should stop.
You're in a Lada, no amount of seatbelts will stop you getting crumpled up in the mass of soviet steel when you hit a lampost at 15mph. You will die anyway and just be harder to be removed.
You don't need a rev counter to look after a car, a good driver can tell by the sound...
Rice.
Difference is most of the mods apart from bodywork do give some improvement on performance. We don't buy a set of £250 alloys and a £40 exhaust tip from Halfrauds.
Says you with your bolt on Rev counter.
EBC make very good motorcycle pads.
Right.
You're such a moron. I even took a photo just for you. It weighs perhaps 500grams and doesn't even affect engine performance. I suggest you read up about it. See attachments.
Oh, and, stop talking bollocks.
Wouldn't notice a weight difference, unless you consider a couple of cables to be detrimental to performance. Get with the real world.
Have you used them? No? Stfu. Again you're talking mucho bollocks. Manufacturers don't always know best. I don't see Honda Civics in the BTCC running on standard suspension..
Before you go "well they test them" or some other nonsense, Hagon have also tested the springs as they were designed for particular models, they weren't just drawn up and dumped in. They were tested as well.
As for drilling holes in the airbox, that would be chav. As for relevance, well, it's not.
You go by valve bounce do you? What a ridiculous statement.
Not really because the grounds for buying them had nothing to do with the cosmetic side, they were just a cheap set of wheels that did the job in the right size. Actually I would like to swap them for a nice set of painted steel wheels appropriate to the car, but it's hard to find them in the right size, now that is rice
That's beside the point, alloys on cars give a performance increase as well, it's just not the reason they're used.
But the advantage you get from your exhaust is so negligible that not having breakfast will have more of an effect.
Yes because the manufacturers intended purpose was not to make a car for track use. The race car is also a lot lighter, has a different weight distribution, a lot more power, slicks and a lot stiffer bodyshell/rollcage. So standard suspension would not be right even for road use in this case.
Your bike is standard and is being used for the manufacturers intended purpose, there is no need to modify it.
My Dad previously owned a Renault 11. No rev counter.. .
Had a Ford Escort Estate after that... no rev counter.. he ragged it everywhere and sold it with 120,000 under it's wheels and AFAIK it's still going..
You seeing a pattern? You can hear when you need to change up, any good driver can tell that. I for one hardly even look at my rev counter, I can hear it... Use your senses, unless that is your head is too far up your arse so you can only see out of your mouth.
Trying to wriggle out of that one, eh? You're a ricer.
Most cars that people put wheels on had alloy wheels on them before.
"blah blah blah after market stuff is worse than OEM blah blah blah"
Not having breakfast gives me 5bhp and 3lb/ft of torque? Didn't think so. And what's that to do with the Scottoiler?
So just because I'm using it for the "intended purpose", I can't improve it by fitting better suspension? What a load of shit. Read back to you and your bolt on rev counter.
A standard setup is never the best for performance, on anything.
Fair enough, the manufacturers factory settings are far from bad, but one thing that they do in most cases is prioritise things like fuel economy, engine noise and comfort over the actual best performance possible.
Standard parts do a standard job, uprated and/or performance parts will very often do a better job.
I will cite a few personal examples..
Shock absorbers.
My mk2 astra 1.4 that i owned had new standard shocks and springs on it when i got the car that had only been fitted for a matter of a few of months, but as they were the direct replacement oil filled shocks, they were a wee bit softer than i liked and gave noticeable body roll.
So, i replaced them for the slightly dearer, monroe gas filled shocks, which gave a slightly stiffer ride, and noticebly less body roll, which meant better handling.
Brakes.
Again, the astra, which had the standard solid brake discs and calipers when i bought it.
So, as i thought that they werent really very good at braking, i went and got some mintex double vented disks, mintex pads, and a reconditioned set of the bigger calipers to go with them, which were originally designed to be fitted on the diesel astramax van, which is heavier.
Bigger disks and pads give a wider swept area, vented disks have better cooling capibilities, and the calipers had bigger pistons, which again, gave better braking.
Imagine my surprise when i couldnt get the standard 13" wheels to go back on, the calipers were in the way :doh:
Fuel/ignition system.
Ignition timing is set to give good fuel economy and good performance, but can be made better.
This was the astra again.
I advanced the timing by about 3 degrees, and had the carburettor mixture richened very slightly, which used a bit more fuel, but also did give a small increase in performance and acceleration.
If what you say is true, then there would be no aftermarket parts or tuning at all.
Wether a car is rice/stupidly modified or not is a matter or taste/opinion, there is no point trying to lay down the law, declaring what is race and what is not.
Gigantic "rimz" needing rubberbands for tires to allow them to fit.
Those are rice and clearly rice. Tristan's and AJP's thoughts of rice are indeed not rice. Things bolted and done to a car to make it look faster than it is or attempt to make it sound faster than it is, is what rice is. Mounting a nice pleasing set of aftermarket wheels, stainless brake lines/hoses to clean up an engine compartment, that is not rice. It is done for the ascetic appeal of the car, not to say "look at me, I'm so fast."
The automotive companies don't design each car individually to satisfy every customer individually. They make compromises in the design to fit the general population as well as manufacturing cost. On the note of things such as brakes, dampers, and tires, they are chosen strictly on cost. I work in the automotive manufacturing business. The handling of production cars are made for the compromise between those who would want a better ride and those who want better handling. The exhaust is designed on quietness only with a hit in performance. Everything is a compromise. If the manufacturers built cars to be the best, then they would be vastly different and the aftermarket would have never existed.
There is nothing wrong with removing the pillion seat on a motorcycle and replacing it for a cleaner look. That is personalizing the motorcycle. There is nothing wrong with Harley riders dressing their bikes up with chrome. that is personalizing it. There is nothing wrong with new wheels or dressing up the engine compartment in a car. That is personalizing the car. You can argue that putting a gigantic wing on a FWD car is personalizing, but it is so glaringly ridiculous that it is clearly ricing.
With Tristan's and AJP's definition of ricing, their houses would have no floor coverings. They would just have the base subfloor because putting nice hardwood, ceramic tile, or carpeting serves absolutely no purpose other than looks. Thus, it would be ricing and they had better not have anything of the sort in their houses. Painting the interior walls would be ricing. Having nice countertops in the kitchen would be ricing because a basic slab of wood is all you need.
They simply don't understand the slang term "rice" and have made up their own definition that has nothing to do with what it really is.
Driving down the road you do not need a rev counter, driving fast consistently trying to shift at 6000rpm (or whatever you feel comfortable taking your enigne to) is a completely different matter.
With respect like Dan's Astra my car was not intended for fast road use, unlike your machine which was designed and set up for it.
If you were driving on a track, or on a road rally, or just driving about like your hair is on fire I find that it's best to look where you're going, instead of glancing at your rev counter every 15 seconds.
When you get a "new" car, to you, you may need to look at the rev counter for a little while, but I'd say after at the most, 2 weeks, you'll know when to change up and you'll know what the engine sounds like close to the redline.
Blimey. I'd better stop looking at my dashboard then on the road and track. No time to do anything. Certainly won't have to time to add up gaps and work out in my head how quickly someone is catching me, whilst working out what to do with the brake balance, whilst working out why I'm slow in a particular corner, whilst watching the instruments for potential problems, whilst keeping an eye on the shift lights, whilst trying to overtake someone whilst learning a track.
Or it could be that you've used up your mental capacity driving/riding, and have none to spare for all the other tasks required to drive (let alone drive quickly).
If you're just changing gear normally, I'd agree with you. You don't mind if you change at 3400 rather than 3200. But when driving quickly (on a track of course) you might want to make sure you shift inside a 100rpm zone. Even F1 drivers have shift lights (effectively a rev counter, just brighter with less numbers). You'd think they'd be able to shift by the noise alone...
I agree shifting within a small RPM frame is useful, but I'm sure F1 drivers can tell when to change up by the sound of the engines.. but yes a shift light is probably the best of both worlds anyway. You get used to the vibrations and the sensation and you can just "hear" and "feel" it.....
