Floorboards grind

[pcarrell]

Herding cats..........

[CDNRatMan]

    At least I am helping by going back to using stainless steel acorn nuts and go around traffic circles to grind them.....these guys are like herding a mess of 5 year old hockey players all over the place and no focus on one subject.....they just wander off....

[Tfrank59]

Who's thread is this anyway?

[Troll]

AND...they are all different, especially as to which lane to take, and when they stack like 6 in a row, someone from out of town gets lost pretty quickly. If you go through it every day, that's one thing but a newcomer just gets dizzy

[CDNRatMan]

   ok but use stainless steel acorn nuts and you get lots of sparks and some really good noises to scare people......

[49Reo]

Whats most dangerous about them is people not knowing proper protocol when in a traffic circle.

[greenbarn]

That's the only good thing I can think of about a traffic circle....

Agreed on that one.  I dislike them.  Had a tanker tip over last week locally here on one, and dumped a load of diesel fuel.

Now, having been through more of these lately, I see that some are actually designed a lot better than others, and are easier to use without feeling like you're going to get run over.  Some just seem downright dangerous.

[Troll]

That's the only good thing I can think of about a traffic circle....

[greenbarn]

I have only drug the floorboards a couple of times, I think mostly on the 800.  Now the other day I drug the pipe on the 1500 down in Southern Ohio on some hard twisties.  That wasn't very pleasant.

I wonder if you put brass acorn nuts on there if it would be a little quieter - brass being softer against the asphalt??   It is a little startling if you're not expecting it.

[CDNRatMan]

  Larry, I to ride pretty straight up because not a lot of twisty roads around here, but there is one traffic circle, and at the right speed and the right time I do not even have to lean what feels far over and the acorn screws are grinding and the grind loud and hard......

[LarryInSeattle]

Do you have the rear shock adjusted?    I have mine as high as it goes, which if I remember right is 5.

I used to scrape the Goldwing once in awhile.

I rarely scrape my floorboards on the Drifter,  but then I read mailboxes when I ride.  Also, I rarely ride with others, so there isn't any competition thing going on with me trying to keep up with other riders.

[49Reo]

Once you grind your way through the hero knobs and the bottom of the floorboards, when you get to the rubber part your foot rests on, they quiet right down....

I've only touched mine on the highway once, but my '88 Softail had the bottom boss on the primary ground off along with part of the allen bolt head; enough of the head was ground off on the bolt I had a hard time getting the bolt out when I changed out the primary gasket. That bike was way too low....

[Tfrank59]

I've heard about tripping the tip-over switch – "turn of death" – I dread the day that happens to me, not just the embarrassment . I really don't plan to lean my Drifter anywhere near close enough the trip that thing!

[Tfrank59]

My other bike is a Valkyrie, which has a surprising amount of ground clearance (and no floorboards), but some Valk riders do lean over far enough to scrape, though I haven't yet like I said.

[Troll]

A lot depends on what the "other bike" is, but I can manage to grind the knobs on my W-650 at times, too The floorboard are hinged, so they fold up when you lean over too far. I once had mine leaned over far enough to activate the tip over switch while I was riding an Experienced Rider Class demo right in front of all the students...quite embarrassing!

[Tfrank59]

Oh I'm grinding them all right.  I guess I'm new at this, because my other bike doesn't grind like that (at least not anytime I've leaned her over), but when this Drifter does it it scares the crap out a me.

[Troll]

You want to quiet the hero knobs? Grind them off on the pavement, like I do!

[CDNRatMan]

 lol  you don't like that noise......lol......it does wake people up when you drop it into the corner and scrap the nuts along the ground. I put stainless steel acorn nuts on mine and they spark some nice when you grind them hard, and people behind back off to.......lol......never heard of anyone wanting to make it quiet......so now a new project to work on.

[Tfrank59]

Wow I really don't like it when you lean a little bit too much in the footboards grind!  And those acorn nuts, when they hit the pavement they sound horrible. . Has anybody tried putting something on the outside lower part of their floorboards so that when that hits it doesn't make that horrible grind?  I'm thinking about it, and I'm wondering if there is something like I don't know phenolic or rubber, something semi hard that you could put down there for a wear piece.