Sadly, I find there just ain't that much to blog about these days. I ride every day, in the rain or not, and sometimes drivers try to kill me, and sometimes not. Riding, as a whole, is just a part of my everyday life. There are trips, and the occasional fun event, but the daily commuting doesn't make for much newsworthiness.

Anyway. In my last entry I added a picture of an Impressive Tuning Box. One of the VStrom forums thht I'm a member of (vstrom.info, if you're curious) has a loaner program. Sign onto a thread, and when it's your turn, a Yoshimura Fuel Injection Tuning Unit (aka Yosh Box) will show up in your mail along with easy-to-follow instructions and the address of the next person.

Inside, this box is just a set of variable resistors, but it's sufficient to make slight changes in the fuel map of stock Suzuki bikes. Sort of a poor man's Power Commander. In about 10 minutes of futzing around, I reset my idle fuel maps to +2%, and the Strom's low-throttle roughness and weakness at 2000 RPM has been almost entirely cured. 6th is now a usable gear at freeway speeds (instead of "not even worth using until above 90mph"), and there's a lot more power down low. The bike will now not stall ever; idle throttle with the clutch released is enough to pull slowly forward from a stop. All in all, a great upgrade for zero cost. To do better I'd need a Power Commander, and though that's certainly a better answer, it also costs $300. For me, this is more than enough.

I'd still like to remove the secondary throttle valves, as I hear that gives a great benefit to low-end torque on the Vstrom 1000, but I haven't had the need to take the tank off. If I ever do, I'll be sure to remove those valves when I'm inside.

Weather in Seattle has entered the Worst Part of the Year; it's alternating between dry-and-stupidly-cold, and sort-of-cold-but-raining-heavily. I'm really looking forward to when it starts pulling out of this, probably around May...