The Bulldog It Is

I'm taking a weekend trip that involves a ~50-mile motorcycle ride out, several hundred miles by car with friends, and that same ~50-mile motorcycle ride back.

Now that I have the Lifan KP Mini 150, it feels like the natural choice over the Italica Bulldog 150 for non-local transport. It's somewhat faster (it seems to be continuing to break fully in -- I GPSed it at 68 miles per hour the other day, while the Bulldog rarely tops 60; cruising, 50ish seems to be the cruising RPMs sweet spot on the Mini, 45ish on the Bulldog). It gets better gas mileage (76.2 mpg vs. 66.22 average). It's not a freeway bike, but it's a perfect "country highway" bike, while the Bulldog makes more sense for city streets (clutch shifting vs. continuous variable transmission).

BUT!

1. Luggage. I'm carrying more than usual this time.

Riding the Mini would mean either wearing a pretty heavy backpack or removing my small zip-tied tail bag, putting on saddlebags, and strapping the  (somewhat lightened into the saddlebags) backpack on as a tail bag. Probably half an hour doing all that and then un-doing it after. I suspect wearing the backpack would throw my balance off somewhat, which is not what you want if you're riding on what passes for "twisties" in this area -- not a lot of really steep curves, but more than most of the areas I ride in most of the time.

The Bulldog has a semi-permanent (I've been leaving it on) top box that can hold the (somewhat lightened into the lower built-in storage box) backpack. I packed almost everything in that way and took it out to fill up with gas. The balance feels pretty good, with the low front rear storage compartment partly balancing out the high rear top box.

2. While the route I'm taking is mostly country highway, it's country highway that will likely be busy with slower, stop-and-start traffic during my trip out (morning rush hour, school buses, etc.). Lots of shifting if I'm riding a standard clutch bike. No shifting at all on the Bulldog. And not as much worry about maintaining normal highway speed.

3. The part of the route that isn't country highway partly road combines narrow ruts with deep, fine "sugar" sand, and based on my limited experience I think the Bulldog's rear wheel doesn't get quite as squirelly in that environment as the KP Mini's.

So the Bulldog it is, for that and a couple of other reasons (one being that I want to get it near the 3k mile mark, when it gets its next maintenance, soon; that 100 miles will get me to 2.75k or so).

Sometimes a Defective Part Can Solve an Ongoing Irritation

Or even two ongoing irritations.

Because I am a cheapskate, I keep falling for inexpensive bar end mirror offerings for the Lifan KP Mini 150.

One mirror of my previous set -- the left side -- didn't want to get tight and stay tight, and it was hard to set it to the correct angle for glancing at anyway. I was always having to lean a little to really get a good look. The right side mirror was perfect; it stayed in place, and I could just move my eyes/head a little and see what I needed to see.

I was buying a few things on Amazon Haul (that site's "Temu competitor," cheap stuff, free shipping with a $25 minimum order) and decided to try out a pair of $11 mirrors from there.

The left side mirror went on just fine. Nice tight ball-joint setup that stays in place and lets me see what I need to see with a minimal downard glance.

The right side just didn't want to tighten/expand like it should. So I put the old mirror back on. And now I have a near-perfect mirror configuration when it comes to functionality.

AND!

That setup is asymmetric.

I would characterize myself as "high-functioning OCD" in some respects, and one thing that bugs me is asymmetry where it doesn't belong. If two objects are supposed to be the same distance from a particular point and one is slightly off that mark, it just really bugs me to look at it.

But if a relationship is supposed to be asymmetric, it doesn't bother me at all.

A pair of identical motorcycle mirrors feels like the two should be symmetric in placement, but of course that's not the case. Even ideally, if the rider is perfectly centered on the seat, one mirror will be tilted out further than the other to produce the correct view, since with the right mirror you're mostly looking behind yourself in your own lane, while with the left mirror you're looking behind you but need the field of reflection to cover several feet further left. Still annoys me, though.

Now that I've got two different kinds of mirrors, the placement is naturally asymmetric, so it irritates that brain defect of mine just a little less.

So, that's kind of a win too.

A Leisurely Ride 'Round the Countryside

Here's the Lifan KP Mini 150 at not quite 1,000 miles, parked in front of a house I wanted to ride by today and that I hope Tamara will find satisfactory to buy after we are formally shown it by the realtor.

It's a little further from Gainesville than I had initially assumed Tamara would be comfortable with, but she's had us looking at places basically that far away recently, and while the commute to her work would be a little longer than from some other places we've checked out, it wouldn't necessarily take longer.

The house is on a "dirt" (but not soft "sugar" sand) road, only 1/4 mile from a county road which leads directly to a highway that leads directly to her work. Good road all the way, reasonably high speed limits most of the way.  Maybe five miles from a one-stoplight town with the bare basics (gas stations, convenience stores, the ubiquitous Dollar General / Dollar Tree, a handful of restaurants, etc.); ten miles or so to a two-stoplight town with a Winn-Dixie, more restaurants, etc.; and half an hour or so to Gainesville.

It also happens to be about 1/4 mile from one of my favorite outdoor concert venues, and very close to two kayak-friendly rivers.

If the listing is accurate, it ticks all the necessary boxes, including recent roof, recent AC unit, and recent well.

After having a look from outside, I went and visited reader GregL, who lives a few miles away, for a little while, got a tour of the general area (which I have been through a few times but am not greatly familiar with), and passed the 1,000-mile mark on the ride home.

I put about 100 miles on the bike all told -- from my house to look at another house, then partially back home before a turn and substantial ride to look at the house above, a little bit of lost wandering finding GregL's place, then home.

So far, the bike's been a champ. I haven't installed the better front sprocket yet, but it already tops out above 60 miles per hour and cruises pretty comfortably at 50-55. Other than the very early "ah, my rear sprocket bolts are trying to come out, better go through and put thread locker on everything," it's given me zero trouble. Handles well in town, gets me where I'm going at a reasonable speed in the country. Today's gas mileage, about 75 per gallon. Over its first thousand miles, it's averaged about 78 and has never fallen below 70.

The Bike Has Its Name ...

... and it has its name on it.

More Detailed Ride Review

So ... yesterday I left the house at about 8:30am to head for Ormond Beach, planning to take it easy and arrive around 11-11:30am. I did take it easy, and I also took two wrong turns, but still arrived about noon.

My original plan for getting there was to take State Road 20 through Hawthorne (last trip, by SUV, I took State Road 100 through Melrose) to Palatka, then 100 on into Ormond Beach. I forgot to bear right and ended up taking State Road 100 all the way to Palataka again. Then I forgot to bear left at San Mateo and ended up taking US 17 to Barberville and State Road 40 into Ormond Beach. Not really a problem. The original route to Palatka is pretty nice, and I got to see some new terrain on the second wrong turn. It added about 20 miles to the out-bound trip.

I spent about six hours helping my friend and his wife assemble furniture, etc. (with a lovely lunch of tilapia and broccoli risotto as reward), and decided on the fly to come home via State Road 40 through Ocala. On the last trip, I evaluated that road as more bike-friendly than I had expected. If everything went well, I'd get home about 9pm. A little bit of riding in the dark, but not a lot.

Everything did not go well. Just as I rode into Ocala, a torrential thunderstorm hit. I had planned this trip around the weather. Which, at the time I departed was "possible scattered thunderstorms in the evening." Usually that means "15 minutes of rain." This was two hours of rain ranging from light to torrential in unpredictable increments, with accompanying winds that didn't look like a good bet for a light motorcycle on a wet and fairly busy road.

So I stopped at a pizzeria, ate a light dinner, then sat on their covered porch until 10pm (the place closed at 9), talking with a couple of the employees. Or not exactly employees -- guys on "work release" from a nearby correctional facility who had until 10pm to leave and chose to spend that time smoking and joking instead of back in stir. About that time, the rain went to "mostly off, occasional drizzle, not very windy."

In theory, I was about an hour from home. But I spent some time getting on my rain gear, then I stopped to fill the bike with gas, then I took it slow, including a stop to ask the clerk at a convenience store if the turn I thought I was about to make was the correct one (it was). I pulled in at almost exactly midnight.

Three extra hours (two sitting, one riding more slowly with more frequent stops) seemed -- and still seem -- reasonable to me from a safety standpoint. Before last night, I'd probably spent a total of 30 minutes on the bike in rain and/or darkness (it gets very dark on rural Florida highways, and there are lots "I'm just gonna keep my brights on, fuck  the ability of oncoming motorists to see anything" drivers) and zero hours, zero minutes, zero seconds in rain and a bit of a breeze and darkness.

As for the bike, it performed well. Since I haven't installed the new front sprocket yet, it still tops out at about 60 miles per hour, but I was mostly on four-lane road. When there weren't reasons to push it, I kept it at 55 miles per hour or less, setting 50 as my target (there were lots of 45- and 35-mph speed zones as well).

It carried me and probably 20 pounds of gear (30 pounds after the storm -- my saddlebags weren't as water-resistant as I expected) without complaint or malfunction.

One on one stretch (40 west between Barberville and Ocala) it got 106 miles per gallon because I was able to settle in at 50mph without a lot of variation for 5-10 miles at a time. On the other legs between fill-ups -- the legs with lots of small-town speed zones, some city streets, etc. -- it ranged from 76 to 86 miles per gallon.

I haven't done a close post-trip inspection, but on a quick look the bike is none the worse for wear. So now I know I can do 250 miles in a day without hurting it. Eventually, we're going to see if it can do 500, but I would expect that to be a 13-hour affair (average of 50 miles per hour, but with 20-minute breaks instead of 5-minute fill-up stops every 60-80 miles).

As for how I came out of the trip: Tired and with a sore ass from 250 miles on a motorcycle seat. That's how it goes. I'll be looking into aftermarket seats or cushions to reduce that a little, but two wheels and one rear shock have predictable consequences that I'm not inclined to complain too much about.

The New Sprocket Arrives Today ...

... and I may get it installed on the Lifan KP Mini 150 tonight or tomorrow. If I'm going to do that before whatever weekend trip I take, I'd like to get it done in time to have the bike out on the road a little and make sure everything's working right.

I've also got a new O2 sensor port plug arriving today. I noticed yesterday evening that the one which came with my after-market exhaust system had disappeared, so now there's a little hole in the exhaust pipe, which isn't good. I thought the plug that came with the system was a little sketchy. I just had a shallow groove for tightening, almost like those little lids on small electronic devices that you stick a coin in to tighten or loosen. The new plug takes a hex wrench and comes with a crush washer.

Other things arriving today are a can of chain lube and a yellow $5-ish "cargo net." The previous black  "cargo net" is more $2-ish, already seems to be wanting to fray in places, and doesn't have very good hooks for attaching to the bike.

For the weekend trip, I'll probably run saddlebags. I don't like them as much as a rear top box, but I'm not sure there's any way to get mine to mount on the bike without finding a rear rack to replace the "passenger grab handle."

I'm considering an alternative rear top box that would be easier to attach securely. It wouldn't be as secure against theft of contents, but I normally don't park the bike overnight in strange places and wander away, nor would I keep e.g. gold bars in it.

The possible alternative (I noticed someone on a YouTube channel using it on this very bike, after I noticed it existed) is a collapsible "milk crate" kind of thing. Since it's latticed on five of its six sides (on the top, I'd use the aforementioned cargo net), there are all kinds of ways to bolt, tie, or bungee it to the back of the bike. It might even be unobtrusive enough when collapsed to just keep on there all the time. I've put it on my Amazon Wish List in case anyone wants me to have it before I get around to buying it myself (if Bitcoin will ever quit messing around and take a run at $130k, it's on my prospective "buy an Amazon gift card" shopping list, along with a new helmet that has built-in Bluetooth).

Update: The sensor port plug I ordered arrived ... and does not fit. Rode the bike into town to do the Amazon return, and am awaiting communication from the company I bought the exhaust from as to what size I need. I may improvise something (metal zip tie and a quarter?) if I can't get the right one delivered by tomorrow.

Easy Cosmetic Improvement to the Lifan KP Mini

When I bought it, the Lifan KP Mini looked sort of, but not exactly, like this:

It didn't have the little "Lifan" decal on the right rear, but it had additional stickers on the side of the tank that were white and seemed to resemble three iterations of the number "7" for some reason.

I had planned to just remove those ugly "7s," but really it just looked too "busy" in general, so I ended up removing almost all of the yellow decal work.

All that's left is a yellow square on top of the rear light set. The yellow below the seat isn't a decal, it's the color of the plastic. At some point, I may see how expensive it would be to get replacement fairings in plain black. And when it's time to put new tires on, I may replace the wheels as well, in gold to match the forks versus the current black with yellow striping. Or not.

In fact, some of the fairings -- the decorative rather than functional ones -- may just go completely. The fairings around the gas tank contain the integrated turn signals; I may go bare tank and get some "retro" turn signals to match, along with a round metal-can front headlight and a flatter "cafe cruser-ish" seat. And I may get some kind of custom decal stuff for the side of the tank, whether it's bare or I keep the fairings. We'll see. All that stuff costs money, and I'm spending money on bike function, not bike appearance, for the moment.

It may make the trip to Ormond Beach and back this weekend. If not, I'll still try to do a 100-mile round trip of some kind. While it's technically "broken in," I probably won't put more than 100 miles or so on it in a single day for a while. Maybe after its thousand-mile oil change (it's at about 350 right now).

Nice!

This morning, I wrapped the pipe for my Kronik Racing "Big Gun" exhaust (not an affiliate link), then did the install. Amazingly easy even for someone as non-mechanically inclined as me.

Sounds great (my phone's mic doesn't do it justice). I haven't put in the bigger carburetor or performance air filter yet, nor have I installed the 16-tooth sprocket (and nicer chain I bought since I might as well do that at the same time), but when I took it out in the neighborhood to start letting the wrap burn on (it smokes at first, wanted to get that out of the way), I hit 61 miles per hour, up from my previous top speed of 58 miles per hour (with the engine not fully broken in yet).

It's a "slip-on" muffler. If I want to replace it for any reason it's a matter of loosening one bolt and pulling a spring off, the sticking the new muffler on the pipe and putting the bolt back in and the spring back on.

The Bike Is On The Road Again ...

... and doesn't appear to be leaking after having the cover removed/replaced. I'll be keeping an eye on that, though.

My impressions so far:

Having to shift gears is taking some getting used to. It's not giving me too much trouble, and I like the added control a manual transmission offers, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't missed the Continuous Variable Transmission Bulldog a couple of times.

So far, the top speed has been less than 60 miles per hour (57 or 56, I think), but I expect that to go up as the engine gets broken in and everything gets well-sealed/seated, even before I install all the performance-enhancing parts I've got on hand or ordered.

The natural riding posture is very close to that of the Bulldog, which I like -- sitting upright unless tucked to increase speed. I haven't decided yet whether the seat is as, or less, comfortable. If I decide it's less, there are after-market options for that.

BUT! When it comes to after-market options for anything, finding stuff made specifically for this bike is proving more difficult than I expected.  Some parts, like a rear rack, may have to be purchased as "universal" parts and then messed with to make them fit. No biggie. At present, I'm not seeing any reason why this shouldn't be my main personal vehicle for 5-10 years, so I've got plenty of time to personalize it in various ways.

One plan for the near future is to find a good camera mounting point and finally figure out how to use the older GoPro a friend donated to the cause. Although I will probably try the phone camera first -- I think the phone holder position may work out OK for that.