Bought a Nomad

[james40]

Picked my bike up in San Diego yesterday and rode it back home to near Sacramento. First impressions:

More power than I expected, passed everything in sight with ease and cruised along at 70-80 with little effort.

Comfortable ride, seat and suspension took in every bump and pothole without transferring it to the rider. (I did take my sheep pad along for the seat)

Things I need to add after riding 550 miles:

Risers, I'm 5' 9" and my back was killing me from that slightly forward lean.

Drivers backrest

Cruise control

Highway pegs

Anybody have good, cheap resources for any of the above, I'm going to order the grasshopper seat, but any money I can save on the other stuff would certainly help.

Now the downside:

Mileage was less than I expected, I was filling up 10-15 miles after the light went on so was probably at 125 or so on fill up with a gallon or so left. Rough calculation of mileage was right around 30 or so all freeway, it was a hot day all the way up, probably around 100 and I was doing 75-80 all the way, but I was expecting closer to 40 MPG.

Bike came with Vance and Hines pipes, they sound nice, but the drone got to me after 8 hours in the saddle. I wear ear plugs and it still was getting to me. I'm going to check the baffles and see if they need to be repacked, if that doesn't help I'm going to see if anyone wants to swap stock pipes for the V&H pipes.

That's it for negatives, bike has 13K miles on it, so I'm going to change the plugs and clean the throttle bodies, anybody have other suggestions for the mileage issue.

Also, I ran regular gas all the way down and I had no pinging issues, and bike doesn't have any sort of fuel regulator on it. Would the aftermarket pipes hurt gas mileage?

Overall impression is the bike is a major step up in touring comfort from my 1985 Honda V65 Magna.

James

[MikeInFla]

Congrat's on your new bike. Your going to love it. And welcome to the board.

[caddman11]

Welcome aboard and congrats on the new bike.
Backrest go here http://www.grasshopperlimited.com/Kawasaki.html
Loads of us have these and really like them especially for the price. Mileage should be better somewhere around 38.

[james40]

Thanks and I just finished ordering the grasshopper. I'm leaning more towards the PhatII's for risers, any one have a cheaper source for the Phat's? Thanks, James

[cantridenuf]

As to the cheaper source none that I'm aware of, if you want that particular make I believe that you pretty much are locked into ordering them from Scootworks and paying the price. Nice risers, though; I love mine.

[dhomoney]

James,

I have found good deal on a lot of the stuff you are looking at from two places:

http://www.meancycles.com/
http://www.phatperformanceparts.com/

I am a repeat customer to both. The other place to check that alot of us use is ebay.

Welcome to the club and enjoy the madness. :)

[ringadingh]

Congratulations on the bike and welcome to the forum, theres a ton of info here to keep your bike running like a top. The cruise control is really nice on longer trips, Im sure youll agree once you get one installed.

[james40]

I have had the vista cruiser on my last two bikes and can't live without it. I took a crampbuster on the trip, but I was not impressed. It might work for shorter trips, but you need the cruise for the longer runs.

I checked out the websites, what clamp sizes is required for the stock crash guard? Thanks, James

[james40]

Anybody have luck toning down the drone on V&H pipes? I did a lot of reading about the baffles. I can't be the only one that dislikes the drone at highway speeds. Is there a baffle combination that cuts down on it? I like the sounds just kicking around, but 8 hours of it at 70MPH got very old.

[james40]

Yes another question. Risers: I'm 5'9", how much of a difference in the Phat II's vs the chucksters? If not much of a difference, I'll go with the cheaper solution (chucksters), if it is a major difference I'll go with the Phat's.

Anybody have experience with both? Anybody in the 5'9" range have the chucksters and can comment? I felt like I needed significant pullback to get comfortable, but I will also have the grasshopper installed and that should help with the pullback problem.

Thanks for all the patience. James

[damark115]

James
Welcome to the forum. You will love the backrest. Can't help you with the risers or pipes. The mileage sounds a little low.
I also came from a V65 magna.(1983) BIG difference in comfort especially two up.
Mark

[bobzinger]

What year?

[phenrichs]

Chucksters risers are great but they do not have a pullback. They are just taller. Naturally due to the angle of the tree they will get closer while getting taller but for your height you will most likely want to go with Phats or Aeromachs. They are both 4" and give about 1" pullback.

There are many here with V&H pipes. Netnorske has done a lot of work with tuning them. Mostly making them louder but he would be a good guy for advice on how to change the sound.

[Jared]

Congrats on the new ride!!

[james40]

It's a 2008, picked it up with yesterday with 12,698 miles, it's got 13,268 today. I was just checking it out, it's got a K&N that needs a cleaning and it looks like the throttle bodies could use a scrub, so those will be the first things I attack in the mileage issue. Next will be new plugs and an oil change.