brianmacza

Shut the fuck up !!!!! We have 2 feet of snow outside About 7 more weeks before I can take the bike out Hmmm... even in mid winter the temp only barely gets to freezing point. A 365 day riding season is normal... you sad fuckers need to review your priorities :icon_snooty:

Finally, a tech thread where people don't dogpile me for being full of shit. Don't be so sure...it's early yet and most people are at work... Having examined three burned stators, I do infact disagree with Zero. It appears that the stator failures can be caused by breakdown of the insulation on the solid magnet wire used for the coils, heat and vibration over time being the likely culprit. Most likely the stator would last longer with less heat cycles, but there is no way to alleviate the stress it receives. It also is true that a short in the RR could take out a stator. In one of the three examined it appeared that the RR was the culprit as the entire "phase" winding, i.e. every third coil was burnt. Just my observations so far. You're a good man, Charlie Brown

You're right - its the Racetec. I lowered pressure to 2.2 bar and it still rides like crap. Waiting for the Angel I ordered to arrive so I can start riding again... been using my Alfa 156 for the last 2 weeks. Traffic truly sucks moist ass when you have commuted exclusively by bike for years.

Yup... stock XX rim. My new REAL tyre goes on tomorrow and I can't wait for it to handle like a '97 XX again rather than a '79 Suzuki GT380

I don't see that happening unless pressures are way down - at 2.8 bar its just a bitch hard ride with really shitty handling characteristics. Also... I noticed that my hugger has only about 2mm clearance because of the deformation to the tread profile - it looks like the diameter of the total tire tread is about 8mm larger than a new 180/50

A big chunk of metal I didn't see until the last second - front passed it, rear hit and it sliced a 4" gash in the sidewall. Was quite exciting.

I had a rear wheel blowout about 2 weeks ago on the way home from work - pissed me off a bit as my Pirelli Angel rear still had about 4k miles left in it. The only tire I had available at short notice was an ex track Metzeler Racetec M1 which I shoehorned on in a bit of a hurry. The tire had done 2 qualifying sessions at a national race event on a ZX10, so the sides were still fine and the main tread in the middle was pretty much virgin territory - no heat cycle damage and I felt pretty much OK with putting it on. What a change - the bike feels like a truck in a straight line, and takes REAL muscle to turn in even at reasonably sane speeds. What happens next is the interesting part tho', as once its in the turn, the bike feels like it wants to keep leaning over and you have to muscle it out the turn. NOT a nice feeling at all. So... from someone who is not a racetrack guru, this is a really bad idea unless you need the extra rubber for straightline acceleration (and even that is dubious because the pinched profile of the tire on an XX rim means that you probably have a smaller contact patch than a 180/55 unless you drop pressure waaay down) so D O N ' T D O I T New Pirelly Angel on order, will put that on this weekend

I don't think it's an issue with the import into the RSA, I've been told that I can have it reset, will try it when the next major service is due; up to now I've been living in the country, where there are plent of wide open spaces and you can indulge your need for speed, but where the proper Honda service centers are also few and far apart. Now I'm living in the city, where you need to watch what speed you're doing at all times, but where the Honda service centers are more easily found ... Hi there... I'm in Midrand. Welcome to the nuthouse )

I have had 2 water pumps fail on the bird... the 1st one I noticed that temps were rising and there was no reason for it - the radiator checked out fine, the flow throught it was ok when put on a test jig at the local rad shop. Discovered that almost all the impellor vanes had broken off or disintegrated somehow. Honda was unable to provide a replacement - no stock in my little backwater paradise - so I visited a breakers and got a used unit. About a year later I pulled off the freeway after a long fast run and stopped at a traffic light. Before I could pull away my left foot got REALLY hot 'cos coolant was pissing out the vent hole on the bottom of the water pump. Advice? Don't get used mission-critical items. The current pump is now 50k Km old and does just fine.

You may be talking about 'Posidriv' screws... a good read on screw types is this

When my stator started failing I had 55v on 1&2 and 2&3 but zero in 1&3 - it still charged enough somehow to run the bike and basic services - if the radiator fan switched on the battery would discharge. The RR crapped out so I replaced both and the stator was pushing close to 60v on all 3 circiuts - the yammy '01 R1 RR (which was acksherly a R6 RR on the same part number from the stealership) charges at 15v at anything over 2500rpm which is fine by me. New stator and RR are prescribed

I have done about 8000km on my rear Pirelli Angel ST - still has about 5mm tread in the middle and hasn't flattened out at all. The part that pisses me off is that my chicken strips are GONE, but I still have the embossed feather pattern on the side tread - this tire wears exceptionally well. No confidence issues either now that I have junked that FUCKING Dunlop and put a Diablo on the front. The head shake and tramlining that the Dunlop gave is gone and the bike falls into corners sooo easily. Scared the crap outta me the first time it happened and made me adjust both the way I ride AND my underwear. I dunno what I'll try after this - the wear/ride/confidence is way better than PR2, Z6 or any Bridgestone I have had so far.

In my youth I decided I knew better than old man Honda and put 36mm smoothbore Mikunis on my 900F. The rest of the package was Yoshi 4 into 2 racing cans (the exact version used on the AMA racers in 1982) and K&N cone filters. The cams were degreed and the head ported, and it made great power. After about a year of fucking with jetting and being miserable. When I evenually got it running right it was fantastic. And then it got stolen, and all the money, skinned knuckles and blood put into it was gone - insurance looked at the mods and paid out about 1/2 the book value. I got a stock 900F and KEPT it stock until I bought my XX in 2005. If you're rich/brave/single/stupid, go for it.

My brother is a Chem Eng working for a little oil-from-coal company called Sasol. He states the the higher RON value fuels are heavier per volume (more dense) and thus provide more available energy to an average modern engine. I tested this for a while, and without changing my riding style, I got about 30km per tank better mileage on RON95 than the alternative RON93. The additional expense in my little 3rd world corner of Africa worked out pretty much the same ITO cost per kilometer, so I decided to use whatever was available as it made no discernable difference in terms of performance or feel.

I have an oxford magnetic tankbag that I hardly ever take off the bike. Holds fine to about 280kph - have done about 100,000km with the tank bag on (currently on about 170k km)

When did you last change oil, and what did you change it to? My gearshift deteriorates over the lifespan of the engine oil - the clunk into 1st gets louder, and as soon as I miss a change its time for replacement oil+filter.

I picked up a nail on my rear - Angel ST that had about 500 miles on it. The local stealership put a mushroom plug with about a 2" disk covering the hole inside the tire, and it hasn't leaked at all. Balance is a bit out because the dipshit mechanic didn't line it up properly, but I can live with it for another 5 months.

I tried a BT016 on the back of my XX and disliked it bigtime. Granted it was winter, but the tire took forever to heat up and it was as slippery as baby snot until it was warm.

. I am about to r/r my water pump. Tell me how yours goes. Mine was making a "bearings are about to go out" whirring noise. Will I have to replace pump or can they be rebuilt? I opened up my fscked waterpumps - as far as I can tell they are not economically repairable. Replace, ride, enjoy.

My '97 has munched 2 waterpumps - the hoses look new.

I really wanted to get a Shinko rear, but the local supplier was out and it would have taken 2 days for the next consignment to be unloaded and delivered. I had to settle for a Pirelli Angel ST which is still a very good tyre from what I can tell so far. Have done 3 tanks (about 750 miles) and it sticks well. More confidence inspiring that the crappy Dunlop I had on before. Please post a report on what you find when you have time - i REALLY want to know )

When I had a 6mm shim in my tire touched the floor on mainstand. I replaced it eventually with a 4mm plate, and the problem went away. I found that I can get the bike on the mainstand the N1K way though - way easy even with my skinny 200lb arse on it.

Just a thought - check your RR as well if the RR has problems it could provide enough power to run most of the systems on the bike, but you're pretty much on a total discharge system. Thats the problem my last RR had - sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Replaced it and all is happy.

+1 Ferodo

Just a comment - if you have shimmed your back shock, you need a lot more than the spec slack on the chain. If you set it to the suggested play with a shim installed you WILL get a stretched chain. Don't ask me why I know Expensive lessons....