Warchild

Veeeeeery nice! :thumbsup:

Jesus H. Kay-Rhist..... Nik, who has been doing your oil changes, you, or your dealer? Either way, this oil drain plug has been muscle-fucked waaaay too many times. It takes a goodly amount of abuse to crack the pan like that! Way, way, waaaaaaaaaaay overtorqued, and obviously many times, from the look of that oil pan crack! Oh, well, at least this affords you the opportunity to "become One with your bike" as you repair this dork-up. Next stop: the Tools department at Sears:

The OEM pads are good. Very good. BUT.... Only today did I piece Night Train back together and was able to hit the road and bed in the Carbone Lorraine SBK-3 brake pads on the new ABM rotors, and test out the new Spiegler SS lines. FUCK ME TO TEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: The stopping power I now have is just hard to freakin' describe!! It is BEYOND AWESOME! If you think the stock setup is good (and it is), it is still NOTHING compared to this Spiegler setup! Now, obviously, the SS lines are making a huge difference, true enough. But these fucking Carbone Lorraine SBK-3 pads coupled with the ABM rotors are just mind-blowing they way they bring the XX to screetching halt, and I mean, RIGHT FUCKING NOW! This here is The Shit, fellas!

For raw numbers, BLISTER was my best event. No question My best 24 hour endurance run was the "Big Bang" rally, hosted by Reno BMW, May, 1998. 1,837 miles in that one. I was on a ST1100 at the time.

Which is well under the state's 75 posted speed limit. :wink: Well, no, not quite that often.... not with 11.5 gallons of onboard fuel.... 8)

3,146 miles in 44 hours. "BLISTER", start/finish in Ely, Nevada, May, 2003. :twisted:

Precisely so. What flavor chain did ya get, Dion? D.I.D.? Or some other?

Well, now that I look at it, the top of the IAT is a little out of focus.... stupid macro lens on that dumb digi-camera... :wink:

Not a stupid question! You grasp the top of the IAT connector and use your thumb to push the top of the connector tab inward (as shown by yellow arrows): This causes the latch to clear the retaining tab (point to by red arrow below). Now lift the connector straight up.

Helvet, are you sure you don't mean 1.5cm, and not inches? 1.5cm is .59", which is more reasonable than 1.5". I agree with Northman, 1.5" seems pretty excessive. Dropping the triple tree that much has *got* to cause clearance issues over rough roads, and definitely affect steering geometry to a large degree. However, your comments about using much thinner fork oil is echoed by Wilbers, who initially told me to use 2.5wt oil when installing their fork springs. The factory oil (HondaPro SS-8 ) is 10wt, so using oil 1/4 of that viscosity really caused me to raise an eyebrow. I have asked them to re-confirm to ensure that's what the Wilbers factory really recommends. I believe the Wilbers springs, like the HyperPros, are a bit longer than stock springs, so this thinner oil recommendation would be consistant with what both companies suggest.

This is what you want, then.... this is our factory fork oil: Honda Pro SS-8 Suspension Fluid - 10wt, which is standard issue in many Showa cartridge forks.

Valvoline 10W-40 (motorcycle) oil for me. It's what I use in the FJR during winter.. I used Valvoline 20W-50 in summer. Serious answer, btw....

Available in blue, gold, purple, green, red, silver, and BLACK! TastyNuts.com You might as well bling up your rear sprocket, too.... Go totally ape-shit and score the sweeeeeet Titanium for the fork pinch bolts:

I went with TastyNuts.com when I blinged up my Deer-Strike FJR... Gold-anodized Titanium carrier bolts and caliper bolts: Mind you, these Grade 5 Titanium bolts (12 carrier bolts, 4 caliper bolts) are some spendy shit.... ~$140 retail.... :???:

That's what I ended up doing after a couple attempts with ElectrexUSA. Did you crispy stator look like this? Fried stator wires: Insulation burned competely off: However, all this was on a staor with 60,000 miles of fairly hard-core competitive Endurance Riding.... PIAA 910 aux lamps, Widders from head to toe, etc. Two stators in 21,000, methinks you have go something else going on here... other connections, wire harness issues, there must be something else happening.... You might consider Biting the Big One, and score a new stator *and* R/R, and be done with it. Yeah, it'll cost, but nothings worse than a dicked-up electrical system. Me, I'd be going over all attending wire harnesses with a fine-tooth comb before installing your new components.....

I'm thinking, based in the photos below, that you might as well at least try experimenting with the 16T 929 front sprocket.... Here is the XX sprocket, which I am measuring out to be a pretty consistant 8.5mm in width: And here is the 929 sprocket, also a consistant 8.5mm width: Finally, even though my fingers can't keep them aligned for the photo, the inner splines match up very well:

I let Dan Kyle re-do my forks in early spring of '03. He used Race Tech springs cuz he could get them cheap, but he retained and polished the factory Showa shim stack. I've been neglegent replacing the fork fluid (it's been over 17K now :oops: ), so I'm about to yank the forks off next week when I install the Spiegler SS Brake Line kit, and I'll be flushing/refilling the forks with some FUCHS Silkolene RSF 10wt at that time.

That's unfortunate your's didn't work out for you, xrdracer. I didn't have any issues bolting mine right up. Fit's perfect, let's me really rail around these new roundabouts in town, and I can take them cloverleaf exits a helleva lot faster. I love mine. Seems there are more and more roundabouts being built around here in the Tri-Cities the last few years, replacing 4-way stop-signs and making a big difference in getting through town in a timely manner. At first a lot of bonehead drivers who can barely drive as it is were all confused by them, but they really do help prevent T-bone collisions and speed up intersection time. I can see why they are so popular in Europe now...

Big negative, my brother. It is indeed a dampened sprocket. The rust powder was just thoroughly masking the rubber damper, is all. Here is that same procket that has been cleaned of all the corrosion powder, and the digital camera set to "macro". The rubber damper is pretty evident now: Here's the head-on shot, where you can plainly see where the links have been leaving their impression upon the rubber damper portion of the sprocket:

Ideally, you want to change chain/sprockets as a match set anyway (just as a sound, preventative maintenance practice), though I know a number of folks who don't do this.... I'll photo and measure the two sprockets some more tonight...

Uhhhhhhhhh......... Duhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. excuse me, gentlemen, whilst I put the crack pipe away........... :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: Below, the 16T sprocket on the right (that was also in the photos above) is the stock sprocket off my old, beloved, and terribly missed CBR929RR Erion. Compare that to the stock 17T sprocket on the left, directly off my beloved Night Train (a 2000 CBR1100XX): I then slapped the calipers on the correct 17T front sprocket, and 'lo and behold, the width is indeed................... 19mm. Ummmmmm...... d'oh.

Hmmmm.... I'm getting pretty close to 17.5mm when I measure the outside diameter on this 16T front OEM sprecoket with ~ 19,000 miles on it..... Did I take the measurement you are after, Dave?

Good deal... I'll hit 'em up on my end as well.... It does appear that you indeed have a "one-off" machining job, or a different Superbrace was paackged up and erroneously labeled for the Blackbird. Either way, it obviously ain't right, and needs to be fixed. I'm sure the dudes at Superbrace will hook you up proper.

Totally outstanding photo work!!! Did you score this Superbrace on the Group Buy we did here a couple months ago?

I do, but I can't measure it till I get home tonight....