RodeRash

My OEM chain lasted about 18,000. It was near the replace marks. I replaced the OEM chain with a mail order D.I.D. right before a hard trip to SanDiego and back. The new chain went bad on the way to San Diego even though I lubed it at every third gas stop. (it developed kinks and tight spots) but I ran it for at least another thousand miles after I returned home. I gave the chain to "a friend" who owned a local shop. He was supposed to give the chain to the D.I.D. rep, but never heard anything. I don't deal with that shop any more. I was concerned about damage from the bad chain to my OEM sprockets, so I replaced everything with an AFAM kit. I bought it from "my friend". It was the same kit that is in the sprocket center link. This chain has held up well. It has about 18,000 miles on it and is no where near the wear limits. I don't think I needed to adjust it at all this past riding season. I didn't even change the adjustment when I replaced my rear tire. Just lucky on this one I guess.

If you really want FI, sell your bike and buy one with FI. OTOH, anything can be done if you are willing to throw enough time and money at it.

Porter, You had both an RD-400 and a Daytona 400? I had an RD-400, but I helped with the machine work when my buddy, who was the service manager for the local Yamaha shop, built up his Daytona. I machined new mounting plates to adapt reed valves from a Yamaha Snowmobile to the bike motor. We had a bunch of them sitting around because the smowmobile guys were replaceing the 4 petal valves with 6 petal. The stock carbs were replaced with 34mm. His bike was wicked fast when it was on the pipe. We took it to the drag strip for bike night. The regular bike racers were laughing at his attempts to launch the thing during practice, (He used to race dirt track, and kept rolling back out of the lights, and then, you know about how those things wheelie) but then he got it right, and pulled off a string of high 12 second runs. (This was at 6000 ft. altitude) He used a 12.9 dial-in and didn't get beat until the finals.

I would be careful about switching oils. Synthetic oil changes the molecular structure of hardened engine parts. If you change back to dyno oil, your crankshaft may shatter like a sliding glass door.

Galfer green pads suck. Yeah, right. And Honda's going to import an updated BlackBird to the US this year. I didn't much care for the factory brake pads, and I thought I would try something different on my Suzuki TLR, I installed a set of Galfer green pads, and followed the break-in procedure. I didn't like them at all. If you need to stop fast, they were OK, but they have no modulation at all. At slow speed stops, like around town, they would not stop at first. When you squeezed a little harder, they would grab. It got to the point that I used the back brake for most around town stops. As a bonus, you get to listen to the damn things squeal. This weekend, I replaced them with EBC-HH, and the difference is amazing. The new pads are not even close to being broken in, but it makes the bike fun to ride again.

They should show more pictures of the ass end of that bike. That's the view most people will be seeing anyway.

The stock springs are to soft. You get a lot of front end dive when you brake, and it is easy to bottom out the forks. (giving you no suspension at all) There is to much compression damping, so when you hit a sharp edged bump, the forks tend to pack, and the bump is passed right through the suspension to you. I'm not a big fan of the 900RR shock conversion for a couple reasons. 1. These shocks are around 10 years old now, so, if you find one, it will probably need to be rebuilt. (This shock was not designed to be rebuilt, but it can be done) 2. It is almost impossible to find a stiff enough rear spring for this shock.

Barry, When you put the front wheel back on. Install the brakes. Honda recomends you use new bolts whenever you remove the brakes. I think this has been hashed out in other threads. I use locktite blue on the old bolts. Tighten up the axle bolt. Don't tighten up the pinch bolts on the front of the forks yet. Check the clearance between the brake disk and the fork with that shim that is supplied with your toolkit. Then take the bike off the jack pump the brakes till they work, then hold the brake lever while you bounce the front of the bike a few times. I'm told that this makes sure there is no bind in the fork tubes. Then torque the pinch bolts. BTW: $77 for both wheels is not too bad. My local shop gives me the "employee" discount, and it still costs me $25. per wheel. Before they got the new tire changer, they would let me do my own for free.

Front wheel. This a piece of cake if you have your center stand. Just use a small jack on the oil sump. If you are REALLY anal, you can put something soft between the jack and the sump. Raise it up until the front wheel just barely clears the ground. Remove the fender. (It's only 4 screws. You can keep the fender on, but then you need to jack the front end WAY up in the air, and you will need to lift the wheel up in the air, and hold it in place to replace it. Rear wheel. My rear wheel clears the ground by less than 1/2" when on the center stand. I use a scrap 1X4 to roll the tire back on in order to to lift it up high enough to put everything back together.

That's kind of like a fat person trying different scales until he finds one where he weighs less.

While swapping out my front tire, I discovered one of my front wheel bearings feels a little rough. I ordered a new set of bearings and seals. Anyone changed out bearings without the Honda tool? Can you get buy using a proper sized socket wrench to drive the bearing in?

You may want to check the adjustment of your Throttle Position Sensor. On my Suzuki TL, the TPS adjustment is critical for cold engine starts and warmup.

A good rule of thumb for any motorcycle. Sag (with you on the bike) should be 1/4 of total suspension travel. On the Blackbird, that is just under 1 3/16" or about 30 mm. If your spring rate is correct, after you adjust the sag properly with you on the bike, check the free sag. (Sag without a rider) You should have 5-10 mm of free sag. If you have no free sag, your spring(s) are to soft. More than 10 mm of free sag, and your springs are to stiff.

You may want to look at possible problem with your regulator/rectifier. A failure there can cause your charging system to produce excess voltage, which can first show up as blown dash bulbs or fuses. Or, since you saw the problem first in the rain, you may look for problems caused by wet connections. Seems like I heard of a known issue where one of the connectors actually held water, and caused these type of problems.

:funnypost:

I hope you were kidding. +1

Compared to most current sportbikes, there are not a lot of adjustments for you to make. The only adjustments on a stock blackbird suspension is spring preload and rebound damping. Front preload is done by replacing the stock spring spacer with one of a different length. At the rear, there is a threaded collar that you can adjust, but it's a bitch to adjust while on the bike. Proper preload will let the bike sag about 1/4 th. of it's total travel when you are sitting on the bike in your riding gear. (or around 30 mm) You can also play with ride height some in order to quicken up the steering. You can lower the front by sliding the fork tubes up in the triple clamps. At the rear, you can add a spacer between the top of the shock, and the mounting crossmember. I would be careful about adding more than a 6mm shim to the rear. I personally do not like lowering the front of the bike, as you may start scraping your fairings when you corner hard. I found that the BlackBird is undersprung on both ends. It also has too much compression damping. These problems are not easily resolved. You will need to turn to the aftermarket for heavier springs in the front. A revalve kit will fix the compression damping problems. At the rear, I would just dump the stock shock and buy an aftermarket replacement. (Penske or Ohlins are the two biggest sellers)

Warchild, our resident lighting expert recomends (on his web page) that you check the low beam cutoff point from a distance of 15 feet. Stock, the cutoff point is 31.5 inches, and he recomends that you raise this to around 35 inches. On my bike, I found that 35 inches was a little too tall. I used 34 inches for the cutoff. I replaced my stock bulbs with better quality 55 watt bulbs (Phillips Vision Plus), but have not yet converted to HID. I would think that 36.5 inch cutoff may be a little high, but if you don't get flashed by oncoming cars, and you are happy with the light pattern, you'll be ok.

Is there a G.M.D. Computrack service center in your area? They are in the business of checking and fixing motorcycle alignment and setup problems.

You can get another 20 hp just from adding the right aftermarket decals.

Everyone's getting new Avitars. I like your's best.

Dude, How many times are you going to ask this same question? With enough money and machining talent, you can make anything fit.

No problem. Tire will be about shot when you return, but a 5000 mile trip is not out of the question.

It's probably cheaper to swap the bird for a CBR-1000RR That way, you get the USD forks, better handling and a lot less weight.

The reason they call it a crush washer, is that it is designed to compress a little when you tighten it to proper specs. This performs two functions. 1. It distorts and forms a custom seal between the pan and the plug. 2. Because it is under tension, it functions as a lock washer, even under the light torque that you use with the drain plug. Oil drains need a light torque load because they are are designed to screw in and out many times over their lifetime. If you reuse a crush washer a couple times, it gets squashed flat and then it's just another fuckin washer. It no longer does the job it was designed for. You might as well take it off. It's the same principal used by the washers that are supplied with spark plugs.