Obby

Today while riding I notice a severe shaking in the font end. The front wheel and handle bar begain making a squeeling noise and then a rough shake. When I got home I finally just jacked up the frontend with a floor jack under the oil pan. I grabbed the bars and shook the steering left to right... clunk, clunk. Not sure what it is, but the sound seems to be comming from the wheel. I tried isolating the wheel and couldn't get any side to side movement. It seems to be only happen when the wheel is suspended and I shake the handlebars left to right, WTF. I guess a visit to the local stealer is in order, DAMN! .

I live a stones throw from those ass clowns. And... what a crappy website. If anyone needs help dealing with them, let me know. -Obby +1, A quick email explaining any delays is all most of us need to either just ride it out or decide to shop elsewhere. In any case, no drama is needed. DO THESE PEOPLE ACTUALLY RIDE OR ARE THEY JUST POSERS???

Look out for the petcock diaphram. That is a commonly known weak point on the '97 for sure. It can cause all kinds of fuel delivery related symptoms. That's my 2 cents.

If it doesn't clunk, then pull, I wouldn't worry about it (maybe change the oil). It took me a while to get use-to the clunking on my '97, but now I find it comforting. At least I know it definately in gear, and not comming out, unlike my Kawi which mis-shifts regularly .

I definately will need to replace the bearings. Greasing it didn't last long. That said, the rotors are still warped. It's pretty obvious when you spin the wheel.

Ok, finally got that bird off it's feet and spun the front wheel. Two problems... both rotors are fucked. They look like bad hubcabs spining on a car. Second, there is a loud sqealing coming from the wheel bearings. I hit it with the cure all (WD-40), which quieted it until the next day. I'm fucked .

So true. When you're eating out, it's near impossible to eat really healthy. My advise... just try to keep the portions down. Good luck!

This is the one I gave a guy to repaint my rear tail section (found under seat section). It looks like a dead on match. Color: NH-359M Code: NH359

Put it up on the centerstand and have the wife sit on the back. that should get it up enough to do a quick check. Pulsation is not normal but the GRRRRR sound or buzzing sound(like bees)is normal. LOL, my wife is like 120lbs. We tried that before, didn't work . Maybe the whole family would. Or... I could sit on it and she could spin (that didn't come out right).

Thanks. As others have said here, I should really check my wiring... especially at the R/R connector. You know... Honda makes a kick ass engine, so what's with the charging issues. All my Honda cars and bikes have had these issues. CAN YOU HEAR ME HONDA???

Good work Justin. Tell us how you did it!

ok we've never meet if we had you would be telling me to push start a XX..... You should be fine with current draw as others have said. Just push start it. It's not hard it starts really easy.... Second that, once I got mine rolling... she started right up. As for meeting... I'm going to try to make the MTBE meet to put faces to all the great folks here. If you're there... first beer/soda is on me. Maybe even split a d: hooker :icon_shhh: .

Yeah, thanks Justin , I'll let you know. I think it may be the rotor/s. To test the issue, I braked hard at about 65mph to 35mph, no real issue. But, when I brakes hard comming off a freeways off-ramp 35,mph to 0... bingo... grrrr... shake... really weird, like somethings loose and shaking. If I could get the bike jacked up in the front and rotate the wheel I would probably be able to find out the issue. Can i use a floor jack under the collector or engine without damaging anything??? I'm a little afraid to try . As for the charging. Well, it's 14.5 at 3k rpm or above not 13.5 as I previously stated :icon_shhh: . As I rev'd up the engine I did see 1 spike at 17amps though. Not sure if that was a correct reading though, as it was not reproducible. Any thoughts guys?

If this reading is taken at an engine speed no lower than 3000 RPM, and you have no other electrical accessories running, bike's all stock, only the low-beam burning, etc, then IMO, this output is just a pinch on the low side. Adequate perhaps. But not really where it oughta be. With a truly healthy charging system, including a relatively fresh battery, you should see your voltmeter pushing somewhere in the 14.2v - 14.5v range (thereabouts) in the conditions described above. How old is the battery (both in years, and in mileage)? How many miles on the bike? Are the stator and R/R original? Opps, Come to mind, it may have been 14.5. I'll check it again and post later tonight. Yep, the stator and reg./rec. are all original. Battery was replaced 1 1/2 - 2 years ago (yuasa YTX12-BS) Bird has 45k miles on her ( :icon_shhh: don't tell her she's getting old).

So that's how I'll sell it to the wifee. "but honey... you don't want me to not be able to stop, do you?".

Push start the big bitch. That'll get you back home to your charger at least.

Does the rate of the pulsing change with speed? Sounds like you may have a bent rotor. That's the first thing I'd check, anyway. And get that charging issue figured out so I can get my $20 for Maple Bar Boy LOL, I knew someone had a bet on it. I've been keeping my eye on it, checking the charging levels at different times. It's seems to be putting out a consistent 13.5 now. Go figure . Not sure what's going on, but I keep charging it anyways every couple of weeks. Every now and again it actually needs charging. In any case, I'm just going to replace both the reg/rec and stator so I guess you both won the bet . Buy each other a donut and call it even As for the brakes, I'll test them at various speeds and let you know. From what I can remember, it does it at all speeds, but not really bad until I really lay into them. Thanks, Obby

Just read this... Yep that was 20k. Now she's got 45k. Life is too short. So what the update on this issue? How's my fellow squids 150mph runs going?

Here's a quick update for some of the problems I've posted: HID Problems - Failing to lightup unless I used the key-on method. - Turns out that my batt. charge was too low (not by much either). HID seems needs a full charge. This brings... Charging Problems - Bird looses a charge in a week. Either my Reg./Rec. or Stator or combo is not charging my battery consistently. In any case, it seemed to go away . Now it may only need to be recharged twice a month or so. Dead Bird - Bird leaves me stranded on hwy when it rains. A few times the engine would just act like it was out of gas, slowly bogging out until it would die. Then it would be hard/impossible to restart. After letting it sit a while, I found it would start back up. This turned out to be a faulty Petcock diaphram. I just replace the whole assembly though. Now for the new problem... Pulsating front brakes - When I grab the brakes, I feel a pulsation in the lever. If I grab hard enough, I'll hear a whinning grrrrr.... sound. I though it was the pads, so I replaced them with the EBC Double HH ones again (love those). BTW - they were only half gone after 25k miles on them . Any ideas? Or will this just go away using Honda's Blackbird self-healing technology too.

Wow, 5 grams of fiber per slice... nice (hard to find in my town). I do have a Red Lobster here though, have to give that a try when the family and I are out .

...And down almost 14lbs. (my weight seems to fluctuate a half-pound from day to day). That means that my blackbird has gained approx. 2hp . I'm still on the Southbeach Diet. I have cheated, but mainly only because I either didn't have the right food in the house or I was eating out, or it was a special occasion (birthdays, office party, ect). I must admin that cooking is much more of a chore now, but it is worth it. All meals have to be pre-thought out. No real, I'll just eat this... for the most part (not if you want a good tasting meal). A few in-between snacks are ok, but in moderation of course. Like some beef jerky (good crave killer), mixed nuts (small amount), a few wheat crackers with lowfat something on them, fresh veggies packs with lowfat/non-fat dressing dip works in a pinch too. You know a funny thing about all this moderation and healthy foods. My appetite has decreased. I think it's because I don't really look that forward to eating as much. I mean... I like the food, but it's no barbeque. What I miss the most is probably a large Tri-tip steak and baked potatoes and gravy and a large after dinner bourbon and beer. All that is a definate No No. I don't miss the extra 14lbs. at all though. Stay stong folks! -Obby

Here's a couple PCII maps that one of the members spent alot of time creating (can't remember his name :icon_think: ). I believe he created them for good fuel economy, but he said that it helped his performance too. FiXXer.zip

What's a FI Light? :icon_think: Simple fix for ya... Keep it under 150mph squidly .

Red J, I though you couldn't use an '01 reg/rec. on a '97 Didn't someone fry all their bulbs when they tried that?

+1 Same here. They just look at the mileage and vin. Don't bother with returning the bird to stock config.