Warp11XX

Good thought.

Bent fork tubes would be really easy to spot visually. A slightly tweaked triple tree not so much. My personal method relies on how the bike feels, whether the bars are straight with the wheel track, and whether I can keep my weight centered and keep a straight line track with hands off the bars....not recommending riding with hands off the bars though, just long enough or light enough touch to let the bike do it's own thing independent of my influence for a short stretch. If you're just talking about the bars being square to your perception, wait for a few rides before doing anything drastic. I drove myself nucking futs with that one a couple years past and finally came to the conclusion it wasn't entirely (or maybe not at all) the bikes fault. Shoulder, neck, back, wrist, arm, or even probably a slight head injury can result in a really annoying sense of perceptual misalignment. Age doesn't help either I doubt...

I've got the First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket myself. It's very waterproof, very warm, very comfortable, and very big. Truly a great touring jacket in any kind of adverse weather. Useful without the liner in summer conditions too. Plenty of pockets and storage space. Spectacular deal at a hundred clams...

True dat !

Tim is right, but the three quarters(.75") seems to cover the minimum slack required for me....and I'm not a lightweight rider at 325#'s +/-10. Never shown any signs or symptoms of binding and/or excessive stretching loads. If uncomfortable with that spec, I personally would NOT set it up at adjustment time with more than an even inch(1.00") of slack....I hate the slappy/noisy sound and clunky decel under load of a too loose or excessively worn chain. It may be wise to simply employ the help of a buddy for a few minutes to do the measurements for you while mounted on the bike just to confirm this amount of slack is good to go for you and your machine. I typically get an average of 25,000+ miles from DID chains if this is any indicator.

Same as before the shim.... .75" to 1.25" measured at the center of bottom run. Check after first run to ensure that everything is happily seated into place.

There are often sales and good deals on the First Gear HT-2 pants. I really don't wear mine much but love them when I do. Waterproof, soft armor in knees and hips, warm without too much bulk, removable liner, and pretty comfortable. I got mine from NewEnough (something else now) a few years ago for $129. I thought that was a fantastic deal.

Dunno who Brock is, but it's nice to know I'm at least smarter than the closest doorknob...

I'm betting by simple layman inspection that it does provide torsional resistance and rigidity to the steering head. The XX is a heavy sled after all. A whole LOT of side torque load on that head in a corner. But I dunno shizzle....just like I'm reminded by my wife and daughters frequently...

No longer available. Returned for credit on a custom jacket. Thanks anyway guys.

It's a 5X as purchased by the Spartan sizing chart.

Really nice new suit for sale to save on restocking charges. It was purchased from Spartan Leathers clearance items. They list it for $250. If you or someone you know happens to be between 6'1" and 6'2" and weigh 260-ish, give or take 15 pounds, this suit would be absolutely perfect. 55"/56" chest/torso is the max for reasonable comfort with the included thermal liner installed. Has full mesh liner, CE armor, and replaceable pucks included. $230 shipping included in the continental US. Link to Spartan store here -->Spartan Leathers Repsol repro closeout

+1 Seems to me like the fuels with the higher octane additives are a bit worse about leaving this type residue behind. Hasn't caused me any problems in the many moons since discovery...

:icon_love: I sooooooo wish I had the coin... :icon_banghead: Pretty, pretty Wingy! Mmmmmmm blaaack....

Die Hard has a decent warranty and nationwide replacement capability. I've had really good luck with them. Deka is another decent small battery that you can often find independent of a bike shop...lots of hometown parts stores carry Deka. Big Crank batteries are pretty stout too and seem to service well...you most likely won't regret buying it.

I can't recall ever posting in an oil thread :icon_think:, so here is my contribution surely worth every penny you paid for it... Never used synthetic in anything, yet. I've used both conventional Valvoline 10W40-MC-4-stroke and 10W40 GN-4 in my XX. I've exclusively switched to GN-4 conventional for the foreseeable future. Protection factor with both is great. Valvoline noticeably decreases rev speed over the entire rpm range. It is very slight, but positively present. Using both oils, there were no shifting issues ever with on average 4K changes. Always a Honda filter. I don't thrash it anyway, so not really a factor I'm guessing. Just under 50K miles now and climbing. No oil between changes added. Never smokes that I've seen or been told. Everything in spec by the book (added PCIII and 4-2-1 out of the box) with no adjustments so far other than driveline wear parts. Dyno mapped at 135 bhp and 79 ft-lb with sorry airflow and muggy temps. Now, this is the "testimonial" part. I have this little thumper 400 ATV that catches absolute hell. Arctic Cat 4X4 manual tranny with a might as well be Suzuki water cooled motor. It has spent it's entire 4K+ mile life dragging between 350 and 1000 lb. loads at very low speeds on steep slopes and rough terrain. I use it pulling a finish mower in boiling temps in the summer. In fall it gets to pull trailers loaded with firewood and/or mountain rocks occasionally. In winter it is both our plow and our daily transportation from the point where the trucks get stuck to our home. The oil truly gets thrashed between changes. It has had maybe 6 oil changes in it's life with whatever filter I can find at the time...I try to get Arctic Cat but have used *cringe* STP a couple times. No clutch slippage so far. The oil always used...??? Castrol 10W40 off the shelf from WallyWorld. This thing never needs oil added, never smokes, runs like new. Poor things bodywork looks like Iraqi surplus, but that's another story. I also put 82K miles on my original 900F motor before it was removed and stored. Still ran like a bat out of hell, but smoked quite a bit under hard accel and went through a quart of 20W50 Castrol in about 500 miles. I think it was both rings and valveguides, but we'll see someday. Being air cooled makes that a pretty good attaboy for Castrol I think. It didn't use much oil at all until after it reached 55K. Is car oil okay? Probably....

Ummmm you might wanna take a look at the pic again...passenger pegs are in place and folded up. JC Whitney motorcycle luggage and accessories Would be easy to adapt several of these boxes to a NightHawk.

Not mounted to the swingarm...mounted to the pillion peg bracket. JC Whitney has some cheaper alternatives with universal mounting brackets and hardware.

If you aren't riding the NightHawk at full race pace down "iffy" roads, they might adequately suit the need. Don't expect big things from any of these tires on wet pavement, but I'm sure you knew that...

Cheap price obviously, very stiff construction, hard compound, long wearing. I've changed a couple sets for a buddy on a Voyager 12 and he loves them....mostly for the price. Anything is better than Cheng Shin...... Grip seems to be average for low dollar tires.

Hmmmmm.... :icon_think: What's next?

:icon_lmao: True dat ! It's even amazing how much it looks like a Jet Ski on steroids with the forks removed. You're correct in the helper spring idea...it makes contact after a little compression I'm sure. I'm guessing that it probably makes contact in static position parked. My guess is that they only lose contact when in full rebound ie: on a jack or front lifted. Maybe I'm trying to fix a problem that doesn't even really exist since I really had no complaints before the seals started leaking and I was ignorant of what was inside the tubes. Sooooo I'll set my oil to 7.5" in both legs tonight, put it back together, and call it the SS Minnow from now on... Thanks guys! I may be riding the rolling sofa again by the weekend...

So, I can pull the caps back off and remove the springs again to adjust the level to 7.6" by sucking out an inch worth of fluid. Not a biggie since I haven't put them back in the tree yet...but I'm not finding anything related to the spring setup I have in place. All the drawings and websites I've found show a single spring in each leg. Mine has two, one slipped inside the other, but the inner one being 5" to 6" shorter than the outer (Progressive?) at full expansion. When assembled, the inside spring would have approx. 2" of free space above it with the cap threaded all the way down. Would adding a CPVC shim that covers this gap be advisable? I just can't understand why there would be "free" space in the tube that isn't contacting the spring all the time. How about the extra displacement of oil from the "helper" spring? Is that a factor to consider in regard to oil level?

The tubes and sliders were disassembled and drained 24 hours or more into a container. I did not disassemble the damper rods and oil lock mechanism, but wiped and dried throughly with clean rags. Very, very little residual oil was present at reassembly.

This is actually about a GL, but is general enough to apply across the board... Removed forks for bushing, seal, and dust cover replacement. Cleaned them, wiped dry, reassembled, and measured out the oil by volume...377cc's right leg, 372cc's left leg. Used the measurement markings on the Honda Pro bottle, so I'm estimating a tolerance of +/- 5cc's. Pumped the forks quite a bit to fill the valve chambers. Measured height is supposed to be 7.6 inches...I'm getting 6 1/2" and 6 5/8" respectively. What gives here? Is the critical factor volume or height in the tube? Secondary to that, my fork springs have been upgraded by the previous owner to what I believe is Progressives. As opposed to the stock drawings, I have two springs instead of one. They are not under the same load since the inside one is significantly shorter. The fork cap in place would leave an approximate free air gap of two inches. Should I shim the inside smaller spring to the same static compression height as the larger one when the caps are in place?