Mike Millsap

I am going to avoid the usual holiday weight gain by doing the South Beach diet during the holidays. I'm on my second day now. The ladies in my family are going to have left-over cheese rolls, dressing and gravy, pecan pie, divinity and fudge, and gallons of egg nog. Wish me luck!

I went back to the stock footpegs. I did not want to grind on my center stand and it bothered me to have my left heel in contact with it, and the footpeg/shifter relationship also got annoying after a while. I could not find a way that I liked to lower the shift lever. I did not have any problem with the pegs dragging in cornering, but I suspect that really agressive riders will grind the Buell pegs frequently. While removing one of the Buell pegs, I applied a very little lateral force, and the mounting bracket part of the peg broke on the side where I had filed it down. I wonder about that! I frequently load my pegs with most of my weight, usually to get circulation back in my butt. I've never had a footpeg break with my weight on it, and I do not want to see how that works. And like I said in an earlier post, the Buell footpeg mod was not that much to rave about anyway. Just my two cents worth.

I just had the Pirelli Diablo Stradas mounted on my Bird. My initial impressions are very favorable. They turn quickly with no surprises and the tires are very stable at high speed with no wobble or vibration. There is no tendency to wander or hunt. The front tire also seems to compliment the RaceTech suspension on the front end. I am curious about how they will wear and will post my mileage when I change out the tires. I bought them from our local Honda shop and my costs were as follows: 120/70-17 #0301-0037 $82.99 PLUS/TAX 180/55-17 #0302-0063 $103.99 PLUS/TAX INSTALLATION FRONT- $34.95 INSTALLATION REAR- $39.95 The Honda shop is trying to be competitive on tire prices and their mounting and balancing charges are acceptable. Their gimmick is a tire disposal fee which can be avoided by simply asking for the old tires back.

I recently contacted Louie at the Parts Monster (or maybe he is the Parts Monster) and asked for his help in sorting out my suspension problems. Louie was very helpful in supplying the Race-tech parts, the Ohlin shock, and recommending a qualified and Race-tech approved suspension specialist in Houston (Andy Marcer d/b/a Metric Motorcycles and ATV's). Louie's prices were very reasonable and his service was prompt and personal. He's nice folks. The suspension specialist he picked for me did a great job and my Blackbird now has a different and much better ride. Turns and sweepers are on rails. I recommend Louie to you. He is a member of this list and is very intereseted in helping Blackbird owners.

My worst experience with overheating was in gridlocked "drive home" traffic on a loop near the airport in San Antonio last August. My fan started and ran for a few minutes and then the engine just quit. I had to hop off the bike and push it across three lanes of stop and go traffic with jerk drivers honking and driving way too close to me. After finally getting to the shoulder of the road (still not far enough away from moving traffic), I had to strip off my Aerostich coat and pants to cool my own temperature. I was standing there in by riding boots, boxer shorts and a T-shirt, and I didn't give a rat's ass. The bike would start again in about 30 minutes and was sufficiently cooled for me to ride on the paved shoulder and get off the loop. I immediately sought cold water and shade for myself. Not only was the traffic scary, but I got nauseous and a little disoriented from overheating my body. I've seen two riders die from heatstroke in a West Texas enduro, and I take it just as seriously as dangerous traffic. I never want to repeat that experience again and will try any good solution or tactic to avoid it. So if you know of a better fix than Water Wetter, I'll use it. My BBird overheats quickly in stop and go or stalled traffic. That kind of situation is probably always avoidable if I think ahead, but sometimes you get surprised with gridlock conditions.

I'm looking into the subject of radiator additives anticipating some 100+ degree riding this summer. On this forum Water Wetter seems to be a popular additive so I did some reading on the Internet. I am aware that "The Internet contains huge volumes of information, and only some of it is accurate." But anyway, if yoiu are riding in a hot climate, here is an interesting article (slightly condensed) you may enjoy reading: "Does it work? I cannot give a conclusive answer to that question. But I like "Water Wetter" and have been using it for many years now. What I can say with conviction is that the person who wrote Redline's Technical Information brochure on "Water Wetter" knew what he or she was talking about. I have a Ph.D. in Heat Transfer and have taken a graduate course in Boiling and Condensation. Based on my training I can say that Redline's explanation of their product makes good scientific sense. First we must dispel a common misconception: "Water Wetter" is not designed to lower bulk coolant temperature. "Water Wetter" is designed to reduce hot spots in your cylinder head. It does this by reducing the build-up of water vapor in any superheated areas. The bad thing about having hot spots in your cylinder head (read combustion chamber) is that they can promote pre-ignition - definitely a bad thing. These areas of the combustion chamber can then form local hot spots in the cooling passages. Thus, even though your bulk coolant temperature is well below its boiling point (i.e. your gauge reads just fine), there may be localized boiling in some regions of the coolant tract. This localized boiling can cause a layer of water vapor to form over the hot spot. This vapor forms an insulative blanket and prevents heat from leaving this area, thus making the hot spot even worse. But reducing the surface tension of the water makes it easier for vapor bubbles to leave the surface of the cylinder head and allows the bubbles to convect heat away from the area. Something that changes the surface tension of a liquid is called a "surfactant". It does not take very much surfactant to significantly change the surface tension of water. Hence, you do not need to add very much "Water Wetter" in order for it to do its job. An additional benefit of using "Water Wetter" (in conjunction with 100% water) in you cooling system is that water has an extremely high heat capacity. Thus a gallon of 100% water can carry more heat away from you engine than an equivalent gallon of 50/50 water and coolant. Water also has a high thermal conductivity which increases the convection of heat away from the coolant passage walls and into the free stream of the liquid flowing through the passages. "Water Wetter" does not increase the boiling point of water. Standard automotive coolant does increase the boiling point of the mixture above that of 100% water. But remember that if your cooling system is operating properly, it should never get hot enough to boil (I mean BOIL, not just localized boiling). In performance engines the primary duty of the cooling system is to keep the engine in its optimum temperature range. This is best accomplished with 100% water, because its high heat capacity makes it very efficient at transferring heat."

Yeah, it looks like the deal that Dale Wilson put together would have been perfect for upgrading my whole suspension system. I suppose I can always pay full retail like I usually do on aftermarket expensive mods. This or a Race Tech kit seems to be the solution. I'm still researching, and informed advice is still appreciated.

My front forks are very harsh and hard if I encounter any rough surface, so harsh that I am concerned about vibration damage to my Bird. I ran "fork springs" in the forum search and it yeilded seven pages of very conflicting information. Try "Hyperpro Springs" for example. Hopefully, a consensus has developed that might address this inquiry. I need some expert advice from a knowledgeable source about fork spring replacement. Here are factors that might be considered: 1. I am 6'1" and 230 lbs. I have no trouble reaching the ground and I do compress my suspension. 2. I am interested in a comfortable ride much more than race track performance, but do not want to negatively affect my present handling. 3. If appropriate, I could also change out the rear suspension at the same time. Considering these criteria, I would very much appreciate some informed advice on: 1. make and model of springs (or other required parts) to be used, 2. make and weight of oil to be used, and 3. any special directtions for replacing both. I'm sure this has been covered before on this list, but damned if I can find it. So thanks for your patience and information.

I only rode about 20 miles with them. I also added GenMar risers, and the combination seems a bit more comfortable. But nothing to rave about. All our roads on the High Plains are flat and straight. I have to ride about 50 miles to the East to drop off the Caprock and ride in the Rolling Plains area where there are a lot of turns. I'll do that this weekend and have a much better idea if this setup is going to work. If not, it's easy to reverse. The Buell pegs do look better on the BBird than the orignals. What I really want to do is get a Sargent seat. My present seat is a butt killer. I forgot to mention the brake and shifter. I have 13D feet, and the lower pegs actually improve the position of my feet relative to the controls.

This afternoon I mounted the Buell footpegs recommended here by several riders. I did it a little differently from the instructions on this list. I asked a machinist friend to make a pair of bushings (spacers or sleeves if you prefer) from aluminum stock, and it took him about 10 minutes. I tried but could not find stock bushings at a bearing store .that would work I used the original Honda footpeg pins and mounting hardware rather than drilling out the mounting tabs on the bike and rather than using Buell pins and hardware. Consequently, I can return to the OEM pegs any time I want. FYI, the bushings have an outside diameter of 11mm and an inside diameter of 8mm. I fitted them to the Buell pegs after fitting the Buell pegs to the Honda mouting tabs. the length of the bushings is the width of the Buell footpegs where they fit into the Honda mounting tabs. Everything is very snug, but very sanitary. I borrowed a file made for working aluminum and the hand fitting was very quick and very easy. Having the right tools and the right friends certainly makes little jobs like this one easy. There is no point in taking photos since the mounted pegs look exactly like everyone else's pegs, and everyone knows what a bushing is. BTW, the springs on the pegs easily fit over the bushings.

Josh, thank you very much for your informative reply. I should have the Buell parts in soon and will contact you if I have problems. I have Larry's kit coming for my ST1300 so I may do some sort of comparison and then write a report with measurements for this fourm. Thanks again,

Iceman, I also have a pair of the Buell pegs ordered, but I'm thinking about cancelling the order until I find out if this kit will work. This kit might not need the modifications required to install the Buell pegs and may allow use of the OEM Blackbird pegs.

A knee injury is causing me to have some interest in lower footpegs for my Blackbird. A vendor who sells aftermarket items for the ST1300 has a footpeg lowering kit that, from the photos, would appear to possibly work on the Blackbird. The mounting bracket for the footpeg looks to be identical for both my ST1300 and my Blackbird. The dimension between the two tabs of the bracket measures 7/8" but I have not tried switching pegs yet. Before trying a switch, perhpas someone has given this kit a try, and, if so, can relate the results? Please see at: http://www.motorcyclelarry.com/st1300_footpeg.asp Mike Millsap Lubbock, Texas '02 CBR1100XX '04 ST1300