Newt

Looks like Ron Ayers is about $400. I sent Louis an email requesting a quote that will be waiting for him first thing Monday. Thanks for the info -

Do they come pre-painted or am I going to have to deal with finding a body shop that can match the paint ? Time for a gin and tonic. Thanks - Newt

Shit ! I just went out and had a great ride on my XX. Got back to the house and was putting it up on the center stand and I still don't know what happened, but over it went on the right side. Happened to land on some plastic furniture, and cracked the shit out of the right side of the upper cowl. I'm still in disbelief and am trying to figure out how to get a new cowl - fast ! I can't stand looking at this thing like this ! So, any advice on where I can get an upper cowl for an '03 ? If possible, I'd like to get it already painted - if it comes that way. I'm sure the stealership will want a fortune if I end up going that route. I'm in shock and pissed. At least I had a nice ride. Crap. Newt

Sounds like we are all running about the same temps - hotter than hell ! Thanks for the info- I, for one, and going to not worry about it until I get coolent burbling out of the reservoir sometime ! Greg

That's hot !

Thanks all for the great info - good to know there isn't a problem !

Hello all - Looking for a little advice for a newbie XX owner. Up here in the Seattle area, we had an unseasonably warm day today - upper 80's or even more in places. I took the new Bird ('03) for a ride of about 150 miles to get it to the 600 mile break-in oil change. While I was out, I noticed a couple things about the engine temperatures. When running at highway speeds in 6th, the temp stabilized at around 185. If I ran in a lessor gear, or stopped for a traffic light, the temp shot up rather quickly - the highest I saw was 226. Fan seems to kick on around 215 or so, an dit seems to take a long time for the temp to come back down to the normal 185ish range after I get back out on the road. I've searched the archives, and have seen some mention of these things running hot - to the point of overheating sometimes. There is also discussion about wetting agents in the coolant, and burping air out of the system. My questions is this - are my temps high enough that I need to worry about any of that ? Will they get lower as it gets broken in further ? I changed the oil today - and used Honda GN4 10W-40. I plan on going to a synthetic next time - will that lower the temps as well ? Sorry to be so long - and thanks in advance for your help. Greg

I think what I'm going to do is do the first change at 600 miles with regular dino oil, then at the 4000 mile change make the switch. Seems like that gives it enough time to get well seated, and still allows a switch over soon to improve shifting - not that it is bad right now, mind you. Now, to figure out what synthetic to switch to...... (flame bait !)

I take it that those of you recommending switching at 600 miles don't believe there is any validity to the argument about needing more time to break in ? I don't know that I buy it either, but is there any reason to not wait to switch until 4000 miles ? How much better is the shifting with a synthetic ? Thanks - Greg

Ok, not to start a flame war about which oil is better than which, I am curious as to the boards' opinion as to how many miles should be on the bike before changing over to synthetic oil. I've heard everything from at the first oil change to 5000 miles. I'm closing in on my first 600 mile oil change and plan on putting Honda oil in it again, but am curious as to when I should switch to my synthetic of choice. Thanks - Greg