tweety

Thanks all for the tips. I was at the shop again to get my new Avon 46ST installed, and asked them to remove the anti-squeal shims up front while they were at it. We compared how freely the front wheel spun before removing the shims and afterwards, and it made a noticable difference, although it still made a slight dragging sound. The mechanic (a different guy) made an interesting point when the shims were still on. pushing back the rotors he was able to easily move around the brake assembly, meaning that it was the pistons that were locking the pads down on the disk, it wasn't the sheer thickness of the pads. (Although as proved above that wasn't helping) Also after riding on them for a day, we looked at the wear of the pads, and it was definitely uneven across the pad. Anyway, I've got the shims now and I'll reinstall them a few thousand miles down the road. thanks again!

hey guys. been a little while, i hope everyone is doing well. i recently took my bike to a local shop to get the brakes done. (Lee's cycles for the San Diegans here) I had full fluid change, and all 3 pads replaced with EBC HHs. After installation, the mechanic took it for a test drive and said the front brakes were dragging severely. We popped her on the center stand, pushed on the back and tried to spin the front wheel. It really didn't turn much at all, and of course it makes a horrible scraping sound. When I got home to my with the engine off I wheeled it around it was noticably tougher to roll back and forth on the floor. now, obviously the new pads are a lot fatter than the old thin pads they replaced, and i've even heard people say some scraping is normal at first. However, the mechanic seemed quite concerned- said he could feel the bike slowing down. Basically he said the front brakes needed a rebuild, otherwise it could be dangerous. ("They might heat up so much and pop a seal, brakes lock up on freeway... etc etc.") They had two options for this: 1) take apart brakes and clean everything off, all the gunk off, etc. use the same parts when putting back together. problem with this is if the old parts were pitted or damaged, or seals too old, it could be bad. 2) buy brake rebuild kits and do replace the internals. Now, my XX has roughly 20,000 miles on it. This strikes me as a bit early, but they said no- if it has spent a lot of time by the ocean (which it has) then the brakes could need a rebuild after a small amount of time. To add to the trouble, this wednesday I'm riding my XX from San Diego all the way up the west coast to Vancouver, Canada. (home). Which means 3 days X 8 hours a day of freeway riding. There is not enough time between now and Tuesday to order the rebuild kits to get this job done. So, a few questions: A) Is it reasonable that my brakes actually need to be rebuilt, or is this "normal" dragging that will shortly go away on its own? If it actually does need a rebuild, but I leave it alone and drive the 1400 miles next week, will my front wheel explode in a ball of fire and will I be incinerated? thanks a lot in advance! Dave

Welcome aboard Jimmyknot. This is the guy with the Magna troubles. You realize of course now that you're on this forum you need to go buy yourself a Honda Blackbird... :wink:

So my friend has an 83 Honda Magna that he commutes on, and recently he's started to have this problem. It sounds really familiar to me- I keep thinking this happened on my old 85 Honda Rebel once but I can't quite remember what the problem was... When the bike is cold it starts & runs fine. then after it starts to warm up a bit the engine kinda bogs down when adding gas. He says if he tries to rev it up a bit then it doesn't react too well, sounds as if it's thinking about dying. Otherwise he's been able to ride it still, just taking things slow & easy. Surprisingly, a few local dealers & shops said they don't work on bikes this old... :roll: We're thinking about taking a look at the plugs & carbs but thought I'd test you guys if these symtoms sound familiar at all... Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Nice testing. The PIAA findings don't surprise me, every single lightbulb test I've ever read always places PIAA lower than stock for light output. You say LED cluster bulbs don't fit in our turn signals? Interesting, as I was thinking about trying that. I guess another thing about LED clusters is since they shine forward you don't get the mirror reflection from the back.

Sweet, thanks for the update. I guess I should get my old, extremely loose chain done sooner rather than later!... :oops:

Sorry to hear that others who told you they would buy them have backed out. I was away from the forum for a year and didn't even know there was another thread on this topic before this thread. I know I'm not just speaking for myself when I say I really appreciate your efforts on this product, along with everything else you do for the forum... Will do! Gee, I hope if I end up wanting the Highspeed lights you'll still actually give me the password... :wink:

Joe, what did I do wrong :?: I just want to form an objective opinion on some products I might buy, hopefully with feedback from others. And by objective I mean not taking into account whatever loyalty I'm supposed to hold. How is that getting you down?

Regarding the extension, sounds good. I'm not trying to turn it into a competition, but I certainly do want to be able to compare two products and purchase the one that I think is more aesthetically pleasing without feeling guilty about shopping around. Is that asking too much? Do you want me to refrain from posting my findings and opinions on the board regarding this topic? The Hightech lights look great, and look to be of high quality. I also really appreciate that he took the time to make movies of all the modes on his website. The only reason why I want to wait to see what the ClearAlternatives version looks like is to see the layout of the LEDs on the lightboard, as I don't really like the layout of the turn signal options on the Hightech board. :cheers:

I am so getting this DVD when it comes out. Click pic for trailer... (from http://www.fastermovie.com/ ) Sorry if this is a repost. whoops, wrong forum, meant to post this in the Pub.

I emailed Tobin at C.A. about this, he said it might be about $129.99 and have arrow shaped blinkers. Also, he said they hope to have pictures in 2 weeks... :???:

Thanks for the writeup, Joe... now install them, dammit! :cool:

Thanks Joe. It's nice you don't have to get a certain minimum # of orders for the group buy. Now I just have to decide if it's worth it, changing a part that I never see for $150. Although, it'll be nice to remove the stock turn signals. Joe, you don't know if they have any sort of satisfaction guarantee in case we feel they aren't bright enough?

I've had the 16t for a year now, and it's fun... front tire skips along the ground easily under moderate acceleration in first gear. i didn't notice any change in noise at all... And like involute said, I think I went from ~4400 rpm to ~5000 rpm at Interstate speed.

Wow, if I recall correctly that is a lot cheaper than the other speedo correction device that was around. http://www.calsportbike.com/cgi-bin/store/...dex.cgi?pid=800