boz

Uh, it's the most complex, round-about way to do it. If you consider removing the lower fairings complex, then I guess you're right.

I do it the same way your shop does -- i.e. I only remove the left and right lowers. I don't find the Honda method that bad, and it seems to work on the KISS principle. The whole job doesn't take me that long. But, different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Like bbird said, depending on the type of tire you're running on your bike and where in the country you are, you'll probably have to order a tire and wait 2 days to get it installed. Then, you'll probably pay a shop minimum of $50 or something silly to get it installed. I ran into this last year in South Dakota. My rear was safe, but getting down there, so I thought I'd try to get a new one while I was at a "major" Honda delarship. But, seeing as 99 out of 100 riders in the area ride cruisers, nobody had a sport-touring tire I could mount. But I could wait two days and then pay something like $65 to have it installed. So, I just rode the 2500 miles home and the tire held up fine and I had a new one put on at my local dealership for $10

Are you from Quebec?

I agree that you should get a shop manual and do it yourself. If you have some mechanical ability, the XX isn't hard to work on. I had a coolant leak last fall, but it just turned out that the hose clamp on the lower rad hose was loose -- easy fix, but the interesting thing was that it only leaked on cool mornings. But, I never had any overheating. The fan "should" be an easy fix, though. Good luck.

Here's all you need to know about using synthetic oil... http://vfrworld.com/humor/synthetic.html

Nothing wrong with a GSXR750 -- I used to own one, too. But don't expect the 'Bird to handle like the Gixxer, although I'm still impressed with it's handling for its size. I have a D220 on the back and a 205 on the front, and sometimes the bike complains a little bit when I'm hard in a corner. It's usually because I screwed up the entry, but from what I've learned on this site, these will be the last set of Dunlops I have on this bike. I "almost" always match my front and rear tires (the 205 isn't that much different than the 220), but guys I ride with mix brands/compounds all the time and they've never had any problems. Like Northman said, the consensus seems to be that if you're going to have one tire stickier than the other, make it the front. Cheers.

I agree 1000% I'll never say anything bad about the big Katana. It served as a great long distance sport-tourer for me. And yeah, that thing was bullet-proof, fast, stable, easy to maintain, and I was a big fan on the pretty sophistimicated suspension, too; especially when loaded up on a week+ long trip. And I still think it's one of the nicer looking bikes out there.

No shit? Me too. I miss that electric windscreen. Ha! Yeah, no kidding. I always got a look when I would play around with it at stop lights

Exactly. My bike before the XX was an 1100 Katana. Now that thing had vibration. I don't think that you'll find a bike that runs as smooth as an Accord, but the XX is the probably one of the closest. And, yeah, I get minor buzzing in the pegs/handlebars at certain speeds, but it's very minor. I also adjusted the counter balancers, and it didn't make any noticeable difference. It's an easy enough job, but I doubt it's worth it.

I think the consensus is that you can use any weight for the season (10W40, 20W50, 15W50), as long as it isn't "energy conserving" (there'll be a label on the bottle if it is). Unfortunately, I think that the 15W50 is the only non-energy conserving weight that Mobil 1 makes for their synthetic oil (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

For what it's worth, I sometimes get a slight head shake on deceleration, too -- with and without my Givi luggage on. I think it's partly the tires because I'm still running D205s (never again, though), but I also think the road surface plays a big factor, as I don't always get the head shake, and I started noticing a "shimmy" in my truck when I'm driving on the same roads.

Guess my PhD resources were wrong.

Hey, Dave The best thing that you can do (and I know it's hard) is to hit the weights. What you REALLY want to do is start boosting your metabolism (so you can eat what you want -- within reason), and the best way to do that is by hitting the weights and building some muscle (dieting by itself will rob you of muscle -- even if you lose weight). If you're not big on working out, the other thing you can do is try eating foods with a high glucose index (e.g. whole wheat bread). These foods are usually a little higher in calories, but keep you feeling "fuller" longer. Check out the link for more info --> http://members.lycos.co.uk/rmendosa/gilists.htm Good luck.