VeloXXiraptor

I put one on my '02 and it really looks great. Make sure you have the positioning correct to your satisfaction before you touch it down on the tank... :shock: ...thats some pretty good adhesive Honda uses!

I agree, probably was the battery giving off the "rotten egg" smell. Sulfuric acid doesn't have any odor at all, but the redox chemistry going on inside a lead/acid battery produces small amounts of hydrogen gas and hydrogen sulfide (both pretty combustible, hence the warning on batteries!). It's the latter that you smell as rotten eggs and is readily detectable at 0.13ppm (ppm = parts per million). At 20ppm it becomes a mucous membrane irritant and is generally VERY nasty stuff at exposure levels above that. The amounts of sulfur in fuels is pretty minimal any more because of emission limits, and pretty unlikely to be a source of hydrogen sulfide to the point that you can smell it. At 150ppm, you can't smell the stuff any more due to it acting as an olfactory paralyzer and at 700ppm or greater, your relatives will be in line to fight over your bike and the rest of your estate. :fart:

Both filters will work on a Blackbird. The MM9 filter is what's listed as the OEM filter for the Bird, the MCJ filter is OEM for the 954. I have gone to the MCJ filter because it is slightly shorter than the MM9 filter as I had some header clearance issues when I installed an Akra 4-2-1 exhaust on my '02.

and all the electronic gadgetry and commercial-grade framing/strutwork that the goodies are hanging on?

Looks good, Don! I see you installed the 714 GelGrips, too...makes a big difference for me on my commute. What is all that STUFF ya got hanging around there? :shock:

A good friend, who first got me involved in bikes many years ago in High School and who has owned about a dozen different bikes over the years, and his son were over the other night and Brian was interested in trying out the Blackbird...he went out for about a 30 minute ride and came back, very impressed...shut the bike down in the driveway so he could get the garage door open...couldn't get it started, all the lights would come on but no cranking, no fuel pump whine. I looked at the bike, thought "this really sucks, it's a Honda..." then we both realized the kill switch was active. Doh!! Brian's new handle is "Kill-Switch"

Honda makes a very nice one that is plain black and is available from Ron Ayers for about $30-40, if I remember right. Bill Krauss (blkbrdrydr) posted the part number and a photo or two recently and that's what I ordered. Looks great on the bike. Found it... http://www.cbr1100xx.org/forum/viewtopic.p...hlight=tank+pad

and don't forget the vast body of knowledge surrounding chickens... :bigchicken:

That's a great price, Joe. Glad there's still a good source available.

Joe, is there any reason why John (JAWS) couldn't give us a bit of a logistical hand with X-11 CCT's? We might not have to get a huge order together to procure them reliably.

And ya got to put gas in it...what a royal pain in the arse...not like those scooters, motorized skateboards, or the venerable Harley-Davidsons (well, ok, the Harleys are broken down so often that they don't get run much, that's why they don't use as much gas...) which just seem to never need gas.

I was looking for a good deal on a set of Michelin Pilot Sports and their website popped up during an internet search. They had really good pricing and the best part yet is that they were about 5 minutes from my house. In person, they were great to deal with. The business is very much still in the process from moving from the kitchen table outfit to a real store-front/internet sales store, so some growing pains for both them and their customers might be expected. For sport bike stuff/touring stuff, they are much better stocked than my local Cycle Gear, which seems to largely be more of a dirt-bike oriented store and is a great place, in their own right. I'd go back to CST.

Rob...is it dried nitrogen? Could any water in the gas freeze and cause problems? Chris...since the atmosphere is 79% nitrogen...and since there can be such incredible humidity in this atmosphere, why can't there be water molecules in a nitrogen gas sample? Both nitrogen gas and oxygen gas are soluble in aqueous systems (like your bloodstream...). I don't see the connection between nitrogen gas and exclusion of water.

Anyone have any recommendations or useful insights on use/purchase of bike stands? Thanks! There are too many choices out there. The Pit Bull stands look to be a good design... Jim

Air consists of about 79% nitrogen already, the remainder being oxygen ~21%, unless you're in L.A., and some trace gases. So, I'm kinda skeptical about what the dealer claimed if it was attributable solely to being pure nitrogen. All similar-density gases expand at fairly predictable and calculable rates, so one pure gas over another should have very little effect, unless it's heavier-than-air (or any of the major components of air) such as argon gas (argon would increase the apparent weight of the bike, too...loss of horsepower!!!) The presence of moisture making a difference is more plausible, but you would have to get the water pretty hot to have it vaporize (boil) and expand enough, as a gas, so as to dramatically effect the internal pressure of the tire and the tire shape. Does the gas inside a tire actually get to greater than 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) where water boils? The boiling point would be elevated even more because the pressure is greater than 1 atmosphere inside of the tires!