IcePrick

I took my brake lever off, put it halfway inside the hole of my receiver hitch, and bent it with a large pipe. I suppose you could get real fancy-pants and take it to a welder or machine shop to have it done all precise and shit, too.

I bet my inseam is at least an inch shorter than his, probably some other appendages as well. Unseen puddle of diesel fuel when stopping at an air pump for the left side damage, and a cramp in my right quad when putting my foot down sealed the fate of the right lower cowl (and wound up tearing all but a thread of the quad.

Can't wait to see some high-quality close-ups once you get them installed! Mine are long in the tooth and have been the victim of tip-overs on both sides.

Many of the peripheral things could be upgraded with newer model parts - anything fork/brake/switchgear, I'd guess. For instance, it would be cool to have, like, USD forks and radial brakes, maybe?

Tool strap!

I could fly and ride for you, at cost. You could have it by Wednesday.

She has already passed on it. Wow. I don't think it gets any more perfect than that.

I'd give it to you, as well as my iPhone 5 just to say I made you switch teams. He'll switch teams for less than that. I've seen it happen.

Or, pebbles and apples.

That seems to work for a lot of things at meats...

I've had bikes that find "false neutral" if you're not supplying a firm shift. I've had it happen between different gears on different bikes. The "bird has never done it to me, but mine still has pretty low mileage and all the bikes that did miss were higher mileage. Make sure it's not your technique first. Brian's comment on the oil rings true too - certain oils seem to shift better than others.

I used to hold the button down and turn the key to keep the HIDs from doing a hot restrike. Then the phone mount went on the middle of the tree and mostly obstructed the key - plus I got lazy. Haven't roasted an igniter yet, but I still have a halogen in my high beam that I could swap out if I burn up the HID low beam.

I was going to say use starter fluid to check for any arcing. But I feared offending anyone as this may not be the time or place.

I agree with all of the previous suggestions. Given the symptoms, my troubleshooting flow would look like this: If at all possible, swap in a different (known good) battery before doing any other troubleshooting. That's a huge variable eliminated right off the bat. If it still has issues, disconnect all accessories, including the HIDs as suggested. Test. If it runs fine, test and re-connect one at a time until you find the culprit. If it still has issues after disconnecting all accessories, start tracing wiring (sucks to be you). Look for pinch points, strain points, and abrasion areas. Definitely investigate any wiring that may have been disturbed with the movement of the tail cowling first. Ideal that you find the smoking gun (well, hopefully not actually smoking), but sometimes with a stray short or bad ground, you clear it when cleaning contacts, tightening terminals, or moving harnesses around to inspect them. Sometimes they return, sometimes they don't. Intermittents suck to diagnose.

I knew that would go quickly. Clean bike, congrats to the new owner. You will miss the 'bird...

Liquid nails? Nail gun.

Sorry, it's gone.

By far, yes. If only for the front brake feel. I had a Racetech valved OEM front with springs, and the ZX is measurably better. Springing it and valving it would provide additional improvement, but it's good enough for my limited skills now. My intent is to change the oil and go with 2.5 heavier, as the compression adjustment is just two clicks off full. I'll try that before messing with the valving.

Insurance through your carrier. 😈

So, a couple years down the road and I'm pretty happy with the setup, though the rear brake is still giving me issues. Stan stared at it for a few minutes and gave me a couple thoughts that I'll pursue as time permits. I don't believe it's an issue related to the component selection but rather a wonky ebay caliper. I may go to a heavier fork oil as the compression damping is only two clicks out, but the front brakes are positively dreamy and the geometry is right at last after some fiddling. Joe has brought it to my attention that I never completed a couple things here - namely, some crucial measurements and the narrative of how it all goes together. When I get back in town, I'll do the measuring and do my best to recall the assembly, though it's very straight forward and there are no real tricks to it. I'll snap some photos and such as well.

Oh, it would have looked WAAAAY too big there.

A couple other people called dibs on it earlier, if they don't nab it by the weekend I'm interested. I'll have to see how a 42mm is going to look on my 32mm wrist...

I've bought from DDM before, I like theretrofitsource better. Wider selection, brand names.

I spoke with a guy that makes aftermarket headlight setups for trail riding, he is testing a bunch of the "new breed" and one seems promising. He said that only a year ago, they weren't anywhere near an HID - today, they are close to surpassing. I'm waiting for him to complete his testing before I try one. I'll be getting one of his housings for the 990 as well - Bosch projector low beam, BD Squadron XL high beam.

I love that 72w monster! Over 5000 lumens! Not sure it would fit, though. I may have to do something like your second suggestion, two separate patterned units - a flood for low beams, and a driving pattern for high beams. These things are great - but priced accordingly. I don't know if they are switched separately to give a high/low beam effect, but my guess is no. I have to find something waaaay cheaper than that anyways.