TexasDawg

Kiwimack, the cowl is different where the intake ducts are for a F.I. bike. At least that's what appeared to me at the top where it goes inside the side fairings. Either that or I didn't try hard enough or use a big enough hammer,,,

I bought one off fleabay once and cut three slots out of it and put screen in behind it. Tried to put it on my '03 and found out it was for an early model carburated Bird and it would not fit. Been sitting on the shelf ever since. Can dig pics out if you want to see. I'll make you a good deal on it if you want it,,,

fucking Busa crap!!! Honda's don't need no powdercoating! Bullet-proof I tell ya! Err, nevermind, I had parts of mine PC'd too. I used YPC too. Black is a great color! For a bike,,,

I've enjoyed reading this thread alot. I have thought of putting a turbo on my bike and the rebuilding of the top end would come as part of it. Lots of good info in the thread. Some people are not into the wrench turning and it's threads like this that are inspiring to them,,, wrench on!

Wanted to try some different wheels than I had,,, found a VFR 8 spoke and had it and my original front stocker powder-coated gold metalic,,, also got a good deal on a new 2bros CF, so adapted it to the bike also. I like how it sounds compared to the Yosh. A little deeper and louder, but not too much. For your perusal,,,

I use the Starcom1 system and love it. It works to at least 100 mph (tested) and the VOX is adjustable,,,

I found once when looking for a shock for my Blackbird a site that listed the eye to eye lengths of shocks for various Honda bikes. I lost the site address in a 'puter crash and now need to refind it. I have been looking all around and can't find it. Any suggestions on where to find this info?? Also, as a heads up to those interested, there is a 2Bros. shotgun style full exhaust on ebay if anyone wants one. Price is still low, although the guy has a reserve price. Item number is: 330274359661 Good luck and thanks for any help,,,

I was wanting to go 240 tire and 8.5" rim, like I had on my ex-VTX. I am not sure that a tire that wide will fit on a Blackbird due to frame interference unless one off-sets the rim,,,

I have one spare. I bought one when I was thinking of doing a wide tire conversion, but couldn't find anyone to weld it for me. It was a bad idea anyway probabley. I went single-sided swingarm instead. I think it is missing the spacer on the left side and the chain rub-strip(?) is missing. It has the chain adjusters and the bearings look good. $75 plus shipping or make me an offer. There is also one for sale on ebay:Item number: 220217848373. It's from a company selling used parts,,, PM me if you want it,,, later

I got one for a RS3 race system, the system with the seperate mid-pipe. I replaced mine when I went to a custom high-mount. PM me with an offer,,, later

I have the Roadsmarts on my ST1300 and they seems to be doing well. The ST is about 100 lb's heavier, but not as powerful as an XX. They feel good going around corners and seem to be wearing well. I don't have but a thousand or so on them thou. I was thinking they might be next for the XX. My Michelin PP has about 4K on it and is just about worn out in the middle. There's not enough curves in Houston,,,

Thanks for the compliments. The swingarm has a 112 link chain on it and a 113 link chain probabley would have been better. That would make it it about an inch and a half or so longer wheelbase, best guess. I adjusted the swingarm linkage ratio alittle bit between the swingarm and the shock and it sits about like it did with the 6mm shim, without the shim. It rides nice and firm, but follows the road well. The hi-mount pipe is via a bracket I made for the can I already had and had the mid-pipe made at a muffler shop here local. The same shop made the mid-pipes for the dual exhaust I put on my ST1300. I got some car mufflers off ebay and had the midpipes made. I got about $150 in my duals for the ST1300 and a year and a half later they still look new. If I had it to do again, I'd use a later model swingarm and the machine work would be cut down and it wouldn't take as long. I have about 16 or 20 hours machine time in the linkage, but I have a small manual mill. Jay the hi-mount exhaust may not be much of a problem, but I would have to see how much it would stick out. The muffler shop I use is over in Deerpark and he is usually up for anything. I used regular car muffler pipe and painted it with hi-temp paint. If I could only weld S.S. I would have made it out of that. I took the bike off the road the first of April and it's back on the road late May. Thats about seven weeks or so and I work 4on/4off shift, so cut that in half time-wise and there were a few days off nights and feeling lazy days. So I got about a 100 or so hours of work in it. The next one would only take about 3/4's that,,, but I don't think I'll do this again. I think I just ride this one for awhile,,, Before: After:

Well, I've finally managed to get it done(pretty much-a few things left) and went for a ride today for about 40 miles and nothing fell off and nothing went wrong. I'm glad it's done. Been a fun project. Have some more pics of the build up to here from last entry if anyone wants to see,,,

It's been awhile and I have made some progress. Making the linkage was more work than I thought it was gonna' be, but it seems to have turned out good so far. If I was to do it over I would use a '94-'97 swingarm due to simpler linkage setup. The last picture is how it sits today. I have to make a brake line, modify a Blackbird hugger to fit, make a hi-mount exhaust hanger and get a midpipe made, rebuild the brake caliper and paint, install the Veypor, and take it all apart to and reinstall it to make sure nothings missed, and then it should be road ready. Hope it makes it past the end of the driveway,,,

To the question of swingarm lenght, the XX measures 524mm(20&5/8") center of pivot shaft to axle center point and the VFR measures 565mm's. The VFR swingarm uses an eccentric system to tighten the chain. This is 1&5/8" approximately. The VFR uses a 112 lenght chain and the XX uses a 110 lenght chain. The chain is two inches longer. See the highlighted area in the following pic: A great site for numbers is guukan.org/garage/swingarms.html and some numbers from there are: 90-93 VFR (shock linkage mount is two lobes on bottom of swingarm)(shock end is a 'fork') Length: 565 Pivot width: 242 (+3.5 thrust collar) Pivot diameter: 20 Eccentric outside diameter: 105 Eccentric width: 70 (+3 crenelated 'edge') Caliper carrier diameter: 75 Caliper carrier width: 14 Brake rotor diameter: 255 Brake rotor mount diameter: 110 Sprocket mount diameter: 175 Wheel drive diameter: 100 94-97 VFR (shock linkage mount is one lobe on bottom of swingarm)(shock end is an 'eye') Length: 560 Pivot width: 227 (+3.5 thrust collar) Pivot diameter: 20 Eccentric outside diameter: 105 Eccentric width: 70 (+3 crenelated 'edge') Caliper carrier diameter: 75 Caliper carrier width: 14 Brake rotor diameter: 255 Brake rotor mount diameter: 110 Sprocket mount diameter: 175 Wheel drive diameter: 100 I hope it is okay to post this info here from there. Also used the VFR site www.vfrdiscussion.com as a valuable source of info and I owe them all a ton. There will be a public thank you there when I am done. And alot of net surfing for info.

The VFR swingarms run '90-'93 and '94-'97 that were a canidate. The early ones are wider than the '94-'97 by 10mm or so and I still had to make a 5mm spacer for the '90-'93 swingarm to fit. I did not want to make too wide of a spacer due to wanting as much of the swingarm supported by bearings. Our XX's are heavier than a VFR and was worried about proper support. The '94-'97 swingarms have swingarm linkages like our XX's, but I wanted to make a linkage anyway on the mill. I am going to use 7075 aluminum for the linkage. The VFR swingarm is right at two inches longer than an XX, which requires a 112 lenght chain instead of the 110 chain on XX's. I bought a new DID chain and 16 tooth front sprocket and a 45 tooth rear sprocket for quicker excelleration at a loss of some top end. I've only gone 165 a couple of times and that's probaley enough (wheeeeee). The '90-'93 whells are the cool looking eight-spokers, but they go for gold on ebay and the '94-'97 wheels are five-spokes and only five inches wide, while the early eight-spokes are 5.5 inches wide and so are the '98 and on wheels. The '98 on wheels have to be ground-out alittle for the rotor bolts to clear, but you can't hardly tell it when done right. And I found a new late model wheel that had already been chromed to go along with the chrome wheel already on my XX, so I went that way. As far as the flooring waiting, I just lucky I'm still alive,,,,,,,, I'm trying to get it done and tested so I can ride it on the OzarXX trip.

Started working on installing a single-sided swingarm on my XX; while trying to install wood flooring in three bedrooms and a hall and covering OT at work. Spent a week or so ordering parts and scoping out the direction of the build. Finally got enough parts together and some time and started the build. It's a project for me, so it will take a while to get all done. Having an ST1300 to ride doesn't speed things up and I tend to want things to come out right or I won't do them,,, so with all that said here's some pics so far. I will update with more pics next week when the chain and sprockets get here and I figure exactly how the swingarm linkage is gonna' look like,,,

I used a 11/16ths master cylinder off a 2005 CBR600RR and Goodridge lines from Jaws. Took me a bit to get them bleed in well, but it's one finger now and not wooden feeling. I'm happy,,,

I used a standard-sized arm with a Lowrance 500 on mine attached to the top tripletree,,,

Great ideal dude, never thought to use the super glue by itself. I don't have any damage now, but will keep this in mind. Thanks for sharing,,,

John, I see you had yours installed. I ordered a full kit for my ST1300, but after installing the piece on my tank I gave up on installing the rest. I just wasn't good at it. Looking forward to pics of your install.

Let's say that I raise the forks up into the trees 6mm and do not use the 6mm shim on the rear shock. Is the results the same as doing it the other way? What would be the negatives?

Thanks for the replies; I am going to reuse the seals. Now if I can get a day off to remove the rest of the brake lines from delinking and get everything back together. later,,,,

Got a question, I took my front calipers apart and cleaned them up and painted them in prep for putting on SS braided lines. I took the calipers apart and drilled out the middle piston in prep to de-link the bike. Everything smooth so far and then I see the manual calls for new piston seals upon putting back together. I took the original ones out so as not to get paint or cleaner on them and bagged them and didn't do any damage to them. Question is, can I reuse the original instead of getting new ones? My bike is an '03 with 6500 miles on it and any dealer in town will take 3 to 4 days to get new ones and they are twice as much ($60) as any on-line parts place that will take 4 to 5 days to get here. Would you re-use the seals or bite the bullet and wait? I got new rims coming in Tuesday,,, later

Does it matter if I adjust the drive chain with it cold or should I drive the bike for a while and then adjust. I know I should drive the bike after and then check to make sure the axle nuts are still tight, but what of the chain? Or Hookers?