Furbird

Exhaust gaskets at the head.

I had an old jumppack that the charging part of it had taken a dump, so the only way to charge it was by hooking up the leads to a regular battery charger. I dissassembled it, and it just so happens to be able to fit between the metal brackets on the rear subframe right where the grab handle goes, and clear between the ECM and the plastic at the top, and between the flat bracket where the seat latch is and the taillamp. Placed the battery there, foam on the sides to keep it from moving, and fortunately the battery pack has the positive to the rear, so there is no way that the positive terminal can touch metal. I ran the hot lead down and mounted the rotary switch from the jump pack to the side of the subframe. You slide your hand down between the subframe and the side of the rear tail plastic to turn the switch on (no way for it to accidentally be activated, and it can't be turned by reaching through the grab handle hole on the brake lever side of the bike). The battery clamps fit where Honda put enough room for a U-style wheel lock to go. I top it off about every two months, and it has enough juice and enough leads on the cables to actually jump off a car if necessary. The greatest thing is you would never know it was there with the seat on and I don't keep anything under the seat anymore because I got in on that Fastbag deal a while back. The extra 4 or 5 pounds doesn't hurt anything out back, and it does not interfere with the seat coming on or off. Believe me, I didn't plan on it to work out the way it did, I just took it apart to see if it would work, and everything fit with very little persuasion. Why did I do it? First of all, the ability to jump off a Harley with a sportbike would be so cool that youtube would pay me for the video. Secondly, when my stator took a dump on me while I was on a Patriot Guard mission, I was wishing that somebody had a jump pack or jumper cables, so the idea became reality that next weekend. Now if somebody needs a jump, I got 'em covered.

The XX's battery may be bigger, but it is not designed to handle that kind of a load. Jump packs are gel cel batteries that act more like a capacitor, specifically designed for high output amp loads for short periods of time, which is why they recommend you recharge them after every use. A motorcycle battery is designed for a short burst of amperage for the starter, then the stator recharges the battery while supplying voltage for the lights and things of that nature. Get a jump pack if you want to be jumping off cars. I actually have a jump pack permanently mounted on my XX just in case I ever need to jump off somebody else or even my own bike. Much safer than risking an ECM or popping your own battery because of human error.

The simplest way I could explain it would be that the motorcycle battery just simply does not have enough cranking amps to turn over a car efficiently. You could attempt it with the battery out of the bike, but not with the bike running. It would pull so much current that it would probably pull the ground current through every electrical component of the bike, putting excessive strain on the regulator and stator if the bike were running.

I reload my own ammo, and it has saved me a fortune. Reloads are significantly more accurate than storebought and cost less money in the long run, but it requires patience and a good bit of setup time. Once I'm setup, I can run about 200 or so rounds per hour, and I don't have any auto-loading on my press other than the primer part. I have a Dillon Square Deal B I think it's called, very easy to use, low maintenance pistol caliber press. Rifle presses are more involved as case length and reshaping is more critical in them, but if you plan on being deadly accurate, it's the way to go. The more money you spend at startup, the less manual labor you'll have to do. Mine rotates through all the stations, but I have to load my own cases and bullets. The guy I bought mine from had a completely automatic setup in his shop, you literally poured bullets, cases, primers, and powder into separate stations and flip a switch. He could do 1,000 rounds an hour if he had enough brass cleaned and ready to go.

We've had a couple of discussions on this in the past, and most people on here either didn't know either or simply have not replaced it. The last I heard, a few folks were going to start looking into it to find an aftermarket alternative, since the dealer wants mega bucks for something that should be less than $5. I'm at 42k miles with no issues, I believe somebody in that thread was over 60k on the factory filter with no issues.

I didn't pull any plastics at all when I did mine. Slightly harder to work on, but I still got it done pretty quickly.

If I remember correctly, the metal part goes up. I don't know what difference it makes, but it does specify that.

I have one that I switch back and forth between my bike and my car, and I went barebones. I have a camera mount on my tank, so I piggyback off of it for the GPS. I have a strong metal bracket that I have modified and added an old cell phone cradle bracket (like you would screw to your dash in the old days) and use that to mount the GPS bracket to. I also have the same cell phone bracket in my car, so all I have to do is unscrew the mount where it swivels and switch it back and forth between the bike and car. I can still run the camera on the bike as well with this setup as the GPS sits to the side. It's low and out of the way of all controls and doesn't block any gauges. The fuel filler is still fully functional also. As far as power goes, I have a cigarette lighter splitter (makes one cigarette lighter into two) that I have hardwired under the seat. I run the factory cig cord from that, under the edge of the gas tank, and out up by the truple tree up to the GPS. It literally takes me about 2 minutes to move the GPS from the car to the bike doing this. Any excess cable is left under the seat, and since the connections are all under the seat, they don't get wet.

That link is SCARY looking, but, like he said, doesn't know if it's clip or rivet type. Gold sideplates makes me think it's a DID or an EK, both of which are plenty strong (if it was actually purchased with the correct tensile strength for an XX) and neither one is available with a clip-type master link. That being the case, it means master link failure, probably caused by incorrect installation, which is EXACTLY why I don't use a rivet-type master link as I have explained in other threads. I don't have the tools or the training for that, I don't trust any of the local shops to do it (read: the dealer), and I don't know anybody around here that I would trust to do it. So that leaves me with flying in one of you guys, or putting a clip-type on. Tickets to fly into and out of Mobile cost more than my entire motorcycle, so do the math....

I had a Tsubaki clip-type on my XX for 20,000 miles and I destroyed the clip trying to get it off. It would have taken less time to cut the chain off with a grinder or use a chain breaker on another link. I now have, guess what, another clip-type Tsubaki on there.

You will eventually have to replace the factory bearings, and when you do, you can spend a fortune on factory bearings that will fail again, or get the tapered bearings and probably never have to worry about it again, and all for less money.

I'm with you on the more reliable thing, but it goes back to what you also said about the mechanic in question. I do not have the tools nor the ability to install a rivet master link. I have heard of both shadetree and professional mechanics royally screwing up a master link because of not getting it right. Since I can't do it, I don't know anybody around here who I would trust doing it for me, and if you take your own part to a shop to get something done and something happens, they tell you you're shit out of luck, I'll just stick with the chain that I can install and not mess up. Anyway, on with the show!

OK, Redbird, I guess I'll have to fix that back then. The correct wording should be "have lasted". What works for some may not work for others, and I understand that. Just like a lot of people don't think that you can put a 75 shot of nitrous on a non-modified XX engine. To each his own, I guess. Parts are always going to fail. Some people only believe in Honda oil and Honda filters, getting all their parts from Honda, having all their service done at Honda. That's fine. A lot of people throw whatever they want on their bike, Fram oil filters, full synthetic oil with moly, no air filters for more power, do all their maintenance with pliers and a Big Lots tool kit. That's fine too. So when the Honda oil filter fails and the Fram doesn't, the latter guy thinks he's smarter. When the moly oil tears up a clutch and the Honda oil doesn't, the first guy thinks he's smarter. Things are going to happen, regardless of how much you spend or how little you spend, how well you keep up with maintenance or how well you don't keep up with maintenance. Shit happens. For me, a clip-type master link has not failed. The clip-type chain lasted longer than the DID chain with very similar maintenance procedures. And I'm sorry, but I don't think any chain company would list a clip-type master link chain as safe for a Busa, XX, and ZX14 if it wasn't, because in this sue-happy country we live in, somebody would have called them on it by now. They work for me, they may not work for others. I had one on my bike for 20,000 miles, and it took me longer to take the clip off and get the sideplate loose than it would have been to just cut the chain in half with a grinder. These clip-type master links are designed to go on and stay on nowadays, not anywhere close to the ones from back when we all rode bicycles and could take them off with any tool you had close by.

Let's rephrase that comment to "use a clip-type master link in error thinking it was a rivet-type." I know for a fact that a clip-type with the clip in it will last 20,000 miles on an XX.

University Motors (www.umotorsfargo.com) on the stator. You will NOT find anybody who will sell you one cheaper. I bought mine for nearly half the price of the local Honda shop and a good bit less than Ron Ayers. On the regulator, I have an R1 unit but have not installed it yet. My original one lasted almost 6 years and I was in a bind, so I got a Honda one from another board member. But when the Honda one takes a dump (which it will) the R1 one will go on. University Motors probably has the best price on that unit as well, but I haven't checked.

Yes and no on the water pump. Most everybody on here is in agreement that when you are in stop and go traffic, keep the RPM's around 2,000 or so. This makes the water flow faster, and helps keep the bike cooler, but only when the fan is on. The thing is, the bike isn't designed to sit in traffic. So the longer it sits, the more the fan runs, the more you have to keep it at 2g's, the more heat it creates, etc. etc. When you are driving down the interstate, the front end design forces the air that the bike needs to keep the engine cool into the radiator, but not so much to cause it to slow it down due to aero drag. When you are sitting in traffic, the only airflow is what the fan gives it, and the fan design works but is not the greatest. Honda made it so it keeps the bike cool enough to not overheat for most climates. Those of us in extreme heat areas kinda push those limits. If I had deep pockets, I would have a new aluminum radiator built that went further down into the V, and use a 2 fan setup with as low of an amperage draw as I could find. This would create more airflow over more of the radiator surface while pulling the same or perhaps slightly more amperage than the factory fan. Of course,you are talking about more draw on an already borderline system, but with more CFM over more area of the radiator, it would cool the bike faster and the fans would actually run less. It would spike more power, but overall use less power, and more efficiently. What I would like to know is if anybody on here has ceramic coated headers, like Jett-Hot. With the exhaust design being so close to the radiator, having coated headers has got to help lower the water temperature. After this summer, I'm definitely considering having this done, because this heat has been unusually bad this year.

I've added a second fan to mine in the past, and the increased strain on the charging system is not worth the little effect it makes in cooling differences. I eventually just took it off the bike because it was draining the battery down. If somebody made a bigger radiator that went farther down towards the V at the bottom, that would help, but you would still have to find a way to make room for a second fan or it would do you no good in traffic. Even then, you're still faced with the charging issue, and nobody makes a stator that puts out more power.

...and while you're doing that, go ahead and replace the fork seals, then the fluid, oh yeah, don't forget steering stem bearings, and since you're that far, go ahead and tear the motor out and turbo that, then you have to extend the swingarm.....

I leave both old pads in and use them to pry the pistons back in. You're throwing them away anyway so it's no loss.

And while you are checking all of the above recommendations, you might as well ask him if the wiring harness loom problem has been fixed yet. That could be the source of everything.

Good to hear. I'm pretty sure that the pesky light will be gone for good. Mine came on and off intermittently from about 2003-this year until I finally broke down and eliminated that connector. Of course, I already had the bike in pieces because my stator took a crap so I just took care of a lot of little problems at one time.

I hope no shop is drilling and tapping a bird's steering neck. That would be one hella mess when it comes time to change the bearings!

I run 38 in my Conti's with no issues. Anything less than that feels too soft to me.

The cleaning connector thing only delays the inevitable. The connector needs to be completely removed from the equation.