molson309

And - I also have new Pirelli Diablo tires for it that I could include in the sale.

Ok - one last time before I go off to Ebay/Craigslist. Bike will have included: Corbin GFL (w or w/o backrest) PowerCommander III HID high and low beam Bagster Penske adjustable Shock. $6900/obo.

Close - RV7A. It's about a 2.5 - 3 hour trip from FCM to TYQ (Indianapolis Exec) so not too hard to do round trip in the same day.

I have a guy at work that may be interested, but he is on vacation. He will be back on Mon so I will let him know about it. Bummer you are selling it. There are always fun to ride even if it's once a year... I plan on deciding what to do after I get back from a trip on Monday - flying a friend to the Indianapolis area and back. Nice to see another pilot on the board!

Gonna leave it on here the rest of the week, and if no interest - off to Ebay or Craigslist. I'd rather sell it to someone on here...

Jeeze - thanks, I don't know how I missed that. It's probably been that way since last fall when I put the bike away. I'm surprised no one has told me my front tire is cupped!

Here are several pictures I took today of the bike. I was wrong about the mileage: It has 4302 miles on it instead of 5000...

Won't have pictures until the weekend, the bike is in storage. Asking $6900. I'd rather interested parties look at the bike in person. bhanxx has seen the bike somewhat recently, though I don't know if he's been too active on the group lately.

Yesh, I must know, I'm in the market, and your closer to me than the one I want in CA!!! Price is negotiable. If you're interested we can talk. I've just decided to sell it today and to be honest I don't quite know how I want to sell it: with extras or without.

I just don't ride it enough. It deserves a better home! Plus, I have an airplane to feed, and it's gotten a lot hungrier lately. 2003, ~5000 miles, some farkles (throttlemeister, laminar lip, Bagster, Penske shock). Never been dropped, yadda yadda yadda. This bike is in very good condition. If you're interested, or know someone who is, drop me a line. Location is Minneapolis, MN.

Just thought I'd add a comment here: If you are using HID for both low and high beams, wait until the low beam has been on for 15 seconds or so before turning on the high beam. I made the mistake of starting my bike with the high beam on and blew the 20A headlight fuse, which also powers the instrument cluster lights (2003 model). The lights draw between 15 and 20 amps for a short time after turn on before dropping down to 3 amps or so, which means it's pretty easy to blow the fuse if you aren't careful. BTW, replacing the fuse at night in a dark place was NOT fun.

Incorrect chain tension can cause this - I overtightened the chain on my VFR and got vibration at certain speeds. I backed off the tension and the vibration was gone. I've been careful with chain tension on the Bird and haven't run into this.

I did the same thing with a spark plug on my '83 Pontiac many years ago. Stripped the first couple of threads when I tried to tighten the plug when it started cross-threaded. It was an aluminum head, and I had no choice but to try to run a tap down the hole to clean up the threads. I was shitting bricks thinking about what would happen if I screwed it up worse. Thankfully, I used a tapered tap, wiggled back and forth a little while I was turning it with finger pressure, and it was very evident when it was aligned with the hole - I used the tap wrench to finish the job, but it took very light pressure to do so. In the end, it was no big deal but this is definitely a job where you shouldn't have to apply a lot of force. There are also taps made specifically for cleaning up threads, Sears sells them. I've not had a lot of experience using these, but a friend swears by them, says that they don't screw up existing threads as easily as a normal tap can. Also, if the threads get really hatched, it's possible to Helicoil the hole. Aircraft engines use these for the spark plugs, and they are quite durable. Good luck on your project!

I was on a 200 mile ride today on my '03 bird, and when riding through town I noticed my temp gauge was flashing - 270 degrees! Shutting the bike off and restarting it it then read a more realistic 210. Later on the ride I noticed it had switched to centigrade - and after restarting the bike it was back to farenheit. I did not notice anything strange for the rest of the ride. No other part of the display appeared to be malfunctioning in any way I could see. Is there some connector/harness I should be looking at to figure out what is going on? Problems like this never seem to be a one-off occurrence, and in my experience tend to happen more and more frequently. Thanks in advance!

I think you meant "a POINT" on a wheel. Because any given point on a spinning wheel "wants" to travel in a straight line, it takes a constant force to keep it on a curved path. But - the point on the exact opposite side of the wheel requires an equal and opposing force to keep it on its curved path - and presto, the two cancel out. No work is done - hence no energy, i.e. horsepower, is needed to keep it spinning. That's why balance in a wheel is so important. I think black wheels ADD horsepower. Everyone knows it's the fastest color... :grin:

Inertia is only of importance when a mass is being accelerated. A wheel turning at constant speed is not being accelerated and thus does not take energy to keep it turning. The energy used (i.e. horsepower) goes into friction, such as bearings, air resistance and other mechanical losses, which are independent of mass. We are really saying the same thing here: More mass at the outer rim of a wheel will affect acceleration out of proportion to the actual mass - i.e. if you took a 10 pound weight and placed it on the seat, the bike would accelerate faster than if that same 10 pounds were distributed around the rim of the front or rear wheel. If you want to accelerate at the same rate as if the 10 lbs weren't there - in either case - you need more horsepower to do it. I guess 7lbs = 1 horsepower unless it's on the rim of a wheel :grin: But technically speaking, by putting weight -anywhere- on a bike, you haven't reduced it's horsepower, you've just made the bike heavier, and thus it won't accelerate as quickly. Measuring horsepower by how fast a bike can accelerate a known mass is only an approximation - because, as was correctly pointed out by a previous poster, there are other rotating masses on the bike being accelerated that are difficult to take into account. The only scientifically correct measure of horsepower is steady state output: i.e. torque at a given RPM. Personally, I put more stock in 1/4 mile times, roll-on comparisons, and top speed than I do raw horsepower numbers.

Methinks people are confusing acceleration with horsepower. Added mass doesn't change the horsepower output. Horsepower is lost to friction and other energy losses. Acceleration, though, is directly affected by how much rotating mass there is. It's like adding an heavier flywheel to the engine - it might rev up slower but it is still delivering the same amount of horsepower at a given RPM. If you take two wheels of the same diameter and mass, but one with more of the mass at the outside of the rim, and roll both of them down an incline, the one with the mass more toward the outside will accelerate down the incline more slowly than the one with the mass more at the center. This principle certainly applies to motorcycle/car wheels and is the reason why the statement about reducing unspring mass = more acceleration is definitely valid. What isn't true, though, is that the horsepower output is changed. Remember: Once you pull his pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.

I've repaired cracked fairing plastic by using a q-tip and black ABS cement carefully applied to the rear of the damage. Since the cement contains ABS, you can bridge the crack and also build up plastic behind it to prevent it from recracking. I believe most fairings are made out of ABS. Test the ABS cement on a unobtrusive place first. A small amount applied to the back of the piece should weld itself to the plastic. Just make sure you don't put too much on at a time (build it up in layers) to avoid dissolving a hole through the plastic.

A ballast is in the way of reaching them from below. It's a good thing the windshield is easy to remove/replace...

As a follow on to my last post, I should have mentioned that you have to zip tiethe ballasts to the frame the nose cowl bolts onto. The wires are more than long enough to accomplish this. It's a heck of a lot better than having to put them under the seat, IMHO.

My bird is injected and I managed to put both of the ballasts in the nose cowl. They are the same ballasts as shown in the pictures in this thread. The aiming adjusters for the light are hard or impossible to reach with the windshield installed. I got a lot more light on the road when I moved the beam up, there is a very sharp cutoff and if it's aimed too low all you see is an oval 10 feet in front of the bike. I havent measured the current draw yet but... both together should draw about ~80 watts as compared to over 100 for the stock bulbs (is the stock h7 a 50 or 55 watt bulb? I dont remember) so there should be more energy left for other accessories when using HID.

I mounted two ballasts like the ones shown above in my '03. They fit inside the nose cowling but it took some creative zip-tying to do so. I would not have wanted to install them beneath the seat, it would have been a major hassle. These were HID kits purchased from mrjung. One thing - on my bike the aiming was adjusted very low and I had to move the beam up quite a bit. Make sure you check this before you reinstall the windshield.

As I've heard it explained, typical compressed air contains a lot of water vapor. It's the water vapor that affects the expansion characteristics under heat. Since nitrogen is for all practical purposes moisture free, you avoid the problems that WV in your tires can cause. Taking care to fill your tires with air from a good source will come close to the same result. Installing a condensate trap or drier on an air compressor can make a big difference. Face it, even if you fill with nitrogen eventually you're going to have to top off the tire with air...

I've successfully reused copper crush washers by annealing them before reuse: Heat with a blowtorch to red-hot and let cool. The washer work hardens from the tightening and the annealing removes the hardening, making it nice and soft to seal again. Sometimes you have to sand grooves off to make the surface flat. Works for aluminum too. Just don't overheat to the point of melting (the aluminum won't show any heat color like copper does)