Jetsetter

Hehe , yeah , i wish it was as easy as going to my local lock-smith and getting one cut , silly me ,, why didnt i think of that . Truth is I did ,, my local lock smith is a street vendor ,,,i.e , a small stall on the street even he laughed at me and used his best english to say "computor" while pointing at the key ,, and you gotta remember , this guy must be smart cos he has never seen a bike like this . As for a VIN , i never said i had one , i can only go off the engine and frame number. The VIN plate does not exist. Unsure of the bikes origins ,,, it came to Vietnam from Thailand before Thailand , I have no clue. Just hope it wasnt stolen off some poor bloke . God I hope not. If it was stolen , at least they remembered to steal the key with it. Heres the pic rockmeupto I have never had the fairing off , but i am going to remove it and the tank today (cracked the bottom of fairing the other night) I know where the VIN is supposed to be , but its not there , so I'll look further. Interesting you can only get 4 keys ,,,,,without a VIN i probably need a new ECU , just hope they are plug and play .

I was recently on a trip to australia . I bought some accessories from a Honda dealer and got him to look up my engine and frame number / He reckons the numbers do not exist . Now I am worried as I have only one key for this bike. God help me if i lose it , bad enough being in Vietnam with the lack of support services here. Can anyone tell me what is the normal procedure for getting a new key for their bird ? Thanks.

Given that the 10th for me is a 4 ,, i could assume that it is in fact a 2004 model going by what you have said . Theres no identification plate on the bike at all. I am in australia at the moment and went to a Honda shop yesterday . He reckoned the numbers didnt match to anything either and I am positive that the frame number hasnt been re-done. Bit of a mystery to me.

Hi again , I've had a look thru the manual 99-02 and my number doesnt match ,, which would make sense cos my bike is a FI model ,,, I know this cos it has it written on the seat cowling,,, lol. I cant find a plate on this bike . Can anyone tell me the year from the frame number : SC35-1000042 I am still assuming its a 2003 bike . Had to order the fork seals today and not having already pulled my old ones i am going to hope that the ones i need are 43 54 11, bloody long way for me to go if i get this simple thing wrong , tried to order both but they only have the one set where i am getting them from. Thanks

Would you like someone here to get the items you need and send them to you? Would that be easier than flying to another country? Just ask. Now thats awfully kind and all , and very much appreciated . I am sure I will be asking for some assistance like that somewhere down the road . I am actually going down to Oz for a few days and just got off the phone with a bike shop where I'll be.

Handy bit of information for me and quite timely. Recently noticed that my bike wanted to fall into a corner under 30 kmh and was quite difficult to actually hold the bars. Suspect a seal was gone before i took delivery , so plan on replacing seals and oil etc. First step will be to fly to another country ( tomorrow) get seals , oil etc and return home to repair . Impossible to find such items in Vietnam. No vice , no centrestand ,, but at least i have the clues ,,, thanks guys . Will let you know how i get on .

Hi all . I just joined this forum as I am picking up my first Blackbird in the morning . I live in Vietnam and this is possibly the only BB in country at the moment . I had a CBR 750 here and it was such a pain to ride due to the excessive heat it gave off , I am hoping the Bird will be a little better. As you can imagine its quite warm over here . I was concerned as the owner mentioned it runs at 240F , but after reading your comments here it might not be as big of a deal as i thought . Lack of places to buy spares (none) , lack of knowlegable mechanic shops (none) and the language problems will see me constantly sourcing information from your site here . One question , and forgive me for asking , why use a 50/50 mix when you could put 100% in it ? Wouldnt that keep it cooler ?