FiremanBob

Where can I buy one of those Hyperpro Combi kits?

Sounds great. Also sounds expensive.

You mean the President?

I ride a lot with my GF on the back. What adjustments should I make to the stock suspension to accommodate 2-up riding? I am reluctant to spend big bucks for custom parts.

I put an expensive magnetic tank bag on my Sabre and it scratched the hell out of the tank. If I ever get another I'll pay up for a Bags Connection setup. I also find the ergos on the Bird put my chest really close to the tank, so there isn't much room for a large bag there anyway and I have three large Givi hard cases.

I had a DL1000 with that engine. I would describe the engine as, at best, "agricultural".

Actually, you don't have to have them open all at the same time. General procedure on cars is to do the farthest caliper from the master first, then work back towards the master, one slave at a time. Whatever the procedure is in the manual for the Bird's linked system, I imagine it should work the same whether you have speed bleeders or standard bleed screws. The only difference is that you don't have to manually close each bleed screw after every pump of the lever.

I put a set on every vehicle I own when it's time to bleed hydraulics. They work better than any other method I've tried. Since I haven't messed with my Bird's brakes or clutch yet I don't know about the size difference.

OK, I already know that this is the stupidest question ever asked on the board. I just replaced my front sprocket (switched to 18t) and am reinstalling everything. To get the sprocket cover off I removed both the clutch release cylinder and the speedo sensor. The problem is that now I don't remember where the speedo sensor goes. There aren't any decent pictures or discussion of it in the Haynes manual I have. Help? Edit: It is time to announce officially that I came to Earth from the planet Mor. That wasn't the speedo sensor. It is the sidestand position sensor. All is well now, except for my being a Moron.

Thanks, that's cool. I bookmarked it for when there is budget for it. Right now a vintage bike and home repair projects are getting all the $$.

Yes, that would be nice, but it won't fit with the low ceiling in my basement. On the other issue, I'm not touting machines so I won't argue for them.

So now I read the whole article. The author doesn't seem familiar with Jones's writings. His recommendations are very close to what Jones originally designed as high-intensity training: short, heavy workouts, one set to genuine muscle failure (not the red-faced, "I can't do this next rep so I'll stop here" quitting that most guys do), no more than 8-10 exercises per workout, 2x per week. Whether you believe that the Nautilus cam design works the muscle more efficiently than free weights is a different issue. It seems to me that it does. The type of training is the same. Since I work out alone, I find the self-spotting nature of machines allows me to work harder than I can safely do with free weights, because I don't want to finish the last squat stretched out on the floor with the bar across my neck. But since I'm too cheap to join a gym and don't want to waste 40 minutes driving back and forth, it's barbells and dumbbells in the basement at lunch hour for me.

I'm interested in the fork brace and the mirror extenders.

Excellent article, built around the high-intensity training method developed by Arthur Jones in the 1960s. You can get a wealth of insight from the site operated by his former Nautilus marketing head, Ellington Darden. www.drdarden.com Some of the characters on the discussion forum are really lame but Darden's material on the site is excellent.

Thanks. PM'd back.

Considering that the Bird is famous for having zero vibration in the bars, a 95% reduction would be really impressive! Sounds like The Princess and the Pea...

<open with string of unprintable cussing>... Saturday I tried to begin installing the SW-Motech topcase rack on my Bird. As the directions said, I removed the four bolts holding the grab rail and then gently wiggled and pulled up the rail. One of the steel spacers hung up on the part and ripped straight up, putting a small hole and cracks in my rear cowl. WTF!! The damage will be covered by the topcase rack but still, how could that happen? I am beyond anal about taking care of my stuff, especially when doing mechanical work. This has shattered my faith in Japanese manufacturing quality. I want to replace it with perfect bodywork; if not now, then at some point in the future. A new rear cowl is $600 shipped. If I get a used one and have it repainted, what are the odds that it will look right in terms of color and finish quality? If that is an option, who is the best person to do the refinishing work on the replacement cowl? What should I expect it to cost? Thanks.

kiwimack, if he doesn't take it I'm looking for one for my '01 Bird and could drive down to LI to pick it up.

What kind is it? I'm interested.

About five years ago I realized that carb-based breakfast was causing me to get sleepy by mid-morning and to overeat at lunch. Now I have two scrambled eggs with diced ham and a lot of fresh, chopped spinach on a slice of toast every morning. Takes 15 minutes to prepare and most days I can eat a very light lunch or none at all and not feel hungry until dinner. Zero adverse changes in cholesterol or blood pressure.

The price and negative reviews on Yelp force me to ask, are these any good? First suspicion is that they must be Made by Chinese Children of Political Prisoners crapola that would be more problems than I'd save in the price. I could possibly overcome that suspicion with some member testimonials.

Sounds like you need a Valk.

Your HRC Bird is just about the best-looking bike I've ever seen. If cost were no object, I'd have bought it months ago. But I'm on a budget. If I ever need to repaint my bike, I know where to get the prototype.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but you seem to have missed my original point. The light pattern of fog lamps is low, wide and short. I want the opposite - narrow and a long way down the road. I will grant that the lamps you linked seem to have proper projector design for the bulb, unlike the bulb&ballast retrofits one finds on fleabay. The current Hella 4000CI lamps illuminate beyond 500 meters with a road-width beam. But they are 17cm wide which is too big to fit well on a bike. This is the sort of thing I want to see in a more compact format.

What the world needs is for Hella to make a HID driving light for motorcycles. Their most compact light currently is nearly 6 inches across, which is too big. (It does have an integral ballast built into the housing, which is a big step forward.) If they had a package that was 3-3.5 inches in diameter with a long-distance pencil beam, I have to believe it would sell to a large number of motorcycle riders.