Lots of thanks and lots of upgrades

[hubbsfd]

I just wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed this forum and how much it has helped me to make the right choices for my 2008 RSVS. Based upon what I’ve read on this site and the technical library I have in the past month accomplished the following updates.

Lift adaptor with legs (purchased from Carbon_One)

Engine Guard support brackets (purchased from Carbon_One)

Stebel Air Horn (purchased from Carbon_One bracket and harness)

Upgraded the stock passenger floorboards

Leather Lever grips

Tachometer

Driver back rest (purchased from Diamond R)

Highway pegs with Long Horn adjustable mounts

Luggage insert set (monogramed from TLC Products)

Light Bar Passing lights and visors

MP3 Venture from Spain (vs. a CD player)

Trunk Rack

Radiator Grill

Chrome Choke Knob

Front Fender Rails

Saddle Bag Rails (lower)

LED License Plate Frame

Scorpio i900 Alarm system

3 Pocket Leather Harley dash mounted storage

Chrome Rear Break Reservoir cover

Chrome side covers (purchased from Diamond R)

Tire Guard monitoring system

Tuxedo Bib

Chrome Tail Light cover

Signal Dynamics BackOff XP

Kuryakyn Battery Monitor

Flash2Pass

Joe Florida Accent LEDs

TouraTech GPS locking mount with RAM

Garmin 665

Cycle Pump and Tire Repair kit

Sync Pro Motion Pro carb sync meter

Progressive air shock pump

Trunk Lid Accessory insert

Clymer Service Manual

Schubreth C3 World Black helmet with SRC

All of this self-installed from instructions found on this forum.

I bought this bike with 400 miles on it last October 2011. It had been ridden 3 times once each year since new and stored inside a heated guest house by the owner. The owner was a family friend. When he passed away unexpectedly the family hoped I would want to buy it. They were correct. It is a wonderful bike and deserved these upgrades. I am preparing for a coast to coast ride next year with my father-in-law who dreams of this ride for his 70th birthday. I’ll be making sure he has a good trip. He has a new Yamaha Stratoliner 1900. We should have little trouble if we plan it out right.

Thanks to everyone who contributes on this forum for all the great advice from your experience I have been able to use to great advantage. I appreciate it more than I can express.

[Yammer Dan]

Sheesh I'd almost trade a 1st Gen for one decked out like that!!:rotfl:

 

 

Sounds Sweet!! Pics??

[etcswjoe]

Sounds like you have gotten your money's worth. I agree there are a bunch of good folks on here. Lots of VR folks up in your area, make sure to get out and meet a few you will be glad you did.

[Pegasus1300]

This is going to ramble on a bit but I have a point to make.

In May of 2011 I found a 2008 RSV-S also that only had 500 miles on it.The PO had bought it new as their first motorcycle,found it was too much for them and parked it for 3 years.It was a beautiful bike.I say "was" because on June 23rd 2011 my wife and I left on a trip and shortly after starting out suffered a catastrophic failure of the rear tire. The bike was totaled and we are still recovering,tho we are still here to recover.I only mention this to suggest that you replace the tires asap you can do that.We don't know why the tire failed on our bike but the pressures were up and always had been during my ownership.My only conclusion is that either the tire had gone bad from sitting so long even in a heated garage,the PO from their inexperience had run it low on air, or I picked up something on the road. In order to remove either of the first 2 possibilities for you I suggest you replace the tires if you haven't done so already.I thought the 2008 RSV-S was the prettiest RSV they ever made and I really miss mine.You have made yours into an even prettier machine and I wish you many happy and safe miles on it.

[Bubber]

Hey your not blamming us for you spending all that money on those great upgrades are you?

LOL

Sounds like a great bike especially with all those add ons.

[hubbsfd]

You all are so funny! No, no blame. I was just excited to have such great advice to do it right the first time. Really. And the advice about the tires.... I'm so glad you are here to speak this warning. Yes, I will also replace the tires before this season. I plan to have two spare sets one on and one just before the ride across the country. Then put the set I will have now back on when I return. Thank you for your real life advice. That's why I'm on this forum for folks just like you!!!

 

Just today I added some more visibility. I ordered some Muth LED turn signal mirrors with the brake light module. This should be my last upgrade for a while as I am now officially out of money for this project. It will take me a while to build up to the next phase for this wonderful machine.

 

God bless you all and keep you safe this season.

[bongobobny]

Ummmm, not a bad start but I bet you can find even more things to spend money on! We want pictures to go with the thread...

[eusa1]

welcome and enjoy your new toy!!

 

can't blame any of that on me! ..yet:whistling:

[slowrollwv]

You all are so funny! No, no blame. I was just excited to have such great advice to do it right the first time. Really. And the advice about the tires.... I'm so glad you are here to speak this warning. Yes, I will also replace the tires before this season. I plan to have two spare sets one on and one just before the ride across the country. Then put the set I will have now back on when I return. Thank you for your real life advice. That's why I'm on this forum for folks just like you!!!

 

Just today I added some more visibility. I ordered some Muth LED turn signal mirrors with the brake light module. This should be my last upgrade for a while as I am now officially out of money for this project. It will take me a while to build up to the next phase for this wonderful machine.

 

God bless you all and keep you safe this season.

 

 

I plan to have two spare sets one on and one just before the ride across the country. Then put the set I will have now back on when I return.

From pass experience I would think twice about putting a used tire back on the bike. I did it but I will not do it again. It did not give me any trouble ,But it wore out very quickly. It only had 1000 miles on it when I put it on and was worn to the cords within 3,000 miles.

[XV1100SE]

I think someone won the lottery and didn't tell us !

[playboy]

maybe that's where my tax return went but then again it wouldn't have stretched that far.

 

 

[Bummer]

MP3 Venture from Spain (vs. a CD player)

 

Did you run into any issues? I have one on order and am patiently waiting on delivery. I intend to put it in the trunk, but having not even seen it yet don't really have a plan.

 

By the way, when the mad money replenishes itself I personally like the R1 caliper/SS lineset/HH pad conversion Skydoc has parts for. I think they offer much better control during braking. (Didn't see it on your list so I thought I'd mention.)

[djh3]

Geeze I was outa money right after I signed the papers.

[hubbsfd]

Did you run into any issues? I have one on order and am patiently waiting on delivery. I intend to put it in the trunk, but having not even seen it yet don't really have a plan.

 

By the way, when the mad money replenishes itself I personally like the R1 caliper/SS lineset/HH pad conversion Skydoc has parts for. I think they offer much better control during braking. (Didn't see it on your list so I thought I'd mention.)

 

The MP3 Venture was a snap to install. Instructions were simple. No issues with its function either. You can't find standard SD cards in 4 gbs anymore so you have to use the SDHC. They do cause a song to hang (just stops playing) once in a great while but I just hit the down button as if to start the song over and it starts playing again right where it stopped. Does not happen often and for the benefit it provides is a very small issue. I've not been able to get 99 songs X 6 CDs on the 4 gb card becasue some of my songs are really large. I do recommend a free download of Bulk Rename software. This will allow you to remove spaces and special characters from your song titles quickly and easily. If you run into problems just PM me and I'll get back to you soon as I can about it. I love the thing and it arrived safe and sound within the spcified 15 day maximum time frame. Thanks for the advice by the way. I'll look into that when for phase two.

[hubbsfd]

I plan to have two spare sets one on and one just before the ride across the country. Then put the set I will have now back on when I return.

From pass experience I would think twice about putting a used tire back on the bike. I did it but I will not do it again. It did not give me any trouble ,But it wore out very quickly. It only had 1000 miles on it when I put it on and was worn to the cords within 3,000 miles.

 

WOW that's really wierd. Okay, well I'll have to keep that in mind for sure. Thanks for the advice.

[hubbsfd]

Ummmm, not a bad start but I bet you can find even more things to spend money on! We want pictures to go with the thread...

 

I actually don't have the final touches finished just yet. I will get some pics up soon as I finish. Gotta put those new mirrors on, they are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Then I have to detail and get my finger prints off all the chrome. Hate finger prints

[MLCRIDER]

back to the tires on the plan to reinstall the old ones these tires are probably 5 years old or older I am just saying

[hubbsfd]

back to the tires on the plan to reinstall the old ones these tires are probably 5 years old or older I am just saying

 

Yes the original tire are indeed. I was planning to replace them before this ridding season (starts in May here in Michigan unless I can count on global warming). The tires I put on this season are the ones I was planning to put back on after I wear out a new set on the trip. But thanks for watching my back.

[Bummer]

The MP3 Venture was a snap to install. ...

 

Thanks for the info. I'm chompin' at the bit to get it and tinker.

[hubbsfd]

Thanks for the info. I'm chompin' at the bit to get it and tinker.

 

Oh yeah, I did mount mine in the trunk. It is really small so no problem with space. One thing I did not realize is it has an on off switch inline right at the device. It is recommended to not leave it on all the time as it will use power when the key is off. And one more thing. Once you plug it into the amp directly on the gray marked plug, the cassette deck will no longer show up as a media choice on the controls So be sure to eject any tape you may have in it before you unplug it.

[Aimhigh]

One thing about the folks on this site...there is no lack of suggestions on how YOU should spend your hard earned money!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jemorrisonjr]

Go ahead and Blame us for spending your money....It happened to me when I saw all the great stuff people do on this site..

 

Maybe the site is a Yamaha plant....making us spend all our money.....lol

[djh3]

HUB so If I understand correctly the MP3 player plugs into the CD cord and replaces it. But you have to "turn it on and off" inside the saddle bag? Otherwise it stays on all the time. And it disables the cassete player (no biggie really I guess) but does the aux jack still work there? How about a pic or two of the MP3 player installed. I know if I take a longer type trip with the wife the CD player is outa there as we will need the room. If I was to take a stab at it I guess the MP3 player "format" is older so it will only "see" a 4gb card?

I just changed over from a 2gb card to a 4gb for my GPS/MP3 player and I got like over 1000 songs on it and still got room. You must have A; ina goda deveda (sp) CREAM's greats long version hits and the like or B; alot of Opera long hair typ stuff.

[hubbsfd]

HUB so If I understand correctly the MP3 player plugs into the CD cord and replaces it. But you have to "turn it on and off" inside the saddle bag? Otherwise it stays on all the time. And it disables the cassete player (no biggie really I guess) but does the aux jack still work there? How about a pic or two of the MP3 player installed. I know if I take a longer type trip with the wife the CD player is outa there as we will need the room. If I was to take a stab at it I guess the MP3 player "format" is older so it will only "see" a 4gb card?

I just changed over from a 2gb card to a 4gb for my GPS/MP3 player and I got like over 1000 songs on it and still got room. You must have A; ina goda deveda (sp) CREAM's greats long version hits and the like or B; alot of Opera long hair typ stuff.

 

Yes on the Iron Butterfly and Cream and some Jethro Tull, Moody Blues and Pink Floyd. All longer type songs. That is not to say there is anything wrong with opera. My degree is in vocal music so I do listen to and sing opera. But that is a seperate SD card altogether. Here's the deal on the MP3 Voyager. Yes there is an on off switch built into the wire inline going into the player. There are two ways to connect the device into your bike. The method I used was to plug it directly into the amp via the plug maked with a gray color. My understanding is that will keep the music digital vs. the other method which I think will cause it to be analog. I don't have the instructions in front of me right now so I don't recall everything about the seond connection method. The AUX jack in the cassette player still works as it is a seperate connection to the amp. The limit on the 4 gb SD card has nothing to do with size that the device will recognize. The controller on the bike only has two digits it can display for each CD. So 99 songs per CD times 6 CDs is the maximum number the controller will allow to be played. If you have more they will not be recognized thus skipped. You can use an SD card larger than 4 gbs that way you could have longer songs (larger files) as long as you don't go over the 99 files per CD. Remember the bike thinks this thing is a 6 CD changer with up to 99 songs per CD. I have multiple SD cards so when I want another 594 songs I just pop in another SD card. 594 songs as long as they are not all really big files that is, then I would have to use a larger SD card. I just buy 4 gbs cause it is close enough. My lowest number files is around 550 files. Meaning one CD only has 55 songs on it and the others all have 99 with a couple mbs of free space on the SD. You do have the freedom to do it how you want to. The other thing is make sure the files names do not have any special charcters or spaces in the name. It also says to make sure the file names are not really long but I have not had any problems with my files and some have 50 charcters or more in the name. I'll take some pics of how I mounted mine and post them soon as I can to help those interested. $149 bucks was pretty cheap including shipping from Spain for such a cool integrated device I thought. I'm going to double check the installation instructions incase I have connected mine wrong but it works and no cassette deck anymore. If there is another jack to plug it into I would prefer to keep my cassette deck functional to tell the truth. Let me double check that. I've just been doing so many things at once (and that was the fist thing I installed) that I have not gone back over it since it worked and I felt I did it right.

The device on the right is the MP3 Voyager. You see the black wire coming out the bottom toward the bottom of the other device that is where the on off switch is. The device on the left is my Joe Florida LED Accent lights controller. I have not mounted it permanently as yet. But that is where I will mount I'm pretty sure. Most of my lights are already run so I will likely not move it.

 

OKAY! I just went in a re-examined my MP3 Venture install and find I did not have to hook it up to the cassette player jack which is marked with gray as indicated in the instructions. What you made me think about was that I should have a seperate jack for a CD player which in my case would not be hooked up. I found it hidding all covered up. I put the Cassette player back in the its jack and plugged the MP3 player into the CD jack and now they all work. One caveat, the MP3 player must be powered off in order for sound to come out of the cassette player. That is a bit inconvienent for changing on the fly but I can live with it since I don't use cassettes that often. Thanks for asking your questions prompting me to revisit what I thought I was all done with.

 

MORE UPDATE: Well I think I figured out why the instructions describe using the cassette gray marked jack. Yes you can put the MP3 player into the CD jack and leave the cassette plugged into its own jack but even with the MP3 player turned off there are issues with the cassette. It will play with sound but if you push up or down to fast forward or reverse the tape you get ERR displayed. Soon as you turn the MP3 player back on it functions correctly but no audio. So if you want to keep the cassette available just don't count on using any funcitons other than letting it play. Even the eject button will give the ERR and it will not pop out. There it is. I can't find any other options with this. It is just the way the designed it. It works really well and cassette is just not all that important these days. Hope you will enjoy yours when it arrives. If you choose to put the unit in the trunk be prepared to remove your seat and your gas tank to route the cable to the front. Splitting the faring goes without saying of course.

Edited March 7, 2012 by hubbsfd

[hubbsfd]

Bump... in case my edits didn't get noticed.