Flyinfool

Glad to here you are back up in the saddle.

ONE !!!!! Right or wrong has nothing to do with it !!!

At least it hasn't tried to go into 2 different gears at the same time. I had a cage do that to me once when the shift linkage broke and it managed to get into 1st and second at the same time on a 3 speed manual. the first / reverse link broke so it never came out of first with the shifter and then all in the same motion it was shoved into 2nd. It was not pretty..... But did make some nice figure 8 patterns on the road....... If it is really just the nature of the beast, I think I will adjust the shifter down just a bit so that it is easier to get the full up stroke for a nice positive shift. With my new shoes the full up stroke is at the limit of how far I can bend my old decrepit ankle. It is adjusted per the spec in the manual right now. I already had to adjust the rear brake lever out of spec (as high up as I could get it without it hitting the engine case) to be sure that I could operate it fully with my limited flexibility. I know, I know, I'm old.

Is it supposed to be possible for the trany to go directly from any gear to neutral? This has happened on this bike about twice a year, where while during somewhat aggressive acceleration, I will suddenly find the bike in neutral, no connection between the engine and rear wheel and the neutral light on the dash is illuminated and the "N" is displayed on the gear indicator. I can understand it happening between 1st and 2nd if you short stroke the shifter since you are going thru neutral on the way to second. But I have also had this happen when going from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th. I look down and the gear indicator shows "N", the green light is on. There are never any kind of grinding or other strange noises other than a very high engine rpm due to lack of connection to rear wheel. Is this an indicator of some major trany problems coming down the line in my near future, or just a glitch in the system. I am posting because this happened 3 times on the way in to work today. All three today were going from 2nd to 3rd, no drive connection, "N" showing and green light on. Lifting up on the shifter again, and it went into 3rd like it should have done the first time one time it went to 2nd. I may be short stroking the shifter a little since I am getting used to some new riding shoes that are thinner on top that what I had before. but I still did not think there should be a full and indicated neutral between 2nd and 3rd or 3rd and 4th.

If you decide to take the chance with these gears (I probably would to) at least make sure that you have a good strong rare earth magnet in there to collect any wear particles so that the chunks can not get anywhere to accelerate the wear. Maybe put one magnet on the drain plug and one on the fill plug. That way you will know how things are wearing every time you change the oil. When you start to see a lot of stuff stuck to the magnet, get your new gears and backlash setting supplies ready. Once a gear starts to go, it can get there quick. Good luck.

Last night I started to work on this and what I found is that the faring plastic is REALLY thin in that area. My faring already has some cracked plastic in that area also. So adding more stress to an already weak area is a no go. There is no nearby metal framework to work from to build a mount hidden there. So on to plan 2..... Since I already have 2 Wolo Bad Boy horns I figure that I no longer need to also have the stock horns still hooked up. I am making some brackets to mount the new lights onto the old horn mounts. This still keeps the lights approximately where I wanted them, they'll just be 2 inches lower. I also found out that my H3 HID bulbs will not quite fit into my H3 lights with out some mods to the housing.

I once had a terrible noise coming from the back of the bike. It was a really bad whining noise. After the divorce I never heard the noise again.........

I've never had to work on a bike rear before but from the work I've done on cars........ I would say that the pinion and likely the ring gear, needs to be replaced, which also means playing the backlash game. Can you post some closeups of the ring? I hope I am wrong.

FWIW The light manufacturer recommends that lights NOT be mounted near your line of sight. That is about where I was looking to mount mine. I was going to use that same surface but put the lights as far forward as possible. My intent is for light down the road, the more the better, hence the HID bulb replacements. I am trying to avoid the appearance of a single blob of light. I want it to appear as 3 distinct points of light. I do not want to be mistaken to be a cage with the HI beams on that is very far away. For this I need to keep the driving lights farther away from the headlight.

Ok so tonight I will look to what it takes to get the vents out (looks like just 1 screw from the pics) and see what kind of metal structure is around there that I can tie into. Looks like more parts to make.

I bought the driving lights that I will be putting onto my MK II. They are the KC HiLites series 35. I have these same lights on my truck and really like them. The lens is designed to put some light forward like a driving light, but to also fill in the sides of where the stock headlight can't reach. very little of the beam is wasted on adding light to the same areas as the stock headlight. These come with 55W halogen bulbs that I plan to replace with 35W HID. 3 forward looking HIDs should light things up pretty good at night and keep me visible in the daytime. I am thinking of mounting them to the faring on the flat area just below the air intakes. I have not taken the vent out yet to see if there is room to add a reinforcement thickness of plastic to strengthen the area. Do you think that the plastic of the faring is strong enough as is to handle the weight of the light while bouncing down the road or do I really need to strengthen it some?

Why? Just cuz my chili can eat thru the bottom of a stainless steel pot? It really can. An aluminum pot is only good for 5-6 batches of chili before it starts to leak, SS is good for around 30 batches before it starts to leak.

Glad to hear she is finally home. That is quit a list of parts. Did they mention what the dollar value of the job was? I still wonder if it would have been more cost effective To drop in a crate motor vs dealer rates to build the engine from scratch.

I went to Home Depot recently while not being altogether sure that course of action was a wise one. You see, the previous evening I had prepared and consumed a massive quantity of my patented "you're definitely going to $hit yourself, road-kill chili". Tasty stuff, albeit hot to the point of being painful, which comes with a written guarantee from me that if you eat it, the next day your butt cheeks might fall off! Here's the thing. I had awakened that morning, and even after two cups of coffee (and all of you know what I mean) nothing happened. No 'Watson's Movement 2'. Despite habanera peppers swimming their way through my intestinal tract, I was unable to create the usual morning symphony referred to by my dear wife as 'thunder and lightning'. Knowing that a time of reckoning HAD to come, yet not sure of just when, I bravely set off for Home Depot, my quest being paint and supplies to refinish the den. Upon entering the store at first all seemed normal. I selected a cart and began pushing it about dropping items in for purchase. It wasn't until I was at the opposite end of the store from the restrooms that the pain hit me. Oh, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm referring to that 'Uh, Oh, $hit, gotta go' pain that always seems to hit us at the wrong time. The thing is, this pain was different. The habaneras in the chili from the night before were staging a revolt. In a mad rush for freedom they bullied their way through the small intestines, forcing their way into the large intestines, and before I could take one step in the direction of the restrooms which would bring sweet relief, it happened. The peppers fired a warning shot. There I stood, alone in the paint and stain section, suddenly enveloped in a noxious cloud the likes of which has never before been recorded. I was afraid to move for fear that more of this vile odor might escape me. Slowly, oh so slowly, the pressure seemed to leave the lower part of my body, and I began to move up the aisle and out of it, just as a red aproned clerk turned the corner and asked if I needed any help. I don't know what made me do it, but I stopped to see what his reaction would be to the malodorous effluvium that refused to dissipate.. Have you ever been torn in two different directions emotionally? Here's what I mean, and I'm sure some of you at least will be able to relate. I could've warned that poor clerk, but didn't. I simply watched as he walked into an invisible, and apparently indestructible, wall of odor so terrible that all he could do before gathering his senses and running, was to stand there blinking and waving his arms about his head as though trying to ward off angry bees.. This, of course, made me feel terrible, but then made me laugh. .......BIG mistake!!!!! Here's the thing. When you laugh, it's hard to keep things 'clamped down', if you know what I mean. With each new guffaw an explosive issue burst forth from my nether region. Some were so loud and echoing that I was later told a few folks in other aisles had ducked, fearing that someone was robbing the store and firing off a shotgun. Suddenly things were no longer funny. 'It' was coming, and I raced off through the store towards the restrooms, laying down a cloud the whole way, praying that I'd make it before the grand mal a$$-plosion took place. Luck was on my side. Just in the nick of time I got to the john, began the inevitable 'Oh my God', floating above the toilet seat because my ass is burning SO BAD, purging. One poor fellow walked in while I was in the middle of what is the true meaning of 'Shock and Awe'. He made a gagging sound, and disgustedly said, 'Son-of-a-b__ch! Did it smell that bad when you ate it?', then quickly left. Once finished and I left the restroom, reacquired my partially filled cart intending to carry on with my shopping when a store employee approached me and said, 'Sir, you might want to step outside for a few minutes. It appears some prankster set off a stink bomb in the store. The manager is going to run the vent fans on high for a minute or two which ought to take care of the problem.' My smirking of course set me off again, causing residual gases to escape me. The employee took one sniff, jumped back pulling his shirt up to cover his nose and, pointing at me in an accusing manner shouted, 'IT'S YOU!', then ran off returning moments later with the manager. I was unceremoniously escorted from the premises and asked none too kindly not to return. Home again without my supplies, I realized that there was nothing to eat but leftover chili, so I consumed two more bowls. The next day I went to shop at Lowes. I can't say anymore about that because we are in court over the whole matter. Ba$tards claim they're going to have to repaint the store.

Hey Frank You can stop by me and use my drill press or even the milling machine.

OK All of the mechanical assembly is done and the floor bolted down. I just have to do the electrical, and add the topper. I don't think I am even going to bother installing the incandescent lighting. HF has the LED kit on sale right now for $30. Now the issues. 1. I did remove one leaf from each side of the springs and I flipped the axle to the top of the springs. There is only about a half inch clearance from the top of the tire to the inside of the fender. I did not take much weight to make the tire touch the fender. Did those that have flipped their axle have to modify the fenders? What did you change on the fenders? Or should I just put the axle back under the springs? 2. In reading past posts on the HF trailer it appears that they have made some changes. There are many posts about needing spacers or washers between the tongue and coupler, mine fit perfect with no spacers or washers added. There are many posts about the poor job of greasing the bearings from the factory, the manual now says to grease the bearings as one of the assy steps. 3. My axle was bad out of the box. The 2 holes that fit over the alignment pins on the springs were not drilled correctly. One was drilled at the very forward edge of the axle and the other was at the very rear of the axle. The mismath would have had the axle skewed about 5/8 inch. The store pulled another axle out of a box for me. the new one was good.

If you can smell exhaust you are also getting Carbon Monoxide. CO is noting to mess with, you will be sound asleep before you realize you have a problem.

It worked fine thanks

Along the slow starter issues. I was at a local surplus boating supplies place looking for some water proof switches over the weekend. I found that they have an assortment of premade 4AWG stranded cables in red and black with the lugs already crimped on. A 3 foot was $5 and a 1 foot was $2. I just need to figure out what lengths I need for the 3 cables on the 1st Gen, and what hole sizes, and I will be able to do the upgrade for around $15-$20. Or if they do not have the right lengths premade, they have the red or black cable for $2/foot and the terms for $1.25 ea. I have read that this goes a long way to helping the hot starting issue.

Thanks There is still a lot to do but it is getting there. I personally have been in situations where I did not have the extra split second to shift into gear before I could be hard on the power to blow the red light thru a traffic gap to avoid getting creamed from behind. At 30 mph a cage travels 44 feet per second, even if you are fast enough to pull in the clutch, pick your foot up off the ground and click it into gear in a half second, (I doubt anyone is that fast) the errant cage is still another 22 feet closer to creaming you. I can not recall (but I do have CRS) any thread where someone wore out a throwout bearing on one of these bikes that would lead one to worry about implementing throwout bearing preservation techniques. On a cage maybe, on a bike no.

:sign yeah that: What Dave said. My aiming was way off after the HID switch. I even found that My aiming changed just switching brand of the old halogens. It is so easy, and important, to just check the aim after any kind of headlight work, even just taking it out and putting it back in.

Just Google "road dust reduction" there is bunches of info and products out there.

I finally got enough stuff done on the bike to take it out for the first of many required doses of the treatment for PMS. There is no cure. Not a monster ride but a good shakedown of about 80 miles with a lot of it around town. About a third of it was on local streets and the rest on local highways. The wind was brutal, I have never ridden in that much wind and at one point going over a high bridge, with a 40mph cross wind, over the harbor, I had to slow down to about 40mph just to stay on the bike. There were a couple of times that a gust hit me hard enough that I had to make an effort to not get blown off the side of the bike. The bike itself seemed to handle the cross wind just fine, it was me that didn't. Of course the bike ran crappy since the tank is/was full of gas bought in October of last year, and of course it was crap reformulated gas to boot. It was well dosed with SeaFoam before it went to sleep for the winter. In a couple of more days of commuting to work, I should have the tank empty and be able to give her a nice drink of fresh gas. It is going to take a lot more work to get my left arm back into riding shape after the injuries from last month. I still can not hold in the clutch for a whole red light but a month ago I could not pull in the clutch at all. And yes being the stubborn one that I am, I have been avoiding seeing a Dr about it. I am hoping that in another week I can start pulling the trailer around some to get used to it being back there before I make the epic (for me) trek to Ohio in June. I have started to pay attention to my location in the lane and pretending that I am pulling the trailer. But the bottom line is that my PMS is doing a lot better now.