Flyinfool

Welcome to the nut house Dennis The solenoid is to the left rear of the battery. Just follow the big wire from the Positive battery terminal. On that solenoid is one skinny wire, I think it is blue. Disconnect that one skinny wire and see if that make the continuous cranking stop. If it still cranks with that wire removed you need a new solenoid. If disconnecting that wire stops the cranking then you have some other electrical issue, but at least we will know what direction to lead you. PS We have rules here.

The "New Posts" tab is broke, it takes me to an error screen Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /home/dknelson/public_html/forum/search.php on line 1173

FWIW I have a very strong magnet on the bottom of my bike to help trip a specific traffic light I go thru a lot. I have found many screws and nails and other steel debris stuck to this magnet over the years, I figure every one of them was a potential rear flat.

A "T" patch ( also called a mushroom patch) properly applied from the inside would be fine, I do not trust just plugs, I have had them fail. A "T" patch both plugs the hole and has a patch for the inside. My brother in law owns a service station, their insurance will not allow then to plug a tire for liability reasons, All the major tire makers do not allow just plugs. But then there are still a lot of people that use plugs with good results. I still do carry a plug kit on the bike and in the truck for emergencies. But as soon as I get back to civilization, I have the tire taken off the rim and a proper repair done.

I did some tweaking on the suspension, added some more air to the rear and set the damping down to 1. The front now has no air and I think I am going back to 10W fork oil. Still have to find some old negatives to see if I can get lucky and be able to clean some gunk out of the right fork seal to stop the leak. But it sure rides and handles much better now.

Was doing some more digging. Tires this time. With the bike being a half ton at the curb it is not unrealistic to expect it to weigh 1400-1500 lbs going down the road with 2 real people up, in full gear, and a load of luggage tent etc. The spec sheet calls out a 130/70R18 Bridgestone Exedra front tire, this has a 63 load rating of 600 lbs and a "H" speed rating of 130 MPH. The rear tire is a 200/55R16 Bridgestone Exedra, I have not found this tire listed anywhere, so there is no way to tell what its load and speed ratings are. This also means that if you ride a lot there is no new tire available. I was trying to find a back door way of estimating the GVW since the specs do not say. Since it is such a heavy bike at 963 Lbs curb weight, I was wondering if they remembered to leave room for people and their things. I can see 2 people, plus riding gear, plus luggage and camping gear and stuff to add 500 Lbs to the bike.

It depends on what materials the belt is made from. Kevlar is a popular belt reinforcement. Kevlar has some interesting properties. It grows when it gets cold. So if you get out west and drive from the desert to a high elevation where it is cold, could the belt loosen enough to slip? One slip and the belt is toast. Or if you go from a mountain to deep hot valley will the belt tighten up enough to bind the bearings. The weak link on most timing belts is the teeth. How will ti take a sudden application of torque, like when you take off quick from a stop light, and the back tire slips a bit as it is crossing the wide white paint line and then just as suddenly 18 inches later, hits good pavement again. will that shock load rip the teeth off of the belt?

I wonder if @cowpuc has dried the tears enough to be able to see for the ride home? I think I could here him crying during the presentation. Did anyone catch how many times they said "See, we do listen" then talked about all of the predominately Hardly rallies that they went to for input. No wonder they came out with another Hardly wanabe. I like everything about this new bike except the Hardly engine. At least the 2nd gens should have another bike they can beat up on, and the 1st gens will still rule the roost. My truck has fly by wire throttle, I absolutely hate it. I can really feel that extra half second of delay in throttle response when trying to hold a controlled slide around a corner and steering with the gas peddle. I would hate to have any delay on a bike where that half second could make the difference as to whether or not you can zip out of the way of the jerk that just ran the red light. There are also times that the computer and I are in disagreement as to how far the throttle should be open for the immediate circumstances. They said it has a 750 watt electrical system. I wonder just how much is left after all of the built in electronics are powered. for those that like extra lights or other toys that we just must have. It has 4 headlights and 2 driving lights to power already. The Headlights are LED, BUT all of the "bright" headlights that I have seen use the same or more power than the comparable halogen bulbs.

Quickest way to see if you need to do something is to pull the spark plugs and see if it is running rich lean or just right. Anything else is just a guess.

Under 2 hours and counting

just 2 hours to go.............................

Did you get to introduce Tweeksis to the mom Yam folks? I would think they should want to meet her and hear your stories.

Only 3??????

Interesting, Both of those Ebay starter clutches only come with one of the 2 gaskets that you will need. The first one still only has 3 rollers just like the stock one. The second one has 6 rollers, better, but not near as good as it gets. If you contact member @Dano, he does a starter clutch rebuild that includes all of the needed parts, and he converts it to an 18 roller starter clutch. I have the second one that he ever did and it works great. This system was invented for the guys thar are building a LOT more power into these engines on the V-Max's, where they were breaking the stock setups very often trying to turn over their high compression engines.

Extraction bits and cobalt drill bits are very hard metal, to cut through them you need something harder. Harder would be a solid carbide drill bit. Ideally if you can get one it should be a left hand drill. Many times while drilling out a bolt with a left hand drill bit I have had the bit catch and the screw comes flying out of the hole. Put the bit as deep into the chuck as you can so there is minimal flex, and have a death grip on the drill while you are drilling the head off so that the the drill can not move around. Carbide does not flex at all, it just breaks. You need to drill it VERY slow but at a high RPM and use lots of cutting oil, any oil is better than dry but cutting oil is better than non cutting oils. If you try to drill to fast you will break the carbide drill as it is bouncing off the jagged edges of the broken bits that are still in the hole. Get a size of spotting drill that will take the head off completely. Then once the bolt head is gone you should be able to get the cover off and out of the way so that you can attack the remainder of the bolt with the methods mentioned above. Either weld on a nut if you have that capability or even just try a vice grips. With the head gone it may come out real easy. If you can get a left hand drill bit that is bigger than the hole you already have in the head, heat the bolt to around 300°F and then drill it with the left hand drill bit. There is a good chance that the screw will be out before you drill the head off.

I don't know if I can get into chat that early, But I will get there.

Inspect the mating surfaces with a magnifying glass especially the o-ring surfaces, both halves. It does not take much of a nick or burr or piece of dirt to cause a leak.

I guess the point of no return is different for all of us. So far I have yet to drop the bike with me around to see it. There was one time mine went over to the left while parked in the back yard, The first I knew was when my honey came home and asked why I had the bike laying on its side in the back yard. The side stand had sunk into the ground and over she went. That one was hard to pick up because the side stand was now in the way so I had to lit the bike up and over the side stand to get it back up. So then I got smart, or so I thought, this spring when I brought the bike out of storage and had it parked on the still very soft ground I had one of my nice polished stainless steel plates under the side stand. Well did I mention the ground was still soft, It was soft enough that the wheels sunk into the ground until the bike fell over on the right side. Much easier to pick up when on the right side, and no side stand in the way. In case you don't know, when a 1st gen goes over, it goes all the way over till the corners of the fairing are on the ground. Not like a 2nd gen that just goes to the crash bars so you only have to pick it half way back up. Those guards on the 1st gen are just to protect the engine, not to catch the bike.

@BigLenny 1, 2, 15 and 17 agree with what I posted back in post 31 of this thread and I still agree. #4 you just had to throw in that "in their right mind" part, these are the same minds that 3 years ago were still putting in a cassette deck on new bikes..... #8 , in the mosaic the outer lights look smaller than the center 2, could be 2 headlights and 2 driving/fog lights. 4 Headlights would be awesome, 2 high beam and 2 low beam and they all are on with high beam, be the same as a cars lighting. You can not have to much light in deer country at night. With that possible 4 headlight system and heated grips seats and backrest, I am hoping for a really beefy charging system that can power all that and still have room to handle a lot of add on toys, like extra lighting heated gear etc.

I found it. Page 284 of the PDF from above, or page 5-29 of the manual. 8Nm or 5.8 Lb/Ft. for the two mounting screws for the anti dive to the fork leg.

Not sure if your MK1 is the same spec as a MK2. The service manual for a MK2 calls for 7Nm or 5.1 Lb/Ft. You can download a MK1 service manual here. http://labs.trunkful.com/vrmanuals/8385servicemanual.pdf

When trouble shooting problems like this it is helpful to get a resettable circuit breaker to replace the fuse. this way you can just push a button to get the power back on to continue the process and not create a mountain of blown fuses. Once you have it fixed, take out the circuit breaker and put the proper fuse back in, fuses ae more reliable than circuit breakers. Just resist the temptation to hold the button on the breaker or to put in a bigger fuse to see where the smoke is coming from. I have seen first hand where flames were the first indication of the location of the problem.

After looking at some pics of how this works, I do not think it would be to hard to modify the existing 1st gen centerstand to be a ride off. It is just a matter of shortening the legs so that both wheels of the bike stay on the ground while on the center stand. BUT!!! There always seems to be a BUT. Because both wheels are always on the ground, it will now be more difficult to fix a tire on the road. It will be harder to check air pressure in the tires and inspect the thread all the way around, If the surface is not smooth flat and level there is more of a chance of the bike not being as stable while parked on the center stand. This could be alleviated by keeping a piece of something (maybe a 2x4?) with the bike to allow the normal height of the center stand when needed. This does sound interesting none the less. I will need to do some measuring to see just how much shorter the center stand needs to be to keep both wheels on the ground. Off hand I am guessing it only needs to be 1/4 to 1/2 inch shorter. I have a torch a sledge hammer and a welder, I can fix anything............

This sounds interesting, I never heard of it, Now I have to do some research to see if I can find any pics and/or video of it. With the right size of firecracker in your back pocket and an electric igniter, you can push a button and get your ass off the ground.