darthandy

Thanks Gary, but I already have that document. The problem is that the "Recommended" version of the air horn hook up doesn't make sense to me. If there is power running through the horns to the ground through the switch, won't I get a short circuit if I run power to 85 and attach 86 to the pink wire? I'm probably misunderstanding something here, but I'm not sure what. By the way, I was planning on disconnecting the stock horns since the compact air horn I'm using should be a lot louder. I may hook up another air horn to the stock location on the right side, but that would be powered by a separate wire from the battery so it seems to me that hooking up the horn relay in the fairing in series shouldn't cause a problem. Or am I screwing this up really badly? Basically, I wanted to use the existing horn circuit to power the relay only (Or relays, if I hook up the second horn) and power to the horns would be directly from the battery. Andy

I had to put off my air horn installation last month and just got to it yesterday. It took quite a while, but I finally found a spot to install the horn where it didn't foul the fairing. When I hooked up the relay, I ran direct battery power to the 30 terminal and ran a wire from the 87 terminal to the '+' terminal on the horn and a wire to ground from the '-' terminal. I then ran a wire from the 86 terminal to the pink wire coming from the connector on the right side of the fairing (facing the bike) and then a wire from the 85 terminal to ground. When I switched on the ignition, the horn immediately blasted away (Nice and loud)! I checked Dingy's simplified wiring diagram and I think I've found the problem. That pink wire goes to the switch from the horns, so when I attached terminal 86 and grounded terminal 85, I completed the circuit as I would when pressing the horn button. I need to change the wiring for the 85 and 86 terminals. Choice one is to attach 86 on the other side of the switch - assuming that there is enough wire and that it is easily accessible. Choice 2 would be to hook up both 86 and 85 to the pink wire -one at one point and the other at a different point - basically hooking it up "in line". This would, in theory, energize the relay only when the horn button is pressed. I'm not entirely sure if choice 2 would actually work and I'm wondering if anyone would know off-hand? By the way Larry - can your harness be used in the fairing? That is, are there places to hook it up in there or do wires have to be run to it? Just curious. Andy

Mine recently started showing one notch down when filled up after I put in a new battery. It has showed full a couple of times when it was full but only for a couple of km then it drops to one notch down. It stays there for quite a while before it starts to move down again. No levelling links and the only change was the new battery. Glad this bike has a trip meter and a reserve position on the petcock! Andy

The distributor for them around here usually shows up at Port Dover on Friday the 13th. with a display of several of these. In addition to the '55 Nomad, I've seen a Shelby 500, a late model Corvette and the new Challenger. It's neat how he uses the "vehicles" lights as the running / brake lights for the trailer. I'm not positive, but I think there's another manufacturer putting out a similar product who also shows up at Dover. I think the price I heard last year was closer to $5,000 than $4,000 but I can't be certain. In any event, if I needed a travel trailer for the bike and had the bucks, this would certainly be an interesting unit to pull! Andy

Take a close look ... those are the C114 Tutor jets belonging to the Snowbirds. I saw them perform at our own little Welland airport about 5 years ago. Very inspiring sight! Those jets were Canadian designed and built, by the way. It was the RCAF's and then the Canadian Forces primary jet trainer until 2000. They were even sold to Malaysia as a counterinsurgency aircraft in 1967. Neat airplane. Should you want to see one up close, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Mount Hope, near Hamilton, has one on display. Andy

...and the year, make and model of the bike are? It might be a problem specific to that bike, but we'll need to know what the bike is. Andy

Actually, with a little imagination and some work, the cassette player can be made quite useful. First, you remove it from its present location, put in a box and give yourself a nice storage area. Then, you can use velcro tape to attach the cassette player to the inside of your fairing and attach a long 20 or 30 ft length of wire to it and to one of your mirror stalks. Then, the next time some daydreaming cager pulls out in front of you without looking, you can quickly detach the player and throw it at him to get his attention (Or revenge ... whatever!) and then use the length of wire to reel it back in. See? Betcha didn't think it could be that useful, did you? :rotf::rotf::rotf: And welcome to the forum ... we're all quite normal here ... really ... the voices have told us!! Andy

Yeah - forks must be fully compressed without the springs in them to check the level otherwise you will be way, way off and grossly overfilled. Andy

No way ... it would take me more than 20 minutes just to get my tail out of the chair and go out to the garage. Then there's all the fun of getting the light bar back on because I wasn't bright enough to buy the extender! So there! Now quit laughing at me!! Andy

None that I'm aware of. These bikes already have too much of a rearward rake and that doesn't help handling. In fact, some members here have raised the rear and report that the handling improved, especially at lower speeds. I can believe it ... when I was road racing, getting the rear up and the front down was a good way to quicken steering and reduce any tendency for the fork to "flop" over at lower speeds. My bike came with a lowering kit and I find that it gives me less clearance for work such as oil changes as well as allowing the bike to touch down sooner on hard turns. I'm looking at taking it off and getting the rear back up to stock height. I'd go with raising it more, but my legs just aren't long enough. If I were looking to shorten the reach to the ground, I would start by dropping the front on the forks and maybe getting the seat cut down. I's still lose some ground clearance, but at least the rake would be going in a better direction. Just my 2 cents worth but there it is. Andy

Thanks, Kevin. I think I've got it now. That's the diagram I've been working from, but I guess it may have led me down the wrong path because I took it too, shall we say, literally. Now off to work. Andy

Thanks, Kevin. So I should attach a wire from the 86 terminal to that pink wire and then run a "hot" wire to the 85 terminal? I can get power for the 85 terminal from a wire that I already have running from my new accessory fuse box to the 30 terminal on the relay for my headlight. Tapping into that wire would allow me to power the 85 terminal on the new relay. I already have a wire from the new fuse box to power te new 30 terminal. Does this sound right, or am I still getting it wrong. Andy

I'm getting ready to install my new compact air horn in the fairing, but I've run into a problem wiring it up to the existing horn button. I'm not too good at reading wiring diagrams so maybe I'm misunderstanding what I'm looking at, but here goes. In the "Relays 101" document from the Tech Library (That I used to do my emergency ignition bypass) it shows a recommended method that involves tapping into the wire coming from the horns and going to the switch. So far, so good. The wire then goes to terminal 86 of the relay but then shows power from the battery going to relay 85. This is where I get confused. There is power travelling along the wire from the battery to the horns and then towards the switch so when I tap into it, wouldn't that give me a flow to terminal 85? Since it's ahead of the switch, wouldn't that activate my relay as soon as the ignition gets turned on? And if I put power to terminal 85, won't that cause a short circuit condition? I'm probably misunderstanding something here so I could use some help. According to the wiring diagram in the manual, there is a pink wire going to (Or is that, coming from) the horn switch, so do I tap into that one? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Andy

I remember seeing those keys on bugs in the '60's and '70's. What's that they say? "Everything old is new again."? Sure seems like it. Hey ... I wonder if someone will come out with fake '40 Ford and '60's Rolls Royce front ends for them. Now that would be cool! Andy

A lady in our riding club has the touring version of the Spyder and she says it is quite confy two -up. And neither she nor her boyfriend could be described as "petite"! As for rain riding, she hasn't had any problems yet. But then you can move a bit left or right of the "stripe" while still staying in your lane, so that doesn't seem to be a problem. Throw in the various available electronic "nannies" and it is very difficult to get into trouble with it, although they do kill off some of the fun! Comfort wise, you definitely want to stay away from the "sport" model as it has very "sport bike" ergos and can be hard on the wrists and back. Andy

If memory serves, Skydoc is selling the PCW spring as part of his kit. The kit includes a full friction plate to replace the "half" friction plate at the "bottom" of the stack. That also makes a good difference. I installed Skydoc's kit with new friction plates last year and there has been no hint of slippage ever since, no matter what I do. Andy

That's true up to a point. If you use one of the "energy conserving" auto oils which contain a certain "friction modifier" (Something with zinc, I believe), it will cause your clutch to slip badly and the plates to overheat. There is some sort of logo on the oil container (Sorry - can't remember what it is, but it's on this site somewhere) that indicates that it is an energy conserving type oil. This is where the Rotella diesel oil is nice, since it meets all the requirements for a motorcycle oil but doesn't use the friction modifier and is therefore safe to use with a "wet" clutch. As a side bonus, it is quite inexpensive, even as a synthetic. At the end of the day, keeping to the factory recommended oil change intervals and changing the filter at each oil change is far more important and has a far greater effect than the brand of oil or filter you use. Just my opinion maybe, but after 45 + years of driving, riding and racing and watching what the pro's did with their machines, I feel my opinion on the subject is pretty reasonable. Andy

I bought a Harley pump last year and it works quite well. There may be a problem with the pump. Andy

Ahhh .. you got the right colour RSV. Good man!! Andy

Price sounds reasonable for the stated condition and KM on the bike in your area. They are cheaper across the border (Big surprise there, right?). If by average KM you mean "How many KM is the motor good for?", then the answer is that this one is barely broken in. Remember, this is basically the 147 HP Vmax de-tuned to about 97 HP. In other words, it's very understressed. They hold up about as well as the Goldwing motors, with plenty of examples having over 250,000 trouble free KM. Just be sure to follow the oil change recommendations and use good quality oil and filters (No ... I will not recommend and oil or filter. I won't be responsible for starting that argument again. No, no!) There are some known weaknesses that may or may not have been addressed by the PO. Go to the Technical Library section under the 2nd gen section for "known problems". Good luck and welcome to the asylum ... but don't worry ... were all much better now!!! Andy

Yep! You're catching on fast. Andy

And as long as you're in there, don't forget to check the level of your blinker fluid. :rotf::rotf::rotf: Andy

Yeah, the horns came with a relay for each (30 amp). I already have a relay for the head light, one for the driving lights and another for the ignition. Yeah, I know, it's overkill, but what the heck ... I was working in there anyway. 2wheelsforme, I read in another thread that two compact air horns (Which is what these are) are only slightly louder than one. My reason for two is that one will be at the front (in the fairing) and the other at the mid-point behind my foot (stock location) and aimed down. This means (Hopefully!!) that cagers behind me will get a warning as well as those in front of me. The guys in front are usually the problem, but I've nearly been rear ended a couple of times, so it would be nice to have sound aimed more or less to the rear as well. Andy

Thanks guys. I appreciate the responses. Looks like I'll be ordering the bracket then opening up the fairing. I figure with one in the stock horn position and one in the fairing, I should be able to get the attention of everyone around me in the event one of them tries to use me for target practice. Chrome is nice, but lights and horns get the attention when you most need it! And these horns are even red to coordinate nicely with my bike's colour! Andy

Well, I'm finally getting around to mounting the air horn(s) I got last fall. I've got pictures and am wondering if they are similar enough to the Stebel to use CarbonOne's bracket. I would then mount a second one in the fairing for max effect and coverage. Can anyone tell from the pics? Oops ... nearly forgot ... these are going on the RSV. Andy