It was too cheap!

[Terry]

Thanks gents, yes I'm really happy with my purchase. I gave the bike a thorough polishing last night and it shone up beautifully. There's no truth in the rumour that I bought a bike to go with my wheels...

 

I do use Armorall on black plastics and unless there is a lot of sun damage, the plastic absorbs the treatment and eventually it will come back to near new. I have also used a different restorer on my ST1300 from Cerakote and that has done a great job.

[Terry]

I thought I would have a go at the camchain tensioner pre-loading. I gave both tensioners two additional turns, as expected the back one was easy, the front was a little challenging as I left the tank in place and just pushed the hoses aside. A little nerve wracking as it took a little manoevering to get it clear of the hoses, but we got there. And guess what...it is about 95% better. I'm wondering if a decent starter valve synch might get rid of the last bit of clatter? I think that the front tensioner spring end had come out of its slot in the end of the tensioner. 

 

Did a bit more polishing on bolt heads polished the heat shield and repainted the passenger peg brackets. Not sure the PO would recognise this bike now.

 

Don't tell the missus, but the Mancave is looking a little crowded now...

[Grum]

Lucky you to have the space and the wonderful Honda toys. 6gen is bloody beautiful, looks like new, top job as always Terry. I take my hat off to you mate.

[Terry]

Spent a fun hour in the Mancave this evening with my Morgan Carbtune gauges and had a good tweak of the starter valves. They were miles out with the rear two cylinders much higher than the front, and it took a bit of fiddling to get them all even, but what a great result. The clutch rattle is nearly gone and the bike sounds SWEET. So different to the clattering monster that I rode home a little over two weeks ago. I get the odd small backfire when I blip the throttle which is quite similar to my ST1300.

 

https://youtu.be/xxLCWHVN_vM

 

In other news, the new camchain tensioners that I ordered 10 days ago from Webike Japan have arrived. I compared pricing to Partzilla and Webike was a clear winner. US$48 each for two tensioners, plus freight. The big decision now is whether to leave my "tweaked" tensioners in place or swap in the new ones?

 

 

[Grum]

Great job Terry. The bike sounds perrrrrrrfect. Don't bother with the CCT'S your bike will tell you when it would like a newy. Suggest releasing the spring tension off the plunger, fully extended, a bit oil, then plastic bag them for the future.

Great bike, Go Ride.

Cheers.

[Terry]

12 minutes ago, Grum said:

Great job Terry. The bike sounds perrrrrrrfect. Don't bother with the CCT'S your bike will tell you when it would like a newy. Suggest releasing the spring tension off the plunger, fully extended, a bit oil, then plastic bag them for the future.

Great bike, Go Ride.

Cheers.

Good suggestion about releasing the tension for storage Graham; can't do any harm, although they were supplied fully wound.

 

Need to find time to get a WOF inspection, then I can get properly road legal. 

[Grum]

On 7/24/2024 at 7:21 PM, Terry said:

Good suggestion about releasing the tension for storage Graham; can't do any harm, although they were supplied fully wound.

 

Need to find time to get a WOF inspection, then I can get properly road legal. 

They come like that I'm sure, to minimise packaging space and cost, probably adds protection to the plunger having fully it retracted as well.

Good luck with the WOF inspection, have no doubt the bike will cruise through it.

Enjoy the new ride mate.

[Terry]

Had my first decent country ride today, about 300km all up. The bike ran beautifully, very smooth and the brakes are great, and the handling decent. It was interesting experiencing the VTEC transition; it is very smooth at large throttle openings but there is a bit of softness around 6K and a harsher transition to VTEC at part throttle. I'm guessing this is a feature, not a bug...

 

 

[Presson]

My experience is that VTEC tends to operate just as you describe. The transition between 2 and 4 valves is most noticeable when the engine and oil is still relatively cool. Gets better (less noticeable/smoother) as things get hotter but it is always there and gentle throttle opening around the transition point can sometimes feel like a bit of a stumble. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Beautiful machine by the way and lovely clear photos.

[Terry]

3 hours ago, Presson said:

My experience is that VTEC tends to operate just as you describe. The transition between 2 and 4 valves is most noticeable when the engine and oil is still relatively cool. Gets better (less noticeable/smoother) as things get hotter but it is always there and gentle throttle opening around the transition point can sometimes feel like a bit of a stumble. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Beautiful machine by the way and lovely clear photos.

Thanks for that. Your description of a "stumble" is spot-on.

[Terry]

I got stuck into the clutch today using a TRK kit from Wemoto; gave the plates the obligatory overnight oil bath, picked the old gasket off carefully and also deglazed the steels while I was in there. No obvious wear on the clutch basket but the inside of the engine shows signs of overdue oil changes with a nice brown coating on a lot of the engine case. I got to clean out the oil glass which was also a bit scungy. While I was in there poking around I could reach the front camchain and that was not properly tight, so after the clutch swap was over, I blipped the engine and while it was quiet at idle and on acceleration, I could hear the front chain clattering on the overrun, so I installed one of my new tensioners to the front; actually an easy job if you've done it before. This was all good work and rewarding; the clutch now has a nice wide takeup, and the engine sounds better than ever. Happy days!

[Grum]

Great stuff Terry, just confirming, is there no need to remove the TB's to replace the front CCT? I've only ever replaced a couple of easy rear ones.

[Grum]

Hi Terry.

Hope you don't mind me being a PITA fuss pot. Just a small suggestion to get the looks just a little neater I tucked the Fuel Vent Hose just rearward of the head cover behind the frame and it sits there nicely out of sight.

 

Go from this.

To this.

[Terry]

35 minutes ago, Grum said:

Hi Terry.

Hope you don't mind me being a PITA fuss pot. Just a small suggestion to get the looks just a little neater I tucked the Fuel Vent Hose just rearward of the head cover behind the frame and it sits there nicely out of sight.

 

Go from this.

To this.

 

[Terry]

OK Graham, it shall be done. I need to sort the hoses a little, there’s one terminating loose between the front headers at the moment.

 

Yes you can do the front CCT just by raising the tank and popping off the air box, a little bit of faffing around with a small water hose but patience and care will get by that without any more disassembly. Maybe a 45 minute job. 

[Terry]

A small amount of tinkering this week; I fitted the new rear camchain tensioner, and pulled off the fairing to chase down my errant hose. Turns out the tank vent, which passes around the front of the engine behind the headers, had melted and parted. Bought a metre of new 8mm id fuel hose from a local autoparts store and sorted that. Realigned its path to satisfy Mr OCD from Sunbury. Had a cracking ride today, 310k of twisties, and all was great. What a lovely runner this bike is (now).

[Grum]

42 minutes ago, Terry said:

Realigned its path to satisfy Mr OCD from Sunbury

Haha just as well, after all the good work you've done, no point in having a daggy hose upsetting its good looks! She's a beaut, glad its putting a smile on your dial. Happy Travels Terry.

Cheers.

 

P.s Just curious did the original CCT you had a go at re tensioning the spring start to cause chain chatter again?

[VeeEffArah]

And I'd not consider errant hoses and such as OCD. Just how it should be. I spent a couple hours on my RWB sorting the bolts, screws and plastic push pins.

Carry on good man, great encouragement in your efforts.

[St. Stephen]

13 hours ago, Terry said:

A small amount of tinkering this week; I fitted the new rear camchain tensioner, and pulled off the fairing to chase down my errant hose. Turns out the tank vent, which passes around the front of the engine behind the headers, had melted and parted. Bought a metre of new 8mm id fuel hose from a local autoparts store and sorted that. Realigned its path to satisfy Mr OCD from Sunbury. Had a cracking ride today, 310k of twisties, and all was great. What a lovely runner this bike is (now).

 

C'mon Terry, stop it! Now I want my 6th gen back! Your bike looks great.

 

Eight great years it was my only bike--missing your beautiful wheels and of course a different red, but...

 

 

[Terry]

15 hours ago, Grum said:

Haha just as well, after all the good work you've done, no point in having a daggy hose upsetting its good looks! She's a beaut, glad its putting a smile on your dial. Happy Travels Terry.

Cheers.

 

P.s Just curious did the original CCT you had a go at re tensioning the spring start to cause chain chatter again?

I thought the engine sounded OK with the tweaked original CCTs but when I had the clutch cover off I could directly compare tension between the front and rear chains and it was clear the front still was not right. When I fired the bike up I could actually hear a little clatter on the overrun, so I swapped out the front tensioner, which dealt to the clatter. Then I swapped out the rear tensioner just because I could.

[Terry]

2 hours ago, St. Stephen said:

 

C'mon Terry, stop it! Now I want my 6th gen back! Your bike looks great.

 

Eight great years it was my only bike--missing your beautiful wheels and of course a different red, but...

 

 

While I do love my 5th gen, I think the 6th has much neater styling. I really like the rear view with those pipes!

[Lorne]

9 hours ago, St. Stephen said:

Eight great years it was my only bike--missing your beautiful wheels and of course a different red, but...

 

And the lovely 3d VFR badges - can't forget them now, can we?

[Lorne]

6 hours ago, Terry said:

While I do love my 5th gen, I think the 6th has much neater styling. I really like the rear view with those pipes!

 

I flip-flop on which looks best, but speaking of VFRs with a set of Leo Vince fitted...

Most of my pics are from trips when the bike is loaded with luggage, then I this one after I'd cleaned it up for a long inter's nap back in 2019.

Of course nobody new that the covid-19 pandemic was just around the corner and would throw the world, and my m/c travel plans, into chaos for years.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2024 by Lorne
add ed coda

[Terry]

I was gazing at my new toy last night, idly thinking about repainting the rider footrest brackets when I noticed an interesting feature. The bracket where the brake master is attached has an interesting and (I thought) decorative slot. Then it hit me that the designer has thoughtfully made it super easy to adjust the rear brake pedal height, as a spanner will fit through that slot to reach the adjusting nut, while the locknut can be reached directly from below. I felt somewhat foolish as I made some adjustments to the pedal recently and grumbled  that one should not have to unbolt the bracket and master cylinder to do so...🙄

 

[VeeEffArah]

Thanks T. I was todays years old when I found this out. Had to go look at mine to verify and TA-DA.... it's there !!!