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On 5/17/2020 at 4:40 PM, Av8r said:

 

Hi. Please note that’s wrong. It’s 141 footpounds; 195 Newton Metres; 19.5 Kgf.m.
You have seriously under torqued it which is what it seems the previous owner had done.

 

Boy I’m really not getting this, am I. Whew. Absolutely, 141 foot pounds. Thank you Av8r! 141 foot pounds. My torque wrench doesn’t even go that high. So far as I can see, it’s by far the highest torqued bit on the whole bike.

 

Happily, I haven’t yet gone riding again while the nut sits at a torqued value of zero foot pounds. It's taking me a few days to scrounge up the 46mm socket. All the local DIY stores only stock up to 35mm. And hope as I might, an old pipe wrench is just not the tool for this job. So I’m having to wait for a special order.

 

I’m never so sure how important exact torque settings need be on something like this. 141 foot pounds. Would 140 be okay? How about 100? Does anybody ever bother torquing an oil drain bolt when changing the oil? There is a torque setting for it. 27 ft-lb. How about the oil filter itself? 7 ft-lb. A mechanical friend uses his muscle memory for three basic torque settings: light, medium and cranked. Presumably the axle nut is in the cranked category. He’s not here, so I’ll be borrowing a bigger torque wrench when the socket arrives.

 

Meanwhile, I keep fretting how the thing got loose in the first place. It looks like a properly staked nut should have a pretty big dent in it. Mine shows not much sign of one. Maybe a little dent. The rear axle and bearing are not the kinds of parts that would require regular work. Nothing in the service manual specifically states anything about inspecting or repacking bearings. It seems more likely to me most rear axle nuts get torqued once on the assembly line in Hamamatsu, staked there, and then stay in place for the life of the machine. So how is it mine is falling off?

 

Of course, now that I think of it, my life insurance is fully paid up. Housemates have been getting a little twitchy with the whole corona virus thing. Maybe it’s time to get the dog to start taste testing my dinner…
 

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On 5/15/2020 at 3:40 PM, Gebruiker said:

 

I’m sortof stuck with the torque value. I’ll have to send away for a socket. Local DIY stores don’t seem to stock really big single sockets.
 

 

I've found the very large sockets I've needed at my local Granger dealer.

 

https://www.grainger.com/

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Once you get your socket (I think I ended up buying an impact socket, just easier to find than a chrome one) and torque the nut to "Bad MF" you can just stake it wherever it ends up.  There isn't a "right" place to stake it--anywhere will do.

 

Note that the bike needs to be very stable before you try to tighten (or loosen) that nut.  Side stand, in gear, and be aware that you can wrench it right off the stand if you're not careful.  Personally, I wouldn't bother with a torque wrench.  I'd use an 18" breaker bar and tighten it as hard as I could!

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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On 5/18/2020 at 12:30 PM, MaxSwell said:

I've found the very large sockets I've needed at my local Granger dealer

 

Thanks again MaxSwell. I checked at your suggestion. Grainger could’ve gotten me the socket overnight but I’d already ordered one at Amazon.

 

Mechanical friend suggested to me I could try a strap wrench(?!) if I needed the bike before the socket came in. Probable not able to crank to 141 ft-lbs, but well, according to him I’d already apparently been riding with the nut just barely hanging on and without noticing any great problems. I'm not sure he's got my best interests at heart... 

 

I’m also not entirely sure I can summon up the muscle to tighten it all to 141 ft-lbs anyway. I'm dredging up my high school physics here. If the torque wrench is 18 inches long, and I need 141 pounds of force at one foot. Times 1.5, divided by the square root of log pi...or something... I'll need about 100 pounds of force at the end of the wrench. Maybe I’ll get an extension bar. Stay tuned on that.

 

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16 hours ago, JZH said:

Note that the bike needs to be very stable before you try to tighten (or loosen) that nut.  Side stand, in gear, and be aware that you can wrench it right off the stand if you're not careful.  Personally, I wouldn't bother with a torque wrench.  I'd use an 18" breaker bar and tighten it as hard as I could!

 

Have you actually ever had to take the assembly apart? I'm still not seeing any obvious reason to ever fuss with it.

 

I borrowed an 18" torque wrench. It only goes to 150 foot pounds anyway, so a breaker bar might be just about as good. Still waiting on the socket. Thanks for the heads up on stabilizing the bike while wrenching. Good tip. I might run a safety strap up around a ceiling beam if it all looks wobbly.

 

I wonder if am now the only person alive who has ridden a VFR with the back wheel hanging off... 😬

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On 5/19/2020 at 6:49 PM, Grum said:

And definetly buy/use a Single Hex socket.

I think it's going to be 12 point. It'll have to do. 

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5 hours ago, Gebruiker said:

 

Have you actually ever had to take the assembly apart? I'm still not seeing any obvious reason to ever fuss with it.

 

I borrowed an 18" torque wrench. It only goes to 150 foot pounds anyway, so a breaker bar might be just about as good. Still waiting on the socket. Thanks for the heads up on stabilizing the bike while wrenching. Good tip. I might run a safety strap up around a ceiling beam if it all looks wobbly.

 

I wonder if am now the only person alive who has ridden a VFR with the back wheel hanging off... 😬

There have been postings here of VFRs where the hub+sprocket+chain had come off.... Not a pretty sight..... 😞

 

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10 hours ago, Gebruiker said:

 

Thanks again MaxSwell. I checked at your suggestion. Grainger could’ve gotten me the socket overnight but I’d already ordered one at Amazon.

 

Mechanical friend suggested to me I could try a strap wrench(?!) if I needed the bike before the socket came in. Probable not able to crank to 141 ft-lbs, but well, according to him I’d already apparently been riding with the nut just barely hanging on and without noticing any great problem. I'm not sure he's got my best interests at heart...  🙂

 

I’m also not entirely sure I can summon up the muscle to tighten it all to 141 ft-lbs anyway. I'm dredging up my high school physics here. If the torque wrench is 18 inches long, and I need 141 pounds of force at one foot. Times 1.5, divided by the square root of log pi factorial...or something.  So I'll need about 100 pounds of force at the end of the wrench. Maybe I’ll get an extension bar. Stay tuned on that.

 

Being a light-weight squirt old phart, I've have trouble with making those high-load socket wrenches work. So I keep a length of pipe handy, including one under my seat, to make the lever longer. It's all about mechanical advantage. I often remember the quote "One could pull an long freight train with an egg beater if one used enough gears."

 

4 hours ago, Dutchy said:

There have been postings here of VFRs where the hub+sprocket+chain had come off.... Not a pretty sight..... 😞

 

Guilty. One day, very eager to get out riding I did not realize my chain was in need of a lube and had stretched. I accelerated onto the local freeway. At the bottom of the enterance ramp twisting the throttle did not produce any acceleration. Quickly figured out the chain had come off the rear sprocket. I was able to coast down hill to the next exit. Got parked right of the end of the off ramp and put the machine on it's center strand. When it came time to loosen the axle bearing pinch bold I could not break it loose. Not enough leverage. So I walked the three miles home to get a pipe to extend the lever. That's where my Boy Scout "Be Prepard" kicked in. I do not leave home without it. 

 

I was lucky the chain went towards the wheel so no further damage occured. I figured that was a bullet dodged.  

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On 5/20/2020 at 1:20 PM, Gebruiker said:

 

Have you actually ever had to take the assembly apart? I'm still not seeing any obvious reason to ever fuss with it.

 

I borrowed an 18" torque wrench. It only goes to 150 foot pounds anyway, so a breaker bar might be just about as good. Still waiting on the socket. Thanks for the heads up on stabilizing the bike while wrenching. Good tip. I might run a safety strap up around a ceiling beam if it all looks wobbly.

 

I wonder if am now the only person alive who has ridden a VFR with the back wheel hanging off... 😬

I don't know about "having to", but I've probably taken every assembly apart, except for the engine case itself.  You need to remove that nut in order to remove the axle to clean out the road grit from the swing arm, to replace the bearings in the eccentric bearing carrier and to fit an aftermarket rear brake disc (among other things).  

 

Impact sockets are all 6-point, but you can use a 12-point if you're careful.  Get a floor jack handle or something to use as an extension lever to slip over the torque wrench handle.

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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On 5/20/2020 at 6:24 PM, MaxSwell said:

I figured that was a bullet dodged.

 

Maybe we need a separate VFRd thread for this. The day I cheated death. I'm not sure I have any qualifying stories, but I have the feeling a lot of riders in here might... 😬

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On 5/21/2020 at 1:19 PM, JZH said:

I don't know about "having to", but I've probably taken every assembly apart, except for the engine case itself.  You need to remove that nut in order to remove the axle to clean out the road grit from the swing arm, to replace the bearings in the eccentric bearing carrier and to fit an aftermarket rear brake disc (among other things).  

 

Impact sockets are all 6-point, but you can use a 12-point if you're careful.  Get a floor jack handle or something to use as an extension lever to slip over the torque wrench handle.

 

Road grit? After only 30 years? How much could there be? I'm not even gonna check. I'm sure bearings are fine too. So is the brake rotor. But yes, I do see why it could possibly be necessary to remove the axle nut...

 

The best extension lever I ever had was a fork tube from a crashed bike. It was strong, the right size, free...and a constant reminder of a crashed bike. Unlike MaxSwell's, it would not fit under any seats. Maybe the seat of a Buick. It walked off one day and I've been looking for a replacement ever since, preferably not from one of my bikes.

 

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The road grit gets into the swing arm through the big openings on either side of the shock, and eventually stops the eccentric from rotating (which makes it difficult to adjust the chain).

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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On 5/23/2020 at 6:47 PM, JZH said:

The road grit gets into the swing arm through the big openings on either side of the shock, and eventually stops the eccentric from rotating (which makes it difficult to adjust the chain).

 

It's always somethin. 🙂 As you know, I usually don't go looking for trouble. And I never signed up to do a thorough rebuild. But always good to know any source of future problems. Thanks!

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So, the bike is back on the road with a secured rear wheel that won’t be bouncing past me on some random corner. UPS finally brought the 46mm socket. You know you can track online purchases these days. That way you can follow along when your stuff gets shipped and where it is at any time between the shipping office and your front door. My socket decided to sit in Secaucus N.J. for five whole days while I waited. Whatthehell. It was just sitting there. I’m not so sure package tracking is always a good thing.

 

I didn’t know if I was getting a six point or twelve point socket. The advertised picture showed 12 points, chromed. Pretty. But the description said six points. As mentioned by Grum and JZH, six points would be better for strength. Which means of course the thing came with 12 points. Also it was one of those funny designs that isn’t pointed but wavy to meet the face of the nut. 

 

IMG_4720.jpg.beccdcaefe2d5c6df4ee1f48a2f84429.jpg

 

 

Anyway, it worked fine. All 141 foot pounds. Big sucker. Lots of force. Then I staked it! Done. Now I'll have to repaint down there.

 

IMG_4724.jpg.2115c4bcfd5ef92f71ab4d19b081e9a5.jpg

 

 

Will I ever need this socket again? I don’t think it’ll fit under the seat… 

 

IMG_4721.jpg.f2e4ede6dbf30f0d0cdaafe1e3bfebdb.jpg

 

 

The two homemade decals are working too. Official size, again thanks to JZH, if not exactly the proper ones for generation3 bikes. If I get tired of these or ridiculed, I can swap them out. I already have extras. The extras look like this:

 

 

IMG_4687.jpg.91b0fc064b45c68435b1dde78731bdba.jpg

 

 

Wait, sorry, I mean like this…

 

 

IMG_4688.jpg.b057b1de95d98c74f094618185b40ecd.jpg

 

 

Wait. Um...wait. That’s, that’s not right.

 

Damn. 

 

I won’t tell you the name of the peabrain in the house who cut these out. Fine. It was me. Another person here, not me, thought they’d be just about perfect for any VFR I owned. Uh huh. I was tempted to use them just because of that… 😁
 

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How Hot is Hot? 

 

I wanted another power port near the display cluster. Until now, I’ve been using one of those flat trailer plugs, wired and fused directly off the battery. This thing:

 

IMG_4890.jpg.1d45cfefd734c84230b3f6607457464e.jpg

 

 

It’s a convenience and it works fine to run my voltmeter, or my gps, or my car-seat-warmer-designer heated vest. But as you can see, the cord is short, ending just next to the gas tank. Good for the vest. Less good for everything else. Plus there’s only one of it.

 

There are several options available. You know what they are. While I was muddling them over, a friend dropped this thing in my lap. He had it laying around and wasn’t planning to use it for himself. I'm not sure of the quality, but it does have a long enough cord. Let’s see how it works.

 

IMG_4803.jpg.4f31ab6b476adfc5c4d9bde10051be48.jpg

 

 

...I was only looking for the additional power point but this came with a double usb port and its own voltmeter. Groovy...


So I wasn’t sure how to run the line past the engine bay. It’s only about the gauge of home speaker wire and the insulation looks to be about like speaker wire insulation too. There are wires all over the bike of course. And around the frame past the engine. This is the same engine that regularly tries to burn my leg. The oem harnesses down there are double wrapped with what, insulation and electrical tape? They don’t mind the heat. My concern is how much heat can this new wire insulation tolerate before melting? I’m only guessing the insulation is pvc. 

 

According to these guys at Allied Wire and Cable, who seem to know what they’re talking about, standard pvc insulation is good only for +/-220F (105C). Jeez, that's like the melting point of a Mars bar...and that's the good stuff. Cheaper insulation goes at 80C.

 

https://www.awcwire.com/faq-automotive-wire

 

And I already know that the frame itself will get up to 165F...74C (see entry, page 3 this thread)

 

But is this insulation even pvc? I dunno. I’m not going to try to melt it no matter how much the scientist inside me wants to run that experiment. But it’s definitely gonna get warm. It’s pretty much got to go right past one of the rear heads. 

 

After poking around some, I decided it wouldn’t matter if I ran wires to the left or right of the engine. But the right side cooks my leg more than the left, so I went left.

 

And as a precaution I decided to wrap the wires with household radiator shielding. This stuff:

 

IMG_4873.jpg.c9d21706edc75e86c46ca15c73add55f.jpgPic

 

 

I just loosely stapled a blanket on, to position next to the hottest parts of the route. Foil side out. I didn’t want to tape it around since electrical tape is just more stuff to melt and melting stuff is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. Staples probably melt too, but if it gets hot enough down there for the staples to melt then I’ve got bigger problems than a dodgy auxiliary power circuit. The back of the foil (inside against the wiring) is some kind of spongy foam rubber. Will that melt? Dunno. I guided the whole thing loosely with an occasional zip tie. 

 

IMG_4872.jpg.fd21255c8223169172870337e2720794.jpg

 

I’ll check it for chafing and heat damage after a ride or two. If it lasts that long. Meanwhile, I will be powering up my voltmeter or gps or phone more easily than before.

 

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On 6/14/2020 at 12:45 PM, Dutchy said:

Good old GAMMA!!

 

Maybe we should explain that GAMMA is a Benelux DIY store...like Lowe's in the USA. And 'Radiatorfolie' translates to english as um well, radiator foil. But you had already figured that one out, yes? See everybody? You can all read dutch and didn't even know it. Put that on your next resume! 🙂

 

 

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Vista Cruise Modification
 

A Vista Cruise throttle lock was one of the first things I put on the bike (page 1, this thread) It works okay, but the trigger isn’t in the best spot for me. It bashes the gas tank at full right lock and blocks the starter switch from my thumb. My idea has long been to try rotating the trigger up about 30 degrees and today, after dinging the tank for about the millionth time, I finally decided to get around to the job. It required only a little extra modification from the original design.
 
Sound Off Recreational Vista Cruise for Dual Throttle Cable


You can see it's not exactly a high tech gadget. Its entire function is to squeeze the throttle tube to override the return spring. In that way it holds the throttle steady for brief moments you might want to relax your hand. The lock is held in its position by that lower right-angled tab jammed between the throttle cables. That keeps it from wobbling and drifting when in use. These are generic devices so they require tweaking on a VFR. I think I must have done a little adjusting here and there when I first installed it, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't predict exactly how much displacement I needed to improve things to my taste. I tried positioning that tab all the way to the inside of both the throttle cables but then the trigger got way too high. So the tab just needed to be cut down some. Seat of the pants mods from manufacturer's design. Always opportunity for disaster...

I just eyeballed the thing for starters and made a pretty reckless first free hand cut with my Dremel, taking away about half the tab. It only took a minute. Taking stuff off is usually the easy part. Knowing what to take and when to stop... 😬
 
IMG_5448.png.254abe9a5bb6a34625e3d1ac191e57cc.png
This is what the lock looked like after first cut...
 

I wasn’t expecting much of a positive result at first pass but ya know, it was actually pretty good just like that. Go figure. The trigger sat well clear of the starter button and yes, the thing was also high enough so it no longer bashed the gas tank. I don’t get to say this often but...that was easy. It was nowhere near the 30 degrees I thought I needed. More like 10 or 20 degrees.
 
IMG_5453.JPG.0e35e8510992413b28468068afcf1d4c.JPG
New trigger position, now above starter switch...
 
 
It wasn’t quite finished. Since that tab was no longer a tight fit between the throttle cables, the whole thing wobbled some. I was thinking I would have to weld a lump of plastic back into a new spacer but in a rare moment of clarity I realized a mini zip tie would do the trick, wrapped around one of the throttle mounts.
 
IMG_5451.JPG.b769ffa5d4085e410e0fbc95065dd37c.JPG
And there it is, like that... 
 
As you can imagine the thinner tab is not particularly strong, but it just has to keep the lock from wobbling. We’ll see how it goes. And now because a job actually went easier than expected for once, I’m grumbling at myself for not just dealing with this two years ago. All that time making do. I'm gonna have to mess with something else more complicated for next time...
 
 
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More Updates


It’s been a little while now, the fairing is still intact with no obvious cracks or missing bits. The fencepost sidestand cover is holding up. The homemade decals haven’t peeled off. The auxiliary power line past the rear heads has not melted and so is supplying electricity to my gadgets. The charging system is working pretty good. The rear wheel is right where it’s supposed to be. I’m not seeing any leaks. With everything so going well, I have to stir the pot. There are always things to do. So back to headlights.

 

LEDs

 

This is being dragged to the front of my brain because of another current thread, started by JafsSK here:

 

 

 

Remember my complete failure last year to upgrade the stock Honda lights to standard 65 watt Philips halogen headlamps. (re: entry 3 Aug 19, page 4 this thread). Since that time, I’ve done nothing to help myself see in the dark on the VFR except maybe eat more carrots. But not long ago a pair of LEDs fell into my lap. These:

 

IMG_5422.jpg.38d616d1afb6b76c82721bb95bfa37a7.jpg

 


They came from a friend who got them for his fancy Audi and then decided that no $10 LEDs were going to sully his ride. This is the same guy who tossed me the auxiliary wiring harness (entry above). Me, being more democratic, I have no such qualms when it comes to the sullying of rides. If the things have even a middlin chance to work without much trouble, I wanted to give ‘em a shot.

 

Both VFROz and Terry had offered good tips for LEDs based on their own experiences. (also posted previously, page 4-5) So I knew through them that this set, being fan cooled, would mean that both upper and lower emitters could function at the same time on high beam. And they were shielded, so oncoming traffic would not be unnecessarily blinded...assuming the lens pattern focused things reasonably well. And even though they were not fine European craftsmanship, the CE and DOT labels on the box looked promising. So once again I attempt an update on the cheap.

 

IMG_5423a.png.3c1afc31ee1c6e944477788d3ab9f45b.png

 

Are These Things Legal?

 

JZH has suggested elsewhere that LEDs may not all be up to code. Yeah. Lots of code in the world. Lots. I glanced at Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 246, Motor Vehicles. Part V, Equipment. Sec. 14-96a, Lights. Whew, these guys have rules for everything… and yet in spite of sheer volume of code, the language is kind of vague. And nowhere in there am I seeing anything that says LEDs are not legal...

 

https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_246.htm#secs_14-83_to_14-96

 

I have not attempted to check any of the other states, nor other countries. You’ll have to do that for yourselves. My assumption is that the lights'll be okay around here as long as they aren’t pointing up into the eyes of other drivers. I’m not sure. Maybe I should ask a cop...Naaah. 

 


Do They Even Work? 

 

As a practical point, I’d been here before so first things first. Do the lights actually work? To check, I unplugged an old bulb, replugged an LED and…without looking directly at the emitters…Click. Yes they do work. Low beam. High beam. Fans whir quietly. Nice. Since they aren’t halogens I’m not wearing gloves to keep fingerprints off, but I’ll do that when removing the original Honda bulbs. 

 


Are the LEDs Bright? 

 

Well, again without staring directly into them, they seem a hell of a lot brighter than the old lights. I found this converter table online. 

 

https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/lumen-to-watt-calculator.html

 

If I’m interpreting the numbers correctly:

 

IMG_5424.jpg.e5dda9231be451b8057e25b986fe0233.jpg

 

 

...each new LED is apparently equivalent to 125W halogens. 125W?! That beats 45 watts any day. Um, this might get back to the legality question. Do they dazzle other drivers?

 

I'm not sure how to interpret the power draw. LEDs should use a fraction of the electricity that halogens use. But of course, these are brighter too. Are they actually sucking 125 W each? That can't be right. Up from 45W each, that'd a lot. I have to worry about that.

 


But Do They Fit?

 

We already know the fit is going to be a problem.  The normal P43t pattern just doesn’t want to mash itself into Honda’s clever PX43t 65-Degree socket. This is a JZH picture, lifted from that recent thread (ref. above), Don’t know where it came from before that...

 

 

1795187332_AutomotiveHeadlampBaseStyles.GIF.4bca396e6b41b7ef46fb712429204fd7.GIF

 

The mounting rings on these new lamps just slip off. According to instructions, you clip the ring into the socket first, then slide in the emitter assembly and twist a bit, something like a child safety cap on your aspirin bottle. I can do that.

 

 

IMG_5429.jpg.a1be18b5b3c957d184f237ff5e172849.jpg

 

So we have an empty mounting ring. It’s only a three cent bit of stamped steel. Why couldn’t the lower two tabs be at the proper angle? Why couldn’t our Chinese friends include another three cent PX43t-65 set of rings in the box? Why can’t I get back to Holland in the middle of a pandemic? My previous adapting technique was a disaster. With these rings separated, there’s more room to improvise. I'm thinking I could braze a couple tabs on. I bet I could. A tiny scrap of steel. My tin snips. My torch. No torch. Gotta borrow a torch. A borrowed torch. A quick brazing lesson online and I’m good to go.

 

But there might be an easier way. Instead of brazing, how about if I just cut slots in the mounting rings at about the proper angle and slide a tab of steel through. I can cut the slots with my Dremel grinder. No torch borrowing required. I’ll try that first. (n.b. this is not to be confused with the proper Bob Peloquin H4 Dremel mod.)

 

IMG_5436a.jpg.4b6f4c667eb26433a09c707708c57df2.jpg

 

And look, that might do the trick like that. I'll add a bit of black paint to keep away the rust.

 

 

Installation


Moving on, I removed the boots and old bulbs…carefully in case I need them again...and snapped in the modified rings. They're good. Yay. I didn’t think to put the boots back on but I'm guessing they’d fit too. The emitter section goes on last. Install and click gently into place. Silicon Grease and/or OxGuard. Plug in and...

 

 

IMG_5447.jpg.1907ffec7aab34cf8769a9d8da13a483.jpg

 

Okay! Well you can certainly see the difference, old and new. Yes you can. That’s one 45 watt halogen with one LED for comparison purposes. Guess which one is which. Go on guess... I can wait.

 

Second LED goes in like the first.


IMG_5460.jpg.c245284cadcae5dfa1afa5779a997e56.jpg

 

 

And done. They sure are bright. Are they perfectly focused and straight? I think JZH would say no. And I would be inclined to believe him were he here saying that. The emitter grids are not in the exact same position as the original filaments. They just aren’t. So they can’t be in perfect alignment behind the Honda lens where millimeters count. But are they good enough? Better than before? Am I willing to trade brightness for accuracy? Eternal questions of the universe.

 

For the moment, I’ll keep the LEDs. If I change my mind, it should be easy enough to go back to traditional lights too. One of these nights I’ll try to point the bike at a blank wall to see how the new light pattern looks. Also I’ll keep a closer eye at the voltage meter. If the new lights suck a substantially different amount of power, then the R/R may be working harder, yes? I think. Stay tuned.

 

Ed. Further discussion, corrections and explanation especially from Danno on this page:

 

 

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Bagster Tank Cover

 


Dutchy’s 5th generation bagster tank cover on his new 4th generation bike got me thinking again about finding one for myself.

 

 


I have one on the cbr, along with the clip-on bagster tank bag. On the cbr, the cover protects the pristine tank from blemishes. On this bike, it’ll protect the blemished tank from looks of derision. Yeah okay, the tank isn’t all that bad. But I like the look of the bagster anyway.

 

And wouldn’t ya know. JZH just happened to have an old one laying around. He sent it to me. Thank you John!

 

You can still get these new, even for the older bikes. Here’s a source:

 

 

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...or like so many vintage parts, you can wait for one on EBay...if you don’t happen to have a generous friend with lots of extras... 🙂

 

There’s a strap for around the headstock, and two lateral clips for the lower sides of the tank. I had to rig those side straps with my old standby, zip ties. JZH recommended coat hanger wire. That'll be my backup. Like all bits on the bike, I’ll be keeping an eye on things just in case.

 

Since it’s a cover specifically modeled for every gas tank, it fits pretty good. And the three attachments are fine. It’d probably sit there like a slipper with no straps at all. But the straps also allow you to snug it down and stretch it a bit, getting out any creases. As you can see below, mine is still creased in places. I expect these to work themselves out. Bagster says the creases come out faster in warm weather. No surprise there. Not much really warm weather expected in Connecticut for the next 10 months but maybe the infamous VFR frame heat will help. Or a hair dryer. I’m not concerned.

 

I don’t have my matching clip-on tank bag here. But how hard can it be to scrounge a couple generic push clips to sew onto any suitable bag? Bagster even sells extra official push clips for the purist (not me).

 

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I’m thinking I might dig out an old backpack for the job. Something easy to toss over my shoulder at stops. The shoulder straps on any tankbag I’ve ever owned aren’t great for that. Meanwhile, my ALDI magnetic tank bag still holds on just fine even right through the tank cover and whaddya know, I no longer have to be extra careful about abrasive stray metal filings finding their way onto those magnets.

 

Now a friend thinks the bike looks sortof stealthy. This was never my intention. Remember I was always aiming for a more updated traditional look, like Lorne’s ex. But it’s okay. Maybe I’ll rethink decals. Always something.

 

 

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My coathanger wire solution was supposed to be a temporary bodge after the plastic buckle snapped.  But it worked fine, so I never replaced it with the snazzy welded stainless steel version I had designed in my head.  So when the plastic buckle on the other side snapped...

 

Ciao,

 

JZH

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12 hours ago, JZH said:

My coathanger wire solution was supposed to be a temporary bodge after the plastic buckle snapped.  But it worked fine, so I never replaced it with the snazzy welded stainless steel version I had designed in my head.  So when the plastic buckle on the other side snapped...

 

 

Like you, I also have another refinement in my head. Not snazzy stainless. I looped the zip ties under a tab welded to the gas tank. That's probably where you routed your coat hangers. The tab is there to anchor the front of the seat. So now it does double duty. But the alignment with the bagster isn't perfect. The zip ties are pulling the tank cover forward a little. A couple nylon hook tabs that could grab the lower edge of the tank itself might work better. I'm thinking on it. Thanks again for the very cool upgrade! As you know, it'll improve the performance of the entire machine. 😁

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Hey Gebruiker, thanks for the write-ups on your project. Gives me A LOT of ideas for mine.

 

here’s DIY Motorcycle Seat mods

back again thanks to internet time-machine:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20120115195023/http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/index.php

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On 9/20/2020 at 7:20 PM, DannoXYZ said:

 

here’s DIY Motorcycle Seat mods

back again thanks to internet time-machine:

 

http://web.archive.org/web/20120115195023/http://www.diymotorcycleseat.com/index.php

 

Oh perfect! Thanks for that Danno. It never occurred to me to check the archive. I've already edited the links on my earlier entries.

 

And it's good to know others can benefit from my learning curve.

 

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