FJ12Ryder

Not for me, but whatever floats yer boat.

Good point, as I just spent $50 on a silly rear wheel plug.

I glad to hear the Vibranators work for you. I was looking at those too. My only concerns I have is that I would lose my throttlemeister cruise control and that the Vibranators work on a tuned mass dampening principle. This implies that the mass used is tuned to a specific frequency and I'm afraid that would be designed more for lower engine frequencies to reduce arm pump and not so much for the higher frequencies. From your experience do you have any input on the frequencies the Vibranators dampen? My experience, just seat-of-the-pants mind you, is that they ameliorate the lower frequency vibrations more than the high. My opinion anyway.

Personally I don't see how ceramic bearings are going to give one peace of mind. If I wanted peace of mind I would stick with steel. Ceramic will give a certain of amount of whiz-bang though.

My thought on this is that the outer race is fixed against the wheel bearing mounting surface of the wheel hub and it rotates without any slippage so it must revolve at the same rate as the outer wheel. The linear speed is much much slower at the bearing because of the smaller circumference but the rpms are the same. My quick calcs for 120/70 R17 tire gave 2,277 rpms at 160 mph. This might not be exact, but I figure it is in the ball park. Also RE: your previous post, I agree completely about lightly greasing the seals where they meet the spacers, this also should help keep any water out of the bearing area. And the calipers and rotors will also add friction if not properly maintained aligned. I think a poor fork alignment from the previous owners wheel self install caused the bearing failures to begin with and was part of my soft front brake lever feel. I know these are expensive, to be honest, it makes me a little nervous not having good 'ol trusty steel spinning along under me so I started looking top of the line which leads to $$$. There was an episode of Cafe Racer where one of the Bostrom Bros took a spill because of a bad front wheel bearing that collapsed and locked up the front end. May have been a result of the builder not properly installing the bearings. Another benefit I'm hoping for with the ceramic bearings is a smoother front end. I have a screw holding my right wrist together from a previous injury and it is suseptable to high frequency vibrations that leads to numbness and pain. As smooth as my VFR is, after a while my hand goes numb and I think it is from some barely perceived vibrations and I'm thinking the ceramic bearings may be a little smoother. I don't know if you have them, but an excellent cure/abatement of handlebar vibration are these: http://www.vibranator.com/product_p/s05-b02-r04-n02-m01-t150-brt.htm . I was skeptical but decided to try them, and believe me they really do work. And they're cheaper than the ceramic bearings, which I think are waaaaay overkill.

Thanks.

Well, I got the center from Thurn last week and finally got around to putting it on. Looks good, I think anyway.

These are pretty cool. I just ordered one for my '99.

That's absurd.

I use a K&N filter on the bike and am very happy with it. However I just replaced a K&N filter on my diesel truck which I bought used with the K&N already on it. Right after I bought it I cleaned and reoiled the filter. This spring I did the same again with about 10,000 miles on it. I used the K&N filter cleaner and really sprayed it down and washed it out good. When I got ready to reinstall I looked very closely into the folds and pleats and was amazed at all the crud that was still in there and couldn't be gotten out with more washing. I think if you get them too dirty you can't get down into the pleats and really get them clean again. Consequently I now clean my bike filter frequently and use a disposable on the truck. Just my experience, make of it what you will.

Looks good, if I didn't already have the Datel I would definitely be looking into this one.

When I first put my Hawke Oiler on it also dripped, but John sent out check valves at a later date that stopped the dripping. I no longer have that problem. You might check and make sure you got yours and it's put on in the correct direction.

When I put the Ohlins shock on my 5th gen at around 15,000 miles the difference was amazing. Peggy could feel the difference riding pillion.

Very cool, looks like something I'll have to tackle.

Excellent foresight, not everyone plans out their ride that far ahead. :fing02: But yeah, I'll think I'll stick to the generic, boring coat hangers.