StuntManDan

I like it!, I just wish it was cheaper. I love the look or real carbon fiber, it screams quality, beauty and performance all at the same time. I really don't like the fake carbon fiber vinyl but the practical side of my brain is saying "it's already overweight for a sport bike...your overweight, I can't let you spend $500 to save a 1lb on your motorcycle, go on diet if you want your bike to be lighter" - the practical side of my brain is a bully, and is probably the reason I bought a VFR in the fist place.

Ouch! :laugh: So the key is not to crash. Check. :unsure: :fing02: I still think Ill leave it off. I saw one for sale made out of carbon fiber once. If anyone knows where I can get one Ill put it back. For me it is just WAY too much plastic on the back of the bike. Its a motorcycle not a snap together Revell Model. On the note why is it soooooooooo freaking hard to get any parts for the VFR made out of carbon fiber? Are there any carbon masters out there that can make me some parts? I know it won't add any speed I just like the look. And foe-carbon doesn't cut it. I'm in the process of making custom parts for the VFR and other bikes. What you ask?? :laugh: :fing02: :blush: Cant tell you right now but as soon as I'm done Ill post. I want CF parts too, but have had the same crappy luck finding them. I actually started looking into how to make them myself. I think I'm going to try some CF vinyl wrap first, then after that doesn't give me the results I want maybe it'll motivate me to learn how to make them. If you've ever seen the special "the birth of a racer" on discovery, they show CF parts being made, it doesn't look all that difficult and actually looks easier to work with than fiberglass. i think the difference is that fiberglass you can sand and straighten, and CF you have to get it right the first time, oh and screw ups are $$$.

I remember reading a forum that most said a sprocket change was the best bang for the buck. I'm thinking about doing a -1, +2 change this winter, I heard you can keep the stock chain with that, and costs about $100 I'm also sending my rims out for chroming (don't blast me, it's my shiny red bike, lol), and I think I'm going to send my gauge cluster to bluegauges.com, for $60 they change the back lighting to just about any color you want. I'm in the 170-200lb category, yea I go up and down 30lbs every year, so suspension upgrade also interests me, but also confuses and scares the crap out of me, I changed the fork oil on a V-Star650 once and what a PITA.

Chemical dipping is the most civilised way to strip the wheels, and the finished wheel looks nice enough to just clear-coat and leave as is. Try a high-end car restoration outfit, they usually have access to chemical dipping. As for chrome, not to my taste but nickel plating is very similar in finish and cost, but looks nicer - has a golden hue to it rather than the flat tone of chrome. It's also safer; unless you really know your stuff you can weaken alloy by chroming it. Ok if I get them dipped to strip off the paint and not use a scraper will get a shiny finish? will I not have to polish the metal with compounds? I was also thinking about getting them polished and then gold anodized, give them that titanium look. I have a red '07 so gold or chrome would look good IMO. I also thought the nickle plating was more for show bikes and not very durable, anyone have any input on that?

I'm planning on sending my wheels out for chroming i've looked around and i"m thinking it'll be around 500-750, when it's all said and done. I though of going the polishing route but I'm thinking 8hrs or more of labor and about $100 in supplies? does that sound about right for those that have done it? I'm just too scared of screwing it up spending 8hrs and $100 and still end up sending them out.

And then you go on and say "I want to do HID install on my bike"? HID conversion kits are crap. All of them. Not only on the physical level but on the design level as well. There are good reasons for this, one of which is that they are illegal in every half-way civilised country on the planet. So they are all cranked out in Chinese factories as fast as they can stuff them into boxes and into dodgy eBay and other fly-by-night sales channels. You may as well get it as cheap as you can, because there's no expectation of quality and the only guarantee is that your seller won't be there tomorrow. It's essentially a black market. And there are good reasons for that, too. Automotive lighting engineers may not be rocket scientists, but there are some things that are pretty obvious if you approach them with a degree of skepticism. You simply cannot achieve a better quality of light output by stuffing 3x the light into a headlight housing designed for 1/3 of that. Utterly impossible. You can (and will) get more light, but it won't be quality light, and it won't be where you necessarily want it. It will be more light than you really need, but also too much light where you don't want too much light. In other words, it is a DOWNgrade, not an upgrade. But it takes a while for most people to realise this, because HID is so damn mesmerising. (I, uh, have HID conversions on two of my bikes... :laugh: ...but not for long!) I could go on and on, too, and I will...because I don't know mercy! :fing02: Ciao, WTFarkles?... my brain hurts, I took pics and posted them it's pretty obvious the light pattern is still perfect, maybe cause i used a 10k kit which is only 2x the amount of light, I was a little concerned when I read the 6k bulbs are 3x the amount of light. I think i'm going to use some mirror chorme red tint on my headlights, it'll knock down the light by 35% almost bringing me back to stock brightness and i think it will look cool when parked. another added bonus of going HID is saving 30watts of power, leaving more power for my newest add-on; a bar-end mount deep fryer for making chicken nuggets and french fries on the go, it should balance out the other bar-end mount popcorn maker, which is currently making my bike drift to the right.

I put mine inside the inner fairing's, it's snug (nice, not PITA) and out of the way. the slim ballast usually have threaded ears for 3 screws, i think they were 6mm, i just drilled 3 clearance holes and bought some screws, the 2 sided tape they give you i also used but it's more of a secondary mounting system, I wouldn't trust it over the bumps.

with my HID's I really can't tell any benefit of using my standard halogen high beams, they don't add much since the HID's are so intense. I think I'll use the high beam circuit to power one of those electric superchargers... ...J/K. UGG 38 deg. this morning, too cold for me, I need to make a lexan bubble and a heater system.

You sure about the name, couldn't find them on ebay. Normally, I avoid those who change little for product but a lot for shipping since it limits any refunds or returns to the purchase price, which is why they do this. The cost should be $39.00 and the shipping $9.00 dollars. They way they do it any return or refund would be $9.00 (the purchase price). That being said, if you had good luck with them, I'd like the name. I always thought they did that to reduce the Ebay charges, I guess it's a double win for them. lately Ebay hasn't been the super saver it was in the past. i regularly find stuff cheaper on online stores when I'm looking for something specific and special. Anyway here are the pics at distances in my driveway. Take into account that my driveway slopes to the street, at 40ft away it's about 2ft lower. Each panel on my garage is 2ft high. This was taken at 10ft away This was taken at about 20ft, keep in mind that the light pattern would be about 1ft lower. This was taken at about 40ft, again this would be about 2ft lower if the ground was perfectly level. I think the most important thing is that the pattern is even and that they're no spikes in the pattern. On the kit that I bought, the bulbs came with a blinder on them to block the bulbs light output from the bottom of the headlight assembly, this is important because the light from the bottom is projected up, and gives a highbeam effect. when I did all my hunting on the internet the slim ballasts all look the same and are probably made in the same factory in china. I did notice a difference in the bulbs, wether they had a blinder and how the blinder was shaped, was the only real variable. I would imagine that since the slim ballast are solid state; if you get a set that works at the beginning they'll last forever, but I would also assume that they have a high defective rate from the factory given their low cost, keep that in mind when picking a seller.

Can you also take pictures against a wall in the dark progressively getting farther away? I'm curious what the cutoff/glare is like with the reflector housing. Here's some pic's in my garage, it's really windy outside and when I took these it was raining, now it's still windy and too sunny. I'll try to get some pic's tonight if the wind dies down. I mounted the slim ballasts in the inner fenders. because they use H4 bulbs instead of 9006's the bulbs have spade connections which make the wiring a little messy and a pain because of the space constrains. here's a link to the company I bought my kit from, when I got the kit it had a defective ballast, they were very helpful with some troubleshooting before I sent the one back, I think I mailed it back to them on a Monday and got the replacement on Thursday, same day turnaround since I live in ohio and they're in Florida. it's been installed for 5mo's without any problems. I would by from them again, in fact I'm seriously thinking of getting another kit for my Caravan. http://www.xerayusa.com/hid/hidkit-10000k.php

I've got 10k installed on my bike I'll take some pics, the blue light looks sweet and it's about 2x as bright as before. make sure you get a kit with slim ballast, their solid state and can handle more vibration and shock. I'll take some pics with it lined up with my wife's sv650sfr. the light broadcast is the same even pattern as oem but they are brighter, and as a result more annoying to others. the advantage is they run at lower wattage 35w vs 55w, are more reliable because they don't have a filament, and i don't think I'll ever have a need to use my high beams again.