SereniTTy

I see your point, though I'm not terribly worried. I really only replaced my previous front to keep matched tires. It was 5 years old, had 9800 miles on it, but didn't really show any wear. So I'm not too worried about wearing the new one out quickly. I wish I had the time to get more wear on the sides of my tires...

I've never had a grip issue with the Z6's, but obviously since I got 9800 miles out of them I really didn't push them that hard... So I can't say that I really like the extra grip the Pilots give me because I'll probably never get near that edge. There was no point in getting the PP2CT up front instead of the regular PP, but the price differnence was like $4, so I figured what the heck. The change in size in the rear and the change in profile up front has sure made a big difference though... I'll have to hit the on and off ramps harder so that I can have SOME fun while burning the center rubber off the tires. Pity there isn't a good backroad route to work...

In the 9800 miles that I have owned my VFR I have been riding on the Metzler Roadtec Z6's that were installed on the bike by the shop that I bought it from. I never thought the tires were bad, and to be honest, 9800 miles seems pretty good to me. I hadn't even hit cord, though I had one nice flat spot across the rear tire. But the shop that sold me the bike had put a 190/50 on the rear and this whole time I've been wondering how the bike would behave with a 180/55. Well, I had a 180/55 PR2 installed on the rear and a 120/70 PP2CT installed on the front yesterday and took it for a ride this morning. In the words of George Takei, "Oh Myyy". The change is impressive. The bike just falls into turns and seems happy there. The old tires felt like "ok, if we have to" with regards to turn in, the new ones scream "let's go!". So if I don't get almost 10,000 miles out of the pilot power/ pilot road combo I really don't care. Sadly 99% of my riding is highway, since all I really ride is commuting to work. After the fun I had this morning I may have to take up riding for pleasure again. Sad that I ride about 120 days a year and today was the first time this year I took the bike out "for fun". Sigh.

I just had new tires mounted by Honda of Crofton, $28.50 per tire and they will mount tires you bring in. They even installed the valves that I brought in.

Do you have to remove the exhaust or anything like that ? I did not have to remove the exhaust. Getting the stock shock out was MUCH more difficult than getting the F4i in. The trick (as I remember) with the F4i was figuring out how to feed the remote reservoir though first as I twisted the shock into place. I left my shock set at full soft, and with my JD set spring, my sag was pretty much perfect. I agree that it would be easier to start a 3 and back off if needed than to try to go up later if needed. Don't forget your stack of washers to set your ride height....

I'm looking forward to trying the 180/55 in the rear myself. I bought my bike with about 5800 miles on it at the local BMW dealer, they had put new Metzler Z6's on it, but used a 190/50 on the rear. I thinking that a Pilot power front and PR2 rear in 180/55 is going to make noticeable difference in how the bike handles. I'm 7000 miles in on the Z6's, maybe by the end of this season...

Any thoughts on sanity aside, as long as the lines are coated on the outside of the steel I would agree. But I have had uncoated lines before and blew the line out. It's pretty easy for regular suspension motion (this was a car) to nick the stainless, and the teflon liner can't hold pressure at all. I hit the brakes hard for a Semi that was coming into my lane and the line blew out. Not fun. Also, it goes the other way too. I've had braided oil lines cut through my power steering hard line. Exposed stainless braid can cut as well as be cut. So get coated lines if you are getting them. The Galfer lines I used on my VFR in my F4i fork/caliper conversion are nicely coated...

-2002 Kawasaki Mean Streak 1500 -2005 Kawasaki Ninja 250

I'm curious as to what kind of testing you did to determine this. Where did you even get wet owl snot to compare to?

Twice, Givi E21's for a previous bike and a Givi 3 lock set for the current bike.. I was happy both times.

pWon't work on '06 and newer because the single filament bulb in front is both the turn signal and the running light. That's what I was concerned about. So if I tap into the rear turn signals with a parallel circuit for my add-on LED's I'm going to mess up my turn signal rate? I've found all kinds of conflicting information by searching. Custom Dynamics says you don't need a load equalizer if you are adding LED turn signals, but you do if you are replacing your turn signals with LED's. I can see how wiring LED's in parallel is going to drop the load on the circuit, but wiring them in series will dim the regular bulbs (I think). Oh well, the parts are already shipped. I'll wire them up and see what happens. The LED strips I put in my top case for running lights and brake lights turned out really well. I think turn signals would make a nice add on...

If you are just adding led's as turn signal flashers and keeping the stock turn signals, do you need a load resistor? I'm assuming that you would just tap into the rear turn signals in parallel. Are the rear turn signal's running on common ground? I just added LED running lights and brake lights to my Givi E450 top box, and I left space to put some LED's in for turn signals. I'm using the waterproof strip LED's from superbrightleds.com. The running lights installed just fine, and the extra brake lights are tied into the brake light flasher that I already had and are working nicely. I'm just a little unsure about installing the turn signals. Thanks, Dan

I checked the local shop... $1,300.00. Nothing else I could find local. There's a place in MD that will shoot a one color for $600.00 minimum (he shoots PPG paints); but it's 6 weeks for him to get to it. I was going to save the $600 and do it, but for a quarter of that, I could be done next weekend.. Where is that place in MD? Sounds like a good winter project...

I had the perforated pants. Just sold them on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I replaced them with Vanson pants. SO. I had a set of size 38 pants, I normally wear a 36-32 jean. The 38's were skin tight, with the hip padding in, I could barely close them. Pretty comfortable once on though, and my wife liked how they looked. Admittedly track pants are supposed to be tight. They weren't bad, the knee armor always bothered me, I'd have to shift it around after getting my feet up on the pegs (pretty much every time). The leather is fine, though nothing like the vanson leather when it comes to thickness. Maybe if I had the size 40 I would have liked them more, I'm not sure. The wrinkle leather at the back for bending over worked well. I had sewn in a Joe Rocket zipper into my vanson jacket, and that worked out pretty well. Dan

Not sure I can claim the inventor on this either...I really just assembled it. You can order the parts to make your own from www.headway-headquarters.com. Requires 4 cells, 3 buss bars, 4 holders ($134.74 with shipping). Also required is the 8 gauge Powerpole connectors (requires a set of 2). I also used 4 of the 8 gauge copper lugs with 1/4" hole and 8 gauge wire. The plexiglass on the end was for my own piece of mind, especially as I was working with this on my cluttered workbench and didn't want to short it out. This can be built for a total of about $150 I would guess, plus your labor to build it (actually pretty easy, other than the Powerpole crimping/heat shrink part which isn't hard). LiFePO4 stands for "Lithium iron phosphate" You used the H-38120S cells, correct? Thanks

I haven't' tried heated grips, actually I haven't tried my heated gloves yet, Gerbing was out of hard mount controllers when you buy in April. Anyway, riding to work in 25°F weather, my only issue has been my fingers. It's nice that heated grips are always there, but they won't do much for my fingers. So I went with the gloves.

I had a driver in front of me flick a cigarette out which went right into my engine compartment and lodged in the insulation under the hood. Which then caught on fire. I was not amused.

I can vouch for this. I had jamie rebuild an f4i shock for me first, then he did a set of F4i forks. So I had the shock mounted for 1-2 months before I got the forks on. Just replacing the shock with a correctly sprung/valved setup was a world of improvement (I'm about 215#'s). Then when i did the forks/brakes later, that was another nice step up. But just the shock first was a big improvement and nothing felt weird about it.

Those look like the ones I installed. I could not get them to tighten up enough. The wind alone was enough to make the mirrors move as I rode. I could not keep them in adjustment and ended up with a set of EMGO stock replacement mirrors.

I have enjoyed my set, definitely an improvement over stock. Having said that, at 6'2" with the Sargent seat (about 1/2" higher than stock) I still felt that they were not quite enough. This past weekend I installed the LSL superbike bars. They are considerably more complicated to install (the throttle cable rerouting was a PITA), but feel like they will be a second big improvement. Of course with 6" of snow on the ground, I can't test them on the road yet. Heli bar install wasn't bad. Trimming the tabs on the clutch and brake is easy if you have a dremel tool with a cut off wheel. If you are careful with the wrench, you can move the lines without needing to bleed them. The most difficult part is getting the bar weights out of the stock bars. This also means that I have a set of Heli-bars available now...

I would be in for one.

I have a 5th Gen cap that my dealer gave me when I bought my bike. They had the cap made so there is someone out there who will embroider a 5th gen on the front of a ball cap. Now admittedly they sold me a 6th gen and it was a BMW dealer. They carry the caps for BMW models on their shelves, but when they sold me a used Honda, they had a VFR cap made for me to go with it. Bob's BMW is known for their service.