Marvelicious

Were the counter people trying to convince you to wait for the OEM parts? I don't know about interchange with 8th gen, but my experience has been that it's a super easy job on both the bikes I own. A non-mechanical friend has done Pazzo and Puig levers on a couple of his bikes and had the same experience. His only complaint was that Puig took forever to ship the levers, but this was mid 2020, so Covid was a factor. Basically, if the company that makes the levers says they'll fit your bike, they probably will, or they wouldn't stay in business long (ebay mystery sellers excepted). Sorry to hear about the side-stand failure. Hell of a way to start a ride.

I definitely like the Pazzo shorties on my VFR. At the other extreme I recently tried a set of no-name ebay shorties on my 690 Duke, just out of curiosity, and they aren't quite as nice, but they're like 90% quality at 20% of the price. Fitment was easy in both cases. EASY. Like, pull the package out of the mailbox, walk into the garage and fit them in a matter of minutes...

My personal technique that seems to work well for me is a sparing application of oxguard on the terminals themselves. I also use some dielectric grease on the plastic bodies of the connector, but this is all a "little dab'll do ya," kind of job. I've also noticed something that looks suspiciously like oxguard in use on some of the higher current connectors in Toyotas I've owned. Take it for what its worth...

I had a scare a few years back with my car and a kid on a skateboard. Full dark, foggy, there were some of those super bright LED flood lights but they were pointed to blind rather than illuminate. Smallish teen skater kid, dressed in black, moving fast down the sidewalk. I never even saw him, but suddenly heard a loud thump under my car. Turned out to just be his skateboard... he jumped back off the deck, landed on his ass and the board went under my wheels. Talk about relief. I talked to him for a couple of minutes to make sure he was okay, but I think he was just terrified I'd find something wrong with my car to blame on him and obviously wanted to get out of there. I'll call it a win... I didn't kill anyone that day!

Yeah, the cops have really backed off on traffic enforcement, especially in cities like Portland... where there is more than Covid to consider (not to open that political can of worms - you can find enough ugly behavior on all sides of that fight to justify whatever opinion appeals to you). I generally don't commute on the bike (I often need to carry gear and associating my leisure activity with work just spoils it for me) so I don't ride much on major highways. Still, I've noticed it when driving the cage. I've got a longstanding tendency to set the cruise control at about 10 mph over. It seems to be the consistent limit where cops won't bother to pull you over. Lately, I'm getting passed like crazy. I drove past an Audi the other day that had decided to shorten their following distance to about 3 feet less than the Audi standard... i.e. 2 feet deep into the SUV they were following. Dead center too, no attempt to swerve. Looked like it had spoiled everyone's weekend, but it didn't appear that anyone was badly hurt.

This is like finding out someone you know is a furry... I don't have a problem with it, but don't expect me to understand!

I used racetech fork springs, f4i cartridges and Jamie's rear shock. It took a shit load of head scratching and a lot researching old posts to get the damping right on those cartridges and I feel like I got lucky to get what I did as quickly as I did. The two options as I see it are - spend money, or use a lot of time and maybe get lucky and not spend quite as much money. I wish I could give you better advice, but even the shortcut isn't cheap.

Mmmmmm... Trellis frame... Just something sexy about triangulated steel tube!

I've followed the Megasquirt project since its early days and it has come a LONG way. It's really an amazing piece of gear. I've occasionally considered using it in place of my 6th gen ecu/power commander to get full tune-ability, but then I come to my senses and realize I have a perfectly running bike and enough other projects to last 3 lifetimes. First: do no harm.

I'm having a difficult time picturing what you're talking about as well... Are you talking about the actual threaded nipple that the filter screws onto having a hex? Personally, I'm not particularly a fan of paying a premium to Honda for products that are identical to things I can get more conveniently for less money. Oil filters, fluids and the like... Do what you like... You certainly won't go wrong with OEM, but a little homework can save you money and time. As for K&N, let's just say their marketing department is a lot better than their R&D department!

I've got RaceTech springs in my forks. I used their recommended spring (for my weight on a VFR) with custom damping, and they feel excellent. Getting the spring right is the first piece in the puzzle, but you have to get the damping right as well. Of course, getting the front end right just highlighted the problems with the rear... I'm using one of Jamie's shocks on that end. It all works together and getting it right isn't cheap, but the end result was huge for me... I'm pretty big though, so the stock suspension was seriously out of its comfort zone.

I truly appreciate this kind of info. I'm pretty brand agnostic when it comes to parts. If it fits and works, it's the right part!

I do like those stands. A buddy and I both have those HF lifts and we both have the same problem: a long term project has more or less put down roots on them and various parts and other sundry have accumulated. They're a good lift for the money (at least for what I paid... they've gotten expensive since then), but that Skylift looks a lot more suited for normal maintenance tasks. I texted a link to my buddy as well and he's been sending me ABBA lyrics back for the last hour...

I'd be afraid of having "Dancing Queen" stuck in my head while trying to do maintenance.