StormShadow3

im doing ok i guess. taking life one foot step at a time. unforunetly, this is my 2nd divorce in my life time, im now 40 years old. i have riden bikes my entire life, so thats my therapy, tinkering, and riding. i think my bike letting me down hurt more than my wife letting me down. just having fun in the garage rebuilding the cbr1100xx, going over her. i think ill stick in a fh20aa into her straight away. as above, im well aware of hondas shit plugs and corosion, and every service i go over every plug, disconnect, clean with contact spray, and re apply dialectic greese. ive done this for 20 + years on many bikes. and i have to say the only problem ive had was with the 2011 vfr800. and more so random electrical faults since i low sided it after hitting a roo, 2 years before. i had replaced a fair few plugs and fuse sockets and a new oem stator, oem regulator went over all teh loom and could never find a fault. yet i had regular melted fuses, not blown, just insulation melted, on the main fuse, even with teh vfrness i had installed. i even had the starter relay melt on me. i had multi meters, and onboard voltage guages, just never found out the problem.

i do remember that scene and always wonder what path he took.

yes insurance paid me out a few weeks ago, didnt get what the bike was worth to me, i was toying up the idea of a vfr1200, or a gen 8 vfr800 but the insurance just didnt pay me enough money, and decided not to get a bike loan at this stage, but i ended up finding low km immaculate a limited matt black 2004 cbr1100xx that i had always wanted, so got it for a good price. i still have a 1998 vfr800 gen 5 i rebuild for the track in the garage.

i had never thought of that

[MEDIA=youtube]nW_ldJtdrME[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=youtube]1geV9PeSkMg[/MEDIA] one of my long trips ended in disaster and the loss of my beloved stormshadow vfr that i had brought brand new in 2011, and put about 10k into modifications over the years my self, after a surprize seperation from my wife of 19 years, not by my choice, i found my self alone a week later in a small 1 bedroom apartment, i was loanly and decided to do something spontanious, it was snowing in all the usual mountains i ride, so thought why not go west inland into the middle of australia. i took 2 weeks off work, jumped on my 2011 vfr800 the next day, threw my camping gear on. i didnt have much preperation. ive done many of these trips, so have all the gear, even have a stock pile of 24 hour ration packs from outback cuisine i loaded up with. first day i rode south to Yass, where i couldnt find the MyASS sign its famous for. then to the dog on a tucker box which was recently vantalised, but had been just restored. the 2nd night i got to wagga wagga where i found a nice little camp ground thanks to wiki camps. this has saved me so much and always discover something new. i passed by griffith, a town, some 20 years earlier, i was posted to when i first joined the armed services. i found this air irigation tower, to get the smell out of the boar water in town, i had taken a photo of with my bikes at the time still there. i took this photo in 2001, rode along the sturt highway, now into desert country, hot and straight flat roads now, camping at mildura at this nice little river. although the road to get in was a bull dust road, so soft and slippery. as i rode from mildura to broken hill, theirs a 320km stretch, i was told there was a road house with fuel half way along, so didnt need to take any fuel cans as my range is about 280km on the vfr. of course i got to the roadhouse, and their pumps were broken. a passing caravanner sold me 10l of petrol to get me by. there were lots of feral goats, that were smart and ran off the road. the odd Emu and Kangaroo. but otherwise, very remote, in the high 30s temp wise. see the odd 3 trailer road train and a few caravans plodding along. not much out there at all. i did find this tree, covered in bra's in the middle of no where. night 3 onto broken hill. and then onto a town called silverton, where they filmed mad max 2. stayed at the silverton pub for the night, as i needed a shower, the next day, to the mad max 2 museam. apsolutly great. unfortunately the bike wouldnt start, i had 12v, but no charging, madmax him self, helped charge my battery up, and it was enough to ride back into broken hill. i went to the only bike shop in town, to be told our mechanic is on holidays, why dont you freight it back to sydney. so i unloaded, and found a cheap motel for the night. as i was looking around for freight companys, i was approached by a little dirtbike shop who said they could fix it. they gave me a little cb125 loan bike, so i checked out the town and surrounds, they air freighted in the parts, which unfortunetly, took 5 days as i stayed in the motel. they put in a lead acid battery, a electro sport stator, and a new r6 regulator kit. as i needed to get back to work, as it was almost 2 weeks now. i wanted to go. so i left late in the after noon. . 3 hours later, the dash went blank, i pulled over, and then smoke billowed out from under the seat where the battery was, and eventually fire came out from under the seat. i used every bit of water i had, but in a desert with nothing to stop the fire. i had to step back and watch it burn. about 30 minutes after it started, a guy passed by, who didnt have a fire extinguisher, but could call the 000, unfortunetly, it was a 3 hour drive for the firebrigade, and they said they wouldnt come as nothing out there could burn. the guy, luckily for me owned the white cliffs hotel. and said he could take me there and i could get a room for the night. loaded up my panniers and top box, and tank bag. and off we went. the next day one of his staff members was heading back to broken hill air port, so took me there. i hopped on a plane and flew out. at a very expencive rate. life is full of adventures, they say bad luck comes in threes. when i came back home i discovered my electricity to my unit had been shut off, even though i had arranged to get an account with AGL - energex said there was no account listed and disconnected it. turns out, a hand written didget was written wrong on my meter. so they didnt corespond.

can i buy a cbr600f4 shock, then add a different spring i see the vfr spring wont fit on it, but will another oem, like a spring from a cbr929 or cbr1100xx. or do i have to buy a after market spring from ohlins or penski etc?

thanks for the write up, i just followed it, appart from thinking the bolts on the stator were torx for some reason, it all went smoothly on my 2011 vtec 800 battery was a bit flat so took a little while to reach 14.5v