JoelF

Removing the upper cowl and mirrors rather than the lowers? Sounds... harder.

I'm indifferent to the linked brakes, they are complicated but functionally they are kinda nice for street riding. If I had a problem with my linked brakes I'd fix it rather than properly de-link as I think to do it properly would be a large undertaking. Plus these are old bikes and there are tons of cheap used parts out there to fix any aspect of this system. Getting new fluid into all the far reaches is the hard part of the linked brakes and I suppose things get stuck due to the lack of this maintenance. You might want to take apart and clean both the stuck one and the ebay valve and install whichever one is the least sketch.

How pooched is the front sprocket?

Nice purchase. Rather than a higher seat I run lowered pegs, Buell pegs. They need to be belt sanded at the mount to fit but other than that they are fine. Around $50/pair. I also have a bar conversion on my bike for a more upright position. There are some clip-on options to address this as well, I have a couple I tried before putting the bars on (I should get these up for sale).

Mine had a newer stock unit in place when I bought the bike and after reading the forums I decided to change it before it failed again. I found a Chinese knock-off FH020AA for cheap from a USA seller with a good rep and who had sold loads and loads of them. I figured they must work or the seller would have a list of complaints as long as my arm. Well it lasted one ride to work, or part of one, and shorted internally, got really hot, dragged the voltage down. The bike still ran and while riding made enough voltage to get home and the knock-off reg didn't melt anything. I got a partial refund since I kept the (acceptable quality) harness and bought a used FZ-07 regulator off ebay and that's worked well. Just swapped for the shunted regulator, nothing rewired. I wired the replacement to the bike's harness with an old regulator harness but I also added an extra ground to the frame local to the regulator and an extra fused power straight to the battery. I also added a fused trickle charger SAE plug to the bike at the same time. There is one small wire in the OEM harness I forget what you need to do with (ground or no connection?) the rest are 3 obvious AC inputs and power or ground outputs. The new regulator is bolted where the old one was (had to drill one hole I think) and runs cool with no fan or anything. All's well many miles later. Lots of newer bikes have these better voltage regulators and used ones are $30-ish on Ebay. A wiring harness should be available there as well for a few bucks. Cheers, -Joel.

Check the airbox for a mouse nest.

My 2000 is the same but I do not know if it's a CA model or not.

Hmm, I agree that it's dumb but my dead-stock 2001 Ducati Monster 900S cannot be started or run with the sidestand down and I am pretty sure it'll try to start in gear with the clutch out. The former is absolutely intended from the factory, the latter might be my clutch switch if it ever had one. I cannot warm up the bike on the sidestand due to this arrangement. An even worse situation, some Ducatis came with spring loaded auto-retracting sidestands. I could bypass the Ducati sidestand safety but I would prefer an arrangement where it'll not run with the sidestand down and the bike in gear so I tolerate the sidestand safety. At home I have a rear wheel stand handy so it's not a big deal.

Some countries have different rules regarding sidestands I think. There could be a version for Oz that supposed to be like that.

I went down a tooth in front (6th gen stock front sprocket) because I have to do a lot of low-speed maneuvering around home and work. I think I prefer this gearing though I have not done any long highway trips with it. The speedo / odo are off a fair bit now. When this setup is worn out I might consider going back to stock and just abusing the clutch a bit more, or getting a speedo healer. If I wanted this gearing again I'd re-create it with a larger rear sprocket and stock front sprocket, and longer chain. Everything would last longer. Stock chain is 530, I do not think it's worth losing some width in the sprocket bearing surfaces to go to a narrower kit.

Does the tach move when you crank it?

Regarding oil filters, you can run auto oil filters, good quality for $4 or so. Mazda Miata fitment works. WalMart SuperTech ST6607 ; supposed to be pretty good. Might be what's on my VFR right now. It still runs. Motorcraft FL-821 ; I have run dozens of Motorcraft filters with no issues. Purolator Pure One L14620 ; I have run many Purolators as well on my 944s and 968s.

You can trim the H4s to fit the oddball bulb socket. I'll be curious to hear how the Volar chain holds up, I read some reviews of uneven wear but some that said it was fine.

IMO if the chain is maintained decently the main issue is the front sprocket wearing out, and letting a worn out front sprocket eat the chain is just throwing away money. Plus labor. Changing the whole set for peace of mind is fine if you like, or if you allow the whole system to wear out that's what you need to do. But it may be smarter to replace the worn out element first and save the rest, get 50% more life out of the system at a modest cost. The idea of the set wearing together is clearly not true if you measure and see how much the front sprocket wears vs the other two components. However for sure if you let the front completely go it will take the rest of the system with it so it eventually becomes true. However this is at the cost of letting the smallest and lowest-priced element of the system destroy the more expensive elements. If you have 10-15K on your chain and sprockets maybe just the front is worn out. Why ride a bike with a worn out component in the driveline? I've also changed the gearing on both my bikes, on my Ducati several times and without changing the whole set; just the front, just the rear. No problems.

I sometimes get away with doing a front sprocket and chain if the rear is not too bad off but if the current parts are original they are probably long gone. You can measure the chain for "stretch" (more like wear/slop in the pins) and check sprocket wear with some small 1/4" sockets, see how large a socket will fit in between the teeth with 1mm relief in the gutter. I have a near-new sprocket from another bike I can compare. A new chain on worn sprockets will wear in pretty quick and wear out pretty quick if the sprockets are too pooched. It's a waste of time and money if one or both sprockets are too worn but maybe worth doing, maybe also with a front, if the rear is decent. Also sometimes a whole low-mile setup can be found from a wrecked bike on ebay for pretty small money. If cost is not a big concern just replace all three, otherwise I can try to help you measure what you have. -Joel.