Sparticus

Not when you are 84 miles from home and it's just started to snow...

I think it depends a lot on your size, weight, whether you have a beer gut, how you sit... I do regular 1000 mile weeks and if the bike wasn't comfy I'd get rid. It has bar risers, I've adjusted the seat height to suit me, it has a double bubble screen on it too so I can sit quite comfy at 50mph with my visor up. But whilst I'm no racing snake, I find it a better proposition comfort wise than my Vtec.

I have to say, in falling snow the headlights are completely useless. All you get is glare. And of course you can't turn them off...

I fitted some "Amazing special" things that cost about £20 a set, they luckily align with the "spare" handle bar mirror tapped hole on the master cylinders. But I had to nick the bar weights off my VFR Vtec which are about 1/4 inch longer to get the end cover to expand enough to clear the clutch lever. I ride to the centre of London and back every day, about 84 miles each way and even at -5 last week, with these on and the heated grips set at 3, plus my heated KEIS vest and the usual Dianese over suit I was more than warm enough, could have done with some lip balm maybe, but as has been said, it's about clothing for the occasion. Normally cruise at 6,000 rpm. (although the rev counter might be out a bit?) I also get 55mpg at that speed, not that mpg matters, I run a Jaguar S type 4.0 as well, don't worry too much about the cost of fuel after a week in that... I do confess I need a "comfort break" at about 60 miles, but I do drink too much before I set out at 05:00 every morning... Pretty sure the deflectors do a good job of keeping the cold off the back of my gloves though, heated grips are fine for the palm, don't do anything for the icy wind running over the back of your hand, and for a 61 year old I guess I have pretty good circulation because all I ever get is a loss of feeling to my index finger after about 60 miles. Occasional cold feet too, but has to be wet as well as cold for that to happen. Yes, can thoroughly recommend some kind of wind deflector "bark Buster" type fitting. My biggest problem is that because I ride a bike every day, it's not such a "weekend toy" any more. In fact I just replaced the standard rear shock with a Maxton unit because the standard fit thing was losing it's ability to keep me and the seat connected quite rapidly. I was getting quite a lot of "traction control" activation and I don't ride with a "Today I might die" type of style. 20,000 miles... Next will be the forks I think.

Have the same issue with mine too. My old Vtec I could ride it almost as quickly at night as I could by day, but these "wide flat" beam things leave you guessing on country lanes as soon as you start to lean the bike over. I ride all year, it's just something I'll have to get used to I guess.

The wheely... Definitely not the right bike for it. Now. My Firestorm? That would wheely off anything.... Surprised I ever managed to wear a front tyre out.

I had mine apart last week to do the oil service, the exhaust is also shaped that way to get the old oil filter out... There's naff all room for it to come out from the front in the same way as the old Vtec, so that exhaust has clearly had a lot of thought put into it, to clear the rad and allow space to get the filter out. And back in obviously. So I'd suggest any "mod" would probably need to follow the same basic dimensions? If you take both sides of the fairing off, it's much easier, but as it is you only need to drop the Gear change side off to get to the filter. Also fited my quick shifter at the same time so it made sense to give it another mid "oil change service interval" oil change...

With CBS, as my MOT examiner showed me, it's possible to lock the front wheel in the rollers using only the rear brake, that's actually quite a lot of braking force. I've kind of re-trained myself to use both brakes again now instead of letting the CBS do it for me, I guess I just got used to having that option. Absolutely agree, changing brake fluid is a challenge though, three calipers, two master cylinders, four slaves and a PCV...

It's kind of one of those things you get used to, I've had Honda's with CBS since the last century, VFR's, CBR 1000's, Blackbirds etc. and I got used to being able to stop the bike with minimal fork dive using the rear brake only if the fancy took me. Because I still ride a Vtec with it on, when I get on my G8 I really think the brakes are naff.... Much more fork dive, doesn't "pull itself" into the road when you clamp both ends on, in fact the rear brake seems to do SFA. I also ran bikes with "normal" brakes as well, an SP1, the odd Firestorm, so it's not that I don't know how to ride with a bike that will only really stop on the front brake, it's just that Honda spent so long getting C-ABS to work right I wonder why they removed it. It's also not that I abuse my brakes, I changed the pads on my Vtec at 30,000 miles, I'm already well into the 2nd set on the front of my G8 at 17,000 miles. Probably removed it to save weight and money no doubt.

But he isn't making his "Thumb Stronger". It's locked horizontally, if he was closing the plate by flexing his thumb, that would be different. All he is doing is, well I dunno. But it's not making his thumb stronger...

I didn't have that quandary or need to rationalise. I simply don't like the noise IL4's make. And I've never ridden one yet that doesn't send a "buzz" through the bars that makes my aging joints ache. And frankly, at 61 years old I don't think I'd be able to get off it after an 80 mile commute.... But I can see the attraction, having ridden one, biggest issue I had was remembering that the engine is pretty gutless until 8,000 rpm. The times I have my Vif at 8000 rpm are very few and far between. But it's your money, your choice isn't it. TBH the only thing I don't like about my 8th gen is that Honda fpor some reason removed the CBS.

Whats the thinking behind going to a 520 chain anyway? Lighter?

Yup. Just separate the pipe where it goes into the bottom of the tank, plug the pipe that leads to the canister and run a separate breather pipe from the bottom of the tank to somewhere under the bike. That's all that I have done, and if anything the bike runs better now.

Ah. You have to take into account that US gallons are about 1/2 a litre SMALLER than European gallons. So you really have to look at the litres value to get a real read on it as Litres are the same all over the world.

Always said 100bhp is enough if you know what you are doing.