hawglet

The little bit of plastic welding I've done I smear on a good layer of ABS glue (from your local plumbing dept.) just to give piece of mind. That stuff holds forever, actually I have more confidence in it than my plastic welding but....

Glad to hear you're okay after this terrible situation. We just layed to rest a good friend and fellow rider after hitting a semi head on in a nissan frontier while he was texting. If only he would have rode the bike that day he wouldn't have been texting. I've been guilty of doing it from time to time but after that incident i'm done with it. Texting is killing more people than drunk driving yet there are people texting constantly. Hope everyone comes through it okay and with the lesson on texting while driving is bad news.

Edit: For informational purposes, I'm not 40, not quite 30 and I only have about 10 years on two wheels.

voted Shark although I ma have AGV had it been an option. After the theft of a Shark I bought an AGV to replace which was about $200 less than the Shark that I would have bought. Have had it out of town yet but it fits great, is plush (enough), reasonably quite (as near as I can tell under 50mph) and reasonably cool in town of warm to hot days. I think I found the good balance that fits my head finally!

I can vouch for a quality product at least on the Motocentric bag. My Dad got a set of the crusier bags, nice, esp. considering the price. Seemed as though they were well thought out and held thier shape well. He was used to the look of his old saggy leather bags which were slightly larger and in turn returned the Motocentrics against my recommendation of seeing if he'd get used to the look of them as they would be much better than the old ones. They had several smaller pockets in addition to the main compartment vs. his leather bags only have the main compartment, all the small stuff rattles to the bottom and collects underneath the larger items.

Plastic welded the blinker holes closed, filled pin holes with a plastic welding epoxy and sanded smooth. Added Darth mirrors, and Radar sliders. Now to find somebody to sand and buff it out, I just don't have the time to commit after finding out that we have a baby on the way. Our house has the original 1940s windows and the baby room needs new ones along with some insulation in the walls. Added Progrip 719 right after these pictures.

I ordered an AGV K3 today. We'll see. This winter I'll probably order a new Shark but I want to see what models they bring out in the States next year first. I actually printed off the lowest price I could find online, took that into my local Honda dealer and he beat it by 10% on both the helmet and tinted shield. I like keeping my money local whenever possible but the economics have to be there too, if they are close, I do it but if it means spending significantly more than on the net, I'll order it myself. If they have it in stock and I can have it today that's a little different but.... Today's deal was great, best of both worlds and I'll get it in 2 days.

Is there a Cycle Gear in your area as they offer a great helmet return program.

Closest one is in Lenexa, KS which is about 5 plus hours away. I've actually never been in a Cycle Gear store and to make that worse, I didn't even know they existed. I just thought they were strictly mail/internet order. I'll have to stop in there next time I'm down in KC metro area.

So this far I'm thinking I might get an AGV K3 now and maybe a Shark RSR2 later this year or this winter maybe. However, anybody have any experience with the K3?

I really liked my Shark but I've got too many things going to put out that money without expecting to do it in the first place. Plus Shark has several new helmets in Euro. that will be stateside next year such as the Vision-R.

Just want to be sure the K3 is reasonably quiet and vents fair. From what I've read it's not bad on venting but haven't read too much on the noise levels. I did check out Web Bike but I like to have more than one opinion in these matters.

You'd probably fit in an AGV.

how are the modern AGV helmets for venting and noise?

Since my Shark got stolen last week I've been searching helmets. I wouldn't be opposed to buying another RSI but I don't care for this years paint schemes too much, plus there has to be something else out there. I'm looking at the $350 price as the higher end but cheaper the better. I really liked the fit of the RSI, nearly perfect for my head, which is oval/egg shaped, common euro head type. My attribute priority list would look something like this (high to low): quiet, vented well, stable, plush interior, light, and lastly graphics. I don't know why the dealers won't let you leave a credit card with them and test ride a helmet for 3-5 minutes. Even a small charge for this service would be okay. At least a guy good get a good personal evaluation of a helmet that way. Suggestions of helmet please, I really need to order one soon, like hopefully this week.

I live in Nebraska so it's hot, humid, or both most days of the season and often windy, which contributes to higher noise levels too. The helmets I've owned and thought about them below:

Icon Alliance (1st edition)- rough interior, loud, poor venting, fit head okay, poor stability

Shark RSI-nice interior, low-ish noise, fair venting, fit head great, nice stability

KBC VR1- moderate interior, moderate noise, moderate venting, fit head well, reasonably stable

Old AGV unknown mdl- dont remember much

Old Bell unknown mdl- dont remember much

I'm not going to be a lot of help, but I do know that our local Honda shop/dealer can make cables for fit nearly all bikes, they have tons of different ends they can put on (guessing about 15). You might check with your local shops, I'm sure the bigger one are all capable. q

UPDATE:

And here it is next to my F-250 Super Duty:

I'm not really sure why but I find this pic hilarious. Nice build thread though too, missed it during the run but was cool to check out now.

What are the reprucutions of these new tech batties on a reg/rect. that already has problems? In simple terms, if I understand correctly, the reg/rect. burns the extra juice off in form of heat among other duties, well if the battery requires less of a charging state the reg. has to burn that much more right? won't this shorten an already short life of the 5th gen. reg/rect.? Sorry to high jack, I just want to get an educated answer on this before ordering one of these.

The actual charging required shouldn't change...the R/R bleeds off the overhead not used by the lights etc, and this amount increased once the battery is fully charged. I suppose under that auspice, using a battery tender makes your R/R work harder to bleed off the excess...interesting.

I am looking forward to more data as these batteries become more popular and widely used.

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding or if I'm being misunderstood. I guess that what I'm thinking is that these batteries don't drain out like conventional lead acid, right? Now, if understood right, the bike doesn't require cranking repetitively to start as the amperages are higher and better sustained/delivered with the Lith. tech batteries. So once started the battery is charged quicker, for speculation purpose say 1/2 or maybe more realistic 3/4 of the time at a giving rev. than a conventional. So the R/R will be burning that extra juice up that would have otherwise went to the acid battery. Over the course of the season this could be the little bit extra to replacing the R/R on a semi-annual basis, not? Btw: I'm lucky enough so far to not have had to replace my R/R at 2x,xxx miles but I plan on getting one soon to have it readily available when the inevitable happens., when I get to this I'll be looking for some "NESS" to add as well.

nice

What are the reprucutions of these new tech batties on a reg/rect. that already has problems? In simple terms, if I understand correctly, the reg/rect. burns the extra juice off in form of heat among other duties, well if the battery requires less of a charging state the reg. has to burn that much more right? won't this shorten an already short life of the 5th gen. reg/rect.? Sorry to high jack, I just want to get an educated answer on this before ordering one of these.

Hondalover, yes that is the very one

Red Runner, no I'm not dead set on making my own but Corbin wants way way too much in my feeling for them. If you'ld like to get rid of the one you have I may be interested. PM me.

Seb, it seems you always some through either just before or just after Slammer, thank you both. Sorry to be the fool, but i really did search for about 15-20 minutes and did use in "forums" on site as well as trying to figure out which chris***** it was and look at former posts through the profiles of several of the variations.

And lastly chris, thanks for the write up of this, you're making my life easier.... At least I'll have something to start with this way and modify to my needs. Now I just have to remember the 2992!

The page is now bookmarked and copied into an adobe file on my HD. Thanks for the help from all. :beer: I hate being "that guy" , you know, that appears not to have tried!

Long ago, probably several years now somebody (chris****) did a write up of how to make a rear backrest for a corbin seat (gunf. & lady model). Does anyone have this bookmarked by chance? I tried googling it useing VFRD as a clue and didn't return it either. Maybe it got lost through the updates and such over the years. Basically, I think i need 5/8" sq. stock for the stem and would like to see teh finished product pics so as a finished look on the back side of the vinyl. Thanks a bunch to those trying.

Not really sure how I've missed this for the last nearly year. Amazing work, I'm with it now. Keep on a rollin'

or complete a trade in on a connie14 :fing02:

Blasphemy!

Looking forward to daytime pics. What kind of equipment and paint did you use?

Sorry Seb but every one I've seen rolling down the highways and slab I've nearly lost it prematurely. Just look more comfortable and powerful than the vfr plus the hard bags would be a plus!

As far as product, it was Shop-line by PPG. The cheap route, although it still ended up being about 5 bills in product alone! Also the cheap route, a HF gun. It really sprayed pretty well for the $ although a professional gun would have done better. I'm not sure I would have though, it took me nearly until I was finished to figure out how to get the clear to spray as I wanted it too, color wasn't any trouble nor was promoter or primer. The major set back in the entire thing was partially my lack of experience and I had some of the red peel as I was taping for the black tail light surround on the tail. Also had one of my decals bleed in the clear, I'll see what happens with that when I get to sanding. Might have to sand it completely out and re-clear the nose, we'll see.

I did think hard about continuing the white stripe through the tank but I figured the my line would look slightly off center or slight out of symetrical so I nixxed the idea. Plus i've nearly always have a tank bag on so it wouldn't show anyway. I know most people don't like the naca ducts and don't want to draw attention to them but I like although i think it'll look bettter with a black outline. Plus it's different, what the hell I guess if I decide different in a few years I can redo it or complete a trade in on a connie14 :fing02:

I'll see about getting some better pictures taken and posted as soon as I get it back running. Still need to spend some time with it but it's just too hot in the garage right now!!!

Not quite full frontal.

All of the white bits will be getting black outline of tape around them, however, my top 3 coats of clear are very rough plus it'd need a buffer anyway, so this winter after season is done I'll be getting out the paper to sand and follow by buffing. After all of this I'll finish the tape lines. Should have done it before I cleared but forgot or just didn't think of it I guess.

Up the rear.

Toothless

I figured that while I had all of the plastic off for prep. work I'ld rebuild the leaking fork seals.

Only my 3rd time spraying anything, 2nd bike, but it ended up turning out pretty fair I think. Hopefully, it'll last a while, lot more work than I was anticipating. I did the de-dumbo using an old fairing and a junk HF welder(old style) as well as some plasti-fix and a body glue backer for a little piece of mind, I hope! Added the Radar sliders and Darth mirrors at paint time also. Going to replace the windscreen again. Used a Puig DB and it kills me at just over 6' tall. Feels like someone is trying to straggle you as the wind hits about mid throat.

I put Shinkos on my old Kawy years ago and never had any problems with them although a buddy rode it one time and got the to slip, this guy can ride like hell though and will push his limits just slightly. I'm probably one of the few that run Maxxis on my current VFR and love them, although I get about 7k out of the front I've only got about 4500 ona rear. They stick well for my ability, and are a little more cost friendly. I'm looking for a brand change though as I've become a little more relaxed rider over the last couple of years, plus I live in Nebraska, land of the straight and mostly flat roads! Thanks for a solid write-up of a good value tire.

Yeah, just buy american in the futrure, will you? :laughing6-hehe:

Granted the Roadsmarts are not the best ST tires but by far better than e.g. BT020. Maybe the tires got into contact with some chemicals during shipping or storage.

Are there actually any US made cycle tires anymore? I'm sure some car tires but I'm not aware of any US bike tires I guess? US society is coming back around to that "buy usa" branding again and with good reason really, although the entire world is hurting. Without flame or rant any US cycle tire manufacturers out there?

Congratulations on the progress made. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on this post, very interesting with some strong ingenuity all to solve a major personal difficulty. There is a guy around my part of the world with a very similar setup. I haven't actually seen the bike up close but it's kinda weird coming toward a bike in the opposite lane with nobody on the chassis and then realizing they are operating from the side car! I have to figure out where he's from and check it out. Good luck and thanks for the life inspiration as well.