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Gebruiker

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About Gebruiker

  • Rank
    Factory Team Rider

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  • Location
    Connecticut, USA and the Netherlands
  • In My Garage:
    1992 VFR
    1993 CBR1000

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  1. Gebruiker
    I'll have to take a look at this in the local automart. From your pictures, it looks like you're cracks and fractures are in the same places as mine...like around the blinkers. So I'll guess the design was notorious for weakness in certain spots. Thanks for writing up your solution.
  2. Gebruiker
    Thanks so much for the updates. These are my favorite kinds of postings. Both the sunny days and the rainy ones, and the little misadventures. They all make the ride better, even for some of us sitting behind computer screens. 😁
  3. Gebruiker
    Well, it's better anyway. Nothing has fallen off or cracked this past week after several rides, but I'm sortof expecting stress cracks to appear where I've used zip ties and made fairing repairs. I'm keeping a close eye on things. I'll relax a bit as I get more miles on the repairs and once I scrounge the missing dzus bolts to replace my zip ties. No progress on polishing even the seat cowling. My expert friend says I'll have to use his electric polisher to get a gloss but others have commented it all looks fine in the current matte-like metallic finish. That's about all the encouragement I need to do nothing extra 😉 For the moment, I'm just enjoying the ride. 😁
  4. Gebruiker
    Okay, fine...VFR it is. I might consider other possibilities, but not until after I get your air guide. 😉
  5. Gebruiker
    Am I to interpret this as a minor disapproval of Ducati decals? 😛 I don’t suppose bmw decals would be better... I’ll take it under advisement. 😉
  6. Gebruiker
    Can you tell us please how you fashioned the tabs? Did you make a mold of existing tabs? With clay? And then just use abs glue for the new tabs? Did you use Plastex for that part of the job? I’m using zip ties in a place where a couple tabs are gone. A poor solution. thanks!
  7. Gebruiker
    Progress Report I took a couple pictures of the bike. It’s not anywhere near finished, but it’s better than it was... Before... ...After I'm giving myself a 6 out of 10 so far, on the Lorne scale. (where Lorne gets a 10) You can't easily see flaws in the photograph, but they're there alright. Look closer. (I can point them out if any of you are all that interested) And what do I do next? Well, I tried polishing and waxing the seat cowl. It didn't make much difference in the appearance. The next step will probably be to either try compounding or 0000 steel wool...and then polishing again. Let's see if that brings out the gloss. Not that I mind so much the metallic matte finish, but it's just not finished finished. Besides that, I haven't tested the paint for resilience. Will it dissolve when exposed to a drop of gasoline? How about rain? I don't plan to put any decals on it yet. I don't even think they'd stick very well. I have a set of aftermarket decals already, the traditional blocky VFR style from the 90s. In silver/grey. I got them anticipating a black bike. Real black. I have to keep reminding myself that, yes, this is real black paint. 😒 But since it's just not black to anybody who isn't completely color blind, I'll probably send away for another set of non-traditional decals. I haven't decided on a color for those. I was leaning to neon to brighten things up, although well, black, yes again, real black, now comes to mind. No foolin. The paint scheme is similar to this understated Ducati, and it doesn't look so bad... Ooooo, I can get Ducati decals! That'll fool 'em. 😁 Here are a couple more current pictures. Of the VFR, not the Ducati. Yeesh. It's never gonna be done, is it? There's always going to be at least one more task to do on this bike...
  8. Gebruiker
    Seat Cowl Sorry everybody. I took a perfectly usable bright red seat cowl and turned it Krylon black. It didn’t take long and it didn’t even hurt much once I finished sanding. I am aware that there is somebody out there who could’ve used it just the way it was. Unfortunately, today that person wasn’t me. Here it is, or rather here it was... And here it is again after maybe 2 minutes of wet sanding with 500 grit paper and a wipe with alcohol. It took more diligence to get that red covered up with krylon. It just didn't want to surrender. The rest of the bike, being blackish to begin with, covered up faster. Having done that, I now have the final piece of the first respray done. Just about three 12 ounce cans of paint. There is still polishing to do…one of these days. But knowing myself as I do, that day may be a ways off. The cowling will be my experimental piece for that next step. And now that I have a matching dark grey seat cowl, I will almost never use it. Am I the only one who finds these things annoying? I keep hitting my butt on the bump pad. I mean, sure, it looks cool I guess, but is it making me a better rider? Is it supposed to train me to move my weight more smoothly? Am I having more fun? I don’t think so. Mostly it just bugs me. Plus it’s so fragile, I keep wondering when I’ll snap the tabs. We'll see.
  9. Gebruiker
    How do you people know this stuff? You guys are like mystics. Motorcycle mystics. Motorcycle mystics with clairvoyance. I don't mind sayin I'm getting a little spooked here. 😁 I'm not sure it would be all that convenient to transfer the CBRs air guide to the VFR every time I slogged back and forth across the ocean. But it's good to know I could! 🙂 I'll try to get a second one...
  10. Gebruiker
    Ouch. I was afraid of that. On the positive side, isn’t it reassuring that bits live on in new incarnations…and on new continents. We’ll have to dedicate the air guide to your old bike. Maybe etch the name in there, hidden from the world. I’ll be back there soon. We’ll work something out. 🙂
  11. Gebruiker
    Oh boy! According to partzilla, it’s the same piece...although I’m afraid to ask how you may have come by a spare... I’ll be back there in a few weeks. Please don’t lose it. Thanks!
  12. Gebruiker
    .......annnnnd yes, I have no part number 10. For that matter, I don't see a part number 8 laying around. And it's not obvious to me how #8 even fits in there unless it's a substitute for #7? I'm also wondering if bolts number 52 are the ones I used for the lower fairing...replacing the JIS(!) screws. If they're the same thread, then that could be the case... So thank you again. I'll try to scrounge a part #10 from somewhere, although I also think I could make something up pretty easily from scraps of my tv/vcr casing. 🙂
  13. Gebruiker
    JIS? I never heard of it. This is good stuff Leon. I also just discovered that Phillips heads are designed to strip out?! Phillips screws by design were created to cam-out; a process in which the driver is meant to jump out of the screw when a certain torque was reached. There are many theories to why, such as dangers of over tightening on airplanes, or tool longevity, but nevertheless at one time or another everyone will experience a Phillips round-out as a function of its cam-out design. http://rtstools.com/jis-vs-phillips-screwdrivers-and-where-to-buy-a-jis-screwdriver/ Thankyouverymuch for pointing this out. It's always fun to learn new stuff. Not that I'll be putting those mangled screws back in. The bolts I have in there should work fine.
  14. Gebruiker
    Problem areas. Here’s the partial list. It’s a pretty long list. Mid fairing That right mid fairing is still in rough shape. Besides the poor outer appearance, the structure had been reinforced in back with bondo. It won't even fit right. I actually had problems slotting it back into place between the upper and lower fairings. I took a slightly...well let's say relaxed approach to that. I removed the upper bolts from the lower fairing and replaced those with zip ties. That allowed me some leeway in fitting in the mid fairing between the upper and lower ones. These are pictures of the upper connections on the right side of the lower fairing. They're occluded by the mid fairing when it is installed. You can see how the fairing can now hang just a little lower than it would with the bolt. I could've also bent the bracket down I think. That extra half centimeter gives me enough space. But why is that space even necessary? Dunno... And are zip ties good enough? Nobody will see them under there, but I don’t know if they’ll work long term. My worry of course, is going out for a ride one of these days and coming home with several fairing pieces missing. Left behind somewhere on the road. So I’ll be monitoring everything carefully. Previous owners had also used more than a few zip ties in place of lost dzus bolts. (The front lower fairing is currently held in place only by zip ties. I really have to get a supply of those bolts soon. They're not the kind of thing you can find at Lowe's) My take is that the ties should work okay so long as they are not pulled too tightly. None of the factory fairing bolts directly contact the plastic panels. They all have a fat head buffered by fat rubber washers. The body panels must need a little room to flex and absorb shock or else they'd crack. In places where a zip tie had been cinched tight on this bike, a crack always developed. Of course, the ties also look sloppy. That’s a different matter. Still another mid fairing problem is that dodgy aft dzus bolt. That was the big one inch hole that I simply glommed ABS glue into. There is no other reinforcement there at all. I let the glom of glue dry, smoothed it ...not enough... and drilled a hole through it. I’ll be keeping a close eye on that one too. You can see it's not recessed like it should be. The lower fairings had these rusty Phillips head screws. JZH characterizes them as evil. Boy…and how! I barely managed to get them out and I’m not taking any chances putting them back. I replaced them with regular bolts along with a fat rubber washer. I’ll keep any eye on those too. A little trick I picked up somewhere along the line is to put a tiny drop of rubber cement onto a bolt thread at installation, to essentially make a lock bolt. The cement isn’t anywhere near strong enough to hold against a wrench when you want to remove it, but it keeps the bolt from backing out on its own. The rubber cement always stays rubbery. Lower fairing with a leftover bolt. I think that bolt belongs in the tail fairing. Oh, I hope not. Headlight valence The headlight fairing valence thing is missing some kind of support structure. There are only two side screws, left and right, hidden underneath there. There were also two screw-in nylon rivets that were attached to nothing but air. These things, attached to nothing... So I removed those and ran thin zip ties up around the headlight fitting inside. You can't see the ties. They’re just acting as safety lanyards so I don’t lose the whole thing over a bump. I’m thinking I should make a simple ABS plastic support for inside there. It shouldn’t be hard to do. It doesn't have to be pretty because nobody will ever see it. But I’ll have to remove the whole assembly again. Maybe on a rainy day. The upper tab is not great either. The whole thing is out of position because that lower support is missing. Annnnnd the tail fairing is a little jiggly too. I didn’t weld it. Just more zip ties. They worked before okay. I'll keep an eye on it. Whew. What else? I'll think of more...
  15. Gebruiker
    Body work, part four…and counting So, the bits are back on the bike. And I've been for a few shake downs. Since painting and cleaning, it runs smoother faster stronger quieter. Whoda thought? 😉 I never really posted any detailed pictures of the plastics from last year when I took the bike home. Here’s one side, with a few, not all, problem areas highlighted… I don’t have a similar picture of the other side. You’ll have to imagine it. It was about the same. As of now, the overall finish of the new paint is okay. So with a certain reservation, I can recommend the Krylon Fusion Metallic paint. It covered up my mistakes pretty good. It didn’t drip. It filled in small scratches. There’s no orange peel. It’s just a textured metallic matte finish now, but it should get glossier when I polish it up. My biggest gripe, my only gripe really, is that their metallic black isn’t black. I wanted black. Here’s the full selection of Krylon Fusion Metallic paints. The palette doesn’t easily lend itself to the average VFR. Antique Copper motorcycle anybody? But the silvers and greys are more typical. To be fair, the black stuff I got actually does come out the color of the cap on the can. So maybe it was wishful thinking on my part to assume black meant…black. They have it on sale for $5 from time to time. For real VFR colors, the Krylons may come closest to the Honda factory arctic blue color? Maybe? At least that's the sheen I'm getting. That particular color doesn't show up much in the USA. This is Gordon’s bike in Scotland. (um...or not. I think it is. I don't have the link. If it's yours, please come forward to claim it...) Not that mine is looking any where near as good as that. But if you squint hard and wait until dark, from a distance...nah, mine still doesn't look like that. Never mind. 😁 I'll go through a couple problem areas for anybody interested.
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