Darth Bling

I've always considered my bike a "baby" Frankenviffer. The left gearswitch is from a Suzuki GSXR, it had Buell footpegs at one time, and the grips are from BMW. In the near future, I hope to graph a Euro-spec VFR gearswitch onto it, my 98/99 VFR headers are currently at Jet-Hot, and I've got a rear shock from a CBR1100XX Blackbird that I'm going to install. Sure, my bike definitely has parts from other motorcycles attached (or soon to be attached) to it. But, what normally catapults a bike into official Frankenvifferdom is a major transplant. For most people that transplant happens to be USD forks and I'll be following suit shortly. :D I just scored a set of 2000 RC51 SP1 forks and triples from ebay today!!! Oh yeah!!! :beer: UPDATE!!!!! (February 6th, 2007) Just bought a set of RC51 front brake calipers to go with my forks!! Yeah for me! :P Also, my headers come back from Jet-Hot yesterday! I can't wait to get them installed. :thumbsup: UPDATE!!!!! (February 9th, 2007) Just bought a 2000 CBR929 upper triple clamp from fleabay. Check it out. UPDATE!!!!! (February 12th, 2007) Booyah!!! Just scored a 2004 RC51 front wheel WITH brake rotors!!!! All I need now is a front fender and a wheel axle and I'm all set! ^_^ UPDATE!!!!! (February 14th, 2007) Axle problem solved. Found a good cheap one on ebay.

So we got that question out of the way. :thumbsup: Any short-term goals? :goofy:

Nice pictures tinyminds! :thumbsup:

WD-40. Stick the straw between the grip and the bar, squirt. The solvent will help loosen the adhesive. I perfer using isopropyl alcohal (rubbing alcohal). It evaporates clean and doesn't leave any residue (unlike WD-40 or soapy water). Of course, if there's grip glue under there do what thx1139 recommends and use WD-40. :thumbsup: And when it comes time to put your grips onto the bars, lube up the grip with isopropyl alcohal first. It'll slide right on very easily. Then with a can-of-air (like for your computer), stick the straw under the grip and shoot air in there. This will quickly evaporate the alcohal within a few seconds and your grips will be securely installed! :beer:

It is the left gearswitch from a 2005 GSXR1000. I've always wanted a pass-to-flash button, so that was the main motivation. Plus, the new GSXR gearswitches have a hazard button too!! :thumbsup:

Well, the forecast for Portland the next few days sucks. Looks like snow is on the way. Well, I guess I'll start working on the bike then. It's been sitting in the garage for quite a while. I don't think it's been started since early December. :unsure: Anyway, my plans for the next few weeks is to (in order of importance): • Do the valve check • Change out the fork fluid • Flush out the radiator • Swap out rear shock with one from a Blackbird • Put 98/99 headers on the bike • Redo some of auxillary wiring. Besides oil, oil filters, and brake fluid, the bike's never had any kind of major service done to it. I'm positive it still has the original antifreeze and fork oil that was put into it January 2002 when it come from the factory. So, this will be good. :thumbsup: I'll probably keep this blog entry up-to-date with my winter maintance happenings. Just picked up a European-spec right gearswitch. Hopefully it'll just plug right into my wiring harness no problem, but I know that's not going to be the case. :rolleyes: The parts fiche actually lists four seperate wiring harnesses for the 6th gen (one for Canadan/USA, one for Europe, one for Australia, and another for France). Anyway, the important thing is now I've got the headlight button on the right gearswitch. I'll figure out some way to wire it all together. :thumbsup: Finally got around to ordering some Stopper Slide Pins for the valve clearance check. They should be here within a week. In the meantime, I should probably check out JetHot. I seem to remember hearing that the 5th gen headers were regular steel while the 6th gen headers were stainless steel. Don't want me "new" headers to rust out. That would suck. Got the Euro-spec right gearswitch today. Yup, just like I thought, it's not going to be a simple plug-n-play job. This is going to take some serious rewiring. <_< Well, so far I've managed to tear down my spare engine for practice. Now, it's time to tear my bike apart. Already got the tank moved off to the side (supported by two milk crates stacked on top of each other with a 5-gallon bucket in the top crate). I had to go out last night and buy a new screwdriver so I can get the throttle body taken off the boots. Tonight, I hope to have the bike tore down to the valves. Remove the throttle bodies last night. I also drained the gas tank and stuck it in the corner out of the way. Pull the spark plug coils off too. I also had to remove my air horns. I'll probably start taking the exhaust off today. I sent my catless headers to Jet-Hot last week, so those should be coming back next week hopefully. While I have the exhaust off, I can also swap out my rear shock with my Blackbird shook too.

So clean and tidy! :D You're inspirering me to clean up the wires I have going to my fuse box. :P

Here's a different version of the Thurn mirrors: Thurn markets these ones mirrors as 6th gen mirrors and the ones veefer800canuck posted as 5th gen mirrors. Of course, there's no reason why you could put either set on the 5th or 6th gens since the stock mirrors are compatible.

Sweet! I just won an auction for a used 6th Gen engine and it only costed me $51. :tongue: Now I just have to drive all the way up to Blaine, WA to pick it up. I'll hoping to head up the first weekend in December to get it, since I hopefully already be up in Seattle for the International Motorcycle Show. So, I'm sure that the few of you who actually read my blog are wondering what plans I could possible have for a spare engine? Hmm, good question. :biggrin: For starters, I want to take it apart this winter as a warm up before tackling the valve adjustment on my bike. Once that's done, I'll probably use the engine for spare parts or something. I guess we'll see what happens then. :wink: Anyway, here are pictures of the beast: UPDATE: I picked up the engine last Saturday on the 9th of December. Yup, I drove all the way up to Blaine, WA to get it. It was still way cheaper than having it shipped down here, pull I get a nice road trip out of it too. And since I was up there, I decide to head on over to the Peace Arch and stare at it for a second or two. Then I took a quick walk and went into Canada for a bit, just so I can say that I went there. No, this wasn't the first time I've been to Canada, but if you're only two miles from the border you might as well go visit it. :biggrin: Anyway, back to the engine. Adam, the guy I bought the engine from, helped me load it load into the back of my Subaru. It managed to leak antifreeze everywhere, luckily I had it sitting on a tarp and my cargo area has a rubber spill mat too. Nearly pulled my back when I picked up the engine to put it in my garage. I also had to spend some time cleaning the antifreeze off my rubber car mat. Brake disk cleaner works great at this! Adam's a cool guy. He runs some kind of business picking up wreaked vehicles and then he parts them out. That's where I got my engine. It was a thief recovery; somebody had stolen it, repainted it blue, and then wreak it. I actually remember seeing the bike on ebay being parted out over the last year or so. All that Adam had left was a frame and engine, so he stuck those on ebay one last time at 99¢ a piece. Thats how I managed to get it for only $51. :tongue:

Thanks! No, the wiring isn't too hard. You just need to tap into a few wires. The worst part is drilling the holes in the upper fairing so you can run the wire through it.

My new mirrors just arrived today in the mail from Germany!! :P Yup, I ordered some mirrors with integrated turnsignals from Thurn Motorsports' ebay store. Installation was a piece of cake, since I already had the wiring done up for the Kisan vectraLights, Model VL-20. Anyway, here are the pictures of the new mirrors. :happy: I ended up wiring the LEDs to the running lights and then grounded them out through the turn signal wires. That way the lights are on all the time but flash on and off when I active the turn signal. Plus, I can see some much more behind me now with these new mirrors. They stick just a tad bit further out than the stock mirrors, but they sit much higher up. :cool: Oh yeah, none of that crap off to the left in the picture is mine. That's all my friend's junk, except for the golf club box. My cat-less headers are in there. :biggrin:

Lately it seems the mood of VFRD has been somewhat hostile. It just seems that the normally good nature of most posts have been negative. I'm sure this negativity isn't intentional an anybody's part (at least I hope not), maybe it's because winters coming up or something. Who knows? :unsure: Anyway, on the lighter side of things, I got some Helibars installed on my bike. A kind gentlemen from Australia who rides a Blackbird made me a very tempting offer. He wanted to buy the Helibars that Bailey was selling a few weeks ago and then swap them for my stock clip-ons. All I had to pay for was shipping costs to send my stock bars to him in Australia. How could I refuse an offer like that?! :D These Helibars rock! I can't wait to try them out. Anyway, now that means I have a set of Gen-Mars lying around that I don't need. I have a few other items laying around my garage that I don't need, so I'll probably be posting a "yard sale" thread sometime next week. I would do it now, but I'm so busy and stressed out. Everything will be better after next Monday. I also got a Sargent seat a few weeks ago. Up until now, I've been less than impressed. I hate to say it but my stock seat was more comfortable. I usually seat on the front part of the seat, which isn't comfortable to do on the Sargent. But, these Helibars really seem to push me back a bit on the seat, so maybe the Sargent is going to work out just fine. Plus, my girlfriend seems to like the Sargent better anyway (which is actually the most important thing). The only complaint she has, as do I, is the Sargent is too slippery. I need to get some kind of grippy cover for it, then it'll be perfect. :thumbsup: I'm also getting anxious for my new mirrors to arrive. I ordered some new mirrors from Germany since my right mirror got snapped off a while back. They are going to be so sweet to put on. I can't wait! Hmmm, that reminds me, the weather is getting pretty cold now. I'm going to need to dig out my electric vest and fix it. I'm not sure what happened to it, maybe a wire got pinched or something.

Hmm, that's a tough one.... Well, you said you weren't strong enough to pick it up by yourself, so you can't feel bad about that. And, if you were scared of trying to get a stranger's help, you can't do much about that either. Maybe it would have been a good idea to call the cops and let them know about it. They would have been able to pick it up themselves, plus they could have contacted the owner. Of course, I have no idea if the cops in NYC would have done any of that if you called them. You'd know better than I. Give it a few days and then look back on the situation with a sober point-of-view, without the feelings of guilt and helplessness. Hopefully you'll be able to make more sense of it later.

I dropped it... into a tree trunk... at 20 mph. :( And let me tell you, OEM plastics are not cheap. <_<

For years now, whenever I've been driving on I-5 between Portland and Seattle, I've been seeing these statues on the side of the highway. I've always wondered what they were, but I've never gotten around to stopping and seeing them up close. Well today I was up in the Seattle area picking up some VFR parts and on the way home back to Portland my friend Bryan and I decided to stop and see these statues. The monuments are near mile post 60. Here are the pictures I took: Informational billboard visible from the interstate. The statues. Monument for the Holocaust Victims, Mother Teresa, and Jesus. Statue of Jesus. A close up of the Jesus. Another view of Jesus. Monument for the Victims of the Holocaust. Monument for the Indian Tribes. I believe the statue is a representation of Chief Seattle. Statue of Mother Teresa (with Bryan in the background). Another view of all four monuments. View from Camus Rd, near Toledo, WA. Some land use action billboard. The statues were built by Dominic Gospodor in 2002. Apparently from what I've read, he had plans to build five more monuments in honor of African-Americans history, the people killed each year by drunken driving, polio-vaccine developer Jonas Salk, women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony, and William Seward (who bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for about 2 cents an acre). But unfortunately, Mr. Gospodor cannot get anymore permits to build his statues. The DOT apparently has problems with the monuments causing traffic problems on the interstate, and they're afraid if new monuments are constructed the traffic problems would get worse. Anyway, the statues were pretty cool. I had a huge spider crawling around on my back that Bryan pointed out. That wasn't very cool. So now, if you're driving on I-5 between Longview and Chehalis, you'll know what the statues are all about. :cool:

ARRGGGG!!!! I hate ebay snipers. I'm so pissed right now. So, I find this 1993 VFR rear wheel on ebay for dirt cheap. The only problem with it is that it's bent a little. No problem, I get the rim cheap, have it straighten locally, and I've got a 8-spoke rim. Great idea!!! With only 5 seconds left in the auction, some ass-hat snipes me with a higher bid. WTF!! :mad: I hope his new 8-spoke rim flies apart on him when he's up above 100 mph. Seriously, be a real man and put a bid down like you've got some balls. None of this ninja, death-from-afar crap. If he had placed a bid an hour before the auction ended, then fine. I probably would have let him have it since I wasn't planning on spending too much money on the rim. But now.... @#$@#$@#$!@% :pissed: I wish I had a really high bid in just so he wouldn't he get it. Son of a @#!!@# Ebay should put a rule in place so nobody can bid on a auction within the last hour unless they had already placed a bid earllier. I'm heading to my garage to wrench on the bike. That'll make me feel better. UPDATE Ok, so I went out to garage for some therapeutic wrenching. Well, somehow I managed to drop all the brake fluid out of my clutch slave cylinder. :dry: Blipping wonderful. So as I'm putting the slave cylinder back together I manage to squirt brake fluid in my right eye. Not good!! Thinking fast, I grabbed my half-empty beer and pour it into my eye to clean out the brake fluid. :mellow: Great. Now I have brake fluid and beer everywhere. Freaking great. Remember kids, always wear eye protection. :cool:

I had to looked it up. :P Radardetectordetectors only comes out to 29 points. Here's the website I used to found out: http://www.solfire.com/scrabble/. You can enter other words and it'll give you the score for them.

Dang! That's quite a night. Bummer about the two parking tickets, but good to hear that you're bike wasn't stolen. Sounds to me that the would-be-thieves saw the rash on your bike and decided that it wasn't worth the time. Or they had scanners and heard the call go out over the police dispatch. Who knows?

Too bad I only made it down to Newport on Saturday, I would have loved to have been there all weekend. You see, I had some family obligations that I had already made a year ago (before the date for the PNW meet was every decided on) so that?s way I missed most of the meet. I was up in Long Beach, WA with my parents for a Goldwing Road Riders Association campout; lot of fun actually. Anyway, I managed to skip out on Saturday and ride down for the VFR meet. So, I left at about 4:30 AM from Long Beach heading straight down US-101. Never again will I ever ride down highway 101 that early in the morning. There was so much mist coming off the Pacific and, being that it was pitch black out, I could see a damn thing when it stuck to my visor. Plus, since it was only 42°F is some sections, my visor kept fogging up. Cracking it open didn?t help at all since all the mist would find it?s way onto the inside of the visor, so I ended riding a good portion of 101 with my visor open. <_< So, I arrived at Georgie?s Grill in Newport at 7:45 AM, about 15 minutes later that I had hoped for and I was greeted by a parking lot full of bikes! After breakfast, we all headed up US-101 to OR-229, the Siletz Highway, just south of Lincoln City. We blasted down that until we reached the town of Siletz. From there, we jumped onto OR-411 and proceeded east. About 18 miles down the road we all stopped because the road turned to gravel (just like Keith warned us). It was only about a mile of gravel to get though so no big deal. I was kind of cool to see a huge conga-line of sport-bikes winding down a gravel road. The next spot that we regrouped at was in Nashville, right at the end of OR-411 where it runs into OR-180. Here's some pictures of us all stopped: We then proceeded east on OR-180 until it ran into US-20, which by the way is the longest US highway in the nation, going from Newport, OR to Boston, MA (a nice piece of trivia I picked up from Keith). As a side note, if you interested in the history of US-20, here's a pretty good site that has some information: Link. Anyway, we stopped at the junction of US-20 and OR-180 for a quick breather. From there we went east to OR-34 (right outside of Philomath) and then took that south to Deeker Road. At the end of Deeker Rd, we turned right onto Bellfountain Rd and then took an immediate left onto Greenberry Rd. About a mile up the road, we turned left into Tyee Wine Cellars to do some wine tasting. After sampling a pinot noir, a pinot blanc, and a chardonnay, we all had are own favorites. I personally liked the blanc the best and I thought the chardonnay was excellent too. After some of us had bought a bottle of our favorite wine, we left for lunch. Following Deeker Road back out, we went back up OR-34 and then turned right down Grange Hall Rd for a fantastic lunch at Gathering Together Farm, a little organic food shop/restaurant. After lunch, we gassed up in Philomath and then headed down US-20 to hit OR-34. We hit some awesome twisties on OR-34 and they so much fun that some of us turned around to do them again. Here's a picture that Keith snapped of me: And here's a couple of pictures I took of Keith on the same corner: At think it was at this point, when some of us stopped to go back into the twisties and some of us waited for those of us in the twisties to finish up, that a group of us ended up headed off without the rest of us. Apparently this group went on ahead to where they thought the rest of us were going to meet them, but we never shown up. Opps. Anyway, the group I was in finished up at the twisties and then proceeded to Waldport on US-101. It was on the way there that I almost ate it in a corner. So, this is what happened: I had just changed my clutch and brake fluid on Wednesday and somehow I screwed up putting the clutch master cylinder cover on because it was leaking a little bit. I had been watching it all day and cleaning of the clutch fluid whenever it seeped out. Well, I was using my left glove to wipe some of the fluid away and when I looked back up to see that the road was gone. All I saw was a giant wall of rock and dirt, and three yellow signs with black arrows pointing right. I didn't even have time to think and I immediately dove right in my lane. I hugged the double-yellow all the way around the corner easing off the throttle trying to scrub some speed off. Wow! What a pump of adrenaline! I was so pissed off at myself for not paying attention to the road and for getting myself in a fatal situation that was 100% avoidable. Ok, lesson learned. Once we hit Waldport we blasted up back up to Newport. Around 6:00 or so, we started showing up at the Rogue Brewery. There was a washing station set up and we all cleaned our bikes before putting them inside the brewery. I took pictures of everyone's bikes, but some of the pictures came out blurry <_< . But, here are the pictures that didn't: Keithbob's bike Keith's brother John's FJR . Some crappy 6th gen :D Sunline's 5th gen with Givi Bags Flailer's 6th gen. Superfunkomatic's bike. Silver788's blue 5th gen. Avid One's yellow 5th gen. Richmerrill's RC51. I must apologize, but I don't know who owns every bike here. So if you see your bike and I don't have your name underneath it, shoot me a PM and I'll add your name under your bike's picture. I also went on the Rogue Brewery tour as well. It was pretty interesting actually. Here are a few pictures I snapped of it: Beer everywhere! Ahh, the miracle of beer! Claudia looking at all the beer. More beer! Can't wait until next year's PNW meet in Vancouver, WA. Magellen will be the offical host of it, but I'll probably help him out as much as I can (since I only live across the river from him). ~Tim