Darth Bling

Free?! What about all the extra gas you burn up? Besides, I don't think running down the freeway at 8000 rpm is the most fuel efficient way to travel. It's a great idea if you're tearing it up in the twisties. :thumbsup: Besides that, 330 ohm resistors are only 99?. That's probably way cheaper than a 5-10 mpg penalty to your fuel mileage when running 7k+ rpms.

Woo Hoo!!! I just noticed that I've reached 1000 posts today!!! Yeah for me. Now I have six of those blue boxes after under my name! Here's the story about how I got my VFR. My friend, Fred, was up visiting from San Francisco for the weekend. He had just bought himself a brand new 2003 SV1000S that a dealer had leftover. This really got me thinking about what my next bike was going to be. At that point in time, I was riding a 2001 Honda VLX600 Shadow, which I bought new in October 2001. The Shadow was my first bike and it was awesome. I'd managed to only put 7000 miles on it in the three and half years that I had owned it. It was great beginners bike, but I had out-grown it. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow1.jpg[/img] http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow2.jpg[/img] http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y215/dennytim/Shadow/Shadow3.jpg[/img] I eventually sold the Shadow to a nice lady a few months later. She and her husband ran a floral shop out southeast of the city and they had been looking for a bike that she could ride. She was pretty short, so the Shadow fit here perfectly. Anyway, back to the story. So, Fred and I were out at Beaverton-Tigard Honda look around at bikes. I was interested in sport-touring bikes, like a BMW R1150 or a Honda ST1100. Cruising around the showroom floor, I was looking at bikes nonchalantly when I saw it: a 2003 silver VFR with hard bags. I immediately feel in love with the bike. It looked so good, and it come with hard bags. Perfect! After a quick test ride on it, I knew this was the bike for me. I tried negotiating with the dealership, but they wouldn't drop their price. Despite have a hideous dent in the tank, some rash on the tail section, and about 2500 miles on the odometer, the dealership wanted $10500. Why?! Because it was a new bike. WTF?! Apparently, because nobody had every officially owned it, they consider it brand new motorcycle. I'm sorry, but a used bike is a used bike, doesn't matter if it's ever been "officially" own by someone. Plus, there was no way in hell I was going to buy a bike that had obviously been down at full MSRP. Later that night, I was searching on Craigslist and ran across this pristine 2002 Red VFR in Lake Oswego. Here are the pictures that were in the ad: Bike1.jpg Bike2.jpg Bike3.jpg Bike4.jpg Bike5.jpg Absolutely beautiful. :wub: So, the very next day, May 1st, turned out to a be a grand day. Fred and I went out to Lake Oswego to meet Mike, the owner of the red VFR bike. It only had 533 miles on the odometer and it had already been in for it's 600-mile service. His asking price, $7900 firm. Hmm, a bit more than I wanted to pay for a "used" bike, but it was a pretty good deal, especially since the bike was basically brand new. I knew Mike would have no trouble getting his asking price for the bike, so I couldn't play the waiting game because somebody else would come along and snatch it up immediately. So, I took the plunge. A couple of weeks later, on May 12th, 2005, I arrived with a check in one hand and a helmet in my other. The bike was mine! And then a few days after that, I official joined VFRD on Monday the 16th. So, I've been a member of VFRD for 438 days and I've got 1000 posts! That's over 2 posts a day, perhaps I should cut back a little. :D All in all, I've very happy with my choice. The VFR has been great. And, staying within the theme of this blog, I figure I should post a picture I took on a very "grand" day. :thumbsup: Oregon coast, during my Saddlesore 1000

http://web.archive.org/web/20050208091310/...ent/view/27/39/

Well, it was an incredibly nice day today, except for the heat of course. I ended up heading to Windy Ridge near Mt. St. Helens for a ride with some old and new friends! :thumbsup: So, my friend Bryan and I took off this morning from my place and we headed of north to meet up with Loni (magellen) and his wife, Sarah. We ended up blasting north on I-205 to Highway-12 where we headed to Morton, which was about 110 miles. Morton was where we were supposed to meet up with Keith (keithbob) and his brother, John. Well, we got there a little late and Keith and John had already left, so after we filled up the bikes and took off. Once we got to Randle, we turned south and started towards Windy Ridge. It was really nice to head back down that road with all the experience and knowledge I know now. You see, it was on this road (hwy 131) that I wreaked my bike about a year ago or so. I was coming down this 20 mph hairpin at about 50 mph, which I had been doing all day, when the bank of the road changed. I got freaked out and grabbed a handful of brake like any newbie would do. My trek into the forest was cut short when my bike low-side in the dirt and then abuptly stopped when it ran into a tree stump. Luckily, the tree stump uprooted, so there wasn't any damage to the forks. But the sudden stop did send me flying face-first into the ground. I remember thinking to myself, "Thank goodness I'm wearing a full-face helmet." right before I face planted. Anyway, to get back on subject, I ended up passing Loni, who was leading, because I had just caught this huge bug on my visor and I couldn't see the road anymore. I didn't want to open my face shield because I might end up catching a rock from Loni's bike, so I decided to pass Loni and ride up ahead with my face shield open. Once we got to Windy Ridge, we meet up with Keith and John. John had just bought himself a brand new FJR1300. Very pretty bike. Here a pic of my friend, Bryan, with his FZ6. While we were at Windy Ridge, I snapped a picture of Mt. Adams. After we left Windy Ridge, I stopped at a view point and took a picture of the not-so-sleeping giant. Back onto the road, we headed south to Cougar. Keith spied a great spot for a photo-op, so we all stopped. Some nice guy was there to take our picture for us. From left to right, we have Keith, Loni, Sarah, Bryan, John, and myself. And, here are some action shot I took of everybody after we left the view point. Keith with his brother, John, close behind. Loni and Sarah And Bryan. We got lunch in Cougar and then we went our different ways. Keith and John were going to head to the interstate and split up from there. Keith lives in Newport, OR and John's in Tacoma, WA. Bryan and I followed Loni and Sarah back down to Vancouver where we eventually split up. All in all, it was an awesome ride. About 300 miles total for Bryan and me. The heat was a pain, but the company well made up for it. :beer:

Ok, so I ended up heading to Seattle today with my girlfriend to pick up her flute from the repair shop. After we stopped by the music store, which was located in the mall, we decided to walk around a bit. Anyway, as we left the mall to head out, I noticed a gathering of mall security guards. After a second look, I notice the guards are standing next to these two bikes. One of which was laying on the ground and the other was being held up by one of the security guards. Obviously, I had to go investigate. What did I spy? Two brand-new CBR600RRs, a red and silver, both with temporary plates on the back. Even the front tires still had the those brand-new color lines in them from the factory. Yup, you guessed it, both these bikes had just been bought today! The silver bike, which was being held up by the security guard, had a busted turn signal and some rash. The red bike didn't fair much better, though it was hard to tell since it was still laying on its side. It appears that the proud new owners of the CBRs didn't pay any attention to where they decided to park their bikes, right on top of fresh new asphalt. And, being that it was about 98?F out, the asphalt was freakin soft!!! So, I asked the security guard why he just doesn't roll the bike forward a bit so that he can set the kickstand down on the harder, older pavement. His reply, "I don't have any idea how these things work." What?! I better get in there and help, so I told the guard I could move the bikes for him. He asks me, "Do you know how these things work?" to which I replied, "Yeah, I own a couple of bikes." After putting my ice mocha down on the curb, I grabbed the silver CBR from the security guard, popped the bike into neutral, and pushed it forward. By then more security guards arrived and one of them had righted the red bike. When I walked over to it, the security guard I had just helped said to the other one, "This guy knows what he's doing." So, I popped the red CBR out of gear and pushed it forward a bit, put it back down on the kickstand, and then rotated the bike about 30? right on it's kickstand. Since the steering head was locked and there was a car in the way, I had to spin it around a bit. Dang those CBRs are light! Anyway, the security guards had a look of amazement on their faces when I rotated the bike on it's kickstand. After getting it turned, I then push it forward until it was sitting on the older asphalt that wasn't melting in the sun. The guards thanked me for me help and I grabbed my mocha and proceeded to the car. As we were leaving, I swung back around to see how the situation with the bikes was proceeding and I see a security guard leading these two kids to the bikes. Yup, squids. They were both wearing popped-collar polo shirts, tennis shoes, and designer jeans and carrying their $500 helmets. Poor bikes. Hopefully they'll see better days.

Last weekend I decided to head down to San Francisco and meet up with some friends. I took Friday off from work and rode 650 miles down to San Francisco. I had just put a new chain and sprocket on Thursday night, so I was constantly checking and adjusting my chain. Saturday morning, Fred (wazzufreddo) and I headed out of San Francisco to Livermore to pick up another friend, Dennis (who's actually a vfrd member, but lurks here most of the time). From there, we head to Yosemite. Outside Escalon on highway 120, we had to stop for a train. Time for some photos! Here's a picture of Fred. You can see the train in the background. And here's a picture of Dennis. In this picture, not only can you see the train, but you can also see the commuter train that also went screaming by while we were waiting for the freight train to pass. Here's a picture of the bikes at a view point in Yosemite. And here's a picture Fred took of me when I was standing on the rocks getting ready to take the picture of the bikes that you see above. There were some other bikes at the view point too. Most of theme were Harleys, but there was one guy on a BMW RT (I think). Well, he come over to say hi to us and then offered to take a picture of all of us next to our bikes. Awesome! Thanks dude, whoever you were. This would make a decent desktop background. We eventually made it out of Yosemite and got some lunch at a gas station where highway 120 and highway 395 meet. Pretty good food there. After lunch, we took off to head back home. Heading north on highway 395, we stopped real quick to check out Mono Lake. For all the safety-nazis and ATGATT guys out there, calm down. Both Dennis and Fred are wearing armor underneath their jeans. And here are the Viffers up on Sonara Pass. Wow, what an awesome road. Lots of twisties, switchbacks, and hair-pins, all the while going up a 26% grade. After making it though the bulk of the twisties, Dennis had to stop for a quick break, so I snapped the picture above. And here's Fred coming up on his SV. Poor guy; he was dying by the end of the day. Of course, he didn't get any sympanthy from Dennis or me since he did it to himself. All in all, Fred and I did 530 miles that day. Dennis, since he started in Livermore, only did 480 miles. Sunday after breakfast, we all headed out to a big parking lot in the Presidio of San Francicso. Fred and Dennis swapped bikes for a bit so Dennis could get a taste of the SV's massive torque. I ended up practicing tight turns until I found some traffic cones. So I ended up setting up a low speed slalom and we all took turns running through it. It was pretty hard to make it through, since you had to go back and forth between full lock right and full lock left. :thumbsup: Nothing special happened Monday. Just spent all day riding back up to Portland. All in all, I put about 1800 miles on the bike in four days. :beer:

:blink: Ok, I'll give it a try then. :thumbsup:

Yup no PC. I was under the impression that the O2 eliminator merely kept the bike from enter stoichiometric mode when holding a constant throttle. How does a PC keep the bike from stumbling if the ECU is always trying to adjust the air/fuel ratio at constant throttle? I thought all the PC did was allow you to dump more or less fuel into the cylinders at given throttle openings. Wouldn't the ECU still try to fight with the PC then? I'm confused. :unsure:

From everything I've read, most people seem to be happy with o2 sensor eliminators or 330 ohm resisters. So, I decided to try it. My results were less than favorable. Now when the bike stumbles/surges in the 4k-5k range, it feels like I lose all of my power. When I twist the throttle a bit to get out of the stoichiometric mode or when the RPMs get above 5k, it feels like someone just rear-ended me as the bike lurches forward violently. My pretty sure I plugged the resistors into the correct spots since the FI light doesn't come on. My only guess is that I grabbed the wrong resistors from Radio Shack. The package says 330 ohm, but I'm going to check the colors on the resistor just to make sure. :huh: Until I can figure it out, I'll be removing the resistors and plugging my o2 sensors back in. <_< YMMV.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12148

We've got Purolator up here in Portland. :D It's only a 5-minute walk for me to the local Fred Meyer, which is nice when you start changing the oil in your car or bike and find out you've only got oil filters for the other. So far, Fred Meyer is the only place I've found that carries Purolator. Autozone and Schuck's (that's Kragen or Checkers for you non-Northwesterners) don't seem to carry them. <_<