Kiwiwannafly

What a patient man - it only took how many back & forths to get an answer?

Gen 5 odometer CAN be switched between miles and km. Speedo is just a face change. See my recent post.

Similar: Perfect day on a perfect smooth Swiss engineered road on a K100, getting adventurous with shaving the footpegs and sliding the front tyre a little. Then blown away by several Jappos - a Honda 750 four K1!!, GS750 etc. Talk about ego deflation....till I caught up with them at a cafe, took a closer look and slowly began to understand. All of them shared a common theme - Fritz Egli frames.

Dude! You stole my bike! LOL! Nah, my fork lowers are painted and I still have the original exhaust. This is definitely the place for good oil on VFR's - even Gen5 and older. Can't help re: Power Commander map sorry. I picked up an ex-English model imported into NZ after a hard neglected life of salty roads with a long litany of predominantly electrical corrosion issues. Our relationship vacillates between threats of fuel line cuts and matches, and kicking over in the surf and letting the sea finish the work it started. And then there are the days when I prod her in the ass and she just howls with delight. That V4 is damn addictive. Where's the abandoned air strip? Been over a fair bit of the states (well actually a fair bit of the world now) on 2 wheels, but don't recognise the backdrop at all. I'll dare to bet the VFR blew the snot out of Tom Cruise's ZZR (Top Gun pun)...

My daughter has two pairs of sunglasses. The Raybans are pretty good, the Roybins hmm....not so good.

Twas time for a new chain cause the old one was pretty knackered and making funny clicking sounds. But being the tight arse that I am, I thought saving a few bucks on a chain should tide me over. And a "DID 530 O ring" chain from China seemed to fit the budget. Note at this stage the sprockets were both looking pretty tidy - symmetrical, no sign of hooking or wear. From day 1: New Chinese "DID" (yeah right!) chain required adjustment at about 50km. Not a typo. 50. Required re-adjustment at about 200km and intervals of about 200km ever since. Required lubrication (like chain was rusting and squeaking) at about 500km, and similar intervals ever since. Ran out of adjustment, so shortened chain by 2 links (I know - serious alarm bells) So at about 5000km it is completely rooted & time for a genuine DID 530 VX3. Rear sprocket is well chewed now especially near the tips of each tooth - they are up for replacement too. As a comparison I put the Chinese "DID" next to the new genuine DID. And guess what? They measured exactly the same length. Except the old Chinese DID was 106 links (108 minus the 2 I cut off) and the genuine DID was 110 (not cut to 108 yet). That's a 4 LINK STRETCH!!! Master link pins were as loose as (expletive censored). O rings were visibly sloppy around the pins too. Permanently greased - pfft! Moral of the story - just don't. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32880942533.html?spm=a2g0o.ams_97944.0.0.2356v5Yvv5Yv3z&pdp_ext_f={"ship_from":"CN","sku_id":"12000027369291254"}&scm=1007.26694.140541.0&scm_id=1007.26694.140541.0&scm-url=1007.26694.140541.0&pvid=7602e4d3-7d19-4f77-ba10-da44bf9867d9&fromRankId=11751190&_t=fromRankId:11751190 Photo 1 - follow the links Photo 2 - side flex between Chinese DID and new genuine. PS - Don't need lecturing. This is a cautionary tale - not one I need tutoring on.

Not quite 74 yet (mid 60's) but still pursuing my 10+ year dream of circumnavigating Africa solo by bike. Was on my way (twice!) but second time covid sent me home after a 2 month lock down in Morocco just on the Mauritania border. Another Transalp, another day soonish and I'll be back. Wrecked knees on an adventure bike? Pah! I'll manage just fine.

Have a real close look at each chain link, especially the 'master' link. I had issues with a badly worn master link pin and the corresponding roller it inserted through. Very flattened & worn out O ring = lack of lube = big wear = weird chain/sprocket sounds and chain tensioning was impossible. Too tight at one spot, too loose at another. Was an easy fix - new chain.

Having owned a couple of Transalps recently I can vouch for their bullet proof reputation. Transalp 1: 2003? - well used, not so well maintained. Quick bit of chain clean, fluids replacement, tossed on some soft saddle bags and headed out of Brisbaine Australia. Few months and about 30,000km later well south of Perth via pretty much the coast anti clockwise. Probably a good third of that off tar seal and a fair portion of that 4WD tracks including Daintree, Telegraph Track, Gibb River. Not an enduro bike by any means, but capable of big road miles in relative comfort and able (slow and with care) to get you well off the beaten track. Only had the bolt on the end of the shock shaft work its way off - two days and about 400km dirt road and river crossings with a pogo stick before I found a place with the tools to fix it. And the common final drive sprocket shaft wear. Got a good fix on that - 10,000km later still primo. Transalp 2: After the first good run I was keen on another for Europe prior to a BIG trip around Africa. This one 2001 with a slightly dodgy whine in 3rd gear only - that never got better, never got worse. This one nearly 40,000km of sweet running - European alps, some big highway miles, days in the Albanian villages that never got beyond 3rd gear, Western Sahara big sands - sadly cut short by covid lockdowns otherwise I'd still be tootling around Africa. To be continued. And I'd do another Transalp any day. Other considered bikes with similar credentials - DR's, KLX, maybe a Dominator. None of them with the road creds of a Transalp but likely much more capable off road. Anything more modern is unlikely to be fixable on the side of the road hundreds of km from civilisation. Just my experiences and opinions.

Substantial repairs to my gen5 fairing - had the luxury of a hot staple gun on loan. Stainless staples melted across the breaks adds a lot of strength and you're able to keep the outer surfaces flush. Topped this with fibreglass backing as well. Look carefully at areas to be repaired, especially where they mesh with other panels - some tricky little tabs and slots that once broken can go unnoticed. 3M makes a 2 pack epoxy plastic repair - hard, semi-rigid and flexible plastic to suit various locations/flexibilities. Really good stuff but damn expensive. Also need a mixing nozzle - this stuff sets amazingly fast so one mixing nozzle per use. Check headlight mounts, back of all places where front and side fairings mesh - these holes often are cracked - pretty thin plastic there. Of course in the interests of dedicated weight saving you could ditch them all for the extreme nude look.

Watching the temp rise from a 'normal' of 77-78C to 95+ sitting in traffic in summer is a bit of a anxiety builder, but never has seemed to cause any issues.

Nice job! Believe me - I am uncomfortably familiar with English salt corrosion - particularly in the electrics. I would suggest taking the ignition switch completely apart (now that you've got it all back together!) to check for corrosion of the contacts there. I had several other issues that stemmed from corrosion, high resistance & heat generated from it.

Guess what? My starter motor cranks up really nicely now

Ah Cogswell and Howtech my friends - I have conclusive proof that your logic progression resistance-heat-corosion-open circuit is not true ALL the time! (don't take offense, I'm being a smart arse here...) In my case In was suffering from a dodgy ignition switch on a VFR that had a lot of salt corrosion issues. Initially the switch worked intermittently. Traced that down to a wire to the switch that had 'corroded' in the middle of its lengths, inside the plastic insulation, inside a plastic sheath bundling the 3 wires to the switch. The source was only found by stripping off the insulation and finding the area where wires were 'corroded' - I'll come back to this point. OK - fixed that, re-installed. Switch works fine, starts up - all good. Until morning - dead flat battery. Check with a spare battery - everything lights up, starts etc. With no key and ignition switched OFF. WTF??? So - pull the switch again to check - yep continuity between all 3 wires in the OFF position. Check the soldering on the wire connection into the switch - a melted bit of insulation allowing contact between 2 of the 3 wires. Now how the hell did that happen?? It was fine yesterday. This time pulling the switch apart completely. Significant corrosion deposits on the contact areas within the switch. The penny slowly dropped. The poor/intermittent connection there was causing enough resistance to heat at least one wire, melting enough insulation to allow it to contact another wire. And previously enough to heat the wire at a 'weak' spot along its length, progressively causing it to 'corrode' or eventually burn through. So in this case a shit connection yes caused resistance, yes lead to heat and corrosion, but (due to the melted insulation) caused a CLOSED circuit when it should have been open! Yeah, yeah - pedantic. But man, when you've had a bitch of a day going over and over stuff, its great to put a cause to the symptoms at last. So - pull the switch again to check - yep continuity between all 3 wires in the OFF position. Check the soldering on the wire connection into the switch - a melted bit of insulation allowing contact between 2 of the 3 wires. Now how the hell did that happen?? It was fine yesterday. This time pulling the switch apart completely. Significant corrosion deposits on the contact areas within the switch. The penny slowly dropped. The poor/intermittent connection there was causing enough resistance to heat at least one wire, melting enough insulation to allow it to contact another wire. And previously enough to heat the wire at a 'weak' spot along its length, progressively causing it to 'corrode' or eventually burn through. So in this case a shit connection yes caused resistance, yes lead to heat and corrosion, but (due to the melted insulation) caused a CLOSED circuit when it should have been open! Yeah, yeah - pedantic. But man, when you've had a bitch of a day going over and over stuff, its great to put a cause to the symptoms at last!

I put mine back together again after removing about 20 years of English salty roads and criminal neglect. Yet to ride the 929 shock mod for an opinion. Better looking than it did when I picked it up.