timmoer

My Arai was a bit tight and noticeably more relaxed now that it broke in. It's also one of the most comfy helmets there is after trying AGV and Shoei IMO. I'd highly recommend it for people with a rounder head

Oooo I have one of those - my VFR is the daily and 954 my canyon carver on the weekends. I think it's a very good two-bike garage!

Hand-washing the inside of your fairings? Love the attention to detail! Lovely time reading through the initial post and will follow along. About the zipties, I just have a nice pair of side cutters and flush cut right to the housing. Always comes out damn near perfect with no stickout - never cut your hands again and it looks quite tidy!

Yeah, when I had my accident on my SV650 I was so lucky (or rather unlucky) that the plate was more or less right in front of the camera that I caught it. I think you'd have to spend like $3-400+ to get something that captures plates in high enough resolution with that fast of a frame rate. I'm satisfied enough with my cheap cam, still useful as long as people don't hit and run

I have the Blueskysea B5M, it's about $130 USD off Ali Express. Here's an example video: I'll never go without a dashcam, when I was a new rider on my SV650 I installed the cam and literally the next day someone didn't see me in their blind spot, merged into me, I locked up and went down. We didn't actually come into contact, just came super freaking close - the guy pulled over, then just left. From the camera I made out his plate and showed it to the police, who ultimately charged him and I got his insurance to pay for full repairs (most of which I pocketed, really it was just a clutch lever, shifter, and some chinese fairings).

Off topic but I saw your N600 build on The Smoking Tire. Hearing that engine on that video is part of why I bought my 5th gen. Amazing builds sir!

Ha, just realized the images got posted as links rather than pics somehow - fixed

$13 heated grips from Ali Express - I thought about the $3 ones that you tape/glue behind the grip but a) it's not insulated from the bar itself, so the throttle hand will be hotter, and b) I haven't had a good experience in general, one of them went out on my old SV. These ones come impregnated within the grip itself, it's much more robust and at the hottest setting my hand gets a little too hot. I also like how slick the controls are, very nicely integrated with 1 small slider on the left grip with 5 settings. Only downside is the right grip comes glued to a cheap throttle tube, they intend that you replace it. I'd rather not use some crappy aftermarket throttle tube (that came cracked, I might add - so in reality it went from $13 to something like $6 for the set) so I spent a bunch of time separating it so I could install it over the stock throttle tube. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804895402901.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.115.7fd01802rJAiwY&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

Checking back in, really appreciate the quick guide on fuel tank re-keying. Easy peasy and with a good bit of cleaning with brake cleaner and some dry teflon lube (for my bike chain) the locking mechanism is working better than ever. Who knew pressing down on the cap would actually turn the key from unlocked to locked! Didn't do that before

Yeah, I do a fair bit of road biking so my first impression was torque wrenches for carbon road bikes - but I really never understood why the cycling world is so obsessed with lubed fastener threads. Torque specs are set per conditions in the service manual - the majority of which do not specify anything, so best to follow whatever procedure the manual says (and for cars + motorcycles... it's just not common to put coatings on threads unlike the cycling world).

I went with OEM, I don't want to risk needing to do this job again for a long time. Along those lines I replaced the o-rings on all the coolant fittings, with a light smearing of RTV on the mating surfaces as well since even after cleaning the o-ring grooves weren't as smooth as I'd liked. I can deal with scraping off the RTV in 20 years' time if needed

Mine is the same - it's hard to describe but with clutch lever out, there's this almost "digital" type of noise that you can feel in the handlebars, some sort of medium to high frequency vibration that's causing it. I'm at almost 39k miles, clutch doesn't slip and I have ample clutch travel before engagement. I didn't think it's a big issue and am just going to leave it

Yeah I got the hose clamps as well, don't regret it one bit. Was a relatively painless process - I'd read online of some people needing to take the TB off after putting it all back together because of a small leak. Not a drop from mine after first install, knock on wood

Ha, I stupidly didn't read closely and thought new parts for the barrel was needed. If it's just a matter of shaving the pins flush, sounds like a good small project on a weekend. Weirdly enough the key for my tank is the suspected HISS version (with two grooves running along the length of the key), whereas the ignition key just has one. The HISS tank key doesn't even go into the ignition, but the ignition key does go into the tank - luckily it's not the other way round otherwise this wouldn't work!