Robin Rich

+1 on the aluminum foil. It saves a lot of mess. I went back to Honda filters after having a K&N leak for no apparent reason. The nut was sure convenient though.

It's true what switchblade says that after you've crashed a couple of times you know you'll probably recover and you might as well get on with it. Something no one else seemed to mention to watch for becoming reckless after a crash. After my last big crash in 03 i proceded to loose my good driver discount in a big way during the year after. I got five tickets for stuff like rolling stops at stop signs and ten over speeding tickets, riding inside the "cone zone" right in front of a black and white, pure stupid stuff, not the Sunday morning ride like your hairs on fire stuff. I started riding again before the bones were fully knit because I just couldn't sit in a car listening to NPR for one more commute which may have had something to do with it. I learned to take a zen moment before I got on the bike and clear my mind, trying to be aware of everything but focusing on nothing. It really helped. I try to do it to this day.

I used Mobil 1 V4 for the first couple of changes based on the reviews in the 2005 thread. After that I realized I really liked the ELF on the side of the swingarm and if using ELF meant the bike only lasted 160K rather than 180K I could live with it. I like having the jugs around. It's the only tie my garage has to Formula 1.

Since somebody revived this thread, an oil filter one yet, I have a question. I just put on a K&N filter with the seventeen milimeter nut on the end. I was at Cycle Gear and that was the only one they had that fit. Both the manual and the box for the filter say to torque it to 20lbs. I did and couldn't believe how much torque I was putting on a filter. I usually just hand tighten them and figure their good. I was so concerned I backed off and did it my old fashion way. Now I may have overtorqured it once and it wil start to leak, who knows. Does any body else torque their oil filters to 20lbs? Honda filter (on a good day), Mobil 1 V-Twin, Metzler Z-6 by the way.