V4 Rosso

Looking good, but what's up with the RWB colors? I thought you were going with all grey shades, or this this one from a spare set.

The clipons look nice, but wouldn't it be a lot easier if the bolts that clamp the clipons to the fork stanchions were oriented the other way round? Seems like you can't reach the bolts when the master brake cilinder is installed.

Was at the Honda dealer recently and they had the Honda branded Zumo on display. It also has the remote control (speak & zoom).

Here is a crappy phone pic.

I like it, and think it has just the right amount of blue. :fing02:

No, you're right that it was Technoflex claiming that Wilbers, in the past, copied one of their shocks.

The purple springs are indeed made by Hyperpro.

You can see that his vision is like any 50+ guy…………

RAM now has screen magnifiers. May be helpfull for your riding buddy? I don't know if one of those is suitable for a Zumo though.

Or what about this? Adhesive reading glasses:

Or the DIY solution: :D

It is not a direct swap as the lower mount is different. Don't know about shock length.

Here is a pic of the 3rd & 4th gen dampers.

Much better :thumbsup:

What a great review, thanks :thumbsup:

I want to get myself a drtbike for the same reasons: to become a better street rider and because it looks like a lot of fun.

Got cut off by some cagers weren't you? :D

Where is the sound clip :lol:

Excellent writeup, thanks. :thumbsup:

Looking forward to see the buildup progress. Won't be long before this one is on the cover of some bike mag :thumbsup:

Select the route by clicking on it, it will turn from purple to yellow. Now select the "add viapoint" tool or whatever it's called.

Click on the route somewhere you want to modify it, next click on a road you want to add to the route. Repeat this until your satisfied with the route.

please tell me I'm not smarter than all the guys at Garmin

I guess you are. :lol:

They did think of daylight savings time though.

If you live/ride in Venezuela, your Zumo will never be able to tell the correct time. :joystick:

"EDITED to add but it does not! There appears to be no way to instantly delete all your favorites...........still looking"

On a streetpilot you click <find><waypoints> and when you are presented with the list of POIs you press the <menu>button after which you get a menu that presents you the choises of deleting a single POI, all POI's or POI's that have a particular icon. I don't know what (screen)buttons the Zumo has, but the workflow might be somewhat similar to a streetpilot.

Looks great, well done :thumbsup:

I'm surprised about all the responses of folks using synthetic. I thought the manual said not to use oil with certain kind of friction additives or something, and every synthetic I've seen has them in the oil?

Synthetic motorcycle oil won't have the friction modifiers. I use Shell Advance and it comes in many flavours but all without friction modifiers.

Garmin just released it's latest version of Mapsource. It is supposed to suppress anouncements of viapoints. I've found that with my streetpilot (III), still some viapoints are anounced, but overall it's behaviour has improved.

You can download the latest version from http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209

What kind of rotors are those?

Yep, those are Beringer rotors.

• WP 4357 USD fork
  320mm Beringer rotors
  4-pot Brembo calipers
  16mm Brembo master brake cilinder
  3 spoke PVM wheel.
  

Btw, anyone familiar with these rotors?

I found a few mentions of WP:

The problem with the search function is that it doesn't look for words with less than four characters.

Thanks for setting that straight. Now there is even one more: 6th gen shock in the classifieds!

Now, would ya look at that Rosso, people DO care over here... (see toolcase)

Hehe, I noticed that. Meddle1999 has a KTM (pics in his gallery album) so that pretty much explains it.

And thanks (all) for the kudos :thumbsup: :D

(Ok, you've heard of Gabriel, right?)

... if I could have talked them into it, I would have bought that machine before they moved it to Michigan,

Yes, I know Gabriel. About the largest vehicle fast-fit chain (kwik-fit) has Gabriel for replacement shocks. To bad you weren't able to buy that dyno. If you can effectively operate a machine like that you can save a lot of time in getting the right set-up. I've seen a very large example of one in action. It had several hydropulse servohydraulic actuators and was used for testing 4 or 5 ton truck axles. That was quite impressive :blink:

The name always seemed a little KKKish to me. I trust that's not why they picked the name. :goofy:

Noticed they had some black springs and other colors too, so... :beer:

The answer to that can be found in the write-up :salesman:

Because of the possible association with the white power movement they don't use that name anymore.

From the WP historical overview

Right from the beginning, the springs that were used on WP shock absorbers were white, which became the typical WP colour. There’s a nice anecdote to the circumstances that led to the "choice" that was made for this colour. In the beginning the springs were coated by a company that produced hospital beds and white was the only possible colour for them (!). Although, nowadays the coating is done by special spring coating companies, the WP shock absorbers can still easily be recognised by the white springs. The white springs also introduced the original brand name of "White Power" which we are not using actively in the market anymore since 1991.

Btw the black is actually some kind of bronze color, looks pretty good.

Öhlins, Penske, Wilbers, Hyperpro & Elka are the manufacturers that show up when browsing/searching the suspension subforum here on VFRD. Öhlins is renowned for it's quality schocks, and with all that shiny gold anodised bodies they look good too. Elka made the 5th and 6th gen owners here on VFRD an offer you can't refuse. If they had offered a shock for a third gen I sure would have been on the list. Penske is a big name in the US, no idea if there are Penske dealers here in Europe. Wilbers and Hyperpro offer moderately priced shocks and springs. All will likely outperform the stock VFR shocks.

But when searching VFRD for WP I didn´t get a single hit (edit: keny just posted a topic that mentions WP). Also I recently posted some pics of a mono arm in another topic, asking if anyone knew what it was. But even after someone found the "hidden" spoilerpic that showed who made it (WP), still no answers to what exactly it was: the TLGS (Troll Linear Guiding System) mono-arm. Seems like WP suspension is not a well known company among Sport & ST riders,at least not on your side of the pond.

And that is something that is recognised and apparently also bugs WP Suspension. This year WP celebrated 7 world championships among those of Ten Kate Honda: James Toseland 2007 champion WSB & Kenan Sofuoglu World Champion SuperSport 600, but still they're not as well known as aforementioned manufacturers. In order to change that, they could have opted to spend more on advertising or offer their shocks for bargain prices. But no, WP choose to have some riders over for some coffee and have a strawl around their plant to have a look at what it is exactly you spend your cash on. What better riders to have come visit than VFR riders who appreciate quality, durability, dependability and performance. Well, at least WP thinks that those qualifications apply to their suspension parts, and with 7 World Championships, who can argue with that. At least BWM and KTM think that's true, as they have chosen WP Suspension as their OEM.

For those who have watched Long way down those were Öhlins shock that failed. :salesman:

Anyway, I was pretty impressed with their plant. It looks well organised and they have some nice machinery too. The main activities of the Malden plant are assembly, quality control and R&D. From there, all parts are shipped to the worldwide distributors.

Below you'll find a photo impression of the tour they organised forthe Dutch VFR owners club, I hope you like it.

Like I said, WP is OEM for BMW, but they make shocks & springs for almost every street and dirt bike.

First bikes you see when entering the lobby. Active suspension: electronically adjustable BMW shock.

Race forks and steering dampers are also on their product list.

<drool>Shocks, shock- and fork springs everywhere. WP shock springs are mostly white because in the early seventies the only suitable paint was only available in white. Now you can get them in different colors. Maybe you can even get the titanium (yes titanium) springs clear coated, wouldn't that be nice :thumbsup:

Our guide for the day has had several VFRs himself. A blue VTEC that he later sold to VFRD member http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.p...4906]BlueVFRank was equiped with a one off race spec suspension. I am not sure of the current whereabouts of this bike, as BlueVFRank traded it for an Aprilia. It may still be up for sale at some dealer.

Like most company visits you start of with a presentation showing some of the company facts and hihglights. Never knew WP was involved in F1 too. Oh and as you can see, Wp is not just OEM to KTM but has been a daughter company of KTM for several years now.

The parts for the shocks come from varying suppliers. In this day and age it is just not possible to produce all the neccessary parts that go into a shock yourself, machinery is just to expensive. When parts are delivered at the plant, they are first thouroughly cleaned in a pair of industrial washing machines before moving on to the assembly line or quality control. Some components are individualy check wheter they conform to spec, for others only samples of a batch are being checked.

Looks quite cluttered from this viewpoint.

Ah, that's better :D

Detailed instructions at each assembly station, conform ISO9001.

Stacking the shims is done by hand. That's quite a tedious job if you ask me, but whowever is responsible for it is said to be extremely fast with the shims, and can tell the excact thickness blindfolded (they come in a large variety of thicknesses). I bet he or she would be a pretty good croupier :lol:

This machine fills two shock simultaniously with oil and presurises them in a matter of seconds.

Next was quality control. They have some pretty neat machinery to check whether the parts conform to specification and if everything works like it is supposed to when assembled. Besides the indvidual components, every twentieth shock coming off the assembly line is being disassembled and thoroughly checked. I am beginning to understand why thes shock don't come cheap.

Of course equipment like this is kept in a conditioned room (temperature & humidity kept at a constant).

Time for a short brake. It was a nice day fora ride too, oh well.

Off to R&D. Here is where the new models of BMW and KTM get their suspension dialed in and endurance tests are performed.

Latest KTM ATV that had just been released to the press:

Left: Test rig for forks. Several triangular shaped bumps (like you see laying on the diamond plated platform) are bolted to that steel blue wheel to similute roadbumps. The fork is clamped in the rather sturdy tripples.

Right: Rear shocks impact test rig. The swingarm is attached to a heavy steel plate that is dropped from several feet high.

Another endurance test rig for fork legs and some other KTM frame getting a new shock:

The engineers would have been staring out the windows all day, drooling over all these beautifull bikes parked outside.

This it what the cabinet of an R&D engineers looks like, just like it should:

Unlike that of a race engineer:

Race department:

This poor guy (the tall one) was the only one at work that day (apart from our tour guide). He was doing some testing/set-up on a shock for some motocross world champion. I suppose those WCs can be pretty demanding that you have to work overtime :lol:

Shocks and forks for champions:

Here some parts were made from billet material:

Hey a lathe, though BLS was nowhere to be seen.

That looks nice doesn't it?

That conludes about this visit, not much else to be seen apart from a rather impressive stock of billet materials. Oh and here is that mono-arm I wrote about earlier.

Outside our tour guide demonstrated how to set sag on the VFR and we were off for lunch :sleep:

Big thanks to WP suspension for having us over. Was very informative and impressive.

As an encore, here is a pic of the best looking VFR :P with WP forks. And yes, that is a Hyperpro sticker on the fork lowers :D For some reason Hyperpro springs were installed in the forks :salesman:

My shock, with 74K km is likely well worn and due for a replacement. I haven't decided yet what brand or type but I'd rather have an aftermarket shock like a WP or Hyperpro than the original replacement. These aftermarket shocks being serviceable is a big plus. And if you like, you can take the shock with you when you get a new bike. They can swap some parts so it fits the new bike. Not sure if that's worth the hasle though.

Looks good. I wanted to fit HID to my third gen but can't find a spot to fit the ballasts.

I found my Garmin quest to be invaluable on my 50k miles of trips with it, but unreliable with it tendancy to break the antenna. I hope the zumo is more rugged I am going to replace it this winter with a zumo.

...

And yes mapsource doesnt have enough roads marked as dirt, since it was always trying to route me on dirt roads.

The Zumo has an internal antenna, not a flip-up like the quest, so that's a big plus. And from what I've heard the Zumo is a pretty rugged device. Best story was from a guy who was doing 40mph downhill on his (race)bicycle (yeah, don't ask why having a zumo on you bicycle :D ) when he hit a patch of bad asphalt and the Zumo dropped out of the mount onto the pavement. Bounced several times before coming to a halt in the weed besides the road. Zumo was fine, only some scratches.

As for the dirtroads, I hear ya. My experience is that only roads that were created by solely removing the vegetation are marked as dirt roads. If someone just throws some stonechips on it, it is marked by navteq as being a regular "paved" road. Garmin/Navteq does have a website where you can report map errors, but it is not very userfriendly. I filed some errors but got tired of having to type my personal info over and over again. Why do I have to do that when I am already logged into their website? :joystick: And like you said, after having used mapsource for some time, you get a feel for what roads to avoid when plotting a route.

but I have way too much crap on my Wing grip as it is.

....

There is supposed to be another generic Zumo firmware change coming --- maybe the Sat stuff will be there. I just want the 10K ft fixed on the altimeter so that I can go back to CO and avoid those meters :rolleyes:

Get a new wing :D All 2007 Wings come with the built in GPS (Garmin 7200?) don't they? That way you'll have some extra space to add other gadgets. I can't however imagine what other gadget you can add to the wing other than maybe a small bbq. :lol:

On the 10k ft. Is that because the altitude indiction is limited to a max of four digits? Looking at the screendump, I guess it is. But what about the tracklog, does it show the correct (non metric) altitude?

Btw, here is a pic of the Honda Streetpilot2610 mount for the 6th gen.

Over the last years you could buy (at least in Europe) a Honda branded Garmin Streetpilot 2610 with a remote control on the left clipon with which you could use some of the basic functions, like zooming and volume control, with your left thumb. It also came with a special mount for the VFR (bolted to the clutch and brake reservoir).

Euro versions looked a bit different from the Japanese navigator. Unfortunately I can't find the link to the flyer I posted here on VFRD before. Also the Euro Honda sites don't show the nav set in the VFR accessory list anymore.

The Streetpilots have now been replaced by the Zumo 550. The pic below shows what is included in the nav set:

Curently only the Japanese Honda website mentions the nav set. The Euro sites provide no further info at this moment.

The nav set comes with helmet speakers, but you can can also use the Honda (Gathers M) bluetooth communicator with the Zumo.

Below a close-up of the remote control:

You can also use the remote control to browse through the MP3s stored on the zumo and some other menu's, so you don't have to take your hands off the clipons.

This page offers a download link to a 148 page manual (in Kanji). Looks like Honda did a better job on making a user manual for the Zumo than Garmin.

I am not very familiar with the Zumo (have an older streetpilot) but someone else pointed out that the "Honda" Zumo has some different menus from the regular Garmin Zumo. For instance, it can plot the location and signal strength of the GPS satellites (common to the streetpilots) and also the telephone menu is said to be different (besides the use of Kanji :D )

Satellite menu.

Telephone menu.

Don't know if there will be a special Zumo mount for the VFR as there was for the Streetpilot. Interesting however that the Honda Zumo has different firmware from the original Garmin Zumo. Not sure if BWM has a different firmware in their navigator III (Garmin SP2720). It does come with all BMW dealer loaded into the map data.

VfrOEM is probably the only guy who would buy one of these, they're $250 apiece!

Now that the € is US$1.41, these Ti rotors are cheaper than OEM. :D

Man does that Rivcyko brand hugger look sweet!

Best looking hugger money can buy :thumbsup:

That 6th gen looks awesome, I like the RC30 colors a lot.

It also looks good on a 3rd gen. :