Veefer800Canuck

GO MIGUEL! :cheerleader:

Now I need a new hugger too, I dont want to reuse the oem nor that crappy plastic aftermarket thing. I need to hit up ryvicko to see what hes got by way of huggers?

The Harris Huggers like mine also come in black fibreglass, much cheaper than CF.

If I had've known, I could have ordered two when I got mine, and reshipped a fibreglass one to you.

Oh well.

Miguel, to get the needle bearings out, you can use a socket that is just the right size to barely fit inside the swingarm hole. Hammer on the socket as a sacrificial part.

As for the roller bearings on the front right of the swingarm, there is a circlip in there, you'll need a pair of circlip pliers for that.

You may need to get the needle bearings from Honda (possibly no choice?), but the round roller bearings for the swingarm and eccentric you should be able to source from an industrial bearing supply house much more cheaply.

Try this list:

http://maps.google.ca/maps?sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&oe=utf8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=bearings+colorado+springs&fb=1&gl=ca&hq=bearings&hnear=colorado+springs&view=text&ei=BemeS4bRMYbosQOW2bCdCw&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CA8QtQMwAA

I take my swingarm off and regrease the bearings about every second winter, just so that everything stays in nice shape. I do the steering head bearings and check the front end during the inbetween winters.

It's a lot of work, but you don't end up with nasty surprises and rusted solid components. I've seen conventional swingarm bikes with the axle completely welded in place from corrosion.

During reassembly, I put a THIN coating of grease on the each of the swingarm pivot bolt, the rear axle, and the front axle. That keeps them from rusting solid in place.

Such beautiful pics, makes me want to do it all over again.

My only regret was that we didn't have 3 days of riding in Colorado instead of 1. That way, we could shuffle the group rides and get to do all the different routes and ride with almost everyone.

Good food, good folks and good fun! That's what makes VFRd such a blast!

Yeah, it might take us until next year to save up for that 1200, so another season for the old girl.

Way to go Dan!

Excellent as usual Miguel.

Glad Craig got his electrical woes sorted.

Too bad it was 4 months too late. :(

Excellent writeup Miguel, I could only manage pictures and captions, there was just too much to explain. Phew!

Anyhow, our tagalong's name was Ryan from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, riding a Ninja 636. We met him in Washington on the ferry from Whidbey Island to Port Townsend. He kinda melded into our trip by accident, and it was a happy accident at that. Super nice guy, easy to get along with. :thumbsup:

Ryan is in the center here, at Alcatraz, the entrance to the underground tunnels:

As for Craig's ZX-12 running crappy, I think it was a plugged injector or something related to the fuel system. Sounded like it was running on 3 cylinders almost a whole day? Anyhow, after some FI cleaner in the tank and a couple more fresh loads of fuel from different places, it cleared up and ran fine all the way home.

But even when it did run good, we were filling up like every 120-150 miles or earlier. I could probably manage almost 180, at least under steady cruising, not twisties. It's a thirsty beast, the big twelver.

And the dude we met in Crater Lake on the (nearly flawless) white VFR700 is Jerry from Seattle.

He's joined the site now, so perhaps we'll hear more from him. He ushered us from Crater Lake up to Bend Oregon and a bit further than that the next day. He knew all the local roads (with nearly 90,000 MILES on his '87, I guess so) and got us off of Hwy 97 as soon as possible. I hates that damn stretch of road. Hot, Straight, Boring, Big Trucks Everywhere, Ridiculously Low Speed Limit.

But Bend was really nice. We hung around downtown, ate dinner at a nice brewpub and walked around downtown by the river admiring the houses and so forth.

Would be a great place to live methinks. :idea3:

Here's Miguel in Carmel Valley at the Running Iron Tavern where we had dinner, astride my 800:

And Miguel at Alice's:

All our bikes at the GG bridge, 2-800's, Gixxer Thou and ZX12R:

And I believe Miguel is in the background watering the flowers or something??? :salesman:

Sorry, don't me.

Your transformation to the dark side is almost complete, Darth Bling.