VFRBert

I started teaching myself after a series of screw ups every time I took my bikes in for service - at multiple dealerships. Various ham fisted morons scratched a brand new tank to hell, cross threaded a sump plug, reassembled a gear train incorrectly, left spacers out of a front wheel, lost various fairing fasteners (and didn't replace them), and many more. One even forgot they had my bike. If it had been only one dealership that would be easy to fix but this all happened at Honda, Suzuki, Ducati and KTM dealerships. As a result I started out by doing an oil change myself. Then I learned how to change tires, and worked my way up to 2-stroke rebuilds. Then a 4-stroke dirt bike rebuild, then a 4-stroke single street bike rebuild, then a 4 cylinder rebuild. You get the idea. All it takes really is a Haynes manual and a willingness to invest the money in tools that will pay for themselves many times over. Check out my YouTube channel for a few different bike rebuilds, http://youtu.be/Jz-MzJ6yKUo If I had one piece of advice to offer it would be this - buy a dirt bike that's not running. Then buy a Haynes manual for it and use it to learn. If you screw up, the parts are cheap and there's only one cylinder so its simple. Then when its fixed, either ride the hell out of it or sell it to pay for all the tools you had to buy. Then, when you need to work on something more complex/more important to you, the confidence is there because you know what needs to be done. I personally consider the tech schools out there a total waste of time. They are nothing but profit machines designed to take money from people. If they just happen to turn out a good mechanic its by accident not design. There are so many truly horrific techs working in dealerships that it makes no sense to let them work on a bike. Obviously they aren't all incompetent but the ones who do know what they're doing are under pressure to do their work faster than is possible and get paid barely more than minimum wage to do so. They are not allowed to check their work because that takes time away from other jobs so bikes go back to customers with loose wires, missing bolts and cross threaded plugs. Damn, I sound cynical but this is all from personal experience, not hearsay. Seb, that's a breather for oil vapor. The hose goes up to a catch tank in the tail which is then vented into the carbs. Switchblade, As far as I know the motor mount position is stock. What you're seeing is extra aluminum welded on by the race team to reduce/prevent flexing. I have noticed though that the Moriwaki chassis made for this engine actually uses the motor mount down in front of the sump - much like the RC45. That's some forward thinking engineering right there. Amen !!!! I started driving cars 27 years ago and my experience with dealers was about the same. They send me on the street with a subframe with loose bolts, repaired accident damage, but forgot to replace the fill nipple used for filling up the lpg tank. (I drove cars on liqified petroleum gas, wich is cheap and much better for the environment) Resulting in a pair of shoes, filled with liquid lpg. And that was cold on my feet. And at the same time my head turned red (very angry) And many more dumb and even dangerous things happened. So i started to do my own maintenance and repairs. Buy the tools and save lots of money. After a few years i got my motorcycle license and bought a bike. And off course i did and still do all the repairs and maintenance myself.

Great bike, thanks for sharing al those pics. Here in Holland in 2008 a guy bought 4 rc30 endurance racers, including a NLOB version, wich is completely factory built. Some parts like the racing carbs where lease only in that time. The bikes were kept for 14 years in a shed. Here a link to the Dutch forum, language Dutch off course, but a bunch off pics will tell the story.http://www.vfroc.nl/forumVFR/index.php?showtopic=10795 An rc30 having NLOB parts is rare.

Using a cellphone in The Netherlands, without handsfree kit kosts 350 euro, at current rates about 470 dollar. And still every day you see people using them while driving. They are talking, reading email, sending sms, using whatsapp and drive the same way as a drunk driver. Killing about 60 people in the busy Dutch traffic every year. The best thing after a accident is driving as soon as possible again. After my last accident i was on a motorcycle one day later. But it cost me nearly a year before i rode on my old level.

I've been there several times, but only as spectator. In normal weekends the ring is full of idiots driving like crazy. Every time i watched, i saw motorcylce's crashing. 20 kilometers of curves is difficult to learn. And knowing myself i am a crash candidate too. Crashed twice on the open road and hate it. Only professional riders, who know every curve are really fast. Not his fastest lap time of 7.49.71. but 10 seconds slower, caused by the camera equipment of the ninetys. His trackrecord dates from 1993 on a RC30 My advice for the ring is a good bike with upgraded suspension and a set of supercorsa's or newest pilot powers. On normal roadtyres forget it speeds are to high. I have nearly melted dunlop tyres on the autobahn, only straight out. Make a few rounds before you open up the trothle. Every year a lot of the Dutch sportriders go to the ring and many of them crash their bikes. It is a challenging circuit.

I have a Hagon monoshock for many years now. Much better than the original Honda. And compared to some brands affordable: http://www.hagon-shocks.co.uk/

English supplier of oem and aftermarket parts http://www.davidsilverspares.co.uk/

for European members: fairings and winsscreens: www.pferrer.de The site is in the German language.