All Activity

Looks like cockpit on old cop bike, which switch fires up the Blues n two's? 🤣 Jeez, Moose, Deer, Bears n Lynx, WoW, biggest thing we've got to watch out for is a dopey half asleep Badger wandering about in the road, the odd Deer in limited areas. Old 4th Gen 750, never owned one as yet, always liked em tho, howz it ride compared to the 5th Gen?

Glad to be of some assistance. Most bikes & cars run this simple circuit, it's a good idea the Ohms test rad sensor with a meter, check its in spec, you'd need to remove sender, suspend it in a pan of cold water, note the Ohms value cold, heat water up, note Ohms value hot when water temp hits the sender temp stamped on it, you've then a cold/hot Ohms value to check against shop manual specs, if it's out of spec it can never open & close the circuit at the correct temps, FUBAR, needs replacing.

looking at the diagram, i can see why you might've thought that, but i'm fairly certain the fan and ECU are just grounded to the same point. that same wire is also the ground for just about everything else, and the ECU has no other grounds going to it, so it wouldn't make a ton of sense for the ECU to be switching that ground.

Hi Gaz, Your description is exactly what i have done on my other bikes. I was just a bit hesitant that the ground goes through the ECU, rather than to the frame. The Law of Unintended Consequences did pass through my mind as I looked at the wiring schematic. I have ordered a 650 cfm 6" fan, and will install an override switch to start. Haven't found a 95C 16mm fan switch yet, but will keep looking. Oddly I keep running into 85C switchs for Hondas..... I am a form follows function guy, not really to worried about the rivet counters of the world, so my bikes reflects that. Far left lighted switch is my game lights, angled out and slightly up to the sides. This is for Moose, Deer, Bear, Lynx, etc. Whatever that can come barreling out of the woods at night. We do not have lighted roads outside of town centers, and virtually no cutbacks from the side of road to the forest. Second roundish switch is my fan override. Third lighted switch is amber fog lights. Gulf of Maine is the second foggiest place on the planet. Last switch on the right, grip heaters. Elegant? No. Functional? Yes.😁. Appreciate your input, its helped. Thanks. Oh yeah, pic is of my 97.

That's excellent work on diagnosing it, well done!

Good stuff guys, thanks.

On sites that don't autosize, I just make a 1600x* copy with sm after the name and post that.

Even easier with AI. I asked it to build me a back roads route 100 miles from A to B I already know without prompting every turn in-between. Said I don't want to take interstates, curvy backroads please. It kind of got it, I just updated with please go through here instead remove these 2 roads. It finalized the route I wanted. Even with the corrections it was still quicker than plotting every waypoint individually.

I also now use Google maps. I took vfrcaptain's good idea and bought a cheap ($60) Chinese CarPlay screen: https://www.amazon.com/CAMECHO-Motorcycle-Waterproof-Motorbike-Bluetooth/dp/B0D8KVKCGV?pd_rd_w=a12xu&content-id=amzn1.sym.ef8687d6-a5c9-462d-bf15-2b003652688f&pf_rd_p=ef8687d6-a5c9-462d-bf15-2b003652688f&pf_rd_r=WPJ6N23CPYDDFCBXPV1S&pd_rd_wg=4A6ua&pd_rd_r=be2b8b4a-7e09-4a4a-87d2-62a4ce9097f4&pd_rd_i=B0D8KVKCGV&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_grid_rp_0_46_pr_t) I'm Apple but it works with Android also. RAM mounted and powered from the bike. My old Garmin Zumo is now a doorstop. On longer trips I also bring a physical map, not for during the ride, but for looking at and planning once I've stopped for the night. Old school but it allows me to look at the big picture instead of a small screen. Here in the U.S. Butler makes good motorcycle-specific maps, and I will sometimes take my DeLorme maps, which are bulky but very detailed.

Update, this is even easier for Google. I just prompted Gemini (Google's AI thing). "Can you build me a Google maps route starting at X, to Y, and then to Z?". It spat out a whole thing showing photos of the area, tourist spots etc.. at bottom was image of route with a "Navigate in Google Maps" button. That launched the app with the route loaded. Again 3 dots "save to home screen"

Don't over think the fan circuit, it's only a ground side switched circuit. If you wanna add an override switch, you only need to add a wire to the single wire on the left rad fan temp sender, run this up to a 2 pole switch, connect other side of switch to chassis ground, you then can control fan "ON/OFF" at will via the switch, use heavy gauge wire & a quality switch that's rated for 12vDC, switch will only function while ignition is "ON" so if bike is ever stinking hot when you park, you can kill the motor, leave ignition on for a few mins, fan will run to pull motor temp down, reduces the heat soak effect. Only issue is finding a discreet looking rocker switch & a location to mount it, usually involves drilling a hole. You could mount it out of sight in the plastic infill panel on the fairing inners near fork stanchions, would be a fiddle to operate with gloves, but it would be out of sight, if a visible switch bothers you etc.

The 3rd and 4th gen headlights are nearly identical (different mounting points, apparently), and I have also taken one apart to have a gander. The glass is, as you say, thick and heavy. It is also heavily "fresneled", which would likely distort the light projected through it, kind of defeating the purpose of upgrading the lights. I had two thoughts. One was to simply replace the glass with a piece of curved/formed Lexan(R), similar to how they make aftermarket windscreens. Well, "simply" may be oversimplifying the process! It would necessarily involve loads of fabrication and experimentation. I doubt anything from another model would come anywhere close to fitting, but you could get lucky. The other idea was to somehow grind down and polish the inside of the glass lens to eliminate the ripples. I figured I would only need to smooth and polish the glass in a 2-3" circle directly in front of the projector lens. That could also make the process do-able on a drill press with a few appropriate attachments: find a way to safely and firmly mount the lens to the drill table, then grind/polish away until perfection has been achieved. Needless to say, I actually did neither of those things! The 5th-gen mini-project is much simpler, and therefore has a chance of being completed during my lifetime. Ciao, JZH

no thread but i can provide a quick rundown: this is the fan: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BC2DDM1P it's mounted with one of these style of kits, available at o'reillys: i added the relay just because aftermarket cooling fans usually draw a metric crapton of current and i was entirely sure the stock circuit wouldn't be up to it. here's how i wired it: now instead of carrying any of the load current, which would probably make it burn up the switch and pop fuses, the stock circuit just controls the relay, which provides power to the fan straight from the battery. (through a properly sized fuse, of course.) it was easiest for me to do it this way only because i already had all the supplies lying around, but it would be completely possible to do this with an aftermarket fan controller, like the kind with the probe that just sticks through the rad fins.

I just use Google maps. Since it's free, already on my phone and does live traffic data. I've looked up ride suggestions on motorcycleroads.com, Rever etc, but I don't use any boutique apps for touring. 🤷‍♂️ I can make a route on my phone. Put in first stop, three dots upper right "edit stops" add consecutive stops to build a route. When Done.. click "Done". 3 dots again "Add Route to Home Screen". Map widget has you drag an icon and place the route anywhere on home screens If it's super complicated ride exceeding Google's stop limit, I'll chop the ride into sections and save another route icon.

Very interesting. I've pulled a 4th Gen headlight assembly apart (to fit a different lens to the black housing with bi-xenon retrofit) and the weight of the glass is crazy. Would be interesting to see whether a 5th Gen lens could be adapted...

Must be the pixel size; this image (taken today) was originally 5400 pixels wide and 7.3mb, and won't upload. Changing the size to 3000 pixels wide left the size at 5.7mb and the site will accept that.

Apologies, it's not a VFR. But it's a photo. A winter ride this week: Thx

Yeah that dealer lives up to the name.

I’d be interested to know more about this. Is there a link for the thread? I’m considering replacing my stock fan as I’ve done everything else to rectify a cooking issue.

FYI... If you're on an Android, you can use Google's Snapseed app to reduce image size before an upload. A little goofy to use, but not difficult. First open Snapseed, upper right settings. Set Export options. Set format to JPG and reduce the pixel count down to a smaller number like "1920 px" Now "Open" the image you want to reduce. Bottom right "Export" and "Export" again. It will save a copy of the reduced image in the "Snapseed" folder.

Thank you gentlemen. Got a new phone and it seems like all the pics are now 5mb. I’ll downsize, hopefully that will do it. Lorne I am so relieved that you made the correct decision and purchased a red one!

Speaking of the who whos...

Most modern forums have an autosizer built in. Maybe we can get that feature?

There's a reason they're called stealerships. I never go to one.

Hi Gaz: Thank You for your thoughtful and informative reply. Yes, I have considered a 6th Gen radiator. If I can believe what I read, they are 13-15 % larger that the 5th Gen's. That's approx. 1/6th larger, which should make a difference. I'm thinking I might get the get the fan side only and install a higher cfm fan. You are correct in that they are inexpensive on ebay. A higher ratio of water to antifreeze would provide a better acting coolant, but to be honest, we have already seen -15 F (-22 C) here this winter, and it can get colder than that, so I would be playing Russian Roulette with my motor(s) should I have, say, a "memory lapse"😁. I have read here about the VTR fan mod., If I go with a higher cfm fan unit it may make that a moot point. I have installed fan over rides on my VF1100 Sabre, VF1000R, and my 4th Gen. Mostly as a precaution for when I get stuck in traffic down south. Its dead simple to add a switch to ground to turn the fan on. I did notice when looking at doing this on my 5th Gen, that Honda still has power to the fan unit continuously, but the ground is routed through the ECU. This has me as we say here, Buffaloed. I cannot fathom why Honda would do this. If you could shed some light on this, I would certainly appreciate it. Regarding alternative thermostats, I did run into a post on here by MarcinMMz in Poland that he found an exact replacement, Gates TH29682G1. Of course I cannot find the post now, but did take notes. These are apparently used on Daewoo's, Hyundai's, Suzuki's, and Chevs Spark's. I cannot seem to find them here in the US, but they are listed on Ebay in the UK and Europe. If these are one of the ones you found to be close, but not quite, please chime in. I will be in Europe next month and plan to pick one up just to have a look. Yes, they are substitutionally cheaper BTW. Again, I appreciate you taking the time to reply with good info! Regards Michael