Zach26

Thanks for the responses. I changed my mind and decided to just grind the detent off of the throttle tube. It looks much better now. I just wasn't sure if I had overlooked something since I had never seen the difference in gap size discussed anywhere. 

5 minutes ago, kilo3 said:

That's the way it is. If it really bothers you, you can grind off the detents on the throttle tube holder and the brake perch and slide it over.

If that's the case I will just have the machine shop where I work put it in the lathe and mill the shoulder on the bar ends back to reduce the gaps. 

So I bought some cheap amazon bar ends and there is a 5/8" gap on the throttle side and a 1/8" gap on the clutch side. The bar ends are identical to each other so why the difference? Also they look terrible with the huge gap 

Have any of you had this happen? If so how did you fix it? I work in a sheetmetal shop with access to machinists that could modify them to fit better but I wanted to make sure there isn't a simple adjustment I can do on the bike. 

I think I agree with you that three would be the magic number. I currently have two, a Harley and the FJ. I would love to add either a hypernaked or something with some off road capability to the garage. There aren't any good places near me to go off road so as long as I still live in Texas I would go the hypernaked route. Something like the MT-10. 

5 hours ago, Toddtr said:

In order 1985 Ninja 900, 1987 Gsxr 750, 1990 Katana 1100, 1993 Gsxr 750..worst of them all, 1999 Cbr 900, 2000 929, 2002 R1, 2006 750, 2009 Aprilia 550. I hate to say this but the Katana was probably the best handling bike in the turns. The R1 had many track days and at that time was a beast and I had a great time with it. The Aprilia was awesome but finicky, now I’m on an old man Tracer GT

What made the 1993 GSXR 750 the worst of the bunch? I think it's one of the best looking bikes in that group. The only thing that stops me from trying to find an older sport bike like that is my back and knee problems. I'm only 30 but being an airframe mechanic has not been kind to my body. 

I don't have pictures of my first two bikes so I found some stock photos.

My first bike was a 1982 Honda XL250. This bike was given to me by one of my dads friends when I was about 12 years old. It was in very rough shape but my dad and I got it running and I rode it around in the mountains for a few years. If it weren't for this awesome gift I would probably have never got into riding. 

My second bike was a 1989 Suzuki RM 250. I bought it for $1,000 from a guy that raced motocross. He had done some performance mods to it and it was pretty fast. I had a blast with that bike until the transmission blew up a few years later. Then I didn't ride for a few years after joining the Air Force and being stationed in alaska. 

My third bike is a 2012 Harley Dyna Wide Glide which I still have. I bought it new in 2012 and have put 30,000 miles on it. That number would be much higher if it weren't for four deployments since I bought it.

And then I bought the FJ-09 as a second bike last September. 

1 hour ago, 2and3cylinders said:

My 4-year yes is up in July of course I checked valves recently because that was my biggest concern but I signed on when I first bought it to the Yamaha extended 100,000 oil warranty which was impossible to upload maintenance to so I gave up.

This is the first time I've had an extended warranty on a motorcycle and of course I probably won't need it until it expires...

 

That's usually how that goes. I just try to buy vehicles that are known to be reliable and just skip the extended warranty. That's why I own a Toyota Tacoma (2nd gen. Since the 3rd gen. Isn't as proven). I'm confident that it won't have any major problems any time soon. And that's why I went with Yamaha for my second bike. 

10 hours ago, Wintersdark said:

Well, that's the problem, right?  Rotella does not meet/exceed API SG.  

 

It's just been my experience that they try really hard to avoid paying warranty repairs, and what they "have to prove" doesn't really matter in practice because once you start looking at a lawsuit it's going to cost you more than simply fixing the problem in the first place.  

But, again, I don't think that's a likely outcome.  I'm not arguing people shouldn't use Rotella (it's a great oil, and cheap!)  And even in the case of a warranty claim for engine failure, you'd likely just lie about what was in there anyways - it'd be basically impossible to prove and not worth the effort to investigate that thoroughly.  Still, given I can put exactly the recommended stuff in at the same price, *shrugs* I'd rather avoid the fight in the first place if I can while it's under warranty.  Too many bad experiences. 

Yeah I didn't think about diesel oil having different ratings. I guess I just assumed that since it has the jaso rating and so many use it in their bikes it must have the correct rating. 

7 minutes ago, betoney said:

After I had the initial flash, I sent it back a 2nd time to set it to A-Mode and for the Active Tune module and then a 3rd time for a different fuel map for the Scorpion exhaust.  The 2nd and 3rd flash were completely free!! 👍

That's good to know. I really want to get the flash done but I use my bike almost every day and dont want it to be down for two weeks while I can ride. I will probably just hold off and have it done next winter. 

8 minutes ago, cwdawson01 said:

The flash made a huge difference. Some of the things that he does is as follows.

Takes speed limiter off- ive had the bike at 142mph and she can handle more

He goes through every gear for optimum fuel mapping. This helps the bike obviously get better gas mileage and also makes the bike smoother on deceleration when letting off the gas

He also can set the fan to come on at whatever temp you want

He can also program it to where you can have the bike start in A or C mode if you like.

If you have him flash the ecu with the stock exhaust, he will flash it again for free if you happen to get an aftermarket exhaust down the line.

My bike dyno'd out at 138hp with a full akra exhaust

Hope this helps ya.

Thanks. This is good info. Next time I have some time that I'm unable to ride I will probably have the flash done. I didn't know he would flash it again for free if i changed exhaust later. 

1 hour ago, cwdawson01 said:

My Day One Mod would be having the bike flashed on the dyno @ 2wheeldynoworks! Nels is the man! Totally different bike once that was done.

Does the flash make a big difference even without aftermarket exhaust? I have no interest (at least for the foreseeable future) to change the exhaust but would like the speed limiter to be removed. But if the speed limiter is the only benefit I don't really think it's worth it since I don't usually see those speeds. And I don't really have much of a problem with the fueling either but I'm sure it could be improved. 

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

We've got it too.  Availability varies, but Walmart here in Calgary has it.  

 

I used to mix the 5w40 and 15w40 (both synthetic) to get 10w40 for my old bikes, but I just run "proper" motorcycle 10w40 in my Tracer.  I'm sure the Rotella would be fine (zounds of people use it with no problems, and like I said I've used it on tons of other bikes) but I have a 5yr warranty and you know how companies can be about finding excuses to not honor warrantees.

Would they really even have a leg to stand on to deny a warranty claim when the oil carries the jaso-ma rating? I wouldn't think so. 

26 minutes ago, cwdawson01 said:

Here ya go sir!

Thanks! That looks good!

14 minutes ago, cwdawson01 said:

I ditched mine as well. I put some Acerbis lever guards on mine to give it a little flair.

Got any photos of them? 

4 minutes ago, texscottyd said:

I did the same thing on mine, and MUCH prefer the look and riding dynamics without the batwings.   The bike feels lighter & narrower (I know it’s just a visual trick), and on my bike, it was the mod that finally eliminated that pesky high speed weave.   I always suspected it was an aero issue, and this confirmed it for me.   

Factory FZ9 bar ends are a great way to go.  Heavy, black, cheap, and easy to install.  

Yeah I have heard about the affects the handguards can have on the aerodynamics. The only time it has really bothered me is when following or passing semis. I just bought some cheap bar ends from Amazon for $10. If they don't work out I will go with the factory ones. The reviews for the cheap ones were petty good though. 

After my ride yesterday in the hot Texas weather and my hands cooking for 400 miles I decided to remove the handguards. I wasn't sure I would like the looks but after removing them I think it looks better. I also ordered some cheap bar ends but for now I just put a black washer and screw in until they get here. 

1 hour ago, texscottyd said:

Very nice... I remember going to Possum Kingdom with scouts when I was a little kid.   Now we’re living near the Brazos River, about 300 miles downstream.   

Are you stationed in Killeen?   

I'm stationed in Abilene at Dyess AFB. I wish I was stationed in Killeen. That's a lot closer to great riding areas than Abilene is. 

Here is a picture from today's ride. This is at Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas. This is about as good as the scenery gets in my area. There are better places in Texas but I'm restricted to no more than 4 hours away from my home by the military due to the Coronavirus. 

This was my solution. I bought a battery tender extension cable and the usb adapter and ran it from under the seat through the fairings. When I want to hook the bike up to the battery tender I just unplug the extension under the seat and plug the battery tender in like normal. I have also washed the bike and it has been in the rain and it has held up well.

6 hours ago, 2and3cylinders said:

Imo my 15 fastest red is still the sharpest of all years

Naw, badass blue is still the best. I may be a little biased though. 

Just got done installing a cheap radiator guard. I had been planning on it but procrastinated until a bird hit just a couple inches above the radiator. 

My Tackform mount has been excellent. I can't recommend them enough. I posted a review on it a few weeks ago. 

6 minutes ago, kilo3 said:

Claybar, you need claybar.

Yeah I had already used a clay bar but apparently I needed to go over it one more time before buffing them out. All good now. 

So it turns out I didn't do a good enough job stripping the wax off before attempting to buff the imperfections out. So I used a clay bar one more time before trying again and they buffed out beautifully. I'm still surprised by how easily bugs caused this. 

I guess I will just have to do a better jobs of keeping bugs off between washes and keeping a good coat of wax on it. 

After washing the bike yesterday I noticed that there are a lot of paint blemishes on the headlight shrouds and a couple areas on the tank from where bugs were splattered. Has anyone else had this happen to them? I did use some turtle wax bug and tar remover so maybe that did it but I don't think so.

It's hard to get a good photo showing the damage but you can see some of the damage near where the sun was reflecting in this photo. Both shrouds are covered with these blemishes.

I have tried using scratch X 2.0 to remove the blemishes but have not had any success. I'm kind of bummed because I dont even have 4,000 miles on this bike yet and this was after only 2 weeks between washes. 

So, is this paint just really this delicate or did I do something wrong? I have never had this issue on any other vehicle I've owned.