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Hi, my name is Jim and I have a motorcycle problem


jimf

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This is gonna stand the test of time as the longest new member introduction thread ever!!
I still have a serious motorcycle problem. :-) 
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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Sounds you have the same lights and brackets I have...just mounted them different... :) Switch I used is weatherproof
 
I freely admit that I got my inspiration from people on this board. I'm pretty sure I learned about those brackets from you, if not the lamps as well. I would never have thought to look for super-cheap LED lamps on my own, and if I did I wouldn't have believed that they would work well enough. I had been planning to drop $400 on a name-brand product but given the amount of cash I'd already dropped on the bike and quite a number of accessories I was going to have to wait awhile. Doing it on the cheap I could manage right away, and if the lights turn out not to be very durable I still will have all the wiring in place for a different set.
 
"Right away" turned out to take longer than planned, I bought all the parts last spring -- before I even had the bike in hand -- but didn't get around to installing them until just last weekend. I was too busy riding. :-)
 
It turns out that just yesterday I ordered the same switch as you used. I found some others that I liked but most were $70+ (for a freaking switch!). I will be swapping in the new switch this weekend.
 
I am not sure about the position of the lights on the crash bars yet; the way I have them works really well but if I tip over the light is going to be trashed for sure. I'm probably going to move them inboard a little bit, or maybe flip them upside down like you did.
 
The other thing I may reconsider is my wiring harness. I put short disconnects on everything except the switch lead on the power breakout but that made for four disconnects all within a couple of inches of each other (one for the power in, one for the battery meter, and two for the lamps). There is less room beneath the windshield than I had thought and it took some contortion to get everything to fit without anything rubbing while turning. I may yank it out and run long leads for the lamps, putting those disconnects inside the side plastics instead. It would be much neater up at the head.
 

Like the battery meter solution....might copycat that one... :)
 
Turnabout is fair play. :-)
 
I used 3M dual-lock to stick the meter to the bracket, rather than permanently mounting it. That lets me make fine adjustments to its position after-the-fact, which turns out to be important since I need to make it visible through the various throttle side cables and wires. It doesn't look as clean as a permanent mount does if you look at it from the side, but I only see it from the top while riding, so....
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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This weekend I finally got around to installing the cheap driving lights, plus a battery meter. 

@jimf, like the light install.  What crash bars do you have, SW's?
Yes.  If you page back in this thread there are a few pics and installation notes. 
I like them a lot.  I had originally ordered the Yamaha frame sliders but before Yamaha managed to deliver them I found the SW-Motech bars.  The two parts are the same price, but the crash bars clearly offer better crash protection as well as being a handy place to hang lights, GoPro, and highway pegs.  Recommended.
 
They're not lightweight, though, if a few pounds here and there bother you.
 
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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Couple extra pounds would not bother me at all.  Matter of fact I could probably use a little more weight in the front, with the bags loaded, rear tray and me on the bike I feel like the front tire dances a little when I run through the gears quickly.
 
Chris
 
 
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My front tire dances a little even when it's just me on the bike! Pretty much every time I launch with any vigor, I feel the front get light, and many times, I actually lift a little. I've tried sliding forwards more on the seat but it doesn't feel natural.
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Couple extra pounds would not bother me at all.  Matter of fact I could probably use a little more weight in the front, with the bags loaded, rear tray and me on the bike I feel like the front tire dances a little when I run through the gears quickly.
I found the handling improved with the bags fully loaded when I cranked the preload all the way up.  That was only two notches above stock, IIRC, but it made a difference both in basic handling and in how fast headshake damps out when highway riding. 
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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Look!  A new switch that looks exactly like hupelde's:
 
main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=91823&g2_serialNumber=1
 
I would prefer it if the switch were bigger but this will do.  And I keep looking at the round blank at the bottom of the left switchgear and thinking that would be a real great place for a push-to-toggle switch, which would be far easier to reach, but I'm perhaps too terrified of destroying expensive switchgear to actually try that any time soon.
 
Next up, perhaps tomorrow if not too many other things are pressing, I will try to reproduce hupelde's windshield RAM mount for the GPS.
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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My front tire dances a little even when it's just me on the bike! Pretty much every time I launch with any vigor, I feel the front get light, and many times, I actually lift a little. I've tried sliding forwards more on the seat but it doesn't feel natural.
I tuck myself right up against the tank and this still happens, even just in STD mode.  It's a lively little motor. 
Mary-Kate keeps whispering to me, "Come on, you want to do a wheelie!  It's easy!" but I do not actually know how to wheelie and my experience with bicycles is that I often end up on my back.  That would be expensive on the moto.  Still, I think the only thing that has stopped it from happening regularly is that I have to stop to turn off traction control.  She's a little redheaded vixen, my FJ.  I do see the TCS light go on quite regularly during launches even so.  Whee!
 
My old Daytona used to whisper things like that too, that's how she got the name Tabitha -- she was a precocious little witch.  Through some measure of self-control I did not know I possessed I only ever actually did wheelies by accident.
 
My favorite was when I came up behind a couple of Harleys and we all stopped at a stop sign for a turn onto route 10 in the Adirondacks.  Off in the distance is a car approaching.  They didn't move.  The car got closer.  They still didn't move.  "What the hell?" I thought, "Are you guys waiting for the car to get in front of you?"  They appeared to be, so in a huff I went around them and hammered the throttle and the front wheel went in the air all the way around the corner and down the road a little bit.
 
I don't have the skill to do that on purpose, but it felt good and natural at the time.  Someday I will acquire the life skill to do controlled wheelies; kids love 'em and it's an imperative to do things like that for the children.
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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@jimf, will adjust again tonight.  I moved it back down when I had my bags off, forgot to re-adjust.
I still have it cranked all the way up from my last trip, almost two months now.  My daily commute is mostly highway so it makes less difference than on backroads, so it's not so bad, but it is a tad hard. :-) 
I am looking forward to getting a new shock next year just to get one with a less stupid adjustment system.  I really miss the peg-style adjuster on the Penske I had on the SV650S, that was easy.  Trying to get that spanner in between the preload collar and the swingarm is a pain in the neck.
 
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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I went away for awhile over the winter and came back and did lots of things that I posted in other threads.  To keep this one alive as a cental repository of what I've done to the bike, here are links:
 
Upgraded the pegs to use the Super Tenere pegs, which required a bit of hackery:
 
http://fj-09.org/post/40953
 
Upgraded the seat to a Sargent, which is muuuuch better than the Yamaha Comfort Seat:
 
Original quickie review: http://fj-09.org/post/41144
Post-700-mile-trip update: http://fj-09.org/post/41587
 
Upgraded to the V-Stream windshield, which is easily the best of the four I've tried, although I wish it were shorter to stay out of my line of sight when looking directly in front of the front tire:
 
http://fj-09.org/post/41526
 
 
2015 FJ-09 (Mary Kate)
2007 Daytona 675 (Tabitha, ret.)
1998 Vulcan 800 (Ret.)
2001 SV650S (Veronica, Ret.)
2000 Intruder 800 (Ret.)
 
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