Setting my hair on fire.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

It's amazing how much power you can get just from tuning the ECU. I'm sure most bikes are tuned just like cars and trucks. They are tuned for the worst gas out there and detuned even more. I've retuned many stock cars and trucks and it's like night and day after I get finished. Good example was I took my brothers stock Chevy pick up at the track. He made a couple of runs on stock tune and we logged it. From that log I retuned it for 87 octane gas and he picked up a whole second I a quarter mile. A little fine tuning and picked up another half second. That's probably a 60+ HP gain.

Some manufacturers are better than others when it comes to ECU tuning. Honda is fairly notorious for tuning back their engines pretty severely for emissions reasons. Most tuners will tell you all about Honda tuning in the lower RPM range. Usually very lean and with very clunky roll on fuel mapping. Even bikes like the CBR1000RR don't escape some of this, although they are a little better.

They also love their gear restrictions. My bike in the U.S. Market had first and second gear restrictions with the E-throttle, essentially only opening the throttle to around 65% - giving around 100hp peak. Then an RPM restriction in 6th to limit top speed. I had these removed.

Other small things like the mapping for the E-throttle itself. The delay they programmed in is too long, and the subsequent rate it opens is not very intuitive. It makes trying to be smooth with the throttle incredibly interesting. This was also remapped by Guhl, and is now much more instant and linear giving the bike the same feel as a cable throttle.

[Megadan]

Took my bike out of hibernation today. I couldn't pass up the mid 40 degree weather, and I needed to head to my local motorcycle dealer to pick up a few small parts and gaskets.

To date, I think this is the best picture I have snapped that really captures what this color does in the sun. So bright.

[JerryHawk250]

Great picture!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Great picture!

Yeah, it's not too shabby.

The hard part was not wanting to buy another bike while at this dealership. They had an Africa Twin there, used with a whole 500 miles on it for less than $10k. A CB650F, a little bike I have always wanted to get my hands on for a decent price too. A couple other bikes I would also love to own...

I think I have a problem lol.

One thing I will say about the Africa Twin. You don't really get an appreciation of just how BIG that bike is until you see it in person. My VFR is somewhat of a big bike, and it looks downright small compared to the Twin.

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Yeah, it's not too shabby.

The hard part was not wanting to buy another bike while at this dealership. They had an Africa Twin there, used with a whole 500 miles on it for less than $10k. A CB650F, a little bike I have always wanted to get my hands on for a decent price too. A couple other bikes I would also love to own...

I think I have a problem lol.

One thing I will say about the Africa Twin. You don't really get an appreciation of just how BIG that bike is until you see it in person. My VFR is somewhat of a big bike, and it looks downright small compared to the Twin.

I here ya. I have to stay away from them places. Local dealer has a new 2017 Kawasaki 900 Custom listed for under 7 grand and bet I could talk them down more. I had looked at this same bike over a year ago and still hasn't sold.

[Megadan]

Those Vulcan 900's are great bikes too. Getting one for under 7 grand would be one hell of a deal.

[Megadan]

Ordered the seals, o rings, and gaskets needed to do my up and coming valve check. I also ordered new plugs, because I might as well do it while I have it all apart. And of course all the oil, filters, etc for my new year service. Got some other small goodies on the way too like some axle sliders and new grips. Here soon I need to take a second pair of heel plates I bought for the foot pegs and take them in to be powder coated satin black like the frame so I can swap that all over and install my new foot pegs.

[Megadan]

So, my Hawk is going to be my daily again. My VFR is deciding it doesnt like 6th gear. Best case scenario is that my clutch is fragging itself. Worst case is the dogs for 6th gear or a shift fork are damaged.

I am hoping its the clutch, that is cheaper and doesnt require pulling the motor and splitting the cases.

Sigh...

[ChondaChondaChonda]

Bummer if its the gearbox Dan.


But at least you have the Hawk for backup!

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by ChondaChondaChonda

Bummer if its the gearbox Dan.


But at least you have the Hawk for backup!

Funny thing is, the gearbox isnt too bad to service, but getting the motor out is a bitch lol. I am just hoping it is the clutch. That will save me days of work.

[Megadan]

Well, I hoped against hope that it was the clutch.

So, the good news is, it isn't the clutch!

The bad news is, the motor does have to come out to split the cases.

The good part of the bad news is, the way the engine is designed, outside of removing the cams and timing chains, the heads can stay on, which saves me a decent amount of money ($170) for the upper gasket kit. I already have the gaskets for removing the valve covers anyway because I was going to do a valve check.

The second half of the good news is, once the lower case half is removed the access to the transmission gears is incredibly easy. Both shafts and gears can be removed without removing the shift forks or drum. I think Honda unintentionally designed this engine to be quite service friendly.

The downside is, if I do need to replace any gears, they are about $75 each, and if either main or counter shaft is damaged, it's another $100 each. I am hopeful that the damage is just to the dogs, and that the worst case scenario will simply be the two gears that the dogs engage and a shift fork. Combined with 6 new main bolts and the lower gasket kit it will run me about $360 in parts and probably 3 solid days of work of all goes well. Not looking forward to it, but I am trying to keep positive. If I do have to pull the heads, that adds about another $110 on to the total.

[JerryHawk250]

Well that doesn't sound too bad. Just time consuming.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Well that doesn't sound too bad. Just time consuming.

Extremely time consuming. I did talk to one guy who had the same symptom recently that told me his problem ended up being something wrong with the gear selector/ratchet mechanism not allowing it to engage 6th gear fully. Since that is right behind the clutch I may as well investigate that before I go ripping it to shreds. If it is just a bad ratchet pawl or something that got bent I would be more than fine with that!

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Extremely time consuming. I did talk to one guy who had the same symptom recently that told me his problem ended up being something wrong with the gear selector/ratchet mechanism not allowing it to engage 6th gear fully. Since that is right behind the clutch I may as well investigate that before I go ripping it to shreds. If it is just a bad ratchet pawl or something that got bent I would be more than fine with that!

That would definitely be an easier fix.

[Megadan]

Viffervlog?