VFR owners' thread, for VFRPS members and prospective members

**vifferman** · 21st December 2009, 12:16

Originally Posted by motorbyclist

the awesome headlights draw all their power through the headlight switch.

Very easy to fix - just buy a relay, a bit of wire, and some spade connectors.
Headlights (and horns, if you want decent sound) shouldn't run through the crappy skinny wires that come standard on most bikes.

Before my son sold his 205GTi we had a different problem: everything runs through relays, and many of them or their connector blocks had corrosion on the contacts, so it was one electrical item after another intermittenly failing (usually only when it wnet through a WOF test).

**gatch** · 21st December 2009, 15:29

All good stuff to know..

I found a 2nd hand shock off a 92' nc30 for 20 pounds on ebay, I asked how much postage was going to be.. 60 pound !!

Add on top of that the international money transfer fee, maybe even customs charges, I'd be lucky to see change from 300 buck, what a joke ! for a 50-60 dollar item.

**motorbyclist** · 21st December 2009, 15:42

Originally Posted by vifferman

Very easy to fix - just buy a relay, a bit of wire, and some spade connectors..

yep that's been the plan but I've just been putting it off until something else broke; of course nothing else broke but now it's at 40,000km I'm sick of opening the switchblock every 5000km to fix it and i'm removing the carbies for this service anyway

Originally Posted by gatch

All good stuff to know..

I found a 2nd hand shock off a 92' nc30 for 20 pounds on ebay, I asked how much postage was going to be.. 60 pound !!

Add on top of that the international money transfer fee, maybe even customs charges, I'd be lucky to see change from 300 buck, what a joke ! for a 50-60 dollar item.

you reckon that shock is going to be any better than what you've got already? I doubt customs etc will hit you for much if at all but if you pay by credit card it might cost 1% or something like that for the currency conversion

**gatch** · 21st December 2009, 16:23

That's what the seller quoted me for freight.. Something about a pressurized item, has to be packaged properly and insured etc, sounds like crap to me..

Originally Posted by motorbyclist

you reckon that shock is going to be any better than what you've got already? I doubt customs etc will hit you for much if at all but if you pay by credit card it might cost 1% or something like that for the currency conversion

I doubt the shock alone would be noticeably better, my plan was to take the mounting eye off the rod end and machine up a new one that's 10mm longer, I just don't want to pull the shock out and not be able to ride my bike for a week.. It's my only transport etc

**PirateJafa** · 21st December 2009, 16:39

Originally Posted by gatch

That's what the seller quoted me for freight.. Something about a pressurized item, has to be packaged properly and insured etc, sounds like crap to me..

It might potentially be considered a dangerous good under IATA, and if so, would have to meet their requirements for air freight transport. I haven't shipped a shock before, so sounds fair enough, to me...

**Rayray401** · 21st December 2009, 17:14

well ive made up my mind, back to an nc30, so anyone got one for sale?

**gatch** · 21st December 2009, 17:39

Morcs has a nc35 for sale ?

**motorbyclist** · 22nd December 2009, 10:08

Originally Posted by gatch

That's what the seller quoted me for freight.. Something about a pressurized item, has to be packaged properly and insured etc, sounds like crap to me..

oh yeah, they don't like putting pressurized things in low pressure cargo holds where they might explode and take the whole plane down

Originally Posted by gatch

I doubt the shock alone would be noticeably better, my plan was to take the mounting eye off the rod end and machine up a new one that's 10mm longer, I just don't want to pull the shock out and not be able to ride my bike for a week.. It's my only transport etc

surely you could borrow one off a racer?

(and what is this going to achieve? my HRC manual says to use 1mm plates to shim up the rear for track use if that's what you're after)

Originally Posted by Rayray401

well ive made up my mind, back to an nc30, so anyone got one for sale?

didn't you just sell one?

morcs has one for sale but if you dare scratch or butcher it me, jafa, and the rest of the VFRPS will be paying a little visit....

**motorbyclist** · 22nd December 2009, 10:09

Originally Posted by gatch

Morcs has a nc35 for sale ?

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...4&postcount=21

it's a bargain too - less than 10000km on the clock for $5800

**Morcs** · 22nd December 2009, 15:40

Originally Posted by motorbyclist

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...4&postcount=21

it's a bargain too - less than 10000km on the clock for $5800

The price is $7k - thats how much It owes me and I wont part for a cent less

I got it so cheap as I negotiated the price down as there were quite a few things I needed to do to get it on the road...

And it ticked over 10,000 last week :O

**gatch** · 22nd December 2009, 15:42

Originally Posted by motorbyclist

oh yeah, they don't like putting pressurized things in low pressure cargo holds where they might explode and take the whole plane down

surely you could borrow one off a racer?

(and what is this going to achieve? my HRC manual says to use 1mm plates to shim up the rear for track use if that's what you're after)

I just got some clarification form the IATA, basically it wouldn't be counted as dangerous - "A114 (283) Articles, containing gas intended to function as shock absorbers, including impact energy absorbing devices or pneumatic springs are not subject to these Regulations provided: ", still I'm not going to bother paying 60 pounds for shipping for a 20 pound item is just silly..

The intention is to make the bike turn a little quicker, I'm interested to see what changes can be made without a complete rebuild of the forks/shock, that will come in good time.. I should be able to turn a thread on the shock somewhere, to adjust the ride height with the shock on the bike, if it turns out to not be viable than its no big loss..

**motorbyclist** · 22nd December 2009, 18:24

Originally Posted by gatch

The intention is to make the bike turn a little quicker, I'm interested to see what changes can be made without a complete rebuild of the forks/shock

you want to reduce trail (and/or rake angle)

this is easiest done by tipping the bike forward - by either adjusting the fork height in the triple clamps or adding spacers to the rear shock mounting (or get an adjustable length shock)

before you do that you want to ensure your preloading is all correct (google for "sag" measurements)

read: http://www.sportrider.com/suspension...ide/index.html

talk to robert taylor here on KB.

**motorbyclist** · 22nd December 2009, 18:27

Oh, and who was doing their valve clearances? Just checked mine and most are towards the loose end with #4 being a little tight (but all seem within spec nonetheless)

**motorbyclist** · 22nd December 2009, 18:45

holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit

Mr Honda, in all his effort to make V4 maintenance a nightmare, has designed some of the easiest shims ever to replace - and to think i was only going to do them if they were too tight