Suspension Upgrades

[wyly]

Then you wouldn't like my bright orange wires
My orange wires match up nicely with the orange oem pin stripes on the gas tank.
Personal colour choices are always subjective, I quite liked your red wires

Honestly, if you like them, then I like them because it's your bike and I like to see variety. I tried to keep pretty close to stock appearance, but I love seeing personal touches on bikes.

For me, the biggest problem was the length/routing, not really the color. But I wanted them to look more like my braided oil cooler plumbing and brake lines - I want to cover all of the wiring harness with a similar braided cover.

I like a coherent look to my bikes, but I'd hate to live in a world where everything is done exactly to my taste!

the plug wire length could adjusted. I cut my new plug wires to match the oem length but they're floppy unlike the stiff oems so they appear long, I'll probably shorten them when the engine is finally installed.

. My new brake pads are orange and I thought I'd copy that with a braided orange brake lines, the lines weren't as orange as I hoped and dont match the plug wires and tank stripes. I may change out the plug wires in the future.

[wyly]

Then you wouldn't like my bright orange wires
My orange wires match up nicely with the orange oem pin stripes on the gas tank.
Personal colour choices are always subjective, I quite liked your red wires

Honestly, if you like them, then I like them because it's your bike and I like to see variety. I tried to keep pretty close to stock appearance, but I love seeing personal touches on bikes.

For me, the biggest problem was the length/routing, not really the color. But I wanted them to look more like my braided oil cooler plumbing and brake lines - I want to cover all of the wiring harness with a similar braided cover.

I like a coherent look to my bikes, but I'd hate to live in a world where everything is done exactly to my taste!

I lifted my engine into position yesterday to better assess the wires, even thoigh they were the same length as the oem's they seem a bit long. A couple of zip ties to the frame under the tank would solve the problem.

how are your Speedhut guage s working for you, they're very attracive conversion, what's the dollars figure for those should I want do the same.

and where did you find the braided oil lines, do you have a braided one for the small cam oil line as well.

[Syscrush]

I lifted my engine into position yesterday to better assess the wires, even thoigh they were the same length as the oem's they seem a bit long. A couple of zip ties to the frame under the tank would solve the problem.

Just make sure that you don't tie the wires together without some gap or separation - induction can cause crossfiring, which you don't want.

how are your Speedhut guage s working for you, they're very attracive conversion, what's the dollars figure for those should I want do the same.

Speedo was $220, Tach was $150, voltmeter was $60. They have so many options you can really get exactly the look and the function that you want.

Overall I'm quite pleased with them. There are 3 caveats:

1. There is definitely glare/shine from the glass face on a sunny day. I'm going to try adding some anti-glare film like you install on a monitor to see if that helps without looking too bad, but I expect it's something I'll have to live with.

2. Before I got my cover, I did have issues with moisture getting in there. Speedhut said that as long as there's a way for the gauges to release the moisture it's not a cause for concern, but something like that will always concern me.

3. The calibration procedure for the speedo is pretty simple, but it's not super accurate. Your questions about the gauges have triggered me to contact their support about manually tweaking the calibration to get it 100% dialed in.

and where did you find the braided oil lines, do you have a braided one for the small cam oil line as well.

The braided oil lines were made from plumbing sourced from JEGS. The end that fits to the engine were made by the same machinist who fit the thermostat and the cooler, which required some drilling, cutting, and welding on the original fittings. I didn't make any changes to the plumbing other than the cooler lines.

[wyly]

Just make sure that you don't tie the wires together without some gap or separation - induction can cause crossfiring, which you don't want.
.

I considered that issue but is it really a seriousproblem, at some point even in the oem setup or your dangling red wires they do cross and contact each other. But i will make a point of securing and isolating them as much as possible.

[Syscrush]

I considered that issue but is it really a seriousproblem, at some point even in the oem setup or your dangling red wires they do cross and contact each other. But i will make a point of securing and isolating them as much as possible.

In theory it's an issue. In practice, I really don't know. I just never felt good about how mine were routed - and the tach signal is definitely more smooth since the upgrades were done - I could be wrong but I think that the plug wire routing had something to do with the improvement in tach signal.

[wyly]

I considered that issue but is it really a seriousproblem, at some point even in the oem setup or your dangling red wires they do cross and contact each other. But i will make a point of securing and isolating them as much as possible.

In theory it's an issue. In practice, I really don't know. I just never felt good about how mine were routed - and the tach signal is definitely more smooth since the upgrades were done - I could be wrong but I think that the plug wire routing had something to do with the improvement in tach signal.

if there was an improvement then its a reasonable assumption your adjustments had an effect. I would think the insulation of wires and electronic components like your tach also figures into it as well.

[Syscrush]

if there was an improvement then its a reasonable assumption your adjustments had an effect. I would think the insulation of wires and electronic components like your tach also figures into it as well.

There were also new coils and corrosion-free wires & terminals added at the same time, so there are too many variables to be sure - but it's a simple thing to route the wires to minimize crosstalk, so that's how I like to have them set up. Note that crosstalk is an induction phenomenon, so the insulation makes almost no difference - shielding makes a big difference, and so does space.

[Syscrush]

3. The calibration procedure for the speedo is pretty simple, but it's not super accurate. Your questions about the gauges have triggered me to contact their support about manually tweaking the calibration to get it 100% dialed in.

I contacted their support, and there's no way to manually tweak the calibration to get it totally correct.

The calibration procedure is to ride 2 miles for mph or 4 km for kph units, pressing a special button on the speedo at the start/end of that calibration ride. I have a kph unit, so if I'm off by 100m (the max resolution of my GPS for a ride of that length) in the calibration ride, I could have an error of almost 3% - which is worse than the 35 year old mechanical unit.

Getting it to <1% accuracy is going to take some trial & error on a straight, uninterrupted road with minimal traffic.

[wyly]

3. The calibration procedure for the speedo is pretty simple, but it's not super accurate. Your questions about the gauges have triggered me to contact their support about manually tweaking the calibration to get it 100% dialed in.

I contacted their support, and there's no way to manually tweak the calibration to get it totally correct.

The calibration procedure is to ride 2 miles for mph or 4 km for kph units, pressing a special button on the speedo at the start/end of that calibration ride. I have a kph unit, so if I'm off by 100m (the max resolution of my GPS for a ride of that length) in the calibration ride, I could have an error of almost 3% - which is worse than the 35 year old mechanical unit.

Getting it to <1% accuracy is going to take some trial & error on a straight, uninterrupted road with minimal traffic.

Would cruise control help the calibration process?

[Syscrush]

Would cruise control help the calibration process?

Nope. The only way to calibrate it is to put it into calibration mode, drive exactly 2 miles or 4 km, and then press the button to complete the calibration. The speed go you isn't relevant.

Also, I should have noted when addressing the cost - those #'s don't include the electronic pickup for the speedo. The one that Speedhut sells is really big and ugly - I went with one from Motogadget (which is not as ridiculously expensive as their other products).

[Syscrush]

For now, I'd be glad to have a few hours to clean it up nicely again and snap a few more pics with the new plug wires in place. Hopefully soon!

OK, that took longer than it should have... Yesterday my wife's Ducati came out of storage and I cleaned up both bikes pretty thoroughly, and today we got out for a ride together - it was only about 2 hours, but it was her first time on the bike (and obviously our first time out together) since soon after she became pregnant. It was a perfect day for it, too!

Here are the plug wires:






The whole bike:




And our 2 bikes together:

[NobleHops]

That looks like great fun Phil. Enjoy!

[Syscrush]

That looks like great fun Phil. Enjoy!

Thanks. We were only out for 2 hours, but it was so nice to be out doing something together that we both enjoy so much. Also, I got a nifty new lens for my camera and kept playing around with it all weekend, including some of the semi-artsy shots of the bikes here. :)

[Syscrush]

And to prove that there's no detail to small for me to fixate on, I've gone from hating how ratty my rear brake reservoir hose looks to hating how remote reservoirs look in general. I just ordered this Brembo rear master with an integrated res - hoping it can be made to fit without too much difficulty:

[wyly]

And to prove that there's no detail to small for me to fixate on, I've gone from hating how ratty my rear brake reservoir hose looks to hating how remote reservoirs look in general. I just ordered this Brembo rear master with an integrated res - hoping it can be made to fit without too much difficulty:

attention to detail counts...if you're looking for new brake lines there are a number of suppliers but I found Core Moto to be excellent, many different combinations of colored, clear, or solid brake lines and fittings if you really want to personalize your brake lines. I called them up and they were very helpful.

http://www.coremoto.com/category_s/306.htm