Nothing spectacular today. Took the forks out to change the oil. It was overdue and the old oil looked and smelled quite bad. This time I went for Motorex 7.5W.

 

Top shock, from my K6 Wee which had a leaking oil seal, so I replaced the damaged shock with a good condition used part from a Vee.

 

Did a suspension upgrade today. Installed a new rear spring and installed RaceTech front springs. Thanks Razerman.

 

New rear tire, an Anakee 3. The first time I've run one, I usually run Battlewings 501/502's or Conti Trail Attacks. I've heard good things about them, time will tell.

 

Today I replaced the rear light bulbs with Stedi LED light bulbs. Very happy with the outcome.
I also got rid of the el cheapo led indicators and replaced them with Stedi indicators. Time will tell if they are more waterproof than the cheap ones that drove me nuts after heavy downpours.

 

Had to ride through the big city Thursday and heavy rain, slow traffic. V didn't miss a beat. What a great bike.

Rode it up to look at more bikes, but. Why? Local dealer can get me an V800 for $9900 in black, touring. 72 hours.

Took apart the clutch lever and greased lubed everything back up. Hard to sell when it works so well.

 

With fans finally dying after 7 years, I replaced my old Evitek LED H4 bulbs with these Auxito H4s. Skipped their "motorcycle" fanless version as Auxito claims these are brighter, but I have no way of knowing.

BIG improvement over my old Evitek bulbs - brigher, with much better cutoff.

Slight hump in the middle right now as I tinker with the horizontal spread. Right now, I have them both dead center. Previously tried them spread wide. Will likely settle somewhere in between.

Right side looks a bit weaker / faded vs. left due to window light washing out that side of the pic a bit.

 

I lowered the right side footpeg and brake lever on my 800DE 1" today.

 

I did my first spark plug change on a DL650, and I don't know what everyone is complaining about. That front plug was super easy to... excuse me, my nose is suddenly growing.

In truth, had to remove my broken skid plate after a rougher than normal trail ride, and since it was off decided to do the oil change a bit early, and while I'm at it, why not change the spark plugs and air filter.

Next up I have to tear the back wheel off, because the same trail ride that broke the skid plate also wrecked my rear bearings (at least I think that's what it is, I'll know for sure once I tear it apart). The wheel started the trip in fine shape, and came home with about half a centimeter of play in it. Woo Hoo, one more new thing to learn.

 

I also did the sparkplug change this spring during\after the air filter change. Neither was a big deal, especially compared to the Goldwing air filter change the following week.

 

I mounted up the medium size Harbor Freight Apache 2800 case to the top rack of my 650. I have removed the tacky sticker since the install👍

 

I mounted up the medium size Harbor Freight Apache 2800 case to the top rack of my 650. I have removed the tacky sticker since the install👍

That's a neat setup. I quite like that.

 

Replaced the headlight bulbs with Stedi LED as I ride a fair bit in the dark cold very early mornings to work.
Will check the settings in the evening but they should be fine. Big difference already.

 

Pulled the rear wheel apart and found no damage except for the bearings, so a replacement set has been installed, the wheel (and the bike) is now behaving properly. All told not a difficult job. Now I just have to load it up for a weekend of camping at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (formerly Mosport) and watching vintage car races this weekend.

 

Hello
I need the diameter of the rear shock absorber rod, can you tell me please? I'm looking for a repair kit for a shock absorber, If anyone has full sizes, or links where this can be purchased, I would be grateful

 

Back from a trip to the Cache Rally in S.D. Badly needed wash. Oil change(4500 mi.). New front tire(Metzeler).

 

Cleaned and oiled chain. I don’t care what anyone else says about chain maintenance- it makes me feel good to give the chain some love. 🙂

 

Changed chain and sprockets after 35k. What a difference. The bike is quiet again, accelerates way more smoothly now and no weird vibration on the footpegs in the lower ranges anymore.
Hah! I had taken it for granted and thought my bike is getting old.

 

Looks like chain and sprocket times! Got a new 16T front installed yesterday. Ecstar E7000 oil change kit and chain are on deck...

 

New 16T sprocket to replace the stock 17T.
Replaced the spark plugs after just 7500 miles lol.
Ordered a Carpuride W702 Pro CarPlay unit.

 

Bought some doubletake knockoffs from Aliexpress, and I'm impressed with the packaging and robust materials used. I haven't ridden with them yet, but they arrived packaged very well and feel substantial. $21, and it took 7 days to deliver.

I also replaced the stock seat with an OEM High Seat.

The Carpuride is supposed to deliver today.

 

I put a black circular piece of tape over the ABS light on the dash that remains on.

 

Yesterday I mounted a shiny new rear tire on my Vstrom. Today I pulled a shiny piece of sharp metal out of my new tire, and patched the tire. Why is it always a new tire?

 

A statistical oddity. Much like when plugging in a USB adapter, 80% of the time it will be upside down. Much like choosing a locker at the gym, you chose one where no one is. Three minutes later, you have a naked man on either side of you.

 

Turned out to be a longer project than anticipated, but I finally got my grip replacement done today.

Started out with some new Motion Pro grips, and decided to use some gel super glue I went and got, Gorila gel superglue. The glue was so thick and the throttle side grip so flimsy that I could not get it on more than half way.

Ran to Cycle Gear and got some different grips that had a bit of stiffener on the throttle side, dual density I think they're called. PFFFFT! No better luck than with the first set.

Ordered a set of Renthal grips, and a tube of Renthal grip glue. Piece of cake!

Now the only problem was getting used to these skinny little grips. That lasted two days, and the Grip Puppies went on today.

This is the first time in over fifteen years, that I havent used Oxford heated grips as replacements, and Grip Puppies went over them when worn. It was a bit more of an adventure than I anticipated, but it only took five days.

edit: some pics of the new setup

 

Been wanting to move the bars closer, but been putting it off because of what a pain in is to deal with the socket cap screws with the Rox risaers installed. Seen a rider had installed hex head bolts on the lower clamp, but it's been years and I don't remember any details.

Conjurred up an idea to make my own shoulder bolts using round coupling nuts. Ordered some 15mm nuts, but they cause some clearance issues. With one pair of the makeshift bolts installed, the bars cannot be rotated to install the second pair. The bottom of the riser hits well before I have clearance to insert the other bolts.

Ended up reinstalling the socket cap bolts in the front position, the fully clamped side. With that side tight, I could rotate the bars to install the new bolts, and tighten or loosen them to my heart's content ... as long as I don't want to move to bar back too much.

I'm going to get a set of 8mm couplers and see if I can't get all four bolts installed.

 

Time for a new piece of fuel hose.

 

Had notioced that the head bearings felt a bit loose after the bike took a couple naps recently. Had always used a hook wrench before, but in looking around I see that there are resonably priced sockets for our lock rings available from the UK. A Coup[le weks and 45 minutes later, and I had a newly tightened headset!