What did you do to/with your other motorcycle/scooter/trike today?

[dduelin]

I don't really know my way around such a forum as this, but I'll give it a try. I was riding my 1984 Honda VF-1100S and a Rivian pickup truck sort of thing was behind me. We were at a stop sign and after the stop sign was a very long sweeping turn, so I went first of course and peered in my rear view mirror, and could see the Rivian driver was trying mightily, with all four motors singing their electric song, to close the distance so I twisted the Sabre's wick while in second gear, and left the Rivian like it was standing still.
A few days later I had the Sabre on a very long straight stretch of road, that I, in a previous time, could not get my NC-750X DCT to get to 100 mph, with it topping out at about 98 mph, so I tried to exceed 100 mph with the Sabre, and it was no problem. By the bye the Honda VF-1100S is also known as a V-65 Sabre.

I've had every configuration of production Honda engines they made with the exception of the CBX inline six and the V4's were probably my favorite. (VFR800 and ST1300) Smooth as glass, plenty of horsepower, and a deep well of torque to draw on. The Sabre was quite a bike for it's time and Honda's further refinement of the engine into the ST1100 and ST1300 took it very far. Honda put a lot of yen into refining the V4. Soichiro Honda supposedly thought the V4 was the epitome of motorcycle engine designs but inline 4s won the battle in the marketplace.

I saw this view many times on the ST1300. Closed course, no traffic, don't try this at home YMMV.

 

[cornbiker]

A guy who came out to look at my NC last week rode up on one of these ( V-65 Sabre), he said he bought it new when he was in his 20's. It looked showroom new. Cool machine.

 

[the Ferret]

I had both a V65 Sabre and ST 1300 V4's. Although the V65 was a stonkin' bike, it was just too tall and top heavy for me. I probably put 40k miles on my V65, but after a U turn drop with my wife on back I sold it. My ST 1300 suited me much more and I put 110k miles on it. It never saw 143 mph though lol. It did see 110 mph once with my wife and I on it on Rt 89? in Montana on a tour of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming.

 

[1984VF1100S]

My first bike, in 1962 was a H_D 1942 WL, not a WLA my second was a 1952 H-D Model K, and various other bikes throughout the years, the highlights being a 1978 CX-500, a 1979 CBX, my first 1984 V-65 Sabre, a 2001 ST-1100, a 2005 Yamaha FJR-1300, my second V-65 Sabre, and the 2022 NC-750X DCT. I purchased the NC as at 78 years old, if I want to remain in motorcycling, I had to downsize, though I keep the Sabre as a nostalgia bike, though it is a heavy lump. The current Sabre is a "rescue" bike, and has some patina, and has 53,000 or so miles on it, and is due for a valve check and adjustment. I mostly do the work on the Sabre myself, though I did have a restoration shop reseal all the joints on the exhaust system, and also put a new o-ring on the oil sump cover, and Wendy Crockett of Iron Butt Rally fame, replaced the water pump, when she had a repair shop in Kernville, CA. I plan to have the NC dealer serviced, at a single line Honda dealer. So far with the NC I have destroyed the rear brake disk, and trashed the parking brake pads by misuse of the parking brake.

 

[MZ5]

I don't really know my way around such a forum as this, but I'll give it a try. I was riding my 1984 Honda VF-1100S and a Rivian pickup truck sort of thing was behind me. We were at a stop sign and after the stop sign was a very long sweeping turn, so I went first of course and peered in my rear view mirror, and could see the Rivian driver was trying mightily, with all four motors singing their electric song, to close the distance so I twisted the Sabre's wick while in second gear, and left the Rivian like it was standing still.

I've some experience with Rivian pickups, as well as with some ultra-quick Honda sport bikes. This is a neat story, but don't go direcly racing a Rivian if you want to keep your pride intact.
(-;

 

[670cc]

I was busy today but made time for a 35 mile ride on the Zero motorcycle at 61 degrees F. That is great weather here for this time of year. Last year on this date, it was unusually cold with a high of only 17*F. Never put your motorcycle away for the season or you could miss some great riding days.

 

[dduelin]

Pretty quiet in the house this morning. We had our extended family Christmas dinner and gift exchange last night as one of the family first responders is on duty today.

In keeping with a tradition that started 53 years ago when Santa left a little Honda under the tree I went for an early ride this morning on a little bigger Honda than the one I rode Christmas Day 1970. It's overcast and light rain today but for a couple of hours the rain held to no more than a light mist. Perfect Goldwing day.

 

[670cc]

A glance at the weather radar this morning showed a huge band of rain moving in. I jumped on the Goldwing for a 46 mile pre-breakfast ride. Being a national holiday with many or most businesses closed, the traffic was extremely light. The temperature reached 55*F on the ride, while average daily highs for December here are 38. It sure was a good Goldwing day, as dduelin wrote above.

 

[the Ferret]

Day 334.. a Christmas day ride on the CB...58 miles @ 57 degrees and overcast

and turned over this as I pulled into the driveway

 

[dduelin]

It's been time to pull the driveshaft out of the BMW to grease the U-joint bearings so taking advantage of the heavy rain this morning I got the shaft out in 4 hours. Today was a family member's birthday so there was that and when back home again I took the Wing out for a sunset ride. 75F and drying out after the rain last night and today.

 

[670cc]

It's been time to pull the driveshaft out of the BMW to grease the U-joint bearings so taking advantage of the heavy rain this morning I got the shaft out in 4 hours. Today was a family member's birthday so there was that and when back home again I took the Wing out for a sunset ride. 75F and drying out after the rain last night and today.

View attachment 53448

View attachment 53449

Interesting. Is there a similar (to the BMW) drive shaft maintenance task required for the Goldwing 1800?

 

[dduelin]

Interesting. Is there a similar (to the BMW) drive shaft maintenance task required for the Goldwing 1800?

Well no, the OEM BMW shaft doesn't have grease fittings nor does the Goldwing's so it's not something to do on time or mileage. They go until a bearing fails which I believe is very rare on Honda shaft drive bikes. This 2007 model BMW is old enough that it's known that replacing the shaft at 100-120,000 miles can head off a catastrophic failure. At $1,200 for a new one I opted to have mine rebuilt for $270 and it's rebuildable in the event I need to. The shop that rebuilt this one recommends the bearings be greased at 500 hours which is about 25,000 miles.

 

[MZ5]

Interesting, dduelin. Glad to hear about your driveshaft rebuild. I've thought that would be the smart play whenever I've read the people on the K forums talk about preemptive driveshaft replacement. Not everyone there seems to think having a shop replace the u-joints is possible or 'recommended,' but I think it somewhat obvious.

On your model, are the yokes built (by BMW) so as to allow cross replacement, or did you have to have a shop cut and replace the yokes, too?

 

[dduelin]

Interesting, dduelin. Glad to hear about your driveshaft rebuild. I've thought that would be the smart play whenever I've read the people on the K forums talk about preemptive driveshaft replacement. Not everyone there seems to think having a shop replace the u-joints is possible or 'recommended,' but I think it somewhat obvious.

On your model, are the yokes built (by BMW) so as to allow cross replacement, or did you have to have a shop cut and replace the yokes, too?

The rebuild shop Machine Service Inc of Green Bay, WI removed the original spiders or crosses and replaced them with new ones that have a flush grease fitting to lubricate the bearings. The cups are tack welded in place. The yokes are not replaced. MSI works on all sorts of power transmission machinery and are not a motorcycle type repair shop.

Tonight I did the hard part and got the swing arm mounted back in the frame. When I took the shaft today to a local drive line specialist to grease the bearings ( I don't have a needle that fits the flush fitting ) he said he could easily replace the bearings if need be. I don't think I will wear this one out but probably any drive line shop with an interest in doing a rebuild could do it.

 

[MZ5]

Cool; thanks. I used a driveline shop where I used to live for all kinds of things, from fabbing new drivelshafts to lengthening, shortening, and repairing. Cross or spider replacement is something I usually did myself, but most of my drivelines had crosses held in place with snap rings (intended to be replaced relatively easily). Replacement generally required a bashing utensil and a drift because of rust and dirt, but it was do-able.

I'm glad an appropriately-sized u-joint is available for BMW's driveshafts. Too bad they tack-weld 'em in. Guess we can't win 'em all.
(-:

 

[dduelin]

Cool; thanks. I used a driveline shop where I used to live for all kinds of things, from fabbing new drivelshafts to lengthening, shortening, and repairing. Cross or spider replacement is something I usually did myself, but most of my drivelines had crosses held in place with snap rings (intended to be replaced relatively easily). Replacement generally required a bashing utensil and a drift because of rust and dirt, but it was do-able.

I'm glad an appropriately-sized u-joint is available for BMW's driveshafts. Too bad they tack-weld 'em in. Guess we can't win 'em all.
(-:

I’m thinking a grinder makes short work of the tack welds. I’m guessing not having to use circlips to retain the cross makes the u-joint a bit more compact. The OEM build stakes the cups in place. The drive shaft in my old ST1300 was similar, perhaps to live and work inside the swing arm’s limited space.

When I walked in the place there was a large steel table holding a half dozen or more drive shafts waiting for repair. The largest were 6” or more in diameter and maybe 8’ long with a carrier bearing at the halfway point. Standing there holding the RT’s much smaller drive shaft I quipped “I feel so inadequate.”

OEM vs MSI rebuild

 

[dduelin]

Lovely Florida winter day today. 55F in the morning and 75F in the afternoon. Took advantage of a Goldwing forum RTE in Clermont, FL to ride downstate. The VW "Spider" was spotted in Mount Dora, FL.

 

[the Ferret]

Very cool sculpture.

 

[salishmoto]

I recently acquired a 2015 K1300S HP edition with 25K and am going through all the new bike bonding and maintenance. I just finished doing a pretty thorough once over with oil, drive oil, greasing suspension linkage, air filters and miscellaneous other things. It's quite a rocket and very comfortable. I'm loving having a shaft drive since I will use this bike for all my extended trips. Today I finally got to take it out after us having an extended spell of freezing weather. The slightly more leaned forward position and smooth laminar airflow over the screen makes it a much more visceral and engaged experience than the otherwise lovely S1000XR I had before it. The NC is my commute bike, and has survived the maelstrom of my bike neurosis so far because it's so friendly and affordable.

 

[the Ferret]

After a couple days off for medical issues (including a visit to the ER) and weather I was finally able to get back in the saddle today for a short ride

Day 10...21 miles @ 13 degrees and sunny

Oops this was supposed to be posted in the what did you do on your NC today thread.. not in other bike thread