Nearly two months ago, I dropped off my Bonneville at the dealer for repairs following my unpleasant traffic incident. Little did I know that the world was about to shut down.

It seemed that all it would need was a new front fender and a loosening and realigning of the forks. But, after fiddling with it, they weren't completely happy with the alignment and determined that it should get new forks, head bearings and a truing of the front wheel as well. That would involve more negotiation with the insurance company, shipping parts from England, and with everything in the world slowing down, would keep the bike in their shop indefinitely.

During that time, I watched all of the local motorcycle dealers shut down one by one. I kept nervously calling my dealer, Southern California Motorcycles in Brea, and the service manager kept telling me "Well, we're still open... for now... no word on the parts for your bike yet. Check back in a week or two."

Finally got the call yesterday that it was ready. She rides better than before with new forks and bearings. My wife saw how happy I was when I got home, but noticed that the bike was pretty dusty from sitting in their shop for two months. She said "Well, I know what you'll be doing for the next few days."

Just wondering are there other country with special motorcycle lane for motorcyclist? Below are the short trip I took in one of the motorcycle lane in Malaysia. Tight road for a big bike. But these are the better part of the lane which I took, only about 30% of the whole stretch. Once a while will see some fallen trees or floods under tunnel section, and sometimes with missing/stolen drain cover. And any crash will be highly damaging on part with metal barrier on both side. And if you are bad luck enough, you will find yourself trapped on the part where both side are metal barrier and the road in front blocked, and can't make a U-Turn due to big bike turning radius. If you guys had a chance to visit Malaysia in the future, do rent a moped and try these exciting road out...






Legal disclaimer: The meter is not working correctly and the speed shown on the meter are not correct. Rider always follow speed limits.

...Is the comment my wife just made. She's sitting at her desk in our guest room, turned Covid19 Telemedicine Bunker.

She just got off of a call with a patient, and looking out the window commented "Huh, the neighbors across the street are getting new carpet."

Me: "Awesome, I hope they leave a nice new remnant piece in the dumpster that I can use to lay on for chain lubing and oil changes!"

Gotta keep your priorities straight!

1. Has anyone ridden a RE Himalayan?

2. Has anyone ridden one of the BMW 650GS versions from the early to mid 2000's?

If you have I would be interested in your thoughts.

Back in 1998 my wife and I were headed out east to Pennsylvania to attend a wedding. We decided to leave a couple of days early so that we could visit New York City as neither of us had been before. We saw a lot, yet very little all in the same visit. One thing that we did make time for, and I was not even aware was going on before we arrived, was [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_the_Motorcycle]The Art of the Motorcycle exhibit that was showing at the Guggenheim Museum. God bless my wife for agreeing that we should go to this because for me this was pretty cool to see. The museum building itself, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright was pretty awesome on it's own. Filling that particular structure with an incredibly wide variety of motorcycles made for an amazing experience. I had no idea about all of the controversy that resulted from this show. But I'm still glad that it happened and that I was able to attend.

I bring this up now because I the only thing that I purchased while at the exhibit was a small magnet for the 'fridge'. Everything else was out of both my price and size range (I tend to travel very light). I have checked over the years on prices for a used copy of the hardcover book associated with this specific event and was always disappointed to find that they never seemed to drop in price. But after discussing the Britten V1000 here on the forum last month I was reminded to check again as this was one of the motorcycles included in the exhibit. To my surprise I was happy to find that prices for this book had dropped significantly, so I finally ordered one. The book arrived earlier this week. At well over 400 pages and more than 7 pounds in weight, it is massive. For $50 I now have plenty of additional entertainment available to me while hanging out at home.

This has also made me curious to know if anyone else out there on the forum happened to have attended this event?

Ok so new to this line of bike
Mainly worked on Kawasaki’s pre 85s
Here is my question and thier does not seem to be a forum for this model but I see the 900 and 1100 are similar to the 1000c
How do I remove the plate for rear brake cylinder since the bolt is right at line with the tailpipe do I literally have to drop the entire four tail pipe assembly for one bolt or is thier a easier way to do this if it’s rusted and bald

Received my new Delkevic 9” oval muffler yesterday and installed today. Very easy job. Took 20-30 min max at a leisurely pace.

Tried it with the baffle out and installed and ended up keeping the baffle in. Still a nice sound, just not as boomy at low rpm.

All in all, a very nicely manufactured system. Especially for the price (181.00 direct).

The only two minor complaints I have about this bike was the quietness of the stock exhaust and a clunky second gear (Improved with chain adjustment and wax lube on chain).

As much as i am a fan of air cooled Honda’s, the 4 cylinders just don’t have the sounds of twins (although my 77 CB750 with Kerker 4-1 sounded nice). But this does a decent job of improving the sound of this bike.

I definitely would recommend this pipe for its combination of sound, build and especially value.

O.K., she does have a ways to go, but she’s working on it. Just the other day she said I should give better waves to fellow bikers.

After years of no interest in the motorcycle, she wants to go every day now. I tell her we need to be above 60 degrees or so to be tolerable. Since I ride snowmobiles I can handle cooler.

I usually take the back way, look for pleasant rides, and of course keep things super defensive. Once the restaurants start opening, I’ll incorporate more of those stops.

She’s off work lately. I’d rather motorcycle around than do the vehicle thing. With my Iron Rider bag, we can fit a little if we stop somewhere.

I’m almost to the point of wanting a little more sound to the exhaust system. I haven’t brought myself to cutting holes in the muffler yet.

I tried searching and only found muffler reviews. Has anyone tried one? How do they perform and how do they sound? Also how well are they made and do they hold up?
Thanks in advance.

In doing my swap, it looks like 2017 EX wire wheels and 2014 DLX cast wheels can be easily swapped using OEM parts. 2014 DLX and 2017 EX use the same rear disc. Others use a different part number that may work fine, or a new disc will be needed. 2013 models also have a rear axle issue addressed below.

This is a list of 2017 EX wire wheel parts for the 2014 DLX. Use your old F & R calipers and axles, rear disc, sprocket and dampers. Prices were found online at well below suggested retail from hondaparts-direct.com:

Front:
wheel assembly ...........$523
pulser ring and bolts ........22
L & R disc rotors ...........610
12 disc bolts ...................17
tube/rim strip................. 25
L & R wheel spacers ........15
------------------------
Front subtotal ...........$1212


Rear:
wheel assembly ...........$615
tube/rim strip .................28
L & R wheel spacers ........26
caliper bracket ................97
brake hose .....................37
drive flange ..................128
pulser ring and bolts.........55
speed sensor..................116
---------------------------
rear subtotal .............$ 1102

If you have a non-ABS 2013/2014 model, you may need to shim the right front disc outward 2mm because a pulser ring isn't used. On a 2013 ABS, the speed sensor is mounted into the right caliper bracket, and later bikes have a separate bolt-on bracket. The front pulser ring has a different part number, so the speed sensor location/spacing may be different. But there are ways to check or compensate.

At the rear wheel of either 2013, the 25mm axle causes problems compared to the 20mm on the later bikes. You would need to use the later 20mm axle and chain adjusters, and make spacers where the axle passes through the swingarm - with a 2.5mm wall thickness, they would be a little fragile. Or use a later swingarm.

I went the other way, putting 2014 DLX cast wheels on my 2017 EX. It was a bolt-on using OEM parts. Only slight problems were caused by speed sensors. The rear speed sensor wire was shorter than the original, and needed to be carefully routed and secured. The front had too large an air gap, but I didn't check it beforehand. I was able to put 0.5mm shims/washers between the separate speed sensor bracket and the fork leg.

The cast front wheel weighed 20.2 lbs with discs.
The wire-spoke wheel weighed 16 lbs with discs - add 1 lb for the tube.

The cast rear wheel weighed 18 lbs with disc.
The wire-spoke wheel weighed 17.5 lbs with disc - add 1 lb for the tube.

Net weight reduction is 2.7 lbs. I used my shipping scale, so only fairly close.

This applies primarily to US 2013, 2014, and 2017 models, and probably Canadian models. Check with your local parts department to be sure.