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Just got back from an 8 day trip to the south of France (included 3 days at the Formula 1)

Travelling back up from the coast to Dijon on Monday, I pulled up at a petrol station and the fuel cap lock had seized up..

There were three of us in our group, no-one had any WD40. The shop at the petrol station had nothing like it either......

Scratched head for a moment and then thought "I wonder".........

Coated both the key and the lock with factor 30, opened straight away!.....





Quite a good trip away, the other two bikes were a Suzuki Bandit 1200 and a Triumph Rocket 2300 - The GTR had the best fuel economy of the three (and I never really got lower than half a tank, as the Bandit could only go 140 miles before it ran dry)

Discovered that at cruising speeds, I was doing 3200rpm = 70mph    3800rpm = 80mph    4000rpm = 85mph     5000rpm = 110mph

Look for an NCP - plenty around and about £6 to park a bike securely all day on a Saturday.

Drained and replaced over the weekend, I think the recommended interval is 15-16k miles? - Mine's done just over 18k

Thick greyish-silver sludge where the oil should be, now nice and clean oil.

Probably a placebo effect, but seem to be getting slightly better MPG now?

Spotted a black 11 plate on the M25 this evening, somewhere near the A10. I was on the black 08.

Had the dreaded Transponder Low Battery warning on my commute home on Wednesday - Stopped at Timson's at the local Tesco and the guy swapped the battery for £3 (I suspect that was a cash discount - but still.....) 

Very much appreciate the response.

Cheers for the pictures.... looks like I might need to track down the kwak plate then.

Will check when it arrives, but I don't think I have the clearance on the left hand bar, as the heated grips control is there.

Just ordered one for a few trips I've got coming up, should arrive in a few days.

Cant find anything too descriptive in the marketing blurb or any clear pictures of the mounting kit that its supplied with.

Just concerned that its not going to be a good fit for the MK1 GTR's odd shaped handlebars.

Anyone else got one? any issues?

Cheers

Craig.

Love the brakes on my 08 GTR - much better than previous honda Blackbirds I've owned. (linked brakes on 97 Carb-Blackbird used to lock the back wheel regularly when progressive front braking - 01 injection model was better but still felt a bit snatchy)

My other bike, however (08 VN900 Custom) with its feeble single disk front and very very feeble single disk rear, requires special dispensation and written permission from the Queen to be able to stop at any speed. Love the bike, but the lack of brakes are scary on the motorway with the amount of tw*ts around, that was the reason I went for the GTR as my commuter bike.

Plenty of those T-shirt and shorts, R6/GSX/Ninja types around Essex unfortunately.

Skin to bone in about 1/2 a second?

I'd imagine it would look a lot like lamb shank done in a slow cooker.... you'd just be staring as the flesh slides off the bone (with added road grit instead of seasoning).


Hope they don't experience it.

Sorry forgot to post a follow up....

Coolant issue all sorted.

Bike was in for an extended stay, as I decided to bite the bullet and have a slightly shorter Hagon rear shock fitted at the same time.

Being only 5'8 the bike is now almost an inch lower, its so much easier to paddle backwards out of parking bays and off of my drive.

Very happy. :-)

Looks like the left hand rad fan burnt out, and then the extra load on the right fan blew the fuse. Waiting for a replacement fan to arrive. :-(

Here's the scene:

Monday night, ride home from work (50 'ish motorway miles), after I parked up. I notice that the overflow pipe by the left foot peg dribbled a little bit of water (probably about half a cup)

Checked the coolant level before going to work Tuesday morning, all looked well.

Tuesday night riding home from work, temp gradually getting hotter until it reach max, stopped at a set of traffic lights, just before I got home and 2 things happened:

1) the dash went into "disco-mode" changing from the normal display (with temp gauge flashing) to a pic of a thermometer to the F1 engine management warning, it kept cycling and flashing through the three screens.

2) steam pouring out the overflow pipe

Got the bike home and let it cool off.

Haven't used it since, checked the coolant level and you can see some at the bottom of the header tank, but way below the low limit.

The garage is only about 2 miles from my house so I should be able to get it there tomorrow without any issue.


To my mind I'm thinking its likely to be a blockage or an air pocket somewhere in the RAD or elsewhere in the cooling system that's forcing the water back through and out of the overflow - anyone else had this before?


Until this happened, I hadn't realised how badly designed access to the coolant system is! - Does seem daft that to top up the coolant you have to remove most of the body work? or is there a trick i'm missing?

So my bike is an 08, I've had it since October, and I have initial daily greeting message "Front tire battery sensor low" - I do what most people do and ignore it for a couple of miles and all is well.


Like I said I expect and ignore this message every trip, I only noticed the other day - why does it say "Tire" its a UK bike, not a grey import?

I guess that's just going to bug me, the same way my toddlers toys bug me when they pronounce the letter Z as Zee rather than Zed.


On another note, has anyone had any luck getting a locksmith to cut a spare key for the luggage/tank rather than having to faff around removing the fob key each time?  - I've tried a few locksmiths and none of them seem to have a suitable blank to use.

sorry John I'm replying to a month old thread, but do the lowering links affect the pitch of the bike when its on the sidestand.

I'm seriously considering having them fitted, just wondered how it affected the stability when its parked up (or did you have the side stand shortened too?)

Thanks

Craig.

Thanks O.C - That one looks a lost smarter  - will definitely investigate.

Cheers

Craig.