Notes from my first ride

[mickier]

Finally took my bike out the other day. I just picked this girl up a few weeks ago - it had been parked in a warehouse for a bunch of years... I went through the carbs and treated the tank, flushed fluids and changed plugs. It's so fun - starts up within 1 second when warm and 2 seconds when cold. I do love Kaw engine engineering...

My front forks are still lightly oiling the tubes - wipe them down and after a ride they're oily again... so... still need to get at those one of these days. Sadly they also seem to have worn springs - they're so low I can't pull the bike onto the center stand even with it's clever lever-stand unless I have at least 8 psi in the forks... Springs likely are shot so that means I'm probably back to only about 1/2 done with my refresh on the bike - since it kinda looks like more work to do the forks than everything else I have done put together... [sad face]

But wanted to put down my first ride experience and the feel of the bike.

First thing I noticed was the smooth power band and the apparent heaviness of the bike... my last ride was a 2007 Heritage classic. It was heavy but felt so different... almost nimble by comparison somehow... The Voyager almost seems to have a flat spot when vertical and going straight down the road - almost like it doesn't want to go "off straight" somehow - at least that's the feeling I got initially. I can of course easily counter-steer it to lean either way no problem, but there's a noticeable center-top position with a "let's stay straight" sensation.

Cruise wouldn't power on - gotta check that out too... hope it's a quick fix.

I got home and checked the fork stem bearing adjustment - handle bars easily drop to one side when front wheel jacked up - and no play in the tripple-tree, so I guess that's fine.

This bike only has 13,000 miles on it, and I'm glad so far everything looks and feels "low miles". Rubber carb boots are even still pretty soft etc.

I wondered if the alignment might be off - which it seems is not adjustable (without a bender or something)... I checked very carefully with a string and found it appears to be about 5 mm out. Front wheel tracking slightly to the right of the rear, but both wheels are as vertical to each other as I can measure with a carpenter's level...

Went online and found this post from "motorcycleconsumernews.com" on bike alignment which shates that "
Almost 20 years ago, a Honda engineer mentioned that the wheel alignments of 600cc and smaller bikes could vary by 5mm from true, while larger models could deviate by 10mm (1 inch equals 25.4mm). While those numbers might seem large, Honda probably had the tightest tolerances in the industry at the time."

Not sure if that is gospel, but makes me feel like I don't need to be concerned at this time.

Anyway - hope to get another dry day here this week and make another few miles...

[mickier]

Just took another 60 mile ride. What a sweet running bike! Ran 30 miles down the freeway and back on back windy roads through the hills. Just a smooth, predictable fun ride. I'm really starting to enjoy this machine.

Looks like the fork seal may be drying up with use... I've read where that can happen... hope so!

I take back what I said about feeling almost a "notch" at top-straight. It feels smooth and rolls in and out of corners very smoothly.

[Barry]

Congrats on getting her back on the road. I assume you put new tires on it? They can make a big difference in handling. From your description, I'm guessing you're on new rubber. Also forget the shop manual when it comes to adjusting the steering head bearings. Ekap1200 (Gene) on this site makes a really high quality socket to adjust the bearings. I can't tell you how nice the vxii gets once they're torqued with this socket. If you decide to put progressive springs in the front, I've got a slick method to get the top caps off. Just let me know if you're interested.

[mickier]

More to about!

I fixed my cruise...it was at the point where the power would not turn on on the cruise. I tested a few things and realized the relay was clicking when I pressed the ON button, and suddenly the power light came on! turns out that the "off" button was "sticking". Took the switch apart and cleaned/lubed it. Now it turns on and off just no problem.

Barry - thanks for the reply. I'll have to wait for a while to get the front springs, but I'd be glad to hear about the trick to get off the top caps!

[Barry]

To remove the caps on top of the fork tubes, I use large bar clamps made by Irwin. Got them at Home Depot. They're roughly 42 inches long. Put blocks or a jack under the front of the engine to get the front wheel off the ground. Pop off the black plastic caps on top of the fork tube. Find a socket about half the diameter of the inside of the fork tube. Hook one side of the bar clamp to the bottom side of the triple tree, the other side on top of the socket. It can be challenging to get everything lined up, but it's doable. Compress the cap just enough to expose the wire retainer. Use a pick or small screw driver to remove the wire and then release the clamp. If the cap doesn't pop out, just lightly smack the top of the socket and it will pop right out. It also helps to detach the handlebars. Whole process takes less than 15 minutes.

[mickier]

Ahh I see what you're getting at - bar clamps - I watched a vid of a guy pushing in the top caps with a socket and his thumb - it looked a bit like voodoo - totally not doable LOL

I guess swapping springs with that method it could go really quick. Wouldn't even require taking the front end apart. Great idea, thank you!

[Barry]

With the caps & springs removed it's also a good time to put in fresh fork oil. I currently have 10 weight, have tried 5. Best oil for me has been good old ATF.

[lucky13]

Hi. Glad to hear another xii is on the road and rescued from a slow death! I found your observations on the handling of these bikes interesting. I got my girl last year after riding an 1100 vstar for the past 9 years, and before that blah blah blah. In my first ride and indeed after that my initial observations were how nimble it was for such a big bike. Totally easier to handle (once you get the thing moving that is) than my vstar. Sinks into a corner almost without effort as opposed to the 1100...always seemed to only want to go in a straight line. I found it more stable on the highway (could rubberneck a little more and still be where you were 3 or 4 seconds ago), but not so with the xii. Found I have to pay more attention! guess its the wind grabbing all the fairings etc. Just thought I would pass it along! Happy trails.

[mickier]

Barry - does it matter which ATF? I have several bottles of older Ford ATF - would love to put them somewhere... since everything I have uses dexron iV

[Barry]

Years ago I was using dextron III. FWIW my 33 year old vxii is still on its original fork seals with no leaks! So it's safe to say that dextron isn't harmful. Don't know about Ford fluid. Maybe start a new thread and ask this question?

[ekap1200]

Hi Barry, I also used to use dex-3 with an additive from WYNN'S OR WINN'S, ( I forget the spelling ) it was an additive with a (seal-swell). This goes back years ago... With the voyager , when I did change it out 60,000 miles ago I used bell-ray 15W and had a very nice front end. The reason for using 15w was Ma-Kaw's book recommended SAE10W20. So I split the difference and went 15W. Any way now that the bike and me are getting older, after my last ride I was looking it over and noticed my fork boots installed about 75k ago had finally began to rot and split open at several folds. I get these fork boots from discarded rear air shocks and had another pair to install. So yesterday with all the wind here in NJ I decided not to ride and work on the bike. With a trip to the Post office and another trip to find fork oil it took me 5 hours to pull the tubes replace the oil and install the boots and get it back on the floor. I gave your method of cap removal a try but quickly went to my approach of a small bearing splitter and puller. 60K miles of use and the oil was darn near black....
Hoping today's weather is more pleasant for riding after knocking off an item from the never ending Honey - DO list.....
Gene K.

[Barry]

That's funny to me. I tried using the bearing puller once and quickly abandoned it in favor of the bar clamp! To each his own. I also used your same logic and tried 15 wt fork oil with the progressive springs. Worked great when 2 up and trailer, but was too firm for solo riding for me. I also use fork protectors and they velcro on. Much easier than pulling the fork tubes. Glad you got it done. My bike is still up on the lift. It's getting close to being all back together. Mostly cleaning and polishing at this point. That's hard to get done working on it for maybe 1/2 hour per day. Been doing work out in the yard. Transplanting bushes & adding some new ones. My 'honey do' list seems to be getting longer, rather than shorter.