Greetings from Malta!

[BigVeeGrin]

Hello and welcome - went to Malta once, lovely place

[Kev L]

Welcome to the club fella, enjoy the bike.

[lloydie]

Hello and welcome
Don't fit a K&N unless you want to spend a lot of time and money on Dyno time . The standard filter is best

[dwardu]

Thanks for your welcome posts and tips. I have placed an order for the manual CCTs and a hugger.

I agree with you lloydie that sticking to the OEM filter would be my ideal choice (for now at least). When I got my CB600 it had already a KN fitted with an after-market exhaust and still used the stock jets. Apart from massive hesitation on the pilot circuit, it ran fine. I still went for the Stage 1 Dynojet kit and the bike felt better on the mid and higher revs. For the pilot circuit, I went up two sizes from the stock #40 to #45 Keihin. The hesitation is only slight now but I ended up with a rich condition on idle. I might fiddle with the idle screws this weekend and give it a few tries. With regards to my VT750C; well that has straight Cobra baffled pipes and a Hypercharger air-filter housing which I installed together with a Dynojet kit at stage 3. The only issues I had was with backfires on deceleration which I managed to sort after 4 years. Just last month I had the bright idea of using high temp copper based RTV where the two sections of the pipes join (a vacuum cleaner exposed the exhaust leak). Now the backfires on deceleration are gone, and I am only left with occasional less louder pops that I don't think I'll get rid of since no PAIR exists and air intake + exhaust aren't slightly restricted. On both bikes, improving carb set-up due to after-market parts was very time consuming, but I did learn a lot in the process.

My only priorities on the VTR are the CCTs, and overall maintenance (replacing fluids and the other checks). I have my own stock of MANN MW 64/1 oil filters which I use on every bike (and future one) I have. For engine oil, I plan to use Silkolene Comp 4 10w-40 as I use on the Hornet, and OAT based ethylene glycol coolant (Toyota Longlife, WOLF red antifreeze, or similar). On both my Shadow and Hornet, I replaced the fork springs when changing the fork oil, so I might do the same on the FireStorm at a later stage. I stuck to 10W oil as per Honda specs for both of them, but am not sure what the suggested one for the VTR is (just need to print off the workshop manual...another big thanks to you guys for making it available). Any tips in lubes and other fluids is most appreciated.

Some pics! This is my Hornet...



My Shadow ACE...



And my FireStorm to be...



YIPEEEE!!

[AMCQ46]

firestorm looks clean & unmolested.........shame its blue though

[sirch345]

Welcome aboard

Your Storm looks good, so does your Hornet

Chris.

[Kev L]

Nice to see a Storm in the proper colour mate,

[Pete.L]

Looking Good Dwardu
Welcome Aboard!

[dwardu]

Thanks Pete!

I am trying to figure out which fork springs to go for...since I will be replacing the fluid, makes sense to replace the springs in the process. Progressive would be the right choice for me as I will be touring and don't do any track days. Not sure whether to get the Hagons, Hyperpro or Wirth fork springs...or get the combo kit from Hyperpro and change the rear spring as well.

Do you fellas know why there are two combo kits from Hyperpro for the Storm? One has a remark "OHLINS RE". is this for an OHLINS after-market cartridge?

EDITED - Hyperpro just told me that the "OHLINS RE" kit is for those few FireStorms that came out with OEM OHLINS monoshock.

[john cresser]

Welcomb from another blue bike. John C.

[sirch345]

EDITED - Hyperpro just told me that the "OHLINS RE" kit is for those few FireStorms that came out with OEM OHLINS monoshock.

That's news to me, I don't think there ever was such a bike, well not here in the UK anyway

Chris.

[VTRDark]

EDITED - Hyperpro just told me that the "OHLINS RE" kit is for those few FireStorms that came out with OEM OHLINS monoshock.

That's news to me, I don't think there ever was such a bike, well not here in the UK anyway

Chris.

I was just thinking the same thing. I think Hyperpro have fed you some bull there. Not even the limited edition 50th anniversary came with any Ohlins.

(:-})