thirdgenlxi

We then went back over to the Fontana Dam... he'd never been before Tunnels to drain the lake Uh oh... clouds starting to roll in once again Made our way down to Robbinsville to get some dinner, hitting some rain on the way. Stopped at Fontana Village and hung out with the Honda Civic boys for a few minutes under a canopy and waited for the rain to pass, which only took about 10 mins Made a stop along the river... not the greatest pic but there was fog hovering over the water... looked pretty cool in person, not so much in the pic Water was crystal clear Made a stop at one of the bridges I always like to snap some pics at Then made a stop at the swinging bridge We finally make it into Robbinsville, and find ourselves at the same mexican restaurant from the night prior. It was good food! About 8:30 or so we make our way back from the Gap store. As we're going along we start seeing lightning, then the wind picks up, and then about 5 miles or so from the Gap store the sky just opens up with a vengeance. This was without a doubt one of the worst rainstorms I've ridden through in a long long time. Raindrops the size of golf balls, mixed with fog.... yea we couldn't see a damn thing. Had to slow to about 15-20 mph just to see the road, and had to ride with our visors open cuz otherwise you couldn't even see a couple of feet in front of you. Finally made it back to the Gap store, and to say we were utterly soaked would be a gross understatement Luckily the guy from Florida left the tarp he was borrowing from the gap store and gave it to me to use over my tent. Helped quite a bit keeping stuff dry We got Rodneys tent all taken down and packed up and everything loaded in his truck, and bike loaded on the trailer, and he took off to go home. It was still raining so there was no campfire this night, so after a nice long hot shower up in the bathhouse I crawled into my tent and played some intense rounds of wheel of fortune to pass some time before going to bed, lol Woke up sunday morning, luckily to some sunshine and blue skies! I had some clean up work to do after all the rain, so I emptied the tent and put everything out in the sun to dry for a few hours In the meantime I got something to eat and then hung out at the gap store. Ended up running into 3 guys I knew from the easttnriders.com forum, so hung out and had a good time with them too. I always enjoy seeing all the other sportbike long haul travelers that come here too. Last weekend met a guy on an R6 that rode down from Michigan, then heading up the BRP up to VA. This CBR was from Ontario, Canada The little stream behind my tent... a the night prior it was more of a raging river, haha Later in the day, made my way home Got home, and after being gone for 3 days, somebody was anxiously awaiting my return.... Had to sniff out where I'd been, lol That's all the pics.... All in all, even with the lack of attendance and the rain, still had a great time with some great people! Hope to do it again next year

Or actually the last 2 weekends, lol. The 600rr.net forum was having a meet at Deals Gap this past weekend (8-12), but barely anybody showed up... there was only about 6 of us in total. But, we still had a good time, even though mother nature sure didn't want to cooperate on saturday. Being that I made this trip twice, some of the pics are kind of repetitive... sorry! I'm just posting them all A couple people came out early cuz they were spending the whole week there. So I rode out to Deals Gap last Sunday the 5th Bike all packed up and ready to go! I'm camping out so I got my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, etc all stuffed in there some how Arrived at the Deals Gap Resort and it was insanely packed with people! In all the times I've been there I've never seen it this packed before. But luckily there was still some open space in the camping area and I was able to find a spot Unpacked everything and set up the tent right next to the rustling stream I won't go on the dragon when it's busy like it was... too many idiots that don't know how to ride running into other people (3 wrecks the previous day and 2 wrecks this day). So I just hung around the gap store and waited for the others to arrive. In the meantime, I laughed at the squids and harleys, and saw this little gem Wasn't too long before I saw 2 600RR's roll in, and what looked to be a super tall dude on the one. I figured that had to be them, so I wander over and look at the tags... sure enough. Met up with Brian and his GF, they had just gotten in after driving 30 hrs straight (1800 miles) from Utah. We waited around for a little while longer for it to die down, then headed up to the overlook After that they were pretty tired from the drive and wanted to get some rest, so they took off and headed back to their campsite. I wanted to get a sunset picture, but the overlook wasn't a good place, so I made my way down the mountain and over to the Fontana Dam Still couldn't get a real good sunset picture, but this still looked kinda cool After this I made my way down to Robbinsville for some dinner, then back to the Gap store to get some sleep. It was a nice night, so I decided to head up to the overlook at 11pm and check it out at night. Talk about a sloooowww ride up there, but holy crap... get to the overlook and I promise you you've never seen so many stars in the sky before! Absolutely spectacular... enough that it almost makes you dizzy looking at it cuz it's endless stars from horizon to horizon. It was so dark though I lost my bike... when I went to leave I couldn't find it and had to wave my arms around in front of me. Finally found it and made my way back to the gap store... slowly, lol Got up the next morning and went looking for Brians campsite, but never did find it so I just ended up making my way back home [bEGIN BORING WORK WEEK] Uggghhhhhhhhhhh... [/END BORING WORK WEEK] Friday the 10th... I skip out of work a little early, and make my way back to Deals Gap, this time carrying even more stuff, haha Arrived there once again, much less crowded this time around Set up camp yet again, and found out my air mattress is bigger than my tent. Oh well... still worked, just looked a little goofy Shortly after I got there, I met up with Scott who was staying at Fontana Village... he came over to the Gap store and we then rode down to Robbinsville for some dinner. We met up with 2 other guys from the forum. Brian and his GF couldn't make it cuz they were heading back home and had to leave around that time. Had a great dinner at this mexican place, then just hung out and BS'd until 11pm or so.... good times! I didn't get any pics though. We were all getting tired so they headed back to where they were staying, and Scott and I headed back to the Gap store. Once there I met up with Rodney from the forum, along with running into another guy from one of the other forums I'm on... just pure coincidence he was up there in his WRX, and then several other people that were staying there. We had a nice fire going in the fire pit, and ended up just sitting around the fire BS'ing until 4:20 am when we almost couldn't stay upright anymore, lol. GREAT times though and tons of laughs Saturday morning I'm woken up at around 6am by the sound of massive raindrops pounding against my tent. I went back to sleep, woke up around 8:30 and it was still raining, laid there for another hour or so then finally dragged my a$$ outta bed. Got out of the tent and... what a beautiful day! Take note of that GSX-R parked in front of me So we're just sitting there in the little shed where they keep the firewood hanging out and staying out of the rain. Dude walks up... "Jared??". I kinda recognized the dude, but couldn't remember his name or where from. Then he mentioned "we used to ride together in Florida".... then I remembered who he was! I couldn't believe he recognized me... I moved out of Florida in 2007 and haven't seen/heard from/talked to this guy in at least 3-4 years. Was great seeing him again and catching up on alot of stuff! In the meantime, my bike took refuge under a tree... We waited and waited for the rain to stop, then about 2pm it finally did, and the sky cleared up to a beautiful blue sunny sky. Everybodys plans to meet up and ride that morning were pretty much washed, and others just went home, so it was pretty much just Rodney and myself. We decided to make our way up to the overlook Some lady took our picture... Nobody had to add any parts to the tree this weekend, so that was definitely good

Awesome.... congrats on the milestone!! Always a good feeling! FJR is a great bike for racking up some serious miles on though... keep at it and you'll be at 200k before you know it

Well guys, just figured I'd post a little update on how she's doing. Not all too much to say other than.... bike is running great!! Just went out and snapped this a few mins ago... logged exactly 15,316 miles since April 3rd when I got her running again after the wreck (177,428). In that time she's taken me all throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland without even so much as a hiccup, and still going strong as ever and ridden each and every day. She did the 120 mile/day commute thing every single day (M-F) for 2 months straight without even batting an eye (errr headlight) Only issue I've had was a couple weeks ago, I was over in Hickory, NC on my way to Best Buy, sitting at a long stop light and noticed I hadn't heard my cooling fan come on. Look down at the temp and it's at 231... 235... 239... uh oh! Quickly pull into a parking lot and discover my cooling fan blade is broken right in the center where it attaches to the motor shaft, so the motor is spinning but not the blade... arg! I just replaced this blade about a year ago for breaking in the exact same spot. I just put my old one back on for now that I fixed with some JB Weld and it's working fine for now... gotta go order another one tomorrow. That's the only thing though... everything else motor/trans related is perfect! That's about it... 7,256 until the big 200k mark, shouldn't be too long. I think she'll make it there just fine....

Dude that's freakin awesome!!! I'm so glad to see you back out there and riding again Be safe and have fun!

I left the gas station and it was just sprinkling a little bit, got on the on ramp right next to the gas station, and by the time I merged onto the highway (maybe 0.2 mile), it was POURING. Guess I picked a good time to put the raingear on, haha. Made it through the rain no prob... it didn't last too long, then it was just sprinkles after that. Stopped to take one last break at a rest area in Marion, NC Ummm.... WTF?? Where's my bar end?? Pretty sure it's in Virginia... somewhere Sky still wasn't looking too appealing, so I left the raingear on Made my way back to Asheville, NC.... had to make a quick stop at Best Buy and pick up a new laptop so I could post my pictures up when I got home. My poor old Sony Vaio finally kicked the bucket last week I didn't need anything fancy at all, so I just picked up a cheapo netbook Hey whatever works, right?? Cargo net = best $5 I ever spent, lol Made it home safe n sound by just after 8:30 pm... gave her a pat on the tank for a job well done and tucked her away for the night Ending mileage (I forgot to take a beginning shot). I reset the trip B odometer when I left, and it rolled over so in total it was 1,312.7 miles for the weekend. Bike ran like a champ... not a single problem! That's all the pics I've got. All in all, had a great time and always love hanging out and riding with these guys!! Can't wait to do it again next year....

But that also allowed me to get some action shots as we were riding along. Which is a good thing I did, cuz damn near half the overlooks were closed for construction, so we never did get to pull off and line up all the bikes for pics There were lots of bicyclists out going both ways. This particular one was going uphill.... very slowly, lol Looks like Team Mini Cooper was out there this weekend too Stopped at the little rest area to grab some lunch and cool off for a bit And back up Skyline a little further It was getting later in the day, so we decided to jump off Skyline Drive at Hwy 211, which is a fun little road going out of the park. Went down the road about 50 miles or so and we made this our final stop before we all parted ways We got some stranger lady in a Toyota to snap a bunch of pictures for us. What a great group of people this is..... We all hung around for a little while longer and chit-chatted for a bit And snapped more pics too.... can never have too many of those, right?? It was getting late by now, and we all still had a decent ride home (most of the guys were headed back to MD). I was planning on finding a place to stay somewhere in the area there. Kevin lived not all too far from there though, and said he was headed to the DQ just down the road for some ice cream, so I tagged along.... after a hot day, I couldn't say no Oreo Blizzard FTMFW!! Thanks Kevin! We said goodbye and went our separate ways. I got back on Rt. 29 south and rode for a little while longer. Right as I was coming into Culpeper, VA I was able to catch a beautiful sunset right in front of me Shortly after I found a room in Culpeper and called it a night. Had to leave the bike outside, but this place was out in the middle of nowhere so I wasn't all too worried Monday morning.... had intentions of getting on the road early, but that didn't happen, lol. Guess I was pretty tired, more like 10:30, got her all packed up again and ready to roll The first part of the day was absolutely beeeaauuuutiful!! After a couple hours on the highway, I took a little break and jumped off to explore some of Virginia's beautiful backroads. This was near Natural Bridge, VA My buddy in Greenville, SC had sent me a text earlier in the day saying to be careful as I may be running into some nasty weather on my way back. While it was bright and sunny at the time, several hours later that would change. I could see the clouds ahead and started to get a few sprinkles, so I pulled into this gas station to put on my raingear. There was a HUUUUGE group of Harleys at this gas station as well Saw these guys pulling out.... why does this not surprise me in the least......?? The sky was definitely NOT looking in my favor, lol I pulled up the radar map on my phone to look at what I was headed into. The red pin is me at the gas station that I stopped at, and what I'm headed into. Ahhh the joys of travelling on two wheels.... but, I wouldn't have it any other way Gotta admit I sure am glad I wasn't headed towards Charlotte.... that's what they were getting....yikes!

Well I had a blast this past weekend!! The cbrjunkie.com forum I'm on had it's 2nd annual east coast Skyline Drive meet, which went off without a hitch just as last years meet. We had it the same time last year (Memorial Day weekend) which worked well since most had a 3 day weekend. I rode out to souther Maryland saturday morning, hung out with everybody saturday night and had a great time, then we all went to the meet on sunday, then made my way back to western NC on monday Anyways, on with the pics.... Saturday morning... 8:30 am, a little later than I wanted to get going, but bike is now all packed and ready to go Made my way up and over Old Fort Mountain on some familiar backroads (my daily commute route to work and back everyday) Stopped in Morganton, NC to fill up with gas before jumping on the highway to slab it the rest of the way Also had to get a little something to eat.... it's the breakfast of champions!! Made my way NE I stopped in Ironto, VA and met up with Jeff.... he's on the sportbikes.net forum, but I invited him along so we met up at this gas station along the way A very nice Daytona 675 he has! And from there we made our way east. Slabbed it for awhile then jumped off the highway for the last 2 hours or so and took some backroads. It was definitely a nice break from the highway! Crossed the big bridge over the Potomac river, and into MD about 7pm As we're headed down Rt. 234 towards Lexington Park, we're probably 20 mins away and come up on a row of stopped traffic From what we can gather, that white F-250 sitting there apparently spilled a load of some sort of seafood all over the road (oysters??). They looked white, and hard and made clanging noises as they were sweeping them off, lol. Firetruck was there spraying the road down with the firehose and sweeping them all off the road After about 10-15 mins waiting there, they got it all cleaned up and we were free to go. We made it safely to the Days Inn in Lexington Park where everyone else was staying. Shortly after checking in we found 2 of the other guys in our group, Regis and Garrett.... both of them rode down from Pittsburg, PA. There was also another member staying in a different part of the hotel... we found him shortly after Saturday night the rest of the crew came over to the hotel, we all hung out there for a few mins then headed out and rode over to Solomons Island to hang out and have a good time, grab some food and a few drinks. Don't have any pics of that, but had a great time!! We were all pretty wiped and wanted to get some sleep, so we made our way back to the hotel by around midnight. Being that we couldn't get ground level rooms, and the hotel wasn't exactly in the greatest neighborhood, we had to get creative in locking the bikes to each other, lol We ended up staying up until after 2am just hanging out outside the room BS'ing about all kinds of random things. Saw this minivan get pulled over in the parking lot behind us, and 4 popo's ended up showing up.... had to watch and see what happened there. Nothing too exciting though.... Sunday morning... phew, our bikes were still there! We all took advantage of the hotels free breakfast and grabbed a bite to eat before heading out to meet the rest of the group Made our way down to the first meet spot, just a couple miles down the road Even though it's technically a CBR meet, we always still have a variety of bikes that join in Made our way across the big bridge and out of MD in VA to the next meet spot where we'd pick up a few more people After Kevin led us all on some great backroads the entire way from the last gas station, we make our 3rd and final stop before we got to Skyline. We were supposed to meet up with a couple more people here, but they never showed. I believe they joined in later. We were all pretty hot by now, so taking a break in the shade for a bit and grabbing some drinks Shortly after we arrived at the Front Royale entrance to Skyline Drive As much of a gear nazi as I usually am, even I too have my squidly moments, lol. We were inside the park where it's only one road, and 35mph at the most.... I had to take it off for a bit

I'm headed out to skyline drive in VA this weekend for our annual meet out there with all the cbrjunkie.com guys. We had an absolute BLAST last year, hoping for the same this year. Headed out there Saturday, coming back Monday, you're more than welcome to join!

120 miles/day for me, but I enjoy it (plus I like my job too). Almost the whole way is all 2 lane backroads through some of NC's finest twisties, so it's both a beautiful and fun commute I'm not complaining one bit!

Sweet... I'll definitely help out anyway I can If there is a ride in the future, I'll do my best to make it up there for it....

Been riding for 5.5 years, since 10-17-04. Logged 181,500 miles, all on one bike (my F4i) and still counting. Probably logged about 1000 miles on other peoples bikes too

Why not?? They're two completely different forums. I'm on about a dozen other forums as well.... not all the same people on every single one of them

Nope... Ford dealership. I'm a Ford diesel tech

Well as some may or may not know, I lost my job about a month and a half ago. I recently started a new job up in Morganton, NC (at a much MUCH better company! Old place was a major s**thole). Only thing is with the new job is that it also comes with a hefty commute.... 120 miles/day if I take the backroads, 160 miles if I take the highway. But who would want to take the boring ass highway all that ways anyways?? Backroads everyday for me! Here's the route on google maps... I usually leave my house around 6:35 am. I make my way out through all the apple orchards on some local backroads over to Rt. 64 and head east for a ways Then head northeast on NC 9 Then continue NE on Old Fort Rd. I live in a valley, and my work is also in a valley, but there's a ginormous mountain in between the two. Old Fort Rd takes you up up up and to the top of the mountain, then down the other side of it It's a fun road with some beautiful scenery Gotta watch out for this stuff though.... it's all over on Old Fort Rd. Once you go through a few times though you know most of the spots where it's at, and just know to be extra mindful of it and take it real easy. It's still a fun road though even going slow Lots of these, especially when you get up towards the top of the mountain Definitely out in the sticks the whole way there.... sure wouldn't want to have a wreck or breakdown out here, especially since I have no cell phone signal most of the way A few hairpins... those are always fun Make it to work right at 8 am.... and being that my new boss is cool as all hell and also into sportbikes, I get the VIP parking spot right in my stall where I can keep a close eye on her all day long Then repeat in the opposite direction at 5 pm So yea... pretty rough commute I've got there, hahahah. I don't really think of it as a commute, but more like 3 FREE hours of mandatory playtime in the twisties.... every day!! I love it here... really hope I never have to move

Front and side fairings installed Tail installed Well... she's back together!! Only things I was missing here were my Puig DB windscreen and the left side fairing. Waiting for both of them to arrive in the mail, but damn it I wanted to go ride! Still had my stock windscreen so I put that on, and everything was tight enough without the left side fairing, so screw it, lol. So... Sat April 3rd around 5pm or so, letting her warm up, about to go take our maiden voyage! Rode around town staying close to home just to be safe, incase anything went wrong. Everything was perfect though.... temp was staying where it should, plenty of power, everything was smooth and crisp, no vibrations... nothing. So I get on the highway for a short bit...all good there! Make my way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Made a quick video just to show how good she's running. Ended up logging 110 miles before the night was over http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV5PZFNPAj4 Several days later my windscreen and left fairing show up in the mail I've always been one for a clean stock look, so I put the decals back on (still waiting on the ones for the front upper... they were on backorder) So today I had everything all done and got her all cleaned up. I took her up to that special place up on the BRP for some quality pix. Here's the ending result of my past 4 months of work I still need to get a 'new' left side fairing... this was just a cheapo ebay one to cover it up for now. Couldn't spend the $400 right now, ugh I'm damn proud of how well the swingarm came out, hahah New rear hugger.... been wanting one of these forever The wreck happened at exactly 177,428 miles..... been riding her for about 5.5 days now and logged exactly 951 miles. Still running absolutely perfect, and haven't had a single problem! First full tank of fuel I burned through I got 42.87 MPG, so I would venture to say she's running pretty good! And last but not least..... one INCREDIBLY happy thirdgenlxi Phew.... that's all the pics! Thank god, I've been typing this for about 5 hours now, and really getting a headache, lol. But yea, everything ended up working out in the end, and I'm just happy to have my baby back, and still running on about 95% of her original engine. I swapped EVERYTHING from my old engine to the new block, everything down to the neutral indicator switch, oil pressure sensor, and thermostat housing. Only parts used from the new engine were the block, crank and crank bearings, and starter (mine started giving probs after I took it out). Every other part in or on the engine.... original. It may not be 100% anymore like it was, but hey, given the situation I think it's the best solution I had to keep her as original as I possibly could. And it worked! And for all the people that kept telling me it wasn't worth it, and it was gonna cost more to fix it than it would be to buy a new bike, hear this: Grand total for EVERYTHING I did was right at $1100. I used the remaining $2200 to pay off a $2200 credit card debt that's been hanging over my head for waaaayyyy too long now, so it's completely gone. So now I have MY bike back, and no debt at all.... I think I like my way of handling this situation a little better than alot of the responses I got, lol. Plus I've got a box full of engine parts to sell, maybe make a few bucks back! Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the pics! Sorry if I made your computer crash. Roadtrip pics will be soon to follow!

Gotta tighten the engine mount bolts in a certain sequence to center the engine, then use the special tool to tighten the adjuster lock nuts on the right side Install the radiator Tighten all coolant hose clamps Attach clutch cable Fill it up with quality cooling juices Never forget the lube Double check level.... it takes a little more oil after a major surgery By this point, the anticipation was absolutely KILLING me!! For the past 4 months, all I wanted to do was hear her run again. Cosmetics or anything else I wasn't worried about, I just wanted to hear her run. So I stopped there, made sure I had everything connected engine wise, bolted the exhaust on, and stuck the gas tank on. Had a gas can with a little bit of gas in it so I poured a little bit in the tank. I was just saying a prayer.... pleeeeeease start up, please start up! There were so many things running through my mind... "did I tighten that?".... "Did I remember to put that piece in?".... "Did I leave anything loose?"..... "I did put oil in right?"..... "What if it doesn't start?". Seriously all the "what if's" running through my mind at 100 mph. But, I connect the battery and all the lights come on and the fuel pump primes. I switch it off and on several times to fill up the lines with fuel. I had my fingers crossed and made this video..... it is indeed the very first attempt to start it. Watch and see! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovbu0W2hJ6o WoooooooooHooooooo!! Success!! Seriously, words can't describe how happy I was to hear her start right up and run.... perfectly. Both a huge sigh of relief, as well as a huge feeling of accomplishment, I was almost crying happy tears just to hear her run again, and something I assembled piece by piece with my own two hands. It's a feeling like no other! So.... after she was running like a champ, I moved on to other stuff. Remember the swingarm that was all rashed up?? I sanded it down with my whiz wheel (same as the stator cover). It slowly shaves the metal down and removes the scratches little by little until they're gone I then used some Mothers metal polish and an orbital buffer to smooth it down to a nice shine I then used course steel wool and hand sanded for about 3 hours, slowly removing any little scratches from the sanding, and giving it that brushed aluminum finish that was on it originally It turned out pretty damn good if I do say so myself! There's still a small bit of rash at the very bottom.... it was too deep I'd have to sand too much. It's alot better than it was though Apply several coats of commercial grade clear coat to protect the metal Install the swingarm on the bike Hey sometimes you gotta get creative when you don't have a big enough hex bit, haha Hey whatever works, right?? After centering the swingarm, use the special tool to tighten the adjuster lock nuts And of course the pivot bolt Install rear wheel and rear brake caliper OMG... starting to look like a bike again! My fairing stay was tweaked just a little bit, mostly on the left side So I replaced that too Now.... my plastics!! I got them back from the body shop, and they turned out fantastic! They repaired the small crack in the upper fairing, fixed some rash and cracks in the tail fairing, and fixed a big rock chip in the hugger, then painted them all black. The headlight had a tiny scratch so he sanded that down and got it nice and clear again. Solo seat cowl was red prior, they painted that black too. All of this cost me.... nothing. I tried to pay them, they don't take it, not even for paint. Good thing for having buddies in the body shop who are also riders themselves, huh?? LOL Got my HID bulbs and Proton flushies transferred over to the new headlight

Used a brass scraper to clean the surface of the block up After cleaning the carbon off the pistons and making sure the ring grooves are nice and clean, gotta index the rings before reinstalling each piston (each ring gap has to be facing a certain way) Install each piston Use lots of this stuff!! My original rod bearings.... perfect After several gradual steps, make my way to 19 lb.ft on the rod caps Hard to see in the pics, but the lighter color timing chain guide on the left has more wear than the one on the right. One on the left is out of the 15k mile engine, one on the right is my original. I put my original back in Finally installed the new timing chain that I've had sitting in my toolbox since.... 2005?? LOL Used my original oil pump Installed oil pump and my Factory Pro roller bearing detent spring Installed my original shift drum with the Factory Pro shift star My shift forks were still in perfect shape, so reused those too Can't forget the oil control orifices! That would be a very bad thing to leave out Bottom end... complete! After applying some assembly lube on all the crank bearings, install the lower crankcase Torque all case bolts down to spec Install oil pick-up and pressure release valve Oil pan Flip over and install oil cooler Install shift shaft Oil pump drive chain and sprockets Install the outer clutch basket Then the inner hub, then tighten the nut (94 lb. ft = FUN when the engine is out, lol) My original (yes 177k mile original) clutch was still in great shape, so I reused it Coat all the clutch friction and steel plates with clean engine oil before install Install clutch pressure plate and springs, tighten to 9 lb.ft Time to button up the top end Cleaned the carbon off my original head and it cleaned up nicely Easy does it when it comes to torquing a head. Lots of small increments is my preferred method Final torque of 35 lb. ft (much better than the 245 lb. ft for the ARP head studs I usually do on the diesels, lol) Install exhaust camshaft and line up timing marks Install intake camshaft and line up timing marks Gotta torque the cam hold down plate in the EXACT sequence numbered on the plate Rotate the engine slowly by hand to make sure no problems, then recheck timing to make sure it's dead on And at the crank too Looking like an engine again! Do a quick compression test just to make sure no major problems. Not perfect, but for an engine that is cold (supposed to do it warm) and hasn't run yet, that's still pretty damn good Install spark plugs Reused my original water pump The stator cover that came on the new engine had some rash, so I sanded it down to remove the scratches Then just painted it flat black with some hi-temp paint Install the stator back in the cover Install the stator and cover, valve cover, and thermostat housing and hoses, and she's complete, ready to go back in! So I hung the ratchet straps from the rafters once again, and wheeled the bike into position Get the engine into position Slowly lower the frame down onto the engine Annnnd.... she's in!

Getting closer! As I'm approaching Atlanta, I tighten my seatbelt and say a little prayer for my life as I merge onto, what I always appropriately like to call, the "I-285 GP". Wow..... I was quickly reminded just why I hate driving in Atlanta....ever!! I make my way into the city, where I'd meet up with a guy named Sean. We met up at the Cycle Gear since we both knew right where it was Picked up the engine and stuffed it in my trunk, right next to my old engine Went over to my buddy Kevin's house north of Atlanta where I'd crash for the night. We took the new engine out and did a valve check on it just to see where it was at, and how it looked Had 2 valves that were slightly out of spec. One was loose, one was tight, so we were able to swap shims and got both in spec. Everything else looked pretty good, and clean The next night I make my way back home to Asheville, NC, driving through some of the worst rain I've driven through in YEARS, might I add, lol. On the nice 5 hour drive home I gave the whole situation lots of thought. Me being the stubborn SOB that I am, still wasn't truly happy with just replacing the engine. I kept thinking...there's GOTTA be a way to keep at least part of it original. Then... DUH.... *lightbulb* So I took the new engine into work the next morning I needed to take the clutch out anyways to swap my Factory Pro shift star and detent spring I had put in mine awhile back Got the clutch out, and wasn't too happy with what I saw. Had some pretty good bluing and burn marks on the clutch plates, as well as some pretty deep grooves in the ears on the inner and outer clutch baskets. RED FLAG!! Now that my suspicions are raised, I keep digging a little further. By now my decision was pretty much made up as to just what I was gonna do About the same amount of carbon buildup on the pistons as mine had.... not too bad Split the cases and take a look inside. Overall it was clean and didn't look too bad. Some of the edges of the gear dogs in the transmission had some wear Numbered the pistons on the new engine and popped them out Within an hour or so, had the new engine town down to nothing but a bare block Then I brought out my original engine and started to tear it fully down My cylinder head had a little carbon as well, but overall not bad at all.... all valves and seats were in great shape Stripped it down to the bare block as well Now here's the pretty amazing part.... hard to see in the pics, but believe it or not, after 177,428 miles, all 4 cylinder walls still have PERFECT crosshatch. No joke! Crank bearings.... perfect Here's a better pic of the crack in the block. It took a smack for sure! Bent crank It bent so much that it actually squished and buckled the metal on the one side... ...And stretched it on the other side As for the crank journals themselves... perfect Time to start assembling the "new" engine. I hone out the cylinders real good on the new block to deglaze them Now here's another little interesting tidbit. I start measuring ring gap, and I'm curious how my 177k mile engine compares to this 15k mile engine (which I now believe was run a bit hard). The service limit on the upper ring is 0.40mm. So using cylinder 1 in the new block, I take the upper ring from both cylinder 1 pistons of the new engine and my old engine. The ring from the new engine is right at the 0.40mm service limit. My 177k mile ring measured 0.27mm. Yea..... figure that one out!

Well... I just uploaded 265 pictures to photobucket, won't be posting every one of them, but just be warned.... this is gonna be a looooong thread with ALOT of pictures!! LOL Anyways, some may remember I went down back in Dec and the whole ordeal that followed. For those that don't.... back on Dec 17th I was on my way to work and while veering off on a road to the left, I hit a patch of oil/diesel fuel/antifreeze/something slippery, and lowsided at about 25 mph. All was fine until the bike slid into the curb, did a little highside and then rolled over itself into the grass. I got right up, not even so much as a scratch on me, thank god (leathers FTMFW!!), went over to the bike and it was completely covered in engine oil. Not a good sign already! Luckily another guy from work was several cars behind me when this happened, so he saw it and recognized it as being me, and pulled right into the parking lot there and made sure I was OK. Luckily he had his pickup and an empty bed, so we lifted the bike into the bed of his truck and off to work we went He gave me a ride home after work and we unloaded the bike into the garage. I was able to get a little better analysis of the damages Right side didn't really get much at all Swingarm got gouged up pretty good Now for the really bad part.... when it slid, the flywheel took a hard and direct hit with the curb Took a good size chunk out of the lower crankcase All that was left of my stator cover Definitely not a good sign there! A couple weeks later, after much persuasion with a pry bar I was able to get the mangled stator out of the flywheel. Thanks to a generous member of 600rr.net for loaning me the OEM flywheel puller tool, I was finally able to remove the flywheel and inspect behind it. I was quite sad with what I found Crank was definitely bent The crack in the case was also worse that I had originally seen Several weeks went by waiting for the insurance adjuster to come out to the house and look at it. I already knew they were gonna total it, but it was pretty much my only option at this point. They finally came out and looked at it, then had to wait another couple of weeks for them to process everything. Contrary to everyone else telling me "don't bother, it's not worth anything anyways", I'm glad I didn't listen, cuz the insurance company thought otherwise. They valued the bike at $4400, subtract $500 deductible and we're at $3900.... then the buy back was $600, and I went ahead and did just that. So I kept the bike, and got a check for $3300. For a bike with 177k miles on it, can't really complain at all I was in the process of moving at the time, so I didn't really have much of any time to work on it, plus I didn't want to tear it apart before I moved, then end up having to move it in pieces and loosing stuff. I moved the bike over to my new residence and it sat there for another couple of weeks. My buddy Matt's boss down in Greenville, SC is an engineer with a full machine shop, CNC machines, welders, lathes, etc. He said he might be able to fix it, so he said bring it on down and we'll tear it open and have a look Finally by the end of Feb, I was settled into my new place and had some time to work on the bike. I quickly got to work tearing it down Rafters and ratchet straps are a godsend!! And milk crates too, hahah Had the engine out shortly after After 177k miles, she's a little dirty, as one might imagine Wasn't much left of her after that Oh and around this time, I came across this little gem on ebay so I picked it up for a steal ($300 for both). I asked the guys in the body shop at my work if they could paint it up and fix a small crack, and they said sure, so I dropped it off ever there. Also took my tail section which had a few scratches and cracks, and a few other goodies I bought as well (you'll see those at the end) So in March our schedules finally work out and I take it down to Greenville, SC and have my buddies boss take a look. We start tearing the engine open. Nothing has been cleaned in these pics, it's exactly as we tore it apart Remove the cyl head (first time ever been off).... pistons have a little carbon buildup, but nothing major Flip it upside down and remove the oil pan so we can split the cases Engine is spotless inside Lower crankcase removed Crank journals and bearings still looked brand new We pull the crankshaft out, and sure enough, just as we thought. Bent beyond any conceivable repair The case was severely cracked under the end crank journal bearing So.... I wasn't too happy at this point. This was the last little bit of hope I was hanging onto to possibly fix my original engine. But, not gonna happen. I gave it some thought, and pretty much my only option at this point was another engine. The timing could not have been better, as I quickly went on ebay and found a 2004 F4i engine with 15,000 miles. It was at $200 with no reserve, only catch was he wouldn't ship it, pick up only in Atlanta, GA. I watched the auction like a hawk, nobody was bidding on it for several days so I thought I was in the clear. I sit there and watch it in the final several minutes, and lets just say I won the auction in a furious snipe at about 5 sec remaining, outbidding someone else who had the same idea, hahaha. Ended up getting it for $256.... hell of a deal! So that weekend I hop in the trusty Accord and make my way down to Atlanta, GA from Asheville, NC

Well guys.... I haven't really kept anyone up to date on exactly what I've been up to lately. I don't want to spill the beans just yet (that'll be posted later), but lets just say I've just completed some MAJOR surgery on my bike. It won't be long now, she should be back on the road in the next couple of days! As for me.... I'm quite possibly the happiest guy alive after what you see in this video. I know it doesn't seem like much, but after I post up my massive rebuild thread with pictures, it'll all make perfect sense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovbu0W2hJ6o

Finally, she rolled over 400k tonight!! Seemed like it took forever, I guess cuz I haven't driven the car much over the last 5 years or so. It turned 300k way back on 9-12-02 1 mile and counting Almost there! WoooooooHooooooooooo!! Kinda hard to see at night, buuuut.... (why do I get the feeling somebody is watching me??) Even got to share the excitement with my bestest bud and favorite travelling companion ever! Other than a head gasket back in 2001 at 271k, it's all original engine and transmission.... never a single rebuild on either. On it's 2nd clutch, original factory clutch broke a spring in the disc back in 2003 at 321k. Power everything and it all works great, heat and A/C included (although I did have to replace the compressor back in 2003). Still runs and drives like you wouldn't believe.... smoooooth as glass, and idles so smooth and quiet you can barely even tell it's running sometimes. Been driving it for 10 years now and it's never once let me down... ever! Absolutely rock solid reliable! Sure can't complain for a car I got for free, LOL Still starts right up immediately on the first crank, every single time regardless of temp or weather! A few other pics from along the way, all after 300k Nov 2002 - Clanton, AL, hauling everything I owned moving from central IL down to south FL (1200 mi) 2004-ish - Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Back when I actually washed it and kept it clean inside and out, lol 2007 - BFE southern Georgia, moving from south FL to north GA (700 mi) 2008 - Lexington, KY, picking up my roomates new bike, taking it back to Atlanta, GA (900 mi) 2009 - Atlanta, GA, moving (some of) my stuff up to Asheville, NC (200 mi) She's towed waaaaaaay more than just the above, that's just the only ones I've got pictures of. Definitely a wee bit overloaded a few times, hahah. Always pulled everything I've put behind her though! Anyways, just wanted to share.... as much as I love my bike and seem to neglect my cage, I still love it too! Hondas FTMFW!!

Thanks!! Yea I've definitely had some awesome roadtips on my bike... I love it! Definitely nothing I love more than a long roadtrip with just me and my bike. And in these pics it was actually 160k miles, it just doesn't show the "1" cuz it's a 5 digit odometer, and reset to 00000 at 100k. It's at exactly 177,428 as of right now Awww I'm sorry I definitely want to get up there again and meet up with you guys again this summer! F4i is still in pieces... engine is in the trunk of my car, taking it down to my buddies boss in Greenville, SC this coming weekend, and he's gonna tell me if can fix it or not. Fingers crossed!! Can't wait to be back on the road again and do some more roadtrips

Well the engine to my bike is still riding around in the back of my Accord, so.... no riding for me today Sucks cuz it was 67 and sunny here today... absolutely beautiful! Supposed to be 70 and sunny tomorrow, still in the car

Here's my little girl, Piglet. As far as we know, Boxer/German Shepherd mix, maybe some others too but the coloring is all german shepherd and the personality and body build is all boxer. She's a little over 2 years old now and 70 lbs This was March 2008, first night I brought her home... I got her from some very neglectful owners who didn't take care of her, had her tied to the bumper of a van 24/7 with a piece of rope around her neck (tight) and without adequate food or water. She was way under weight She seems to be much happier (and healthier) today. This was from our hiking adventures along the Blue Ridge Parkway last weekend She always has so much energy this is a rare occurance... posing pretty on top of a fallen tree! And a few older ones too She's my bestest bud Sorry so many pics..... she's like my kid, I can't help it, lol