|  | Topic : Random Noobie Post |  |
| | | horse27 | | Set |  |  | | Reg. Date | : | 12/01/2011 | | Posts | : | 70 | | Location | : | Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 11:29 Post title : Random Noobie Post | | | Hi All
Joined the forum yesterday and said hello (mentioned that I have an ex-demo 2010 T'Bird 1600 ABS in blue and white (obviously the best colour  ) with bags (that I find a confusing mix of soft/hard, non-removeable, insecure, questionable waterproofness, etc) and boards and long TORs thrown in) - been using the search function but not having much luck  . Can anyone give any guidance on the following random things that are bugging me?
1) Got a fog light kit in with the deal. I know I have to drop the forks out to get the indicator clamps off (how annoying!) which I am happy to do but any guidance on liifting the front of the bike is appreciated. I have a bike lift but I am not sure of the best support points on this bike - lifting the bike seems to be the worst part of the job! I have downloaded the actual fitting instructions from the link on this site - very useful, thanks Birdy!
2) What mileage can I expect out of the OEM tyres fitted? The Metz Marathons that is. Bike only has 330 miles on it but when the salt is off the roads I intend to use it for some longer trips 
3) What are my screen options? I don't want to go for a full screen or the expensive Triumph route but I need a bit of wind blast protection for longer rides. Does the nose cone job offer any touring benefits? I have seen a couple of fly screen pics on the site - are they designed for the T'Bird specifically or are they 'home made' projects?
I think that was it!
Thanks and ride safe ... Lee
| Ex-demo T'Bird 1600 ABS in fetching Blue & White : Bags, boards, fogs, chrome bar ends and locking fuel cap! Got a t-shirt thrown in too  Optimate cable wired in, gel pad fitted by Marty at Link , MRA vario touring screen, retro tech Garmin Quest GPS ... roll on summer 
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 12:16 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | Hi
2) about 6k if your lucky. I have 4800 on and they need changing. My last bird managed 3800 before change. I do ride pretty hard and carry pillion quite a lot, and of course our roads are pretty shit. Going to stretch my tyre change to 6k service.
3) try 'custom chrome' (see Bluenose pics album) they are about £100 but bolt straight on. There was a thread (fast eddy) I think that posted a new screen that is wide and short - looks good IMO.
Hope that helped. 
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
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| | | horse27 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 12/01/2011 | | Posts | : | 70 | | Location | : | Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 12:28 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: mat1600) | | | Great - thanks Jupiter. Much appreciated. I'll have a look in a bit.
Yes, agreed - the state of the roads is verging on the diabolical! Surprises me that people are still buying sports bikes in the UK. Maybe that explains all the GS sales? One of the reasons I find myself on the T'Bird is a change of direction due to road quality, traffic and draconian speeding measures. Decided to chill out and enjoy the ride and view instead
Ride safe, Lee.
| Ex-demo T'Bird 1600 ABS in fetching Blue & White : Bags, boards, fogs, chrome bar ends and locking fuel cap! Got a t-shirt thrown in too Optimate cable wired in, gel pad fitted by Marty at Link , MRA vario touring screen, retro tech Garmin Quest GPS ... roll on summer
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| | | Druid | | Jupiter | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 14/10/2009 | | Posts | : | 1,359 | | Location | : | United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 13:34 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | I can help with the headlite cowl lee. It smooths the airflow a lot but dosnt divert the air from you body with any real result. I am not a fan of screens myself but the headlite cowl does make it easier to ride at motorway speeds.
Its Matt who replied to you just for info hehehe.
Welcome to the boards Lee hope you have fun here .
| Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery - W.Churchill
| | Post edited by Druid on 14 Jan 2011 - 13:36 |
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| | | EnGage | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 14/07/2009 | | Posts | : | 3,155 | | Location | : | Grand Rapids, MI, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 13:35 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | National Cycle has their SwitchBlade line of windshields available for the Bird: Link
A little less expensive than Triumphs. At one person on this forum had one.
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| | | Birdy68 | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 16/07/2009 | | Posts | : | 3,352 | | Location | : | Bad Zurzach, Aargau, Switzerland |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 13:42 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: EnGage) | | | Hi Lee,
1) Lifting the 'Bird is a chapter unto itself! Some people lift their 'Birds with a bike jack on the pipes! Others place a piece of wood that sits on the jack and makes contact to the oil sump!
Other than this - I can really offer any more light onto your situation.
2) I got 10'000 km (6'000 miles) out of my tyres. My dealer didn't let me go home when he saw them and insisted I left the bike with him while I had the 10'000 km service + new tyres.
3) I'm not a screen guy - so I can't help. But here's the report from FastEddy.
Hope that helps.
| Birdy68
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Leave the pork pies for now - get the sausage rolls while they're hot!
 -x-  -x- 
more info at Fuelly.com
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| | | horse27 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 12/01/2011 | | Posts | : | 70 | | Location | : | Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 13:43 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: Druid) | | | Ah, sorry Matt! I saw the word 'jupiter' and went with that!
| Ex-demo T'Bird 1600 ABS in fetching Blue & White : Bags, boards, fogs, chrome bar ends and locking fuel cap! Got a t-shirt thrown in too Optimate cable wired in, gel pad fitted by Marty at Link , MRA vario touring screen, retro tech Garmin Quest GPS ... roll on summer
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| | | Birdy68 | | Thor | | | | Reg. Date | : | 16/07/2009 | | Posts | : | 3,352 | | Location | : | Bad Zurzach, Aargau, Switzerland |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 13:48 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | Here's a thread: Lifting Bike
And here's the wooden block thing:
| Birdy68
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Leave the pork pies for now - get the sausage rolls while they're hot!
-x- -x-
more info at Fuelly.com
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| | | horse27 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 12/01/2011 | | Posts | : | 70 | | Location | : | Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 14:08 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: Birdy68) | | | Thanks for all the info guys ... National Cycle screens look like the way to go (If I can find a UK dealer) ... I run a small fly screen on my Bandit 1250 (can I mention that here???) and it makes a surprising difference on long trips (RBLR1000 (SS1000 for you Iron Butters) and a weekend trip to Budapest last year  )
I have a similar lift to the one pictured - hate the idea of lifting the bike on the exhaust system (especially a 300+ KG bike!) but if the dealer says so .... (makes me even more dubious!  )
Anyway - great advice already - glad I joined the board - have a good weekend all, Lee.
| Ex-demo T'Bird 1600 ABS in fetching Blue & White : Bags, boards, fogs, chrome bar ends and locking fuel cap! Got a t-shirt thrown in too Optimate cable wired in, gel pad fitted by Marty at Link , MRA vario touring screen, retro tech Garmin Quest GPS ... roll on summer
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| | | mat1600 | | Thunderbird | | | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 8,596 | | Location | : | Bridlington, Democratic Independant State of Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 14:12 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | horse27 wrote:
Ah, sorry Matt! I saw the word 'jupiter' and went with that! |
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No probs with that. (cheers Druid - I was wondering who Jupiter was)
I know a lot of people don't like screens (me for one) but since fitting one I would not be without it. It makes for a comfier ride at speeds. Cruising speeds past 90 are ok once you have set it up, even with a small fly screen.
| My first natural instinct is to breathe. My second is to evade tax's.
| | Post edited by mat1600 on 14 Jan 2011 - 14:13 |
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| | | daz | | Zeus | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 12/05/2009 | | Posts | : | 7,731 | | Location | : | United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 14:25 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | Lifting it with the 14"x6" board method is simple. At first i thought it would be too unstable, but i've done it now 50 times and it may seem unstable you can purposely rock it back and fourth and it won't fall over. I've had no problem. However, taking the rear wheel off you may have to put something under the front wheel to keep it from diving due to the weight o the rear wheel. It's no problem tho.
As to tire mileage, people get from a low of 5k like mat to as much as 10k like engage. I and most others get a pretty consistant 7k. Realize that no tire is likely to give you much more than the metzeler unless they are harder compounds and therefore less safe in spirited riding, so thats your call. Chances are you too will get around 7. If thats too little i'd ride carefully on whatever else you get till you're sure what it can do.
Removing the signals is easy, but i would not try doing it with the fork and wheel assembly all bolted together. I think thats going to be hard and possible cause some problems too longwinded to go into. I've disassembled my front end completely before to put the chrome legs on, so i''m quite familiar with the procedure. First, loosen the 2 axl pinch bolts and loosen the axl. remove the brake caliper on one side. you will need to do that to get the wheel out. Hang it on a bungie cord from the handlbars and wrap it in a towel or something to keep it from banging against anything on the bike till the front tire is just barely touching the ground and pull the axl out. lift the bike more till you can maneuver the wheel out. there are 2 thick spacers that will possible fall out so grab them and put them somewhere. Remove the 4 screws that hold the fender on. they require a star bit tho i don't recall the size. Be very careful not to strip the heads on them because i found the holes for the bit are shallow and they can be stripped eaily. And the big worry here is that when you put them back in and tighten them you don't want to not be able to tighten them good due to the head being even slightly stripped out because if not tight they can loosen and come out while riding. If you look at them you'll see whay i'm saying this is important.....if they come out while riding they will act on the tire like a chizel on a object in a lathe ! this happened to someone here and luckily he found it before it ate all the way thru the tire. could have been a disaster. Now with the fender off you can loosen the pinch bolts on the triple clamps to slide the forks down enough to get the signals off. If there is any trouble sliding them a little WD40 will fix that. probably no need tho.
| 2010 Blue/White Thunderbird, "Brutus". 1700 kit, short tors, gutted cat, UNI filter, filter seal off, custom tune. Brutus in his native habitat: Link
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| | | DizzE | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 12/07/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,141 | | Location | : | Sunnyvale, CA, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 14:51 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: daz) | | |
daz wrote:
Lifting it with the 14"x6" board method is simple. At first i thought it would be too unstable, but i've done it now 50 times...
Removing the signals is easy, but i would not try doing it with the fork and wheel assembly all bolted together. I think thats going to be hard and possible cause some problems too longwinded to go into. |
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Very stable on the lift. In fact the only "oh dear" moment I had was once, when I pulled too hard getting it up off the stand and almost pulled
it over on my self.
I chose not to remove the wheel and mudguard, etc. But, it did get fairly dicey using a floor jack to carefully lower the fork tree enough
to get the signal housings off the top. It's the changing angle. I ended up manipulating and clamping the front brake to control the tire
rotation. I realized trying to pull the floor jack back as I lowered would only be accomplishing the tire rotation.
Daz is so right and the non-longwinded version is that the back is much heavier without the forks so when reassembling I had lift an inch
which lowered the back and then pull the tree down an inch on the fork tube. Repeat.
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| | | ray548 | | Set | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 09/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 299 | | Location | : | sylmar, CA, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 16:17 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: DizzE) | | | Welcome, yup B and W is a great color match.
I have the Sears lift, and it works great. No need to strap the bike, it is very stable.
I had 8200 on the rear before I got a small puncture and was losing 5psi a day, I could have gotten maybe 10k, but changed out tire and did rear brake pads. The front has 10300 on it and still has maybe 2000 left.
I have the mid size screen, got it from MADSS, the give 15 pct off Triumph parts. I can't see that nose cone doing much good, the fly screens look better. I did add the Kuryakan swing blade pegs from Fast Eddy, I like them and did not want floorboards. The rears give the wife more foot room.
 
| 2010 TB, 2007 America
2009 Black Bonnie
owned by daughter, but fun to borrow
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| | | zolti | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 23/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,127 | | Location | : | newcastle , United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 16:37 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | horse27 wrote:
Hi All
Joined the forum yesterday and said hello welcome there horse
3) What are my screen options? i went for a hps tourer screen if ya want a less cruiser style and maybe a more sporty look, fits nicely and works brill but not to everyones taste i suspect, functional, effective and allows for lots of adjustment. if u want to see it on the bike check out my album
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edit - i lift the bike with a small lift with a block of wood on top of it, placed under the sump. gets both wheels of the ground if needed.
interestingly i also store it mostly lifted with just a drop of weight from the wheels on the ground. if i cant get to ride it for snow etc i once read an article about not storing tyres with the weight in the same place over the winter and not on cold concrete. cant recal now why, but it does allow the front wheel to be inline and i can occasionally turn the wheels without moving the bike.
| | Post edited by zolti on 14 Jan 2011 - 16:44 |
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| | | DizzE | | Thor | | | | Reg. Date | : | 12/07/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,141 | | Location | : | Sunnyvale, CA, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 17:42 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: zolti) | | | I remember something about that, too. Folks would put down wood or cardboard. It's recommended for saving your
natural waxes and oils in the tires. This from Bridgestone re: Truck tire.
----------------------------------------------
A cool, dry, sealed garage is your best condition for storage, however, it is realized that this is not often an available option.
Concrete is not the tire enemy some people think it is.
We would recommend the following steps in storing a vehicle:
1. Make sure the floor / ground surface is free of any petroleum product contamination (Oil, grease, fuel, etc.)
since petroleum products will attack rubber and can cause significant damage to compound characteristics.
2. Thoroughly clean your tires with soap and water.
3. Place a barrier such as plastic, cardboard, or plywood between the tires and the ground surface.
4. Cover your tires to block out direct sunlight and ultra violet rays.
5. Do not store the vehicle in close proximity to steam pipes, electrical generators or animal manure since these
accelerate oxidation of the rubber.
6. Make sure your tires are fully inflated with air.
7. When the vehicle is ready to go back into service, inspect the tires for excessive cracking in both the sidewall a
nd tread area and check all tire air pressures. Tires will normally lose about 2 PSI per month so you should expect
to find the pressures lower than when you put the vehicle into storage. Re-inflate the tires to the correct air pressure
before operation.
Now, about the effects of time:
Yes, rubber compound does slowly change over time, becoming "harder" as it ages. But unless we are talking years,
this would be virtually undetectable. However; the most likely effect of storage will be:
1. Flat spotting of the tires from taking a 'set' while sitting in one position for an extended length of time. This 'set' may work
itself out of the tires after being put back into operation, but not always. This, of course, would result in a vibration.
2. Tires have waxes and oils specially formulated to protect against ozone damage built into their rubber compounds. When the
tire rotates and flexes, these waxes and oils are forced to the tire's surface and are thus able to protect the tire. When a tire is
stationary, these waxes and oils are not coming to the surface and thus the tire is at greater risk of ozone damage.
3. Several days of non-use at a time is not nearly as detrimental to tires as long storage periods. The tires would still be
operated often enough to avoid excessive 'set' and the waxes and oils are being forced to the tire's surface often enough
to provide adequate protection against ozone.
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| | | Kando | | Chaac | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 08/11/2009 | | Posts | : | 780 | | Location | : | United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 19:06 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: ray548) | | | hey Ray...do those Kuryakan swing blades just bolt on? or do you have to buy another kit to fit?
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| | | ray548 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 09/02/2010 | | Posts | : | 299 | | Location | : | sylmar, CA, United States |
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| | Posted : 14 Jan 2011 - 19:28 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: Kando) | | | The connector on the front and back are different. Just remove old peg, attach adapter to the new peg and install. The back pegs have a concave spring clip to insert, the tension holds the rear pegs up. Had to hammer them in. Also, after riding with them to get the proper feel, I used lock tight on the long bolt that holds them to the adapter. Check out Fast Eddy. I am satisfied with them, and they give me more foot room.
| 2010 TB, 2007 America
2009 Black Bonnie
owned by daughter, but fun to borrow
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| | | horse27 | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 12/01/2011 | | Posts | : | 70 | | Location | : | Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 15 Jan 2011 - 10:46 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: zolti) | | | Thanks again for all the info. I might get some time in the garage later and will report back ... a grey and damp day in the UK? Never.
I actually quite like the look of the MRA screen. On first look I thought 'er, no' ... then after a while it started to grow on me. Changes the look of the bike completely. With my fogs fitted it might look 'interesting'.
Too the garage!
Have a good weekend all, Lee.
| Ex-demo T'Bird 1600 ABS in fetching Blue & White : Bags, boards, fogs, chrome bar ends and locking fuel cap! Got a t-shirt thrown in too Optimate cable wired in, gel pad fitted by Marty at Link , MRA vario touring screen, retro tech Garmin Quest GPS ... roll on summer
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| | | zolti | | Thor | | | | Reg. Date | : | 23/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,127 | | Location | : | newcastle , United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 16 Jan 2011 - 15:19 Post title : Re: Random Noobie Post (Re: horse27) | | | hi horse if you do go for it let me know if you need the product code, pm incase i miss the comment in thread. you can get a clear or smoked.
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