Oh THAT'S my speed, I see it now!

Ever look down well riding and say to yourself, 'damn! the amber glow of the gauge cluster really really sucks!' I know I have! And that's when, during the start of another mod I was working on, I saw an opportunity to fix this. I had several left over ultra white LEDs from when I wanted to make the cyclopes light white. They just so happened to fit (bulb type 168) and I had just enough, after I dropped on inside the gauge that I couldn't rescue...

Anyway, it's VERY simple to do. Pick a colour you want your gauges to be, blue, green, white, whatever. Then take the two plastic parts around the handle bars off (4 screws each) then take the bolts on either side of the gauge cluster out and lastly, pop out the pin holding the centre in place. (It's right behind the High Beam light area under the cluster.

From there just start (gently) pulling the rubber boots that hold the light bulbs out of their places. The middle two are for the high beam and neutral light. I left those cause I didn't have enough bulbs, but because the plastic cover on the front of the cluster is coloured a new bulb shouldn't change anything.

The gauges came out great but did have a tint of green. I believe that's the plastic of the gauge, I think it has a greenish film on one side. I'm sure you could remove it, but that would mean taking apart the cluster itself and I'm not doing that! (too lazy)

Here are a few pictures, more can be found, as always, in Kenna's Picasa Web Album!







Until next time,'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Grab your Snorkel we're going under!

Not that kind of snorkel! This kind!



The snorkel 'mod' is one that is still, on occasion, debated as to whether it does anything power wise and whether the 'deeper' sound is good or not. I've read people associate the new sound to a loud duck quack lol. That being said, my take on this 'mod' is, in the lower RPM range 4k-6k there is a definite more 'throaty' sound with a lower tone. At higher RPMs 7k+ to me she does sound more aggressive, more race bike like. Over all she is louder and even drowns out my music during some songs. For me it's fun for now. I'll probably get one too many headaches from it and put it back by the end of the season. But until then I'm just going to pretend she's bigger than she actually is and rev her at red lights just to be that much more annoying to the person in the car next to me on their cellphone.

To do the mod is simple;
1. Take off the plastic piece on the gas tank (4 screws)
2. Take out the Riders seat (1 bolt in the trunk at the back of the seat)
3. loosen the pivoting bolt at the back of the gas tank
4 Lift the gas tank up, front to back and use a bungee or friend to hold the tank up.
5. Pull the snorkel out using your hands or if you must take out the screws that hold the air box in place and then proceed to remove the snorkel.
6. Check the filter! Might as well replace it now if needed.
7. Lower the gas tank and tighten the pivoting bolt
8. Put all the bolts, pieces and screws back.

*There are pegs on each side of the gas tank that need to be pride out gently as well. See photos.

That's it! I've noticed a LITTLE higher RPM at idle, and to me it sounds like she runs richer, at least at idle. Total time to do this, 10-15 minutes... It's not hard at all and entirely reversible. You get used to the louder sound pretty quick and at higher speeds she sounds great!

Here are some photos of the job, more are in Kenna's Picasa Web Album.











Until next time,'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Want more HP? Try Rim Stripes!

Want more HP? Try Rim Stripes! They help your tires go around faster!

Well obviously they don't. But how cool do they look!?




After deciding on the Black/Green colour scheme from getting Charlie to the green LEDs, the next step for me was rim stripes. I bought these off eBay to save a few bucks, cause I was in no hurry and could afford to wait. But if you buy them local the price really isn't that bad for no wait time. I obvious went with K**i green. (I dare not speak the 'enemy's name lol) I have two things to say about applying rim tape before I post some photos.

1. Clean you rim REALLY well even as you go wipe them down to avoid taping over something. Even the littlest piece of dirt will leave a bubble in the tape.
2. IF you don't have much patience or are not very detail oriented, do not do this yourself! Get someone else to do it! (I mean a friend, don't pay for this job unless you have money to burn) I got my girlfriend to do it :D she did a great job, took her time and still got all four sides done in less than an hour.

If you look closely there are some wavy parts, but the tape wasn't cut specifically for my bike so it's ALMOST unavoidable, though if you try really hard or buy 'better' tape you might be able to avoid waves. They're not viable when standing back and looking at the whole bike, or even well riding so don't stress to much when applying them.

Here are a couple of photos, more are in Kenna's Picasa Web Album. Total Horse Power increase, 7+ (in my head lol)












Until next time,'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Cyclops - From Yellow to White to Green!

For those of you with sports bikes, essentially a CBR, or to those who have looked closely at one, you may have noticed accent lights on the front. Some have two one in each corner, others may have them at the top close together, or the bottom stretched far apart. Either way, changing them to a colour you like is a great cheap way to make your bike more 'your own.' For the CBR 125r the accent light is a cyclopsed bulb at the top between the headlights. I've seen many different colours from stock to blue, purple and white. How it came to be that I changed Kenna's accent light was unexpected, at least for me. I noticed one night well reving the engine (before I actually rode I just sat on her listening to her purr) that the license plate light was out. Know this was considered illegal and that I knew eventually I would be riding at night, I went to Canadian Tire in search of a replacement. I didn't have the bulb code but I knew someone should be able to help with that and point me in the direction of a whiter glowing blub as well. After buying the whitest bulb I could and receiving the bulb code I was excited to take the light housing off and do some 'work on the bike.' After replacing the license plate bulb it got me thinking, 'maybe the accent bulb is the same!' Sure enough it was! After replacing that I didn't notice a difference in the orignal blub and my $2.50 replacement from CT. So I decided to hit up eBay and buy an 'ultra white' LED blub. I also looked for other places I could use a bulb this size because the eBay sales were all for 2 or more bulbs. I found a few places on my car so I bought 4 white LEDs, two for Kenna, license plate and accent, and two for the car license plate. Here's a photo of Kenna with the 'ultra white' LED.



These are the LEDs




I rode with that light for a few weeks and showed people and everyone seemed to think it was cool and made me a little more visible from the front and also differentiated Kenna from the other CBR 125s on the road. But after I got Charlie from my girlfriend I decided that the white LED was just too regular and I wanted something that looked uber cool! From there I bought two green LEDs from eBay. One for the front and one for the license plate area that is on my new CBR 150 tail light, not where the actual plate is, that should stay white. Here is a photo of what it looks like. It's not the best photo, I'll put more in Kenna's album later. With the new addition of a green cyclops light I had to go one further! Rim stripes to come...!










Until next time,'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Burnin' Rubber

A few weeks back, just before the season really got going, I was still riding on my old tire Kenna came with. If you check her Picasa photo album there might be a picture of the original tire. But essentially it was toast down the middle. Even my buddy was shocked I was riding with it for the few hundred KM I did ride on it. I was literally as smooth as a table right down the centre line. I looked it up and asked around about why this type of wear happens. I'm referring to the centre being gone but the sides having a decent about of tread on them. From what I gathered it's from high speed riding in a straight line, AKA, highway riding.



Now that you know about my old tire, let me fill you in on the new one. I wanted a Perelli 110 but EVERY store in town was sold out. I kinda dropped the ball on that one... So instead I got a stock 100. It's nice, and anything is an upgrade for me! I went to Ted Rose of Rosy Toes near the HWY 401 and Weston Rd. Nice guy, very friendly and charges a reasonable rate.



To get the tire to him I took the wheel off the bike myself. I use a hydraulic car jack and a block of wood (jack was too short for the bike) to raise the back wheel off the ground and get it off. It wasn't hard getting the wheel off, but getting it back on took awhile! Make sure you give yourself enough time AND space to work. I was limited on space and was really cramped well reinstalling the wheel. As for procedure, it's pretty simple and is even in the CBR 125r manual near the back. Basically jack up the bike, let the chain tighters go loose, use a wrench on each side to loosen and remove the axle bolt, slide out the bolt and don't lose any parts! And NEVER apply the back brake well the tire is off!

There are a few photos in this post, more are in Kenna's Picasa Web Album on the left side bar.






Until next time,'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Charlie!

This. Is. Charlie.




I saw Adri's keychain doll thing and wanted my own! So I bought gimp and asked my girlfriend to make me a gecko. She said she would if I found instructions so I looked! No luck. I couldn't find anything the search results were all over the place and had nothing to do with what I wanted. But, lucky for me my girlfriend is creative and managed to figure it out on her own modifying instructions on how to make a cobra.
So yeah! That's my story! He rides well, doesn't flop around or scratch Keke because he's made from plastic and he fits pretty well in my pocket. At least now it's harder for me to lose my key!
Here's his under, and from there I say Goodnight!





Until next time,
'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Stay back!

The newest addition to Kenna thus far, is my CBR 150 integrated tail light I picked up online over the winter.




The install wasn't too bad. I forgot to take pictures during, but I'll try and explain what I did and saw back there.
First off, the new light comes with a nice plug and play set-up if you were replacing the tail light of a 150. Meaning, the wires were nicely wrapped with a plastic rectangular plug that coincides with the original on the 150 at the end. Also, all wires are colour coded the same as the 125 which makes it really easy.
To start, remove the back seat and bolt holding on the tail light. Then pull it straight out. There are two snap plugs in each side to make sure you pull straight so you don't break them. Once the light is partially out disconnect the wires where the light and bike meet. It's a plastic plug style too.
From there I proceeded to cut the plastic plugs off the new light and bike.
Do this at your own risk! You won't break anything but undoing the swap will be a little harder due to you removing the simple plugs
Next, get organized by spreading the wires apart and matching the colours. If you're keeping your existing indicators like I did you'll have to cut the plastic plugs off them too. Match up all the green wires and twist them together. The other coloured wires that get matched up are the two orange ones and two blue ones from the original signals and the bike. Now connect the corresponding coloured wires from the new light to the bike. For now simply twist them together, cover them with tape and test to see everything is working properly before you continue.
Once you've decided everything works solder the wires together BUT remember to put the heat shrink sleeve on one side first otherwise you'll just have to wrap it REALLY well with electrical tape. Then put the new light back in place and remember to keep and use the rubber washer from the old light, where the bolt goes.
I used the tools that came with the CBR 125 but you can use whatever.






Here is a picture of the new light, more can be found in Kenna's Picasa photo album top left of the page.





Until next time,
'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'

Start of Season 1

The weather is increasingly getting better as the days go by which means there have a lot of opportunity to hit the road and ride! I've been out a few times now and relearning the stuff from last year. It's not that hard once you're out there. It kinda comes flowing back, 'just like riding a bike' they say, although I don't think they were referring to this kind of bike.



Morning rides are my favorite, when no one is out and the roads are all yours and your free to work on different things, turning, leaning, riding position. Obviously if I'm I can expect to see other riders, and I do. People are really friendly, which makes it hard to always give a 'hey' when riding. Half the time I'm too focused on not screwing up to flip a finger as they ride by, but I do manage to get a few in there. All and all it's been a great start and I'm looking forward to riding with other people, instead of alone... But riding is riding and I'm glad I'm doing it, alone or with a buddy it's all good!

I've added some new photos the Kenna's Picasa Photo Album. It's the scrolling image link top left side of the page. Check'em out some are pretty good! IMO
Here's one of my favorites.




Until next time,
'Live to Ride, Ride to Live'