It's an option. I've looked into it. The wireharness is almost too short to swap the front end going from the R to S. But it's doable. I should just do that. My bike is mechanically sound and worthy of keeping.

I've already got the S foot pegs. But yes, it's more upright. Which is my chief complaint. My back hurts riding the R.

I've never touched the timing chain. The primary takes about 10 minutes. Open the inspection port. Turn the bolt under the primary cover until the proper slack is attained. Tighten the locking bolt, replace the cover.

To adjust the clutch, you take all tension out of the cable, open the cover (three screws). Take out the spring, tighten the flathead screw until it seats, then back it off two turns, replace the spring, replace the cover, adjust the cable tension. This one takes about 15 minutes.

Replacing the rear wheel? Fuck alignment. Tighten the axel to 40 something foot lbs, back off two turns, retighten to 48 (52?)lbs and then tighten the axel retaining screw.

It's ridiculously easy to work on.


However, one big misconception about the belt. It doesn't last forever. It just doesn't have a service interval. I wore one out in about 12000 miles. And they're quite expensive...

It's a huge pain in the ass to convert from a firebolt to lightning. You need a new wiring harness, top triple clamp, and a few other things I can't think of off of the top of my head.

Just saw Marko's post. The issue with the wiring harness is placement of everything. All of the electronics are underneath the seat on a Lightning. They're behind the front fairing on an XB.

The BMW is equally easy to work on. There is no alignment whatsoever in the rear wheel. Single sided swingarm, just bolt it on. The valves can be adjusted, not just checked, in the same period you do the the primary chain. No chain or belt, it's a shaft. Replacing the spark plugs takes two seconds. Clutch is wet, lifetime. I check the fault codes with my phone in a matter of seconds cause I bought the service module with bluetooth, so I don't even use the dealer for that anymore. Can run all the dealer tests from my garage through a phone.

ECM spy let's you tune the Buell with a laptop as well as read and reset fault codes. And it's free, you just need a bastardized cable.

Getting the the plugs can be a chore the first couple of times. You have to remove the airbox cover, airbox, and then remove the entire base of the airbox, then it's a matter of extensions and skinned knuckles to get them out. Replacing them is rubber tubes and lots of patience.

However, on the DDFI3 bikes, you can fire off the plugs by turning the key on, holding the throttle open all the way and turning the kill switch to on. This will burn off any condensation or anything else that builds up on them. I went through a few sets of plugs until I found out about that trick..

You can get to the plugs without taking the thing apart... Hint: there's a reason why the spark plug socket has a hex end...

http://www.diymyride.com/wp-content/...01/socket2.jpg

Now that is pretty damn cool. I'm all about eliminating the stealership whenever possible.

I know it's been done without replacing the harness but I'm not trying to do all that work. F it. So she just sits. Who cares.

I think I remember seeing that you could use the Lightning triples with certain bars to give you the up/back you might be looking for... all for $200 or so...

Marko is just going to wind up with a geezer mobile like G-man.