K8 for the LONG HAUL!!!!!!!

[RoadGlide]

Dale, that BUSA is insane....and so are you for riding one that far. I rode the Cape Fear Rally last weekend and my knees are still killing me. And that's on the FJR with highway pegs. I'd really like to get your advise on an aux tank for the FJR. Specifically, the pumbing for the lines etc.. I believe the 5 guys who finished ahead of me all had aux tanks on their bikes. That won't happen again. Help!

 

[keithaba]

Dale, I'm just not sure I beleive your reports on the Busa as a touring bike.

I therefore propose that I, (and any other forum member) have the right to test out the busa for 1000 miles to provide the forum with a less biased opinion.

Sweet work, as usual....

 

[BobbyBlue]

Man Dale, you can reeeaaally push an envelope dude! If we was to get ya say...a Lear...modified for two wheels only of course, would you be mad if had little wheels on the ends of the wings so they wont drag ? Seriously , Awesome Busa ! At least when we see it in the next Bond flick we can proudly proclaim it came from OUR Benevolent Ruler ! :clapping:

Blessings ( at Mach3 ),

Bobby

 

[SockMonkey]

While we're heaping the praise on Warchild (and deservedly so), I thought I'd point to a little blurb I came across when researching the Honda Blackbird: Honda CBR1100XX. You know you're the shit when your exploits have been immortalized in Wikipedia. It must be good to be King...

 

[Fred W]

There's no mention of Warchild in that article.

They're just jabbering about some guy named Dale Wilson...

 

[Warchild]

You know you're the shit when your exploits have been immortalized in Wikipedia.

ACK! I'll hafta find out who wrote that and give them a serious beat-down! :blink:

 

[2006Moy]

I think thats the first time ive seen a busa with those type of mods

 

[Fred W]

I think thats the first time ive seen a busa with those type of mods

That's probably because Dale's the first to have done it...

 

[Warchild]

May 8th, 2008: I believe I am about done prepping this for competitive Endurance Riding events.

Does this bad-boy here look like it is ready to hit the road for the LONG HAUL?!!!

The big obvious additions since page 1 of this thread are the Ventura Bag (pretty much solved the carrying-capacity issue), and the insulated 1-gallon Drinking Jug you see sandwiched between the Ventura Bag and the Aux Fuel Cell.

Note the drinking tube that runs forward to a janitor's lanyard on the tankbag. When I want a drink, I just pull the end of the tube to my mouth and take a big swig, the let go of the tube and the lanyard returns it to the tankbag side, ready for the next drink. When you run the Desert West here in the summer, you really, really appreciate the opportunity to pound down ice-cold water in the hot blazing desert.... B)

Also got the Pro-Oiler completely dialed in; it is soooooo sweet! It was a complete bummer that Suzuki eliminated the centerstand option on the K8 (as far as lubing the chain goes). The Pro-Oiler eliminates that as a concern. Twin nozzle dispenser placed oil right where it's needed to disperse oil equally by centrifugal force:

Oil level after 1500 miles... lean but not too lean, with o-rings nice and moist:

Also finished up a nice clean install of a Hella 12v female connector for using a Warm-N-Safe liner. This connector receives its power from the *output* side of a Heat-Troller:

With the tankbag in place, the Warm-N-Safe power cord never has the opportunity to contact the bodywork paint... sweet.

Departing tonight after sundown for another long-range strike in northern California/western Nevada to scout bonus locations for the upcoming Cal 24 Endurance event. Gonna be coooooold at night, hot during the day... typical mid-spring weather in the Sierra Nevada Range.

Can't wait!

 

[zenwhipper]

They may not look large here on the Busa, but lemme tell you, there is a STAGGERING amount of light coming out of these Hella Micro DE HIDs!

Are those the Xenon models as in holly crap expensive? Like 500 bills?

Thanks

Scott

 

[Warchild]

Yes, these are the Hella Micro DE HID Driving Lamps, and those paying full retail must have deeeeeeep pockets. I scored this brand new, still-in-box set off Amazon.com for $470-ish. They retail for well over $700.

 

[zenwhipper]

Yes, these are the Hella Micro DE HID Driving Lamps, and those paying retail must have deeeeeeep pockets. I scored this brand new, still-in-box set off Amazon.com for $470-ish. They retail for well over $700.

Shoot. I like those things. But. I'll have to stay with my whale oil lamps for the time being.



Scott

 

[vectervp1]

What was that saying about a clean bike again?

 

[Warchild]

What was that saying about a clean bike again?

IIRC... "a clean bike, is a gay bike".

So while the above photos indeed suggest a slight air of fudge-packery, I suspect you know its true orientation. Shortly after I depart tonight at sundown, and certainly by the time I reach the California border around dawn, you know what the bike will be looking like.....

 

[Brian R]

AAAACK - Next time I see that bulbous freezer (get a bit cold at night Dale??) I'm going to put a grease pen mark on the rear subframe where I think it will crack from all the weight cantilevered back there.

:yahoo: :yahoo:

Naw - seriously it is nice work (the Micro DE's are real sweet but the low beam conversion you put in it is really awesome). Still, I just do not see any real advantage of that bike over say a Blackbird (didn't you put some serious miles on one of those??). Fast as hell - but just not cut out for packin the freight - especially when the temps drop.

Guess until you get something with storage I'll have to keep loaning you my tennis shoes when you visit...

Brian R.

 

[vectervp1]

Well, I for one have always thought the Haybusa could make an excellent LD mount. Back in 2002 when I bought my CBR954 I was starting to get into LD riding and canyon carving. I looked at the Busa as a possible mount to do both. Well, back then I decided I wanted to be a canyon carver and really tear the shit out of roads more than LD ride, so I went with the CBR. Shortly after getting the CBR, I really got into LD riding. As a matter of fact, I did my first SS1000 and BBG1500 on the CBR. If I would have gotten the Busa, I probably wouldn't have the FJR now.

I've sat on both the Blackbird and the Busa a few times back to back (never was allowed a test ride) and I personally felt for me the Busa was more comfortable. If I had the money, I would love to set one up as an LD mount and see just how capable of a LD machine I could make it.

From what I understand, the first gen Busa had some issues with the frame cracking when people removed the stock exhaust and went with a single unit, kind of like what Warchild has done. This only was happening to folks who had pillions on a regular basis too. Suzuki addressed this 'issue' a few years into it (I think in 2001) by making the rear subframe stronger.

The other issue was power output. There is a high output stator availible for the first gen Busa that might work with the second gen Busa. If it will work, it'll add an additional 100 watts of power to the bike. Still not a whole lot, but should help give you enough juice to run an electric vest at night.

 

[frogpirate]

WC,

How is the pro-oiler working out? I probably need to do some thing on the oh-no or I am going to eat through chains & sprockets. I sprayed chain wax on it before and after (so about 1300 miles apart) and on the way home (while riding, nice thing about alluminum panniers, I cna get stuff out while cruising through town!) What type of lube do you use? I think I have ATF in Lisa Ninja 250; it has one of those squeeze bottle oilers, but I like the idea of some thing a little more sophisticated for the Tuono.

Ken

 

[Warchild]

WC,
How is the pro-oiler working out? What type of lube do you use? I like the idea of some thing a little more sophisticated for the Tuono.

There is no finer electronic, fully-automatic chain-oiler on the planet than the Pro-Oiler. A bit spendy, but it's the proverbial "you get what you pay for" scenario. The Pro-Oiler is what allows chain-drive bikes to run multi-day LD events with zero concern about chain adjustment, lubing, etc.

The preferred lube, believe it or not, is plain old 10-40W conventional motor oil. Sweet. In the blazing hot summer, I'll up it to 20-50W. Crappy old SuperTech from Wal-Mart will suffice for this tasking. The Pro-Oiler is a "total loss" system, so it makes little sense to invest brand name shit here.

 

[Warchild]

A little update here... there have been a few changes since the early part of the summer.

Gone is the massively ginormous Ventura Bag, replaced by a set of N21 Givi bags mounted on SW-Motech side racks. Also gone is the old tankbag in favor of a RKA magnetic tankbag. Result is a bike where I can actually carry more than a toothbrush, yet seems even less affected by crosswinds than it did with a stuff Ventura bag.

Am still really diggin' this bike... as long as the ambient temps are decent. Things will be different here in a couple of months. But for now, I am trying to do a little bit of riding. Riding often helps get your mind off some troubling life issues.... a good thing.

I am approaching 30,000 miles on the Busa's odometer.

 

[Niehart]

Love it, starting to look like a road warrior!