Ferrite Cores

My riding buddies went crazy over the 9power ferrite.
Note that these are scientists, senior managers, teachers and IT experts. Raves are improve throttle response. $15 a piece and fits over your spark plug wire.

The beads

The mechanic said that cheaper versions can be found at IT stores. So I went and got them for $3 a piece. Went crazy and got myself two pieces a wire. Mounted it on and yes. The difference is that there is a significantly lesser vibrations from the firing of the plugs.

You probabbly seen this on your monitor screens, laptop chargers and television.

The simple explanation is that this prevents interruption of signals. In details, it suppresses EMI and RFI.

Initially, I thought maybe new plug wires cant be that bad. I tried to ignore but I could really feel the thumping of the Vtwin.
A day after, I mounted one instead of two on my newly done up spark plug wire kit and voila, it works.
 This time around, instead of installing it right after the the spark plug cap, I installed it with similar fashion as of other products, about two inches away.

Editors Tip: Althought it serves as a clip on, it bites into the plug wires which may cause leaks and unintended grounding. So what I did was to remove the cores and cable tie them to the wires.
Ebay have them selling dirt cheap.
Note that my wires are 7mm in diameter. These beads comes in different sizes.

Spark plug wire replacement tutorial

Hello, today i will be writing a tutorial on replacing the caps and wires of a spark plug cable on my honda shadow vt750c ace 1998 equivalent .

Please take note that I am not a professional mechanic but a hobbyist.

So first lets take a look on replacing your particular spark plug wire.

Note that two of our wires are using

Oem  = SD05F x 2 , SD05FGA

I ordered part number SD05FP x 4 thinking I would get better water protection.

Its hard to see due to the non focal camera but the part number is written on the oem plug.

Looks like it was made from NGK.

 Oem and the new plug cover. The difference is a sealing lip. 

Well honestly, both plugs are rated waterproof.

Next up is choosing wires. 

OEM wires are copper wires which are tin plated.

Why tin plated? It is more durable in many many ways.

We are using 7mm spark plug wires. I ordered 2M and it was rather just nice with about 10cm of leftover.

To find your length needed for other bikes,  You can use partzilla.com.

Again difficult to see but OEm wires are made out of about 8 solid strands of tin coated copper wires. The new wires are copper only and made out of 24 thin ones. To give an idea, a scissors off a workdesk would require some effort to give the oem a snip.

I got my wires off ebay from timgreen80.

If I had a re go, I would have bought these water deflectors pre installed. The oem spark plug wires heat shrink was so etched on that you really have to work on it with a plier and scissors. Took me about <10 mins to have it cleanly removed so the 7mm wire can go through it.

Installing the plug cap to the wire just requires you to thread it on. Its like a sharp nail inside of the plug. You twist the wire on it until u reached the bottom. To attach it to the ignition coil, inside is just a blunt nipple and it just requires contact.

 Notice the cap that screws onto the ignition module.

 Comparing with the oem wires.

Finished effect.

Enjoy.

Editors note : I replaced the wires for cosmetic reason and I get occasional electrical shock when my thigh touches the wires.

After replacing these, Bike was a little more responsive.

I wouldnt reccomend replacing them if yours are working fine.

OEM : $240

Racing wires from NGK : $120 from distributor $240 from shop.

My diy $40 SGD

What are the cable tied magnet looking things on the plug wires?

Ferrite Cores which were inventually transferred to the new wires because there was an obvious difference without them. These will be covered in another post.

Action Camera

At first it was a digital camera on a mount. Bulky.. took time to get the right angle.

Next was the MD80. Blurry, cheap, did its job but mounting was a challenge. Being so small I often forgot to take it off after parking..

Dad wanted to sponsor so it was between a $260 amazon set go pro white or a $320 local set.
Until i read from techmoan that he strongly reccomended a SJ4000. Its an excellent Go pro replica but lacks only the extreme capabilities..

You can use the same mounts. It is priced at 90USD. What got me interested was the  insurance and warranty but a bummer it was only for usa and canada.
Note that there are many fakes in the market.

So techmoan had it reviewed. A set was given to him by foxsales1 from hongfeng.  I wanted to support them but it Thats $113. WITH NO WARRANTY.

So I could get some random one from taobao at $80sgd.

Okay 113! Because sellers from ebay cares about customer service!

Review of progressive suspension

Hello and thank you for reading

Today Ill be reviewing the progressive suspension for my honda shadow ace 1998 400cc

Front

11-1126 with 10w torco fork oil

Rear

412-4207c
12.5Inch

Rider weight
92kg

Pillion Weight
45kg

Review

Stock suspension.

Reason I did the change was because on patched roads, it was a nightmare and the sudden bottoming out scared my pillion. The front dive was crazy and coming out from humps was killing my back.

Front progressives with stock rear.

Great enough for Commuting in singapore at setting number 2.
In johor, it was terrible riding 2 up on setting number 3. Especially on patched road and small drops it would bottom up.

Front progressives with 11.5 inch HD.

Well, I took at 1500km Trip and loved it.
It was a little stiff but did the job to be predictable and stable.
However after  trying out the too soft 12.5 sporster progressive on my bike, i felt that there could be better out there. Something softer than the HD would be great. Also, needed something higher as steering the bike now takes more effort. I felt that 1 inch drop didnt make any difference in looks but yet it took away the ride ability of the motorcycle. With my legs up higher, i felt it was tiring as i have no support of my thighs with the seat.

Now with the complete set of the progressives, I feel that the bike rides like a dream on setting number 2. 3 at 2 up was a little too stiff thought the height was comforting.
I have had one bottom out which was extremely minor.

My friend had a leak with his valkyrie. I read that they advised to lube the shaft.

Project on air box snorkle

Well. Bike was struggling to go above 120 since the oil change.
Was waiting on the fumoto before i get that drained out.
So i read online and the raves on how much better the bike sounded with the snorkle removed. So Since it was a reversible modification I went ahead.

I sprayed the damn uni filter with WD40 equivalent and that shit started swelling up the foam. Dammit I had to dip her in a pail of water and washed her out with detergent. Thank god it was still alright. Have to get that $10 can of PJ1 at chong aik. $20 is just too damn steep for a maxima. Realising the wall of the air filter was filled with oil and dirt, I decided to lightly towel dry the filter oil before putting her on. Perhaps next time ill stick a double sided tape in to see if she is filtering fine.

Rode that way for two days. Bike sounded like a turbo charged  vehicle sucking in for air. Really cool but performance was really really bad. It felt like no gas after 80km/hr. Even pick up was slower. Since I had the snorkle with me, I decided to clean her up. Damn the amount of road tar with 200 000km was ridiculous. Had her back on the she sounded a little different. Like it had a mini turbo. You can feel the vibration from the air box. Felt abit paranoid it could be my exhaust. I guess its from removing some kinda flap which increases intake noise.

My last top up gave me 21km/L.
Not bad at all.

Uni air filter servicing and removing air box snorkle

Been awhile since Ive serviced my Uni air filter. 1/2 Year seemed like a good idea but my mileage was starting to suffer.
Wanted to buy a specific cleaner but it was out of stock.

So I used a WD40 equivalent and 5 seconds after application, the foam started swelling. To avoid further damage, I Immediately dipped the foam into a bucket of water and followed by a detergent wash.

It wasnt really effective but im sure it was cleaner than before it went into the bucket. I towel dry it and left it by the window. By next morning, it was dry and I applied PJ1 Foam air filter oil. Previously, I oiled till the black foam turned red. This cause the air box to be coated with a layer of this oil. This time around, i made sure every inch was coated lightly then i used a rag  to remove as much as I could of the oil. After which, to the touch, the air filter was still tacky. I read about removing the snorkle from the air filter and I tried doing it. It sounded like a turbo charger especially when it was sucking in air. Apparently that excitement was short lived the moment it hit the streets. It as only responding to very low revs. After which, it felt like it was choking. Im not keen or rejetting or adjusting any air fuel ratio mix so I put it back on. I cleaned the snorkel comprehensively. The amount of road tar was crazy!

When putting it back, I realised that with a cleaner filter, the exhaust was sounding much better. Ive yet to fill the tank to determine mileage increase but i realise that I could feel the heat of the engine between my legs. Something which I have not felt in a while. I think it might be because it is running slightly leaner.


I was keen on a filter skin but the design of the ace is such that it filters air from the inside out of the filter! I read that some riders use panty hose as a prefilter. I kinda like that idea. I might be doing that next time.