KungFu954

OK ok ok I'm sorry bout the delay so here it is!!!

Wet sanding 101

What you need:
2000 Grit sand paper or higher, best is 2500 but it's hard to find.

A rotory POLISHER Maguires sells them for about 40 bucks. If you can't find a POLISHER use a rotory buffer. <--you can also borrow a buddies

a couple pads for the polisher

Some really good wax, (don't cheap out here) mguires website has wax just for this type of task if you have questions you can contact me or mgiures. Mothers is also very good. Also nice to have a spray and wipe wax and perhaps a finishing wax since the scratch removel stuff is pretty abrasive.

Lots of water in a bucket

Some spair time

Good lighting.


First of all what is a polisher well, it looks just like a buffer but typically smaller, don't waste your time on a stupid vibrating one get the rotory. There are different tools for different applications things not to use are drills with a buffer attachment, grinders of any kind, Here is why essentially what the goal is, is to "scuff" the offending area with the sand paper without removing the clear coat. Tools like drills and or grinders have way to much power behind them . If you take a polisher and grab the pad while it's spinning it will stop,,do that with a grinder or drill and you WILL hurt yourself. That's the big difference. Can it be done with a grinder sure, but more than likly you'll burn through the clear coat with one, polishers won't unless you are trying to do it on purpose and even then it will take a while, a grinder can do it in seconds.

Step one: clean the area as good as possible, since this is your first time doing this do the least visible area first in case you screw up plus the least visible is useually the hardest place to reach so you won't skip it at the end when your tired. If there is no least visible place and you do want to practice remove the fairing and the underside of the fairing is guarantied to be scratched.
Step two: sanding, if the surface is flat and only if it's flat you may use a sanding block for comfort do not use a block on corners. best way is always the slowest. So take your sand paperand just useing a little bit wrap it around your index and middle finger, make sure there is a good sanding surface. Now the trick is very very very light pressure I just use the weight of my fingers, for anyone thats ever polished boots it's kinda like that but like I said just the weight of your fingers use a circular motion or a side to side motion on the area, BEFORE YOU START USE water. Duh,,,wet sanding. now BIG trick number two use lots and lots of water you want to dip the sand paper in it and perhaps in the other had have a sponge and squeeze water over the area as your sanding. Never do this without ample water on the area and the paper.
The result once your done should look like the rest of the fairnig does but non glossy. Pay really close attention while your doing this what your looking for is and color bleed, If you notice a spot that looks like the color is smeared or bleeding stop immediatly. If your light on the pressure have really high grit sand paper and los of water it shouldn't happen but just pay attention.
NOTE: CORNERS OR EDGES ARE THE TRICKIEST, you can go right throught the clear coat with just a few passes so be extra gental and extra attentive with those areas. JUST A LITTLE BIT THERE OK.

Step three, dry the area, and inspect, it should be a dull color, and you should be able to feel that it is rough to the touch but not too damn rough.

Once the area is dry and you have inspected it guess what,,,a little more water and now it's time to use that polisher that you've borrowed or bought.
Apply a new pad to the polisher put a little bit of water on the pad but don't electricute yourself,, now most jobs can be taken care of with a really good wax Meguier's,,,HA I finally spelled it right,,, Meguier's has a fantastic Gold Kit. But if you really wanna do a pro job use a 3M Rubbing compound 3M actually has a chart for applications in thier site.
Apply it to the polisher and used very little pressure on the area use slight angle and polish the entire wet sanded area, Make sure there is lot's of wax on the pad and some water too you want the polisher to glide on the area.

The result should be a vast improvment over the are if not like new. Once everything is comple use the spray and wipe was on the area stand back and watch it shine.

A couple notes:
use wax that corisonds with the damaged are, for example, hair line scratches call for a very light wax. deep scratches call for a more aggressive compound. If you are in need of help determining the type of wax contact MeGuier's or 3M. Like I said 3M has a chart for applications somewhere in thier maze of a website.
The object of wet sanding is to glide on the surrface of the clear coat not push through it,,,hense the tons of water.

Use tons of water

Take your time, if you go throught the clear it's not a big deal but you are behond fixing it without shooting paint.

Use tons of water

Very light touch it will do marvels.


Good luck man

KungFu954

Oh ya ond I am sorry I am a little confuseing on top of the post.
NEVER USE ANYTHING BESIDES Your HAND TO SAND.
THE POLISHER IS FOR POLISHING ONLY NOT SANDING.

I'll add a little more info later, post back and let me know any questions. This was kinda a quick write up. So any questions at all.

KungFu954

Darnet, this is another thing too, the area will always look glossy when it's wet so to really check you gotta dry it periodically. Sorry.

rrmike

Wow now I'm really confused. There's clearcoat on my solid black plastic fairing?? How is the color gonna run or bleed or whatever if it's a solid piece of plastic that color?

I'm gonna assume that write up is for wet sanding painted surfaces. I'm not positive but I think the fairings are just solid black plastic. I have the red and black like Blade and Snigg.

KungFu954

No it's clear coated. It has to be

KungFu954

I'll tell ya what. I'll do it tonight on a small section of mine on the black part and we will go from there. Now I know what part is screwed up. So give me till tomorrow and I'll post back,,,cool?

el nino

went out to a parking lot today solo, pratciced a few 1st gear clutch ups, not bad for my first session ever, it was fun!! i did a skid, and dropepd it LOl nothing bad, picked it up and kept going, good thing i ordered a powers cage today. new stator cover leaves canada tomorrow so i should get that by teh weekend, then a scotst damper is next, i hate it when eth front locks up when doing a stoppy

did a few stoppies, soem dude was watching me, so i asked how high teh back tire was he said like 4 feet, feels liek 1 foot to me :YEAH

el nino

also, why dont you make teh polishing/wetsanding thing anotehr thread?

we can get taht juming off, i could care less if its on here, but my main point is so otehr peopel see it and eveyrone puts their 2 cents in, and all the stunt life heads are better than one LOL

good tips, i wish there was a great polishing write up like that, but im an impatient **** LOL :YEAH

KungFu954

Good point El Nino,

I'll put em up seperate next time. I have a BIG tenancy to get off subject in here.

So for the wheelies.
I was out with a friend this weekend and man that dude is making leaps and bounds of progress but I did notice that I push myself a lot farther when I'm with a buddy. So I kept trying the accelarate first then slip the clutch method. When it works ,,,it really works well. Plus, I noticed that I actually set my throttle hand automatically when I use that method instead of backing off or rolling on. Just like what was posted in here earlier. When you leave your hand alone once you've set the amount of throttle it's much more predictable.
I got one really nice one, but that one was worth all the failures. The front lofted up nice and smooth but since it was first gear it did come up amazingly fast, so i didn't quiet catch it but I was able to set it down soft.

Anywhoo, I'm gonna go practice right now so later.

rrmike

Dude it's all good. You don't have to go and start sanding on your cherry plastic on my account I was just curious. I didn't think there was any paint or clearcoat on the side fairings on my bike. I thought it was just black plastic with stickers on it like my dirt bikes have always been. The plastic on those seems equally shiny when new. Maybe I'm just thinking they are shinier than they are though. I know I hacked up the undertail when I put the fender eliminator on and it was one solid color but that part isn't shiny like the side and rear fairings so maybe they are painted.

Bikryder19

1st gears can roll on the throttle best goin about 35-40mph and lean back a little. Clutching in 1st gear is #1 not good for the bike and #2 is down right scary unless you are freestyling. For 2nd gears i get goin about 50 stand up, bounce it, and nail it. The front end will fly up i promise. Once you get it back to that point that feelse kind of loose, just be smooth on the throttle and lean back a little and youll be pullin all sorts of ****** at the track.

rrmike

How's clutching 1st not good for the bike? I clutch first gear standers from almost dead stop and love it. I don't think it's scary clutching 1st if you have throttle control. I used to think so but I'm getting pretty good at them now. It's my new kick. Now that I can't stoppie until I get a damper (and at 4 bills that aint gonna be soon) I have something else to do when I don't have 1/8 mile or more to do 2nd gear standups

Just takes practice.

KungFu954

Dude,
I appologixe again for the off topic post but I'll get to the ****** in a sec!!

wet sanding quick response

It's cool, I would never give anyone any advice that I wouldn't ever do myself. So, I went to checker auto parts last night and was able to buy a polisher (I needed one anyway) in the wax and shine section for 15.00, it is nice quality palm style rotating polisher. I picked up some rubbing compound by 3M, some good quality wax by Meguiers and I already had the spray stuff, I also bought a sheet of 2000 grit sandpaper some cheesecloth all for under 35.00 I did have a small scuff on the lower part of my fairing from a drop about a year ago that I've been meaning to get to it is on the lower cowel which is black as well, now I did notice that some of the vinal graphics are on the outside of the clearcoat so you were right in that respect the wet sanding won't fix any of the graphics but as far as the black plastic goes it will indeed, the black is clearcoated and actually pretty well. My scuff is now gone!!! It may not completely fix the damage but it will improve it for sure just remember to pay close attention and take your time, be very very gental there is now room for impatiance or even more pressure than the weight of your fingers when your wet sanding. the polisher is pretty sweet too better than my last one that was 40.00. by the way it will be hard to determine if you ahve gone through the clear coat or not because of the solid black I know I didn't come close to it but in this game less is more. Post me or write me if you have any questions aight?


Wheelie time!!
I went home yesterday and spent the mass majority of my ride in the rain, which without saying Blew ****. But once I got over to my end of town I dunno maybe it was the frustration of a crappy ride but I hoisted the sweetest ***** I've ever done on this bike, once again the throttle on start accelarating in first to about 35 mph (not full throttle but I was on it pretty good) and slipped that clutch and boom! she was up she came up fast but I did manage to catch it and ride it for a few seconds. Felt so good that sensation stuck around for hours!!! Next step I need to get consistant but this throttle one technique is definatly helping with that, hellavalot better than trying to read the tach as it comes up. After that I went home and shined her up ,,,see above. lol

Oh ya baby it's coming

KungFu954

Oh ya and clutching up is really never good on a bike, course neither is stunting in general, but it's not that bad, the most wear is gonna be on the clutch plates and the clutch center. My bike has almost 18,000 miles on it and my clutch center will need to be replaced this winter. The plates themselves hae contributed to the effect because I use Barnett Carbon Fiber plates. Honda is pretty smart so the designed the clutch plates to wear before the clutch center does but since I use a stornger plate to put more wear and tear on the clutch center. Clutch centers should run about 225.00 and like I said 18,000 miles I still have the original one in. The plates themselves can be purchased for around 100.00 and will last at least 10,000 miles riding like we do. Also as a matter of fact you do more "damage" actually wear and tear on the bike while learning. Once you get it down the wear and tear is about %50 because of all the little things like releaseing the clutch too slow <--my problem. Or the constant attempts rather than nailing one really well. ext.
As far as the engine goes, well we all know that engines don't ever get the best lubrication while wheelying but that doesn't differ from clutching to bouncing. The Transmission, well both ways cause a little more wear on them on one hand your slamming the gear dogs against each other (backing off the throttle and getting back on hard) and the other hand your slamming the gear dogs against each other by means of taking power away from the transmission and then re-applying it (clutching). Now one more little fact about 1st gear clutch ups. 1st gear is the only transmission gear in the 954 that has 5 female and male gear dogs. the rest of the trans gears only have 4 gear dogs. So in my opinion that means more distribution of transmitted power resulting in less damage sustained in a given area. in other words it's like punching someone with just you knuckle (more painful) or slapping them (wide spread, still painful i.e. effective but won't cause a cut).
Anywhoo those are the facts that I know, no wheelies are ever good for a bike but they are definatly not the worst thing you can do. That would be a burnout (stunt wise the wrost thing to do to a bike).

I guess I agree but disagree at the same time,,,now I'm just babbling,,,now I forgot what I was saying,,,now i'm eating a burrito

el nino

ok fellas,

i need advice form the ones who can 1st gear cluth and hold em up

i start around 5-10 mph, get it up but it comes down, i think i need to turn my idle up to liek 3500, or to however fast i would want to be rolling. cause it seems liek its nature to let go of the gas once its up. im not interested in fast stuff, wanan learn teh slow ones and just use the back brake. i just had the bike 2 months, but wanan learn em fast!!! LOL,

so would you recommened speeding up the idle?

nags

You shouldn't have to touch the idle at all. Hell, you could turn the idle down to 100rpm and it wouldn't matter as long as you're on the gas

el nino

well, it feels liek it will loop back if i dont let go, im sure its just a case of geting smoother. i mean i can still see over teh bike a bit so im positive its not hitting BP. i just figured it would teach me to ride the idle and only use the brake, seems liek it wuold be smootehr, dunno, i guess im watching too much darius and cbo LOL im just dying to learn em slow so i can eventually pull teh no handers :YEAH one day,. slowly but surely

nags

Learn without the idle. Don't become dependent on it like a lot of people to do. Once you can do slow wheelies without it, it'll be easy to learn everything else.

el nino

i will , i was just riding by myself and did one, it actually stayed up i was stoked like this ----> :YEAH <------ im just waiting for my powers cage to come in, was shipped today, and my dmaper too, i have more of a peace of mind with having those. gonna hit up the spots with my ripped jeans , knee and elbow pads, BMX style liek when i go to teh park.

at some point tho i will need the idle, i mean my goal is to get no handers, nice and slow liek darius and CBO, im taking baby steps tho, first learn teh basics, but im sayin, i thikn at some point you need soem more idle? yes no?

riding alone sucks big time, friends with cell phones off suck big time,

KungFu954

The 954 idle is really easy to adjust. The **** is on the left side under the cowel. It is a black kinda star shaped **** attached to the exhaust valve cables by a black plastic clip.the 954 idle is kinda twitchy and only adjust it once it is warm.

I was riding into work this morning and it must have been the cool morning air because my nuts were just not there, felt like I lost my wheelie mojo. So I gave her one last try in the parking lot and it wasn't too bad about 2 feet high and of course I was unable to ride it out. Blah!! oh well there is always this evening.

However, Last night I did a little more scratch removal by means of wet sanding, I am happy to say my baby looks brand spanking new. One thing I forgot to mention was you know your ready to check your progress on the wet sanding thing when you start to see the water turn a milky color,,,wipe it clean and check it. if it is a dull color, perfect start buffing.

Anywhoo, maybe I'll take a lunch today and give the monos another go.

by the way did anyone catch the "pocket rocket" story on inside addition. I was laughing my **** off