Hello from Columbus

Hello All

I just purchased an 05 silverwing today. So far it seems to be a great scooter. We are retired and live in Columbus, Ohio.

My wife and I are not new to 2 wheelers. I started riding on a 1958 Allstate Cushman scooter in 1962. At that time, you could get an Ohio restricted license at 14 years old for a scooter that was less than 5 hp. The Cushman had a sticker on the fairing that stated that it was 5 hp or less.

I sold the Cushman and bought a 1967 305 Super Hawk. I rode it till I was drafted into the Army. When I got out of the Army, I bought a 1970 CB750. I also had a Suzuki 185 enduro and later a Suzuki 400 dirt bike. My last road bike was a 1976 Yamaha RD400.

When our daughter was born in 1980 I sold the RD400. I didn't ride again until 2007. I told my wife that I really missed going for a ride in the evening after work. She suggested that I check Craigslist and see if I could find a nice reasonable bike and see if I still liked riding.

I bought a 99 VLX 600 Shadow and enjoyed being in the saddle again. My wife sat on the Shadow and thought that she might like to get her license. She signed up for the motorcycle safety course. She started on an Elite 125 and when she got her MC endorsement, we bought her an 05 Honda Reflex.

We enjoy riding the secondary roads. We have the Cardo helmet radios so that we can talk while we ride.

I started riding her Reflex and I liked scooters so much that I sold the Shadow and bought an 07 Yamaha Majesty. We often traded bikes with me riding the Reflex and her riding the Majesty. She got hit on the Majesty last November and it was totaled.

With the Majesty gone, I wanted to find a replacement. As you reach 60 years old, it becomes harder to ride for very long without butt burn. I was trying to find a scooter or bike with a seat and riding position that would help ride longer.

I ended up buying a VT750 Shadow with a Mustang seat. It is a nice bike and it is very comfortable but I am drawn back to scooters. Scooters are just more practical. The plan is to sell the Shadow in the spring and enjoy the scooters. If I need to do something with the Silverwing seat, I will.

I hope to learn from all the folks here that have more experience with Silverwings especially seniors.

Ride Safe

rjdoles. Thank you for an excellent introduction of yourself and your wife. It is nice to have you both here. There is a lot to learn about the Wing by using the search function. The seats have been discussed many times and there are pictorials on maintenance to save you money, Again, welcome and enjoy the ride.

Hi,

I'm nearly 62 mate and I don't suffer from butt burn, I've got an Airhawk seat cushion but rarely use it. Before doing anything drastic to the Silver Wings seat you might want to look at your underwear.

If you have seams anywhere where your butt cheeks make contact with the seat for hours on end, that's going to create hot spots on your arse cheeks and cause discomfort. Or if the seams get bunched up or damp from perspiration.

Try changing to something with no seams near your tender little butt, preferably in a breathable material. They needn't be specialist riding shorts and your local outdoors store will probably have something suitable.

Welcome to the forum! I envy you a bit for living so close to Iron Pony...

Thank you all for the welcome and the advice.

I have spent a lot of time on this site this past week. I was planning on buying the service manual for the bike to do the 16k mile service but all the tasks that I planned to do myself were covered somewhere on this site.

I expected the belt change to be the toughest job but from the slide show that shows pictures of this job, step by step, including each bolt to remove along the way, I now think this should only be a couple hour job at most.

The new toughest task will be removing the wheels and breaking down the tires, removing, remounting and balancing them and getting them back on the bike.

I bought a Harbor Freight tire balancer on Monday. They only had two of them on the shelf. When I brought it home and assembled it, I found that the axle was bent. I returned it and the clerk told me that I could get another one if I wanted. I got the second one from the shelf and asked to open it and check the axle before I left the store. When we opened the second one, we discovered that the axle was also bent on that one. Since they didn't have any more of them I asked for my money back.

Hindsight being 20/20, I may have been better off to take the keep the first tire balancer and then go to HomeDepot and buy a section of 1/2 inch cold rolled steel and replace the axle myself. Now I may just have to pay someone to balance the tires.

I planned to: change the tires, air filter, oil and oil filter, brake fluid, coolant, and drive belt and drive filter.

I have to stop at the local Honda mc shop to get the coolant and brake fluid. I know they are a little more expensive than generic types but then I don't have to worry about compatibility issues.

On Monday I ordered the OEM drive belt, transmission filter, two oil filters and an air filter from SHSpowersports for $181. I ordered the Metzeler tires from Dennis Kirk on Monday for $146.

I was pleasantly surprised when the tires arrived yesterday and the filters and belt arrived today.

Now I just have to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.

Have a great day and Ride Safe!

rjdoles, you do still have two choices. 1: go to Harbor Freight and see if you can bye the damaged balancer at a discount. 2: check your local Honda dealer. Last week I saw a balancer almost the same as the Harbor Freight tire balancer except with three sets of anvils instead of just one for $59. I believe that is what I paid for the Harbor Freight tire balancer. Food for thought.

Welcome 'rjdoles'.

My hat off to you sir having a radio fit you and your wife my converse whlist riding.

My wife won't have one as she says my cussing at other road users puts her off!!!!

Waspie wrote:

Welcome 'rjdoles'.

My hat off to you sir having a radio fit you and your wife my converse whlist riding.

My wife won't have one as she says my cussing at other road users puts her off!!!!

We got the Cardo radio's a couple of years ago and they work great. They have a range of about one half mile. They only have one problem.

While we were riding, I asked my wife a question and she didn't answer. When I got no answer I thought that one of the radio's batteries had died although they have about 8 hours of talk time. When I pulled up to a stop sign next to her, I could see that she was chatting away.

Apparently the Cardo's have a pecking order. Highest priority is a bluetooth connection to a phone, Next priority is a partner on another headset and lowest priority is music from the built-in FM radio.

The radio's automatically switch to the highest priority device (bluetooth) and when the phone call is over they switch back over to the partner's radio. If there is no conversation between partner's radio's, it automatically reverts back to the FM radio.

She usually puts her cell phone under the seat. There must be enough metal surrounding the trunk (boot) to prevent phone service from there. On this particular trip, she put the phone in the glove box and it rang into her Cardo headset.

She said that she heard me talking and then there was a beep as I got disconnected and a family member who had called her on her cell phone began speaking to her through her headset.

We have since disabled this feature as neither of us felt comfortable using this feature.

We too have the same system but have yet to hear the radio turn on, and No we are not talking the whole time.

Any suggestions on the process of listening to the radio and having the ability to talk?

Joyce & Donal, hear is a link to the manulas. Just go to the model you have.
http://www.cardosystems.com/download/manuals

I finally got around to finishing the tire replacement and completing the 16k maintenance on the bike yesterday. Oil and filter change was a breeze, ditto for the drive belt / sliders. I changed the differential oil while I had the belt covers off. It made that much easier. I used a squeeze bottle to refill with engine oil.

Changing the front tire was not too bad but the rear put up a valiant struggle before being subdued. It was hard to get the rear tire off the rim and equally hard to get the new one on the rim.

Tire balancing was problematic. I bought a balancer for this project but the swing rear hub diameter is too large and too short to use the cones that were provided. The cones hit each other before coming into contact with the hub of the rear tire. The balancer worked fine on the front tire.

I used my lawnmower blade balancer for the rear tire.



When the rear tire was placed on this balancer, the heavy side of the tire is lower. I placed a 6" level on the brake rotor and I added weights to the high side until the wheel was level in both directions.

I bought one of the "click when you are there" torque wrench's from Harbor Freight for this project. When I got it home, I discovered that I could only turn the vernier in the increasing (higher torque setting) direction. I have to take that back tomorrow. I have just not had good luck with HF products lately. I had to resort to my old bending beam (analog) torque wrench to do the job.

Went for a nice ride today. What a difference the Metzler tires make. I love the feel of the brakes. I think that I am really going to enjoy this scooter.

Many thanks to all who contributed to the pictorial's on how to perform the belt change, wheel removal, belt indicator reset etc. I printed them and they were especially helpful when I was trying to figure out what screws went where in the assembly of the belt housing / covers.

Ride safe!

Hello and welcome to Mr and Mrs rjdoles.

Great introduction! I wonder how may of Silverwing owners are riding since their teenhood. It must be some kind of genetic defect, I fear.
I mean, since I was 16, I 've had all kinds of road- and dirt bikes, had my fair share of accidents, broke "a number" of bones, and still find myself uncomfortable when there isn't at least one motorbike in the shed. Silly, isn't it?

Enjoy your new ride!