hey guys i've been trolling the site for a couple of days. i finally decided to register after purchasing my 98 f3. its my first real bike and had a blast riding her. this site has already gave me lots of great info and cant wait to see wat else i can learn. here's a quick picture of my bike. sorry its a camera phone pic




she wont win beauty contests but shes all mine. it was a blast to ride home from manhattan, although i had to go slow since i didnt have any plates and the lack of a right hand mirror. bike runs great except for one thing i noticed. the temperatures rose about 3/4 of the way up when in the city (dropped down on open road). is this normal for this bike? thanx guys and look forward to learning and sharing information.

 

Yeah, temp always goes up in traffic, just keep & eye on the coolant. May need replacement (ie "OLD") Wots with the Bungie cord on the seat?.

 

hmm guy said it was missing some screws thats why he's holding it with a bungie. without the bungie it just has a little play, wont come right off unless u force it. how do i fix that?

 

Nice Find , O to fix the seat shouldnt be hard just take the tails off and there should be a metal tab/bracket on each side that lines up with bolt holes on the subframe or some place and bolt that bitch back on with some bolts unless...... the holes are striped are almost striped and thats the play/force to get it off but thats almost impossiblie if it has bolts? IDK your bike so .

 

Well that is a nice bike. Needs some TLC, but how many bikes at the age of 10 dont need that. I think the F3 is a great first bike.

 

Nice new toy, welcome to the forum

 

Hey bro,look at the bottom of it and see the little clip thing that attaches by back. that is what will hold your seat down in the rear. If anything just push it towards the rear of the bike a little to tighten it up. Your seat will slide a little(maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch, but will certainly hold in place.

 

ok i see where it bolts up. theres a little tray i guess to put a couple of tools or something under there. wat i dont get is why they have that and then the seat gets bolted down lol. makes it kind of pointless if u have your tools under there and u can unbolt the seat lol. took a look at the battery and looks semi new. sprockets look good. chain looks a little rusty so im gonna get sum lube. i did notice that the overflow tank had very little coolant like almost none so maybe thats why the temps rise a little past mid mark. fans turn on. rear turn signals arent wired up. the rear brake light has one of the spinning bulbs and a regular bulb lol. wat else did i notice....oh yea it smokes a little while cold but then its almost none existant. gotta take out some slack from throttle. rear rotor is a little wavy.

got some questions:
is it ok to use water wetter on a motorcycle?
will just filling the overflow be enough or should i pour some coolant through rad cap?
how do i know the front forks need new seals?
recommended oil weight for a bike with 18.5k miles?
on the gas valve, its pointing down right now. is this the correct position? there are no labels wat does each position do?
how do i tell when i need gas without opening the tank? (besides when the bike shuts off lol)

 

All very good questions. First, Im not sure what water wetter is, but as for coolantthrough the radiator cap, would be a good ideal. of course do it when its cold, and just top it off. Add the rest to the overflow container. As for oil, some of us like using synthetic and others like the Honda oil. Both are great for our bikes. If your gas valve is pointing down, then you are using your primary tank. Straight ahead is off, and up is reserve. On our bikes we pay close attention to the mileage. I know when I get to around 130-140 miles on the trip meter, I'ts getting pretty close for fill up time. I try not to use my reserve tank.

 

water wetter is a coolant additive that is very popular for modified cars to keep temps down http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp . i use it on both my cars (noticed a 13 degree drop on my turbo car). lucky for me the honda bike shop is on the corner of my house so i can get lots of stuff there but what weight should i use? 10w30? 10w40?