:beer: is for girls you pick up on the The Silver Wing! Don't think that Canada is the only place where girls say that its to cold to ride on the back of one of those things because you can pick a girl up in August in Miami after it has been raining all night and girls are still going to say that its to cold to ride on the back of one of those things!

I've thought about a nice long roadtrip but I'd need a week or two - we are on the most easterly point of the continent - as we are an island jutting out into the Atlantic, we actually have our own timezone in Newfoundland (seriously)!!

To get to the border I'd have to drive 10 hours across the province, 6 hrs on a ferry, 7 more hours across the province of Nova Scotia and then another 4-5 hour ferry to Maine. Would be a good trip but a long haul . . . here's the province's Tourism site (lots of info):

http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/About/LocationMaps.aspx

Its near where the Titanic went down and the "Perfect Storm" movie supposedly happened. This is a picture of an iceberg just outside of St. John's harbour, capital city, in April or May one year.

I'm coming late to this discussion, but you folks have convinced me--I need the J Costa variator! Jeff, I really appreciate the pictorial you posted on the Scootertrap site. I figure with that I can probably tackle the job myself. But I have a couple of questions:

I notice you list your S-Wing as a 2007, same as mine. In your terrific how-to pictorial, you give the torque on that crucial bolt as 76 ft/lbs. Is that the right torque for the '07?

The "variator tool"-- is its purpose to keep the variator outer plate from turning as you torque down that bolt? It looks in your picture like it just has a couple of pins that go into a couple of holes to hold the plate steady, while allowing you access to the center bolt. If that's all there is to it, I think I could come up with something that would do the trick and save the $40. What do you think?

Thanks again for your great pictorials on various tasks!

darrwin,

Thanks for the compliment on my pictorial and I hope it helps.

For your 1st question about the torque for the bolt... yes it is 76ftlbs for torque.

For your 2nd question about the tool..you can make your own and many do. The tool just holds the plate steady so you can torque the bolt down. I bought it since I usually spend more time at the store trying to make something then just buying the tool. But they are easy to make. The tool is a bit difficult to use to torque down the bolt. I think they could've thought the design out a bit better.

But good luck on doing the work. I was also going to change my pins and was thinking of appling a "dry lubricant" to the bell housing, where the pins rotate against, to maybe lessen the friction. I will make another post about this though.

As with all the full fairing bikes I have had, the faster you go the smoother the bike seems.I have been 160mph on my old ninja 750 and it was smooth as silk.

Hey All,
I thought someone (a J.Costa owner) once remarked that they were getting tired of replacing the J.Costa pins too often and were going to go back to stock. Did I misread this somewhere????

Darrwin,
Go to Leroy Beal's website and see his home-made tool:
http://www.leroybeal.net/motorcycles/silverwing/articles/drivepulleytool/drivepulleytool.html
I made a "tool" out of a 1 by 4 with two 1/4" bolts. I can send you a photo if you would like it.
>> Dennis

DickO,

That might have been me saying that. If I buy my next set it will be my 3rd set in about 1 1/2 years. That is one reason I made the previous post about the dry lubricant. I was thinking it may reduce the friction and do a few things.. lower rpm's, reduce the wear of the pins, and maybe increase the mileage. I'm still thinking about this but am waiting for more responses.

Dennis responded and made good points but I'm always wanting to tinker with stuff. My pins are lasting about 8,500-9,000 miles, which is about 9 months or so. And since the pins are $65 a set it can get a bit expensive. The thing that makes me want to replace the pins with new pins is because the J. Costa is really nice. I'm going to go to the Burgmanusa site since that is where I read about using the dry lubricant on the ramps for the rollers, and how it seemed to help the ones who did this.

Dennis,
Hey thanks! I was envisioning a homemade tool almost identical to the one shown. It's great to know that my idea isn't so crazy after all.

Scootertrap was out of stock on the J. Costa, but promised one soon. Unless it shows up within the next week, the switch will have to wait a month until I get back from Australia. Whenever, I'll let you folks know how the job went, what the change feels like, and any new insights or tips that might be useful.

About dry lubricant: I haven't even seen inside my variator unit yet, so I'm just speculating here. Could it be that a certain amount of friction is necessary to make things work properly? Might there be a danger in making things TOO slick? Assuming that's really not an issue, what sort of lubricant would you suggest?

Another question: My '07 Silverwing only has about 3k miles on it (only short commutes until I retired last June). Do you think it would be worthwhile to change my drive belt while I have the thing opened up--or is it way too soon to contemplate that?

Darrwin:
The lubricant would help reduce friction (and wear) on the ends of the weights where they press against the outer piece of the variator. This occurs in order to make it a smaller diameter for enhanced acceleration. There is no need for friction along this interface. I think a bit of graphite lubricant might help, but I would make sure that the material in the weights in compatible with whatever sort of lubricant you use.

Darrwin:

3000 miles is way too early, the book recommends replacement at 16K and some riders have waited much longer than that. I chickened out and replaced mine right at 16K when the bright yellow "V" light came on.

With all this talk about the JCosta I am seriously considering the upgrade. I have been battling a vibration in the rear of the bike. I have an appointment at the dealer tomorrow to have the tire remounted, if that turnes out to be the issue I may put off the JCosta for a month or two. I pledged to myself to not do any mods this year and just ride the dam thing, oh well?!

Hi Dennis,

I just installed a J-Costa Variator yesterday and found the 2 holes in the outside stock honda variator plate are threaded with the same threads as all the cover screws. This comes in handy.

DennisB :D

Hi Folks,

The other day I noticed that the first bar of my fuel gauge went down when I was on 38 miles.... Normally its in the forties.... I had been doing a fair bit of stop start riding mind, and with a heavy right hand on the throttle. After using a full tank with more varied riding MPG was around 48 as usual.

However again I was in the high thirties when the first bar of the fuel guage went off, so I filled up and worked out I had been doing about 44 MPG, a bit lower than the norm, but again in stop start traffic.

I checked my revs against speed and have discovered my revs are up about 200 to what they were when I first had the J costa installed.... I reckon that my drive belt has done about 13-14k miles, since its last change and the variator pins are have done about 6,500 -7,000 miles, so I figure its either the pins, the belt or both that are the culprit. That said I do tend to ride the S'wing quite hard, especially when commuting... I am quite surprised about the revs at 40mph mind! Still the S'wing seems to be going as fast as ever, I've not noticed a drop in performance, which I suppose also would tie in with the pins being worn, thus getting lighter....? That said, since the J costa works on a transverse system as opposed to a longitudinal one (as with the stock variator) would lighter pins make a difference.... In which case, I might be needing a new belt...


MPH Original Revs
Revs Now

40 4,000 4,300-4,400
50 4,500 4,700
60 5,100 5,300
70 5,600 5,800
80 6,200 6,400


Happy Riding!

Bernardo,

I would think that your pins, if worn enough, could be causing the 200rpm difference. That is what happened to me the first time I changed the pins, and I changed them at about 8,500 miles. Your belt should probably be good for about 20,000 miles really. I changed mine at 12,000, just because I was installing the J. Costa for the first time, and decided to start with the new Mitsibishi belt. I keep the old one since it looks brand new still.

When I decide to get new pins again I am going to use the dry lube on the bell housing to see if it reduces the friction and maybe allows the pins to last longer. Not sure if it will work... but what the heck. I was thinking that the worn pins increases the rpm's since they are ground down and probably weigh less. That is just my opinion but it seems to make sense.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for that. I guess I'll be contacting the scootertrap unless I can get the pins in UK / Europe.... It's crazy that its so difficult to get them here and thus easy to buy from the USA as I did with the variator!

So it would appear that this is a downside of the J Costa.... So are you gonna consider the 21g Dr Pulley sliders?

Just installed my new J Costa. I really took my time, since I'd never torn into a variator before. I made my own "variator tool" to hold the outer plate while turning the nut--worked great. Before installing the new one, I sprayed dry lube into the bell housing and on the pin face of the inner pulley side. I was careful not to get any on the belt-facing side.

Seems fine so far. Seems smoother overall, and actually quieter when engine braking to decelerate. Revs are somewhat higher: 4,000 at 30MPH and 5,200 at 60. Definitely takes off with a kick when I open the throttle, I guess because it goes to higher RPMs while the scooter starts to move.

Well, bit the bullet and got the J. Costa. Took a couple of hours with Jeff's instructions laid out before me but I eventually got there. However, I was really cautious with the screws and bolts to make sure I didn't lose any. Impact wrench made removal of the variator nut a piece of cake!!

As far as the variator tool went, I didn't have any pieces of metal to make a Y shaped thingy. Wandered around and finally came across a piece of sample hardwood flooring that I picked up a few months back. I was 3 1/2" wide and close to 2' long. Drilled two holes for the bolts, and between the two bolts, I drilled a larger hole that I could use to torque the variator nut. Then I put one end of the piece of hardwood to hold it in place. It worked!! Torqued up to 76 or 78 lbs/ft - hard to tell precisely with the old pointer styled torque wrench but I checked it 3 times so it should be OK.

Got a few minutes to ride it but it wasn't too warm so it was a short ride. The takeoff was much better (lag was all but gone). It seeemed to accelerate faster everywhere (speed wise). Its still not a sportbike but it certainly makes for a marked improvement. In fact, I think it feels a little more like my old CBR600F2 in terms of acceleration now than some of my previous sub 1000cc cruisers (relatively speaking of course) but the Swing has good power everywhere so its a far more enjoyable ride than the CBR ever was.

I didn't open it full throttle really as I want to scoot around a bit first - although I haven't heard anyone say there's any kind of break-in period for the pins. Overall, it was seems to be worth the cost. I'll post more opinions once things warm up again.

Captain

Hi There Captain,

Welcome to the exciting world of J costa! By the way thanks for the tip about the variator tool... I'm thinking about replacing my drivebelt soon, and checking the pins, so that's a useful tip... I'll need to get myself a torque wrench and oder the belt...

Bernardo,

How many miles do you have on your pins? I ride kind of hard, and I think you do to, so we may wear them out sooner. I bought an electric impact wrench that only torque's to 90 ftlbs so I know I can't over tighten it too much at all. I do remember that my rpms' went up by about 200 rpm's and then when I changed them they went down the same amount. But hopefully you can get more miles out of your pins.

Hi Bernardo,

I sure envy you getting that good of mileage. After reading about your and Bill's (Honda-Silver) mileage I know I have to get a Power Commander. If I'm conservative, doing mainly 55 mph or so I can get 51 mpg but if I really give it heck it is in the low 40's.

As a matter of fact, I just filled up today after doing all interstate at 85-95 mph, and I only avg'd 39 mpg, which is kind of good I guess. But I was giving it WOT all the time but never going over 95 indicated. I just felt like having some fun for a tank. I also just commented on your London story, and it was a great story. Thanks.

Ordered mine today, can't wait till it gets here. Kinda bummed out about the whole having to replace the pins all the time though...I sure hope it is worth that extra hassle.