Modifying Honda Silver Wing 600

I´ve had my Silver Wing 600 or as I´ve learned from this forum Swing for a month now. It has become very clear that the wind shield is too hight for my height (5 ft 7). I found the topic of Givi Airflow and bang, that´s what I need to get for my SW. I don´t like riding looking through the wind shield and when it´s rainy or foggy, it´s even dangerous to do so.

I used to have a J Costa variator and a Vans exhaust with my Gilera Nexus 500. I loved the excess acceleration of the JC variator and the after market variator cuts the weight of the scooter. There will definitely be JC variator and some after market pipe for the same reasons. I found a bargain kit of both JC variator and exhaust . Any knowledge of different pipes, pros and cons? The JC pipe looks quite sporty and that´s a good point.

Safety is very important matter for me and that´s why I´m always wearing a neon yellow vest when touring long distance plus I wear a neon orange Shoei helmet. I´m planning to get led daytime running lights for the visibility and perhaps even stop lights for the Topcase. And even more visibility with reflective wheel tapes.

There´s always a possibility to flip your maxi by accident and I´ve done so a couple of times with my Gilera. So frustrating ! In order to avoid bad scratches I´m planning to get footboard sliders and fork protectors. They might not prevent as much damage as a frame that I´ve seen installed to some maxis, but I don´t like the looks of the frame and these protectors are better than nothing.

I love long distance touring and I make a trip for at least 3000 kms to Norway once in a summer. So there must be loads of room for the stuff. I´m planning to get a new pair of soft saddle bags either of40 ltrs or 30 ltrs. For the tent, the sleeping mat and other stuff too long to fit elsewhere a soft tail bag. By wearing a leg wallet you have your purse, phone and camera very available. I have even a Givi tunnel bag, but it was quite difficult to use because the tunnel of my Gilera was very high. The capacity of the tunnel bag is quite small, too but maybe it will become essential some day, if I tour longer than a week.

Happened so far: a new Givi V47 Topcase (notice the same motive with the rear of SW!). Oxford Hot Grips touring model (very important now here because the temperature is getting lower and lower day by day and is soon near 0 degrees (Celsius) even by daytime.) and the TomTom Rider with Ram mounting.

There´s loads of going on now, but I promise you won´t see me around looking like this :lol!:

Glad to hear it, that bike in that vid is an absolute mess.

I like your plans! I've set up mine similar with cold weather in mind. Tall givi 214dt windshield works because I'm over 6 feet but that Airflow sounds like it does the best job.  Previous owner installed Oxford heated grips and a heated jacket which is a nice gift. They also installed led headlights and they are awesome. Strikingly bright!

Leena,
That's a very ambitious list of items you've got there.  

I suggest that you take a look @ my album (there's a link in my sig).
And I'd like to point out a couple things.

1. RE: Footboard Sliders that you linked to. Good Find! In 13 years of aftermarket parts research for the Silverwing, I've never come across those. You've brought something new to the board.  If you'll take a look at my album, you'll notice my rub rails. This comes in a roll, and is the same half-round stick-on rubber used for body side moldings on automobiles.  They are flexible so they can mount to the contours of your bike, and easy to cut to size.  You should be able to get it at any automobile parts store, or auto repair shops may have it.  You can get enough to do your entire bike the way I have, for less than the cost of the footboard sliders.  And you get more protection.  If your bike does fall over you'll damage a piece of replaceable rubber instead of expensive sliders. In addition to the line where the sliders are attached to protect, rub rails are good in the following places too.



2. RE: Daytime running lights. If you can afford the good stuff, I recommend
https://clearwaterlights.com/collections/all-products/products/darla-1
For the purpose of safety, I always have a pair of lights mounted to my forks, so the light turns as the forks do, and these lights give you the most lumens (2000 lumens EACH) for the size. They are LED, they can also be dimmed with the included dimmer.  This way you can have daytime running lights, and turn them up to full power for those long distance rides.

3. RE: Muffler.  The holy trinity for power on the Swing has been the J.Costa Variator, the Leo Vince 4road exhaust, and the Power commander ( http://www.powercommander.com/powercommander_ex/  ) with a custom map.  The power commander adjusts your fuel/air mixture across the entire power band.  So we agree on the variator.  In the kit that you linked to, the shape of the pipe is identical to the LeoVince.  Dunno if LV makes it for J.Costa or not.  I have no experience with the JC pipe but the LV did give me a few extra horses and sounds very good.

4. RE: Additional lighting in the top case.  Definitely go for it.  Its a great cost-effective mod.

Any more questions on aftermarket stuff just give me a shout.

Dan

Leena, I made my own sliders using furniture stick-on sliders. Just paint them to match the color of your bike. Easy to replace. I will add some pics in my album later today

Sorry Lenna, the storage area for this forum has reached its maximum and will not let me add my pics.

Have to wait for the moderators to free up some space.

Let me try here.
Sorry pics too large.

I´d love to add pictures to the forum, but found the same problem as you guys. Wasn´t able to attach even changing the resolution to the smallest.

The tips you gave were good ones and I´ll surely consider them. The price of the power commander is quite costly though. I´ll see if the performance is good enough after J Costa variator and exhaust. Although the SW is excellent scooter, I still miss the quick response to the throttle.

I just read some reviews about the Clearwater Darla led lights and I´impressed. They´re very expensive, but must be worth of your money. I haven´t tried to find them from European webshops, the shipping from USA is expensive and you have to pay the taxes when ordering outside EU. My sister lives in San Diego, CA and I´m planning to visit her some day. Maybe it would be a good idea to buy them as a souvenir!

I used to have Givi soft saddle bags with Gilera. As they´re a bit worn out I want to replace them. What kind of saddle bags do you have? No need to buy the tail bag, the leg wallet or the tunnel bag as I´ve already got them as find the first two really handy.

One more tip: as the start of my Gilera was´t always certain when it was cold and rainy (maybe it would have needed a new battery), I bought an external battery kit. There´re different brands sold but mine was Tellwin. You get all kinds of plugs with it, so you only need to get this kit with you to reload you iPhone, helmet phone system, camera etc. If your battery deflates, you get enough power to start the engine. There´s enough power to start even Mercedes Benz van. Remember to reload after every use!

Leena,

I'm not saying this is true, but I've read reports of the J Costa variator pins wearing out quickly and causing higher fuel consumption (on YouTube?). It seems the Dr Pulley sliders give almost as good performance and last longer. Probably a lot cheaper too. However, please do your own research.

I think the engine has adequate power and I ride with some guys on big power bikes, Suzi GSXR, ST1300, Triumph tiger, etc. They usually seem surprised they don't have to hang back for me... I'm not! When I lead a ride, I often have to wait for them.

The only engine/drivetrain "performance" mods I might do to mine in the future are the Dr Pulley sliders -probably 25gram-, iridium plugs, and use genuine Honda air filters, definitely NOT a K&N filter. How can anything you can see straight through filter particulates from the air?

Other than that, get the throttles properly synchronised and use good quality fluids.

Thanks Flyingpanman for your tip. I´ll surely reconsider my decision ordering the variator. So you´re able to use the sliding rolls in the original variator? I found Dr. Pulley bells and clutches on the depyulley.info site and Dr. Pulley variator kit on Ebay. The prize rises remarkably though. There´re topics on Dr. Pulley sliders, but I would like have a tip from experienced SW owners what would be reasonable decision to do to increase the performance?

Based on now near 80,000 miles on2 new SilverWings, present one left over 2013, make no mods at least until you have ridden yours 10,000 miles or more.

Drive line-----LEAVE ALONE----think repairs on trips, stock is better, dealers are familiar with stock pieces.

Better Performance=get a motorcycle. Different than most commenting----I have ridden in Finland, on return to Germany from trip to North Cap in Norway--XBR500S Honda. Givi adjustable windshield is going to be your best bet with SilverWing.

I find SilverWing reasonable for trips---my present bike has been to Alaska and recently Nova Scotia in Canada( that trip had battery trouble, caused by my own stupidity....using electric air pump--that pump now in trash---replaced by cheap foot powered pump) New battery installed when I got home.

Contrary to Mr Grinsel's admonition, there is nothing wrong with upgrading to Dr Pulley sliding weights (aka "Sliders"). I used 28gm Sliders in my '03 S'Wing for 80,000 miles and they showed absolutely no signs of wear. I've recently switched to 26gm Sliders because I was riding in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia and felt that the improved mid-range performance would be a benefit.

Even changing from Honda 28gm rollers to 28gm Sliders will improve performance and decrease cruising RPMs at freeway speeds. Many folks here have installed 26gm Sliders for improved accelleration and decreased cruising RPMs and they are very happy with that modilication. Several members have reported that 22gm or 21gm Sliders give similar results as the JCosta variator.

Tim

So replacing the originals with Dr. Pulley should be enough....for the beginning? No need to replace the variator itself?

How old is your SilverWing? How many kms? How about belt and its age/kms? Nice to have fresh belts on older machine. I would worry about belt age before I think about any modifications. Again I think SilverWing in standard condition is fine for touring and to enjoy riding it as a scooter----and by not changing any thing in drive train other than belts...you have saved money.

Long tours I carry spare belt, too.

My SW is 2010 model, 3500 kms when bought and 2000 more with me just in a month. I love long distance touring, specially in Norway at least 3000 kms once in a summer. The tyres are original Hoops as well as everything else including the belt. With my Gilera I used to have Metzler tyres with a central groove and didn´t like them. Earlier experience: Michelin and Bridgestone. Would love to hear opinions about tyres good for SW taking into account northern conditions, that are pretty much the same as in Canada I suppose.

As your tyres are at least ten years old, I think fresh ones would be a good idea. My Swing has some old (original?) tyres on and my research has led me to buy a new pair of Metzeler Feel Free Wintecs, although Conti Move 365's were another pair I considered. I just want to get the wheels painted before fitting the new tyres.

With winter approaching, I wanted some grip in the wet, especially as the rear of my scoot has stepped out a couple of times on roundabouts. I even lost traction in the wet at the traffic lights Grand Prix the other day!

Leena Hallasmaa wrote:

So replacing the originals with Dr. Pulley should be enough....for the beginning? No need to replace the variator itself?

No need to replace the variator.

I was not aware that Dr Pulley has a replacement variator for the S'Wing. Can you send a link for that variator.

Tim

Dr. Pulley variator

The tyres are old, but not 10 years. I´m planning to buy new ones for the next season when there´ll be a maintenance, too. The tyres won´t be the Metzler Wintecs for the central groove. But different maxis have different feeling in steering, so maybe they act better with SW.

Has anyone purchase Dr pulley variator  kit ? does it come complete with  the sliders and guides, or do they come separate? How does it compare with the stock variator  .

Leena:
I previously had installed a J Costa Variator on my Swing.  I loved the acceleration, but I did see a big drop in miles per gallon of gas (low 40's) and after only about 8000 miles the contact plates were showing significant wear and grooves, so I reinstalled the OEM variator with 22g Dr Pully Sliders.  The performance is nearly what I had with the J Costa, only much smoother than stock, and I get about 50 to 55 mpg.  I also have an after market exhaust (Leo Vince 4Road), KN Air filter in a drilled air box, and a power commander.  Note that I live at high elevation (>5,000 feet), so I was trying to get back the performance that is lost as you get higher.

Leena,
I was able to add my pics into my album. I have pics of my sliders.

Leena,

You can add pics now. I added more storage the other day so please try again. Thanks, Jeff