My new Vaquero

[dmyers]

Just got my new bike yesterday
I found out a couple of things
I was told by the dealer to always just touch the starter and not give any throttle input for 20 seconds after the bike starts to allow the sensors to calibrate. He told me they had a lot of trouble when the new systems came out With customers complaining about the bike not running properly and this was the cause
I will definitely be doing a throttle mod (I can't believe the amount of lag this thing has). And I can't believe people Pay to have this done.

The stock windscreen is a joke,, I will be looking for something taller and better
Probably a clockworks if I can come up with the funds

The stock pipes have got to go,, Thinking about a V&H pro pipe (Buddy has one on his harley and it sounds sweet)

I can't believe how much lighter the steering is over my nomad without all the weight and wind pressure off the steering head

I'm going to build a set of 1 3/8" bars and have them chromed for this bike

I am going to peel off the silver stripes and all the stickers, spray a pearl overlay on the black and add my own striping to split the two colors
Gota make it stand out incase I ever park next to another green vaquero
and I just love the green, I am going to take it down to the paint store and have it matched so I can paint the tank cover and part of the side covers green
Does Russel Day Long make a seat for the vaquero, The mustang was nice on my nomad but it couldn't handle the 900+ mile days me and my brother have been known to do

I'm thinking on robbing a bank to pay for all of this too

[plumber63]

congrats on the new bike. Look forward to see your mods, you did such nice work on the nomad. Hey what every became of the fairing build on the Nomad?

[BudMan]

Congrats on the new bike Don. I'm sure when you're done it will stand out from the crowd.
RDL modifies your stock seat. They don't make seats for specific bikes.

[dmyers]

Thanks Troy
It kills me that I never finished the thing up. I really wrecked it last winter when I decided to go with a different headlight and chopped up the front of the fairing
and made a complete mess out of it . I was going to take the lower and cut it down to a chin spoiler which I think would look sweet I have a relative that is trying to come up with the funds to buy the nomad and I may go ahead and mount that for him if he does.

Dave
I was wondering if someone had had there seat done ( there aren't any photos of vaqueros or voyagers on the website)
I have seen several voyagers that have been done not not a vaquero

[gcsteve]

The Green Vaquero really stands out. The color just pops. I see them on the road and you can't miss the way the sun hits that green. Congrats on the new ride can't wait to see it after the mods.

[0vationdave]

Hey Don, if you get to it, please post a how-to on removing the silver stickers from the bags/fairing if there is any magic to removing them. I have been thinking about the same and having some black/white checkerboard ribbon painted for the transition between the green/black. I have a seat mod I need to do first (priority as I will be planning many long trips this summer with my new camper in tow). I also have the throttle mod as a must, as soon as it warms up a bit.

Dave

[dmyers]

Well shit!!
Dave that is what I was thinking about doing. LOL.
Pretty hard to come up with something original anyway.

Just take a heat gun to the stickers and they will peel right off then use a little solvent to remove the residue.
I will post some photos when I do mine.

[captj3]

Congrats on the new ride. You have good taste in color. I look forward to seeing what the bike looks like after you take them off, and how to get the stickers off the bike.

[DR Roos]

Congrats on the new ride, Love the green as well.

[id-man]

Originally Posted by dmyers

Just take a heat gun to the stickers and they will peel right off then use a little solvent to remove the residue.
I will post some photos when I do mine.

You probably know this but for others watching - any adhesive left behind can be easily cleaned up with the right remover, of which there's many readily available in your grocery or hardware stores. As a sign maker working with vinyls for decades I've tried many consumer brands over the years and some are dismal. Ranked from worst to best in the image below, on the far left, the old tried-and-true "Goof Off" is purely a strong solvent (mostly Xylol I'd say from the smell of it - basically lighter fluid). If left on too long or rubbed too hard it can actually burn your paint...that's factory paint, nevermind how it can almost instantly destroy re-painted parts or plastics. In my opinion you should keep this stuff far from a motorcycle.

On the water based side there's at least one real dud I've encountered - Elmer's "Sticky Out" - which I classify as a huge waste of time...don't do nuttin! The first qualified candidate is citrus based "Goo Gone", which I was very happy with for years and still use because it's easy to find. But it was upstaged by a relative newcomer in the last few years called "Contractor's Solvent" by a maker called De-Solv-It. Ironic name since it's also a water soluble citrus base, not a solvent - but whatever they call it this is the one you want to hunt around for. Can be harder to find so watch for it, it's worth the effort. This is the best I've found outside of commercial grade products which must be mail-ordered from an industrial supplier.

[dmyers]

That should work well
Because I have it readily available through work, I use 3M adhesive remover
For left over emblem adhesive. I use a eraser wheel you can also use this on the stickers as well but I would remove what I could with a heat gun first
The eraser wheel is probably my go to tool for removing just about anything from paint.

[Jerrold Cosby]

http://www.colorrite.com/product/kaw...green-1534.cfm

This may help with the color matching

[dmyers]

I am trying to avoid having to get my paint from them
They get stupid money for a quart of that stuff
I can probably get a gallon for the same price from our paint supplier, so I will give them a shot first, they are pretty good at paint matching

[badboy194]

Originally Posted by dmyers

Just got my new bike yesterday
I found out a couple of things
I was told by the dealer to always just touch the starter and not give any throttle input for 20 seconds after the bike starts to allow the sensors to calibrate. He told me they had a lot of trouble when the new systems came out With customers complaining about the bike not running properly and this was the cause

Love the bike, Congrats. Judging from your Nomad, this Vaquero will be fantastic when you are done. Can't wait to see your progress.

"told by the dealer to always just touch the starter and not give any throttle input for 20 seconds after the bike starts to allow the sensors to calibrate." Never heard it put that way before, sounds silly to me since I would assume that the bike would be in a constant state of calibration. A FI bike in proper tune should start without pumping the throttle anyways. But thanks for passing it along. I can use the reminder. I admit still do it out of habit because of my cold blooded EVO. Your relative is getting a sweet ride!

[RVR]

I have the Russell seat on mine. Wife and I both love it. Won't let me upload pics. Give me your email and I can send you a couple pics.