Ah, yes I am very proud of the recent work I was able to do in the last couple of weeks on my Vision:

• Installed a HitchDoc hitch
• Dropped both wheels and replaced tires
• Installed a set of Atom Bombs
• Installed a set of custom exhaust tips (as seen on this site)

I saved some money, saved some time (next closest dealer is 1.5 hr drive away), and got to know my bike alot better.  Just realize the horror when I got everything together and I ended up with 5 extra bolts (see pic below)!  I checked and rechecked the manual and my tear down sequence.  I kept all fasteners separate by area of bike I worked on. Best I can figure:

• The 4 larger black bolts seem to be the ones removed from the trunk attachment that I removed when mounting my HitchDoc hitch.  They included new longer bolts that mount from the bottom.  Can someone verify that this is the correct bolts . . . 16mm head on the bolt
  
• I have no idea where the short 10 mm came from . . . can anyone ID this by sight based on the work I did.
• The broken plastic tab is from the rear where the screw clip mounts for the RH side screw for grey bumper . . . I fixed it with some JB Weld!
  

Bolts.JPG (98KB - 0 downloads)

Hey Mark,

My hat off to you rman... I too will soon be embarking on the same voyage for the first time.... I will be installing a bushtec hitch and changing out my tires... Any advice as you are still fresh off of the repair table?

I am wondering about the tire change... after you remove the wheel (front and rear), does everything have to come off to get the rubber off? I will be taking it to someone else to change the rubber off of the rims.

Did you balance? Did you use Dyna Beads? How did this work for you?

Thanks

Hey Mark,

My hat off to you rman... I too will soon be embarking on the same voyage for the first time.... I will be installing a bushtec hitch and changing out my tires... Any advice as you are still fresh off of the repair table?

I am wondering about the tire change... after you remove the wheel (front and rear), does everything have to come off to get the rubber off? I will be taking it to someone else to change the rubber off of the rims.

Did you balance? Did you use Dyna Beads? How did this work for you?

Thanks

OK Gerica, here's a few bullets while it is fresh in my mind:

• Invest in a good lift . . . I did quite a bit of research and bought the J&S Jacks.  Rock Solid lift! BTW, the lift paid for itself with one time change!
  
• Get your hands on a Victory Manual as it is quite helpful
• A pneumatic ratchet is invaluable!

HitchDoc Hitch

• While you can leave the rear wheel on to install the hitch, its really no big deal to remove and replace.  I left wheel on and everything was quite tedious to do through the hole under the seat

• Check the bolt packages that come with your hitch.  Mine had a few SAE bolts . . . had to run to hardware store and damned near stripped some threads
• Have a patient second pair of hands . . . most of this you can do by yourself, but a second person can be quite helpful if she knows what she's doing (my wife wasn't to thrilled at getting a little dirty)
• Mount your trunk bolts from bottom up . . . this will not only attach your hitch, but give you a set of studs to make removing trunk easier
• I used a tap to clean out dirt and grime in the threads on the aluminum casting . . . be very careful here
  

• The front axle requires a 5/8" (16mm?). . . I found that these aren't so common in the stores . . . I borrowed one from the helpful guy at parts counter
• Don't forget to remove the 2 pinch bolts on front RH fork
• Manual says to remove from fender . . . I didn't find this necessary
• I did remove brake rotors so they would not get damaged mounting the tire
• I took the time to clean the rotors while off
• Use locktite when reinstalling rotor bolts and torque to specs (I ran it down with pneumatic ratchet, then finished off with torque wrench) use a modified star pattern when bolting into place
• WD 40 works great to remove road tar and residue from wheel weights
• DONT FORGET to remember which spacer was on which side.  There is a tall and a short wheel spacer.  Don't know what would happen if they were swapped, but I'm sure it would not be good!

• Not as intimidating as it looks.  It may have been easier for me since I was also removing mufflers
• I did remove brake rotors and belt pulley so that they would not be damaged
• Spacers are easy here as tall one goes with pulley
• Upon reassembly, make sure brake unit bracket tab fits in the slot on swingarm
  
• Biggest issue here was making sure everything (axle, swingarm hole, spacers, brake hole, etc) all line up upon reassembly . . . this part is easiest with two people
• I did use Dyna Beads in both front and back.  2 oz in front and 3 oz in back . . . make sure you remove wheel weights!
• Take advantage of having tires off to have them install metal valve stems . . . if you ever want to add Tire Pressure Monitoring System with external sensors, the rubber stems will tend over time to flex and eventually crack.  I wanted to mount my Doran sensors inside the wheel, but the inner stem was not long enough to allow sensor to fully seat . . . it was close, but last thing I want is for that to vibrate loose while driving at 70 mph!
  

• Removing lower saddle bag body parts was easier than putting them back on due to curve and bolt holes under saddle bag doors
• Tool a little persuasion and some liberal amounts of WD40 to get old mufflers off (ie wood block and hammer)
  
• Trick is to remove heat shield straps without damaging old muffler . . . too tight to get tin snips in . . . I uses a Dremmel with a cutting disc . . . worked perfect
• You will need (6) 5-6 inch hose clamps to reattach heat shields
  
• When you get your Atom Bombs make sure you straighten out the back flange where tips mount . . . sometimes this gets bent and make sure mounting threads are not damaged . . . mine were in pretty good shape
• Use lots of WD40 to lubricate for reinstall
  
• When reassembling don't put rubber grommets in slots and then try to rotate muffler to try to align mounting bolts to holes . . . put rubber grommets on mounting studs first, then align exhaust . . . trust me, its easier this way!
• The most frustrating thing was in spreading the exhaust clamp wide enough to get over the slightly spread muffler pipe.  Damned thing had some spring in it.  Finally used some needle nose pliers inside the clamp and spread outward while pushing over the pipe.   Sometimes it's the stupidest things that frustrate you the most!
• Due to slight bend in rear flange of muffler, I had to ream some of the holes in order to get exhaust tip holes to line up.  Wasn't off much, but enough to hinder getting bolts started.

Thanks for the info

I am getting a table lift with the rear tire cut out and jack next week so this should help a lot.

As for the rest, we shall see... thanks again for the info

waterboy - 2011-03-25 7:59 AM Looks like that bolt could be the one for the heat shield on the right side of the bike that covers the right muffler clamp. The shield attaches with a hose clamp in the rear and a small bolt in the front.

Ah ha!  Waterboy solves the mystery as that is indeed the missing bolt!