ericalm wrote:charlie55 wrote:Welcome to the dark side.
One word of advice - forego the sliders and go with the K-mod if you want to eliminate the 30-35 mph flat spot. The Helix's variator is grease-packed and seems to work better that way, with regular roller weights.
Nice color. Charcoal, no?
Yes, charcoal.
I wanted red because I was going to add the stickers from
Kaneda's Akira bike, but oh well! I like this just fine, too.
K-mod?
There's a lot of debate as to whether to grease-pack the variator, but according to consensus of the forums, the original OEM rollers require grease but sliders or newer, teflon-coated rollers do not. Those running them report no issues. What do you think?
The only slider issues I've read about are clatter/noise-related. Then there's the typical ping-pong shouting matches, you know, "I switched to sliders and now I can hit 320mph on the flats." vs. "I switched to sliders and now I can't break 35 on a downhill". When it comes to Helix parts, I'm very OEM-biased, but that's just me. Since you're not a newbie at this game, you have more than enough savvy to make it work either way - rollers or sliders. However, you are going to thoroughly enjoy cleaning the grease out of the variator - no matter how much you remove, it regenerates overnight.
The K-mod revolves around keeping 3 of the 6 original rollers and swapping out the remaining 3 with another weight (I forget if it's heavier or lighter). I've even heard of some folks just leaving 3 rollers out. It's supposed to eliminate the flat spot between ~35 - ~40 that most Helices exhibit. Google it - there's stuff all over the place.
I love that charcoal color and would offer to trade out my red plastics with you except for one issue - riding anything close to an earth tone here in NJ is like running with a cloaking device. Much as I dislike it, the red's been doing a pretty good job of keeping the inattentive at bay.
Tell you what though - if you ever want to get rid of the Helix logos on the rear panels, let me know and we can talk price. Mine's an '06 and it has those cheapie decals - yuck.
BTW, you've probably checked out Slonaker's Helix forum. I have the same screen name there, and I posted plans for a homemade variator tool for the Helix.
I know that you already "know your stuff", but don't hesitate to ask if you have a Helix-specific question. No guarantee that I'll know the answer, but sometimes I get lucky.
. maybe we can swap body panels if you want to make the Akira bike.
