When I bought my 02 s2000 almost two years ago, the top looked brand new. I'm vowing to keep it that way, but I noticed inside I'm starting to see the infamous wear marks next to the passenger panel. I've seen others post on here about taking the OEM straps off and replacing those with Modifry. I ordered those and they are on the way - my straps are completely stretched out at this point. Right now there are zero top tears.

I also checked the bar for the famous burrs that many have talked about, but when I did all I found were a couple of raised rings of metal - they hardly seemed to be sharp or anything. I ground one of them down (see photo) but I don't think it was making any difference, so I left the other ones alone (there were 3 total). I also did not see any marks inside the top where the metal could be wearing.

With just replacing the straps and continuing to use preservatives on the top for the sun be enough to consider it "maintained as best as possible?"

Thanks!

 

For the soft top rips, I caught mine before they wore through.

Clean up the area with rubbing alcohol, then generously tape over the tear with Tenacious Tape. Got this from my local outdoorsy shop but REI in the US should have those. Ah, here it is.

I also wrapped the metal bar with a Lizard Skin chainstay protector. Make sure the velcro side isn't chaffing against the top when you open and close the top. These came from my local bike shop.

Hope it helps!

 

If your photos are indicative of where you were looking for sharp burrs and did some grinding, then you are nowhere close to the correct (and problematic) areas of the bars. See Honda TSB 09-033.

Looking at your photos, the impending tears look entirely due to the notorious bar-end burrs and knife like edges. I fixed mine with a dremel and no more soft top issues. PM me and I'll send you a copy of the TSB, or you can search it out.