The "Today I did something to my bike" thread

Ayrtonf7

So, up until now my dad had been picking up the parts for my bike and he had been showing me how to put em on.

After waiting a good two weeks with an exhaust and a back wheel lying on my bedroom floor I decided it was up to me to fit at least one of these things on. So I went for the easy peasy exhaust.

Had a few little problems getting the first one off. Had trouble finding an alan key that would fit the space comfortably. But eventually I got there. Put the new one on without much of a hitch. Was a little loose at the start but I Jimmied it in there nice and proper. Unfortunatly as I was tigheting up all the screws the alan key slipped on one of them and made a dogs dinner of it. The screw itself was pretty old so I guess I shouldve replaced them all...

Being new to allthis maintenance stuff im wondering where would be a good supplier of a vast library of screws and bolts. Theres a good few Id like to replace and Id imagine they would be cheap enough too order.

Just on a side note I also replaced the shagged speedo cable and gave it a quick hose down!

underwaterdog

I noticed while checking my lights recently that the front brake would only operate the light when I really pulled in the lever on my BMW F650 Strada.

A bit of googling and investigation and I found that the after market hand guard was preventing the full operation of the brake light switch. The hand guard even showed wear from the switch.

A bit of a scrape with a hot knife and a file to smooth it down again solved the problem.

I now have a nice a sensitive brake light now.

Wonda-Boy

Tightened my chain for the 1st time in ages....thats all she needed. Well a good scrub would not go astray to be honest.

spiggotpaddy

Time for a rebuild for the cr.

serious3

finished fitting the ram mount for the gps, wired it all in, sat back congratulating myself on a job well done when i noticed that the front left headlamp was cracked ffs..... £140 plus postage for a s/hand one

Tomohawk

This afternoon with a break in the weather i.e. no snow showers and a bit of sun, I decided to change the rear shock absorber on my LML 125cc scooter. First I had to take off the sports seat, then drop the tank out and disconnect the fuel gauge. Then I had access to the 13mm recessed nut that holds the top of the shock in place under the seat. I loosened this easily enough by hand with a 13mm socket then undid the 17mm bolt on the bottom of the old shock.



Out came the old shock...

I then superglued the extender bolt to the rubber top shock and then superglued the new shock itself together using loctite automotive glue and inserted the new shock and redit the assembly process with the top nut and bottom bolt.

Here's the new BGM 50 euro shock in place!

I am happy with the results and it took about 45 minutes in total with a ciggie break in between, cold work all the same...

arybvtcw0eolkf

^^ I miss my Vespa

designbydan

Noticed the front forks were leaking, so. . .. after seeing a low cost solution to leaking forks on either this or another biker forum I :

Took the dust covers off, Soaked up the bit of oil that was under them, cleaned the masses of dirt and grime from them with a few sh**ty business cards I'd gotten off vistaprint years ago, and put the covers back on after cleaning around them too. and now. . .

No leaking forks !! . All it took was some tissue, about 11 or 12 crap business cards, and 20-30 mins of careful cleaning.

Prob the best result I've ever gotten from a "save yourself money by simply. . . " tip from the internet.

minidazzler

I'm looking at getting a new chain and sprocket set for my 125 Varadero. Can anyone tell me what to look out for? Does more teeth = Better or worse? Will the chain come assembled or will I have to get a chain breaker/riveter?

KamiKazi

minidazzler wrote: »

I'm looking at getting a new chain and sprocket set for my 125 Varadero. Can anyone tell me what to look out for? Does more teeth = Better or worse? Will the chain come assembled or will I have to get a chain breaker/riveter?

changing the number of teeth on either sprocket will change the gearing of the bike, making it either accelerate faster and have a lower top speed or vice versa.

Wossack

you'll need a riveter alright, unless you get a chain with a clip (dont get a chain with a clip..)

as above, lowering the gearing, will result in an increase in acceleration, with a reduction in top speed. That would be either increasing the size of the drive sprocket, or reducing the size of the driven sprocket - or both. Doing the opposite will raise your top speed, at a cost of acceleration

just fyi - depending on your speedo pickup, this may lead to inaccuracies in your speedometer/odometer

goodlad

I went down 1 tooth on my front sprocket on my SV. It deffo accelerates smoother but im sure the speedo is wrong now. I have been told that whatever way the speedo is on the SV that its still gives an accurate reasong no matter how much i change the teeth on the sprockets but im just not entirely sure.

KamiKazi

goodlad wrote: »

I went down 1 tooth on my front sprocket on my SV. It deffo accelerates smoother but im sure the speedo is wrong now. I have been told that whatever way the speedo is on the SV that its still gives an accurate reasong no matter how much i change the teeth on the sprockets but im just not entirely sure.

If the speedo is driven off the front wheel it will be accurate, if it's driven off the engine it'll be wrong.

Wossack

from a cursory google, it looks like the sv650 has its speedo pickup from the front wheel (all models?), so shouldnt be effected by gearing changes alright

Often its taken from the front sprocket speed, which would change if you tweaked the final drive ratio

minidazzler

Fcuk, my speed sensor is on the front sprocket. Have yet to find OEM online, but won't be purchasing for a few days anyway, hopefully I can. Though, I suppose even if I got one with 3 extra teeth on the large it wouldn't be too bad. Better than the next closest I found with 53 whereas OEM is 44.

Richard tea

Was giving the bike a once over this evening for the possibility of a very short spin tomorrow. I noticed the headlight not working again. Some of the lads will remember when my headlight went last time out on a spin in very bad fog. The passing headlight still works but my high/low beam is not working.

I did notice the headlight flickering on for a second when I gave the headlight switch housing a twist so I assumed it was a loose connection. I opened her up but I could not find a loose connection. I gave it a spray of wd40 and dried it down which still didnt help. My next step is to do some googling. Im wondering if the fuse for the passing light is separate from the high/low beam?

Wonda-Boy

Is the bulb housing knackered Joe? Take of the headlight and have a gander at the actually bulb assembly....

Richard tea

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Is the bulb housing knackered Joe? Take of the headlight and have a gander at the actually bulb assembly....

Will do. I found some info linking the problem to the starter relay. ill tackle it again in the morning.

serious3

went for a spin with the civvie, beautiful spring day out here in connemara, went into galway where i managed to drop the bike in the petrol sation:( few scratches to the fairing and a cracked indicator:( the most damge was to my pride:P

Wonda-Boy

serious3 wrote: »

went for a spin with the civvie, beautiful spring day out here in connemara, went into galway where i managed to drop the bike in the petrol sation:( few scratches to the fairing and a cracked indicator:( the most damge was to my pride:P

**** man that is poxy....how did it happen? You think the stand was down or something!

Dont say you slipped on Diesel I would be throwing an eppie in the managers office....:mad:

Wossack

minidazzler wrote: »

Fcuk, my speed sensor is on the front sprocket. Have yet to find OEM online, but won't be purchasing for a few days anyway, hopefully I can. Though, I suppose even if I got one with 3 extra teeth on the large it wouldn't be too bad. Better than the next closest I found with 53 whereas OEM is 44.

Hmm I wouldnt have thought a 125 would be the best to go raising the gearing on IMO... does the bike rev all the way out in the top gear? Are ye sure you're not after more acceleration? That would be +front, -rear
I think the rule of thumb is a change of +/- 3 on the rear is equivalent to +/- 1 on the front. Ideally you should change the front, as a) fronts are cheaper, b) more effect, and c) increasing the size of the rear may result in needing a larger chain..


/edit disregard strikethroughed - batman_oh points out my late night error below..!

serious3

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

**** man that is poxy....how did it happen? You think the stand was down or something!

Dont say you slipped on Diesel I would be throwing an eppie in the managers office....:mad:

neither!! i was looking at the parcel motel depot thingy and thinking i must look into that a bit more.....next thing the bikes falling and i can't support it, the civvie was watching this as he was putting his on the stand, i managed to lower it gently onto the pannier just as he came over to help me lift it. if it had fell over without me holding it it would have done a lot more damage, the indicator can be glued and i've a touch up kit in the shed

batman_oh

Wossack wrote: »

Hmm I wouldnt have thought a 125 would be the best to go raising the gearing on IMO... does the bike rev all the way out in the top gear? Are ye sure you're not after more acceleration? That would be +front, -rear
I think the rule of thumb is a change of +/- 3 on the rear is equivalent to +/- 1 on the front. Ideally you should change the front, as a) fronts are cheaper, b) more effect, and c) increasing the size of the rear may result in needing a larger chain..

Wrong way around - more acceleration is down on the front or up on the back. Generally you can do -1 on the front on a standard chain so that would be the best option. Cheaper sprocket too

Wossack

batman_oh wrote: »

Wrong way around - more acceleration is down on the front or up on the back. Generally you can do -1 on the front on a standard chain so that would be the best option. Cheaper sprocket too

ack dead right - late night brainfart

RosieJoe

Getting a new front tyre on the Bandit today. Will be in Cotters at lunchtime if anyone is about.

cantdecide

Had to have the exhaust brazed and had a load of gammie red painted things that looked cack, including the wheels, so decided to tear it all down and do a little painting and get to the bottom of the running problems I've had since I got water in the fuel tank so...

1) tore the plastics off, whipped the wheels off, whipped off the red bits.

2) bought used chrome wheels with part worn tyres and next to new EBC discs to replace the warped (and of course, red painted) originals.

3) had to have the wheels re-sealed due to the cruddy chrome and dodgy valve.

4) returned the wheels when they didn't fit :rolleyes: but kept the discs

5) got new HH pads for the discs

6) returned them the next day and got the correct HH pads :rolleyes:

7) got new exhaust gaskets, VHT'd the pipes and refitted the lot.

8) refitted the repainted fan cowl and.... punctured the rad :fcuk:

9) got rad fixed

10) replaced the rad when the fix didn't work and it pissed everywhere :doublefcuk:

11) decided to check the thermostat.... and sheered a bolt.

12) stat was fcuked so got the fcuked housing sleeved, got more coolant, had the new rad tested and replaced the lot

13) Bought the paint and materials to paint the wheels and fit the red wheels strips

14) painted the wheels, fitted the stripes fitted the new discs,

15) fitted the new pads, refitted the wheels,

16) modified the gammie chain adjuster, painted them and refitted them

17) refitted the repainted side stand and mirror brackets and all the plastics

18) road tested the bike and it ran well but went down on cyls 3 & 4.

19) eventually figured out that it was a combination of a gammie rad tap and airlocking from an aftermarket fuel filter on cyls 3 & 4.

20) got used tap

21) returned it and got another one again that wasn't any better

22) went to a mechanic that managed to sort out my own tap

23) on my mechanic's advice, I emptied the tank of water and crud and bypassed the filters

24) road tested the bike... finally appears to be running ok...




TL;DR FML

Wonda-Boy

Good days work so....Kudos

eurofoxy

i think you missed a line


25) cant be arced anymore, put bike on adverts...As new....

sounds like a lot of work, hopefully the weather is just starting to change so we will see more bikes out and about...

Thinkingaboutit

I can't ride a bike for a bit (lazarov frame etc, tho that's off and I only have a cast), but I started one of them up, the Magna 750, and left it running for a bit, and charged the battery of the other one in the garage, Kawasaki KZ750, although I think its battery is fubar. It can show as charged, but one blast of the airhorn, let alone using the electric start, drains the battery. I need to readjust the choke on it. It lets in too much fuel, and not too much air.

minidazzler

Cleaned the chain (again) and applied a new lube, Castrol Race Lube (or something) (It's not the chain wax) It seems to stick better to the chain thoguh than muc off sh1te that doesn't. But will have to check her tomorrow after taking it to work.