The "Today I did something to my bike" thread

Back wheel up against the wall in my garage,bike on sidestand.
Cabletied the rear brake on and used a breaker bar,46/41mm socket and a 5 foot pole to break the fecker loose.Had to use a lump hammer too to get it moving and break the seal of it.

Wossack wrote: »

Good rattle gun yer only man

FYP;)

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

5 foot pole :eek: must have been well overtorqued. Shouldn't be seized or anything as I presume you do change the tyres from time to time

Ducati specify crazy torque for the back wheel of their single sided swingarmed bikes.
Last time I did the wheels if was by a bike shop.

Fitted a JMT Lithium battery to the R1 today.

3 times lighter than oem and more cranking power too.

R1 fired up on cold start faster than ever before.

Result.:)

Think I will get 1 for the S1000rr too.

Only copped after a few days that the fuel tank decal is the Lion's head!:o

Anyway, a couple of things need doing so I bled brake and clutch fluid.
Tightened headstock bearing (wonder how that got loose:pac:) and gave her a bit of a clean.

Ordered a Puig screen,a new guide for the chain and new brake/clutch levers.

Got to get in behind a few panels for a closer inspection of everything and found another few things that need doing.
There's a leak from the front cam cover and the expansion bottle has a couple of tabs where it's bolted broken.

A couple of decals on the tail unit are scratched as is the tank pad so I'll be replacing them.
Amazed genuine ones only cost around €15 each as decals for my Mille cost an arm and a leg.

stewygriffin wrote: »

@ Blade.....get some folding levers for it.
Handy incase you have an off.

That's what I ordered stewy!!

got pilot road 4 front fitted (finally.) it's 120/60 which is stock sizing, even though the sportmax qualifier on it was 120/70


dunlop sportmax qualifier 120/70 front was a good tyre took a very low pressure for it to handle right though. 28 psi on the last few hot days, 30 on slightly cooler days and 33 during the winter. Took me a long time to realise I could drop it that low, the guide setting is 36psi and the bike bounces along the road with anywhere near that pressure. Not to pretend to be dave moss or anything but with that low pressure I ended up with this wear pattern which looks like I wasn't too far off the right pressures anyway especially for an OLD tyre, as in made in the 49th week of 2009 old...




the guy I went to for changing the tyre noticed there was play in my brake discs, he had noticed it the last time he saw the bike and said it to me but I didn't remember him saying it. Anyway he put the discs up on his 10 tonne press or whatever and now the discs are 100% solid again. Told me it's not a fix that will last forever as that play is designed to come in to stop the discs from warping under very heavy braking. Had no idea about this at all so you learn something new every day.


Got a hiflo oil filter from him too and I have the other half of the 5L silkolene from before christmas so going to change the oil some time this week. Have a book somewhere I wrote down the mileage I changed at but I'm probably over the recommended time now at nearly 38k on the bike now.. around 10,000 kms this year, had oil change the day I bought it, changed around christmas and now this week.. so not too overdue

Next on the list is that famous chain I was asking about.. He told me not to bother getting 520 instead of new 525 same size as is on it. He says there's no difference for me maybe if I was going around changing bolts on the discs and sprockets to be titanium and going racing would the reduced weight be worth it for the loss of mileage the 520 would take... Also I don't have to buy a riveting tool at all he has all that and will do it for nothing



oh yeah and I need my valve clearances checked.. now that's overdue

Very original, the factory blue locktite was on the bolts so they had probably never been off.

I'll get new discs eventually but these are OK for now I think. He checked their width with micrometer and they aren't really worn. I also don't have 300 odd euro to spare at the moment with all the other costs...!

You know the way I cleaned the bike well its just as destroyed with flies as this after an hour spin...

frozenfrozen wrote: »

You know the way I cleaned the bike well its just as destroyed with flies as this after an hour spin...

Where the **** did you go, through the "Amazon Rain Forest"....??

Went for a quick spin last night a few nice sections with trees either side... Some flies must have though it was a nice spot too.

Can't figure out what the last thing going through their mind was, either my visor or their arse

frozenfrozen wrote: »

You know the way I cleaned the bike well its just as destroyed with flies as this after an hour spin...

Were the flies riding 2 abreast? Got what was coming to them IMHO :0

frozenfrozen wrote: »

Also cleaned that helmet.. Took a while

Is that not what rain is for?

quick question, if a chain says "Open with Rivet Link" does it come with a hollow pin or a solid pin for the link? solid is no good to me and nowhere seems to sell hollow pin links for this particular chain (chrome not gold..)

second question, would I be grand sticking a gold hollow pin link on a chrome chain? Would make keeping track of where I've cleaned on the chain handy anyway