The "Today I did something to my bike" thread

blade1 · 24-04-2015 12:40PM

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Gizza shot mister....lol.

Was on her bigger brother in McCallans last week brand new ZZR1400GTR, like a hotel on wheels. Great engine, adjustable screen on the fly and torque by the bucket load.

The ZZR would eat her GTR big brother for breakfast.
Lighter, faster,more power,more torque.

More suitable for touring alright and shaft drive is always handier!

GBX · 24-04-2015 03:09PM

Got new Pirelli Angels, changed the air, oil and filters, new braided lines yesterday on the FZ1. Gonna get the fork oil bushes etc done next. Then get a custom map.

Wonda-Boy · 24-04-2015 03:20PM

blade1 wrote: »

The ZZR would eat her GTR big brother for breakfast.
Lighter, faster,more power,more torque.

More suitable for touring alright and shaft drive is always handier!

Absolutely, that is plainly obvious the minute you sit on it. Its by no means aggressive or sport orientated. It had the luggage on it aswell so it was an interesting test ride I tell ya.

Brakes were amazing, handling was a tad sluggish but maybe I was a little bit biased after riding a 1290 moments before

blade1 · 24-04-2015 03:24PM

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Absolutely, that is plainly obvious the minute you sit on it. Its by no means aggressive or sport orientated. It had the luggage on it aswell so it was an interesting test ride I tell ya.

Brakes were amazing, handling was a tad sluggish but maybe I was a little bit biased after riding a 1290 moments before

Yeah a lad i know has a 1290.
Not all sunshine and roses though.
It had to be carted off to Dublin in a van with a fault code.:o

Wonda-Boy · 24-04-2015 04:24PM

blade1 wrote: »

Yeah a lad i know has a 1290.
Not all sunshine and roses though.
It had to be carted off to Dublin in a van with a fault code.:o

I didnt like it at all, the riding position felt so weird. If you gung ho on pure power its the bike for you all the same. If you like a bit more refined look elsewhere....pure weekend or trackday bike IMO

gerrowadat · 08-05-2015 08:00PM

Got around to the coolant flush, turns out the dark lord satan was keeping his arsehole seepage in my radiator. Not too much grit but seriously murky.

Still, all done, biggest bike job I've done so far. Every day's a school day.

Hotblack Desiato · 08-05-2015 08:40PM

Best thing to make sure you have all the goop out, if the old coolant was in a bad way, is take the radiator out and flush it through with a garden hose, then turn it upside down and flush it in the reverse direction

gerrowadat · 08-05-2015 08:47PM

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Best thing to make sure you have all the goop out, if the old coolant was in a bad way, is take the radiator out and flush it through with a garden hose, then turn it upside down and flush it in the reverse direction

Cheers - Yeah, I basically ran the garden hose through the rad and out the water pump for a few minutes, then put a couple of jugs of filtered water through it. I was bricking it enough already so didn't chance taking the rad off entirely. Maybe next time :-)

Hotblack Desiato · 08-05-2015 09:27PM

Well if you got it running clear it should be ok.
If you still have overheating problems then you could have a blockage of dirt in the rad.
But on a bike the dirt is more likely to be on the outside

Make sure you don't get air trapped in the system when you refill it. Some bikes have a bleed screw near the water pump to get the air out.

Fox Mulder · 09-05-2015 08:40AM

Probably doesn't belong in this thread as I didn't do it today or to my own bike. But I had a go at making a pair of nylon cam chain blades for a friends Matchless G50 which he races. The original ones are steel which isn't ideal. We machined them in situ already bolted to the cover so as to get the profile as accurate as possible in relation to the chain. They turned out well and after a couple of races they are showing no wear.

Nylon blocks bolted to the timing cover. The tool clearance between the nylon stock and the mag cover was extremely tight and in places it took a shave of material off the cover.

Finished and engine reassembled.

Skill Magill · 09-05-2015 08:52AM

You're right it doesn't belong in this thread, it belongs in the awesome thread

positron · 09-05-2015 11:20AM

Not today, but last week I changed Fazer 600s rear caliper with a FZS1000 blue spot one. First time messing with brake fluid. Some grinding away at the old brackets to take the FZS1000's caliper, and it was tricky to bleed all the air out, which I think it still not 100%.

On the plus side, I now have rear brakes. I had also cleaned the front calipers and put in new SBS sintered pads and now the bike stops where I want it to...

Good experience over all, will do it again, but need to get myself a good C-clamp, more brake cleaner spray etc before I go near that again.

Hotblack Desiato · 09-05-2015 06:50PM

Back brake disc has needed replacing for quite a while, 4-5 years ago the caliper seized and got so hot it boiled all the fluid out and melted the liner of the brake line :eek: replaced piston, seals and brake line but the disc was never the same, very ridged, it ate pads, and the caliper needed very frequent cleaning to stop it seizing again because the piston was towards the end of its travel most of the time

Thought I'd have to dismantle the rear hub (single sided swingarm) but didn't need to to get the old disc off and new one on, there was just about room to undo the bolts one by one and then rotate the disc 45° and ease it clear. The hub / chain adjuster was moving nice and smoothly so it didn't need to be stripped and greased again either. The Lidl chain cleaner worked quite well, cleaned waxed and adjusted it. (still miss the Scottoiler which packed up and I haven't yet replaced, best thing ever for easy chain maintenance and long life)

That went nicely so I decided to do an oil and filter change which was due as well. Needs new front pads / caliper cleaning soon enough and a new front tyre in a month or two... there's always something

goodlad · 09-05-2015 06:57PM

Nothing as big as some of the posts but changed the Cam Chain Tensioner on the blackbird. Finally the damn banging and jingling is gone.

It's also the first thing I've ever done to my own bike. .. and I mean ever... never even adjusted my own chain... (sounds durty)

zubair · 10-05-2015 08:20AM

Ah jaysus goodlad you've had it too easy. But fair dues all the same :-)

I fit a double bubble to my bike. Looks better and hopefully works better too. If you're ever doing this I recommend getting new screen screws/bungs, it's a pain trying to salvage them to be reused.

chiplad · 10-05-2015 09:45AM

positron wrote:

On the plus side, I now have rear brakes. I had also cleaned the front calipers and put in new SBS sintered pads and now the bike stops where I want it to...

Did you find the rear brakes bad? I've had a 02 fzs 600 for a year and thought the rear brakes weren't great but I haven't a lot to compare them to. And I thought the fazer was known for its good brakes as they're the same as the r6!

Tzardine · 10-05-2015 02:06PM

zubair wrote: »

Ah jaysus goodlad you've had it too easy. But fair dues all the same :-)

I fit a double bubble to my bike. Looks better and hopefully works better too. If you're ever doing this I recommend getting new screen screws/bungs, it's a pain trying to salvage them to be reused.

I notice you have PR4 rubber on the bike. I recently put a set on mine but find a bit of a vibration / wobble at high speed (130-140) since they went on. They were balanced when fitted so happy it's not that.

Not bad or dangerous but enough to annoy me.

Bandit 1200s.

Wonda-Boy · 10-05-2015 02:13PM

Tzardine wrote: »

I notice you have PR4 rubber on the bike. I recently put a set on mine but find a bit of a vibration / wobble at high speed (130-140) since they went on. They were balanced when fitted so happy it's not that.

Not bad or dangerous but enough to annoy me.

Bandit 1200s.

Very weird that Id look into it. All the lads in the spin have PR4s on and none with that issue...

I find them an incredible set of tyres and I am on my 2nd set.

Tzardine · 10-05-2015 02:18PM

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Very weird that Id look into it. All the lads in the spin have PR4s on and none with that issue, at that speed or quicker TBH.

I find them an incredible set of tyres and I am on my 2nd set.

Yeah I am very surprised by it. Really great tyre and I could feel the difference in grip as soon as they went on.

It's a very minor wiggle. Can't even feel it as such and if I take my hands off the bars at the high speed they don't move but it's there.

Best way to describe it actually is that the front wheel is going a bit light, as if it was taking off.

Wonda-Boy · 10-05-2015 02:20PM

Only a stab in the dark but the tyre is on the right direction, As in arrow facing the way the wheel turning....

Tzardine · 10-05-2015 02:24PM

Wonda-Boy wrote: »

Only a stab in the dark but the tyre is on the right direction, As in arrow facing the way the wheel turning....

Cheers. Will have a look

blade1 · 10-05-2015 03:34PM

Shouldn't wobble.
Something's not right.
Balance not right, faulty tyre or maybe wheel bearings?????

Wossack · 10-05-2015 04:44PM

balance or alignment I'd say..

on pr4 meself and no wiggle at them speeds, in my experience

zubair · 10-05-2015 05:12PM

I havent had any issues with the PR4s. As the others suggested I would think its the balancing.

blade1 · 10-05-2015 05:54PM

If you have Axle stands it's easy to check the balance yourself.

aaakev · 10-05-2015 08:30PM

The Beta was running a bit rough during the week so I stripped the induction system from the carb back yesterday and cleaned everything. Stripped the carb too and cleaned it all, put it back together with a new air filter, plug and changed the gear oil. New lease of life today up the mountains, 4 hours and 2 tanks of petrol later and I'm fit for me bed!

positron · 11-05-2015 09:40AM

chiplad wrote: »

Did you find the rear brakes bad? I've had a 02 fzs 600 for a year and thought the rear brakes weren't great but I haven't a lot to compare them to. And I thought the fazer was known for its good brakes as they're the same as the r6!

Fazer's rear brake wasn't bad at all, when they work that is.

Main issue with Fazer 600's rear brake is the design. It's upside down, and is prone to collect brake dust, dirt, salt and everything. If you ride all year round like I do, it gets really gunked up within days of cleaning it, and soon the grime piles up right up to the pistons and causing them to seize.

Fazer 1000's rear caliper has an open design, and won't collect grime. It also have slightly larger diameter pistons which I am sure makes the brake more powerful but probably not by much. Only 2001-2005 blue spot caliper would fit. These are rare enough to find.

And this brake issue is only with Fazers up until 2003 model. Later models have different rear caliper arrangement.

Also, rear brakes are for better control when the bike is moving slowly, rather than for the outright stopping power which is what front brakes are for, and Fazer 600 has really excellent blue spot front brakes.

positron · 11-05-2015 10:06AM

gerrowadat wrote: »

Got around to the coolant flush, turns out the dark lord satan was keeping his arsehole seepage in my radiator. Not too much grit but seriously murky.

Still, all done, biggest bike job I've done so far. Every day's a school day.
[/IMG]

Ah the coolant flush. When I did mine a while back (was not planning to but cracked one of the pipes and one thing lead to the other) and when it all came out, the stench of what came out was something that I wouldnt' forget in a hurry - it was so rotten!! Same as you, stuck the garden hose and let it run for a few minutes, refilled with fresh pink coolant and that was one of the most satisfying DIY tasks I had done on the bike up until then.

lennymc · 11-05-2015 12:06PM

Today I opened petrol tank, threw in a match and ran away. Ok, I didn't, but I sure as hell felt like it. Think the starter clutch has packed up on me. Think it's time to go bike shopping.

blade1 · 11-05-2015 12:55PM

lennymc wrote: »

Today I opened petrol tank, threw in a match and ran away. Ok, I didn't, but I sure as hell felt like it. Think the starter clutch has packed up on me. Think it's time to go bike shopping.

What bike is it lenny?
What symptoms have you?
Is it just spinning and not firing?

The "Today I did something to my bike" thread

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