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Hey, there's currently some nice slushy slow falling on Glasgow at the moment and not really settling, I'm gonna use it as a wee opportunity to practice riding in those conditions. Other than keeping the speeds low, staying in a responsive gear, and not just jamming the throttle full-on whenever I want to speed up, anything else I should be wary of? It'll only be a 40 minute drive at city speeds but I'm doing it more for the sake of confidence than anything!
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Jan 25, 2013 14:38
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| # ? May 16, 2024 14:26 |
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Just stick to the tracks of the cars where the slush is loose and thin, use engine braking, rear brake only when you have to and don't touch the front brake at all. Keep a lot of distance from other traffic; Don't be shy in waving people to back the gently caress off. What bike you on these days?
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Jan 25, 2013 15:07
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Honda CBR125. Cheers!
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Jan 25, 2013 15:20
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:I thought that's what I proposed, did I mis-state? Or are you saying I should buy a whole front end? I'm unclear as to whether you're advising I: The latter. The shiny parts are called fork stanchions or tubes. Find a pair of complete forks on ebay that don't have any pitting or rust on the tubes and put new fluid and seals in them. VV Yeah, that's all you need. obso fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Jan 26, 2013 |
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Jan 25, 2013 17:27
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obso posted:The latter. The shiny parts are called fork stanchions or tubes. Find a pair of complete forks on ebay that don't have any pitting or rust on the tubes and put new fluid and seals in them. Okay, so something that looks like these, but not necessarily the whole triple-tree and axle assemblies?  I'm finding sets like the above that are claimed straight, rust-free, are for '83-'93 1st-gen EX500s, from reputable sellers, for around $100. So not great but not unbearable. And the bike had both the jacked seals and the corrosion on the forks when I bought it, so while I can blame myself for not checking better (at 10PM, in the rain, in a parking lot, drat I'm dumb) at least the damage wasn't caused by me. As I learned on a previous bike, fork seal replacements are a convenient time to add gaiters.
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Jan 26, 2013 03:38
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Forks really aren't bad at all, you mainly just need a vice with a V-shaped spot below the main jaws, oil pan, and some form of draining rack(read: two ladders with a piece of something spanning them), and the refurb kit to rebuild them. Though with your rust issues there, buying a new set is definitely the better choice. If it's that bad in a spot that's constantly washed by fork fluid, odds are your insides are going to be pretty hosed up. E: $100 for a practically-new set of forks is great, when I had my 85 shadow I never saw forks go for less than $150-$175. Not exactly a rare bike either. E2: speaking of learning the hard way, I learned to never ever buy vehicles from somebody who lived within 10 miles of the coast. Salt spray is creeping death. Next-day double-post avoidance: Does anybody have a list of which pilot screws are cross-compatible, or which bikes used the same carbs? I noticed the tip of my pilot screw was damaged and bought a new one, but it's got that god-damned D-socket tip, and I drat sure aren't paying $200 for a single socket. The old one took a flat-head screwdriver bit, so it obviously was not the original, but damned if I can find 3rd-party pilot screws. Seems like all the Kawasaki pilot screws I see take a flat bit, so I'm assuming it was gotten from a Kawasaki that happens to use the same model of Keihin. Also I just found this site, and it is fantastic: http://oldmanhonda.com/MC/MC.html Interactive wiring diagrams, tune-up tables, how-tos on rebuilding, mostly with interactive Flash applets that go step-by-step. It mostly centers on 80s and older bikes, but a lot of it is applicable across the board. I would have flipped to find something like this when I was first getting my feet wet with bikes and repair. Kilersquirrel fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jan 26, 2013 |
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Jan 26, 2013 06:00
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Just ordered new tires for my Ninjette. Long overdue. Am I better off taking the bike to a shop to have the tires mounted and balanced, or removing the wheels myself and taking them somewhere to have the tires mounted? If the latter, what's the best way to get both wheels off of the ground? Also, my chain doesn't look like it's been cleaned or lubed in, like, ever. There are around 5000 miles on the bike. Try to clean it and revive it or replace the whole damned thing?
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Jan 27, 2013 09:00
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It's almost always cheaper to take the wheels off yourself and bring them in than it is to have the shop do all the work for you. Also quite a bit faster. Dunno specifically how to get a ninja 250 off the ground, but putting the bike on its center stand then loading some wooden blocks under the engine has always worked for me.
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Jan 27, 2013 09:09
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Fifty Three posted:Just ordered new tires for my Ninjette. Long overdue. Am I better off taking the bike to a shop to have the tires mounted and balanced, or removing the wheels myself and taking them somewhere to have the tires mounted? If the latter, what's the best way to get both wheels off of the ground? If it were my bike I'd have a go reviving the chain. Chain lube doesn't cost you much, may as well see how much life you can squeeze out of it. Provided it isn't stretched enough that it's impossible to adjust correctly. Also check for tight spots when you do the chain tension. As for the tyres, how much time and sweat are you willing and able to commit? VS how much it would cost you to take it to a shop.
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Jan 27, 2013 09:12
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Both good questions. Adjusting chain tension and poo poo is new to me, so I guess I may as well learn. My primary concern is the hassle of lifting the bike and removing the wheels. Once the weather warms up again I'll take a closer look to figure out how I'm going to accomplish that. If fairings are in the way of a jack or whatever I think I'd rather just take it to a shop, provided that shop is close. Finding a close shop and getting a quote on the work will be the first order of business on Monday. I guess it's a dumb question for me to ask, then. Just wondering if anyone else had experience doing this stuff for the first time on a Ninjette.
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Jan 27, 2013 09:15
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It only takes about 30 minutes for a shop to take both tyres off and throw new ones on. At least, that's what it cost me in labour when I replaced mine (just recently). I've got a pre-gen, but I can't imagine the new one would take any longer. It was about $30 extra on top of the tyre cost. You need to set the chain tension properly when you put the rear wheel on - if this is your first time, I'd get the shop to do it and ask if you can watch the process of putting it back on (it's not very hard and I can't imagine they'd have an issue with you watching - I ask to watch when the shop I use does stuff for me all the time unless I can't be there). We had both wheels off my pre-gen a fair while ago and we put it on the centre stand, took off the rear, undid the bolts for the front of it, I held it up while Dad slipped the tyre out and then put bricks under the front forks (locked the steering so it wouldn't move) and let it sit while we dicked around with stuff. Not sure how bad the chain is, but you could always get the shop to have a look at it while you're in there. If you take the wheels off yourself just put the chain in a bucket of diesel (won't damage anything) and clean it off, put it back on and relube it.
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Jan 27, 2013 10:49
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Fifty Three posted:Both good questions. Adjusting chain tension and poo poo is new to me, so I guess I may as well learn. My primary concern is the hassle of lifting the bike and removing the wheels. Once the weather warms up again I'll take a closer look to figure out how I'm going to accomplish that. If fairings are in the way of a jack or whatever I think I'd rather just take it to a shop, provided that shop is close. Finding a close shop and getting a quote on the work will be the first order of business on Monday. The standard answer is a paddock stand and fork stand. If your bike doesn't already have bobbins for a paddock stand then you might want to invest in then because it makes life a lot easier. Fork stands are an even bigger pain to use (and if you cock it up you risk damaging your front brakes. I'm forever pimping Abba stands in here but they really are the easiest way to stand your bike up, even if they are a little on the expensive side they last forever, and you only need to replace the fitting kit when you replace the bike. Finally, depending on the exact layout of the underside of your bike you may be able to use a car jack under the bottom of the engine or swingarm mount to lift the bike up, using the sidestand as the other loading point, with something appropriately sturdy wedged in to stop it all moving. I'm not a fan of that because Italian bike sidestands aren't brilliant at supporting the weight of the bike at the best of time, putting all that extra weight on might not be good. Once it's up, removing the wheels is really easy and pretty self-explanatory. Personally though, as most shops only charge a nominal fee for removing the wheels, I'd go ahead and do that instead.
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Jan 27, 2013 13:43
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goddamnedtwisto posted:The standard answer is a paddock stand and fork stand. If your bike doesn't already have bobbins for a paddock stand then you might want to invest in then because it makes life a lot easier. Fork stands are an even bigger pain to use (and if you cock it up you risk damaging your front brakes. thanks for the reminder, I had liked the look of them when you posted about abba before, but having seen this http://www.abbastands.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=28, I'll definitely be picking one up. I've got a Scottoiler on my Multistrada for lubrication but cleaning, inspecting and adjusting the chain is still a problem.
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Jan 27, 2013 14:22
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goddamnedtwisto posted:The standard answer is a paddock stand and fork stand. If your bike doesn't already have bobbins for a paddock stand then you might want to invest in then because it makes life a lot easier. Fork stands are an even bigger pain to use (and if you cock it up you risk damaging your front brakes.
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Jan 27, 2013 14:37
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Collateral Damage posted:There are front stands that hook into the steering head instead of under the forks. They're more expensive, but they let you remove the front wheel and seem much easier to use than fork stands. Fork stands also let you remove the front wheel (they attach to the bottom of the fork leg and the brake caliper) and those head stands are an utter pig to do single-handed. However the head stand does let you remove/work on the forks and so are more flexible (they're normally sold as an add-on to a fork stand, which is itself often an add-on to a paddock stand). By that point though you've gone way past the price of an Abba stand for something that's much trickier to work and still doesn't, for example, let you work on the back suspension.
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Jan 27, 2013 15:06
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Go on your local motorcycle / track forums and find someone selling Pitbull or t-rex stands pretty cheap. Someone out there will be willing to offload. I like pitbull stuff but t-rex isn't bad for the price. I think I got my full set for like 40 bucks. Pitbull does make pretty nice steering head add-ons - I borrowed a friends to do my fork seals and it made the job incredibly easy and saved me from rigging up some janky rear end rafters set-up in someone's garage with rope.
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Jan 27, 2013 15:57
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I just bought a '79 Honda CM400T, and the tach is acting a bit funny. It seems to be fine at low RPM, but when it hits around 5000-6000, the needle starts jumping wildly and won't settle until I bring the RPM back down again. I've checked the cable, it seems to be spinning OK at the tach end and is seated ok at the engine side. Any ideas? Is my tachometer itself shot, or is the cable bad, or is it still somehow mis-seated? Edit: and another thing, the spark plugs are being a real bitch to unscrew, and I don't want to slip and shatter one as I'm trying to muscle it off. Would some Deep Creep or similar help loosen them? Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jan 27, 2013 |
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Jan 27, 2013 22:25
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Old analog gauges sometimes just do that as the vibrations going up the bars reach resonant frequencies. How far is "wildly?" My tach needle wobbles up and down quite a bit at certain speeds, sometimes up to a quarter inch in each direction.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:34
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Sagebrush posted:Old analog gauges sometimes just do that as the vibrations going up the bars reach resonant frequencies. How far is "wildly?" My tach needle wobbles up and down quite a bit at certain speeds, sometimes up to a quarter inch in each direction. Thousands of RPM, to the point where the tach is useless once it starts. Unfortunately that's also the point where I want to know my RPMs.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:43
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It probably hasn't been lubed since the early 80's. Get some cable lube and go to town. Any penetrating oil or dry graphite lube will work fine if you already have that on hand and don't want to bother getting something specifically purposed. Somebody may have a better go-to but unlike oils this is one topic that the internet doesn't seem to have terribly vocal camps on. Anything designed for cables that works in a wide array of temps and doesn't become sludge does the trick. Halo_4am fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Jan 27, 2013 |
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Jan 27, 2013 22:49
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Pham Nuwen posted:Thousands of RPM, to the point where the tach is useless once it starts. Unfortunately that's also the point where I want to know my RPMs. Wait, cable? Since when does a tacho operate by a cable? I've seen that effect before and the gauge itself was faulty, the little spring set inside was shot. The tacho should operate by a pulse from the coil, I've never seen one that operates by a cable. Is this really a thing??
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Jan 27, 2013 22:50
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Yes, basically every bike from before they started putting in electronic gauges operates the tach from a spinning cable connected to a gearbox in the head. Usually takes the speed directly off the camshafts or cam drive. Just like how speedometers read wheel velocity from a gear and spinning cable on the wheel. Why is that surprising?
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Jan 27, 2013 22:55
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Older bikes had tachs driven by the cams, typically. I'm with halo on the cable needing to be lubed. They'll bind up in the housing and break free over and over causing that effect.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:55
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Slavvy posted:Wait, cable? Since when does a tacho operate by a cable? I've seen that effect before and the gauge itself was faulty, the little spring set inside was shot. Yeah it's a thing, on <80s bikes. After taking apart my srx600's front end and reassembling (lubing the tach cable in the process) it acted oddly at high rpm too, it would 'stick' at around 4000RPM and sit there shuddering. Fix was to tighten up the connection on the tach side, it was as tight as I could get it by hand but I had to tighten it further with some pliers. Unfortunately, that did kind of mess up the finish on the connector. High Protein fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jan 27, 2013 |
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Jan 27, 2013 22:55
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I've seen it on every 70's and 80's bike I've ever looked at. I honestly don't know how they work on modern bikes... I sort of assumed they became part of the magic surrounding EFI. There's even aftermarket cables : http://www.jcwhitney.com/motion-pro-universal-speedometer-cable-kit/p2008925.jcwx :edit: Holy poo poo goon tach cable rush. Halo_4am fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jan 27, 2013 |
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Jan 27, 2013 22:56
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I guess this proves I don't know poo poo about crusty old bikes. I've had several 80's bikes though and they all had a tacho driven off the ignition module thingy. That being said the oldest bike I've worked on was from 1985 
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Jan 27, 2013 23:17
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According to the thread, "vintage" bikes are pre-1980 only, so
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Jan 27, 2013 23:23
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Also, I had a 1979 Honda 400T (TII, actually). Ended up tossing that poo poo straight into the trash after loving with it for a year or two with a friend, mostly because of the Honda Hell carburetors. Though, the brand-loving-new clutch we put in right before junking it is a direct part match for my 1979 CB650, so not all was lost. The tach in the Hawk will get filled with oily sludge over time, making it sticky (you may notice that sometimes it doesn't start working until you rev the bike a bit - that's "stickyness"), and shaking will be due to a badly lubed or simply old cable. Sometimes the tach drive (on the front of the engine there) itself is the culprit, but for the most part, they are pretty bulletproof. Before you go too much farther, make sure the oil pickup screen is free of debris, and that the screen itself is still intact. They actually sometimes rusted apart, despite being almost constantly bathed in oil.
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Jan 27, 2013 23:26
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Sagebrush posted:According to the thread, "vintage" bikes are pre-1980 only, so The year was a poor choice. "Modern" stuff started in 1979, (Eg, electronic igniton, EFI, etc..) but old style bikes (Cable driven tach, air cooled etc..) continued to be produced well into the 90's.
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Jan 28, 2013 03:50
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I haven't been able to find a clear photo of a Ninja 500 starboard-side engine-cover, but looking at the parts diagram on RonAyers.com (been an awesome resource) I'm not seeing anything resembling this huge bolt sticking out of the side. At first I somehow assumed it was like the idle adjust screw or something, but of course it's nowhere near the carb, and I can't think of anything it'd be adjusting down there. Is it safe to assume that it's simply a jury-rigged bolt that the DSPO jammed in there when the proper bolt found out? While doing maintenance on this I've found some really odd non-standard fasteners that appeared to be improvised, like one fairing bolt was an inch long flat-end #2 Phillips, and the corresponding one was a 2.5" #10 hexhead, with a sharp point for no apparent reason. What say y'all, just unscrew this all the way, take out one of the normal bolts and bring it to an automotive store to match and replace? [the rusted bolt at the far right of the pic, seems like instead it should be the hex-heads used everywhere else along the margin of the engine-cover] 
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Jan 28, 2013 04:56
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^Yep. Always assume DSPO, you'll seldom be wrong.Nerobro posted:The year was a poor choice. "Modern" stuff started in 1979, (Eg, electronic igniton, EFI, etc..) but old style bikes (Cable driven tach, air cooled etc..) continued to be produced well into the 90's. My 1980 has a drum front brake*, breaker-point ignition, 6v electrics, and a 4-speed transmission. *carried on through 2008 Dagen H fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 04:57
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lol, yeah, that's a bolt the PO has grabbed from his stash and just thrown it in instead of the original. The original will be the same as the other case bolts.
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Jan 28, 2013 05:05
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I wonder what he thought it was doing, exactly? It doesn't even fit. Get some stainless steel metric socket-hex cap screws. So much nicer.
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Jan 28, 2013 05:32
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Bucephalus posted:^Yep. Always assume DSPO, you'll seldom be wrong. Even scarier, Enfields still have drum brakes.
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Jan 28, 2013 06:53
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Geirskogul posted:Even scarier, Enfields still have drum brakes. Only on the rear, they've been using disks for the front since, ooh, about 1998. They've even gone to unit construction now that they're sure it's not a passing fad.
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Jan 28, 2013 09:13
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Only on the rear, they've been using disks for the front since, ooh, about 1998. They've even gone to unit construction now that they're sure it's not a passing fad. Wrong. I have a 2009 AVL with front drums, and even the new UCE engine comes stock with front drums. You have to buy one of the upmarket models to get disks, and even then, it depends on the dealer. G5 vs C5 vs Classic, etc. Before the new models, disks were a dealer option only except on the Electra.
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Jan 28, 2013 09:57
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Geirskogul posted:Wrong. I have a 2009 AVL with front drums, and even the new UCE engine comes stock with front drums. You have to buy one of the upmarket models to get disks, and even then, it depends on the dealer. G5 vs C5 vs Classic, etc. Before the new models, disks were a dealer option only except on the Electra. Maybe it's a per-market thing then, because the UK has had only disks for years (I plucked 97 out of the air because I remember a colleague around that time who was mad keen on them talking about how much more expensive UK models were compared to Indian ones, and talking about the brakes as a particular bugbear)
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Jan 28, 2013 10:09
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Oh, that's probably because Hitchcocks does front disk upgrades as standard, then rolls it into the price. Makes sense. My bad, I was talking from the factory itself (and the appropriate markets, like the Indian and US market).
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Jan 28, 2013 10:17
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All the US export Enfields have been front disc for at least a couple years.
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Jan 28, 2013 15:03
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| # ? May 16, 2024 14:26 |
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It's me. I'm the goon in the well. Earlier in the thread I was talking about getting a brand new bike, and my two main contenders were the new Triumph Street Triple R or the MV Agusta Brutale 675. After using my best puppy-eyed expression, I got to sit on the Brutale at the Stockholm Bike Show (they had "DONT SIT ON THE BIKE" signs on the MVs), and jesus christ on a crutch that bike is not made for my goony body. I could feel right away that it wasn't to be.  So what did I do? I sulked and moped for a while. And on friday I'm probably gonna make a down payment on this.   Brand new 690 SMC R. The well, it's calling me...
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Jan 29, 2013 18:13
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