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Who washes bikes that haven't been in the dirt? Hit the bugs with some Honda polish or Plexus after your ride, clean + lube the chain if needed, Bob's your uncle
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Jul 23, 2018 16:04
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My riding buddy washes his bike before and after every ride. He doesn't have garage queens, either. He's just an engineer who doesn't sleep and makes the time to be super anal about his vehicles always being as pristine as possible. Religiously checks oil every time he fuels up. He bought and restored a 90s Isuzu Rodeo ( ) to be his DD, and spent months tracking down individual pieces of trim in the correct color so that it would be as showroom perfect as possible. I even catch him checking my tire pressure just about every time we ride.Basically he's the PO you dream of, and vehicles he sells are the unicorns with accurate KBB prices in the listings. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Jul 23, 2018 |
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Jul 23, 2018 16:08
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My wife's uncle was like that about his Harley, except his was absolutely a garage queen. I wiped a fingertip's worth of road grime/grease off a hidden spot on the swingarm when he was bragging about how clean he kept it, and he actually got embarrassed. I keep my bikes clean but they're not going to be better-than-showroom spotless 100% of the time. Washing + drying every time they've left the garage isn't worth the hassle.
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Jul 23, 2018 17:37
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I think Wash Bike vs. No Wash Bike is more reliant on whether or not you find detailing to be a relaxing thing. Its just nice to go outside on saturday morning and give the bikes a good wash down. Doing it after every single ride... poo poo I dont have time for that.
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Jul 23, 2018 18:01
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R-Type posted:John Deere doesn't poo poo chrome all over its farming implements, gotta wonder why HD does on theirs There was a day they could count on it selling like candy. That day has passed but large companies move slow. Jazzzzz posted:Who washes bikes that haven't been in the dirt? Hit the bugs with some Honda polish or Plexus after your ride, clean + lube the chain if needed, Bob's your uncle I am a terrible PO. I mostly just knock dirt off the moving parts until I have to remove pieces to do service. Then they get actually clean. But only the path I take to get to the thing I need to get to. Fortunately, I am servicing CRF250s whose maintenance intervals are literally measured in minutes, so things don't get THAT dirty. clutchpuck fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jul 23, 2018 |
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Jul 23, 2018 18:27
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Ok, I made a confessional thread. Let's make each other feel better about our slovenly bike ownership habits.
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Jul 23, 2018 19:08
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:My riding buddy washes his bike before and after every ride. He doesn't have garage queens, either. He's just an engineer who doesn't sleep and makes the time to be super anal about his vehicles always being as pristine as possible. Religiously checks oil every time he fuels up. He bought and restored a 90s Isuzu Rodeo ( Every store, workshop and dealership hates this guy btw.
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Jul 23, 2018 20:24
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Trip report on one of these things: https://www.motobriiz.com/ Installed one a couple thousand miles ago on my Ducati ST2. Was a bit of a bitch to get the pad installed correct on the chain guide but other than that very simple to deal with. Price was right, too. Uses very little oil. Seems to want quite thin oil, like 30 weight or less, which is a little unusual in the category of bar & chain oil that they recommend. Since I've had it on there I haven't had to adjust the chain once. Recently I thought it was getting loose so i checked it more closely, nope, it's still on the tight end of the specs. I ride that bike like a bit of a dong and was accustomed to adjusting it every few weeks in the summertime before this. Quite happy with the thing.
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Jul 23, 2018 22:55
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I took a stick-on part and stuck it on: Chic Design Road Comet fairing.  The paint is identical, so I don't know why the fairing looks different from the tank in photos. It took a little over four weeks from placing the order to seeing it ship, and then it blasted through customs in a day and was on my doorstep before I knew it. And now my Z looks a little like a melted, brown and orange ZRX.
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Jul 23, 2018 23:18
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Trip report on one of these things: https://www.motobriiz.com/ This is really cool, I've always wanted an auto luber but I detest the scottoiler method of just spraying some oil in the vicinity of the chain. Does it make much of a mess? Frosty- posted:I took a stick-on part and stuck it on: Chic Design Road Comet fairing. One trick they don't want you to know transforms an ugly bike into an awesome looking bike.
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Jul 23, 2018 23:28
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If you're thrifty, you don't even need an autolubing mechanism; chain life is drastically increased if you oil it every fuel-up. I know everyone uses that fancy chain wax or whatever it is nowadays, but I follow this advice and I rarely adjust my chains any longer. I just put mine on the centerstand and spin the rear wheel with my right hand while my left hand applies 80-weight gear oil. Takes less than 5 minutes, and I've been on the same bottle of gear oil for, like, 5 years. (Of course, the rear wheel will look like you're taking a perpetual trip through mud slurry. This is a good strategy for commuter bikes and other daily-ridden bikes whose swingarm pivot greasing maintenance interval you couldn't give less of a poo poo about) Back when I had my CB250, which has no centerstand in the US, it was still easy to oil the chain fequently. (But centerstands just make all maintenance easier. Sucks that most bikes no longer have them.)
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Jul 24, 2018 01:37
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Slavvy posted:This is really cool, I've always wanted an auto luber but I detest the scottoiler method of just spraying some oil in the vicinity of the chain. Does it make much of a mess? Slide Hammer posted:If you're thrifty, you don't even need an autolubing mechanism; chain life is drastically increased if you oil it every fuel-up. I know everyone uses that fancy chain wax or whatever it is nowadays, but I follow this advice and I rarely adjust my chains any longer. I just put mine on the centerstand and spin the rear wheel with my right hand while my left hand applies 80-weight gear oil. Takes less than 5 minutes, and I've been on the same bottle of gear oil for, like, 5 years. (Of course, the rear wheel will look like you're taking a perpetual trip through mud slurry. This is a good strategy for commuter bikes and other daily-ridden bikes whose swingarm pivot greasing maintenance interval you couldn't give less of a poo poo about)
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Jul 24, 2018 03:53
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See now I'm not even certain what the lube is meant to do nowadays. We have o-ring chains that have all the lube on the inside, and I don't see how any lubricant is gonna stay firmly attached to the rollers more than thirty seconds unless you're continually reapplying like the above.
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Jul 24, 2018 04:11
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All I know is, I had a GS750 with a non-o-ring chain that I still oiled pretty frequently, and THAT chain wore really fast. I was adjusting that chain much more often than my CB250's chain, difference in power notwithstanding. (By the way, being the PO slob that I am, I never maintain these chains beyond oiling—no cleaning, nothin') Maybe the oil is just for lubricating the o-rings after all, so that they stay plump, and the grease that they're retaining stays moist.
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Jul 24, 2018 04:49
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That's what I tell people/myself, I think at this point the only thing the lube is doing is it prevents the sides of the links grinding the edges of the sprocket teeth into metal dust. Every neglected hosed chain I've seen has been covered in rusty powder and that seems to be what shreds the o-rings.
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Jul 24, 2018 05:59
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Based on those lab tests indicating that clean chains don't actually need to be lubricated (because if you think about it nothing is actually rolling, it just bends and straightens a few degrees as it goes around the sprocket), I tell myself oiling is more about keeping water and dust out to prevent rust buildup than to actually lubricate the chain. In any case the evidence is pretty clear that in real world conditions, oiling prolongs chain life just about any way you do it, so just do it! Also Slavvy posted:This is really cool, I've always wanted an auto luber but I detest the scottoiler method of just spraying some oil in the vicinity of the chain. Lol how the gently caress are people installing them in NZ? You're meant to set it up so the oil line is contacting the face of the rear sprocket. It even says in the manual that if you position it to drip onto the chain then it won't actually work and you'll end up with oil all over everything but your chain.
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Jul 24, 2018 08:02
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Yesterday I did a bunch of things to my Husky 701. Removed emissions systems (canister and SAS valve). Wired in a Power Commander V. Removed the stock airbox, replaced with an aftermarket Rottweiler one. Added a new exhaust muffler. Total time estimated by the guides I was following online: 4 hours. Total time it actually took me: 12 hours. Considering how little I know about mechanical things, I'm ok with only taking 3x time. Working in my apartment garage with minimal lighting and no power outlets is really painful. I have no idea how I'm going to shrink a bit of heat shrink tubing I need to install over some wires. Maybe a lighter will work? Have a couple things I need to follow up on in addition to the heat shrink. My front brake fluid reservoir is leaking from the banjo bolt when I pull in the lever. And the place I ordered the exhaust from didn't provide me with all the mounting hardware shown on their website, so I need to get them to do so. It's a good thing that I'm flying out for a trip today, because I'm pretty sick of motorcycles in general and my 701 in specific right now.
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Jul 24, 2018 16:23
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Frosty- posted:I took a stick-on part and stuck it on: Chic Design Road Comet fairing. I've been on the fence about getting one of those... but now I think I have to. Who did you order through? How's the wind?
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Jul 24, 2018 16:45
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EkardNT posted:Yesterday I did a bunch of things to my Husky 701. Removed emissions systems (canister and SAS valve). Wired in a Power Commander V. Removed the stock airbox, replaced with an aftermarket Rottweiler one. Added a new exhaust muffler. Lighter works fine for heat shrink. Leaking from the banjo is new to me, that reservoir did weep from the lid on both my 701 and 690 Duke though.
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Jul 24, 2018 18:04
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Renaissance Robot posted:Based on those lab tests indicating that clean chains don't actually need to be lubricated (because if you think about it nothing is actually rolling, it just bends and straightens a few degrees as it goes around the sprocket), I tell myself oiling is more about keeping water and dust out to prevent rust buildup than to actually lubricate the chain. In any case the evidence is pretty clear that in real world conditions, oiling prolongs chain life just about any way you do it, so just do it! All the ones I've seen have just had the little thingy pointing somewhere at the chain, I've never fitted one myself so never seen the instructions 
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Jul 24, 2018 21:07
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 New tires. Roadsmart 3s. Downgrade from the PR4s, but I commute 40 miles a day on the bike now so I don’t wanna burn good rubber for no reason. I swapped these in the middle of a massive rainstorm and rode home in 2+ inches standing rain. Only washed out once. Not too terrible. Also my PR4s lasted like 13k miles. Thru sun, rain, even snow, and on the track. 👌
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Jul 25, 2018 00:51
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40oz of fury posted:I've been on the fence about getting one of those... but now I think I have to. Who did you order through? How's the wind? The wind is fine, although I only rode about 48 miles today, and only got up to about 88. It doesn't seem substantially more protective than nothing at all, but it doesn't create some kind of unpleasant turbulence anywhere that bothered me, either. To get entirely under the wind you gotta be down on the tank all the way. I got it basically for the look, so I'm satisfied that it doesn't cause a problem. One thing I will say is that it shakes to a degree that concerns me. It's not slapping into gauges or the brake reservoir, but I see it jiggle down there as I traverse the cratered moonscape of Connecticut's roads. Overall I really like the thing, and the installation was dead easy. It is pretty expensive, though.
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Jul 25, 2018 03:03
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vinyl wrapped some pieces of my CL350 it took a few tries  Also I'm gonna extend the mirror arms on my Hawk a tiny bit, just an inch, to put them exactly where I want them. I could mill these out of aluminum, but I'm gonna try to 3D print them in carbon-reinforced nylon first and see how those stand up. 
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Jul 25, 2018 05:10
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Husqvarna got an oil change, a warrant and working indicators in the optimistic hope that the kid looking at it on saturday is a romantic fool and buys it. Bandit got a tune good enough to run and idle without drenching the plugs in gas, ready to log some data on the weekend. It was a good day. Sagebrush posted:vinyl wrapped some pieces of my CL350 Those panels look great! Why did you want a christmas tree bauble for a headlight though?
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Jul 25, 2018 06:02
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Gotta keep the '70s aesthetic. Indoors it just looks kind of brown, but that "antique bronze metallic" is really rich and glittery in the sun. The bike as a whole is going to be a combination of the bronze and the deep red, and then I'm going to do some black and white graphics here and there. I understand now why it costs almost as much to wrap a bike as it does to do a car, even though you use like 1/10 the vinyl -- the labor to install it around these shapes is insane. I eventually gave up trying to get it in one piece and did it in a couple of stages (three pieces for the headlight, two for each of the side covers). The seam is visible if you look really closely but not from arm's length and I'm probably gonna put some pinstriping along it anyway. Who was it who hated the word "aesthetic" again?
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Jul 25, 2018 06:20
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Fixed a PO fuckup and became my own PO. My 93 nx250 sprockets and chain was due for replacement. And the front sprocket is welded on.  Did I mention that I've dreaded tackling this problem? Some background as to why this even is done. During the early 90s some honda models has issues with countershaft splines getting stripped, especially with that design with splines that the sprocket slides onto and a lock washer that you rotate and screw down. This can be an issue on early 90s transalps, africa twins and other models. Rumors say it's a combo of metal used in the countershaft, vs metal in aftermarket sprockets vs aftermarket sprockets with to much slop in the tabs that mate with the splines. The stock of new countershafts are long gone for nx250s, you need to get whole engines from wreckers usually if you find them + the whole "completely disassemble the engine" thing to change it.  Old vs New. The old sprocket is actually not the correct type. I removed the old welds with a dremel + good grind bits while trying to keep as much metal as possible while still being able to remove the sprocket.  The splines are Fine!?! Apperantly it's just outer lock splines that have broken off. I'd say a PO had an episode with the chain getting stuck somehow or something similar.  New sprocket is on, and secured, while still able to slide in and out on the slines. and it's also the correct sprocket. I'll take more time with the dremel, grind out the outer spline tabs when removing it so I don't have to get my brother to weld it the next time. The chain frame slider was disintegrating so I'll be getting a new one before I put on the new chain. It was propably the original 25y.o one.
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Jul 25, 2018 07:45
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Supradog posted:
Ladies, faulty welds in two easy steps: not enough current, too much current.
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Jul 25, 2018 16:11
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Supradog posted:Fixed a PO fuckup and became my own PO. Um, wait, you redid the welds on the retainer? Like that? I uh...hmm. I would have taken some extra time and done whatever your fixing plan with the dremel is first. Now you're just going to have to redo all the same work when you go back and repair it "properly". Also I wouldn't really trust those welds...you kinda blew through the retainer. What kind of machine do you have?
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Jul 25, 2018 16:20
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I mean at this point you have two options I can see: 1) The easiest option, sell it 2) Split the cases and put a new output shaft in there. That whole setup is 
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Jul 25, 2018 16:46
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All the welds is at the end of the counter shaft, not the retainer washer, hard to see from that angle. It's only screwed to the sprocket with the bolts in the locking position. The crap welds are just to stop it from slipping off, by design the sprocket has 1-2 mm of play in-out on the shaft. We got 2 other non hosed nx250 bikes to compare to. I think it's the 4th? time my brother has actually had to try to weld something useful, with his cheapo machine that you can't turn down more in power. Supradog posted:Fixed a PO fuckup and became my own PO. I said that for a reason.
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Jul 25, 2018 16:57
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shoulda just seen if there was a snap ring you could put on it, fuckin works for ktm
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Jul 25, 2018 17:16
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Looked at it outside the Aprilia shop on my way to work from my seat on the bus. I picked the right side of the bus so I could gaze at it as we went by. One day...
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Jul 25, 2018 19:25
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Filled it with premium since the midgrade button was broken, adjusted the idle down by 400 rpm to where it should be, and took it for another ride out to the foothills. No hesitation or pops on acceleration this time.
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Jul 26, 2018 06:34
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Had new sprockets and chain installed... the oem 'damped' KTM sprocked ended up being $50 :/
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Jul 26, 2018 06:44
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Razzled posted:shoulda just seen if there was a snap ring you could put on it, fuckin works for ktm
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Jul 26, 2018 20:28
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I ebay scored a set of M4 headers and mid pipe for my SV. Put it all on this morning and it sounds good and all seems to be in good shape but now I have to jet the loving thing again.
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Jul 27, 2018 02:30
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Swapped the 7000 lum Cyclops bulb for the NEW HOTNESS 10,000 lumen version. It's pretty much the same as before, but more. I like it. Low beam  16,000 lum high beam (Cyclops + aux lights)  Then I took it on a late night beer run  "Could I get a box for this so I can put it on the back of my bike?" 'Sure! How big is your bike?' "... Not very big."  Success! 
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Jul 29, 2018 04:02
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Renaissance Robot posted:Based on those lab tests indicating that clean chains don't actually need to be lubricated (because if you think about it nothing is actually rolling, it just bends and straightens a few degrees as it goes around the sprocket), I tell myself oiling is more about keeping water and dust out to prevent rust buildup than to actually lubricate the chain. In any case the evidence is pretty clear that in real world conditions, oiling prolongs chain life just about any way you do it, so just do it! Yeah but they're south of the equator so the Coriolis force pushes the oil the wrong way.
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Jul 29, 2018 11:43
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Yesterday I started vinyl wrapping my FZ-07! It's really drat hard to get a decent picture of this stuff. The color is "Matte Aurora Pearl", from KPMF. It looks white overall, but the color shifts from turquoise green to pink depending on how the light hits.
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Aug 4, 2018 20:02
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Two days in and I've already burned some plastic on to the exhaust headers. Naked bike life I guess. I hear oven cleaner is good for getting stuff like that off of chrome, anyone confirm/deny?
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Aug 8, 2018 09:40
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