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My local dealer charges $35/wheel for a tire change and that's me bringing in just the wheels. They do it for free if I buy the tires there, which is good incentive and their prices are good. But I have three dirt bikes that see regular changes between paddle tires and regular knobbies so I bought a changing stand and accessories up do it myself. I'm still getting drat sick of it and will probably just buy extra wheels soon.
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Feb 7, 2022 15:52
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goddamnedtwisto posted:Just get a Yuasa. There are probably better batteries out there but there are also definitely worse, and there's a reason basically every manufacturer specifies Yuasa as OEM. Agreed. Yuasa is good stuff. I have a more than 10 year old UPS 7ah 12v backup battery from them in use for any job where i need mobile 12v, and although it probably has lost some capacity, it's aging incredibly gracefully, still able to handle decent peak currents from whatever mobile 12v thing i'm hooking up to it.
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Feb 7, 2022 16:53
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Sounds good, I'll just grab one of those wherever I can. Cheers!
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Feb 7, 2022 17:37
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RightClickSaveAs posted:Cycle Gear charges $25 to mount street tires if you buy from them or Revzilla, and take off the wheel to bring it in. $50 for tires bought elsewhere it looks like. This is good to know, cheers. Toe Rag posted:Those tires will probably square off even sooner FYI. $50 to drop off the bike and come back with new tires is well worth it. My Honda dealer charges mores than that if you bring in just wheels. We looked at several different options that they could order. Several michelins were out of stock; i think my other options were the dunlop q3+, but i think they have a similar life to the rosso 3's and are more expensive. I'm ok with shorter life if it makes for a fun riding tire. Finger Prince posted:Get some pilot roads for your next set. They're ideal for when you have to be mindful of squaring off the middle, but you still want something that'll stick when leaned over. Backordered until march wherever this shop chain is getting theirs (Ridenow - so a big chain outfit). I will keep them in mind for the following set though! Russian Bear fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Feb 7, 2022 |
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Feb 7, 2022 19:53
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RightClickSaveAs posted:
It might be getting low in stock, their diablo IV has been out for a while.
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Feb 7, 2022 20:23
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Russian Bear posted:We looked at several different options that they could order. Several michelins were out of stock; i think my other options were the dunlop q3+, but i think they have a similar life to the rosso 3's and are more expensive. I'm ok with shorter life if it makes for a fun riding tire.  Yeah I'm still deciding which tires to get. I was going to get Q3+ but they are indeed expensive. I'm surprised that Bridgestone RS10s are available in my size (110/70 & 150/60) and am kind of tempted to buy those, heh. Potentially overkill, but would be interesting to try a tire designed with track riding as an intended use.
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Feb 7, 2022 20:33
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Slavvy previously recommended Pirelli Night Dragons for my Fat Bob for the rainy roads of Scotland. What can be recommended for my LiveWire? Currently it has the following, which feel a bit slippery in the wet. FRONT 120/70 ZR17 58W H-D/Michelin Scorcher “Sport" REAR 180/55 ZR17 73W H-D/Michelin Scorcher “Sport"
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Feb 7, 2022 21:29
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Steakandchips posted:Slavvy previously recommended Pirelli Night Dragons for my Fat Bob for the rainy roads of Scotland. Angel gt 2 with the heavy duty rear tyre option.
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Feb 7, 2022 23:28
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Steakandchips posted:Pirelli Night Dragons I couldn't tell if you were making a joke so I googled and holy lol that's a real tire name.
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Feb 7, 2022 23:48
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Russian Bear posted:I couldn't tell if you were making a joke so I googled and holy lol that's a real tire name. Listen 12 year old me was very grateful for that contract work I got naming the entire Pirelli tyre range.
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Feb 8, 2022 00:34
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Slavvy posted:Angel gt 2 with the heavy duty rear tyre option. Thank you.
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Feb 8, 2022 01:26
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Pirelli Imagine Dragons that plays Radioactive through a little piezo speaker glued to the inside when rolling like one of those cheesy birthday cards.
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Feb 8, 2022 02:01
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I've just been doing a bit of googling and making Amazon lists for bike parts. I have a hernia surgery scheduled, finally, for March 22nd. I think I've decided that I'm going to buy a decent-ish carb rebuild kit that includes o rings, but no other bits, no needles, floats etc. The kit is 75 dollars. Is this excessive or should I take a chance on a no name kit on Amazon with needles and jets? I'm also going to order 4 spark plugs, and all new fuel hose. Tentative plan is to remove the gastank and unmount the carbs. Then I'll bring them inside to fiddle with them as I'm recuperating from surgery since I won't be able to ride for a while anyway. Is it worth it to buy a carb synching tool? I would assume so, especially after doing everything else and if so can anyone recommend a decent one? Also forgot to add that I found a great write up on replacing fork seals so I'm gonna do that too, as well as replace the rubber bits on my front brakes and clean and rattle can them. Come April and May I should have the bike I thought it was the first time I rode it! The handful of times it was running on all cylinders, presumably, I had an absolute blast! 750 V4 engines in a standard/cruiser frame are an absolute RIOT! Especially when they're 39 years old! gileadexile fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Feb 9, 2022 |
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Feb 9, 2022 05:59
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1. Rebuilding those carbs is something you really only want to do once, for this reason I think finding a really comprehensive kit with all the little cotter pins and other v4-specific stuff is the way to go. $75 does not seem like enough for this but I don't live in America 2. Carbtune 3. Rattlecan on brake calipers is a good way to have calipers that look like vomit on poo poo within a year. Powdercoat or polish imo.
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Feb 9, 2022 07:22
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When is the best point to buy new tires? Checked my rear tire and realized there really isn't that much meat left on it. Should I buy at beginning/end of season or is offseason better? Also, guess I am in the market for new 80:20 wheels.
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Feb 9, 2022 07:25
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Good point, looks like a good cleaning and detailing is a better idea. Besides, looks are second to functionality to me anyway, it's an old bike with poo poo paint.  Not trying to be a nuisance, but this is the one I was looking at. The seller of this kit also offers a rebuild and refurb service, but it's rather pricy. Almost 300 American. But then again..all I would do is remove, send them off, then put them back on. I dunno. Thoughts?
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Feb 9, 2022 08:10
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SEKCobra posted:When is the best point to buy new tires? Checked my rear tire and realized there really isn't that much meat left on it. Should I buy at beginning/end of season or is offseason better? If you buy from a small shop with an obscure dimension of a type of tire the is little sales of you may get an older tire. This should not be an issue if you buy from a bigger supplier, or if you choose a newish tire model. Just check date code. I order tires from https://www.motorsykkeldekk.com/ based in germany,(they seem to a web page for all european countrys, check the bottom bar) they actually have a "guaranteed fresh" option if really want this years tire. Though, oldest I've seen from them is 8-9 months old. I usually go through 3-4 tires a year.
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Feb 9, 2022 08:59
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Supradog posted:If you buy from a small shop with an obscure dimension of a type of tire the is little sales of you may get an older tire. This should not be an issue if you buy from a bigger supplier, or if you choose a newish tire model. Oh this is actually https://www.reifendirekt.at/ I think. I have bought car tires before from them, but I don't want to mount my own tires, I don't think anyone does bike tires sold through third parties around here.
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Feb 9, 2022 09:08
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gileadexile posted:Good point, looks like a good cleaning and detailing is a better idea. Besides, looks are second to functionality to me anyway, it's an old bike with poo poo paint. Provided your floats, jets and other brass stuff are good, the only thing I'm seeing missing here is float needles/valves.
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Feb 9, 2022 09:41
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Yeah, I mount my own. I know they have a "certified partner" thing where you can get it shipped to a local shop for mounting, but I've never used it.
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Feb 9, 2022 09:44
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SEKCobra posted:Oh this is actually https://www.reifendirekt.at/ I think. I have bought car tires before from them, but I don't want to mount my own tires, I don't think anyone does bike tires sold through third parties around here. Those guys have all sorts of websites in all manner of european countries and languages. They have warehouses all over too, not just in Germany. I recently bought tires from them and had them mounted/balanced at a local tire place (southern Stockholm). They were happy to do it but it was expensive, like €80 for both front and rear.
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Feb 9, 2022 10:27
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Invalido posted:Those guys have all sorts of websites in all manner of european countries and languages. They have warehouses all over too, not just in Germany. I recently bought tires from them and had them mounted/balanced at a local tire place (southern Stockholm). They were happy to do it but it was expensive, like €80 for both front and rear. There is a partner "near"by, I'll get a quote for the ContiTrailAttack 3 from them and some tyre places, then I'll see about what I can do.
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Feb 9, 2022 11:08
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gileadexile posted:Good point, looks like a good cleaning and detailing is a better idea. Besides, looks are second to functionality to me anyway, it's an old bike with poo poo paint. A decent V4 carb kit is going to be expensive. As someone who just recently rebuilt and synced a set of v4 carbs $300 is a good deal if it is good work with good parts, especially if it includes a sync (probably not). Replacing all the various bits in the carbs themselves is easy, but you also have to split the carb rack to replace the between carb o-rings. If you don't do those you will get leaks. Splitting them will require a sync afterward. I go with OEM parts in this kind of stuff I do not want to do it twice.
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Feb 9, 2022 12:41
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Having rebuilt both Mikuni and Keihin carbs in watercraft for years, NEVER get anything but OEM parts oh God The aftermarket diaphragms and orings are poo poo and the needles will start indenting and leaking immediately. TotalLossBrain fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Feb 9, 2022 |
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Feb 9, 2022 15:51
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TotalLossBrain posted:Having rebuilt both Mikuni and Keihin carbs in watercraft for years, NEVER get anything but OEM parts oh God Yup, with 1 caveat: an OEM NOS rubber gasket with a browned label pulled off a wooden shelf at Bubba's Part Shack is likely to be 1) bad from age and ultraviolet and 2) not made of ethanol resistant rubber. Buying off ebay is a crapshoot, it would be better to source from a dealership that is ordering directly from a distributor.
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Feb 9, 2022 18:27
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Seconded, I got a carbtune to do my bike and the setup/teardown of moving the tank over, extending the fuel hose, and attaching the vaccum lines took three times as long as actually synching the carbs, and that's all poo poo you'd have to do anyway The $200 CAD was worth any amount of loving around with liquid-filled manometers
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Feb 9, 2022 18:28
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Last series of question posts, I promise. So I was talking it over with my wifes uncle (she has two, both very mechanically inclined), and I'm wondering if I should try this route of diagnosis and repairs. 1. Remove and unrack carbs. Investigate by running a small camera into the bowls and seeing if any are dirty. 2. If dirty, then clean. Either buy a refurb from a vendor and send them off or attempt if myself, slowly and carefully, following along with videos on youtube and writeups by V4 forum members. 3. If not dirty, check airbox for leaks, etc. If good.. 4. Check and adjust valves. If within spec.. 5. Try a sync first. If still no joy..I dunno. Start looking into coil boxes and cdi boxes, which is where it gets more expensive. Does this sound reasonable? I know they aren't exactly in order, but I plan on starting with free, etc valves, then sync, then refurb/rebuild myself.
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Feb 9, 2022 22:57
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gileadexile posted:Last series of question posts, I promise. So I was talking it over with my wifes uncle (she has two, both very mechanically inclined), and I'm wondering if I should try this route of diagnosis and repairs. This is what 'just enough knowledge to be dangerous' looks like. Basically, starting at step 1, no that's insane. If you've gone to the effort of taking the carbs out, which I suspect you're underestimating, it is then a trivial next step to just take a bowl off and look inside; what you're describing is like using n endoscope to find the stone in your sock instead of just turning it inside out. But all that's irrelevant, because if you've taken them out you are already committed and any 'inspection' beyond just establishing what's hosed, is pointless. You basically have the order completely backwards. You check airbox integrity first because it's the easiest. Then you check spark integrity cause it's the next easiest. Then you sync. Only then, if it still runs bad, do you think about taking the carbs out. The valve clearances are neither here nor there. The clearances on that engine barely move when they're in the high revving, high power sport models. The detuned cruiser version will be fine, I'd be surprised if any of them are far out of spec, I'd be absolutely astonished if any are so bad that it actually affects how it runs. I wouldn't bother, basically. Fundamentally: what are you actually trying to do here? If you have an actual problem, describe it and we'll try to diagnose. If you want to have a rollicking cosplay adventure in mechanic land, you have selected hard difficulty.
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Feb 10, 2022 02:00
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TotalLossBrain posted:Having rebuilt both Mikuni and Keihin carbs in watercraft for years, NEVER get anything but OEM parts oh God
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Feb 10, 2022 03:12
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Not my experience on bikes generally. K&L and All Balls make good kits, and even random ebay crap has generally been usable, with some exceptions. 
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Feb 10, 2022 05:26
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I'm glad to hear the situation is better with motorcycle carb parts. Years of lovely aftermarkets in the watercraft sector have really soured me on that. And for clarification, "needle" in those carbs is a rubber/viton needle tip seated in a brass orifice. Heavy vibrations will tear up cheap aftermarkets and cause fuel dribbling within days. There is no bowl. Manifold vacuum pulls the needle away from the seat, but it's supposed to seal above that point. 
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Feb 10, 2022 06:51
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That looks identical to a normal motorbike float needle and seat 
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Feb 10, 2022 07:12
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Slavvy posted:That looks identical to a normal motorbike float needle and seat It is, but what I think TLB is specifically referring to PWCs. Imagine a 650cc two cylinder two stroke mated to a flimsy fiberglass hull by a few bolts, rattling away in an enclosed environment of a few cubic meters, spinning an impeller via direct shaft out the back at 6000rpm. That was my Superjet 650, and it's a hard environment that is going to expose any parts weaknesses, OEM or otherwise. It's why those things are always broken, though in my experience it was usually electrical. The whole boat industry is shady as poo poo and I assume that extends to the parts suppliers, don't buy boats. Don't even look at them! Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Not my experience on bikes generally. K&L and All Balls make good kits, and even random ebay crap has generally been usable, with some exceptions. This is good to know, I've been very close to pulling the trigger on K&L kits. I would definitely use them on single or dual carbs, but with V4's the hassle isn't fixing the carbs themselves but getting to them. I've used several All Balls bearing kits with success, but no gaskets.
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Feb 10, 2022 12:53
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gileadexile posted:Last series of question posts, I promise. So I was talking it over with my wifes uncle (she has two, both very mechanically inclined), and I'm wondering if I should try this route of diagnosis and repairs. Slavvy has already laid the truth down for you, but if your "very mechanically inclined" uncles-in-law suggested you unrack carbs and scope them out to see if there's crud in the float bowls as the first step in figuring out your bike's issues, they either have absolutely no clue what they're talking about or they're taking the piss
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Feb 10, 2022 18:42
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Arguably you can be mechanically inclined without knowing anything about carburetors or motorcycles. Maybe the dude is a skilled machinist or great at repairing clockwork or something. I've been wrenching on things all my life and I'm mostly pretty descent at it but I still know almost nothing about motos. Which is why I love this thread, and YouTube and service manuals.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:36
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Learning about motorbikes has gone hand in hand with learning how little even motorbike people know about motorbikes. People who don't know anything about motorbikes but have some sort of technical competence elsewhere are lethal weapons, I don't care if you work at CERN, you're still going to get lost trying to set the pilot screw. The corollary to this is realising I know literally nothing about anything besides motorbikes and I'm fine with that.
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Feb 10, 2022 19:47
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Always ran into this when I worked in a bicycle shop too. Customer: i would like to buy this stem to put on my bicycle Me: would you like us to install it? Customer: no i can do it myself, i wrench on all sorts of things all the time, it's just a few bolts Me: do you know how to adjust a headset [this is required on threadless headsets if you remove the stem as it serves as the thing holding the preload adjustment for the head tube bearings] Customer: no, why is that important? Me: *explain why and why it's a HUGE safety issue or how it will destroy your bearings eventually depending on the what flavor of wrong you choose to do* Customer: ugh you charge $15 dollars to do that??
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Feb 10, 2022 20:00
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Hey so while we're here, it's the top cap bolt that you tighten to preload the bearings on those, then do up the pinch bolts, right? It looks like the same basic principle as the top triple design on a Ducati or KTM ie the top nut stops mattering after you do up the pinch bolt, because the bearing is being preloaded by the triple clamp itself.
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Feb 10, 2022 20:19
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Yep, top cap just sets the preload, the bolts on the stem actually hold everything in place to the point you don't even need the top cap once they're tightened.
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Feb 10, 2022 21:21
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Slavvy posted:Learning about motorbikes has gone hand in hand with learning how little even motorbike people know about motorbikes. People who don't know anything about motorbikes but have some sort of technical competence elsewhere are lethal weapons, I don't care if you work at CERN, you're still going to get lost trying to set the pilot screw. The corollary to this is realising I know literally nothing about anything besides motorbikes and I'm fine with that. I do actually know someone who worked at CERN who has a fairly impressive collection of bikes that he maintains himself, and is a bit of a font of knowledge on the Honda CB range through the years.
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Feb 10, 2022 21:39
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