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Yeah; I’ve saved probably $2 over the years, I should keep letting it ride.
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Aug 1, 2021 06:51
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Nofeed posted:Baby’s first oil change Today I changed the brake fluid in all my bikes, and drained the snot tube on one of them. Less santorum than usual this time, mostly watery distillates. Enjoy: https://ulfheim.net/files/snottube.mov
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Aug 14, 2021 02:53
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Renaissance Robot posted:Popups are not a good idea in any situation and only ever existed at all due to regulations about the minimum height of headlights clashing with low-slung 70s sports cars.
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Aug 16, 2021 18:40
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I’ve never bothered using a torque spec on an oil filter. More specifically, I’ve made sure never to use a wrench to put on an oil filter. * Put the filter on hand-tight and only use the wrench for removal, and you will have a long and happy life. * you poor saps with unreachable filters are exempt from this but you know who you are and what you signed up for.
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Sep 2, 2021 05:50
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Lubed my throttle cable today. This can of Motion Pro cable lube recommends lubing your cables after every ride (or every other ride, depending on conditions). 
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Sep 6, 2021 23:01
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also chain maintenance is snake oil; i've never oiled a chain and yet every chain i've owned has lasted for the life of the chain. think about that.
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Sep 6, 2021 23:03
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The lock on those jiffy stands is the #1 thing I think of with regards to Harleys and things they have that I don't and want. Why wouldn't everyone have a mechanism like that? As for what I did today: I've got a Nighthawk 750 and like a lot of owners I always wondered why there's a cap on the left side of the engine labeled "DONT OPEN":  I know from changing my front sprocket that there's nothing under this thing except for the sump, and that if you remove the cap while the bike's on the kickstand it'll dump oil all over you. I dug around a little more and found that on some previous incarnation of this engine the oil fill and dipstick was here. Presumably it was moved from the left side to the clutch cover, way back in the late 80s when the center stand was removed as a standard option. Honda being Honda they couldn't be bothered to rework the engine casting even though they made millions of CB engines so they blanked it out and got on with their lives. That got me to thinking, there's all these aftermarket dipstick replacements with a built-in oil thermometer. My bike doesn't have an oil thermometer, it relies on my mechanical empathy to keep me from seizing the engine in Phoenix traffic. I know from experience that the dipstick thermometers make awful dipsticks, impossible to read and very hard to unscrew when the engine is hot. But what if I keep my OEM dipstick, and stick one of these thermometer versions in the capped off side and leave it there permanently? I tried with a thermometer dipstick I had laying around, and the thing was just slightly too long. It went too deep and was pushing against the sump when I tried to screw it in. I did some more searching to find one for an earlier engine with a shorter dipstick, and found this one with a 70mm dipstick   tada, my new oil thermometer!
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Sep 25, 2021 02:14
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From past experience, if I'm staying at highway speeds it'll stay at 110c all day long in any warm or hot weather. Any kind of summer stop and go brings it up to 130C over the coarse of an hour. I usually pull over around 135C - 140C and wait for it to get back to 120C. I've never felt any kind of heat soak or engine trouble at high temps, I just like to baby it, if you can call 140C babying it. It has a little oil cooler but it only does so much. Ulf fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Sep 25, 2021 |
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Sep 25, 2021 06:04
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That’s great and all but I still want to park my Zero on a downslope, and can’t because the kickstand doesn’t lock. Same for a non-electric bike but I can put those in gear and feel slightly less worried I guess.
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Sep 26, 2021 04:18
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Too lazy I’d rather worry about the kickstand folding. (It’s actually more about how that bike’s kickstand reeealy wants to fold up, even on perfectly flat ground you could do it with a good shove to the rear of the bike. Since there’s no engine to lock the wheel I just wish they’d done something like adopt the H-D solution)
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Sep 26, 2021 14:45
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LimaBiker posted:Do you actually have a Zero?
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Sep 26, 2021 14:48
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Martytoof posted:Well four posts in a row so either I have nothing better to do or everyone else does. You start off thinking it will be a lot like working on a motorcycle then you spend a day figuring out exactly how the parking brake works.
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Oct 15, 2021 14:14
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In that case enjoy a taste of Spyder PO fuckery: "I asked the tire guy if they could just swap the two since there's so much tread left, they wouldn't do it" (as you can imagine the alignment on this thing is making it hunt around like a rat terrier)  "I think I had the brakes done before parking it last time"  other than that, I feel like I'm getting a taste of what it'll be like to work on a goldwing. It's the touring model so full fairing, and I keep finding things like this "PTT" button that I thought at first was a flash-to-pass on the left controls. I look it up and of course it's the push-to-talk for the CB radio (which is probably installed, though we'll never use it)
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Oct 15, 2021 15:55
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I feel you there. I've called my local shop, confirmed availability of tires in my size, taken the wheels off, borrowed a car, driven them to the shop, only to hear that it was a mistake by "the new guy" and they're not in stock. Then I had to decide whether to put the old wheels+tires back on or tiptoe around an unstable bike in my garage for the next three days (I think I ended up putting the wheels back on). Even when you're not doing your own tires it's such a pain in the rear end, especially if you don't have a car (it's the only "mundane" bike work that you want a car for, though sometimes I'll bring them to the shop on a bicycle trailer).
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Oct 15, 2021 16:36
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At least I usually remember to check the rotation direction before I leave the shop now.
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Oct 15, 2021 16:59
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Hah, if I find anything else bad on the Spyder I’ll post it up but there probably won’t be much to say. I’ll probably let the dealer handle most stuff, I’m not really set up for working on half-ton vehicles and also don’t want to worry about my wife riding the kind of hacks that I put together. Also literally every procedure in the shop manual begins and ends with “hook the vehicle up to the B.U.D.S.(tm) software and run procedure X-Y-Z.”
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Oct 16, 2021 01:27
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Congrats! 
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Oct 18, 2021 18:36
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:see where it gets wet when you run it.
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Oct 27, 2021 20:37
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It turns out that if you ignore your speedo cable/gear for 60,000 miles and 25 years, it'll gum up, rust, then strip out and leave you doing tacho calculations all the way from Las Vegas to Denver. Today I took it all apart to figure it out, pulled out the cable and cleaned/lubed it, and a new gear is on its way.  
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Dec 7, 2021 23:11
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On the last ride of the season (Denver <-> Albuquerque) my countershaft seal started leaking, which on my bike isn't a trivial fix. On a warm day last month I pulled out the engine, which is step one in the replacement procedure:  (this was my first time removing it, which was a fun? learning experience) After a long wait for new seals, gasket, and sealing washers it was finally warm enough today to put it back together and button it all back up. No pics but my beater Nighthawk seems to be back up and running again. I took it on a shakedown around the neighborhood (enough to get it warm at least), it's smoking a bit but until I ride it tomorrow I'm not sure if it's just burning off the oil that dripped everywhere, or burning the oil that leaked into the heads while it was on its side, or what. Sounded okay though.
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Feb 13, 2023 04:24
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Minor Nighthawk update: rode it around all day while it was warm out, no problems and more importantly it no longer leaks oil out the drive shaft. I'm chuffed.
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Feb 14, 2023 02:32
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So heated grips count as farkles? I guess I always thought a farkle should have an LCD or be sold by Garmin or something.
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Feb 22, 2023 07:00
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Swapped out the bearings on my front wheel (or rather, tried to pull the bearings for two days without success, then gave Fay Myers a hundred bucks to do it). Aaaaaand the head shake is still there. Next up is to try the steering bearings, at least it’ll be an upgrade to change the loose balls to needle bearings.
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Mar 10, 2023 00:20
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The symptom is a bar shake when riding hands free. Goes away completely when I have hands on the bars. Bike is a Nighthawk 750. No noticeable notching when I suspend the front and steer it left to right. No play that I can feel when I load the brakes and shift the bike back and forth. There was a tiny bit of play in the wheel bearing, and I hoped it was the cause. But I still feel a tiny shimmy. The tires are new (changed it while the wheel was off for the bearing). The problem usually gets worse as the front tire wears down (along with a noticeable cupped wave in the tire wear pattern). I also don’t think it’s wheel balance or a thrown weight (it’s been happening the last 20,000 miles, plenty of tire balances in that time). I haven’t tried anything with the triple tree either, could be a tweak in there maybe? Most people say bearings when they describe this problem and what fixed it for them, so I figured $30 of bearings and an afternoon might be a good use of time to see if it goes away.
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Mar 10, 2023 01:42
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Will do. Thanks for the list of things to work through! Wheel spacers are in the same order as when I got the bike four years ago but I’ll confirm against a parts diagram that they’re supposed to be there.
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Mar 10, 2023 02:25
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I replaced the steering bearings on my Nighthawk, which seems to have finally fixed the hands-free bars wobble. I’d been checking the bearings for wear and play the same way as I do on my bicycles: clamp the front brake, see if I get any forward/back play, then put the front wheel in the air and check for any notchiness left to right. The bike seemed to have buttery smooth action when I did this. But the wobble was still there, the factory (caged ball) bearings had 60k miles on them, and a set of new needle bearings were $30 so why not? As I did the work, the instant I took the front wheel off and turned it left/right boom, I could instantly tell the steering was badly indexed. There was a notch in dead center so deep it felt like a factory detent. I guess the weight of the hanging wheel must have been putting the steering on the untouched front half of the bearings, so my method of testing for indexed steering was useless. Lesson learned. After a lot of disassembly, hours of banging on press fits, then putting the front end back together, the wobble is finally gone. Going to be a relief on long rides to be able to stretch my back and arms again without worrying about it.
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Mar 16, 2023 03:43
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It may look cute, but Nighthawks only do this when they are very distressed! The new steering bearings and races had developed some slop as they bedded in, so I took the top off and tightened things back up.
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Mar 22, 2023 00:41
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Finally sanded out the scratches on the clutch cover from a PO crash. Lots of sanding, priming, sanding, painting. It's my first time doing this kind of work, came out good enough. Was inspired by this Japanese guy on youtube who does full bike restores and makes it look too easy.  This is now the shiniest part of the bike so I'm not sure if I'll wet sand down the last bit of texture. No before pics, but you've all seen a scratched thirty-year-old clutch cover before.
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Apr 4, 2023 04:14
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Beve Stuscemi posted:You cant just drop this sort of teaser and not link it. https://youtu.be/bQIDkmmqv5Y quote:Good work by the way, I assumed you were just painting it to clear up bad paint or something, you cant tell there were scratches there
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Apr 4, 2023 15:19
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Rebuilt my petcock and replaced clutch parts today. For the last year or so I’ve been paranoid about my clutch on long trips, I wasn’t looking forward to having it slipping a thousand miles from home. I knew I was probably early for a clutch to go (60k miles) but on long trips you get caught up in your head a little. Plus when I’d bought the bike at 20k miles the PO had the clutch cable set pretty tight, maybe even partially engaged. So I got new friction plates and springs and what I thought were the right tools. Turns out the CB750 clutch takes some weird (and expensive) tools to get out. In the end I bought some contraption from EBC and spent a few days grinding and fabricating what I needed out of it. I also sacrificed a 1” socket and grinded out a 4-pin spanner for the locknut that some jackass from Honda put over the clutch pack (later designs use a 27mm hex locknut, which I changed it to). After finally getting all the right tools and a lot of yanking I got the clutch pack out. I measured the old friction plates and… they were at like-new thickness. Ah well. The springs were out-of-spec so it wasn’t for nothing. The biggest thing is I won’t worry/obsess over this anymore.
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Apr 7, 2023 00:04
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Geekboy posted:I installed my heated grips quote:Only other thing I still want to do to the bike is add a center stand.
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Apr 8, 2023 16:52
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Two things you can try first:
You can also get a breaker bar but only after you deal with the above two items.
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Apr 9, 2023 20:31
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I understand not wanting to buy a bunch of tools without knowing if it’ll fix the problem, but you’ll be able to get more leverage into there with a socket extension (assuming you’re not already using one). You’ll be able to press down hard on the ratchet while holding it in a better position, such that it’s not really going to be possible for the socket to slip off (I’m guessing at what’s happening from your description). Just looked at that video and heh I used to have the same bike. I don’t remember the exact tool clearances for the drain bolt but from the video I can see it being a problem if you are using a ratchet without an extension. Good luck, don’t do anything drastic, and remember you can usually get through any problem like this with some thought and playing around.
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Apr 9, 2023 23:13
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Don’t you love it when two problems combine to make diagnosis impossible? Today I switched from new EBC clutch springs (15% stiffer than stock!) back to OEM Honda springs. I no longer need to fully death-clench to sit at a light, and I can easily clutch up with one finger, so I doubt that “15%” number. Not sure what to do with my left hand’s new super-strength, it’ll probably fade in time though.
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Apr 18, 2023 18:50
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I found some NOS Race Tech emulators from circa 1995 for $50, and today I put them onto my circa 1995 CB750. The construction and tuning of these old emulators was different than today's, but luckily between the laserwriter graphs and printouts from Race Tech and old usenet archives I was able to piece something together. Along the way I realized that when I rebuilt my forks 4 years ago I made a lot of mistakes: progressive springs were upside down (supposedly changes the oil behavior with the extra displacement), I had way too much preload, and the oil in there was lighter than it should have been. Impossible to tell how much improvement I'm getting from the emulators vs just fixing those things. I took it on a quick test ride on an expansion-jointed road and the sharp shocks are a lot more muted. The fork dive is also lessened which I expected (though wasn't necessarily seeking; I kinda like brake dive  ). Overall A+ would do again.As a gift enjoy these bold old graphics: 
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Apr 20, 2023 23:11
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Good to know. Specifically I went from ATF to Bel-Ray 15W but like you said nothing I’m doing matters enough to worry over. Bike seems less bone-shakey now on quick hard bumps so I’m happy.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:54
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Speaking of disasters or huge success, I want to restore the gas tank on my bike, but I also want to ride my bike which needs a gas tank. The solution was to find some beater tank to practice on, then once that tank's fixed up I can swap them and work on my real tank. Looking on ebay most tanks in any kind of savable condition were in the $200+ range, and still had a lot of damage. This one guy had his tank marked down to $100, but had an obvious... hole? that worried me:  Was that a sticker? Or a bullet hole? Or just a sharp jab that popped all the paint in the area? I'm comfortable soldering pinholes but never done any brazing, so I wasn't looking forward to closing a hole of that size. I guess if it's just a sharp dent I could fill it with putty and sand it down. I kept an eye on the tank for a few months, and it never sold. Guess the lovely bullet hole pics were scaring everyone else off. Finally I figured I'd buy it and fix whatever it was. It was a sticker. This guy probably cost himself $100 by not peeling the stupid thing off before taking photos.  Next up:
Should be a good time!
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Apr 27, 2023 03:39
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Took the Nighthawk on an ill-advised nightmare of an offroad trip into the O-Wi-Yu-Kuts mountains. Started off pretty easy  It's been a wet year, and things are getting mad rutty  Not pictured is the 8% grade here. No kickstand because I'm stuck in a rut halfway to my axles, took a while to lever this out and get moving again. Some context on this photo, I'm about 1/3 of the way down this mountain and I make it about 1/2 of the way until I start finding obstacles I can't do. There wasn't quite enough room to get turned around in any traditional way, but I got it eventually. I'm about ten miles off of a long dirt road that's itself 30 miles off of anything close to well travelled, but I've got a Spot3 so I'm not completely screwed if I can't get my bike out. It still doesn't feel great thinking about the possibility though.  Afternoon rain's coming. It's been a wet year.  I'm halfway up another route and my rear tire starts slipping. You can see the grade's pretty severe and I don't have tread on these tires. The rain is softening up the clay that is everywhere in this part of Utah. The rock chock is there because everything keeps sliding. Cargo is off the bike so I can schlepp it up the canyon by hand. The phone is color correcting this; this clay/dirt should be bright red. If you've been to Utah you know the stuff. It's this point I realize I can barely climb this route, but there's no way I can descend without the front or rear sliding out on me. It's the only way out; I know because I tried the other two routes and couldn't make them. This idea definitely doesn't keep me up all night.  800km into this trip and I'm stopped 1km from my goal. This is spring-fed and won't dry up, and my feet sink to almost the top of my boots. From here I unload the bike and carry my camp gear to a field just past the aspen forest.   Camping was good, no bugs, never saw another human being the last 30 miles of the trip. Next day I got up and rode out, figuring out techniques as I went until I was through the impossible part. I haven't really done much off-road riding, but doing this taught me quick. Somehow I never dumped the bike, good thing because I was worried about fuel and didn't want to lose what was in the bowls. 10/10 would recommend, I'm never doing this one again. Ulf fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 7, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 18:27
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Dang. I popped the fuse of my accessory circuit once trying to cross Utah right after a blizzard. Took a lot of miles to realize that/why/how my heated gear wasn’t warming me anymore. Made it to Green River and had enough finger function to swap another 15A fuse in — I think it was a spare sitting in the block so I didn’t even need to sacrifice anything like lights; thanks Honda! Edit: ‘97 so they were bladed mini-fuses, that Loves didn’t have them but I bet someone in town would have. Ulf fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Dec 14, 2023 |
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Dec 14, 2023 08:39
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TotalLossBrain posted:I'm working on putting my V-Strom back together after a fried stator.
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Jan 9, 2024 00:01
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