A apart of being a student means living on each dollar! One day, unless you want to "park" one of your bikes here... forever, I'm all for that
So today I completed my last exam today, so as soon as I got home I got right into it. I started off by removing the front and rear wheels, forks and brake calipers. For the next few weeks, hopefully It won't take too long I'll be doing the following: Fitting Sava MC50 Tyres Powder coating wheels, forks, triple tree Fork seals Fitting Fork cap adjusters Front and rear wheel bearings Steering head bearings New Clutch, throttle and choke cables New adjustable levers This is where I am up to The problem is, if i am to do the steering head bearings, how the crap do i hold the front end up??? Damnit! Any suggestions guys??
Looking good mate, Head bearings are fun, Get the back wheel on and use a trolley jack under the engine to lift the front up
Yea do the rear end first to get the weight there and a bit of stability You can also just chock under the motor with something solid and lower it down on to it with the stand When u remove the old tyres , keep 1 to lay the wheels on (flat on the ground) for when u work on them
So i ended up taking off the headers, to have the jack sit more in the centre, that was stable enough so i was able to take off the triple clamps. Just dropped off the wheels, triple clamps and forks to get powder coated! $180 for the lot, not bad I think. It'll be ready in a weeks time. So in the mean time i'm going to quickly service the brake calipers (pistons are a little dirty) and polish the fork tubes. Still waiting on the new adjustable levers to arrive, hopefully it won't be any longer.
Today i got back my powdercoated bits, minor set back was they 'forgot' to tape the face that contacts with the rotors on the front wheel, so i had to file back the powder coating, as well as cleaning out all the threads with a tap. Wheel bearings are in now soon ill get the wheels fitted. Waiting on an O-ring for the rear wheel hub from Honda. Started doing the fork seals, i got one done, but i decided i would try a different route when installing the new collars. I decided i would knock in the upper collar (#9) first and squeeze the lower collar (#9) inside and simply just slam the inner tube down the fork and it'll all work.... NOPE. Now i have 2 new collars stuck! and they weren't cheap. Worst of all i can't get them out. Why did i do this to myself Anyone able to chime in on what i can do? Fed up with it now so im taking a breather.
Maybe hook them out with two pieces of wire. If still stuck you may need a slide hammer with reversed jaws to get inside the bushes and 'slide' them out.
Thanks to a much needed push by David, I managed to remove the trapped collar bushings! So i finished off the forks with the fork cap adjusters, YUM I ended up sanding down the exhaust headers roughly while i was waiting for the parts to be powder coated, i kind of like the 'raw' steel look. Ill probably paint it later I picked up the powder coated parts, and first thing to do was fit the new wheel bearing and seals, and fit the tyres You should have seen what the wheels looked like before! Old mate had just sprayed some paint over the top without any prep work, made me cringe every time i looked at it. Here it is all fitted, i decided i would use a white paint pen on the side walls, turned out alright i reckon. Struggled a fair bit to pressurise the MC, but surely after some googling I got it done. Triple tree is nice and shiny! Used to have paint flaking all over with all sorts of rust! And check out the fork cap adjusters! Found out that neither a 8mm or 7mm socket would fit, what the crap, even tried imperial sockets. Im stumped haha! It was all done so i took it for a slow ride just to make sure everything was alright, found out i must of been a bit rough with the loom and something is not having consistent contact, making the dash lights go off and on. Was a steep learning curve for me in some ways, but i'm glad it has been done, new bearings make a major difference, less rolling resistance, and the front suspension actually works!
Well done mate, awesome job and your bike looks great After all your hard work....you deserve a good ride ENJOY
Cheers guys, next up Carb clean with litetek seals Valve clearances Fitting new clutch, throttle and choke cables Adjustable levers Then i can really feel confident when i sling it around will start saving for some leathers for future track days, cant wait!
I haven't made any updates in a while because I have been busy with uni and work. But i found a bargain on metal gear front rotors including organic pads for only $209 posted SCORE! It had a warped left rotor for a while so im glad i can finally get this sorted, also these 'Sumo Pads' that the seller threw in with the bike were terrible, pad thickness was almost double than the metal gear's, and caliper pin holes required enlarging. Also ridiculous amounts of brake dust from these, so a warning to those who are buying pads. Sumo pads suck. Went on to fitting them and noticed my caliper bolts are a little stretched possibly from being over tightened so they were replaced. Oops, Should use the torque wrench! Went for a spin to bed in the rotors, all seemed well. When i got home i had another look to make sure everything was in check, and noticed something; -Uneven wear on LHS Inner rotor face -Gap between LHS (Small) spacer and fork -Pads sitting differently compared to RHS Anyone know what i can do ? Is it normal? Maybe a misaligned fork ? Here are some photos of what I'm trying to get across. *LHS (with small spacer) gap can be seen VS *RHS (with large spacer) No gap *LHS Brake pads (Sitting further Inside) VS RHS Brake pads (Sits further Outside) *Uneven inner rotor face wear on LHS rotor (that band of 'no wear' is from spoke to spoke seen in photo)
I did this recently, no the pads don't line up perfectly. Yes the clear looking line thing will happen. It will take time for the organic pads to seat properly. I wouldn't stress too much tbh. http://ebcbrakes.com/articles/bedding-in-new-motorcycle-pads-and-rotors/
Okay, that makes me feel better. I have a 1-1.5mm gap between the spacer and fork on the Left hand side is yours like that too?
I took some photos of mine for reference but i see no gap as such. Your discs if they are metal gear also dont look the same as mine. Mine had a black inside that say metal gear on them.