Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[steam-powered man]

after buffing the rear rack, bag support and grab bar chrome i re-wired the hard bag auxiliary lights and cleaned the rest of the rear lighting connections. 

egad!  am diving deep into the headlight bucket tonight to clean all connections.  i s'pose tomorrow when i try the horn, the left winker will flash 

 

[Terry in Australia]

Well I finished installing the braided stainless front brake lines on my BMW K1100LT, I've got new lines for the rear as well, but it became such a PITA to do the front that I decided I'll do them later.

Because the bike has ABS, the flexible line from the MC goes down under the frame top tubes, then connects with a hard line into the ABS modulator beside the rear wheel, then another hard line comes out just in front of the fairing above the radiator, where it is connected to another flexible line that goes down to a splitter on top of the fork brace, where two more flexible lines carry the fluid to the calipers.

Due to the 6 feet or so of brake lines travelling around the perimeter of the bike, it is necessary to bleed the modulator first to remove any air trapped in the three feet of line between the MC and the modulator, and then at each caliper after that. Even with my mighty new Mityvac tool, it took ages to do.

All seems to be working well now, this job came about due to a problem I had where the brakes would stay on even after releasing the lever, until the bike came to a halt. Needless to say, it was pretty scary, and I was abused by a couple of drivers for pulling up to a dead stop 30 feet from a set of traffic lights with nothing in between me and the lights more than once, so it was a toss up whether the bike would kill me, or an irate driver. Luckily enough, we don't have that many gun toting motorists here in Oz, or I probably wouldn't have a head by now.

So finally, the BMW K1100LT is a wonderful bike, capable of criss-crossing any continent in the world in absolute comfort and style, 500 mile days are a walk in the park, and 1000 mile days are a possibilty if you can stay awake that long. However, the problem of brake lines on 17 year old BMW's internally collapsing is starting to become common, so if anyone is contemplating buying one of these bikes as a winter alternative to their trusty CB750's, beware, if the lines haven't been replaced it's a big job, so either walk away, or be prepared to spend a couple of hundred bucks and at least one full day to fix it.

BTW, the braided stainless lines that I bought from "Motobins" in England, were much cheaper than the OEM rubber lines from BMW. Cheers, Terry.  

[Narsist]

let my wife take her first ride on a motor cycle. She didnt kill it once. good day.

[von_Wanderlust]

Mixed up some home brew ATF-Acetone penetrating oil to try and remove the bolt in my fork leg that sheared in half. Fingers crossed it will work, have let it sit and will give it a try tomorrow with a drilled hole and an allen key (someone on the forums posted that idea, but I can't remember who).

[Industrial Cafe]

I did this in preparation for the inevitable-

[Ryan 550k]

I did this in preparation for the inevitable-

If this is a dumb question I apologize.  What's the inevitable?

[mcpuffett]

Took my F1 for a quick 20 mile blast this afternoon,  went to the petrol station and put £10 in it just under 2 gallons at todays prices  , had nothing but rain for the last 2 weeks and then a hard frost the night before last  , was a bit cold and the roads were a bit damp but it made a nice change to get a ride in
   

[Terry in Australia]

Mixed up some home brew ATF-Acetone penetrating oil to try and remove the bolt in my fork leg that sheared in half. Fingers crossed it will work, have let it sit and will give it a try tomorrow with a drilled hole and an allen key (someone on the forums posted that idea, but I can't remember who).

Be aware, Vee-Dub, that it's more likely your bolt busted due to it being the wrong length and snaapped due to being "over-tightened", than "electrolysis" causing it to chemically weld itself into the aluminium slider. This is pretty common on our bikes, particularly here in Oz with our "near enough is good enough" attitude, so while I wish you luck with Lloyd's patented penetrating fluid, I reckon you'll be reaching for an "easy out" before long. Cheers, Terry.    

[Industrial Cafe]

If this is a dumb question I apologize.  What's the inevitable?

a gsxr1000 front end.
   it seems as though the neck in my bike id too long to accommodate.
small job turning into big job time.

[von_Wanderlust]

Mixed up some home brew ATF-Acetone penetrating oil to try and remove the bolt in my fork leg that sheared in half. Fingers crossed it will work, have let it sit and will give it a try tomorrow with a drilled hole and an allen key (someone on the forums posted that idea, but I can't remember who).

Be aware, Vee-Dub, that it's more likely your bolt busted due to it being the wrong length and snaapped due to being "over-tightened", than "electrolysis" causing it to chemically weld itself into the aluminium slider. This is pretty common on our bikes, particularly here in Oz with our "near enough is good enough" attitude, so while I wish you luck with Lloyd's patented penetrating fluid, I reckon you'll be reaching for an "easy out" before long. Cheers, Terry.    

I think you were right Terry. But not to worry, "she'll be right mate"! The bad thing about having 3 baskets of bits is that I have nothing to ride, but the good thing is that if one part starts playing up, I can swap her for another. I grabbed one of the other set of forks and to be honest they are in much better condition and don't have junk paint on them either. I didn't choose them initially because they were at the bottom of the pile, serves me right for being lazy. 

[brycegp]

Today, I...

1: Removed the entire front end.
2: Removed old oil tank...new custom billet tank going under the seat...oh yeah.
3: Pulled the motor for cleaning and painting/polishing.
4: Took an angle grinder to the frame...cut off stock exhaust mounts, extra mounting tabs, and shortened the rear frame rails.  (yes, i will weld in new cross brace for support...)

Before and after pics, below...

[cookindaddy]

Nice workshop! (Bike is pretty nice too!)

[Terry in Australia]

I sold my Laverda on EBay. It's a great bike and I've only had it for 5 weeks, so I should be sad, but as it panned out I made over 125 bucks a day profit for the 35-odd days that I've owned it, so I can't be too upset. I very rarely ever make money out of bikes when I sell them, so this is a nice change.   

I was gonna buy some more performance parts for my Triumph Rocket III, but a mate has offered to trade his Harley Road King for it, so I'm sorely tempted. I love the rocket but it's gonna either kill me or kill my license, so I told him I'll think about it. I've ridden the Harley before and I liked it, so I really will think about it, it'll look nice parked with my Honda's. Cheers, Terry.

[Retro Rocket]

Crossing over to the dark side mate?.....Can't quite picture you on a Hardly Desirable.....

Mick

[mcpuffett]

G'day Terry , i think you should keep the rocket mate  cheers Mick.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, thanks guys, I'm still thinking about it, but unlike a lot of "Harley Haters" here, I like all bikes (but obviously some more than others) so I don't have any prejudices. I had a Sporty back in the 1980's and loved it but couldn't afford the insurance, so one of the few benefits of knocking on the door of 50 is that I now can. Don't worry, I'll be keeping at least one CB750 and my trusty old Suzuki GS1000S, so I won't become a "Honda Hater" either.

[bucky katt]

one thing to look for on that HD Terry is the stock camchain tensioners in those tended to wear our prematurely (less than 20,000 miles) look for little bits of whitish plastic in the oil when you drain it as well as cut the filter apart when changing it.

[Terry in Australia]

one thing to look for on that HD Terry is the stock camchain tensioners in those tended to wear our prematurely (less than 20,000 miles) look for little bits of whitish plastic in the oil when you drain it as well as cut the filter apart when changing it.

Thanks Fuzzy, and you're dead right, my mate was gutted earlier this year when the cam chain tensioner shat itself and he (who doesn't do his own mechanical work) had to fork out $$$ to get it replaced. What else goes wrong with them? Cheers, Terry.

[bucky katt]

the cam bearing plates are the other weak point in those motors. i have put in new, heavy duty ones in several of my friends bike. the best of the lot is from a company called Fueling. it might not go bad but if i had one i would change over to gear driven cams and a heavy duty cam bearing plate from Fueling to get rid of the 2 major problems in the twin cam big twin harley.


heres one on ebay to give you an idea of what youre looking at.  Delkron also does a decent heavy duty bearing plate
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360165683412&crlp=1_263602_263622&ff4=263602_263622&viewitem=&guid=5a79f5961250a02652b6ca56ffa796d7&rvr_id=&ua=WVF%3F&itemid=360165683412

[bucky katt]

i changed the oil and filter, i put castrol edge synthetic in to see what happened. it's alot quieter now and no clutch slippage yet

[Industrial Cafe]

I got a parts bike today for 50 bucks!

[bucky katt]

i wanted to pull the plugs out on fuzzycycle to see what they looked like after running for a couple hundred miles on the modified plugs as described on the cyclexchange site. with that as the only change the modified plugs are obviously burning alot more fuel than the stock d8ea's i am going to have to go up a size or 2 on the main jets to richen it up a bit as the plugs are nearly pure white

[clayman74]

fabricated a new exhaust hanger. shimmed the loose clutch lever. thought about how im still to broke to do what i REALLY want.  

[Hush]

Rode it like I stole it, wound the speedo past it's top speed of 80 mph, did that down 3 nice highway straights even with a nasty cross wind  that's what I did to my bike today. 

[MJL]

Today I pulled apart the starter clutch on my KZ, only to find that it's going to be hard to find new parts to fix it.

I also talked to a guy on craigslist who has a Honda 754 for sale, $400.  When I talked to him he told me a guy was coming in the morning to buy it, but I said I'd call at noon to see if he sold it.  I'd like another 750 but I kinda hope he sells it, I don't have a lot of room for another bike.