Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[Terry in Australia]

Well it was a fantastic day today, the sun was shining, and for the first time in ages, it was warm! I've got boxes full of parts that I bought for my bikes over the winter, but was too pissed off with the weather to bother installing, but today I decided to give my Suzuki GS1000 a birthday, with new 530 chain and sprocket conversion, new "Euro" bars, and grippy grips.



Everything went well, although I was surprised to find that the sprocket shaft nut was loose, and only held in place by the bent over tab of the lock washer. Oops! The standard gearing is all wrong IMHO, way too low, and the engine is pulling 4500 RPM @60 MPH in 5th gear, so I chose a 17/47 tooth sprocket combo to drop the revs in top gear for less RPM's and better fuel economy too.





Being such a great day, I couldn't just fix it and park it, so around 3 pm, I took it for a blast up into the mountains via to my favourite set of twisties. The temperature was a tad cooler, but concentrating on not throwing the old beast away in the multitude of 10-30 MPH corners while trying to get around them at double the posted speed was keeping me warm. I stopped to take some pics, then enjoyed the ride back home again.

The new gearing had done the trick, it now pulls 3500 RPM @ 60 MPH, and will happily pull from as low as 10 MPH in top gear without any stumbling. I couldn't believe how much smoother it felt with the new chain and sprockets, it was quite surprising. Like any old project bike though, there were a couple of issues, it's still running too rich so feels "fluffy" down low, the left handlebar switch needs replacing (damn blinkers won't go off like they should, which almost caused me to crash into a car) and I need to crank the rear shock spring preload a tad, 'cos I'm a fat bastard!





I love the new bars and grips!



I realised that I hadn't had lunch, and by now it was dinner time, so I drove around to my local pizza shop and ordered a "Terry Special", and washed this baby down with some Chivas and coke. All in all, a truly wonderful day! Cheers, Terry.

[dhall57]

Glad you had such a good day Terry. Life is good isn't it How's your belly, need a couple of Tums

Rode the K6 to work yesterday. Love this bike, it seems to like running down the hwy at 80mph. It could run like that all day long I think.

Got to get the new rear wheel bearings put on the KO today. Its been sitting for a few weeks now. That whats great about having more than one bike. If you don't feel like working on one just jump on the other one and take off.

[dave500]

did you eat that terry?that looks like one of those fake vomits!

[Dimitri13]

Someone's jealous

[dave500]

of that technicolor yawn?

[Terry in Australia]

Fcuk off Dave, it was beautiful, and I ate the whole thing!

Glad you had such a good day Terry. Life is good isn't it How's your belly, need a couple of Tums

Rode the K6 to work yesterday. Love this bike, it seems to like running down the hwy at 80mph. It could run like that all day long I think.

Got to get the new rear wheel bearings put on the KO today. Its been sitting for a few weeks now. That whats great about having more than one bike. If you don't feel like working on one just jump on the other one and take off.

Thanks mate, and you're right, the only problem with having four complete bikes (and that many again, in parts) is that I tend to just go for a ride and leave the "repair jobs" for when I'm feeling really guilty for riding too much and not wrenching enough............

[DJ_AX]

... nice 

I went shopping for a few small things
+ good oil... the best for these bikes! 
(not shown in picture 'cause then everyone'd know)

[Terry in Australia]

... nice 

I went shopping for a few small things
+ good oil... the best for these bikes! 
(not shown in picture 'cause then everyone'd know)

What's the tap for mate?

[DJ_AX]

What's the tap for mate?

You know for like... cuttin' grooves on the insides of holes and stuff... jk
Got some stubborn plug threads... I know I know... that's a 14mm in the picture... 

[Dimitri13]

Removed all the gear shift pieces. Just need to remove the starter motor and I'll be ready to split the cases (after I remove them from the frame, of course).

[Terry in Australia]

'Twas another beautiful day today, not quite as warm as yesterday, but still, excellent riding weather. I rode over to my mate John's place, and we rode together up the mountains thru Kinglake over to Healesville, where we had a "Devonshire Tea", and a good yack.

Sadly, John told me that one of my old hero's, Andrew Johnson, "AJ", a Honda racer, had died on Friday. AJ was a good mate of John's, and John told me that in recent years AJ's life had pretty much fallen apart and last time John had seen him he was living in someone's garage, which is no way for a legend to end his days.

Anyway, apart from that sad news we still had a great ride. John has a new 2012 Goldwing, it was the first one in Australia, having been brought over from the US for Australian compliance testing. John, through his contacts in Honda, bought this bike at a very good price, and it really is an amazing thing, there are more knobs and dials on this thing than a Jumbo Jet, and I was surprised at how well it handled. John is an excellent rider, and he kept up the pace through some very tight twisties, dodging around errant bicyclists who seemed to be everywhere today.





When we got back to John's place he took me into his wonderful garage and showed me a couple of new additions, his recently rebuilt CB1100R engine, (he has 3 CB1100R's) and the engine out of one of his 2 CBX's.





I impressed upon John the need to "thin the herd" and give me one of his CB1100R's, but I don't think that he was listening, which is a shame, as I'm sure I could find the room for one if I had to. Oh well, I'll keep working on him, you never know.........

[dave500]

any idea what those cbx engine weigh?the crank alone must be heavy!ha cyclists,before we had these green earth freindly trucks once i got past them id load the engine and make it belch thick heavy soot with the turbo howling if they had pissed me off.

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Dave, I asked John that very question mate, but he didn't know either. It's amazing how wide they are compared to the bigger CB1100R engines, He recently bought two CBX's, including an old race bike, plus a heap of NOS CBX and CB1100R parts from a shop in Sydney that was closing down, for 18 grand. I think he did well.

Those cyclists are a pain in the butt, yes I know cycling is great for fitness, blah, blah, blah, but those guys were riding 2 or 3 abreast on the road up to Kinglake, effectively blocking the road, and how is it that they don't have to have mirrors on their bikes so they can see cars and motorcycles coming, so they can get out of the damned way?  Cheers, Terry.

[dave500]

he got a good deal on that gear!!i had a cyclist spit at our old acco a long time ago,,so i loaded the engine and smogged him out,when it gained speed i slowed down and did it over a few times,he seemed like he was racing to beat his best time or something and id slowed him down at a round about?,id like to see his chest xray after that episode?

[maduncle]

Glad you had such a good weekend Terry, you deserve it mate!

Mine was spent tinkering with the CB450 project and picking up a heap of CB450 parts I bought off eBay - an almost mint original condition K1 tank, and a CB450 engine with a whole box laod of spares including six carbs, an excellent condition throttle cable, and a pretty good K0 stator cover.

Today was an early start with a trip to a local annual swap meet - no bike bits but I did pick up another old helmet for the collection (and a heap of old stuff for our shop).

Finished the day by starting the CB450 head rebuild - much easier with another built head sitting next to me as a guide.

[Brookesy in Oz]

Nothing on the bike today - a few jobs around the house.
Got a few interesting replies to my posts though.

Sad to hear about A.J. he's a hero of mine from that era.

[Terry in Australia]

Glad you had such a good weekend Terry, you deserve it mate!

Mine was spent tinkering with the CB450 project and picking up a heap of CB450 parts I bought off eBay - an almost mint original condition K1 tank, and a CB450 engine with a whole box laod of spares including six carbs, an excellent condition throttle cable, and a pretty good K0 stator cover.

Today was an early start with a trip to a local annual swap meet - no bike bits but I did pick up another old helmet for the collection (and a heap of old stuff for our shop).

Finished the day by starting the CB450 head rebuild - much easier with another built head sitting next to me as a guide.

Thanks Cliff, and congrats on scoring all those 450 bits, you've done well! Cheers, Terry.

[Markcb750]

Yesterday I prepped the body parts of my 900F, including stripping the tank to bare metal because that was the easiest way to remove the stripe decals.  I then painted the tank with some two part epoxy primer after filling the little dents.  Thanks to John for allowing me to "borrow" the primer as I had not set out to strip the tank.


Today It is my intent to have all parts primed, wet sanded, then base- clear coated, The Tank is going to be tight as I have to let the epoxy harden.  wife at Grandsons this weekend and the Honey Do distractions, and the cooler weather has slowed down the f'n grass.

Want to be ready for some shake down runs before we ride to Barber on the 11th of October.  Would not want to make a 1000 mile run without a few quick trips to check out a machine I have had down to the frame & back.

Looking forward to getting to know this Machine. 

Update:

7:30 am to 6:00 pm  Done

[fire113]

...did a set of K2 gauges.

[Dimitri13]

Finally got the cases split. Who knew you had to remove the pistons to get the top case off. Hehe.

It was dark outside by the time I got them split so I couldn't really assess the damage.

[DJ_AX]

After a chilly ride to work this morning on the 550... I discovered that a squirrel has hidden a snack on it.

[70CB750]

Replaced front wheel bearings.

[LoVel]

Replaced my ignition switch with an extra one I just happened to have.  Looks like I willl need a soldering iron to fix the one that doesn't work.

[DJ_AX]

Polished the valve cover... 

[ksteve]

I'd say it looks more dirtbike than cafe, sitting on the milk crate

On an unrelated note, I dropped the oil pan and found this

That's ugly! Did you put a magnet to it to see if it's ferrous or aluminum?