Topic: What did you do to your bike today ?

[WhyNot2]

Felt something strange while riding, so decided to investigate.

Put it up on the center stand and it has side to side movement in the swing arm,

And the chain had a couple of imperfections, to say the least.

Needless to say, off came the chain and swing arm for bushing replacement and new chain.

[strynboen]

just ride ..and meet the family on the camping..nice to sleep inside..

[jawntybull]

Passed the 1000km run-in milestone after rings / valves overhaul, coming back over the blue mountains into Sydney. Stretched her to 6000rpm and she's starting to yowl beautifully - love those four pipes!

[Dimitri13]

Bought a set of stainless steel allen head bolts for my float bowls (M4x10 .80 pitch), and got some M5x10s for the one that I stripped the threads out of (gasket got pinched and stressed the threads) to fix up my leaky bowl. Also bought new float bowl gaskets.

Sealed up all the joints on my Two Brothers exhaust. Sounds pretty nice. Got my 40 slows in today too so I'll be rejetting (gonna try 115/40) when I do the above. I have a feeling I'll end up with 110/38 though.. Maybe even 115/38, because in the garage, the top end still sounds pretty smooth.

Dmitri, what carbs you have? 22a or the 69's? 115 seems really high for a 550.... Where did you get your stainless steel allen head set?

I have 022A. I also have velocity stacks (don't shoot me), so 115 was pretty for those and the straight pipe I had. When I said "stainless steel allen head bolts" I mean 'bolts that are stainless steel with an allen head." I got three sets of four M4x10 .80 pitch, and one set of four M5x10 .80 (I think) pitch, from the loose bolt cabinets at City Mill (a local hardware chain). The M5 bolts were not stainless steel, but black, because the shortest SS ones were I think M5x15, and I didn't feel like cutting bolts . Cost me about $10 for the 16. I'm sure Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace, etc. will have them, since .80 pitch is the standard thread.

[Stev-o]

Tews - start shopping for a new tank.

[Dimitri13]

Mounted my seat pad:



Replaced the float bowl screws with stainless steel allen heads:



Tapped new threads (M5x.80) on the carb body with stripped threads.



While I had the carbs apart I also rejetted (115/40), and replaced the float bowl gaskets. Rode it for a while, and feels like the mains need to get dropped down to 110. The slows at 40 feel great, MAY try 38s.

[jerry h]

Feels like I finally hit rock bottom, and there's nowhere to go but up from here on my K2 resto.... cases painted   -yeah!!





After that it didn't take much convincing to take daughter #2 out for a little spin around the neighborhood with the 650 

[fire113]

...took the K0 and the K2 for a ride, did the first 20 Miles with the K0, Yes I know it is km/h faceplate but it was a US speedo and it is still counting in Miles.

[iron_worker]

Got my bike back together this weekend with rebuilt carbs and new chain and sprockets (and recently finished tune up)... went for a ~15-20km ride. Felt awesome to ride again and it's running great. Sunday it rained alllll day so I didn't get to sync my carbs or ride. wah!

IW

[750K]

Adjusted my mixture screws on my 77, was a little lean across the board. Plugs are all tan and looking good now, cold start is smoother. Choke stays on less and it warms up a bit faster I'd say.

Fired up the 78 Kz1000 I brought home a few months back, new plugs, oil change, battery, quick carb clean and fresh gas. Fired right up, idles nice and man does it sound badass! Brakes and a proper carb gasket kit next.

[Picasoo]

changed the rear wheel bearings...!

[CycleRanger]

Me & Stev-o finally met up for a ride.  Nice day, lots of Texas wildflowers!
His 836 K4 just walked away from my pokey stock K5!

[DJ_AX]

Replaced some of the POs wire nuts with solder and heat shrink tube.

[coastertrav]

Just got back from a ride to the Keys over the long weekend. About 800-900 miles round trip, had a blast. The blue one is my '73 CB500-4 with a 550 motor, and the dark grey one is my roommate's '77 CB550.

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

Got it running...close to normal. Did some cruising around and even popped it into 2nd gear.

[kap384@telus.net]

Started my Turbo, started my 'F' and brought my VFR's battery back to life.  Replacing chain and sprockets on VFR, all parts on order.  Chain here tomorrow, but at least a week for sprockets

[Hablo]

Checked resistance on all four of my plug caps....all were over 9k ohms.

Time to replace them.

[cben750f0]

went fr a ride, for about 80km, on the way home the bike was hunting on off throttle, and makeing a racket from the chain area.... cant be the chain, its only 6 months old.... well let this be a lesson, buy a good quality chain, cos this thing stretched that bad, that i had to buy another on the way home, i bought top quality sprockets, but didnt have the cash at the time for a good chain.... long story short, the chain was stuffed.

old chain on the left, new 530 RK o ring on the right...hmmm

one of these things is not like the other



peace

PS and before anyone decides they are gonna flame me for bad chain care, this chain was lubed 2 times a week, but had to deal with daily 24km trip in torrential rain, pretty much 6 days a week (they call it a wet season for a reason), it was cheap ( cos i was broke trying to start my practice), it was non o ring, i think must have only been good for 500cc...lol

remarkably they are both 530 chains, with the same pitch and width at the rollers (i checked i was a fitter/toolmaker in a former life)

[Brown Bomber]

went fr a ride, for about 80km, on the way home the bike was hunting on off throttle, and makeing a racket from the chain area.... cant be the chain, its only 6 months old.... well let this be a lesson, buy a good quality chain, cos this thing stretched that bad, that i had to buy another on the way home, i bought top quality sprockets, but didnt have the cash at the time for a good chain.... long story short, the chain was stuffed.

old chain on the left, new 530 RK o ring on the right...hmmm

one of these things is not like the other



peace

PS and before anyone decides they are gonna flame me for bad chain care, this chain was lubed 2 times a week, but had to deal with daily 24km trip in torrential rain, pretty much 6 days a week (they call it a wet season for a reason), it was cheap ( cos i was broke trying to start my practice), it was non o ring, i think must have only been good for 500cc...lol

remarkably they are both 530 chains, with the same pitch and width at the rollers (i checked i was a fitter/toolmaker in a former life)

Doesn't really surprise me that an o-ring would fail, if the o-rings keep oil in, they can also keep oil out and RK could have had a bad production run and let some get out that weren't properly lubed.
Had some kid behind a sales counter try to tell me o-ring chains are stronger after I explained to him that a 530 chain is a 530 chain and what o-rings and x-rings really do, I had him get me a standard chain. (I don't think they don't like me at that store. )

[MCRider]

BB: reread the post, it was the standard chain that failed. Not the ORing chain.

You should rethink your position on ORing chains. You are correct they are not "stronger" than a standard chain made from the same materials. But give the guy a break he just misspoke. Kinda like saying a chain "stretches" when we all know that's just an appearance, the result of wear.

ORing chains appear stronger since they don't wear nearly as fast as MOST standard chains. IF you compare a cheap ORIng chain to a high quality standard chain that has been scrupulously maintained, the standard chain will appear good.

A 530 chain is not necessarily the same as another 530 chain as they come in different tensile strengths. One would have to do some research in the opposing catalogues to see if one was comparing apples to apples.

The factory OEM standard wouldn't be ORing chains if there weren't significant advantages.  Very few people will maintain a standard chain in the fashion it needs to be.

[cben750f0]

well said MC, the RK is on the right.... and this simple physical size of the side plates, and thickness, AND overall weight, i would expect the RK on the RIGHT to last much long, with the same care i was giving the CHEAPO chain on the LEFT  . Needless to say the weather up here is probably the worse environment in the world ( dont quote me on that), salt air, constant 89%+ humidity, constant rain/puddles/down pours.... my point was i should have ponied up the cash, but i couldnt, and the chain nearly left me stranded. the old chain, and so much side play you could make a nice dome out of it laying sideways.

the New chain is MUCH MUCH quieter, funny how you dont notice the noise sneak up on you.

again thanx MC

peace

[Brown Bomber]

BB: reread the post, it was the standard chain that failed. Not the ORing chain.

OK,  my bad, I missed the statement between the photos in cben's post where he stated which was the new chain and didn't otherwise specify which chain failed and I assumed it was the o-ring because at a glance it looked chewed up, I see it was the white grease.

You should rethink your position on ORing chains. You are correct they are not "stronger" than a standard chain made from the same materials.

If I am correct that "they are not "stronger" than a standard chain made from the same materials." then I don't need to "rethink" anything. I was comparing o-ring to non o-ring, not cheap to high quality, and who are you to tell me what I should do?

But give the guy a break he just misspoke.

Really? Reread my post, where in my post did I say anything about cben? I never criticized cben, I criticized chains.

The NEW factory OEM standard wouldn't be ORing chains if there weren't significant advantages.  Very few people will maintain a standard chain in the fashion it needs to be.

FTFY
     True, most people don't like to get dirty, but like cben stated, "the New chain is MUCH MUCH quieter". When non o-ring chains where the OEM standard, noise wasn't much of a consideration. A big part of the reason for o-rings is to meet noise regulation. With factory exhaust having to be so quiet, a noisy chain makes a huge difference. Of course the aftermarket chain makers are eager to jump on the band wagon with X-ring and so-on, but regardless of how much oil is inside the seal, if the outside of the roller gets dry it will wear and eat up sprockets as fast as a non o-ring. They need lubed as often as a non o-ring.

Do you think manufacturers would use something cheaper and lighter if they could?
     

[WhyNot2]

yes......................

[MCRider]

Apologies for anything offensive. Not my intention and i can see where it could have been thought so.

"Really? Reread my post, where in my post did I say anything about cben? I never criticized cben, I criticized chains."

Didn't mean cben. I meant the "kid behind the sales counter".

Otherwise, I'm out.

[cben750f0]

god i hate the written word sometimes.... its like text messaging... the way you read it, gives the message its context, so miss interpretations happen, i wasnt haveing a go either mate =) was just messin round

glad we got it sorted though...hahahha


peace

oh and the hunting off throttle has gone away also...funny that