What did you do to your bike recently?

[PrivatePilot]

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With many of us with plenty of spare time on our hands right now I know many, like myself, have been working on our bikes for lack of anything better to do.

So, in the interest of having another thread to participate in versus the 2000 Covid related threads here right now, lets discuss....what have you done to your bike today/yesterday/this week/so far this year.

I've had a few projects on the go. Missed my cup holder from my old bike but I couldn't just clamp it onto the handlebars like I could on my old bike due to the shape of the bars and tank, so I disassembled it a little and fabricated a new method to mount it using some stuff out of my junk bins in my garage.


Then after a few rides I started to realize how much I missed my satellite radio from my old bike. I hate fumbling with my phone trying to load/play/maintain playlists and such so I found this old Sirius radio kicking around in one of my other junk bins I organized a few weeks back (when this all started) and did a nice clean install on that.



For now, a ziplock will suffice for waterproofing when needed, but I'll make up something more eloquent eventually for that purpose as well as the "out of sight, out of mind" thing for parking in public places etc.

Aside from that, I've been working on getting everything setup the way I want it now that I'm getting everything from the old bike loaded into the new one.

 

[Brian P]

Yamaha FZR400 stuff (I have two of them, one my retired race bike, the other a street bike that I rebuilt a few years ago).

What I have been procrastinating about for years, was going through all my spare parts and organising them. That took a week of fiddling on and off. I can now get into my storage area and the smaller parts are now categorised in 6 labelled totes. Of course, I found stuff that I didn't know I had, like a mint set of NRC engine covers. I gave those a coat of silver paint to protect them from corrosion and swapped them with the rashed covers that are on my street bike.

I also lubricated the clutch cable, and cleaned and lubricated the clutch lever pivot, and swapped out the clutch pressure plate springs with a lighter set (stock) - there's no need for stiff Barnett clutch springs on a street bike. Of course, that was helped by finding a long-lost set of stock clutch springs while doing the above chore. Test-ride ... much better now.

And next ... Taking some harshness out of the front suspension. I already did part of this last summer but didn't go far enough. I had about 250 mL of Ohlins fork oil left over from building the forks on my race bike. (The Ohlins oil is very light, 5w or less.) I siphoned out as much of the 10w fork oil as I could from the top then split what was left of the Ohlins oil between the two forks, which resulted in lowering the fork oil level and reducing its viscosity. I haven't test-ridden that yet ... maybe this afternoon.

 

[SVeezy]

I hadn’t touched the bike since sometime in maybe November which is not a regular occurrence for me. Had some issues with a non linear front brake which based on some research and help from members here I was expecting to have to rebuild the caliber and/or master cylinder. Well yesterday I charged the battery, fired the old girl up, lubed the lever pivot etc and took her for a short ride. All seems to be smooth which is good. Might still do some brake work but glad to know it isn’t urgent.


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[Mad Mike]

Last night:

FJR - cleaned up an electrical problem with the headlight and fuel pump relays. Dirty contacts.
Goldwing - changed fuel line and filter, removed the timing belt covers for polishing.
TS125 - disassembled rear shocks for cosmetic restoration.

 

[hdsomeday]

.....................

Then after a few rides I started to realize how much I missed my satellite radio from my old bike. I hate fumbling with my phone trying to load/play/maintain playlists and such so I found this old Sirius radio kicking around in one of my other junk bins I organized a few weeks back (when this all started) and did a nice clean install on that.

......................

Where did you put the antennae? and speaker(s) ??

 

[TwistedKestrel]

For now, a ziplock will suffice for waterproofing when needed, but I'll make up something more eloquent eventually for that purpose as well as the "out of sight, out of mind" thing for parking in public places etc.

Do you remember those weird, kinda gross plastic keyboard protectors from the mid 90s? A flexible transparent cover that completely covered a computer keyboard, but still allowed you to type on it? I wonder if there's a way to make something like that... with some combination of heat and vacuum

 

[TK4]

Yamaha FZR400 stuff (I have two of them, one my retired race bike, the other a street bike that I rebuilt a few years ago).
And next ... Taking some harshness out of the front suspension. I already did part of this last summer but didn't go far enough. I had about 250 mL of Ohlins fork oil left over from building the forks on my race bike. (The Ohlins oil is very light, 5w or less.) I siphoned out as much of the 10w fork oil as I could from the top then split what was left of the Ohlins oil between the two forks, which resulted in lowering the fork oil level and reducing its viscosity. I haven't test-ridden that yet ... maybe this afternoon.

I found the RaceTech Suspension site invaluable for basic streetbike setup - spring preload, fork oil level and recommended viscosity.
Back before the dawn of time we just used ATF as a top up fluid if we ran out of real fork oil.

 

[J_F]

tidier, more permanent GPS install
took the nose apart to access the OEM accessory plug
soldered the power supply/ground wire in - no more direct batt connection
OEM fuse in the circuit and turns on/off with key

was not happy with the handle bar clamp mounting kit
cumbersome, ugly and device was in the way
bought a bar clamp bolt with Ram ball on it
tossed half the stuff that was required with handle bar mount
device is now dead centre, closer to me and does not obstruct the cluster

some snoopy MFers here....not showing my address

 

[Brian P]

I found the RaceTech Suspension site invaluable for basic streetbike setup - spring preload, fork oil level and recommended viscosity.
Back before the dawn of time we just used ATF as a top up fluid if we ran out of real fork oil.

The RaceTech valve kit and straight rate fork springs is what's in there. What I've been finding is that their recommended set-up is too harsh for the crap roads around here.

I just got back from a short (cold) test ride. Lighter fork oil and quite a bit lower fluid level than recommended seems to have made a difference. A proper test will have to wait for warmer weather.

 

[Brian P]

J_F Nice job with the GPS, that looks like it belongs there.

 

[blackcamaro]

Well I have two YZ125’s to get ready for the season (are we even getting a riding season ??‍) both bikes will be getting a fresh top end, service the bearings, service the forks, measure clutch plates etc

2 days ago I tore down the 2015 to just frame, forks, shock and wheels. I’ll roll it outside to clean it really well and get a few years worth of junk washed out that’s normally tough to get to. I’ll clean up the engine, rads, subframe, airbox and all that separately then start to build it back up. The 2018 is pretty low hours so it won’t be tore down the same way. Probably an afternoon worth of work on that one if I feel like knocking it out in one day.

Also have a older Ducati Monster I bought that I need to change the timing belts on and fork seals. Don’t have parts on hand and I’m not sure if I’m going to order them now or wait to see if there is some daylight on this whole Covid thing.

@J_F l second how nice that install looks. I normally hate accessories hanging off of bikes/handlebars but that’s clean. Well done.

 

[Hack]

FJR1300ES...
Yesterday I re-ran/re-wired the power supply for my GPS.
I had the power cable running to the acc. plug inside the storage compartment, but... 'Wasn't ideal IMO.

Now the cable is concealed and connects to a switched plug located under the passenger seat.

 

[Michael0124]

Over the past few weeks maintenance consisted of flush and fill coolant, oil and filter change, clean and oil air filter, clean/lube/adjust chain, and replaced brake pads front and rear. Also installed baffles in the mufflers so now it's only slightly annoyingly loud. I'm waiting for packing material to be delivered to repack them, trying to get the noise level down to a semi respectful level.

Decided to reinstall the rear foot pegs and grab handles the previous owner had removed. The pegs were pretty scratched up from loose storage so I sanded, primed and painted them semi gloss black from the original silver, matches up nicely with the frame.


Now I need to get the fork, brake and clutch fluids changed out, and was hoping to get the suspension set up for me but not sure if that will work out any time soon. I'm also wanting to get it on a dyno for some tuning work, previous owner had it set up pretty aggressively and I want to dial it back a bit for reliability and fuel economy sake.

 

[MacDoc]

washed the windscreen - looked at the chain - yup lubed enough - went for a ride. ?

 

[killvino]

built a rack and plate for a givi box i got from a friend, blocks taillight a bit so had to wire up an LED strip to the back of the rack.
made up a mount for R6 projectors on the front and a new license plate mount.
Now just gotta test everything out and make sure nothing falls apart while riding

 

[miggs]

Put some Attack performance rear sets on the street bike.

Next up will be an oil change, fork oil change, flush the coolant, and replace all the rad hoses as they are now 10yrs old.

Track bike just needs the coolant replaced with water and then some detailing.

 

[regder]

Got the bike running after winter hibernation. Didn't want to start on initial try, got her going with new plugs.

Why it's so tight on such a large bike...

 

[happycrappy]

Got super lucky - my bike went for spring service before the outbreak, and I got new tires, oil change, and the knock sensor replaced. A week later they had to close, so I'm pretty thankful my season will be intact

 

[PrivatePilot]

Where did you put the antennae? and speaker(s) ??

Antenna wire runs up through the inside of the fairing and the actual antenna is mounted (magnetically) on a small chrome trim ring under the bottom edge of the Windshield. It wasn't where I'd originally planned to put it but it kind of ended up there temporarily while I was routing wires and then it worked.....so I just left it there as it honestly looks and works good.

Speakers...built into the bike on the front fairing. Hard to see in the pics but on the third pic you can just see the chrome rings around them behind the left handlebar.

 

[PrivatePilot]

Changed the oil for the first time on the new ride yesterday. Discovered that apparently the previous owner had a thing for impact guns as I'm pretty sure both oil drain plugs as well as the oil filter had to have been installed with one. Had to eventually resort to punching a hole in the oil filter with a screwdriver to mangle it off that way as every other tool/attempt was no joy.

What should have been a 20 minute job ended up being a 1.5 hour job.

But it's done. Rotella 15w40 in there now.

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