what have you done to your "bike" today

[Watty]

Looking good Watty!

Cheers Mav

[Watty]

Yep they do look great ( want to do mine ?)

If only i'd done them myself ,i only prepped them mate, sub contracted the painting out

[Kev L]

Good job Watty, looks really nice

[Watty]

Good job Watty, looks really nice

Cheers Kev, feels good i'm putting back together now .

[TravisZack]

Wired in the sat-nav power cable exciting huh?!

[tony.mon]

The Std springs are usually a little too stiff for most people, .

Tony, did you get front and back mixed up? Front too soft rear to hard in my mind?

Ah yes, well spotted, apart from that I know what i'm on about....possibly.

The front spring IS too soft for most people of a normal weight- 12.5 stone+. The front end bottoms out under braking, especially if you are braking on an uneven surface, or over potholes.
But the rear IS too hard- not what I said in my earlier post.

Cheers, Al, lucky someone's still awake.

[tony.mon]

Fitted a replacement set of clocks, with Wicky white speedo. Looks good, but I'll wait until I ride it in the dark to see if I like it, I fitted some Cree 7w LED's which are slightly longer than the lamps fitted as standard, and as they have a little lens on the end you get a glowing spot at around 90 MPH, useful enough I guess.

The new set has less mileage, so it's added value to the bike!

On the other hand I bolloc*ed a set of carbs, trying to unscrew the fuel/air screws they both stuck and the little cross-cut straight sections sheared off. Undeterred, I drilled holes in the centre and used an easy-out; that just snapped the surround, and failed to get the screws out. i suspect they screw in to remove, not out, but I am annoyed that I wrecked a set of carbs for no good reason.
Having said that i have removed the TPS, they are always in demand.

So the fancy adjusters that Al brought over are still not fitted.

Good job it was a spare set, and not the ones on the bike.

Fitted a new set a flush mount front indys to replace the slightly scratched one, had to do the pair as the old ones had orange lenses and the new ones are clear with orange lamps.

Sorted out th LH link pipe to system joint, which has been blowing and popping for weeks. Couldn't understand why it wouldn't tighten, but then realised that the clamp was just big enough that all of the adjustment range was used up slightly before it actually clamped the outer onto the inner- it looked like it did but wasn't quite tight enough. So I bodged a little shim inside it, nice and tight now. MOT time next week, so best make sure it's not blowing. They're lenient but I can't take the pi55, really, especially as the fella goes quite deaf when i wheel it in.....

[VTRDark]

The new set has less mileage, so it's added value to the bike!

Unfortunately that don't work these days as it's marked down on mots where one can check up on all previous mots before purchasing as we live in a digital world. Not that you will end up selling her anyway. What you want is low mileage to begin with and have a 2nd set of clocks you use on a day to day basis, then when it comes up to mot time put the low mileage clocks on, maybe do 100miles so it looks realistic, get mot, then put other clocks with higher mileage back on. By the time you have done 100,000 you low mileage clocks will say 25,000 you'll raise it's value more by washing it.

(:-})

[8541Hawk]

Today I upped the preload on the rear shock as I had it set to soft and it wasn't returning fast enough then set the damper on the 4th click feels much better .
Just need to strip the forks and refill with heavier oil as they return to fast even on max turns in

What sag numbers are you running?

[8541Hawk]

Different strokes for different folks- the way you ride, how hard you are on the brakes, how much you lean it over- all of these affect an ideal setting- it's personal, otherwise there would be one setting and we'd all have that set up.

Very true,

Now for the "Air Gap" and why it is actually important (even more so if you run USD forks with the down stops removed)
What it does in the forks is act as an "Air Spring" and when set correctly is what stops the fork travel (or "bottoms" them) before any mechanical bits hit each other.

On standard forks it isn't as critical but if you feel the front bottoming under normal conditions, then raise the oil level 5-10mm
If you don't use the entire suspension travel, lower the level by the same amount.

Keep the adjustments small and write down what you have done so the next time you won't need to do it all again.
This is also why you see the zip tie, or whatever you guys call them, on the fork tube.

It is an easy way to keep track of you total front suspension travel.

Now on USD forks, this is much more critical especially on reworked forks with the down stop removed.
These are removed as they stop the fork travel about 20-25mm sooner than they need.
The down side is if you do bottom the forks without them, you can damage the valves,

Also I find it just too much of a PITA to measure the level in USD forks as it requires taking the cartridge apart to get the spring out and with as heavy of springs that I run and cut top out springs it can be a challenge to break them down by yourself.

So the first time I set the level and kept track of how much fluid was used and now just fill them by volume.
And when you make your Air Gap adjustments, go 10cc at a time and like all things write it down in, as we used to say in the Corps, your D.O.P.E. book (Data On Personal Equipment).

While it can be a bit of a pain to get the gap set right, it is a one time thing and once you have "Your" numbers, you should be good until you mod something.......

[lloydie]

Today I upped the preload on the rear shock as I had it set to soft and it wasn't returning fast enough then set the damper on the 4th click feels much better .
Just need to strip the forks and refill with heavier oil as they return to fast even on max turns in

What sag numbers are you running?

No idea now ! I'm going by feel

[lloydie]

Today I stripped the forks as they really didn't feel right.
I rebuilt them with heaver oil 10w and now I have dampening again with a full 5 turns in where as before I had 3 on the left leg and 7 on the right how I messed that up I don't know .
I also replaced all o rings and checked the bushes and tubes to make sure there still good and they were .
I also collected a fuel pump and a rear scrub :-)

Just need to set the front and rear sag now but it's a little hard on me own :-(

[Ckennedy]

I'll help you with yours if you'll help me with mine

Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk

[lloydie]

I'll help you with yours if you'll help me with mine

Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Tapatalk

Sounds like a kids game !!!

Sure sounds good

[mattycoops43]

Made some phone calls.

Powder coated wheels and subframe ready tomorrow, as is the recovered seat. Set of Stainless bolts arriving at my local bearing place (cheaper than fleabay) and tyres are there waiting at tyre place.

Going to be a busy day tomorrow and I have two days off.