Inconsequential ramblings of an Old Git

[Skub]

Clubs are great for this stuff.

In the triples club there's a man for keys,carbs and fuel taps,clocks,cranks,decals,oil lines and check valves,stators and ignition,etc.

[mangocrazy]

Clubs are great for this stuff.

In the triples club there's a man for keys,carbs and fuel taps,clocks,cranks,decals,oil lines and check valves,stators and ignition,etc.

Yes, absolutely. I just wish i had access to the level of information and the specialists we now have on special interest forums when I was trying to get my YPVS-powered Hejira 'special' working back in the late 90s. Totally simple things like vacuum fuel taps and how, if you switch to a tank with a standard On/Off/Res fuel tap, you need to blank off the vacuum input on the carbs. I was chasing inconsistent jetting on that Hejira all the time I owned it, and had I realised that those inputs on the carbs needed blocking off, it would have saved me so much grief.

On the RDLC club they now have people 3D printing stuff like updated fuse boxes/holders, leakdown testers and God knows what else. There is just so much information out there on our old bikes that we can now get them running way better than they ever were 'back in the day'.

I love it.

[mangocrazy]

Two and a bit months after the previous update and the weather still feels like April. Pah.

Anyway, the other day I was mooching around in the shed, getting the VFR rebuilt and ready for its MoT (next week) and I noticed with some annoyance that the black high tensile cap head bolts holding the Brembo caliper halves together on the LC were decidedly rusty. Having thought about it for a while I figured that the best way forward would be to replace the HT cap heads with Titanium ones, due to Ti's famed corrosion resistance. Nothing to do with bling, oh no sirree...

So a few days later a (surprisingly light) package dropped through the letterbox. With the package opened I was even further impressed with how light they were, measuring 8.5 grams per bolt on my scales. So today I decided it was time to fit them to the calipers. Armed with my trusty tube of Wurth CU800 (German Copaslip) I swapped all the rusty old bolts out and replaced them with the swanky Ti jobbies, applying copper anti-seize to the Ti bolts as I went (Titanium is notorious for galling and if there's one thing you don't want, it's a seized Ti bolt in a brake caliper). Here's a 'before' shot:

DSCF4330.JPG (666.26 KiB) Viewed 728 times

As I was removing the old HT steel ap heads, the difference in weight was very obvious. When I put them on the scales a steel bolt weighed 19.5 grams - a whole 11 grams more than the Ti bolts. I really wasn't expecting that level of difference. So overall weight saving was 88 grams, not that I will ever notice it while riding. Here's the obligatory 'after' shot:

DSCF4339.JPG (453.98 KiB) Viewed 728 times

Much better. Having said that, these photos illustrate that I need to wax and polish the bare aluminium fork legs, before those water marks turn into corrosion and pitting. Looking after an old bike is a constant process...

[Mr. Dazzle]

Either your fork legs are bent, or that pic was taken on a phone

[mangocrazy]

Either your fork legs are bent, or that pic was taken on a phone

Neither... Taken on a Fuji XE-1 and fork legs are straight.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Fuji XE-1.

Ooh fancy. We have Nikon mirrorless here

What lens then, cause the first and second photos seem to be quite different focal lengths...just looking at the fork leg, hence my comment

I assumed it was the classic phone wide angle look.

[mangocrazy]

The standard lens is an 18-55mm zoom, and I was aware that the focal lengths are different in both shots, as is the angle I took them at. The XE-1 is a cracking little camera, light and small but with Fuji's famed colour balance.

I'm very interested in your mirrorless Nikon - does the absence of a mirror make a big difference? You won't get the 'clack', obviously and there should be shock and vibration improvements, but to be fair most camera manufacturers had got those issues sorted a long time ago.

[Mr. Dazzle]

We have a Nikon ZFC.

TBF by far the best/most useful thing is the lack of size! Mrs D uses it as an out-and-about Camera, it's great for that. We're not doing anything taxing enough to show its better than SLRs or anything else.

Live preview is great of course. She also does running photography gigs, the ultra fast burst is also good for that.

She was gifted a Nikon SLR and a whole load of lens by a friend who emigrated, hence the ZFC.

[mangocrazy]

Nice! I can definitely appreciate the lack of size (and weight) thing. We were away in Italy for a long weekend at Cinque Terres and lugging a camera bag with two DSLR bodies and 4 lenses got really old really quickly. I was wishing I'd just taken the XE-1 after not very long...

[mangocrazy]

So today the VFR passed its MoT (with no advisories) and the dealer fitted the centre stand spring so I now have a working centre stand. Hooray!

Small victories...

I'd like to know how they manage to fit things like centre stand springs, as they've always defeated me.

[Mr. Dazzle]

When I did the one on the Bonnie I think I had to hook the spring in place before bolting the stand in. That was the only way I could then have something to lever on/against to get the thing together.

I don't remember the details of what I was pushing on/against but I do remember the vague sequence

[mangocrazy]

Yeah, I recall doing the LC's centre stand like that, but the layout of the VFR's stand, and the way the exhausts pass through the part of the stand near the frame mounting points meant it wasn't really an option.

I thik I'll Google 'spring expanders' and see what I get...

[KungFooBob]

Don't they just use a spring puller and brute force?

[MrLongbeard]

I know how to get existing springs off so that they're easy to put back on, put pennies (coin of your choice) between the coils whilst it is in extension.

[Mr. Dazzle]

actually no, you've got my memory

I rigged up a contraption with two bits of wire/cable, one to the ceiling joist and one to a 'stirrup', then I could use my bidy weight to expand the spring by stepping on into the stirrup. Then I wedged 1p coins in between teh coils of the open spring to hold it longer, installed it, then yanked the coins out with pliers.

Simple

Don't they just use a spring puller and brute force?

S'alot of force for a soft palmed office nancy like me.

[Rockburner]

Yeah, I recall doing the LC's centre stand like that, but the layout of the VFR's stand, and the way the exhausts pass through the part of the stand near the frame mounting points meant it wasn't really an option.

I thik I'll Google 'spring expanders' and see what I get...

When I put the centre-stand on the Ed-80 I bolted on the stand, then was able to lever the spring on quite easily - because there's a large hex-nut head in just the right place to use as a locator for the screwdriver, and BMW, in their infinite wisdom, fit a metal clip between the end of the spring and the lug it fits onto on the frame: so - the lever (screwdriver) can go through the hole in the metal clip. Makes life very easy.

Part 3


The other way to do it is to use a length of thinnish line and route said line around something solid so you can pull the spring to length and hook it onto the lug (having a mate to help here is often useful!)

[Mr. Dazzle]

and BMW, in their infinite wisdom

I've no experience of working on a German bike, but I have worked on/lived with a couple of German cars (including BM) and I do have to say, they make a much better job of thinking these things through than most other OEMs IME

[Rockburner]

and BMW, in their infinite wisdom

I've no experience of working on a German bike, but I have worked on/lived with a couple of German cars (including BM) and I do have to say, they make a much better job of thinking these things through than most other OEMs IME

I think it helps that BMW have been making bikes for so long... there's a huge amount of knowledge and experience within the organisation.

Obviously that would also apply to companies like Honda.


It does make you wonder though what they've been smoking over the years at Guzzi....

[mangocrazy]

Don't they just use a spring puller and brute force?

You may well be right. But I'm not really a brute force kind of chap...

Having said that, when I was installing the springs to hold two parts of the exhaust together I used a spring puller and ratchet strap in lieu of brute force. The strap was wrapped round the spring puller at one end and the forks at the the other end and I just manfully ratcheted away until the spring was sufficiently extended to pop it into position.

However the centre stand spring was hidden away in the bowels of the bike and there was no obvious way to use the same trick. So to the dealer it went.

[mangocrazy]

OK, time to 'fess up. I've bought another bike. Even though I don't have enough room for the bikes I've already got.

And even though I've already got the same make and model of bike.

It's an Aprilia Falco.

A guy I know through the Falco Massive was selling his Falco due to divorce and cardiac issues (not sure if the two are linked) and his Falco had some fairly tasty upgrades (OZ Racing forged ali wheels, Ohlins shock, Ohlins internals in the Showa forks, full Renegade exhaust system and Renegade airbox conversion).

The only problem is, it's been sat in his ex's garage since 2017, and having committed to buy it was a bit of a shock at first sight. Filthy, covered in cobwebs and hardly enough air in the tyres for it to be capable of being pushed. But eventually I got it home, gave it a damn good washing and there is actually a motorcycle underneath all that grime. There is still more grime to be removed, but it's getting closer to being sanitary.

No photographs yet (have you tried photographing a black bike with black screen, covered in grime, oil and dust?), but they will be forthcoming at some point.

Today's task was trying to get the bike on SORN. It was already on SORN when Pete owned it, but that lapses on change of ownership. I have the new V5C in my hand, but no matter how hard I try, the online SORN system will not accept the code that's on the V5C. So the only way to sort this and avoid potential prosecution is to ring up DVLA.

Deep joy.

It took me an hour and 5 minutes to get through to a live, warm human being. While I was waiting I checked the oil on the van, topped it up, fed the cat, went to the local 24 hr shop to buy a can of pineapple chunks (it's pizza night tonight), and unpacked the Soulwax vinyl and the 5 litres of 2T oil I ordered.

But after an hour and 5 doing a Blondie, all was resolved in a couple of minutes. So patience does have its own reward.

Just thought you'd like to know.