Brand new shiny Suzuki day

[Ditchfinder]

The ones on my Triumph came out easy after 20 odd years. Small pilot hole then one of those screw extractor bits.

[Bustaspoke]

Well I got lucky with the shear bolts,I took the top yoke to my mechanic mate,not to do the job but to ask him how he'd tackle it.He said they're easy enough & tried to get the bolts to move by using a sharp punch.Trouble was they weren't moving,so he took it to our mate the bike mechanic in a adjacent unit,he said not only are they shear bolts but they're also Red Locktited like the Gen 2 bikes However as we're all matey he did the job for me there & then
I'd already tracked down a pair of longer throttle cables from a v low miles 2023 bike & I decided instead of re-routing the original clutch cable I'd also fit the longer clutch cable from the 2023 bike.
Whilst I was waiting for the longer clutch cable to turn up I got on with installing the longer throttle cables & the longer section of brake line from the front master cylinder.First job was lifting the air box so that I could get access to the throttle bodies.It's a bit of a pain & awkward getting to things,but everything's new & shiny,nothing corroded.
You can see wher the throttle bodies are located here









If you look closely you can see that there's a few differences between the cable for the X clip ons bike & the normal handlebar bike's cable.The 'X' cable adjusts near the actuator arm whilst the normal bike adjusts near the clutch lever,also the curved metal 'guide' is at a different angle,the 'normal' bike's cable is also a few cm longer.

[Bustaspoke]

The extended front brake line connected behind the top tube ,here's the original.




After bleeding the brakes I had to wait for the brake fluid reservoir mount to turn up.It finally turned up today



I double checked all the cables for tight spots when turning the bars & as it's not been raining for most of the day I took the bike for a little spin to check everything.30 miles later & I'm happy,I prefer the bars to clip on's for the back roads around here.





That's it now,no more mods until I've done some decent miles on the bike,time to concentrate on riding

[Bustaspoke]

I spent this morning waiting for the DHL parcel man to turn up with more motorcycle related stuff.He turned up early afternoon with a ABBA front lift adaptor & the bobbins to fit my 650X so that I could strip the front end off the bike.I think that I tweaked the front end slightly the other month when it shot up the kerb & over a garden wall at 10 mph.The forks felt a little stiffer in the begining of the stroke & when I took the top yoke off it wasn't as smooth as I think it should be,it's the same with the new top yoke.so I decided to take the forks & wheel off & refit it all checking that everything slid into place without me forcing anything.The biggest obstacle was removing the front wheel spindle,turns out it's a 10mm Allen head & my multi-size wheel splindle tool didn't have a 10mm option.Luckily I had a 10mm Allen bit in the tool box so I started undoing the wheel spindle but it was really tight.I was convinced that there must be a pinch bolt at the bottom of the fork but I couldn't find one,after what must have been a hour struggling I found the pinch bolt



It's hard to believe that it took the best part of an hour to find that bloody pinch bolt



I've given everything a once over,nothing seems amiss so I bolted it all back together & it went back together as it should,the only drama being that I appear to have lost my 'O' rings packet,when I drop the fork legs I fit a 'O' ring over the stantion,but I must have spent 30 minutes trying to find the 'O' ring packet.Eventually I found a random one,now the bike just needs a test ride tomorrow.
Whilst I had the bike on the stand I decided to do some chain maintenance,that was another learning curve,different spanner sizes required in the emergency toolkit..
It's been a bit of a learning curve