The bargain Himalayan

[Ditchfinder]

Long day today, exhaust nuts and studs were so corroded it took Dremel, and chisel to get the nuts off, studs beyond saving too but at least they came out of the head ok. Biggest arse though was the O2 sensor which decided to break in 2 instead of unscrewing.

£150 for a new one so taking a punt on a used one.

The silencer was so corroded at the joint with the header it fell into 5 pieces when I unbolted the hanger.

New exhaust feels like it's saving a few kilos and along with removing the rear racks it must be about 8kg lighter than stock.

Usb socket wired in whilst I had the tank off.

Found an old throttle cable and some household flex under there too.

Bled the front brake and fitted the hand guards.

Didn't get round to the front tyre and it will be midweek before the exhaust bits show up.

[Bigjawa]

Take the O2 sensor down to a good motor factors, Soapy tenner says it's a cheap generic one.

[Ditchfinder]

I had a Google yesterday and got mixed answers on this, is this a thing then?

[KungFooBob]

I guess all O2 sensors do the same thing.

The differences can only be...

1. Size, the thread/boss size
2. Length of the cable
3. Type of connector plug
4. Read range - The sensor must provide a specific voltage for a specific O2 reading, is it in the range the ECU expects.

My Bullet 500 EFI has a blanking plug in the exhaust boss and what must be a resistor plugged into the loom where the Lambda should plug in, however it also has a PCV.

[Ditchfinder]

What's a PCV?

[KungFooBob]

Power Commander Five.

[Ditchfinder]

I've seen the eliminator kit for the 411 but a lot of people say it can cause problems.

I guess a carb conversion was a possibility but the used part was £40 so let's see how it goes

[ogri]

02 delete plug and straight thru 2-1 (no cat) exhaust on my old street twin 900 worked wonders on feel and sound, but not obnoxiously so (sound)

[Bigjawa]

I had a Google yesterday and got mixed answers on this, is this a thing then?

Yup, a lot of bike manufacturers don't ship enough units to make bespoke parts economical to produce, theres plenty of car stuff about that will do exactly the same job with no R&D costs, the ABS pump guts on the K12R are the same as an oldish Clio

[Ditchfinder]

Interesting, the new exhaust is decat...
The delete kit is very cheap but sunny it throw an eml?

I'll see if I can get a manufacturer and part number off the old sensor tomorrow

[KungFooBob]

You know about Hitchcocks, right?

The number one source for all thing RE in the UK. Their webshite has all the parts diagrams/part numbers.

[Ditchfinder]

Yup but I could only see the RE part number not if there was a manufacturer one when I looked

[Ditchfinder]

So the NGK (NTK) part number is azd4001-jd001.

Couldn't find a new one cheaper than the used one but they are available on AliExpress cheaply. Not sure I would trust them though as photos appear to be from another site.

[Ditchfinder]

Well the used O2 sensor wasn't a dud so managed to fit the new exhaust today.

After a couple of test rides and retightening of the header studs the bike feels so much better. The old exhaust must have been shafted for a while before it fell to bits. So much quicker up to 60 now.

New front tyre on too which hasn't diminished the handling despite being a tad more off road biased.

The rim bed and spoke heads needed a thorough going over with the whizzy wire brush and a new rim tape.

First ride in moto-x boots so had to adjust gear lever and rear brake pedal heights but they weren't as bad as expected comfort wise.

The bargain 'used', They're practically as new, textile pants off Faceache fitted perfectly, and for £20 I'm ready some winter mucking about.

[Ditchfinder]

Picture of updates - it was too dark to take onme by the time I had finished on Saturday

[Ditchfinder]

Took the suspension linkage and drop links off the bike to clean them up and give them a regrease - the drop links were the worst and were pretty dry with quite a bit of scoring to the faces of the needle bearing innners. Gave them a gentle whizz to remove the worst ridges and repacked. Should get another year out of them

Tried again to bleed the front brake as it's not a positive feel, got a marginal improvement but there is significant flex at the master cylinder when you haul on it. I think maybe the pads have been contaminated at some point so I'll whip them out and stick them on top of the log burner one night this week. It really doesn't make sense how lacking in both power and feel that front brake is, it's as bad as a pivoting caliper from a 70's Honda.

[KungFooBob]

My 2014 Bullet EFI has a shocking front brake.

I've replaced the monkey metal disc with a proper EBC, put a braided hose on it and fitted HH sintered pads... and it's still crap.

You have to use the rear if you really need to stop, which is a slightly oval drum

[Ditchfinder]

You have to use the rear if you really need to stop, which is a slightly oval drum

Poor man's ABS?

[A_morti]

Those have bybre brakes on them which are based upon the low end Brembo stuff. I hated the brake on my f650gs and g650gs, and that's what the master cylinder is based on. There's something weird about how the lever acts on the master cylinder, not to mention the cylinder bores seemed a poor match.

You might get the improvement you're after by fitting a Nissin master cylinder. Get one from a Grom, CBR 300, CBR 500, or similar small bike if the caliper pistons on your bike are 27mm or smaller, or the physically larger master cylinder from e.g. an older Hornet if the pistons are bigger (or you just like a firmer lever). That would have to be stamped 1/2 NOT 14.

The Grom one might fit best on the handlebars and would be my punt.

[Ditchfinder]

The ByBre brakes on the duke 390 I had were so much better than this.

It's got braided hoses on already and at 25k miles will probably be on better than original pads by now. It feels like it's not pulling all the air out when bleeding (using one of those vac bleeder kits)- maybe the ABS pump is a bit of an air trap..?

It's had 2 lots of fluid through it now and it's only marginally better.