Pinned So what have you done to your bike today?

Pulled the heated grips off Rosie (KLR650 that's not currently running) and installed them on Sylvie (CBF250 that's my current commuter) just in time for Anzac Day.

Anyone who's lived in or near Canberra will understand the significance of this. For those who don't, the traditional date after which it becomes acceptable to turn on heaters here is Anzac Day - technically the last week of our autumn/fall season.

 

at least it is not a 400.lol.

 

Nothing, again. Uni work to be done, first.

But I got a notification saying I have made 500 posts to the 2fiftycc sites, which proves what my friends were thinking: I'm a whole lot of talk but not a lot of action! I probably should talk it as a hint to shut up.

Hope all you Australian and New Zealanders enjoyed a day off with your bikes. After paying your respects, I'm sure.

 

still working on mine- stripped a thread.

 

Finished pulling apart the 2KR FZR250 engine that came with some other spares that I picked up. Found some cornflake style crunchiness inside. Seems like an unusual way to bust a rod. Scored the crank, and the broken rod chipped the edge of the cylinder sleeve and piston. Plenty of undamaged parts for spares though.

 

Shoooooot. Ain't done nothing but ride recently. It's a nice change. Airbox is still off - I don't wanna lose it as a rider until the Duc is fixed, but yeah. All eyes on the Yamaha and fighting the insurance claim on the Monster these days. I'll ride the Kawi every day I can in the interim.

 

After chasing a misfire down low on cyl 2 on the Triumph Sprint (changed coil, plug etc.).. decided it was valve clearance issue. Sure enough intake on cyl 2 was reading .74 mm clearance instead of 0.1 to 0.15. Other ones were out a bit too, but waiting on shims. Went to the local bike mechanic here and picked up a couple of 2.62 mm (25mm shims on my 2000 model - bit harder to get the range) as that's all he had (instead of 2.6 which would be better). I any case it worked... bike runs on all cylinders beautifully and smoothly down low... Later on I will change all the shims to get them to the better end of the spec... Then I won't have to do this job again for a long time... Gonna do the exhaust shims as well...

Here is a photo of the special tool I got from the UK for these Hinckley motors (the shims sit on top of the bucket, so you don't need to take the cams out).

 

rode the cbx supersport around lake macqquarie on a vjmc run- first time since december.idle not good but it went and with 6 pipes was noisy.

 

balanced the carbs on the GL400 with my new Carbtune tool, the easiest carb balancing tool to use by a long way

 

Started polishing swing arm to Balius. Led to need for new shock......





And where we are headed....

,

Unlike the shock....



Found one 30mm longer......would I get away with this if running with more sag to compensate? Won't be after razor handling...........

 

With the linkage system used in most bikes, there is a progression to the travel that can be an issue, so changing links won't necessarily work, either. If you set the sag to compensate, the geometry will be ok, but the rebound might make rough roads a bit less fun to ride. Lifting the forks can compensate for the rake, but might change the trail a little.