Tim's Motorcycle Diaries: DIY

Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 April 2020

COVID19 Rapid Restoration: Fireblade for the first time since Obama was President

The Fireblade project has come together nicely thanks to the strangeness we all find ourselves in with the COVID19 pandemic. With a suddenly extended March Break, I was able to sort out the fairings, get the LED indicators wired up and finalize all the plumbing for fuel delivery. It was all fiddly, last minute stuff, but with the time in hand it was easy to sort. The adjustable indicator relay got wet when I cleaned up the bike which prevented the LEDs from flashing, so it got waterproofed and sealed. The first ride was enlightening...

360° Video from RICOH THETA. - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

That's the first time it's been running since Obama was in office. It's a very different thing from other bikes I've owned. I'm a big guy and 50 years old, but the yoga helps with the flexibility needed to ride this machine. The foot pegs are significantly higher than anything I've owned before, and I'm leaning forward over the gas tank in a much more prone position than on the Tiger. I was very conscious of the clip-on handlebars and the lack of leverage you have when cornering - steering on an adventure bike is much easier because you've got big, wide bars that offer a lot of pull. The Fireblade was so much harder to turn (the weight of leaning forward doesn't help) that I actually thought the steering was obstructed, but it wasn't, it's just a lack of leverage.

After the first ride I thought, 'this thing is virtually unrideable!' But as I was working out the details and getting used to it the riding position started to make a different kind of sense; I think this bike can teach me things. The centre of gravity is so low, and the bike is so much lighter (over 40 kilos!) than my Triumph Tiger, while producing thirty more horsepower, that it's a significantly different riding experience. I wouldn't want to go touring with it, but for an athletic afternoon out on nearby twisty roads, it's the instrument of choice.

The inline four cylinder 918cc engine makes a glorious noise when you crack the throttle, and the 'Blade is responsive in a way that makes any other bike I've ridden feel heavy - that's something I could get used to. On subsequent rides I got my legs into the cutouts on the tank and once locked in place the whole thing suddenly clicked. It'll take all the core work I've got to work with it, but this machine expects you to take riding as a sport rather than a leisure activity.

So far I'm at $1200 for the bike delivered, $250 in taxes and registration, $280 for a replacement carburetor which I cannibalized with the one I had to create a working one (if anyone needs late 90s CBR900 carb parts, get in touch), and another $200 in parts that included the shop manual, oil and filters and the LED lights. All in I think I'm at about $2000 on the road and running like it's new again. Looking up CBR900RRs online, a one a year older model with three times the kilometres is on for $2800. Low mileage mint ones are going for $6-7000. I think I could sell it in a year for a thousand more than I put into it.

When the pandemic happened here just before March Break I took home the Structure Sensor 3d scanner and did some scans, which is what you're looking at here...

1997 Honda Fireblade CBR900RR

by timking17

on Sketchfab

It's very satisfying to bring the 'Blade back to life. Now that the mechanicals are in order I'm thinking about racing stripes. Amazon has some well reviewed ones on for a good price, I'll give them a go rather than painting them on.

Unfortunately I'm stuck for getting the bike safetied and registered on the road because everything is closed at the moment. I'll spend the time making sure everything is order and looking to the aesthetic details and hopefully I'll be able to put the bike on the road when we put society back in motion again in May.

Saturday, 19 October 2019

Motorcycle Lift Table Instructions

A friend and colleague retired but kindly left his DIY motorcycle stand with me when he moved to the West Coast. Here's the construction of it back in 2016:

HERE are the plans he worked from in PDF format. Now that I've got the plans I can find a properly spec'd lift to use on it. My old lift is leaky and over two decades old, so the replacement will work the motorcycle lift as well as the odd car tire change.

Currently it's home to the Honda Fireblade project:

The garage is a nice place to work (though small) for 10 months of the year, but during Ontario's deep freeze in January/February, as outdoor temperatures often dip to -30°C and beyond, the cold emanating, even through the rubber lined floor, makes it torturous. Even with a propane heater running, working on the floor isn't any fun for my fifty year old bones. The stand, even when lowered, has been nice to work on. Now that I've got access to the specs, I can source the right kind of hydraulic lift and have everything at an even more ergonomic height.

Saturday, 9 February 2019

Winter Maintenance: Triumph Tiger 955i Engine Guard Install and plasma cutting!

How cold has the polar vortex been? So f#*%ing cold! Our garage is attached to the house and we're in and out of it quite often, so it benefits from a lot of residual heat. Even with this insulated garage with heating pipes in the attic and a lot of sympathetic heat from the attached house, the Tiger was a solid block of ice (pic on right shows it thawing) when I went in to attach mine Hepco & Becker motorschutzbügel (engine guard) in schwarz (black). I ended up giving up on the -36°C degree Saturday and went back when it was only -17°on Sunday.

I've been looking for ways to protect the Tiger as I aim for more off-tarmac activities with it, and an engine guard seemed like a good idea. Finding such an engine guard for a European (at least until Brexit) bike that's sixteen years out of date isn't easy, but I came across the German manufacturer Hepco & Becker and then followed links to their American distributor, Motomachines, who happened to have just what I needed in stock and have no problems shipping to Canada. They're also really quick to respond if you have any questions and give you quick, friendly, concise communication, I'll use them again.

It was about a week to get here through US and Canadian federal mail services and cost me another thirty bucks at the door in border fees, so all in I was at about $350US to get the thing into my hands. It arrived well packaged and in new condition. There was some surface rust on the threads into the pipes, but it cleaned up easily with WD40.

Some German engineering for my British Bike, except Triumph was founded by a German immigrant, so it's kinda German already! Bet that makes Brexiteers angry.

After not being able to feel my hands anymore despite propane heaters blaring away in the corner on Saturday, I finished the job on Sunday. Holding the nuts on the back while securing the bolts is a bit fussy (these guards attach right to the engine frame mounts), and swearing increased trying to do it on a frozen bike, but I eventually got them sorted.

The guards are very sturdy and the welds on them are a thing of beauty. They're low profile things that should protect the tank in case of a spill. The finish on them is excellent and looks to be very long wearing. With a couple of places to kick my feet up onto, they might help me stretch out my legs on a long ride too. I'm tempted to throw some fold up highway pegs on them, but this aggravates the adventure bike image police.

I'm still some weeks (months, who am I kidding, though if I can't be optimistic in February I start to go bonkers) away from having a chance to ride with them, but they look good on the bike, got here pretty quickly and with a lot of quick and clear communication from Motomachines. If you're looking for an engine guard for an older Tiger (or anything else, they have a big selection), I'd suggest heading over to their site and then get in touch with them on email, you'll hear back quickly from responsive customer service.

In completely different news, thanks to all of this lousy weather we've had a number of no-bus days at school which gave me a chance to ask our metal shop teacher to exercise his plasma cutter on my behalf. I gave him a vector image of the Concours tail piece I wanted cut and the machine ripped through the aluminum I got for the job in about five seconds, cutting a perfect outline of the cardboard piece I'd wrapped around the tail section before unfolding. This strange shape lines up with the frame bolts on back end of the bike and covers all the wiring and ugly bits in the most minimal way possible. I'm going to form it over a wood buck and then paint it to match the tank. That should take care of the back end of the Concours ZG1K custom project.

Now I need to get the carbs balanced and tuned and it should be good to go, which I intend to do as soon as the roads are clear... in, like, ten years.

Sunday, 21 January 2018

Replacing Perished Rubbers

I got replacement rubber bits for the now fifteen year old Triumph Tiger 955i in before Christmas, but the weather has been so diabolically cold that even with a propane heater in the garage, the floor is still radiating negative thirty degrees and working in there is a misery. We finally had a break in temperature this weekend so I got a chance to fit new rubber on the Tiger...

It's only -1°C out there, so it's garage door open time!

My targeted bits were the rubber covers on the mirror stalks, which aren't that important but you see a lot of them while you're riding and they bothered me. The shift leaver rubber has been held together with Gorilla Tape for the better part of a year (that's some tough tape) and one of the rubber bits that go between the seat and the frame had disappeared, so I was aiming to replace that too so the seat would sit evenly and there would be no metal on metal rubbing.

The shift leaver was a simple thing. I cut off the tape and the old rubber which was half torn. With the new rubber warmed up and some WD40, the new bit slid on fairly easily.

The mirror arm rubbers were equally straight forward. The mirror is on a threaded end. Undoing that and the nut under it that holds it tight meant I could slide the mirror rubbers off. The old ones were cracked in multiple places and barely hanging on. I cleaned up the threads and metal under which was a bit rusty, put some rust paint on there to make sure none comes back and slid the new rubber covers on. Another quick fix.

The problems arose when I tried to fit the seat rubbers. I suspect the dealer sent me the wrong bits. The rubbers that sit between the adjustable seat height bracket under the seat and the frame are circular with a flexible back that holds them to the frame. Strangely, there don't seem to be any listed on the OEM parts blowups. What I got were some pieces of rubber with sticky backing that aren't even the same thickness as the circular rubber grommets.

I'd shrug it off but at $3.30 plus tax and shipping for each of these sticky rubber bits, I'm out fifteen odd bucks in parts that seem to have nothing to do with what I was trying to fix. I did send photos of the parts required and I thought we were clear on what was needed. Rather than flush more money on parts I didn't ask for, I found a rubber grommet that was a bit too big and cut it down to fit the hole. It's a snug fit and compresses to about the same thickness as the other grommets. I might eventually get four matching rubber grommets just to make things even down there, but for now the seat isn't uneven and the frame isn't metal rubbing on metal.

The winter maintenance on the Triumph has been pretty straightforward this year. Last year I did the fork oil, spark plugs, air filter and coolant and upgraded the dodgy plastic fuel line connectors, so this year the only maintenance was my usual end of season oil change. I run the bike on the Triumph suggested Mobil1 10w40 motorcycle specific oil and I change it once at the end of the season.

The perished rubbers thing was as much an aesthetic choice as it was a performance fix. Little details like rubber pieces on an older bike bring it back into focus. Regularly watching Car SOS buying full sets of rubbers for older cars they are restoring probably intensified the urge.

Since I purchased the Tiger almost two years ago I've done all the fluids and changed the tires which produced a much more road capable bike (the old ones were well past due). I've also replaced the chain, but other than these rubber bits and the fuel fittings last winter I haven't replaced anything that wasn't a regular service item. The old Tiger has been a trustworthy steed.

I'm usually able to steal a ride toward the end of winter as the sunlight returns and we get the odd warm day with dry roads. With any luck I'm only a few weeks away from stealing another one. The Tiger's ready for it.

Sunday, 22 January 2017

Changing Motorcycle Fork Oil

A three legged Tiger.

Changing fork oil turned out to be pretty straightforward. The most time consuming part is removing any niggly body panels so you can get at the forks themselves. Make sure you loosen the top fork plug before you remove the forks as you need the forks firmly held while you do that and the clamps on the bike are designed to do just that. Once you're there, undoing the clamps that hold the forks means they'll slide right out, so be ready for that.

The spring on the Tiger is a
progressive rate unit - it is
sprung tighter the lower it
goes.

Once on the work bench it was a matter of taking off the rubber fork protectors and cleaning up the unit. I then slowly removed the top of the fork using a 22mm ratchet while keeping pressure on. The book said the cap is under 'considerable' pressure from the spring, but with the fork fully extended it released quite gently. With the cap off I removed a spacer, a washer and the spring slowly as the fork is full of oil. Pulling the spring out quickly means you're pulling oil out and making a mess. With the parts out I inverted the shock assembly and poured the old oil out into a measured container to see how much was in there and what condition is was in.

The oil came out looking pretty dark - the new stuff was completely transparent. Since the previous owner didn't appear to change the oil in the engine, I doubt fork oil ever got looked at; this stuff has probably been in there a while. There was no corrosion in or on the forks themselves or on the internal components, so after a cleanup I poured 710ml of new fork oil into the fully compressed fork. I had to raise the fork to install the spring, washer and spacer and then put the cap back on snug. I later tightened it to torque specs when it was reinstalled on the bike.

Spring number two gave me about 660ml of oil after a good emptying. The first one was at about 650ml. It got refilled to 710mm of heavier 15 weight fork oil to reduce the floatiness of the front fork and deal with my weight better. I'm looking forward to feeling the difference when the snows clear.

If you've got a bike with fairings I'd guess a fork oil change would take you an easy afternoon of work. If you've got a naked bike then this is a matter of removing the front wheel and brake calipers, loosening the top cap, loosening two clamp bolts on the triple tree and handlebar clamps and sliding the fork out. Removing the cap and internal components and emptying the old oil would only take about ten minutes per fork. Refilling a compressed, empty fork with the required amount of fork oil and putting it all back together another ten minutes. Once you were familiar with the process on your naked bike it wouldn't take more than an hour to do a fork oil change - longer if you have a lot of finicky fairings to remove.

The left photo is of the fork assembly off the bike prior to removing the rubber fork gaiter (which cleaned up nicely with warm soap water and then some Armourall). On the right: all back together again. The front wheel got regreased and cleaned up. The speedo housing was especially mucky.

LINK to the specs research I did on fork oil changes on this particular Triumph Tiger.

The other fork had about 650ml in it - pretty black considering it was clear when it went in.

Sunday, 15 January 2017

Replacing Plastic Fuel Fittings: that was a pain in the ass

Well, that was a pain in the ass. It began well enough. Removing the metal clips from the plastic fittings was pretty straightforward. Push the pin in and then gently tease them apart and you don't have springs flying everywhere. I'm a bit confused as to why I needed to save the bits as the new fittings come with clips, but I'll hang on to them anyway.

Following the directions online, I next took out the lower plastic fuel fitting in about thirty seconds. The upper one (that leaks) immediately broke (I suspect it already was) and proceeded to spectacularly fall apart. I spent the next two hours with a hot pick pulling bits of brittle plastic out of the metal fuel tank threads. It turned into tedious dental surgery rather than a quick repair.

With the plate now clear of detritus, I should be able to install the new metal fittings and resolve my leaking fuel tank once and for all. Since I have to remove the tank to pretty much do any engine maintenance at all, this fix will make the Tiger maintainable again.

With the fuel tank fittings sorted I'll next be doing the fork oil (never done that before), change the plugs and do a coolant flush (which requires multiple fuel tank removals). The Tiger will be fit should spring ever arrive.

Online Notes on Fuel Fitting thread sealant:
What to use for fuel fitting thread sealant:
https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/document.do?docId=563
Don't use teflon tape for fuel fittings!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/teflon-tape-vs-gasoline-question.264585/
These guys make it:
https://www.permatex.com/products/thread-compounds/thread-sealants/permatex-high-performance-thread-sealant/
It's available locally:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/permatex-high-temperature-thread-sealant-6-ml-0383777p.html#srp

The metal plate the fuel pump is connected to on the gas tank has a couple of plastic fuel fittings screwed into it. The top one is leaking and was a pain in the ass to get out, the bottom one came right out easily.

The plastic male ends go into plastic female ends in a metal fuel pump plate. Shortly it'll all be stainless steel.

Getting it that clean took some patience.

The big, orange Triumph Tiger in maintenance mode - the battery pack is on the back to raise the front wheel off the ground for the coming fork oil change.

Finished it up the next day. Got the thread sealer from Canadian Tire and they went back together nicely:

Friday, 10 April 2015

Greasy Hands Preachers

I got a copy of The Greasy Hands Preachers through Vimeo the other day. I enjoyed Long Live The Kings, though the hipster meter got pegged a couple of times, TGHP was similar.

The Greasy Hands Preachers interviews builders in the current custom motorcycle scene under the pretext of emphasizing the value of skilled manual labour. The movie is nicely shot (though sometimes gratuitously hand held and pull zoomed). By using off-the-cuff interviews you get glimpses into the deeper motivations of these custom builders, most of whom have more in common with sculptures than mechanics.

I've spent most of my life in an orbit back to valuing my smart hands. In my late teens I was apprenticing as a millwright and struggling with the idea that I was undervaluing my mind. The thought of decades of repetitive, menial work drove me to eventually quit and go to university where I could finally prove to myself that I'm smarter than people told me I was.

But smart hands don't like inactivity. The intimate act of dismantling, understanding and healing a machine stays with you, and your hands itch to make things work again. Cars had devolved from a special interest to a utilitarian necessity for me. Working on them was menial rather than scratching an infatuation. It wasn't until I started riding a couple of years ago that I found a machine that fostered a sufficiently intimate relationship to warrant infatuation. The ability to express my smart hands on a motorbike and heal the machine is half the thrill of riding.

The Greasy Hands Preachers are preaching to the converted with me. The

arc from white to blue collar work experienced by several of the people in the film is one familiar to me. But rather than pierce the veil and coherently express the underlying urges behind the resurging DIY ethos, GHP only hints at it. I think this is a result of their unscripted interview approach. Asking an artist to spontaneously and coherently express their process is unlikely to produce a clear view of what they do. Expecting them to be able to do so while on camera isn't going to lead the viewer to a deep, nuanced understanding of how a mechanical artist values their hands.

Were it me, I would have started with the interviews and then had a scripted followup that clarified and deepened the narrative. I can't help but think GHP is an opportunity lost.

If you want to look right into the heart of the DIY resurgence pick up Shopclass As Soulcraft and discover an intelligent explanation of the value of skilled labour. I was hoping that Greasy Hands Preachers would approach Crawford's brilliant little book in terms of realizing the value of hands-on work, but instead it's a pretty, sometimes banal film that hints at deeper ideas.

Would I recommend The Greasy Hands Preachers? Certainly. It's a beautifully filmed opportunity to consider an important part of being human. If you read Shopclass As Soulcraft first (as I'm guessing the makers of GHP didn't) you'd be ready to create your own meaning, which is probably better than being spoon fed anyway.

Thursday, 27 March 2014

Mechanical Sympathy

At the end of a twisty road, deep in the hills, the shop of my dreams...

courtesy of www.floorplanner.com, it's easy to play with, give it a whirl!

Since doing bodywork on my first bike, I've remembered how much I enjoy doing it. The new shop will be a working paint shop with a booth and an oven capable of power coating parts.