Tim's Motorcycle Diaries

Tuesday, 22 October 2019

Autumn Colours Motorcycle Photography

On bike photos courtesy of a Ricoh Theta V on a flexible tripod attached to the rear view mirror of my trusty Triumph Tiger 955i. The route was from my home in Elora up through Beaver Valley to the shores of Georgian Bay before coming back through Duntroon and up the Noisy River out of Creemore before heading back down the Grand River home. The interesting bits were tracing the Niagara Escarpment, the only vaguely interesting roads anywhere near me.

If you want a primer on how to take on-bike photos like this, you can find it here. It has also been published on Adventure Motorcycle Rider here.

That time I got stuck behind a blockade of Polaris Slingshots on the Noisy River Road...

Google Photos Album here.

Saturday, 19 October 2019

Thanksgiving Moments

Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada is early (winter is coming), but this one was pretty rideable. The Honda is calling from a mechanical perspective, but that can wait until the Canadian motorcyclist's hibernation.

In the meantime, I'm getting the rides in where I can find them...

Some digital art...

... and some on-bike 360 photos...

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.

Wednesday, 16 October 2019

1997 CBR900RR Parts, Cables and Hose Routing

Notes for next round of work on the Honda. Doing it for myself so I can follow what I'm doing on the laptop in the garage, but might help out other '90s Honda Fireblade CBR900 restorers too.

Missing tank mounting hardware:
BOLT, FLANGE (6X40) (missing bolts for front of gas tank)
COLLAR C6.3, MOUNTING

Throttle cable running under the right side of the centre triple fork

Vacuum routing - but not particularly helpful - air vent tubes probably connect to bottom of air cleaner box...

Upper and lower throttle cables are clear in this - they are over the handlebars now (wrong) - and like a burk, I put them together backwards, so you have to throttle off to throttle on - remove carb, remove cables, reroute and confirm on this before reattaching.

I tried a replacement LED in the neutral light - no joy - try reversing it? Light receiving voltage when in neutral. Confirm that? Trace that neutral switch wire?

Double check choke cable - seems good the way I had it, but bike's in a choke right now, so no movement of front wheel to check routing when the handlebars are turned.

https://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/1997-honda-cbr900rr/o/m143417#sch20267