Winter washing

Though general lethargy and slack-arsedness I seem to have failed to even
hose the Sprint down since sometime mid-summer. So its fetching buttercup
yellowness is now grimy in an 'it might as well be black' sort of way.

I lubed the chain a couple of weeks back. I can be arsed to do that every
now and then, but prolly not as often as I should. But a bit.

But it's getting cold now, and I really have lost all motivation to do
anything about it's crappy appearance, nor attempt to cosset it through the
winter. That 'I need to ride a shiny bike with carefully WD-40'd metal bits
proudly through the winter'feeling has long gone.

So...how much does this really matter, in the general scheme of things?
What else, in the opinion of the panel, should I keep an eye on? I mean,
grime is protection in its own right isn't it?

 

Bear secured a place in history by writing:

Aren't you bored with this yet?

 

Bear secured a place in history by writing:

It isn't. I've just been seeing Neil Young as 'Today's Music' for about 4
weeks now, and I think you need to move on. There are other beat-combos out
there.

 

Keep an eye on all the important spinny whizzy bits, keep your light
lenses clean. Lube your chain a lot more too.

 

The one thing I would do is pull out the brake pad retaining pins &
copper grease them.

 

Bear secured a place in history by writing:

I'd sincerely hope not. No, hang on, yes...this is UKRM, if I think your
musical tastes are verging on stale, I'll say so, with gusto. Swot it's
here for, expression of unasked for opinions etc

 

Preston Kemp secured a place in history by writing:

I *knew* someone would say that, godammit. Far too much effort....

 

Effort? You want *effort*? Try drilling out the eazi-out you snap off
in the pin next time you have to change the pads - *that's* effort!

 

Do what I did. Sell it and buy something tidy for the same money!

 

Preston Kemp secured a place in history by writing:

Nope, sorry. Got no idea what you're talking about....

 

Wait until the spring. I guarantee someone will be asking how to remove
their pad pins after they rounded the heads out. At around the same
time, someone on one of the trailriding/enduro lists will be asking how
to remove a seized swingarm bolt. And when they do, I'll be sat here
with a smug look on my face, safe in the knowledge that my hour spent
playing with a tub of copper grease in the autumn was an hour well
spent

 

"Preston Kemp" <> came forth with the following
in uk.rec.motorcycles

This a standard thing to do on Kwaks[1] - in the summer

[1] They don't seem to know what grease is or if it even exists

--

Mark
ZX12R-B1 (Blue)
CG125 (hers)
Blata Ninja 3.4
BOTSWCAW#3

 

Preston Kemp secured a place in history by writing:

I hear the advice, I really do. I'd love to know exactly what I should be
doing - but I will join the ranks of all those who cart their bikes to the
nearest dealer and let them deal with it. Not because I don't want to do
it myself, but because I have no clue where to start and no time to learn.
I really don't like this state of affairs, it's not like I'm incompetent
with this kind of thing, but that's how it is...

 

Bear secured a place in history by writing:

I reserve my right to be unamusing and/or unentertaining. Usenet
prerogative. There'd be no-one here otherwise.

 

Every Kwak I've owned the first thing I do is

1) fit the baglux
2) fit the optimizer leads
3) fit the Ohlins
4) strip and CG the wheel shafts and brake bits
5) make a warrenty claim for the crap paint work :0)

--

Mark
ZX12R-B1 (Blue)
CG125 (hers)
Blata Ninja 3.4
BOTSWCAW#3

 

Same story with head bearings. I suppose the manufacturers must save a
small fortune by skimping on the grease, but it can be a right PITA.

 

Bear says...

Utter bollocks. It gives people like me a good opportunity to be better
than most of the so called clever people.

 

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 16:35:31 +0000, Ferger wrote:

Brakes. Anything that moves. Anything alloy. Headlight lenses.

I recently had to replace my front brake calipers. One of them was very
badly fucked and the only thing I can reasonably attribute it to is five
winters' lack of washing.

I'm not going to clean it really thoroughly, but I'm going to at least try
to give it a good hose down every couple of weeks.

 

Up to a point, Lord Copper.

Certainly not once they start chucking salt on the roads. Then you'll
have un holy mess that will most certainly **** up just about every
moving component that isn't inside the engine cases, as well as making
anything chrome or alloy look very nasty.

 

Fair comment - but earlier this summer I spent hours removing a seized
swinging arm pivot and replacing the equally seized bushes - exactly the
sort of thing Preston mentioned. Horrible job. Easy, but protracted and
horrible.

A dealer whould have charged something like 200 quid for the job. A bit
of soapy water a few times in the bike's life[1], pulling out the s/arm
bolt once every two or three years[2] for a re-grease, would have
prevented it.

[1] And not pointing a jet washer anywhere near things like swing arm
pivots.

[2] Takes two minutes, if done in situ. Find an old long bolt more or
less the same diameter as the s/arm pivot - wheel spindles usually work
- and use it to drift out the pivot. The wheel spindle occupies the
place taken by the pivot and stops the whole back end from displacing,
so you then just clean and grease the pivot, and push it back into
place, displacing the spindle as you do.