30.4.10

Rusty the Flywheel

A few weeks ago I did the valve clearences for the first service on my new engine. I got a bit of a fright when I took the sidecover off the flywheel and found a light coating of fine surface rust.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.



Shit.

The gasket had perished over time and allowed some water to enter the cover and sit at the bottom, causing condensation and the bane of motorcyclists and Lada owners everywhere - Rust.

I took some of the rust back with some fine sandpaper, and sprayed it with WD40. After asking around the best option for me was to get some heavy gearbox oil and apply a light coat over it. I've gone back and checked it in the time since and it looks fine. There's a new gasket in there as well - Deus to the rescue at the last minute again.

It's interesting the things you learn when you ask around. One guy suggested that I don't run a gasket at all and simply drill a hole at the bottom of the cover that allows water to escape. While I admire thriftyness, at $10.00 a pop I think I'll just keep replacing a gasket once a year.

Oh, and before I go - I need a new name for the blog. I've had three people say they can't check it at work because of the title, so I'm taking submissions now!

28.4.10

Tool Pouches

I've gotten away without a toolpouch for too long now. Mind you, there's been a few occasions where just having some allen keys and a 12mm spanner would have helped tightening or attaching something for a bit of peice of mind. Come to think of it, some tools would have helped on a few occasions...

1. My first muffler, a supersound exhaust had a pretty spectacular failure and I was left travelling the hume buying cigarettes from service stations in exchange for using what was left of a workshop out the back.

2. My second exhaust, the same model again, fell off at Kangaroo valley and with the help of a little Japanese fellow called Hiro, mounted it with a coat hanger after spending a while trying to find a screw driver as leverage.

3. Another time a mate of mine lost all power on his SR500 and we were missing just the right size allen key to have a look under the sprocket cover to see what had gone wrong. Turns out it had a stripped layshaft and it was fucked anyway but it would have passed a few hours if we'd been able to have a look, and given us a headstart on the problems that followed.

Now, I've looked at a number of different options and many of them that are sold look like they belong on a Harley, which isn't what I'm after...



Besides being a bit out of proportion it also looks a little like it'd hold something that'd buzz at a BDSM party.

Doing some thinking, I went back, as I do with everything, to small arms and ammunition pouches that could fit the bill. One was a Soviet SVT pouch, another the standard British and Commonwealth pattern '37 Bren pouch..

But thinking a bit more Japanese I remembered the 6.5 Arisaka Type 38 ammunition pouches (who wouldn't?) and realised it could work -



And Inside...



By my calculation the space for tools (with the divider removed) would be about 6" long and should be large enough to hold a few small spanners, a spark plug removal tool and some small allen keys. I'd also like to keep a wind-up light in there and some of that tyre sealing gunk but that'd be pushing it. However for short trips, it could mount along the bottom here. Bear in mind that plate is cut for a standard chain guard, and when It's redone it'll be cut a lot wider.



If anybody has any other ideas, feel free to make a comment below.

19.4.10

Bugger!

Not long after I started this blog, which was going to show a lot of pics of custom SR's somebody else beat me to the punch with a bloody extensive selection of XT/TT/SR pictures. I thought I'd seen a lot of the custom SR's doing the rounds on the net, but I haven't seen most of these!

Yamaha XT SR Photo of the Day
It's well worth checking out - he's doing it much better than I could!
Sadly, it's taken some wind out of my sales so the blog will probably focus more on modifications and buggerising around with my own bike. However with the title of "SR Pornography" it'll seem a little self-idulgent and with complaints from a few people about the name of the blog - being hesitant to type "Pornography" into a work computer it might be due for a chage of title anyway.
Any suggestions?

18.4.10

Niggling Things

I -finally- got around to doing some stuff on the SR. I seem to have more money than time these days so I rarely get a chance to sit down and actually fix all the niggly things that come with owning a bike.

First up was hiding the stamped fuel tank seam. A cover is provided for part of it but I wanted the whole thing to be hidden. After a bit of asking around I went to Clark's rubber and bought some "Pinchweld" edging in the smallest size available.


It's got alloy strips in it so it can be bent and holds it's shape. $24 dollars and three minutes later, it's looking good!

Before:


After:


I'll need to take a better pic in the light, but it really has made quite a difference!

The other thing I did was put a new lever on. All of four minutes worth of work after putting up with it bent like this for the last four years.

It took me four years to get around to doing this? You'd better believe it. It's amazing how quickly you get used to it.

Two niggling things down - only a few more to go now! Hopefully most of these will be sorted in the next few weeks.

  • Mount Bash Plate.
  • Order new screws for sprocket cover.
  • Make a number plate... er... plate?
  • Put a crush washer on oil downtube drain bolt (I have a slight leak)
  • Link oil breather to air filter - saves having two filters
  • Make a new plate for the airbox gap.
  • Find the damn mounting bolt and funny stepped washer for the fuel tank.
  • Order and fit XR650 clutch/decomp perch.
  • Find a way of mounting some small guards so my boots don't scratch the frame with the rearsets. Current bit of strategically placed fabric tape won't cut it.

    More Major things are:

    New Tyres
    Find some new Mirrors - probably going to be bar ends
    Fit fork Springs
    Round Master Cylinder
    Make it a little more ergonomically friendly.


I've already ordered some new Ohlins springs which should arrive in two weeks so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully they'll be matched nicely to the rear.

14.4.10

BSA - Regal SR500

I couldn't resist - with the previous post about the snobbish BSA fan - to draw attention to the link between BSA and Yamaha, so I created a new Youtube account and uploaded this tonight:



It's a bit of an oddity isn't it? There's a review here, some detailed pics of one in this thread and the BSA-Regal company timeline that has some of the reasoning behind the build here.

In Defence of the SR

It's always amusing to see comments having a dig at SR owners. This was passed on to me by a fellow SR400 Wanker Wannabe. Click on the pics to enlarge...

Photobucket

Photobucket

Originally taken from here. I don't know about you, but I "wannabe" riding my bike, not fixing it.