That seals it - I've forked up!

Well, last weekend I changed the fork seals on the bike.

And I got to use a grinder.

Strange mix really. Usually the two things go hand in hand but as always one or two little challenges reared their head.

I did the work at my girlfriends house, which is a large building in Melbourne that's undergoing some renovations. I was lucky, nae, blessed with the use of a good work bench and a vice for the weekend and I shudder to think of going back to work without one.

Due to having to do the whole thing I was a bit under the pump having to get the bike in and out of the place by the end of the day and I'm not happy with the job I've done. So I'll do it again one weekend... oh well.

I put the SR up on the Harley Cruiser stand that I'd bought from Anderson, choked it up with some bricks as the weight was biased forward a bit and went about undoing the pinchbolts that held everything together at the front. All 8,000,000 of them.

Forks came off beautifully, I drained the oil into a bucket and a bit on the the floor and put everything in the vice. I'd been to alltools where I had multiple orgasms looking at the shiny tools there and picked up a 50cm extension of my ratchet and a 17mm hex head.



Everything was in the vice but...

... The socket wouldn't fit inside the inner tube.

So it was upstairs to play with a grinder to take a bit off the outside.


Lovely stuff.

Suspension of Disbelief - Part IV

Things have been pretty quiet here lately as I've been so busy with other stuff I'd rather give my cat oral than have to work on the bike. But things are settling down on the home front and it's time to get to it. Working on the bike, that is.

The Ohlins Springs arrived and I headed around a mate's house with some 15w oil to swap them over. I don't have a centre stand anymore, so we hoisted it up on a dirtbike lift, which was actually much sturdier than it looks.

(Note to self - must set aside some cash for a Harley-style lift from the guys at Anderson. )

As you can see, the front wheel all came off easily enough, and the fork top caps were really easy to get out, not like the first time I tried. I'd spotted these two little holes on the inside of the forks a while ago, and assumed that a few twists of an allen key would bring them out and drain the oil.


So we turned and turned and nothing happened. We started thinking that we've either got a bolt with the finest, longest thread known to motorbiking or we were just turning the bastard in it's place. It was the latter. A quick search on google and it looks like it's attached to the bloody damping rods, which have to be held in place with a 2 foot long hex key while undoing the bottom. Not the most practical idea. There's a description on how to do a fork oil swapover on a similarily stupid bike, the FZR. There's two good descriptions here and here.

So, it was getting late in the day and we decided that as the whole forks probably had to come out, and it was getting late in the day, we'd just plonk the Ohlins forks back in and ride it for a week and go pull the whole forks next weekend and do the fork seals then too.

Anyway, here's the Ohlins springs (bottom) compared to the Ikons. Interestingly the Ohlins are linear-wound. Now, I know 99% of spring upgrades that people do will be progressive-wound and there's great arguements for both. Now many people will be saying that the progressive springs are the way to go but in all honesty you can shove it up your arse. So there.



Look how tightly wound the buggers are. The Ohlins are also a bit shorter, by around 1cm.

First impressions of the springs... absolutely f'n brilliant. Handles beautifully now, very firm and the front holds the road brilliantly. The front and the rear feel exactly as I'd hoped - perfectly matched up in compression, although the rebound was a bit "how's your father" due to the fork oil being a bit low. But I have to say that suspension set up is now very, very promising.

But it wasn't all beer and blowjobs, a few things did spring to mind on my way home. The first being the cartridge emulators from Racetek, and whether or not they'll be worth the extra cash $170USD now the Aussie dollar has taken a dump. And the girl there who responded to my email didn't answer any of my questions regarding shipping except for "Get in soon, we have three in stock and they might not be here tomorrow!".

Asshat.

Another bit of food for thought are those preload top caps. I might drag a friend, kicking and screaming, to a carpark or something to measure the sag of the bike and if they're actually needed. And the last thing is a bad shudder I feel through the front end when coming to a stop. Methinks it's the front disc warped. So while it's all off, I might as well hunt around for a new disc. More on that in a day or two's time when I've tracked one down...

Also, a set of thanks to co-worker and retired Baja motocross superstar B.J. who helped me out with the tools, the time and the childish photos.



More on Rotors next time kids!

- Marlon

Just a quick ride...

I've decided I'm going to start updating the blog with rides I've been on. There's people here that do much more interesting rides and write about it much more eloquently than me, but it'll help for me to remember certain roads around Victoria. I've found that in the past couple of years I've lived here and been riding motorbikes I've mainly followed friends when heading out. This means I have a terrible knowledge of the roads around the state, although I've plodded through many of them, usually following Matt.

On Saturday I actually had to google how to get out of the Melbourne CBD.

On Sunday I headed out to Broadford to watch the Motocross. In a carefully considered plan to fit in I'd bought large skater shoes and bleached my hair. However, all this was in vain as the whole event wass called off due to the death of Andrew McFarlane. The former world #2 overcooked a jump in the practice round and landed head first, with 100 kilo's of Austrian alloy and plastic following him into the deck.

With that, and the death of Judd Greedy last year, one has to think about how dangerous motorcycling racing still is. Even though we've come a long way from the crepe-paper racing suits and brass helmets it's still a dangerous past time.

Anyway, after taking a moment to soak up the depressing atmosphere at the track I headed out to Strath creek and went a longish way back.



As I was in a rush to get out there, I headed straight up the Hume Highway. Yes, I googled the best way to reach the Hume from Richmond.

As seems to happen after a long break in riding my tight cornering was terrible. I would approach a well surfaced corner that had good visibility and knock back too many gears, slow down too much and be cautious on the gas on the way out. Must find a stretch of these roads and spend a day just going up and down to get the skills and confidence back. After that it was open 100kmph sweepers for a while with virtually no traffic and Victoria's finest already busy booking people.

Anyway, onto the bike! The rear suspension is feeling quite good under different road surfaces. The front was shit as always, but it's only a few days 'till the Ohlins arrive and that can be fixed.

If you're looking for a proper blog with information about riding and the day tours around Victoria (sometimes on an SR!) it's worthwhile checking out my mate's blog Contemplative Motorcycling. It's an excellent read.

New springs should be delivered by this weekend. I'll find a way to chock up the bike and put them in on the weekend, and I'll be able to take it out next monday. Wahoo!

Suspension of Disbelief - Part III

How cool are these?

They're preload adjusters now availble from Wellington.. Can be spanner or screwdriver adjusted so they'll work with clipons or standard bars. They retail for around $155.00.

On a similar note, I'm not 100% sold on the Ohlins that I have at the moment. I've had a close look at the Gazi shocks mounted on a mate's bike and they appear to be very well made, and they have rebound adjustment, which the Ohlins don't. If I was to sell the Ohlins I don't think there'd be too much difference between the two, but i'm going to get some front fork springs from Ohlins to match the rear, top up the oil and see how I go.

Oh, and I'll probably have some of those preload adjusters too... Just because.

Suspension of Disbelief Part II - Fitted Ohlins

Well, the rear Ohlins are on.




And man, are they stiff! It's quite hard to tell how they perform without the front set up correctly but when it's going it feels quite planted and firm. They also feel longer than the already-longer Ikons, which in turn gives the impression that it's sharpened the steering a bit. Unfortunately, the front end now feels very mushy and not in-line with the rear After an hour or two blat around Melbourne streets at 1AM this morning in it's current form the bike is nearly approaching unrideable, hard at least.

They aren't adjustable for anything but height. This worries me a little, as people like Stew from the SR500 forum change their settings often depending on the roads. He's a fan of the Gazi shocks

Gazi Shocks which do have a good range of adjustments available. I'm not 100% sold on the cosmetics of them as yet, but they do perform well as he says in this review. He is sponsored by Gazi on his salt racing SR500 but I know the guy and can't imagine him recommending something unless he really believed in it himself.

I've contacted one or two suspension shops that have come recommended -Promecha and krooztune but they both have 2-3 weeks wait before anything can be done. And I'm supposed to be leaving town in a little over the week for a 1500k trip to Sydney. Always leaving things to the last minute...

So I'll keep sending some emails and asking around for some kind of preset formula to match the front with the rear. I've also got to take the time to measure out all the sag measurements, especially at the front, so I can work out what basic settings I need. I'm guessing that the front fork springs that Ohlins sell for the SR400/SR500 should match up, and get it a little closer?

In the meantime, it's searching Japanese websites to find out what people are running.
This guy changed back from Ohlins to WP shocks for more adjustment. He seems to be keen on making his SR handle, so his opinion might be valid, or it might be complete shit - it's very hard to judge the tone of writing through google translate! He also speaks highly of the Dunlop TT900GP tyres. He's running WP springs at the front in an effort to get rid of what looks like a similar problem to mine.

There's some other links too, but are either pretty vague or I'm sure they don't know what they're talking about either. It seems everybody in the world is doing up their engines but nobody has much solid information on suspension set up!

Oh well, I'll probably just put more oil in the forks to start off with and maybe some 20c peices as preload to see how we go.

Moto Dog SR - With Ultimate Suspension?

I came across this on youtube today...



Built by the guys at Moto Dog. Besides having the optional extra-loud valves and camchain it's got some pretty cool stuff on there. The front forks are 41mm Ohlins from aYamaha XJR1300. It'd be interesting to see how the bike actually handled on the road without some pretty major internal tweaks. I'd imagine that if the forks were left set up for a 200-and-something kilo bike it'd be a bit stiff up front.

Nonetheless, it's something to think about. The swingarm is pretty cool, with its protection bars and rear disc. It's also got a Magura hydraulic clutch in there too - an unusual addition.

A pretty drastic way of getting your SR to handle, and not really my style but certainly something out of the ordinary!

Suspension of Disbelief - Part 1

I seem to come to a stage when playing with my SR. I usually get some kind of half-baked idea in my head and become a little obsessed before deciding bike parts are more important than rent money and blow half a paycheck on some bizarre SR part from Japan that I might never use .

For a while now I've been unhappy with the SR's suspension.* I was going for rides and feeling unsatisfied with the way the bike felt going around corners, and riding some friend's bikes only reaffirmed that there was something a bit odd with mine.

Sometimes, when going into corners hot It felt like the rear had no traction when exiting - it felt very light and as if it wasn't gripping all that well.

I had some Ikon Shocks , which are adjustable for height and have four rebound settings. I'd played with the height and the rebound, but still couldn't get the rear to feel like it was actually part of the same bike I was riding.

In typical form, I decided to throw money at the problem without even thinking about it. I did some searching on Yahoo Japan auctions and with the aid of a friend in Japan through the SR500 forum I ordered some of these...



Gucci Ohlins , over $600AUD by the time they were landed here, but still a damn sight cheaper than the $1200 or so they are new.

My thinking was that the Ikons I had on the rear were part of the problem. Interestingly, my SR doesn't seem to have any static sag at the rear. That couldn't help. I'd also emailed Ikon about getting some softer springs on the rear so I can have some static sag. I've no doubt that the shocks are fine for a stock SR, but there's so little weight left at the rear there's nothing holding it down.

I thought by getting the Ohlins, and chucking money at the problem in my usual way, I'd have the issue solved. I was going to be wrong.

Not long after ordering them I was going for a ride with two mates when I noticed something.

Going UPHILL on the Black Spur the bike felt great. Stable, and the rear felt fantastic going around corners.

Going DOWNHILL on the Reefton Spur the bike was diving excessively when I'd dab the brakes (Or grab, it's a scary bit of road for a while) and when getting on the noise out of corners I'd find the rear very light.

So... these things must all be related. What I think is happening is my front forks are too soft. When I get on the brakes the bike's weight bias shifts forwards which lifts all the weight off the rear. When getting on the gas again the weight is still all the way over the front of the bike, and the rear isn't planted at all. That's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.

So now it's the long process of researching , what the options are I have. I'm doing some hunting around for information on preload, rebound and all that kind of stuff.

This time I won't just throw money at the problem. But have a think, a search for information and decide what to do then.

And then throw money at it.










*Standard amount of 16w oil in the front forks, Ikon progressive springs. At the rear I have a 7610 Ikon shock. I've also got a Daytona fork brace and steering damper. I run BT45's on the standard 18" rims with low 30lbs tyre pressure in each. I also have an aluminium box section swingarm.

Service History

I've started compiling a history of the service of the bike for my own records. It'll be a bit slapdash and some stuff only approximate, but it'll give me an idea of what I need to do with the bike.

January 2006 - 800k's

Yamaha SR400 purchased from Deus ex Machina with 800k's on the clock. Bike is daily transport. For the next three or so months I fit an aftermarket seat, indicators, supertrapp exhaust etc.

April 2008 - 8,000k's

Exhaust melts and falls off - probably due to header wrap and incorrect jetting. Replacement exhaust is fitted

14,000k's

New aluminium swingarm fitted, front fork springs and rear shocks from Ikon, fork oil changed to 15w. Exhaust also changed as a result to a Peyton place Sp-001.

16,000k's

New chain and sprockets fitted at Deus ex Machina. Oil change completed at the same time.

July 2009 - 18,000k's

Engine Rebuild and strip down. Discovered massive problems with the head, splitting a valve guide and the head was hammering itself apart. Engine was ported and a new cam fitted, new exhaust, FCR39 carb,bottom cleaned and flushed out, carillo rod and SR500 crank. All work done by Carl at Cafe Racer in NSW.

2010 - 0k's

Bike is received, new instruments fitted and electronics cleaned up by mark. Indicators are found to be flooded with water and generally pretty fucked, loom cleaned up, tabs taken off by Craig from the Mischief Makers, electronics fitted under the seat.

March 2010 - 990k's

First oil change completed, using Belray 10-40w. Spark plug changed. Old a musty black-grey, looking healthy. Valve clearences completed - .4 and .7 as per advice from Carl.

For most of it's life engine oil has been changed every 2,500k's and filter and clearences done every second. With the new SR500R engine I'm increasing it to every 2000k's with a new filter and checking the clearences each time. This is probably unnecesary but I can afford it, i have the time, and it can't hurt. It also has the benefit of making me feel like a proper man with oil under his fingernails and the appropriate swagger that comes with motorcycle maintainance.

Out of interest, here's some pics of the bike as it's come about over time.

Not mine, but exactly how it looked when I received it:

I had one guy say to me: "Only 800k's? They wind them back at the wharf. I've seen them do it. Your bike's got more than that." But mine had 800k's - I'm confident of that. If someone had wound the k's back they also replaced all the footpeg rubbers, repainted the frame, repainted the seat, cleaned out the headlight shell, got rid of all traces of oil on the downtube etc. Anyway, I'm rambling. It was new. What a nob.

Cunningly hidden behind a Toyota engine and in front of two 400kilo cars...

This would have been the day after I bought it - I got it home and changed the seat straight away. I copped a lot of flack from the folks for buying another bike, but my sister did the right thing and bought herself a bike which redirected the ire of my ma.


That weekend...


I started pulling stuff off the bike just to see how everything fits together. I fitted what I now realise was the worlds ugliest tail-tidy kit. Setting the tone for much of the bike's life, I broke a resister.

Trying to cram everything into the headlight bucket. Each thing I changed I learnt something, least of all with the rearsets. On my way to work one night I changed down to cut in front of a truck in Villawood, and "Clunk" - the whole assembly fell off. A little bit of poo came out as the B-double narrowly missed me.



A little more progress a month or two later.



Stupidly, I decided to wrap a perfectly beautiful header pipe. While I thought it looked good at the start, it did a great job of staining the header pipe. Although I've heard the jury is out on wrapping the header all the way to the exhaust port, there's enough debate about it for me to not wrap any bikes in the future. I've played with the miracle-balm Solvol and realise it can cure whatever ails ya header.

A few months later, a mate took this photo of myself on the pacific highway, just north of Sydney.



Stuffing around in my old garage...



Changed the swingarm, rear shocks, fork springs and exhaust all in one sitting. Pretty hard working where there's no lights. Harder when junkies kept throwing syringes into my shed.



As she stood in 2008. Before any of the frame was chopped. Interesting to see the difference in the tail section here and a few months later when it was taken back. Looks 20 kilos lighter.



I think that's a new chain too - has that white gummy chain lube that I've never used.

Same thing but side on. Shows the Peyton Place exhaust that replaced the terrible "Supersound" supertrapp copy.



Wasn't a bad exhaust either, but when the new engine came it had to be replaced by something that breathed a lot better to take advantage of the souped-up donk.

Not long after it went in the snow for a while.



Not the smartest move on my behalf, but worth it for the pic.

The dash at the time looked like this -



Stock, with aftermarket mirrors , headlight bracket, clipons and an oil temp gauge that cracked about 5 minutes after I put it on.



That was the next thing to suffer my ire.

With the help of a mate, Bize, we dremelled out the bars, tapped them and rewired the headlight, kill switch, indicators etc on both sides. The new switches were sweet little things and the throttle assembly was by a company called "biltwell" and it wasn't. Made of plastic, it last about five seconds before it snapped. Lesson of bike building #345 - Don't buy anything advertised in Deus.

Riding outside Ballarat. Only a couple of weeks before I removed the engine and shipped it off the Carl.



And here's the most recent shots of the bike, with new exhaust, carb, shocks, and much of the frame taken away. Makes a huge difference. There's no longer a centre stand mount either.



The arse - my bike's best angle. Kinda like a white Beyonce.

This next pic is of the ignition unit that had been relocated. All things that involved cutting and shunting and painting was completed by the disgustingly talented Craig from the Mischief Makers. The wiring itself was given a good seeing over and a redoing by Mark, ex Ducati mechanic. He did a wonderful job of cleaning up all the niggling little crap that I'd neglected to do - rubber grommets etc.



They both did a great job. Craig was the same guy who cut and welded my rear subframe.

View of the underseat.



Despite the spaghetti-like appearence, it's actually really logically laid out.

Just another wanky shot:



The new cockpit view...



Exactly what I was after, smaller gauges that sit just above, flush or below the top triple clamp, neat idiot lights (Also from Daytona) and the headlight bracket was just moved upside down. No odometer, which is a pain, but I tend to work off time - fill it up ever 2.5 hours or so. I haven't hit reserve or even come close to an empty tank yet.

I love this view. All the flash stuff...



Getting rather trendy with the angle there. That's about the sum of my photographic knowledge - it involved getting down on the grand and using my cheapo camera to take a photo forwards. That's as trendy as it'll get folks.

And ready to rock...



And there she stands as of March 2010. There's always more to do... 17"s? Paint? New dash with even smaller instruments? Change the whole thing back to an upright seated bike because my back hurts so damn much? Only time will tell...