Seeing as I have plenty of time on my hands due to a combination of the layoff and a slow job market, I figured I'd do some much desired wrenching.
I had ordered a new chain and sprocket, so I thought I'd put them on. Removed the sprocket cover and shuddered at the mass of "gunk" in there. It was 1/2 inch thick in places! After 30 minutes or so spent cleaning it out, I removed the sprocket and placed the new one on. I then had to use the Dremel to grind off the pin heads on a link of chain so I could get it apart. Following Kerry's tip, I used the old chain to thread the new one on. 5 minutes later the master link was on. 10 minutes after that the rear wheel was adjusted and the freeplay was in speck.
Now it's time for the rear brake pad replacement. This was ridiculously easy, with a total time of about 20 minutes. While I'm in the brakes, I see that the fluid is a nasty brown color. I followed Kerry's how to and 10 minutes later for each and both brakes are flushed with clean fluid.
Hmmm, lets put in new spark plugs too.
Now I'll finally put in the Katana rear shock. Grunt. Groan. Strain. Ok, that's going to have to wait for a second person to make sure I don't tip the bike over..
Ok, a shower is in order since I'm black from the elbows down. After the shower I jump on to see how all the changes did.
Whoa, is this my bike? Dropping a tooth on the front sprocket made it quicker and the new chain seems to give me faster response. It seems to be running better too. Yay me
Sorry for the ramble, just wanted to share.
sweet. did you lube that new chain?
At the risk of sounding more stupid than usual, isn't the white grease it came covered in enough for now? If not I'll spray it with chain wax tomorrow.
no it's fine. just go ride 20 miles or so and check the adjustment then check it again at 100 or so and then at 500 being a new chain it's going to have about 60% of it's strech in it's first 1000 miles. keeping it within tolerances will determin weather it is a 10,000 mile chain or a 20,000 chain.
Thanks Dave!