Rode Pita today.. she is riding great after the generator connection change out... She has some random rattles but i think some of those are my house key against the triple tree.... Gotta give her some Seafoam tho but waiting til the weekend to do that

I put my new headlamp bulb in, flipped it to high beam and the GD thing burned out.  Low works fine, high is now the 'lights off' switch.  I knew a Silverstar bulb was a bad idea.

Flick got a valve cover gasket over the weekend. Now he is not pissing oil on my foot. Now if you would just idle PITA!

Mary

Replaced front brake pads.
Filled up with fuel.

Gunna order a new rear tyre later, its a hairs width from being illegal in the middle, but the edges are perfect!(Previous owner hated corners?)

Here is some of the painting I did to Flick while waiting for him to cool down so I could work on the carbs for the  (feels like) 5000th time!







Mary

Quote from: Toogoofy317 on September 02, 2011, 08:49:37 AM
Here is some of the painting I did to Flick while waiting for him to cool down so I could work on the carbs for the  (feels like) 5000th time!







Mary

Hm. Dolphins fan. Not sure how I feel about that.

Now that is something that ain't coming off  I'm a Dolfan through and through. I'm seriously thinking of painting Flick Sunburst orange with aqua trim! Only problem I'd have to buy new gear. I'm already a gear whore  I don't need incintive!

BTW the black spots on the gold are from grease and riding in the rain the other day. I'll give Flick a good bath over the weekend and post up pics! That is if he runs right today. You hear that Flick if you don't behave no bath tomorrow!

Mary

New grips and a chain lube this weekend.

Changed the oil and filter. Put a new Pirelli Angel on the rear the other day.

Seafoamed Pita and rode her about 30 miles around town (had to go to campus to fill out my government waivers and then back to work)... Ran great after the seafoam treatment... Put some in her oil also..

Bought a 19mm allen socket and a 32mm socket to remove the front and rear axles, along with a torque wrench to put it all back together...bought an oil filter and oil...new tires arrived on Monday...tomorrow is a big day for the BEAST...new tires front & rear (Michelin Pilot Road 2), oil and filter change, chain clean/lube/adjust...then it will be time for a test ride...and on Sunday, running up to the track to watch a track day...

Should be a great weekend!!

Later.

Quote from: madjak30 on September 02, 2011, 09:57:11 PM
Bought a 19mm allen socket and a 32mm socket to remove the front and rear axles, along with a torque wrench to put it all back together...bought an oil filter and oil...new tires arrived on Monday...tomorrow is a big day for the BEAST...new tires front & rear (Michelin Pilot Road 2), oil and filter change, chain clean/lube/adjust...then it will be time for a test ride...and on Sunday, running up to the track to watch a track day...

Should be a great weekend!!

Later.

How will you be balancing your new tires?

Michael

Quote from: mister on September 02, 2011, 11:02:04 PM

How will you be balancing your new tires?

Michael

I will be using the axle with a rod through...I will be putting the rod on a stand that I have, give it a light spin and letting the weight of the tire do the work and add a weight to the top (or lightest part of the tire...)

Yes, I will mark the tire and do the test a few times before putting the weight on the rim...and once it doesn't stop at the same place any longer, I'm done...

Shouldn't be too hard...

Later.

installed integrated taillight, taking a break then fenderectomy

Put progressive springs in a set of 2009 forks.
Put the 2009 forks onto Junior. He loves them! Also gave Junior a LiFe battery. His less than a year old battery was put into centuryghost's bike in a simultaneous double transplant operation.
(I hope this resolves the discussion of compatibility of new and old forks - 2009 forks on a 1994 bike.)


Oh, also put a 2009 front brake on Junior, SS line and a 2009 front master cylinder. FYI: The new and old parts are all 100% compatible. While I was changing forks, decided to put on newer brake parts since I had them in the parts bin. Cheaper than rebuilding old brakes. Besides, the newer brake parts are better quality than the old ones.

Put 0.85 springs into Suzi (a 2009) - she rides better now.

New Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires installed front & rear...







Had some help...she loves hanging out with Dad and working on the bike or the truck with me...future riding buddy!!









Then the battery died in the camera...spared you guys looking at more of my awesome pics...

The front tire went quite easily, but the rear was a pain in the A$$...190 section tires in a 50 series suck for breaking the bead and removing from the rim...

Also, don't forget to use some anti seize compound on the threads of your bolts when going into aluminum (like the last guy that worked on my bike...), makes it quite difficult to remove them after a few heat cycles...nothing broke, thankfully but there were a few words my daughter didn't need to hear...

Later.

I'm a new guy around here. I've been lurking and learning about the bike and the forum for a while. But I'll probably get posting a bit more though, as I after while of thinking on it and planning, I finally got my bike, and got it going. I'll probably post a longer thread about this bike and its entrance into my life in its own topic. But a little slice here:

Today I got inaugurated into the West Seattle GS500 group! I'm WS born and raised, and, wow, it's nice to have a wealth of GS info so close to home. adidasguy's ridiculously well appointed (yet, like the bikes it mostly hosts, nicely humble) "Bike Cave". 

It was a really generous invitation and Patrick and I had a great day working together, with early help from Dave. I had just had big goofy gum-ball shaped dual sport rear tires (Kenda 761's) put on both ends of the bike. I'm leaning my build in an ADV sort of direction, well aware of how silly this is. I want my bike to go from nerd-commuter into nerd-hooligan.

With that vibe in mind and with the much more sensible Patrick's help, I also installed Race Tech springs, new fork seals, new (old) dust seals, new fork gaiters and a new (old) rear Katana shock. There are a few things on the list of things to do that remain, some maybe for tomorrow, and some for another, later date. I think there's a good chance I'll keep building this bike into what I want it to be, for quite a while.

I haven't changed fork seals in a long, long time. The last time was probablyin 1994, when I had a Suzuki DR350s dualsport. First new vehicle I ever bought. I don't recall it being that hard, but I also don't recall it being that easy. Today's job was also neither too hard, nor to easy.

I left my bike sitting as it rode in, as I worked on the new (old) set I'd bought off the pretty good luck getting the first of the two legs separated, slider from tube. But the second gave us fits. We read the Haynes manual and Patrick had a DVD from England we looked at--this is nerdcore bike guy stuff here, right?--and we ended up looking at this Beer Garage post on changing fork seals: http://beergarage.com/GSForkSeals.aspx and it helped us figure out the tool we needed to make. Kind of a huge allen wrench, basically. So I made it

After a weird, cautious, wallowing ride on my new-tires-old-suspension bike I'm at the Home Depot, crouched in the fasteners aisle (seriously, Home Depot, how is it you have only ONE fasteners aisle?), collecting the following:

One 24" stick of 5/8" allthread rod
Four 5/8" hex nuts (plus one for an extra)
One 7"x 5/8" bolt
One 3"x5/8" female threaded coupler

Back at the Bike Cave, put it all together and bang--we made ourselves a tool. Nifty and only about $11 in parts, versus about $100 for a bike shop to do your fork seals. Oh, Patrick also figured out a paint roller cartridge works as a slide hammer for setting the bushings and seals in the fork. Clever and resourceful, that adidasguy.

Got the forks together pretty quickly after that, and then one at a time, with the bike up on the centerstand and hanging by the bars from ratchet straps secured to the garage's main beam we swapped the newly re-sealed, re-spung, re-oiled forklegs into the triples. Went together easy as pie.

Then we tried to put on an SV650 rear shock I'd bought, but I forgot the part about how you pretty much have to drill the yoke to make it fit. So we ended up putting in the Katana shock Patrick has had around for a while. Got her all buttoned up and hopped on for a ride, came back grinning ear to ear.

These changes have utterly transformed the character of my bike, from wallowy, bad-turning (tires were old and worn kind of square from PO only commuting), and just generally droopy, into something altogether more fun kind of like a big golden retriever puppy that bounds everywhere he goes and knocks shaZam! over and has a knack for digging up lawns. I love it. Came back grinning like the cat that ate the canary. It's coming together, my little GS vision...

I Thanks Patrick--I got the next round of beers, okay? Super awesome day of wrenching, man.

Hmm. Bit wordy. Maybe next time I'll take some pictures.

Quote from: NonFiction on September 04, 2011, 01:12:24 AM
I'm a new guy around here. I've been lurking and learning about the bike and the forum for a while. But I'll probably get posting a bit more though, as I after while of thinking on it and planning, I finally got my bike, and got it going. I'll probably post a longer thread about this bike and its entrance into my life in its own topic. But a little slice here:

-- snip War And Peace description --

Hmm. Bit wordy.

That is a Little Slice? You do know the post box has a character limit? I am warning you for when you give us the Large Slice version, that you may need to do it in two posts 

Oh yeah, nifty home-made tool descriptions are useless without pics 

Double oh yeah... pics or it didn't happen HA!

Michael

Welcome! Sounds like y'all had a good day.
Oh yeah, and I think most post's are useless without pics..

Quote from: GI_JO_NATHAN on September 04, 2011, 06:41:55 AM
Welcome! Sounds like y'all had a good day.
Oh yeah, and I think most post's are useless without pics..

There is a photo of the tool in the bike cave thread. But here is another close up.
It goes down the tube to grab & hold the innerds when you remove the bottom bolt, which you access through the hole under the place for the axle.


And, yea, if you check out the bike cave thread, we somehow do have about 4 sets of extra forks laying around. Don't know how so many parts end up in the cave. It must be a magnet - attracting parts while I'm sleeping. Now that we have a tool, I wonder what someone would pay for a straight, rebuilt set of forks?