Wrench'n Ride'n

Bought some 3M cable routers today and fixed up the chain oiler line. It now puts oil a whole lot closer to the front of the sprocket.

I never have liked chain drives. Of the 14 bikes I have owned 4 had shaft drives. I like shaft drives. No messy chains to adjust. No regular oiling to do. Almost maintenance free is a shaft drive. I have only in the last few weeks put a new chain and sprockets on the Bandit. The original ones lasted around 47k kms. I think this is because the original owner had fitted a ScotOiler to the bike. It was not on the bike when I bought it. There is evidence that it was one of those vacuum operated ones. I could not afford a ScotOiler so bought a Tutoro Chain Oiler . I bought the Auto one. Seems to work off the motion of the bike which makes a plunger go up and down allowing the oil to flow. So when the bike is not moving the oil don't flow. See  Auto Oiler...  for more info. Fitting it to the Bandit was not easy. This is no reflection on the Tutoro. Its the fact that the frame on the Bandit does not allow you anywhere ...

Where did I get the bits from to do this conversion?? Headlamp brackets ordered from C-J-Accessories eBay store . I have orderded from him before. Top seller if you ask me. 7inch H4 headlamp from my BMW. Bar end mirrors. I got these off eBay. Search  eBay for them. There are heaps. Eastern Beaver  Make this harness for H4 globe. I did have to cut and solder into the headlamp harness of the bike to fit this.

It is done. Wiring harness from Eastern Beaver could not have been easier to put in. I did have to cut into the bike's headlamp harness. Solder is my friend. The low beam is still on when the high beam is on. That I will fix later. I had to fabricate some blinker brackets. No big drama. Had some flat aluminium stock laying around. Cut shape and drill and they are done. When I took the fairing bracket off I noticed how heavy it is. I have taken the bike for a ride up and down the street and the front end feels so much lighter. Will have to adapt to this when it comes to spirited corning. I did have some trouble getting the bike started after I put the tank back on. I don't know if it the fact that there was no fuel in the carbs or not. Prime setting on the fuel tap seemed to help as it took several goes to get it to fire up. Now that it is warmed up it starts and runs fine. As far as I know I connected everything back up the way i...

Headlamp bracket arrived this arvo. Alloy brackets and the seller also put some stainless hex bolts in to replace the chrome plates ones. Lots of wires to pull back under the tank. Tomorrow will wire in the harness for the headlamp and make brackets for the blinkers. Then the nakeding is done.

While I wait for the last bit of this puzzle to arrive. The headlamp brackets. I have made up and remounted the Instruments. Used a bit of flat stock aluminium. Made a triangle contraption out of this aluminium. Mounted it to the bolts that hold the handle bars on at the steering stem. Then mounted to the bolts that hold the instruments to the full fairing bracket. At this point in time I am not worrying about getting a set of "N" instrument pods. The "S" only has half pods. Painted the back of the instruments black and will see what that looks like one the single headlamp is on. Can't take the fairing frame off and original headlamps as the bike is my daily transport.

It has begun... Bar end mirrors have arrived. This started an avalanche of stripping. Which is good as now I can start to make the instrument mounting bracket and have a good look at the wiring to see how to get the H4 single headlamp hooked into the harness. Took about 3 hours. When the wiring harness gets here from Eastern Beaver and the headlamp brackets from eBay I shall be fully naked.

My Bandit "S" is going naked. Headlamp brackets ordered. 7inch H4 headlamp from my BMW. May respray the bucket satin black. Bar end mirrors order. Will spray the bar end parts satin black. Contacted Eastern Beaver about making me a relay harness to convert from twin globes to one H4 globe. Waiting his reply. Instrument shrouds? Will either use a Buell style fly screen to cover this great naked ugliness up as the "S" does not have any bottom to the pods. Or see if the black BMW pods I have can be cut up and used.

At long last my Renthal Medium Road Bars have arrived today. Spent the afternoon fitting them. It was not a smooth process. Not the bars fault at all as I have not changed the brake hoses etc. I wanted a set of bars that would take a fair bit of weight of my wrists and the front end. I toyed with getting the Renthal Low Road bars which I see a few fit to their Bandits. I wanted a bit more of an upright seating position. So I went for the Medium Road Bars. Let me say they have given me what I wanted. More upright. My wrists are at a more natural position compared to the OEM bars. I have more leverage on the bars due to them being wider compared to the OEM bars. So I am very happy with them. I will just have to fiddle with the front dampening settings due to the weight coming off the front end as it has now. This is the good. The Bad and some more good. I can not have the grips. clutch, brake or switch gear positioned so there is no bar showing at the end. See below photo of bars fi...

I hope this is the final fix to make the pillion position way more comfy. It started with  "..."el Lobo" hunches up the knees..."  Searching the net for a way to lower the pillion pegs I found a guy with a 1250 Bandit had made a set of brackets to move the whole pillion peg hanger. He used some metal plate fixed to the mounting brackets for the hanger. I had been wracking my brain for 2 weeks now trying to work out a way to move these pegs. Yet here is this very simple solution. I am a metal worker by trade. So I can make some brackets too. Here is what I did. Bought some 40mm x 3mm flat metal stock. I then drilled and cut these to shape. They will be painted black when done. I have made them so that the pegs will be 2 inches lower and 4 inches further forward.  I have used the mounts that are on the frame to hold one leg of the pillion hanger plus the bracket. I wanted some strength due to the fact I could not get 5mm flat stock metal. This would have had...

April 2008 I replaced the front fork seals. It was suggested at the time I also fit gaiters to the forks. This would help protect the new fork seals. Did I do this? No!. Of late the front left seal has been leaking. Enough that I can see oil bubbling past the fork seal on compression. Should had fitted the gaiters. This would have help tp keep the road crap out of the seals. This time I have put gaiters on my forks. A new fork seal and new 10 weight fork oil. The new fork seal was placed in the freezer while I dismantled the front end. This shrinks the seal a bit. My universal bit of wood and hammer was then used to knock the seal in gently. Took 4 hours including lunch break. Jan had cooked up mushies, tomatoes and feta cheese on toasted sour dough bread. Yummo. Jan is such a great cook.

    Ever since I have had my BM, the back brake has squealed when being used. Just like a piglet that hates to be caught. It was embarrassing. I am sure people would look at me when they heard that noise coming from the bike. So how to fix it? Thankfully this thread helped me http://www.bmbikes.org.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13801 The fix is very simple in fact. Buy Brake shoes return spring rubber damper | BRA57572 from Motorworks .  I fitted this part this morning.  Here's to no more squealing back brake.

The odometer has been working and then not working for some time now. The worst of this was I use the trip meter to gauge when I need to stop for fuel. I hate running on reserve. So what to do? Do I fit a push bike trip computer?  All that fiddling to get it set up right. Nah. So I do a Google search and look what comes up...  Airheads speedo fix article Off comes the instrument pod. Out with the screw drivers. Dive in deep to my speedo. First go at using super glue works for like 100 meters. So off to Jaycar to buy some JB weld. Re-read the article again. Use JB Weld instead of super glue. Wait 12 hours and now I have a trip meter and odometer that works again. Ya gotta luv Google.

Last Saturday I was going over the bike as you do. I found a crack in the frame. A crack in the major bracket that holds the rear sub frame together and just near the top mount for the mono shock. Not good at all. To make things worse I was riding from Gosford to the Blue Mountains and back again to start my move to Gosford. I am moving in with Jan, my partner. I knew I could weld this but did I want to risk blowing a big hole in the frame. Yeah why not. it has been well over 25 years or more since I last did any welding. So after helping my sis and brother in law load furniture up to go back to their place/my parents place I decided I would have a go at fixing this crack. My Dad has a stick welder. One setting. Full bore. Did a wee bit of practice on an old mower blade and it was time to blow up the bike. Both battery terminals disconnected. Frame Clamped back together. Paint removed from cracked area. Fire up the welder and a welding I went. Took 3 passes with a weld bead. Read looks...

When you think about doing bike maintenance we tend to only do the major things. Oil changes. New spark plugs. Adjust the valves. We tend to not look deeper and check the small things till they break. Of late I had noticed that the fuel filters on my bike looked to be sitting at a funny angle. On closer examination I found that they had started to deform from heat generated by the engine. So it was time to replace them. Glad I did as I have found that they had started to crack as well. $13.20 later I had 2 new ones from Munich Motorcycles on my doorstep. Look at the difference. I would hate to think what would have happened out on the open road when one of the filters cracked open. Less fuel range and run out. Petrol on hot exhaust system. It can be the small things that cause the worse problems.