CBX250RS-E #2 December 2016

Eventually I got back to this after a little break. A few months is a little break, right? First things first, oh my god why is the wiring like this??

Choc blocks! Copper strands everywhere. Please no more, pleeeaasee.. Ergh what's that?

Seriously, if you are the previous owner who did this then keep away from all bikes forever. Yuck!

Anyway, this CBX appears to suffer from a similar airbox issue to CBX #1 in that the air box to carburettor tubes have gone so hard that they won't fit back on the carbs, let alone seal around them. Back to the silicone hose man in Bagworth for another couple of lengths, and some McAlpine RWW3 rubber plumbing washers from a place on the Internet called Partridges, plus an hour or so with a craft knife and..

Nice innit? Yes they are supposed to be different lengths, and yes I know that silicone shouldn't be anywhere near fuel because it'll melt but what more can I do? Run pod filters? No thanks.

Next step is to put it all together, so start by connecting the throttle cables to the carbs while they are free and you can still get your hands around them. If you fit them to the inlet manifold then you'll find this difficult task near impossible.

And then simply squeeze the carbs into their rubbers on the head. "Simply". After much heaving and definitely not at all resorting to levering the things in with two big screwdrivers..

Phew! That'll do for now, maybe time for another little break..

Bassetts Pole 16/8/2016

So, I thought I'd try this again. The weather was lovely, the TRX needed a run and there was no food at home so Birmingham here we come!

It was a quiet start..

But it quickly got going. GSX400F!

An ER-5 with a fancy full fairing. Eminently sensible, the owner must be a true gentleman.

Something with lots of Rs in its name..

Some horrible fully faired Moto Guzzi thing, but it had lovely analogue clocks..

Some proper Triumph (doing well on the classics this time, aren't we?)

The police were out in force, the PCSOs that were walking around were all female which I can only guess is so that they don't get beaten up.

They kept doing loops around the car park and generally making their presence felt, it was actually quite oppressive because no one was doing anything wrong. The police just felt the constant need to make their presence felt.

They got what they wanted though, there wasn't much in the way of wheelies and burnouts like there had been the previous year. Boo.

This ZXR400 sported some seriously authentic road rash, well done that man!

And this VFR400 (or was it an RVF?) is owned by Rossi himself, amazing!

Overall, this one was quite disappointing. The smell of cannabis was stronger, there was much less japery to be amused by and the constant police presence was most unsettling. This comes nowhere close to filling the hole that the death of the Ashby Folville meet has left, but it's the best we have right now. 4/10.

BMW K100 brake pad change gone wrong

In mid-2015 the MOT man warned me that the front pads in the K were getting a bit worn, so in January 2016 I thought I'd better check it out. Sure enough one was worn quite badly while the rest looked okay.. But that still means I have to replace them all. Oh how easy it should have been! Simply knock the pins out, remove clips and pads, assembly is the reverse of disassembly. Pah.. One pin was very happy in its little hole. No amount of hammering would make this move:

Ohhh yes we're off to a good start here. Since I've had to break into the fluid circuit I may as well do the job proper and disconnect everything, then get it in the vice. I've already broken the most usefully sized drift so this thing is going to pay me for that with more service whether it likes it or not! Dremel a slice out of the middle and hammer in a screwdriver, maybe? Nope, snap the inside bits off instead. Then the rest could be hammered out, joy!

 Look, no pin!

Still no pin!!

 Very destructive but this is a special version of this caliper with the attachment bits for the ABS gubbins, so I had to save it. The holes inside are elongated slightly because the pin was made of surprisingly sturdy stuff but hey ho, it'll have to do. Look at those stupid bits of pin.

While I'm here might as well do a full brake clean and rebuild with new seals since one pad has worn so much more heavily than the others.. Wish I hadn't bothered, it all seemed fine inside!

Wrestle with the car-style fittings, it makes dealing with these calipers a real nightmare..

And.. Aha!

Of course I replaced all the pins (coated in copper grease to give them a fighting chance of coming out again!) and I also replaced the bolts that hold the two halves of the calipers together. For a brief, fleeting moment it was all so shiny and new..

Final advice - try to never need to replace the brake pads. What a horrible job that was..

How to change the fork oil seals on a nineties CB250

This is bad, mmmkay.

Remove the stuff that is in the way. Also this is much easier if you have a centre stand, if you find you own a bike that doesn't have a centre stand you may wish to re-evaluate the life choices that led you to these circumstances. Do you find everything difficult? Is life really hard in general? Do other people seem to be having an easier time? Maybe it's all your fault.

Away with you, things in the way!

Undo the pinch bolts in the yokes and slide the stanchion downwards. Then do the bottom bolt back up again, undo the top nut in the stanchion just a crack, and then undo the yoke and remove the fork.

Undo this. Be careful, the spring(s) inside will pop out and launch the nut out of the way. Such suspense, very sproing, wow. With the nut out the way remove the spring(s) and spacers and whatever, then empty the old oil into a container. You can pump the fork to make this a little quicker.

With the oil emptied out, put the springs and stuff back in and put the nut back on. Yes, it's difficult. Yes it makes your hand hurt, I know. With it back together there will hopefully be enough grip to stop the innards turning and you can undo the bolt at the bottom of the fork. A vice is very useful for this.

Here you can see the "damper rod" which is what we wanted to stop spinning. As these forks are cheap/shit there are no real bushes in here, so the inside was allowed to separate from the outside no bother. With better forks you will have to bang the seals out before the fork will separate because the bush is underneath the seal, just keep trying to pull it to bits and eventually they will come out.

Now we have to use a seal remover (or a screwdriver if you're a moron) to pluck the seals out. No magic here, just lever them out (after you've removed the clip!). With that done, clean it out, lube it up (I used a bit of the old fork oil), remember to put the washer back in (!) and press the new seal in. I put the socket on the ground and heaved away on the fork leg, do whatever works. Then put the clip back in, press the dust seal back in, put the stanchion back in, do the bolt up, take the nut off, fill with oil, put nut back on, put forks back, put stuff back that was in the way and you're done!