Sunday (10:00 hours) and it has taken more tea than usual to rehydrate my system. I am not sure how Saturday night came to a close! I know it kicked off with a bang as Rossi sticks the Yam on pole in Valencia! Cause for celebration in our household
. I look to the other side of the kitchen at the two empty bottles of Rioja and one empty Sicilian red: it's a merciful relief that he hasn't managed it at every round. So, what to do with far too much residual alcohol in the bloodstream to go for a ride
. I head for the workshop in search of something to take my mind off the rhythm section beating out revenge in my front temporal lobe
. At times like this I like to make something on my lathe; I find the whole process very relaxing. Taking a piece of material and turning it into a part for your motorcycle gives immense satisfaction. I have two V Stroms (an 02) see 'Resusitating the old dog thread banished to the Blue Oyster Bar'
and also my recently purchased 08 Strom and it is the sloppy, wobbly gear lever on the 08 that's going to get sorted today:
First I take out the rusty pinch bolt from the linkage, then the sloppy circlip and the rusty washer. I then remove the gear shift linkage and unscrew the arbour from the foot rest mount. I measure up all and it's in a pretty sorry state: the bush in the lever is worn oval and the arbour is worn in a very strange fashion
. Pathetic really; the bike is an 08 reg ans has only done 21,000. How hard is it to lubricate pivot points? Even the slackest service joint goes round squirting white grease on lever pivots and footrest pins and brake and gear linkages, just to make it look like something has been done
!
I decided on the best way to increase the bearing surface in the gear lever pivot and control the side float: I pressed out the worn bushing from the lever and discarded the worn arbour (that rinky-dink circlip set-up never did it for me)
Then I turned up a Top Hat bearing/spacer with a simple grease well in the centre, allowing enough clearance for the grease and just enough end float to prevent the gear lever from binding.
Lube the new pivot assembly with water resistant grease, secure the whole lot back to the foot rest mount with a 10mm stainless washer and a good quality shock mounting bolt and a new stainless pinch bolt for the linkage.
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together
Regards
Esme
Ps. The crap quality plaiting on the rear wheel spacers was grating on my tender nerve endings so I made a stainless replacement for the LHS rotter RHS to follow,