What have you done with your V-Strom today?

[nigel s]

Took the bike to some bumpy roads, I'm in Norfolk so I didn't have to look far
All good,if the repaired hugger can survive this road above walking pace ( let alone the thoroughly anti-social speed I went down it ) it will survive anything.

Ho Hum

[Rixington43]

Popped out for a Sunday Roast at the pub, the pub just happened to be 100 miles away in High Bentham. Warm, but lovely riding weather before it gets scorchio.

[BrunoDog]

First camping trip of the year!  Gave the tent an airing at Tucker’s Grave near Radstock, Somerset.

It’s an old cider house with camping, good food, good facilities and live music on a weekend.  Not a great fan of room temperature orangey-looking cider you can’t see through but other drinks are available!

Had the OEX Rakoon 2 tent for a couple of years and very pleased with it.  Sold as a 2-man but at 6’4” I can fit in comfortably on my own without having to lie diagonally!  I like to camp in comfort so bungee the chair across the back with a mattress from a sofa bed.

Suzy is in for a service & MOT tomorrow so spent this afternoon giving her a bit of attention.

[porter]

Finally got the vstrom up and running, drained the old fuel out, stripped the brakes and give them a good clean, changed the brake fluid, oiled chain and did the tyre pressures. So all I need to do now is find an afternoon to exactly ride it!

[NeilM]

Well, what fun today!

On my last couple of rides I have felt that something was not quite right with the gear change. Clutch? Lever? Something else?

So, the other day I pulled the clutch lever off, cleaned and regreased it. Cleaned both exposed ends of the clutch cable and made sure there was no roughness, then put some lube at the top and worked it well in. Next ride things felt better but still not quite right and I wondered if I was just imagining things (which still may be the case).

Next I decided to check the drive train for any sloppiness. So with the bike on the centre stand, I put it in 1st with the engine off and rocked the back wheel. Obviously there is play in the drive train so I thought I'd best look at the front sprocket / output shaft to make sure the movement back and forth was in the whole drive train... which it was. But....

When trying to get to the front sprocket, the bottom fixing screw on the cover refused to budge, not an uncommon issue apparently. I was able to check the drive train just by holding the cover to one side but when doing that it appeared the front sprocket was a little hooked / knackered. Today was the day to get to the bottom of the matter.

I popped into my local nut'n'bolt supplier and picked up some button head screws the right size and length in stainless, then into the garage. A slightly too big torx bit was hammered into the bottom screw as the allen head was starting to give up the ghost. After a fair bit of tapping and trying there was a satisfying CLICK and the screw came loose.

Cover off it was immediately clear the front sprocket needs replacing, so with a new one on order I started to strip everything back. First the cover with the speedo sensor in it needed to come off. Both the bolts came out after a little fight but the cover would wiggle but not come off. A little release agent on all the relevant bosses and off it came, showing rust on one of dowel pins.

Next job was to remove the speedo drive from the output shaft, that one came off pretty easily, but then it's only torqued to 20 ft lb. Next ease back the tab washer, now the big job... remove the sprocket nut... and that's where the job has stalled, for now.

I don't have too many modern power tools, so after trying all the sockets and bars I have, even with my son standing on the brake pedal... all 13 stone of him and also him using his 140Nm ratchet gun, we have closed the garage for the night.

My son has ordered a 400Nm 'dugga dugga', something he has wanted for a while, but never got around to and we are going to reconvene tomorrow after he finisheds work.

[nigel s]

NielM,
On my '22 I put a bit of 2by2 covered in a towel through the rear wheel spokes locking it to the swinging arm and another piece braced over the brake pedal and tied down to the engine bars to lock the brake.
I had a 2 foot breaker bar with a another two foot pipe on the end and even then it was a struggle.
I made up a piece of ply the right height to run down from the socket extension bar to the ground , and levered on it. That way I could get all the torque running to the bolt without it slipping.
 With the impact gun, most say to make sure it is out of gear when using them
Good luck.

[mr_diver]

I use a piece of scaffold pole in a sleave of an old fleace jacket through the back wheel braced agaianst the swingarm and a 2ft breaker bar on the nut.

Once the front nut is slackened off I use a large bolt cutters to cut the chain, no messing the grinders or chain spliters 

[purplebikeunicorn]

Iirc, don't leave the bike in gear when you undo the nut with an ugga dugga, but definitely lock up the output side with rear brake and a piece of wood through the wheel ;)

[NeilM]

I've not had the bike in gear at all while trying to get the nut off. It isn't mentioned in the manual and my mechanical mind considered it just plain wrong.

I have a six foot length of steel tube, which normally deals with anything when mated to the correct socket and handle... but not this time.

Great tips regarding lengths of wood through the wheel. I'll see what I have that will do the job... suitably wrapped to protect the wheel and swing arm.

So far I have only taken the skin off of one knuckle and fallen on my arse on the garage floor once, so it's all going pretty well.

Part 2 tomorrow.

[Rixington43]

I went rear brake only (held down by an assistant) and that was fine for a nut that had refused everything up to the 480Nm rattle gun I was forced to buy when doing mine. Even the rattle gun didn't jump the wheel past the brakes.
I'm sure it's absolutely fine to wedge the spokes but I was hesitant with them being hollow cast alloy primarily designed to take compressive load.
If a previous owner has used red loctite on that nut then heat might also help but I would bet the big rattle gun will make light work of it.

[NeilM]

IT'S OFF!

But it took some doing.

400Nm ugga dugga arrived at my son's this morning. He works from home but doesn't finish until 4.00 pm. I live about five minutes walk from his house, so around 4.15 pm he arrived unannounced with a great big mother of a battery ratchet, complete with a 1/2" drive and down to the garage we went.

His toy, his game. I stood on the brake pedal (lengths of wood on standby) and we hit it with powa level 1 - 120Nm..... lots of noise, but no reaction from the nut. Up the game to Powa level 2 - 200+Nm. More noise, several bursts but this things is still laughing at us. OK, time to get serious. Level 3 - 400Nm. Loads and loads of hammer strikes, but no movement. Try again but without the short socket extensions, still no joy.

At this stage the boy is getting nervous that he may end up breaking his dad's favourite toy... "you give it a try".

I've never used a tool like this, but whatever. First burst, nope, burst, burst, buuuuurst, whizz ah ha!

I pulled the socket off the ratchet and put a t bar on... nope, that ain't going to get it off. Back on the ratchet and down to Powa 1. Drrrrrr whizzz and it's finally off and in my hand.

Looking at the nut and the first thing I see it is not a friction nut as I thought, also it has a taper at the spline end and that taper has a fair bit of red thread lock still on it.

So, it is removed and the sprocket is easily moved on the splines, so that's good, but after the beating it took, the nut is going to need replacing as it really does look like it has been hammered.... which I guess it has.

[purplebikeunicorn]

Glad it's off Neil! I've got an electric (mains) ugga dugga for very stuck things, but I daren't use it on my bike... it's got a history of snapping the heads off very big bolts.

Slight rear brake switch issue on my bike, if you really pressed on the pedal the brake light would go off. It's had a bit of water ingress in the switch (if you peel back the rubber cap, you can see how the switch goes together. Disassembled it, sanded back the corrosion from the contacts, bit of silicone grease, pushed it back together and it's working as good as new.

[Ianmc]

  A little tip when changing sprockets and chain,remove,refit and tighten the front sprocket using the OLD chain,and then you are not giving the new chain any grief whilst tightening the front sprocket nut.

[nigel s]

Early morning b road explorations again started off with a Water board enforced detour, fortunately I knew the area from mountain biking so ignored the diversion and struck off down some less known routes.Yes the second is a B.O.A.T. so all good.
Found an Obelisk, sorry for the pic of just the base it was in an overgrown wood.
Had to stop for two pheasants facing off.
Passed Blickling Hall, before getting lost again at an abandoned mill.
Found a juvenile Triffid lurking in the hedgerow?
Four hours and maybe 70 miles, only hit 60 once, coming home down the mad mile past the old Coltishall RAF airbase ( Legal reasons prevent me from saying how many multiples of the national I have been down that road in the past  )
Ho hum

[nigel s]

Google found the Obelisk,
https://thefollyflaneuse.com/westwick-arch-and-obelisk-westwick-norfolk/

[Asmith61]

Great find nigel s 

[Rixington43]

Scenic route up to Rochdale this morning so the missus could test ride a Royal Enfield Himalayan 411, then scenic route back across to Doncaster to meet a mate at J&S so he could get a jacket for his CBT tomorrow morning.
Home via a very nice fish supper in Conisborough of all places.
To bloomin' hot for the likes of me again today but lovely once moving at 40+.

[UK_Vstrom650]

Had a nice ride out along some b-roads that I've not been on in a while. Was good to get out again and not slogging down the motorway for work.
Had an 'interesting' encounter with a tractor on a country lane - was plodding along and could see it zooming towards the road from a field on the left so eased off slightly and glad I did as it just pulled out in front of me and headed in the same direct billowing dust out the back (thanks for that!). He either didn't see me and just pulled out anyway without checking it was clear (glad there wasn't anything coming the other way as he didn't slow and took up the width of the road), or just thought he'd beat me to the junction.

Got home with aching neck/shoulders so must put more effort in to get bike fit.

[nigel s]

Tractors are ridiculous these days,I was open mouthed last? year watching a JCB Fastrack hauling a trailer, overtake a slow to accelerate coach.

[NeilM]

Ordered a new sprocket nut on Thursday which the parts bloke at the local Suzuki dealer told me would be in on Friday.. which it was.

Unfortunately, he rang and left a message on my phone just as I was setting out on 30 mile cycle ride. No matter, I pass the shop every morning, I'll pop in Saturday and pick up the part... which I did.

The parts bloke doesn't work Saturdays and the sales bloke could not find the parts anywhere.

Looks like it'll be Monday then.