[ST] It's the little things...

["Steven Kohlscheen" <trumpst@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's the little things in life that seem to make me happy.

I've been accumulating parts now for about 2 months.  See I've been dealing 
with some small niggles since the beginning of the year on my bike.  First, 
the throttle.  If you let it snap shut, it sticks.  And lately it's been 
harder and harder to turn smoothly.  It'll catch in places.  These are the 
original cables, though, and I am at 58k miles now.  Might be time to 
replace those.  The next thing has been that nice little jerky dance the 
front brakes do the last 10 mph of a stop.  Yup, warped, for the past, oh, 
15k miles or so.  Who me, procrastinate?  So, a new set of EBC replacements 
were procured.  And I got thinking about the rear chain.  It's been over 20k 
miles since I changed that, and I am at max adjustment now.  Hmmm, maybe I 
should replace that too.  Fortunately this required buying new tools!  I 
can't believe I've gone so long without owning my very own chain tool.  
Triumph was nice enough to sell a set package of sprockets (chain wheels too 
many of you) and proper length chain for just my bike.  What a company ?º

So last Sunday I sat down to do a whole pile of wrenching on my bike.  
Something I honestly haven't done since owning BMWs.  First up, new throttle 
cables.  Not too awful, really.  Once I got enough body work, tank, and 
airbox stuff out of the way.  Though I must say the throttle body side was a 
real b!$h to take loose.  Nice tight packaging of the fuel rail, and asundry 
wiring didn't allow for much wiggle room to get a wrench on the nuts.  But I 
adapted, and overcame!

Next up, brake rotors.  I've been dreading this operation because last time 
I did one I hogged out the shallow Allen hole and ended up having to drill 
it out!  Very stressing.  But with enough down pressure, and concentration, 
all 12 bolts came off in proper order.  I had 12 new bolts though, just in 
case.  So, on the EBC replacements went, with new bolts.  Hey, I had them 
already*shrug*

Last was the chain and sprockets.  I should mention that I didn't start this 
whole project until after watching the World Superbike races.  Which ended 
at 5:00pm.  It was about the time I laid out the new chain I realized I 
didn't have a grinding implement to quickly take off the old chain.  DRAT!  
So off I go to Wal-Mart.  Surely they will have something cheap I can use 
with my existing drill.  Yeah, yeah, I should just buy a hand held grinder, 
but I didn't wanna that night.  Well they've got grinders, they've got 
replacement grinding disks, but no arbor to mount them on in a drill.  So 
much for the evil empire.  Next stop, the local McParts store, or it's 
proper name Parts America.  But what's this?  They close at 8:00pm.  It's 
only 9:00pm damnit!  Er, well alright.  Across the street to Advanced 
Automotive.  They¡¦re open till midnight, score!  They sort of have 
something for the job.  5 stone bits, of various geodesic designs, none of 
them a flat disk.  But they'll fit in a drill!  Might as well give them a 
try.  Believe it or not, they did the job.  And without getting completely 
destroying in the process.  After cutting the chain I realized I hadn't 
taken loose any of the fasteners holding the sprockets on.  DO'AH!  
Fortunately the link I just took out fit back well enough to allow the 
proper leverage to remove the 132 Nm, 36mm nut on the engine sprocket. Thank 
you Parts America for having that socket on the shelf early in the day.  Now 
is the time I point out I'm doing this operation alone.  So, bike in gear, 
on it's centerstand.  Me sitting on the bike properly, and standing on the 
rear brake pedal, while lifting up on the breaker bar to loosen the nut.  I 
warn you, this particular method may bring new words into your vocabulary, 
lol  There were no small children around, so I won out over the torque 
rating.  Everything went back together surprisingly easy, for 11:00 pm.  I 
only did 2 laps of my subdivision listening to the new chain for proper 
adjustment, trying the new throttle cables, and starting the bedding in 
process on the new rotors.  Not too much to handle at that time of night, 
heh

Well the whole thing is a success, and I'm rather enjoying the fruits of my 
labor.  I may run this bike another 3 years and 50k+ miles.

Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen


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