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[ST] It's the little things...
- Subject: [ST] It's the little things...
- From: "Steven Kohlscheen" <trumpst@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 03:43:17 -0500
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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