5995 replies to this topic

[Studley Ramrod]

😄

[fixitsan]

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I picked up the rebuild today

New body, top bushing, piston ring, o-rings throughout, shims replaced.

 

Can't wait to fit it and test

[leehenty]

Sorted out no dipped beam, green crud in connector under airbox. Gave her a clean, booked its mot

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Edited by leehenty, 23 June 2024 - 06:57 am.

[CaptainSlow]

Had some shiny new Battlax T32s fitted by the irrepressible Trevini. Damp roads on the way home, but initial indications suggest they'll help my confidence no end.

[fixitsan]

Put the Ohlins to the test yesterday.

 

For a while I was a smiley happy person.....not like the GSXR rider I overtook.

[curlylegend]

This is another good point about an early TDM 850, there are very few electronics. Recently, I'd started to notice a slight hesitance for the starter motor to engage when I pressed the starter switch. 

So, better to attend to this while it's at home in the workshop. Stripping out the starter/cut-out switch was easy, two screws, no more. And the contacts inside were easy to dismantle and clean the surfaces.

No solid state sealed components to be seen ! 

A pleasure to work on !

And I fitted a set of Gel-filled Pro Grips while I was at it.

 

 

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[leehenty]

Waiting until 1st ti tax it, then its hello old friend, lets go !

[leehenty]

Polishing the alloy rings of the auxiliary lights on my old TDM. This polishing obsession needs reining in.
Flushed with success, then treated it to a spray gun application of ACF50.

Edited by leehenty, 02 July 2024 - 06:38 pm.

[Favs]

Ahem  ...  Reining

[dablik]

Ahem  ...  Reining

  yea come on Lee, thought you were proper heducated.

[fixitsan]

Ahem, I laughed too....then I googled it ...

 

Cambridge Dictionary

rein something in

phrasal verb with rein verb

 

uk

 

/reɪn/ us

 

/reɪn/

 

(HORSE)

Add to word list

to make a horse go more slowly or stop by pulling on its reins

 

 

Merriam Webster

 

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases 

When something is out of control—be it a government's spending or your toddler's tantrum—you might feel the need to talk about reining that out-of-control thing in—or would that be reigning it in?

The quick answer is this: the phrase you want is rein in. It's an equestrian allusion—if you rein in a horse, you pull the reins of the horse—the straps fastened to the bit of a bridle and used by a rider or driver to guide and control the horse—tight so that you control where the horse goes and how fast.

[leehenty]

The problem is the phone picking words for you

[James]

Today I fitted a USB charging lead and extracted a deceased, desiccated robin from between the engine and radiator. No idea how long it’d been there! 

[fixitsan]

Proud new owner of a late model lower front cranked yoke.

 

Will it make a difference to how the front feels, on my flat yoked early model ? (Not that it feels loose now)

 

Might swap it over on Saturday when I do the fork oil change

 

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[leehenty]

Best get that out of the kitchen, before swmbo catches you 😁

[fixitsan]

Best get that out of the kitchen, before swmbo catches you

[fixitsan]

I cleaned the forks, in and out, and refilled them with fresh oil. 30W oil in the right fork, ATF in the left.

Turning my attention to the yoke swap I realised the yoke I bought had ball bearings, but the bike has taper roller....

I've ordered another taper bearing, and cleaned up the front end in the meantime

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Edited by fixitsan, 20 July 2024 - 05:14 pm.

[leehenty]

This different fluids on each fork, whats the theory behind that ?

[fixitsan]

This different fluids on each fork, whats the theory behind that ?

I have never felt there was enough rebound damping. I have the early-model years stronger springs, and longer spacer. Generally it's a firmer ride than later bikes.

So on rebound, I suspect,  the stronger springs are overcoming the limitations of rebound control.

 

But I also think this is linked to my body weight too, after heavy braking the forks compress greatly, after releasing the brakes the 'bounce' back up seemed to be too unsettling, like it was a bit uncontrolled.

 

So, it's about a year or more since I first tried it on my old 900. I put overweight oil in one fork leg and it helped a great deal, but because it was only in one leg the overall ride still felt a bit plush, not like if I had put 30W in both legs.

 

One of the damping functions of the fork relies on the size of the damper holes, on the damper rod, at the bottom of the fork leg. It can only be adjusted by playing with oil viscosity. If memory serves, damper rod holes control compression. So adding thicker oil resists the front end dive more by increasing compression damping

 

I have to remember which leg has which oil, because the top fork adjustment screw on the 'heavy' leg has a bigger effect. Overall, the adjustment range feels more useful to me, I can set it 'too much' and back it off, and retain some fine adjustment on the 'softer'  leg.

 

When I took my Ohlins shock to be rebuilt, I asked the expert there about it. He didn't laugh and said 'it probably works'.

 

I used to have reservations about inequalities in fork leg functions between both sides, but then I rode a KTM with the front end compression-only adjustment on one fork leg, and rebound-only adjustment on the other. In thiat case, they're both almost always imbalanced in terms of the forces being applied. Under braking the compression leg is taking more load.

 

The TDM900 has a nice thick front wheel centre axle, strongly clamped either side bridging both fork legs and keeping them both at the same distance from the yoke pretty well. After riding like that for a year or so I feel there's been no negative impact.

Edited by fixitsan, 20 July 2024 - 09:22 pm.

[leehenty]

Thanks for that Ill try it