What did you do to your bike today?

Made a start on servicing the FZ6 for an MOT. But more of a service really, after 60,000miles since 2009 and no brake downs:eek::D i think it deserves a bit of money being spent.

Oil change
Oil filter
coolant Change
front brake pads
rear brake pads
New custom Hel brake lines front and rear
New brake fluid
Iridium spark plugs (Originals are still in:rolleyes:)
front sprocket
Supersprox Rear
SSS gold chain
Chain Wax
Allballs Fork & Dust Seals
front brake light switch
rear tyre
new battery
New Fly screen
Bar end mirrors - recommendations welcome

Thinking i might as well get a Power commander V not as though its going to cost much more....:o
 
it did have a small leak but the dust seals have exploded/ rotting.... so i might as well do both.

yeah 60k lol pretty much my daily vehicle rain wind or snow (dont like hot weather on a bike) at some point i will get around to checking the valve clearences, naughty i know but surley if there was a problem it would have shown by now. most garages ive spoke to seem to agree.
 
I had another delivery yesterday, a shiny new Nitron shock was waiting for me when I got home. I lifted the back end of the blade up using a beam in my basement/workshop and had the new shock fitted in about 20 minutes:

Manky old Showa with the damping properties of a space hopper:
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Lovely new Nitron:
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I also made a start on fitting the Akrapovic, but inevitably one of the manifold studs has sheared off :( I was up until 12:30 trying to get it out, but even the old standby of welding a nut on the end has failed me this time. Looks like I'll be drilling it out tonight, and probably helicoiling it if I can't save the threads in the cylinder head. Got a new set of studs and nuts on order.
 
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Two solid evenings working on the bloody manifold studs and finally I have a nice new set of shiny stainless ones in place. I had to buy some colbalt drills to remove one of the broken studs as HSS dril bits wouldn't touch it. I also had to helicoil it as the threads got damaged. Another one sheared whilst trying to remove it but I managed to build up the end with weld and then welded a strip of steel on it to remove it.

Bit late to start fitting the exhaust now, and I'd like to clean up the front of the engine first anyway. Unfortunately I'm off rallying this weekend (servicing only - tried navigating and spent the entire day throwing up) so may be next week before it's back together.
 
A minor thing, but fitted a Riderscan.

Riderscan.jpg


Surprisingly good, these things. A nice supplement to lifesavers, no more mirror blindspots.
 
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pugheaven said:
Now that is a good idea... work well in practice?
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It takes a little while to get used to and at first I thought it might be a bit gimmicky, but actually it works well. No real glare problems from the sun, etc. Great coverage. I like it, its definitely improved my situational awareness. Its design was apparently inspired by a frying pan.
 
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Almost broke down on the bonnie this afternoon.

Coming up a hill I felt a knock on my right foot, thought it was odd but nothing else happened so decided to leave it until I got home. Coming down the hill on the otherside I came to stop at the junction, went to change down and the clutch went quite loose, changed down, went to change into first clutch was really loose, couldn't get it in first but I had to stop. Stall.

I'm sat at this junction with a clutch lever that when fully squeezed is obviously still engaging the clutch, rather than full disengaging it and when I let the lever out about 3mm it's full engaged. This made it a right pain to get into neutral. I huffed and puffed while walking the bike forwards trying to get into neutral from second, I got it in and then started it. Waited for a clear bit of road and went to pull away and stalled it. I'd forgotten about my new bite point being almost instantaneous. Doh. Repeat process.

I finally got away, and managed to change up into second. It was then as I was coming to another junction I realised that when I changed up to 2nd I had basically clutchless shifted, unfortunately I couldn't shift down no matter how much I pushed my gear lever. Fortunately the next junction was clear and I didn't have to slow too much. I then quickly had to think of a new route home that would let me stay in second.

This evening I took the primary chain case off and the clutch mechanism seems fine, as is the cable but the whole clutch basket is shifting towards the case (It had started to machine the case :eek:) which suggest something to do with the gearbox.

It's good though because I needed a reason to get in behind the clutch and change the sprocket :p
 
any woodruff key or circlip to hold the basket in place?

and yh its a pain to shift gear I just left it in first when my cable snapped

hope it didn't wear away too much of your engine case
 
There's a thrust washer which may be the culrpit, I've left it for now, also having taken off the case I'll need a new gasket so the bike will be out of action for a couple of weeks which is a shame.

Fortunately the bit it started to wear away is a cap which screws into the case and acts as sort of a viewing hole into the case. From the cap you can adjust a screw which changes where/when the rod starts pushing the back plate open and disengaging the clutch. The cap has maybe half a mill of wear from the screw and there was a bit of swarf on both the cap and screw.

If I had adjusted the cable to make the clutch operate as normal then I think there'd be a hole in the cap lol
 
pugheaven said:
@Dog - What you make fo the Nitron? I love mine... served me well in Spain, fully adjustable but felt like a new bike on the rear now...
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I don't know yet as the bike still isn't rideable, but I have high hopes for it.

Been away most of this weekend, but I managed to get the Akrapovic mostly fitted on Saturday morning. However for some reason the system is too low at the back so the strap won't reach the hanger without putting a lot of stress on the exhaust. Not quite sure what I can do about that, there's nothing to adjust and it fits fine everywhere else, so will email the supplier.
 
Dogbreath said:
I don't know yet as the bike still isn't rideable, but I have high hopes for it.

Been away most of this weekend, but I managed to get the Akrapovic mostly fitted on Saturday morning. However for some reason the system is too low at the back so the strap won't reach the hanger without putting a lot of stress on the exhaust. Not quite sure what I can do about that, there's nothing to adjust and it fits fine everywhere else, so will email the supplier.
Click to expand...

The nicest thing I treated my zx12 to was a full Akrapovic titanium system the mid section weighs less than a hoover pipe the 12 gains a massive bang from stock also, the difference is night and day win win all round.
 
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I managed to persuade it into place by gently lifting the end can whilst hitting all the slip joints on the 4-2-1 section with a rubber mallet which allowed them to move to the required positions.

Only thing left now is the radiator, which started leaking after I removed it from the frame to fit the exhaust. I can't see any damage to the core at all, in fact it was in excellent condition for a 15 year old bike, but there is clearly coolant leaking from somewhere within the centre of the core :( A local radiator reconditioning place pressure tested it and suggested it may be internal corrosion, but they aren't sure if they can source a new core or how much it will be.

A new rad is over £500 from Honda, no pattern ones available for the 98/99 and eBay is full of mangled, corroded crap at stupid prices. Finally found a virtualy new one (700km old) on Spanish eBay for just over £200, so this seems like the best option.
 
Got the Arrow rearsets fitted yesterday. Have set them to about an inch back and an inch up from standard. Will tweak as necessary.



 
Very nice :cool: How much extra legroom can these give? How much adjustability do they have in each direction?

Riding an NC700/750S at the weekend has made me realise I'll probably need some rearsets to get properly comfy on a small naked, long legs and all that.

Cycle-ergo give 75 degrees knee angle for my current bike (125 varadero) which is quite comfy, 72 degrees for the NC750 and 70 degrees for the street triple.
 
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