£4000 all rounder - commuting/touring/weekend blasts

DanF · 3 Sep 2015 at 23:22

TallPaul_S said:
+ my own 50bhp 14k rpm CB400.

I've ridden a mates CB400 a few times, I'm 6" and 80kg so was pretty comical, the thing would bottom out and scrape pegs all over the place but was kinda fun

my current bikes are a street triple and a ktm 990 smt. tbh not sure if I'd recommend the adventure for what you are looking for. the 990 motors are loads of fun to use but are pretty thirsty and service intervals are 6k/12k and very expensive. Fairly heavy clutch on mine as well and the engine is a pig below 3k rpm. Kinda why I like it, you have to ride around some of it's issues then it's really amazing.

A CBR600F would be a great step up if there's one around with ABS. My neighbour upgraded his xj6 (yuck) to one recently and really loves it.

wazza300 · 3 Sep 2015 at 23:32

Fair play

Its a pity they don't do an aftermarket abs kit for bikes,just bolt it on

DanF · 3 Sep 2015 at 23:36

lol yeah

Just upgrading from a cb400 to something with a decent chasis and suspension should give you a lot more grip anyway. The cb400 has damper rod forks which can hydro lock and lose grip even in a straight line.

Have you done any advanced rider training or off-road experience style stuff? can really help with bike control

TallPaul_S · 3 Sep 2015 at 23:56

No I haven't - it's something I've thought about doing since I started riding tbh.

The front suspension has no adjustment, and only pre-load on the rear.

I'm thinking that maybe a full font brake overhaul might do the trick - as in my other posts the front brakes are either nothing or everything, there's only a few mm of in-between. New pads, braided lines, clean and refurb the calipers and rebuild the MC should do the trick? Remember these are 14 year old brakes, with probably 3-4 year old pads. I doubt they've had a rebuild as the bike has only done 28k mile roughly.

Edit: looking at old service bills and MOT's, the front pads are at least 17k miles old. The bike was on 11k miles in November 2011 and they haven't been changed since then.

DanF · 4 Sep 2015 at 00:28

Is yours the super four? The brakes on them are actually pretty sharp for the bike weight. 4-pot nissins on a light bike. Braded hoses might make it worse

TallPaul_S · 4 Sep 2015 at 01:03

Yep, it's a superfour VTEC, 1999 model. The calipers are the same as on the fireblade 929, firestorm, cbr600 etc, with dual 296mm discs. Dry weight is 168kg so not superlight, but light enough.

The brakes are good but I've always had to apply a lot of pressure to brake hard, normal braking is ok with 2 fingers but it's really a 4 finger job if I want to brake fairly hard.

Tefal · 4 Sep 2015 at 01:29

TallPaul_S said:
Thanks for all the sugestions so far, at the moment the list is looking like:

K1200S
Sprint ST
NC750X (if only to dismiss it)
CBF1000

Really, the choice comes down to either a newer model 600 or an older, high spec 1000.

There's bikes like the newer CBR600F which are around 4k for a 2011 model, or even stuff like the Aprilia Shiver - a 2013 model for £4500! But winter use on something this would worry me.

Then there's also different stuff like the KTM 990 adventure. I might be able to stretch to £5k as it'll take a little while to look at bikes, so might be nearer xmas by the time I find what I'm looking for.

Vfr800? Practice durable and will be well under budget

Tefal · 4 Sep 2015 at 01:32

TallPaul_S;28520871 Edit: looking at old service bills and MOT's said:
O.o

Are there any pads left!?

How thick are they/can you see the wear indicators

TallPaul_S · 4 Sep 2015 at 08:18

They are due for a change soon, tbh they haven't worn much over the time I've had the bike.

Forgot to say also that with the brake lever set on the smallest setting, I can pull the lever back to the bar, I normally have it set on the Max setting.

Kreeeee · 4 Sep 2015 at 08:40

DanF said:
um are you sure you want to get a 165bhp 230+kg bmw with only a years riding experience I'm sure you can take it easy and be ok but where's your bike progression going to go from there?

No worse than me getting a 110bhp 163Kg Triumph with 1 months experience

Crowze · 4 Sep 2015 at 13:24

TallPaul_S said:
If I had a choice, it would be a v-twin - all the way. However, unless you want an Aprilia or a Ducati (which I do, very, very much - but not the best for doing 10k+ a year in all weather) there's not much choice. KTM? The old 1000 v-strom is a horrible beast, the new one is great though.

A v-twin around 100-130bhp would be purrrfect. But what out there has that?

Crowze said:
Caponord

*cough*

10k+ a year in all weather is exactly what the Capo is for. ACF50 to stop the corrosion, a few essential preventative mods and you're laughing.

TallPaul_S · 4 Sep 2015 at 16:18

They look interesting, shame the nearest one for sale to me in Lincolnshire!

TallPaul_S · 5 Sep 2015 at 13:39

Alrighty then, got most of the bits to fix the broken bits on the bike, and thought I'd whip off the calipers to have a look...

Yep. That might be the issue.

First off, the pads.

These are from the right caliper:

These are from the left caliper:

Normal wear on the left caliper (due for replacement, I knew this)

Right caliper however, one is faaar more worn than the other.

Turns out, on the right caliper, ONE of four piston was pushing out properly.

The left caliper, again, ONE of the four was pushing out properly, with the other 3 pushing out but then retracting back in after the lever was released.

I did say i didn't have that much confident in the brakes, and that they weren't that powerful, didn't I?! :eek:

Right caliper - 1 piston working.

left caliper - again, 1 piston working, the top right piston and the other 2 were only pushing out slightly then retracting, only the bottom right piston is actually moving properly.

So' I'll start a new thread on how to rebuild calipers as I've never done it before. Or maybe I should just get a paid of refurbished calipers? That's an expensive option though.

wazza300 · 5 Sep 2015 at 13:42

you can do them yourself,i did mine,the hardest part will be getting all four pistons out

then you carefully scrape all the corroded crap out of the seal/dust seal grooves and use some red rubber grease to refit new seals,and polish up the pistons and put them back in

you can also pay and send off the calipers for a full rebuild and repaint

http://www.powerhouse.uk/content/motorcycle-brakes/motorcycle-brake-caliper-exchange-service.php

IC3 · 5 Sep 2015 at 14:00

Buy some Muc-Off break cleaner, two of my pistons didn't go out. It took me an hour to get them out, I wasted half of the bottle.

The procedure I followed was...
1. Take caliper off
2. Try to push the the piston out first and spray them with break cleaner (I used muc-off).
3. Push them back in all the way and spray lots of that cleaner stuff inside the piston chamber and leave it like that for a bit. (I used flat head screwdrivers to push the piston back into the chamber with the break pads on.)
4. Then I pumped the break lever and tried to push the pistons back out fully.

I repeated this process in till all pistons were coming out smoothly. I had so much junk in the callipers its unbelievable. I'll spray the breaks once a month from now on, without taking the callipers off just to keep the breaks clean.

Oh yeah, use some gloves as the muc-off break cleaner burns your skin.

BTW Here's a video of how bad my front breaking was, no wonder I had so many close calls.

The mirror is scraped as I accidentally scraped it against a brick wall whilst parking the bike at night. I was tired and it was dark af...

Edit:

I also took apart the break lever and took out the bolt which you press with the handle, as there was so much rust in there and the bolt had a spring around it which I stretched.

TallPaul_S · 5 Sep 2015 at 15:59

Well, both brake calipers are off, split and all 8 pistons are out

The inner pressure seals look perfect, one of the dust seals is buggered but apart from that they're fine.

I'll give the calipers and the pistons a damn good clean, the caliper should come up like new after a bit of elbow grease. I'll order a seal kit as I may aswell replace them now they're apart.

Now, while I'm doing this, do I upgrade the brake lines to a set of braided lines? Remember they're the original rubber hoses.

wazza300 · 5 Sep 2015 at 16:04

Its up to you,I'm still on original hoses,

As long as they ain't badly cracked or perished,but its down to yourself,all braided hoses will do it give you a slightly better bite/feel

TallPaul_S · 5 Sep 2015 at 17:08

Yeah the hoses are fine, no cracks or bulges. I'm gonna get a bit better bite/feel with 4x the pistons working anyway!

.one. · 5 Sep 2015 at 18:46

TallPaul_S said:
Yeah the hoses are fine, no cracks or bulges. I'm gonna get a bit better bite/feel with 4x the pistons working anyway!

When you apply the front brake feel if the hoses swell, if so badly replace.

wazza300 · 5 Sep 2015 at 18:51

its a good job you checked your calipers,they were in pretty bad nick tbh