What did you do to your bike today?

CGrieves · 8 May 2018 at 08:13

bcjames said:
The best time to prepare for winter is summer

My throttle side is definitely missing something. It’s just a hole straight through the rubber bit, there’s nothing there to make it expand.

I’ll take the other side that worked out and see what that looks like.

Seem to remember having this dilemma myself, but can't for the life of me remember what the outcome was. Can you take a pic?

bcjames · 8 May 2018 at 09:38

CGrieves said:
Seem to remember having this dilemma myself, but can't for the life of me remember what the outcome was. Can you take a pic?

I can when I get home. I rode in to work, but took it off beforehand in case it fell of while riding. It's just a countersunk bolt and a rubber cylinder. The 'good' side looks to have the same set up, but it's glued in so I haven't been able to get it out get to see if there's an expanding bung in that side that's missing on the other.

Freeman · 8 May 2018 at 11:09

Lowered the headlight beam.

I was getting flashed even in the day time. This is from factory settings (brand new VFR) and they just seemed to be blinding everyone so it started annoying me.

They are LED so they are naturally bright but they were far too high.

mattup · 8 May 2018 at 13:45

Speed triple rs is in for its first service. Looking forward to opening it up later!

The_Abyss · 8 May 2018 at 22:33

After a few tough weeks at work, Friday (dress down) was begging to ride the bike to work. I left early, and turned my 6 mile commute into 2 hours

Roll on to 11.30 and the weather outside was just too nice. I decided to take the afternoon off, and rode up to north Norfolk and back, to see building progress on the house we're buying. Absolutely stunning weather, and four hours mostly great riding made the stress of the last few weeks just melt away before the weekend. However, upon getting back and readying documents for the annual service I found that the first MOT was due on 6 May! No riding now until taking it to the dealer on 16 May...

The beach car park...

The view from the beach

CGrieves · 9 May 2018 at 08:18

Surely you can get an MOT at shorter notice?

The_Abyss · 9 May 2018 at 08:43

Not at one of the local dealers who’ll also do the annual service at the same time. Frustrating. Off to the Lake District the day after it is done though

Scort · 9 May 2018 at 12:49

Fixed my radiator leak, but may have inadvertently caused further issues

After Googling, I settled for "Liqui Molly Stop Leak", first attempt resulted in it still leaking (booooo), so I did a complete radiator removal (along with some of the pipework) and pressure tested the rad - leak found!

I decided to try the leak stop once more, and this time it worked! Hurrah!!! But... I noticed that the temps seemed to be a little high - town riding @25 air temp was in the high 80s or low 90s. And a long run on Sunday resulted in 107 in an air temp of 32 (these were 'in town' figures).

So, sadly, this stop leak may have clogged up some of the water channels/veins in the engine

Next mission - flush this stop leak out of the system; so far I've seen a suggestion of first running the bike with a water + liquid dishwasher detergent, followed by a distilled water and diluted citric acid powder, then a flush with distilled water... might check that a bit more; than I did with this stop leak.

InvaderGIR · 9 May 2018 at 13:27

Sadly this is the reason those products aren't really all that good an option to use. They clog up the rad and engine's waterways / coolant pumps / coolant pipes all too easily on cars, bikes etc. so realistically the only viable fix is to replace the broken component. Replacing a rad may be costly but personally I'd prefer to do that than have a potential for a bricked engine.

As a first port of call to flush things out though I'd just pull all the coolant lines off, get a hose and blast out the engine and pipes and rinse the radiator (rather than blasting it out which might remove the plug created by the stop leak). I'd then refill and run the engine up to temp, check how it's running and if still running a bit warm then I'd go down the route of detergents and a new rad.

Snaggle · 9 May 2018 at 13:43

Scort said:
Fixed my radiator leak, but may have inadvertently caused further issues

After Googling, I settled for "Liqui Molly Stop Leak", first attempt resulted in it still leaking (booooo), so I did a complete radiator removal (along with some of the pipework) and pressure tested the rad - leak found!

I decided to try the leak stop once more, and this time it worked! Hurrah!!! But... I noticed that the temps seemed to be a little high - town riding @25 air temp was in the high 80s or low 90s. And a long run on Sunday resulted in 107 in an air temp of 32 (these were 'in town' figures).

So, sadly, this stop leak may have clogged up some of the water channels/veins in the engine

Next mission - flush this stop leak out of the system; so far I've seen a suggestion of first running the bike with a water + liquid dishwasher detergent, followed by a distilled water and diluted citric acid powder, then a flush with distilled water... might check that a bit more; than I did with this stop leak.

I would NOT put washing liquid through the engine .. not only is it full of salt but will takes you ages to remove the bubbles/foam

acemastr · 9 May 2018 at 19:04

Finally took the plunge and bought ASV levers, excited to put them on tonight

MowyTone · 10 May 2018 at 08:05

The_Abyss said:
After a few tough weeks at work, Friday (dress down) was begging to ride the bike to work. I left early, and turned my 6 mile commute into 2 hours

Roll on to 11.30 and the weather outside was just too nice. I decided to take the afternoon off, and rode up to north Norfolk and back, to see building progress on the house we're buying. Absolutely stunning weather, and four hours mostly great riding made the stress of the last few weeks just melt away before the weekend. However, upon getting back and readying documents for the annual service I found that the first MOT was due on 6 May! No riding now until taking it to the dealer on 16 May...

The beach car park...

Looks like a car park near Blakeney?

Scort · 10 May 2018 at 08:53

InvaderGIR said:
Sadly this is the reason those products aren't really all that good an option to use. They clog up the rad and engine's waterways / coolant pumps / coolant pipes all too easily on cars, bikes etc. so realistically the only viable fix is to replace the broken component. Replacing a rad may be costly but personally I'd prefer to do that than have a potential for a bricked engine.

As a first port of call to flush things out though I'd just pull all the coolant lines off, get a hose and blast out the engine and pipes and rinse the radiator (rather than blasting it out which might remove the plug created by the stop leak). I'd then refill and run the engine up to temp, check how it's running and if still running a bit warm then I'd go down the route of detergents and a new rad.

In retrospect, I should have researched it even more - but I guess I was suckered in by seeing so many posts where people had success, and naively thought that as I used one for a MC, it would be dandy.

Found a local place that say they can repair the rad for £45 + vat, it's worth a punt, as a new rad from Ducati is going to be anywhere from £430 to £480 - I also took off almost all hoses last night, and I'm on the precipice on where to order a set of Samco hoses to replace them - they're a little tatty and it might be good to overhaul the system - though it might be £160 I don't really need to spend...

I gave most paths of the cooling system a wash out last night, but will give them some more loving, to hopefully flush that **** out of the system.

Snaggle said:
I would NOT put washing liquid through the engine .. not only is it full of salt but will takes you ages to remove the bubbles/foam

That's one thing that had me worried by that advice, it seems like a daft idea - but it's one of many flushes, so I'm guessing the rest with rid most/all the remnants.

Someone at work told me to be careful with the aluminium though, so that may very well invalidate these suggested 'wash through' techniques.

LEUVEN · 10 May 2018 at 13:14

Scort said:
Found a local place that say they can repair the rad for £45 + vat, it's worth a punt, as a new rad from Ducati is going to be anywhere from £430 to £480 - I also took off almost all hoses last night, and I'm on the precipice on where to order a set of Samco hoses to replace them - they're a little tatty and it might be good to overhaul the system - though it might be £160 I don't really need to spend...

I was thinking for what it's worth I'd just buy a new one, had found one for £75 within minutes....
Then saw that price you put :eek:

Is that so expensive because it's a Ducati?

Scort · 10 May 2018 at 15:37

LEUVEN said:
I was thinking for what it's worth I'd just buy a new one, had found one for £75 within minutes....
Then saw that price you put
Is that so expensive because it's a Ducati?

Probably - it's got an Italian mark-up

That price is for a brand new one, but you have to wait for it to come from Italy - I did contact Moto Rapido, but they can only source a new one...

The_Abyss · 11 May 2018 at 06:51

MowyTone said:
Looks like a car park near Blakeney?

Weybourne. We’re buying just down the road in Bodham.

MowyTone · 11 May 2018 at 09:06

The_Abyss said:
Weybourne. We’re buying just down the road in Bodham.

Small world! My Grandma used to live in Bodham and I have family in Sheringham and Cromer

TripleT · 11 May 2018 at 12:48

Freeman said:
Lowered the headlight beam.

I was getting flashed even in the day time. This is from factory settings (brand new VFR) and they just seemed to be blinding everyone so it started annoying me.

They are LED so they are naturally bright but they were far too high.

Or you're heavy causing the front to raise... just saying..

Freeman · 11 May 2018 at 13:27

TripleT said:
Or you're heavy causing the front to raise... just saying..

Haha.

Just Mr average. (actually, a couple kg below according to google!) - so there!

signs · 15 May 2018 at 12:07

fixed a puncture

.