What did you do to your bike today?

[InvaderGIR]

It's about the same weight as the Scorpion and looks to be well packed, better even than the Scorpion is but that's a few years and a few thousand miles old so I'd not be too surprised if the material is worn out a bit.

I am quite tempted to refit the cheapy one, my main concern though is that I can't use the spring clip things to hold the can to the link pipe, although it does feel solid the way I fitted it above. I do also have some exhaust wrap I could use to run from the can through the link pipe up to the clamp to help hold it together / avoid any leaks.

I should have got a 370mm one though for sure as it's a pain to mount this 310mm one. I also couldn't find any sellers that actually have slip-fit ones despite advertising they do in pics and descriptions which is a shame as that would allow me to retain the (admittedly manky looking) scorpion link pipe and I wouldn't need to worry about the spring clips then as it'd just be clamped on nicely.

 

[tom_e]

You could always take a grinder to the cheapy one, cut off the spring lugs and cut some slots in it then you should be able to clamp it down.

 

[InvaderGIR]

That is something I thought about but I'd also need a pipe expanding tool as the dimensions aren't quite right to fit over the current pipe and looking around online, the cheaper ones are next to useless so I'd be forking out well over £100 on a tool to 'fix' a cheap thing I got as a bit of a joke.

You can see it doesn't fit over the current pipe in this pic I took before to check if the link would be needed.

I'll mess about with it some more at some point I'm sure though, whilst avoiding spending more money on it. I do think the look is fairly decent, the Scorpion is quite large and the smaller one looks a bit cleaner and has the bonus of not being dented...also makes it sound more like a sports bike/screamer.

 

[tom_e]

I'd give your local indy garage/exhaust place a call they might not even charge you for 5 minutes work sticking on their expanding kit.

 

[CGrieves]

Money spent on tools is never wasted!

 

[InvaderGIR]

Haha I would agree if it was something I'm likely to use more than once...I have loads of tools already (oddly though, no grinder...should rectify that...) but the pipe expanding tools are a bit more specialist. I did try the good old "clearance it with a hammer" on the link pipe as it's very tight on fitting to the Suzuki exhaust and I wanted a bit more ease of fitting...didn't help much.

 

[InvaderGIR]

Finished work, bored, sod it...

Wrapped the pipe in heat stuff too, it's tight and might help hold it together and keep the exhaust gasses from escaping. Everything has good engagement tbh and there are no gaps and it's all tight and solid but I figured as I had the wrap stuff, might as well use it. Started at the rear and tightly wrapped it to the front so only needed the one metal strap to hold it in place.

 

[Kreeeee]

I'm still using the same sheet of 3M carbon fibre print as I used on my first bike. I've certainly got my money's worth compared to buying customised pads for my 6 bikes.

Should I swap the PowerParts pad for the same material or leave it as it is?

 

[tom_e]

The carbon wrap will be slippery won't it?

 

[Kreeeee]

Same grip level as a raw tank.

But the knees lock in perfectly into the geometry of the bike (right on the middle pad) under heavy braking, so it's not possible to slip in that scenario. The wrap is just there to stop scratches.

When leaning off the bike my leg rests on the PowerParts pad which would benefit from the traction so I'm tempted to leave it as it is.

 

[InvaderGIR]

I took the question to be about replacing the PowerParts pads as that looks grippy but the carbon stuff looks fairly slick.

 

[Kreeeee]

I took the question to be about replacing the PowerParts pads as that looks grippy but the carbon stuff looks fairly slick.

Yeah sorry, I wasn't sure if you were commenting on it being an issue in general.

I'll leave it as it and test it out on Grimsel, Furka, and Susten tomorrow.

 

[The Judge]

I sold mine to-day. Now i hate myself

 

[Kreeeee]

I sold mine to-day. Now i hate myself

Do what I did and go buy a new one. It makes all your problems go away

 

[The Judge]

Do what I did and go buy a new one. It makes all your problems go away

Unfortunately it was for medical reasons. Biking days are finished

 

[Griffo]

I'm still using the same sheet of 3M carbon fibre print as I used on my first bike. I've certainly got my money's worth compared to buying customised pads for my 6 bikes.

Should I swap the PowerParts pad for the same material or leave it as it is?

I say keep it, for some reason the KTMs are one of the few bikes the tank pads seem to look good on, and the factory ones would be preferable to my eyes .

I want to try one of these now, but I'm afraid it will ruin my honeymoon period with the GS! Which I rode. Yesterday.

 

[InvaderGIR]

As there was a gap in the weather and I had finished work, decided I should really bleed the clutch as I'd done the front brakes the other day and the fluid was bad in there so it was likely to be bad in the clutch too.

Yes that is some black scum/sludge in the bottle! I don't have pics but the res was full of the brown fluid (no surprise) and a black silt/sludge which I had to clean out with some paper towels before I refilled it with clean fluid and flushed it through a few times with fresh fluid.

Now it's looking much nicer and might work a bit better too, next up at some point soon-ish is the rear brake, that's one I'm really not looking forward to though given it's not as simple on your own as the front/hand controls.

 

[InvaderGIR]

To then add to the above, flushed the rear brake system tonight too. Much easier than I'd thought and my main worry was doing it on the side stand (no centre stand on the bike and no paddock stand) but it wasn't an issue really and now the rear brake feels like it does more but it's still a bit much effort to turn the brake light on so I might need to investigate the switch on that.

I did get some pics of the brake flush, mostly similar to the above only a bit cleaner old fluid.

Before:

After:

Cleaned the gear position sensor and the side stand switch the other day too so my iffy neutral light is back to working properly although it's likely to fail again and a replacement of the slightly better version (as used on the GSX1250F) costs about £110 which is a bit crazy but it's also why I cleaned it first to see if it'd help. The neutral light and gear display isn't too big a deal, although it does change the fuelling apparently if the ECU depending on 1/N/2 positions (maybe just 1/N) so having it reporting correctly is best.

 

[Maccapacca]

TY in pieces, a mate is kindly stripping and tidying it up

 

[*Rich*]

Today i collected my KTM from the dealer following a radiator leak. All seems good for now, just in time for an overdue Sunday ride.