Category Archives: update

Damn dog

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Alyosha has officially lost his status as Garage Dog.

I got a little buggy and decided to go to the garage to work on my bike a little. As I walked to leave, Yosh gave me a pitiful “take me with you” look. So, I put his leash on, and we went for the short walk to the garage.

I opened the garage door, and Yosh bolted in. I didn’t have his leash wrapped up, and as I followed him in, he skittered around the bike, caught his leash on the stands, and over went the RD to the floor. Wham! I quickly got the bike back up from its side – lifting from the legs, of course….

The kickstand mount got pretty bent.

I couldn’t get the bike back up on the front stand, so I decided to do what I could with it on the floor. It was not very comfortable.

There is a clusterfuck of wires to contend with inside the headlight bucket and I started pulling them apart in order to get the bucket and instrument cluster off.

I couldn’t get the stupid clutch cable out of the perch and realized it was frustrating me too much. The steel cable end threads into the aluminum housing at the clutch lever. The aluminum threads started to strip. I started down the dangerous road thinking, “Why the hell did I decide to strip this bike down to the frame?”

Fuck.

I am done for the night.

July 28

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Earlier this week I pulled the forks off with the intention of replacing the fork seals. However, when I pulled them, I saw how rusty and pitted they are. I discovered that they are also pretty darn bent.

So, I pulled the forks off my 400 roller.
They are much nicer! And straight. Yay!
There is only a little surface rust that I can take care of easily.

What I discovered, however, is that these folks are larger than the ones I pulled off.

Last night, I was hanging out with a couple of fellow two-stroke fanatics. They introduced me to some fantastic beer.

and

My friend suggested that the rusty, bent forks might be RD350LC forks.
33mm with the dual disc mounts. (Stock RD350 are 34mm).
Okay.

So, today I went back into the garage and compared them

Because the decent ones are larger, I pulled the steering stem (tripples) off the roller.

They need some cleaning and new (tapered) bearings, but they should do the trick.

And yes, I’m back to considering painting the frame.

July 24 forks

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Pulled the forks this morning.
But they are pretty pitted. Hrmph.

Not sure how low the pitting needs to be to destroy more fork seals…

Now my bike looks gimpy.

Since it’s so far taken apart anyway, and I’m gonna need to pull the top tripple to replace steering head bearings. Should probably pull the swingarm and replace the bushing…

It’s hard to resist just taking it down to the frame and painting the frame and building it back up. 😀