Little bit of maintence

So, it has been a while since the last post. Hopefully that can change once we get the Buell back in riding shape.


We picked it up from storage in Virginia. I mean that literally. We had no ramp to load it into the trailer, so we used a wooden pallet and lifted it. That'll lead to some sore shoulders. Because it had been sitting for a while, we knew it would need some TLC. Battery was drained, front brake was almost spongey enough to be useless, and it wouldn't start (see: battery drained).


So, we put it on the battery tender after we got it home. After a recharge it now starts up fine. Next up, bleeding the front brake and putting fresh fluids in.

After-market Modification

I looked at the Blast earlier this week and noticed something; the exhaust is starting to rust. The all steel construction of the system and the lack of a garage to protect it from the elements will do that. Seems like I now have a savings goal: a new after-market can for the bike. Too bad the two brands I would like to see put on it also add 5-10 HP. Oops.

Whenever it gets done (in the next 5 years, or so) I'll post up more about it.

Maintain your chain: Please learn from my mistake!

Yesterday's ride did not go well. I had noticed the chain looked slack, and last time I'd adjusted it, the wheel was almost at the end of the adjuster. So I had intended to get it replaced Saturday.

Saturday wasn't soon enough. The chain had worn to the point it jumped off the rear sprocket while I was climbing a hill in bumper to bumper traffic. I tried to get it back on, but it jumped off 50 feet down the road. I looked in my pocket for my cell phone - and realized the cell phone was missing. This was officially going to be a bad day.

I was able to borrow a phone from a passing driver and give Philip a call, and we got the bike back to the shop I work at. I've got a new chain on order. Things could have been a lot worse.

If your bike has a chain, you need to keep it in good working order. It needs to be oiled every 300 to 600 miles, depending on who you ask (and no doubt on what oil you use). Even O-ring or X-ring chains need lube. You also need to adjust the tension any time they go slack. And if you run out of adjustment... get a new chain and sprocket, right away. I'd been doing the first two, but failed to realize just how dangerous my chain situation had become when it ran out of adjustment. For the record, the chain lasted 16,000 miles.

Another lesson: It is possible to get a motorcycle into the back of a Chevy Suburban without too much effort. Getting the motorcycle out of the Suburban is considerably harder. Next time I'm using a trailer even if I have to rent it.

Spring Awakening

So, with spring in the air, I realized that it has been far too long since I've posted anything. You'd think that five months out of work would mean more time to blog, but it just so happened that winter really cuts in to motorcycle time. With the weather turning nice again, I knew it was time to get the Ninja back on the road. So that means it's time to change the oil, put new gas in, and clean the chain of the corrosion of a few months of disuse. Naturally, that also means that I just had to warm up the engine. So after a short ride to get the kinks out of the system and drop in at Quick Trip, I got around to readying the bike for commuting usage once more.

Just a friendly reminder to everyone that you should check all your bikes systems out as we take them out of storage finally and get them running again. This also means we need to remember to make sure we get back into practice and take it to a parking lot and work the kinks out of our systems before we do any real riding. Happy Spring, and ride safe.

Quick tips

Just a couple of quick tips to tide people over as I work on a full post (next topic: helmets)

First, when you get new tires put on the bike, the handling changes. I put some Pirelli MT75s on the Ninja yesterday to replace the stock Dunlop K630s, which you may recall were getting pretty worn. Not only are the new tires rounded, the new rear tire is slightly smaller than the original. The combination of these factors lead to a faster turn-in than I was used. Add to that the fact that the Pirellis have better grip than the Dunlops and you get me grinning in my helmet all the way home from the shop.

Second, a little something I discovered on my way to get the tires replaced. I had not warmed up my engine enough to turn off the choke, but I did it anyway. Meaning that I stalled coasting to a red light. No problem, I thought, I'll just put the bike in first and pop the clutch to pop-start it. Bad idea. I should have remembered to put the bike in second gear to pop-start. Instead I locked the rear wheel and slid the back end out momentarily before I engaged the clutch and allowed it to turn freely again. Slightly embarrassed, I just turned the choke back on and hit the starter button.

Tired Tires?

I've known for a while that my tires are beginning to wear out. 9000+ miles on the original rubber is not too bad, but it is getting up there and the age of the tires is beginning to worry me. Yesterday, I got a look at the tread and noticed the wear bars on my rear tire are beginning to show through. For those of you who don't know, wear bars are raised sections in the grooves to show when the tread is getting so thin that it is time to replace your tire. You can see the flat spot in my rear tire's center groove in the picture below as an example of what I mean.

I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do a little post on motorcycle tires and taking care of them. I think it almost goes without saying that maintaining your tires is probably one of the most important things you can do as an aid for safe riding. Properly inflated, good tread, soft rubber tires are vital for keeping good traction on a ride. Obviously, all three aspects I mentioned play important roles in braking, cornering, and accelerating. Proper inflation means the tire will not flex under strain (as is the case with under-inflation) or (in the case of over-inflation) be so inflexible as to promote slides and low traction. Good tread means better contact patch and traction, especially in the case of wet roads. Lastly, by soft rubber I mean tires that aren't too old. Old rubber hardens and dries out, leading to cracking and drastically lower traction.

I hope this serves as a good reminder to all riders to be mindful of their tires, and to new riders I hope this gave a bit of insight into what to look for and to think of.

SHAD luggage picture

I've finally got the replacement clutch pushrod in, so it's ready to bring out of the garage. And, as you can see, the SHAD side cases are now in place as well. There were a few tricky parts with the installation: It took a little finesse to get it in place with the stock exhaust can, and I had to add some extra washers to space out some of the bolts. And the connectors for the turn signals were the wrong style. Still, now that it's on, these fit the bike pretty well and look like they should hold up better than my soft bags. They also leave a lot more space around the foot pegs, making them somewhat more passenger friendly. The soft luggage I used to have would cover up the passenger pegs. Plus I can fit more than I could carry in both soft bags into one of the SHAD cases. These things are huge. I could probably fit two gallon milk jugs in one of them.

It's not the clutch cable after all....

It's the clutch pushrod that sidelined the GS500F. Wouldn't have thought that - if you've got a 2 mm cable and a 6 mm hardened steel rod operating the clutch, which would you expect to break?

Broken things

Had a couple things break today. Well, the first may have broken a while ago and I just now noticed. I bought a pair of Joe Rocket Sonic boots last year, and now they're coming apart next to one of the seams. On both sides. Not good; looks like I've got to order a new pair as this doesn't look easily fixed. Got to give the Joe Rocket boots a big thumbs down.

And when I was riding home from church today, I had my clutch cable break. Luckily it was less than a mile from home and I managed to ride home in first gear - the transmission doesn't like to be shifted without it. Looks like I'll need to order a new cable... or maybe get two of them, since they're pretty cheap and I've heard a lot of GS500F riders carry a spare.

Non-Routine Maintenance

For some time now the Ninja has been having what I thought to be problems with the carburetor being dirty. What I mean is that when the throttle got opened wide, the engine would bog down and sometimes stall. Pretty clearly some sort of fueling issue.

Here is where it comes in handy to either be a good mechanic or know one. A friend of ours (the same one who fixed my fairing) came over this morning to help me take the carb off and give it a thorough cleaning. When he got the carb off of the engine (in about the same amount of time as it takes me to get the fairing off) we discovered that the vent hose that helps regulate the air flow had a kink in it.

Like so:

We cut this section off the hose and re-installed everything. Took it out for a test ride and everything was back to the way it should be. The bike should now be reliable enough for me to get back to commuting regularly on it next week.

Now, what do I do with this leftover acid?

Picked up the battery this afternoon - as I've been working a little late, I haven't been able to go to bike shops that might have one on the shelf. So I went to an O'Reilly Auto Parts and they were able to special order the battery. Well, sort of - the correct battery is a size like a 10-B2, and they were only able to get a 10-A2. But the only difference is the side the vent is on, and the "wrong" battery will drop in if you move the vent hose over. It's long enough to reach either side.

One thing I found out about motorcycle batteries: They're stored without the acid so they don't lose their charge from sitting on a warehouse shelf. So you have to pour the acid, which is in a bottle with markings like "Danger! Pellegro! There's bad stuff in here and we're not just saying that because our lawyers said we have to!" into the battery before installing it. Once that's in the battery is ready to go, more or less. They say for best results you can give it a bit of time on a trickle charger.

So I'll be back riding tomorrow. The battery company did, however, include more acid than is needed to fill the battery, and it's not something I'd want to throw in the trash can.

Mechanical DNF

Today the bike wouldn't start. I checked the battery and was getting about 3.5 volts; looks like I need a new one and will have to add another day to this.

Maintenance - tires and oil change

I did a bit of maintenance on the GS500F today. Motorcycles take a bit more maintenance than cars. They've got oil changes like cars, but chain driven bikes like mine also need the chain lubricated every 600 miles (which isn't a huge deal but it is messy), and they go through tires very often. It's rare for sportbike tires to last 10,000 miles, at least not on the back - front tires wear a bit slower. The reason is that motorcycle tires are sticky like R-compound DOT race tires, and trade lifetime for grip. Losing traction on a bike is a lot worse than in a car.

One tip I've often heard and got to experience for the first time today is that a bike will behave differently with new tires on it. My tire was pretty squared off as I don't have enough curves in my commute. The new tire makes the bike want to turn more - that's the best way I have to describe it. It also takes a while for the mold release compound and other stuff to rub off the tire.

One other thing - it seems that a lot of parts stores don't know what oil filter to sell you for a Suzuki GS500F. Mountain Adventures sold me a spin-on filter, and they're a Suzuki dealer. I had only changed the oil in it once before, and forgot that it takes catridge type filters. So when I went to ValueCycle to have the new rear tire put on, I bought a filter from them. They first grabbed a spin-on filter too. I explained this was the wrong filter and another worker there found the correct one.

Still, these two did somewhat better than Cycle Gear. I once tried to buy an oil filter from them, and they asked if I had the chain driven or shaft driven version of the GS500F. I wonder what would have happened if I'd tried to order a replacement drive shaft for the bike from them.