Belly pan.
I have not really done much more to the bike since last time. There really isn't anything much more to be done in all honesty now anyway.
I've carbon fibre wrapped the belly pan (a term that's used here for the part, if not elsewhere) for the bike which lines up with the side fairings and covers the underside of the engine.
It's been of for so long after the fitting of the exhaust and looking like an open engined style bike that I had forgotten what it looked like in it's completeness. Much better in my honest opinion.
Front wheel change.
After a while I had noticed there was a thorn in the front tire. A particularly nasty, long, sharp thorn that had some how managed to penetrate all the way through the rubber. The funny thing was there wasn't even really much of a slow puncture situation with the thorn in. Pulled out all the air rushed out in minutes, put back in and pumped up it would last for weeks at around the same pressure. Shades of cycling, obviously though it had to be changed.
The most straight forward thing to do here was to remove the front wheel and go get the tire on it swapped over for a new one without having the possibility of having to leave the bike overnight somewhere due to back log while it gets sorted out.
This left me with a dilemma. The front of the bike needs to rest down, so I will need another bare wheel at least to replace the one I took off, resting it down on a plank of wood on the garage floor so neither the floor or wheel is damaged.
I would even get a spare wheel out of it while we're at it and Ebay was the best source, looking for online breakers. It didn't have to be a new one for what I needed it for. A cheap one would suffice here. One with a tire, even a worn one would be a bonus as I wouldn't need to rest it on a plank of wood. I got lucky, VERY lucky. Not only did I get an A+ condition wheel, disc brake and bearings with a tire on it, the the tire was a brand new Michelin Pilot Sport, still with the rubber bobbles around the outer edges intact (the same tire I was likely about to replace with new, there isn't too much option amongst the decent brands at this size out there). So in essence I got the new tire I needed and all that was required was a straight swap of the wheels. I won't say how much I paid for the wheel & tire but it was just under half the price I would have paid to get just the new tire put on, which is a big bonus, and about the same price as the standard Chinese replacement tires (which got punchered here and I suspect was on from the showroom as the bike is not many months old).
It still seems best to have a new tire put on the wheel I took off anyway and in future I can just swap and change should anything similar happen or tread / bearing wears out etc.
I don't have tire changing equipment myself, however since these tires are not especially thick and therefore wouldn't be much of an hassle you could consider it a wise purchase for the future as a set tire irons would only set you back a few £s and a bead breaker about £25.00 - £35.00.
Removal.
Since you may find it useful and most people just take their bike down to the mechanic without having much of a clue, I thought I would document the front wheel removal process as it is a blog about the bike after all and is where we have been leading up to above.
First of all the bike (or the front of) will need to be raised at least about 2 inches off the ground for the wheel to be able to drop out. If you don't have the specialised motorcycle tools for this, which I'm guessing you don't, like a ramp etc then you will have to use a car jack underneath the engine block / chassis (the block in this case) with a plank of wood sandwiched between to protect the block from the jack and also spread the load across the bottom. It is slightly odd shaped at the bottom and the wood did not go in quite flush / flat but it worked out ok in the end. It's probably best to remove the exhaust main pipe first, but I was able to work around it. Obviously you don't want to crush the pipe.
If you want to get the bike up straight 90 degrees then you will have to have someone else hold the bike upright while you lift it up with the jack. I however left it on it's side stand and jacked it up from the other side only enough to give me enough room to remove the wheel. Slowly jack the bike up so you don't cause it to suddenly topple over. Again, somebody else stood to the side in case it does would be great. But you could always position it against something heavy or near by a garage wall (protecting the paint work that side with an old towel / cloths just in case it does fall). It seems to stay on it's stand the one side just fine with the bike lifted slowly just a few inches.
When the wheel is off the ground enough you can begin by removing the brake caliper and tying it back out of the way with a tie wrap / zip tie or even an old piece of string, on it's hose.
Start by bending back the tabs over the bolts with a screw driver, these stop the bolts from working loose or someone purposely loosening them with a spanner and there are 2 of them on the metal clip should you cold work or break one off during removal. You may need to give the screw driver a gentle tap with a hammer or mallet to bend it back. If you somehow manage to break off both tabs doing this job you will need to order a new part. It will work just fine without the tabs but the protection of the screws not working loose will be gone and you would have to keep checking they were tight. So you would still be able to use the bike until a new part arrived anyway.
Using a spanner and a mallet (they're in nice and tight just like we would want them to be) tap round and loosen the bolts before switching to a ratchet (if you've got sense) for quicker removal of the bolts. You shouldn't strike a ratchet with a mallet because you could damage the mechanism!
Once you have removed the two bolts and the metal strip you can remove the caliper and tie it back. I've used an old cloth here to stop it from scratching against anything.
Now on the one end of the wheel is the spacer and at the other is the speedometer gear casing with the cable attached to it.
Now we can begin to remove the wheel. To remove the spindle remove the nut at the one end while locking the the spindle in place with a spanner at the other end. Again you may find a few taps on the spanner with a mallet helpful.
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Now on the one end of the wheel is the spacer and at the other is the speedometer gear casing with the cable attached to it. I removed the wheel with the cable still attached but think I may have stretched the cable removing the wheel and will order a new one just to make sure. When you take off the wheel I would do it very carefully or remove the cable from the gear housing first by unscrewing the screw on the side of the housing.
With the spindle nut removed we can tap out the spindle gently with a mallet and remove the wheel.
We use a mallet because it's softer than a hammer and won't damage the metal we are striking. If you don't have a mallet you can use a hammer with a piece of wood held in front of it, you hit the wood and it doesn't damage the metal underneath. This of course means you might need an extra pair of hands to help you.
It's a reverse of the procedure to put the wheel back on. There are 2 pins at the one side at the gear end, these go against the 2 pins inside the gear housing and drive the speedometer when the wheel turns around. They do NOT clip over the top of the pins inside the housing, I know it looks like they do but they don't, of course the spacer go's at the other end.
