Routine Maintenance: Oil change and Clutch cable tightening.
I haven't really had much to do with the bike recently except lubricate the kill switch.I did upload a few You Tube videos of some more routine maintenance. I'll add video links to the blog below.
However, I just took delivery of some universal (so they say) hand /wind guards I intend to put on the bike for winter, as last winter my hands got fairly cold at times. It's also now the time of year to get on with fitting & finishing off that extra lighting I made, I have just ordered a more suitable switch that go's onto the handle bar instead for them.
However, I just took delivery of some universal (so they say) hand /wind guards I intend to put on the bike for winter, as last winter my hands got fairly cold at times. It's also now the time of year to get on with fitting & finishing off that extra lighting I made, I have just ordered a more suitable switch that go's onto the handle bar instead for them.
I recently had to walk the bike home, near to where I live (luckily) after it cut out & wouldn't start back up. I was on my way somewhere, then after a hold up, due to a little bump between two other vehicles, I turned around and doubled back on myself to go another way to my destination. As I said, luckily it cut out near my house. On closer inspection, it was that the kill switch on the throttle side handlebar, although in the on position wasn't actually all the way down and was a bit stiff, so cut the bike out. After a quick squirt of WD40 down the switch sides and a good few switches back and forth it was back to normal and the bike fired up again. The only downside is I probably could of hit it down with the palm of my hand & drove home (or on to my destination). The switches action is smooth now but, as someone pointed out it's winter here now and it's cold, everything stiffens and contracts. It does the opposite to when it's warm, when everything expands. That's why your locks on your house for example sometimes play up in the cold winter.
It could've been a lot worse than a work out for my thighs, although nothing I couldn't of fixed. Just time consuming and an extra expense. It would only of been the spark plug, HT lead, CDI or stator really in the engine case, as the kick start wasn't working either (obviously due to the kill switch problem). Which would of ruled out: solenoid (which is brand new anyway), starter motor (which is brand new anyway) and the voltage regulator which is also brand new. So it would be unlikely to of been related to that. It was only when I leaned down to start to remove the petrol tank that I saw from that angle that the kill switch wasn't all the way down. So always double check your kill switch if you have any starting trouble 1st. Of course, I use the bike all year round, most people garage their motorcycle in the winter months so don't have such things caused by weather to deal with, it may even of been a little rust on the contacts inside that caused it to stiffen due to rain getting inside or anything and the WD40 loosened it off. You only have to look at the indicator switch on the opposite side to note there is no rubber type stop, to stop any moisture getting inside. That is remedied by gluing a cut piece of rubber (something like a small piece of old inner-tube) yourself with a cut for the signal lever to poke through though. I haven't done this but it's a fairly obvious hack, at least to me. Spare handle switches new either side are only about £18.00 anyway again so, it's nothing to worry about in any case. Just time consuming or extra expense, especially if you're someone who really can't do the work yourself. Again I used just WD40, no switch lubricant or anything else and it seemed to be fine.
Oil Change.
We will take a look at where the oil filter is on the bike but, I'm not cleaning mine or changing it here now. I'm just showing for the purpose of making the video more complete. So if someone else wanted to do so, they would know where to look. You're expected to (clean filter) do it every other oil change (or every 2nd time). And you don't have to change it for a new one, just clean it out, it's a metal wire filter in the shape of a thimble, that pops out on the end of a spring. So just cleaning this and popping it back in again is fine. For a start it's unlike on other bikes, it's not an cylindrical paper style filter on the side of the engine.
One thing to be weary of when removing the screw cap, is that it's stiff, made of soft material and you damage it trying to un-screw it, just like I did with the original oil filler cap. That was copper that was painted black and chewed up under the spanner. I had to remove the engine case, cut a slot on the top of the chewed up part with an hacksaw (for a flat head screwdriver) & heat the inside of the engine case around the cap with a blow torch until the thread expanded to make it easier to get the part to un-screw. I had to heat it from inside so as to not damage the paint on the exterior. The new replacement filler cap I received was like that on lawnmowers instead and much better. I didn't want to relive that nightmare here again just for an example on the video, besides I needed to use the bike the next day. However, I will add that I would use an open ended spanner to put the pressure onto the flats of the big nut instead of an 12 point ring spanner / socket chewing up soft corners.
The type of thing that comes out are some metal filings similar to swarf, this is from the engine break in process. It's all the edges etc from the casting of the components that are moving about and most of this comes out with the oil. There may be the odd particle in the filter. This is why the 1st couple of scheduled oil changes are usually fairly soon out of the showroom. The old oil I keep and put back through my 4 - stroke lawnmower. You can filter it out if you want, a series of bigger to smaller funnels, with the hole getting smaller each time is one way or some people use womens tights as a filter. It just seems a waste for 6 month old oil, when the mower just needs to be topped up each season to do 2 lawns every week for a bit & runs off the same type.
While we're on the subject, in the video, I mention the fact that 4 -stroke lawnmower oil is of the same / similar type and can be used (SAE30), although this way around I would still only do so in emergency situations, such as being out & noticing on the oil indicator window that your virtually out of oil and there is only a hardware store selling such oil around the vicinity. Like some old country village or something, I would much rather drive with SAE30 back home than with next to nothing! Just beware of the ones mentioning additives as the wet clutch will not take kindly to them. This is why I don't recommend it full time! Of course, I would advise getting hold of some proper 10W40 4-stroke motorcycle oil as soon as possible.
Clutch cable tightening.
After a while of use the clutch cable will start to stretch a bit & you will need to tighten it up, the wear of the plates can cause you to need to adjust this also.
After the cable has been adjusted the free-play and or tension in the lever will need to be adjusted by undoing the locking lever then adjusting the cable screw on the lever. The free-play can be set by a technique with a coin with regular style lever but if you have the thicker CNC type like I do then you play it by sight and feel. When they say freeplay they mean the amount of waggle in the lever. They would stick a coin in the gap when the lever is pulled, making sure that's how much freeplay was left when set.
Just by adjusting this same setting you can also set where you want your cultch biting point on the lever, early on, mid way or near the end of its travel. You will need an (12mm I think?) open ended spanner to adjust as the nut is situated on a cable.
