Miss November XS2 tribute

[Mailman]

Our ladies really do put up with a lot don't they?

My wife has her limits, she indulges my hobbies and bike expenditures, but the inside of the house is her domain.
She was tolerant when she found me rebuilding my speedometer on the kitchen counter, but when she came home from shopping and found the house smoked up from me baking cylinders in her oven, I was asked to please keep my hobby in the garage!

 

[fredintoon]

Ohhhh, and I just betcha she was pleased about THAT!
The reminds me of Jim's wife who has an aircraft sparkplug tester stored in the perfect handy spot on the kitchen counter and my wife who is so happy when I occasionally put my array of little parts dishes through the dishwasher to spruce them up a bit - along with her best china dishes.
Our ladies really do put up with a lot don't they?

Hi Pete.
when I was still a teenager I learned not to stove-enamel bike parts in my mother's oven unless it was certain she'd be away until after the parts had been removed, the oven had cooled down again and the hot paint smell had gone away..

 

[Paul Sutton]

My safe zone was to wait until my mother fell asleep on a Sunday afternoon after dinner.

 

[Raymond]

You guys crack me up!

I'm very lucky. Married to a treasure who does the gardening - it's her passion - and all the decorating. I'm not even allowed in the same room as wet paint. Now that's hard, but somehow I've managed to adapt.

Hell, she even painted the garage for me!



But the kitchen is my domain. So my fridge, my oven, my rules.

 

[MaxPete]

You guys crack me up!

I'm very lucky. Married to a treasure who does the gardening - it's her passion - and all the decorating. I'm not even allowed in the same room as wet paint. Now that's hard, but somehow I've managed to adapt.

Hell, she even painted the garage for me!

View attachment 179016

But the kitchen is my domain. So my fridge, my oven, my rules.

Now that is a great arrangement Raymond!

 

[Raymond]

Bits back from Mark Paxton. He has aqua-blasted and undercoated the swing-arm, chain guard, centre stand and brake torque arm:

Once again he has done a good job and it cost me less than I expected.

The stand has 5T's modification. The chain guard has come up well but has had a hard life - dents, repairs and filler. In the area you can't see behind the stand in the photo. I wonder if there has been a broken chain at some point in its past?

Probably brush paint them in Hammerite gloss.

 

[Mailman]

I’ve never seen your workspace before Raymond, it looks like a very tidy station. Cool little greenhouse beside it too. Is that for flowers or vegetables?

 

[Raymond]

Thank you, Bob. I am very lucky with the garage! Which is not very suitable for cars - the arrangement of the doors only permits one car and that had better not be too long or it won't fit. But absolutely ideal for bikes. Lovely carriage doors - so much nicer than an up-and-over door. And a pass door as well. Light and airy with three windows plus a velux window in the roof. Electric power. The only thing it lacks is running water.

There is an unkind rumour that the garage was the only reason we bought the house.

The lady of the house is the gardener so I built her a 16' x 8' greenhouse. With electric power and 200 litre rainwater butt, overflow routed through a buried pipe to top up the garden pond. Mrs mainly uses it to propagate vegetables for planting out - it extends our short growing season. The wooden arrangement is a heated sand-bed where seed trays are placed to bring-on in the cold early spring. But in addition she grows tomatoes, cucumbers and chillies in there.

 

[MaxPete]

There is an unkind rumour that the garage was the only reason we bought the house.

....actually, buying a house because it has a garage that is perfect for a motorcycle collection seems perfectly reasonable to me...

 

[fredintoon]

....actually, buying a house because it has a garage that is perfect for a motorcycle collection seems perfectly reasonable to me...

Hi Pete.
our move to Saskatoon was featherbedded by my employer, they even arranged for a realtor to find us a house.
He asked what are you looing for, I said 2 car garage, fully fenced yard, more than one bathroom.
He said I know just the place let me talk to your wife.

 

[Raymond]

Some small progress today. Refitted the centre stand, so the bike is no longer sitting on blocks of wood:





The eagle-eyed will spot Miss November's new nipple caps.

The bigger progress I was hoping for was to get the swing-arm in. But the grease seals don't want to go over the pivot ends:





How much of a PITA are they supposed to be?

Those are new seals, so the rubber is stiff. Applied grease and tried to get them in place, using fingers and heel of hand. There is some wayward black paint but I don't feel that's enough to give a problem. Maybe I need to soften the rubber by putting the seals into boiling water or a warm oven? But I don't want to melt them.

Is there a technique or tool I am missing here?

 

[Mailman]

Something seems amiss there Raymond. I’ve done a couple of those and those seals just easily popped on by hand no real pressure needed.

 

[gggGary]

OD on the bronze bushings looks large?

 

[Raymond]

OD on the bronze bushings looks large?

You might have a point. The s-arm is TX750 and I'm wundering whether the bushes are just fractionally bigger. It's cold and dark now and me hands are hurtin' after struggling with those bushes. But tomorrow, I'll go and measure em with me cheapo Aldi micrometer, and compare with the plastic XS650 ones.

Which are a bit worse for wear.

Was able to push one of the old seals on. The other old one is also mullered (British tech term).

If gentle heating to soften the rubber doesn't work, might resort to a little judicious butchery. My thinking being, this is not a seal with oil under pressure behind it. If I booger up the rubber seals by attempting to trim them, the worst that will happen is some grease oozing out when I apply the grease gun?

 

[gggGary]

Checked and came up with 34mm for the OD, a mashed plastic 33.8-9 a new bronze 34

 

[gggGary]

The eagle-eyed will spot Miss November's new nipple caps.

Well that wasn't the pic I was expecting.........

 

[Rasputin]

I have found that after painting and even more so after powder coating it has been necessary to remove the paint or powder coating for the distance that the seal fits over the tube. Do the seals fit over the ends of the bushes, if so the rest of the tube needs to be reduced to that diameter.
Originally the paint put on at the factory would have only been microns thick.

 

[Jim]

Maybe I need to soften the rubber by putting the seals into boiling water or a warm oven? But I don't want to melt them.

Boiling water will get you a lot of stretch out of rubber. I'd try that before resortin' to butchery.

 

[Raymond]

Gentlemen, Thank you all for your help!

Have been looking at this thread:

http://www.xs650.com/threads/swingarm-question.7607/

I need to be able to trial fit those seals, so I can adjust the shims and end up with the swing-arm tight-but-not-too-tight when torqued up.

Will try soaking in boiling water, will try paring back the paint. If necessary, can remove the paint for ¼" and re-paint once happy with the fit.

Hear what you say, Jim - butchery relegated to last resort.

Gary, you gotta know, Miss November is not that kind of gal . . .

 

[fredintoon]

View attachment 180949
Well that wasn't the pic I was expecting.........

Hi Gary,
start the Google-search with Zirks (Zerks?) to find grease insertion nipples.
Googling "nipples" will distract you for hours.