I'm stealing that clamp the aluminum edge protector in the vise with the tire iron thing. Thanks!
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What have you done to your XS today?
- Thread starter I am Carbon
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- maintenance
Works like a charm. Too bad the butcher before me didn’t have this technology.
Found an Xring chain for $45 - deal and I’ll pick that up tomorrow. Only trouble is it’s too long. I already cut the swingarm to add a piece to make it longer so the chain will fit. If it turns out well I’ll post pics.
Wow April 1st already???
Polished up the fork bottoms (a bit shinier now) and back in the triple clamps. Spokes have been tightened and I’ll scuff up the discs while they’re off in anticipation of new pads in the spring.
UPDATE > HD Canada now has them on the shelf! They're awesome for things like putting together a daisy chain of interior lights. In fact, the bulk-pack of LED pot lights I just installed came with them in the connector boxes.
that buffer! Nice polish on the fork tubes.
Thx. The tubes had dulled over the years and just needed a machine polish. As much as I tried by hand, the machine finish is far superior. I mounted my polisher and spare bench grinder with wire wheels on a piece of wood with a 2x4 screwed to the bottom. I then clamp whatever machine I’ll be using into an old Black and Decker workmate. When not in use they hang from the garage cross ties. Saves space.
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An embarrassing story but funny. When I was rebuilding the forks, I mentioned the new seal on the first one was tough to get in. When I did the second one, it went in with little more than thumb pressure. When I assembled the inner tube, it slid in quite easily too. Odd I thought but maybe poor QC from the seal manufacturer. I continued putting everything together and was tidying up, getting ready to call it a night. I was putting all my tools away and on the end of my vise, I found a brand new seal
. In my haste, clever me reinstalled the old seal back into the tube! I couldn’t believe I did that. The only good thing is I now had lots of experience so re/re the seal took very little time. Back into the house at 1:00 am. lol.
. In my haste, clever me reinstalled the old seal back into the tube! I couldn’t believe I did that. The only good thing is I now had lots of experience so re/re the seal took very little time. Back into the house at 1:00 am. lol.Bob Wegman
XS650 Addict
Those fork bottoms are like having a party for my eyes!
Surface prepped the rotors today and remounted the discs and tightened things down for the forks. I may be mounting a new tire so I don’t want to hook up all the brakes yet. If you look at the tire there’s lots of tread but it has a significant “out of round” condition. Polished up caliper brackets.
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Hey @Basco tell us about this?
Haven't seen a surfacing tool like that.
Haven't seen a surfacing tool like that.
Here it is… same material / concept as bottle brush style cylinder hones. It takes a bit of time to get a nice, uniform cross hatch but works quite well. Came from the days when I would prep auto rotors for new pads. Just chuck it in your drill and go at it at low speed (I think to minimize wear of the stones and perhaps to control cutting action. If you ran it too fast the surface may be too smooth?
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I think if you chucked the rotor in a lathe and turned it at a snails pace, you could get a nice, very uniform pattern. Btw these rotors are SS and trying to scuff them up with emery cloth is not easy. 3 stone grits available. Mine is medium - 120 grit.
New Xring chain waiting to go on. I bought a new front tire to replace the wobbly one that was on the bike. What a booger to get it off! I was worried about damaging the the aluminum rim and also found the drop center didn’t seem to be as deep as other steel rims I’ve worked on. Anyway, I got the old tire off without hurting the rim but will most likely take the tire and rim to a pro next week for mounting.
Just for future reference, I learned a good trick for easily removing old tires from the rim. Buy some hook blades for your retractable knife and cut through the sidewall, all the way around. You can then just pull the tire off with your hand. Photos in the link below.
https://www.xs650.com/threads/how-to-remove-old-dry-tires-from-rim.51955/page-2#post-547934
https://www.xs650.com/threads/how-to-remove-old-dry-tires-from-rim.51955/page-2#post-547934
Thx for the tip. I’m trying to reuse the tube so this may be risky on this job. I have cut off both bike and car tires before making it much easier. On my car, I had to remove run flat tires that tire shops weren’t able to take off. The short, very thick sidewalls made it next to impossible to get them off. On those tires I had to use and angle grinder with a zip cut wheel.
