The friendly "dumb" bike questions thread

[crofty1984]

Cbull said:

OMG what a plonoker, of course they are lol. Will tape them up tonight. Thanks

You should feel silly. You are definitely the only person in history who has ever done that. Probably. That reminds me, I also need to top up my electricity smoke...

[crofty1984]

I bought a new ignition barrel for the A65 last week. It was the wrong one. Bought another one this week. Wrong again. Idiot.
There's a lot to be said for restoring a bike to factory spec, for what I've spent on wires and posts I could have bought two new looms!

[crofty1984]

Danm1les said:

Hi,

A friend of mine has jsut purchased a 2009 R1, and there are a couple of bolts on the underside of the exhaust that need to be undone. Unfortunately they are have been exposed to the road forever and are part of the exhaust so are well and truely stuck.

Any pointers in trying to get them undone? Have tried socking them in WD40 penetrating fluid etc. but with no joy as of yet.

Thanks,

Dan

Heat.
Big eff off breaker bar.
Also hit them with a hammer (no, really) the shock might do them some good and help penetrating oil to get in.
Are the bolt heads in good condition? If not you can get special sockets with grippy rollers in.

[crofty1984]

jimboy2 said:

as this is the dumb bike question thread, i feel safe asking this

only been riding for a year and done 3.5k miles on a harley sportster. now i know this is still very low experiance, but i still dont feel very confident riding. i have this thing in the back of my head that the bike is just gonna wash out from under me when in a bend.
im guessing the answer is just gain more experiance. will a bike just wash out from under you? can imagine im not any where near the bikes limits.

thanks

You didn't have to ask it twice! :-p

Firstly, it's better to be under confident and ask for advice than over confident and find out the expensive hurty way, so well done you.

That said, I can tell you from personal experience that you can scrape the exhaust bolts along the road on a Sportster. More and more riding will of course be good, but maybe make a conscious effort on a road you know. Take that corner just 1% faster than you did last time intentionally, see how the bike feels. No need to go from 20% to 100% in one hit.

Also, from racing (cars) one of the most valuable pieces of info on tyres I got was:
You have 100% of grip to spend, but it gets spent forwards, backwards and to the side. So you can be using 90% of the grip to hold the car into the corner, which means you can add 10% in acceleration before you lose traction. Similarly, you can be braking with 50% of the available grip, which gives you 50% to spend on turning before the front or back loses grip.

I've not worded it well, but hopefully the point of thinking about how what you're doing is affecting the tyre and grip is useful.

[crofty1984]

axgizmo said:

Not a question but...

I have been using my trusty AGV for 2 1/2 years now - have got used to holding my breath or lifting my visor at traffic lights as my visor fogs up if I don't, something made me google this over Christmas as I figured there must be something that can fix this, low and behold AGV's come with a pinlock in the box (mine was no exception) - Fitted that and hey presto, no more fogging!

1. Winning - Don't half feel stupid for that!

Name drop warning - Damon Hill once told me that he found a little washing up liquid on the inside of the visor worked well.

[crofty1984]

gland said:

Last year I put a pair of wires directly onto the battery terminals so I could trickle charge the bike. This year I put another pair of wires on (with the same 'o' shaped ends) for a heated jacket. It was a real fiddle trying to get the screws back on but I managed it: they wouldn't latch onto the little free-floating bolt thing on the battery terminal.

If I want to add a third item to the battery should I just get two longer screws or are there better solutions out there?

I hope that makes sense. Thanks!

You'd be better off running one set of wires to a little 4 gang fuse box and running your accessories from that. They're about 7 quid.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

Edited by crofty1984 on Thursday 14th March 21:14

[crofty1984]

airsafari87 said:

Speed addicted said:

If it’s living outside a light coating of ACF50 on the metal parts is worth it, doesn’t need to be professionally applied as it’s just a spray can, I find a spray then spread out with a brush works well.

Edited by Speed addicted on Monday 22 June 08:47

Just to add to the above.

If you do use ACF50, make sure you keep it off the brake calipers, discs, tyres and hand & foot controls.

ACF50 is great. Only downside is dirt sticks to it. Still worth it though IMO.
When it comes to chain lube I'm a bit of a heathen and use either silicone spray or clean engine oil.

[crofty1984]

V8RX7 said:

I'm guessing most of you have office jobs ?

Yes. I do my office job, then come home and rebuild classic motorcycles for fun. What's your point?

[crofty1984]

Don't ride from Leeds to Worksop on a CX500 with fork oil on the front brake and a disconnected rear brake. You can do it, but it's a bit hairy.

[crofty1984]

Onelastattempt said:

crofty1984 said:

Don't ride from Leeds to Worksop on a CX500 with fork oil on the front brake and a disconnected rear brake. You can do it, but it's a bit hairy.

Don't ride a CX500 ever! Even with working brakes! You can do it, but it's a bit hairy!
I remember borrowing a mates once, I had a lot more respect for his riding skills after doing about 5 miles on it. You had to force it to corner, and fight it back upright again. The brakes seemed to work, then you suddenly realised that putting your feet down would have more effect. To make it worse he had fitted a king and queen seat, a good lesson it how to make an ugly bike even uglier.
Aaah, the good old days, I don't half miss them.

To be fair, don't ride from Leeds to worksop on anything. If you do, you'll end up in Worksop. Shudder.

[crofty1984]

Mine was a Eurosport version, I had it about 2003 and paid 650 for it. I thought it was a really good bike for the money. You want one now and you can add another 1000 to the price as they're all getting hoovered up by hipsters.

[crofty1984]

Had a new one last weekend. Even if it's a bit old and rough, wash and care for your bike. ESPECIALLY if it's a bit old and rough. It gives you a chance to get up close with all the little nooks and crannies.

I was cleaning my BSA for the first time in a while and realised the front brake was loose!

[crofty1984]

Jazoli said:

Torque wrenches x 2, 1 small one medium, battery ratchet, air bag for tyre changing, nitrile gloves to stop your hands getting ruined, a decent led swivel work light, magnetic trays, for starters

Then just buy stuff as you need it, it depends how much stuff you want to do, I have bought almost everything over the years as tools are cheaper than using bike shops and knowledge can be learnt.

Battery powered impact driver, as opposed to wrench, but they're good too. I've got a cheap Mack/Wickes pistol type one and it's probably saved me at least a day of my life when it comes to screwing/unscrewing things.

Multimeter.

[crofty1984]

Abdul Abulbul Amir said:

What's the best way of stopping the front axle rotating when torquing up the nut? I've normally been able to get away with doing up the pinch bolts but that wasn't enough this time.

If there's not a hex head/Allen socket there's usually a through-hole you can poke a long screwdriver through.

[crofty1984]

Some motorcycles are so perfectly balanced on the centre stand you can take the rear wheel off and it will rock forward, and you can take the front wheel off and it will rock backwards. Easy maintenance.


...but not all.

st.

[crofty1984]

Speed addicted said:

You could be trapped against something while still upright?

I've just wired one into my Honda. I'll be putting the ignition key in the side panel so if I need to switch the engine off in a hurry I don't have to faff around trying to find it under my arse.

[crofty1984]

Question - I don't know what to call the tyres I'm after. I'm getting to the point on my little green lane project that I am thinking about tyres. I'm not looking for something that are pure square-block knobbies more one dialled back from that. Most of my riding will be on the road, but I definitely want them to be decently grippy for when the time comes to pop down a muddy track.
What are they called? Any suggestions. The bikes only a lightweight 17bhp thing so no need for anything too performance!

[crofty1984]

BigGingerBob said:

Why is race shift backwards?
I can't think of a reason for it to be better/quicker to have one up/six down or whatever the pattern is compared to the other way.

There's a historical aspect to it, though it's not the whole story. The day-to-day bike the race bike was based on probably had a "normal" pattern and the lever pointing forward from the gearchange shaft and your feet in a mid position. When you out rearset footpegs on, the lever now goes backwards off the gear change shaft to meet your boot, mirroring the change.

[crofty1984]

KTMsm said:

crofty1984 said:

Question - I don't know what to call the tyres I'm after. I'm getting to the point on my little green lane project that I am thinking about tyres. I'm not looking for something that are pure square-block knobbies more one dialled back from that. Most of my riding will be on the road, but I definitely want them to be decently grippy for when the time comes to pop down a muddy track.
What are they called? Any suggestions. The bikes only a lightweight 17bhp thing so no need for anything too performance!

80/20 means 80% on road 20% off or you can go further 50/50 etc

Really depends what lanes you ride - if it's dry then 80:20 will do, if it's muddy, they won't

Here are some of the more popular ones

Edited by KTMsm on Sunday 10th March 17:55

That's perfect, thanks! Looks like 80/20 for me.