Today, a bit sad and depressed about my airhead

[Duane Ausherman]

Congratulations boocephus, you are making an improvement by going to the drum brake. My daily rider is the same.

You have heard some comment on how big of a difference (improvement) the stock tire makes and some who can't feel it. That is due to the variation in humans. Many just aren't sensitive enough to feel it and for others it is night and day.

At my dealership, in the service end it was mandatory for my mechanics to be able to discern a huge difference. They could tell which brand of tires was on the bike in some cases. If they weren't sensitive enough to feel it, then they couldn't have done test rides.

Ask anyone that has had me test ride their bike and you will hear what I am talking about. Some ask me to do test rides just for this reason. Others will warn you, "Don't let Duane ride your bike." Some people wish to deal with reality and some prefer take the drug Hopium.

My worse case of an owner not knowing what was going on was a rider who called up to say that his engine was making a lot of noise. We took the pick-up out to collect him and his bike. The mechanic driving up was still 100 feet away and saw the basic problem. One cylinder cracked off at the base and it was dropping down a lot, only being held on by the exhaust and intake systems. As it ran on one cylinder the broken one would smash back and forth against the case. OIl was flying all over the place. The rider hadn't noticed anything more than the noise.

Once back in the shop we wanted to see if it really would run. It started up on one kick on one cylinder. It was so loud and horrible with that cylinder flopping around and hitting the case that we nearly fell over from laughter. It was declared a parts bike.

I could tell many stories about riders who didn't notice stuff. I live for these foibles of humanity.

[Jean]

Concerning tires on the SWB /5...I tried a wider tire (good price) and the bike felt funny. I gonna guess it was because the wider tire influenced the bike more than the "stock" size since the spinning tire is like a gyroscope and I didn't like how that felt. Put a nominal 4-inch back on and all is well.
Drum brake up front seems to work fine. Stay alert. I can lock the front wheel on pavement using it. Had to be plenty scared to do it, but it's possible. If it wasn't, I would not be writing this to you.

[Duane Ausherman]

The gyroscope affect exists, but is minimal compared to the change in geometry. The loss of neutral steering can be tested and felt at 25-30 and the increase in mass isn't so much.

Also, if the proper geometry is maintained with larger tires, it will still be neutral steering.

[boocephus]

Taking the final drive off the bike is really easy. You can take it off and repair that stripped hole and put the whole shebang back together in a couple hours without knowing what you are doing. You can do one of the stop-gap repairs, but I always felt like these bikes deserved a little effort. I hated when I had it parked somewhere and there was an oil spot on the ground like a freaking triumph or something.

I blathered on and on for several paragraphs telling you the half fast way that I get the drive off. But it's new. I just would encourage you to give it a shot. If you have one of these bikes, you're gonna have to work on it yourself anyway. Parts are ridiculous enough. You have to be hedge fund manager to pay someone to work on them.

[Duane Ausherman]

To install the final drive, one common error is failure to align the final drive with the swing arm. Just leave the nuts loose until the axle is installed, then tighten them last.

[Jean]

Concerning tires Duane...I didn't change the front one...but that's history now. The wide tire was a pain to get in and off again.

Lifebeat, Bo is right. Since the stripped hole is in the final drive casting, it's really no biggie to either "fix" it or even tap it for a bigger plug screw. If you do decide to FIX it, use an insert and put an anti-rotation pin in the threads. Drill between the threads and the casting but not all the way through, and insert a little roll pin cut off so as to not interfere with the plug screw. You don't even have to use a roll-pin. any little round thing will work. A setscrew if you want to get fancy.