Idiot v. Motorbikes, Rounds 3, 4, and 5

[Rob Frankham]

Nice head bearing zerk debate! I had considered something similar on Ernst as I had pulled the steering damper and corked the steering lock. I think the head tube on /6 had no other escape route.

Ideally, if you've done away with the steering lock, then the best solution would be to block the hole in the steering stem that accepts the lock. That way, once you've also blocked the steering lock housing in the frame tube and provided you can ensure that there's no communication between the steering head and the other frame tubes, there's nowhere else for grease to go except through the bearings.

Personally, I think it's probably a bit OTT for something that doesn't need attention more frequently than around 25,000 miles use but that's a personal opinion...

Rob

[melville]

Bits and pieces. I finished the fork rebuild. This did the trick for the gaiters:





Next up was installing these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083T ... UTF8&psc=1



I'm a little troubled about putting shiny parts on a Patina bike, but I've been very very happy with the set I put on Ernst. As Edgar still has stock headlight wiring, I put the wiring in the headlight shell. BMW had spare ground spades and an extra high beam spade already on the junction board in the headlight shell. I had to piggyback on the low beam. As before, the wiring is not DIN colored, with black for ground, red for low beam and yellow for high beam. So not DIN, but Schwartz/Rot/Gold like the German flag. Kinda. The kit comes with each light wired separately. I combined the harnesses so there are only three female spade terminals. Here's a close up of the spaghetti mess:



The blue jacketed terminals are from the fairing harness and while I was initially suspicious they are actually well done and I'll be leaving them.

Here they are mounted, not lit:



If I had lit them, they would have hurt my camera. These things are bright!

Edgar is back on his wheels and looking good, if incomplete:



Next up was pulling the P/C. I've cleaned them and will be taking the cylinders to get a glaze-breaking hone in the next coupla days. Here's a look at a rod:



It's been a while since I had one of these apart. I don't recall the rods looking as polished on Ernst. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a mod along with all the other Easter Eggs I've found on this bike.

[gspd]

Did you mount the lights to the lower fork legs???

[melville]

Did you mount the lights to the lower fork legs???

Yes. Seems a natural.

Unsolicited, I had an FJR rider (and also Airheadist) catch up to me at a gas stop last summer to tell me "Those things filled my mirrors!" This was on Ernst, fork mounted. They're pretty light, maybe not much more than that steel bottom cap, so I'm not concerned about unsprung weight.

[gspd]

Did you mount the lights to the lower fork legs???

Yes. Seems a natural.

I always wanted needed aux lights that steered with my forks (mainly because my main headlight is fairing mounted and doesn't).
I had initially mounted some to my lower fork legs.
The beam was annoyingly 'bouncy' for lack of a better word, especially on bad roads.
Moving them up to the lower triple clamps really steadied them. Much more relaxed lighting.
The less unsprung weight thing was a bonus.

[melville]

Did you mount the lights to the lower fork legs???

Yes. Seems a natural.

I always wanted needed aux lights that steered with my forks (mainly because my main headlight is fairing mounted and doesn't).
I had initially mounted some to my lower fork legs.
The beam was annoyingly 'bouncy' for lack of a better word, especially on bad roads.
Moving them up to the lower triple clamps really steadied them. Much more relaxed lighting.
The less unsprung weight thing was a bonus.

I'm at the point in my moto experience that if I'm riding any distance at night, I've done something wrong. Too damn many deer here and everywhere I might go. These are on the bike for daytime visibility.

[melville]

Another break in the action as I had a work deadline in mid-October and have been doing work on the Garaj Mahal since then. Now I'm waiting for the Sparkies to finish up and can get back to Edgar.

The cylinders honed up nicely and I took Craig Hansen's recommendation to buy rings for 1st OS and file-to-fit to the minimum spec for ring end gap. The OS rings actually overlap in a standard bore:



I built a rig for filing the ring gap:



The toe strap gets tightened to turn the drill on. You can even vary the speed with the tightness of the strap.

It was a pretty quick job once set up. Here's where things stand now:



The weather should be nice the next few days and I should get some time to re-jugify Edgar if I can get away from my pillion, who is coming back tonight after over 2 months away. She wants to ride again, so it should be an easy sell.

[Rob Frankham]

The cylinders honed up nicely and I took Craig Hansen's recommendation to buy rings for 1st OS and file-to-fit to the minimum spec for ring end gap. The OS rings actually overlap in a standard bore:

Not sure I'd be happy with that. Cast rings are pretty rigid. I would expect increased bore wear and an increased chance of ring breakage.

Rob

[melville]

The cylinders honed up nicely and I took Craig Hansen's recommendation to buy rings for 1st OS and file-to-fit to the minimum spec for ring end gap. The OS rings actually overlap in a standard bore:

Not sure I'd be happy with that. Cast rings are pretty rigid. I would expect increased bore wear and an increased chance of ring breakage.

Rob

I wondered that, too. But the source is the owner of the dealership and Airhead expert who has been dealing with R100s for over 40 years. He doesn't like boring R100 cylinders as they tend to distort and finds this trick helps keep a slightly worn bore going with standard pistons.

[Kurt in S.A.]

This was my experience/understanding when I had reached out-of-spec on my R100/7. So I decided to go with a Siebenrock kit rather than to try 1st over and new pistons. My out-of-spec wasn't just bigger in diameter but some visible ovality. Typically the ring ends are precisely cut to meet squarely. I'm not sure how you can ensure that's the case if you file the ends of the oversized rings.

To what extent are you concerned with the piston rocking or moving around in the bore with it being worn? My guess is you're just kicking the can down the road...a bit!

Kurt in S.A.