Winter break and projects?

[MoreCowbellAz]

I know lots of people have the week between Christmas and New Years off, I usually like to get some bike tinkering done during that time. I'm going to change out the shock oil in my Road King, lube up the steering head, shift pedal, and clutch cable, get a new rear tire. The shock oil I've never done before but I see lots of how to's on the internet so hopefully won't be too bad. I did the fork oil last year at 20k and it was pretty nasty looking. 26k now so I'm gonna do the shocks.

I ride all year long so the bike never goes into storage, so I try to do my maintenance when I have blocks of time to crank through as much as I can at once.

You guys have any projects planned?

 

[BigCahuna]

I also ride my Road King year round but hate working on the bike during winter. So I take care of anything that needs to be fixed in the fall. This fall I had to replace the rear brake line and front tire. I did oil and and lube duty while I was in the spirit of it all. If we get a rare warm day, I give it a quick look over for anything that might have loosened up. Other then tire, bulbs and oil checks,I just ride it.,,

 

[Silk]

It's summer here - time to ride !

 

[zzyzzx]

I had all kinds of projects in mind around the house. Then the timing belt broke on a car. When I went to use car #2, the change oil light came on. A tree fell on the yard (only held up by power lines). Then another car got a P0301 and is only running on 3 cylinders now (I maintain 5 vehicles for two people, so we each still have a car to drive with the truck as a backup). We have also had some decent weather for December for around here, so sometimes I go biking. But still, looks like very little on my original list is going to get done this time. At least the tree is completely gone (and stump removed with the resulting hole infilled) and the oil change was done (used Fram Tough Guard filter and 5W-30 synthetic oil). Removing the timing belt from the Escort was relatively easy. It was missing 9 teeth. I am waiting for a mail ordered timing belt (Note: Don't mail order vital car parts in late December!), and the P0301 is still a mystery. I may actually come out of this winter break with more stuff to do than when I started.

 

[gman2304]

54 degrees here today. I rode the old Electraglide about 50 miles and didn't get cold at all.

 

[Bzab32]

For the bikes:

Ducaci- Take apart: check brakes, clutch, belts, valves and chain/sprockets

Triumph- Install new exhaust sand and paint parts, and change all fluids

I have until about March so no hurry.

 

[tomcat27]

adjust valves. install bags. consider picking up a Sportster and installing the big bore kit myself.

 

[mlatour]

Two dirtbikes here,
a 2010 Yamaha YZ125 (2-stroke) for closed course motocross
and a 2008 Honda CRF250X (4-stroke) for trail / off-roading.
(a somewhat milder 'enduro' version of an MX race bike)

Engine wise:
as soon as the season ended the YZ got a new piston & ring,
a high winding 125 'preventatively' gets a new piston every 15-20 hours of runtime.
(even shorter intervals when competitive racing)

Purchased used with no past maintenance history,
the CRF250X is currently getting a new piston/ring/timing chain
valves, valve guides and seats refaced.

Both bikes torn down to the bare frame and fully serviced,
chassis/suspension bearings lubed, suspension fluids replaced,
every little detail inspected.

The YZ is done, ready to ride.
The CRF needs about another 10 hours on it to complete.

As the past winter luckily I have a friend's dirtbike stored in my shop
as well to keep me busy when I'm all done rebuilding mine.

Riding season is somewhat short here, you do everything you can maintenance wise
to avoid downtime / failures during the riding season.
My 2016 season compiled with 12 MX track days and about 1000 miles of trail riding,
a flat tire while trailriding was the only 'problem' encountered.

 

[MoreCowbellAz]

Originally Posted By: MoreCowbellAz
I'm going to change out the shock oil in my Road King, lube up the steering head, shift pedal, and clutch cable, get a new rear tire. The shock oil I've never done before but I see lots of how to's on the internet so hopefully won't be too bad.



In case it helps any tinkerers out there............the shock oil change was actually pretty easy; flip shock upside down, pressurize, then pull the air fitting and let the oil spray into a container. Flip shock right side up, mityvac 10 oz of fluid back in. Repeat for other shock. Done.

Surprisingly, even at 26k the shock fluid didn't look all that bad and it had the correct amount (maybe even an extra oz or 2), so I don't know if I'll be able to tell a difference in ride. The shock oil that came out was a greenish color, I'd be curious to know what brand/wt it was. I refilled with M1 Syn Atf, which specs out very close to Showa SS8 suspension fluid which I find is about right for most old style suspension. Anyone know if that greenish stuff is some kind of Harley OEM?

For the clutch cable lube, I used Blaster Dry Lube with Teflon. It sprays right into the house and runs the length of the cable before it evaporates, easy peasy. And if makes the cable pull super light. These teflon dry lubes work way better than all the oil based stuff I've used, no context.

The only thing I didn't do was the rear tire. I can't decide on what I want to throw on there; the current tire is a Dunlop D402 but I'm thinking about experimenting, maybe one of their American Elites. My RK is a 2000, and it's got a skinny rear tire but I see Dunlop makes an American Elite that's not as wide now. The front tire is staying on for awhile, then I'll change both front and rear at the same time.