Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Got much love for an old air head.

Also just in case you didn't know, if you buy a Kärcher pressure washer you're meant to refer to it as a Kärcher rather than a pressure washer, to make sure people know you bought a Kärcher ;)

Tru fax, in some countries it has become the word for a washer.

Nilfisk are better ;)

@pdlouche Has fuel gone up that much? Thought prices had dropped after supposed shortages had finished.

@BrickMan Oh that is bad, and a shame that the forum has died. Was were I sourced my shims from.

Fitting some wunderlich crash bars to the urban gs today.
I went easy as I read an account on line of a chap over tightening only to see oil leak out as he’d perforated the block I guess.
Instructions called for loctite, but I hand tightened and used copaslip and after I’ve torqued them up I’ll mark up and keep an eye out ..ok ?
Acceptable practice ?

Ah you have entered in to the debate of lubricating threads, and is coppaslip the right thing to use with aluminium around.

From off the top of my head the over-tightening the rocker cover bolts slightly deforms the rocker cover so the oil finds a way out.

after I’ve torqued them up

I was about to say torque settings with lubricant can be a dangerous game to play, ask me how I know. If this was a figure of speech ignore me.

It sounds like I’ve done wrong .
Is copper slip lubricant or anti seize ?

How do you know ?

I sheared two of my four rocker cover bolts on my zxr400 as lubed them before torquing up. Had to take the head off and deliver it to a machine shop to sort. Won't do that again in a hurry.

It's an anti-seize but it's made from grease and other stuff so is a bit of a lube as well (not a very good one.) I wouldn't worry about it.
That said, Loctite is the tits because you can forget about stuff vibrating loose.

Recently I had to pay £1.70/L for E5 from BP. I was not impressed.

Normally a bit less but I haven’t seen it under £1.60 for months at Shell.

Forecourts did not pass on the savings on crude to customers, and now the price is going up again.

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I’ve spent about an hour on the forums looking this up , it seems you should way reduce the torque if it has anti seize on it .
I’m guessing now I’ll go and buy a can of brake cleaner and with compressed air try and clean the bolts and bolt holes.
The BMW bolts that came out had loctite on so perhaps I should go with that and then torque them up .
Tbh I was a bit worried I’d not get them all done up before the loctite cured .
It all looks so simple , I watched a YouTube where a fella fits the very same bars and uses copious amounts of antisieze .I always thought it was good practice…. All I’ve done is create more work for myself .
Bugger

Welcome to the Airhead club. Had mine nearly 20 years now. It looks something like this now.

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Actually looks a bit better as I've since put new rubber on it and cleaned the pipes.

Noticed the thin gaiters on yours, they match an R90S style fairing. Mines a motorworks version from a while back but you need to be very careful with the fitting kit and the bars. Some bars don't work with the kit. It took me ages to dial it all in.

I'm a huge fan of the S fairing though. Transforms the bike for me, especially if you have more aggressive bars like the R100RS bars. Had to go as far as limiting the handlebars because they would make contact with the tank.

No drama - twist up some bits of shop cloth and spray them with brake or carb cleaner and clean the threaded holes out. Make sure you use blue loctite - it takes a while to set so no problem there.

Watch it spraying carb or brake cleaner around - it'll go for plastic and paint.

@Airhead - looks proper!

It's performing really well at the moment, aside from one or two little issues.

It's good for 110mph, at that speed you really have to remind yourself you're riding a vintage bike. The engine is very nice though, real small aircraft vibes.

I've ridden lots of BMs, but never an airhead. Always been curious.

Not supposed to use coppaslip on aluminium due to galvanic reactions. Should use alumslip.

WTF happened to petrol prices.

Probably easier to run a tap in the head and die in the bolt to clean the threads.

Usually use 248 loctite as easily available from halfords

Pipe and slippers bikes around town. Lovely for cruising A & B roads in Surrey at a little bit over the limit. Not much fun in corners or likely to lift the front wheel though.

The R80 RT was brilliant at comfortable mile munching

EDIT As it had a massive fairing protected you from everything

+1 on the nilfisk. Got a larger domestic, almost commerical machine. E160.1 from a cleaning company online in UK. super impressed with it. Ended up using it to blast down old duff render off a house, clean every driveway in the family and keeps my workshops yard clear. Flows a really decent amount of water and pressure. And their warranty is very good, 3-5 years I think

Either BP fuel is shit, or I was more spirited than I thought. The fuel economy woes continue in a downward direction. Maybe it’s consistent - as I enjoy the bike a little better, the economy goes much worse!

In other news, it’s new bike day and I’m happy:

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So I removed the crash bars , removed the copper grease from the bolts and block and kept it away from plastic and paint as much as possible and added the loctite ( not a lot ) and torqued up to spec .
I don’t know why I thought I knew better than the enclosed instructions, I guess the YouTube didn’t help , but now I’m confident of the fitment snd they look great .
I almost bought the red bars but the black disappear more

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I'm extremely enamoured by this Suzuki V-Strom DL650 XT with Trail Découverte Concept Dark Evo 2 kit...