Just another day in the garage...

DO you know how much work is involved caring for a fleet of motorbikes and cars?

"Well that's enough for one day... the T Bird's front axle was seized!" 

I try and stagger my machines according to priority which may or may not be at my choice.  Apart from the usual oil changes and chain waxing, I have larger tasks at hand every year.  Could be a replacement of chains and sprockets or perhaps brake pads, maybe even the odd tear down.  This year I replaced both tires on the Thunderbird and the rear on the V Strom.  When doing such major work it's best to set them side by side and have plenty of room and light to work for those late evenings.

That center stand is a necessity and makes the work a lot easier.

The DL had Shinko's mounted when I bought it and the front being still in very good shape, I decided to buy a replacement Shinko 705.  Because the Suzuki has an optional center stand this was a fairly easy process. The tire popped off in short order and I set it aside to pull down the Triumph. This would prove much trickier as I was doing both tires to replace and this bike does not have a center stand.  I was able to prop it up using a combination of my twin armed hydraulic lift and some modified wooden chocks made from 2x4's on the spot.

To make things even trickier the front axle on the T Bird  is of an internal hex design and given the age of the bike (2002 and under 20k) it was horrendously stuck.  Fortunately I had the proper tool having purchased one for another bike task about 10 years ago.  Ultimate, I had to use some heavy hitting with my number 3 mallet, and lots of penetrating oil to budge it.  I have since lubed everything prior to torquing all the nuts and bolts to factory specs.

This was a little tricky, no center stand nor frame tubes.

I'd bought the tires at a local dealer and saved some money dropping the rims in and having them install the new tires.  During disassembly I keep the parts on their side of the bike and anything that is stacked like for example spacers are placed on the floor in order.  This way I don't have to do 90% of the job only to find that some washer or spacer has turned up in the pocket of my coveralls!  Don't laugh, it's happened!

I don't mind replacing tires on my smaller bikes but to be honest, being retired and often just tired... I figured it was worth it to utilize their tire machine.

I don't often tear down my bikes to this extent on an annual basis but this was a good time to check and lube other parts and for good measure check the brake pads. The Suzuki also needed rear pads while the front discs had little wear.  I'm not as a rule hard on brakes using another tool from my tool box, common sense #7.

One thing I quickly learned as a machinist... "Keep things tidy."

That is, use the engine braking and sensible pressure while in traffic. Anticipate your slow down and stop and often you don't need the brakes at all or very little.  It's surprising how much life you can get from your brakes when you don't use them!

Three large tires, a rather large job.

With everything buttoned up the 650 went together in a jiffy and the work took less than an hour.

Everything snugged to spec, cleaned and re-lubed, ready for another season of riding and exploring.

The Triumph required not only lubing but also cleaning.  The spokes and chrome rims certainly needed some attention and when better to do this than when you have everything apart.

New skins at both ends... Yaay.

As luck would have it, I was able to finish the two bikes in a single full day, excluding the two trips into town for the installed rims and tires.


Having recently replaced the dual purpose tires on the XT 225 and 600, the only bike on my target list was the Citicom 300 scooter, which having recently rolled on over 10K km, will need a tire sometime next year.

A few break in miles scrubbing in the rubber.