Here it is,the day after Thanksgiving and I'm finally writing another post.I get lazy sometimes ,so lazy that my life just sort of stops but then slowly it starts again like an old bike that's been sitting for years neglected.My R5 sort of got neglected for a while.Not in a very bad way though.I used her right up until early September so she's not hurting but for the last four or five years the bike has needed a good going over. It ran well but when slowing down going under 30mph the front end would sway back & forth some and the bike would weave sort of one or two inches left & and right .I just ignored it thinking it was probably the front wheel that needed to be trued up .Then after a time I theorized that it was the steering head bearings that were the problem. So,back in September I bought a new tapered roller bearing kit for the front end , pulled the front end all apart , cleaned out the old oil in the forks,took the steering head apart , and pulled out the bearings. On inspection I found the grease was all dried out and not doing it's job.I cleaned the bearings in kerosene and had a close look.They looked fine so I repacked them with good waterproof grease and put them back in .Got the whole fork assembly back in place with clean oil installed and then took off to my camp on the BMW. I don't usually leave a project like this unfinished but I did so last week I finally went back to it and finished it up.I had to finish hooking up all the wires inside the headlight bucket.,clean out the front brake drum,the brake shoes, lube it all,clean the spokes,put on the front fender,the wheel and she was done.I had the battery on the charger on & and off the whole time she was down for this service so it was ready to go.Put it in the bike,checked all the circuits and found everything in proper working order and kicked her over.She started on the third kick ! Rolled her out,put some air in the tires and took her for a ride.Guess what, NO MORE WANDERING ! Yup,it was the steering head bearings telling me they needed help. So,I save the new kit for future use when these finally take a shit. For now they are still serviceable and my approach as always is if it ain't broke don't fix it. Now all I need to do is get it inspected.I also attacked my green 1969 Yamaha DS6C.
This bike needed to have the petcock on the gas tank rebuilt with all new gaskets.It was leaking gas.It's that fucking ethanol garbage they contaminate our gasoline with.It eats up any rubber parts like o rings and gaskets that it comes in contact with. So.I have been fucking around with this on & and off all summer. Finally got it finished the other day before the cold snap arrived.Now I wait for the warmth to return,it will and when it does I will take both these bikes in for inspection so they are totally road legal again.All my other stuff is already so these are the last.It's a lot of work keeping up with all these bikes and cars but I love them and this is who I an so it's worth it to me.I think I'm going to get back to building some to sell this winter.Now that my own fleet is in working order it's time to finish the other project bikes I have started and put on hold.I have two I can finish up easily and with any luck they will bring in six or seven thousand dollars towards the down payment on the house in Arizona.So now it begins again,another winter in the garage .Today I go get fifteen gallons of kerosene for my heaters and with any luck it will warm up enough to get out there tomorrow and straighten up,organize,and get a bike into the work space to work on.
Today it's way too cold .I don't think it's reached 20 degrees F out yet ! Certainly isn't motorcycle weather here in New York but this will change.This is January weather and It's still November.
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