Project Status Update Winter 2024

It's been a while, but in my defense a lot got done and I promise in the coming weeks, I plan to do quite a bit of catching up on the blog as the Suzuki is getting close to the finish line. So here's a bit of an overview, what's planned for the Winter season/the coming weeks. 

Everyday TR1:

Only a bit of maintenance is due really.

• Oil- and filter change at (1)35,000km
• clean and grease the starter motor
  
• a good cleaning and greasing
  
• throttle cable incl. splitter needs to be changed, because this will create problems rather sooner than later
  
• the sub-frame mount of the rear mudguard needs to be addressed as the bolt touches the tire ever so slightly when the rear shock bottoms out (and I already have a solution with a P-clamp that basically only needs to be installed and then that'll solve the issue)
  

 XT600 - Dre-XT-Stück:

I got a lot more use out of the old girl this year than several of the last few years combined, still to call the old girl "trouble free" is a bit of a stretch.

• Headbolt threads in the cylinder need to be upgraded with M12-to-M8 adapters like I did it on the pretty one as the left front one is starting to fail and thus leaking oil
• a road-legal pannier rack is due
• I still have this KTM Adventure 790 rearshock, which needs an adapter to get it to the right length
• oil the throttle and clutch cables
  
• other than that, a good clean and a bit of TLC should do the trick

SR500 sidecar:

As this one will be used the most, the main thing will be to get it ready for Winter-use.

• Spray it down with wax to protect the metal parts from the omni-present salt
• install hand muffs
• Check which bolts have come loose lately
• modify the summer wheel to work with the modified sprocket carrier and get a bigger rear sprocket
  

Suzuki SJ410 - the Pickle:

Not sure, if I'll have this ready at the start of Winter, but we're getting there as the little cube is already painted and mostly there to get inspected. The big things still missing to get it on the road are:

• fix up the front and rear bumpers
• repair the wiring and remove most of the rather dodgy fixes
• make the heater work
• replace the rear brake drums for the later model ones I have already overhauled (they are self-adjusting and more common, so e.g. the drums are still available as aftermarket parts)
• get the handbrake working
• change the various oils and check for leaks and fix those
• fit the winter tyres (which can mean either fit the tyres with the Winter tyres on them or fit the second set of NEW Winter tyres to the wheels which are currently on there - might in the end by a matter of the available time)

Other vehicles that need fixing:

VX800:

This was probably the let down of the season, because it got new tyres and the started to not run right, which resulted in pulling the fuel petcock (because we assumed it was blocked by rust and also leaking slightly) and that was perfectly alright...

• convert to electric fuel pump out of a VS750 (chopper version of the same bike) as the diaphragm pump is as dead as nails
• Repair the petcock threads in the tank because one of the metal-look-a-like bolts stripped part of its threads

Goldwing GL1200 - Volkskrad:

This really "just" needs finishing. We got stuck at the point, when I had to get a repair-kit for the rear brakepump. This has to be installed and then the rest needs to be assembled etc. The future on this one might be rather open really. 

Aprilia Moto 6.5:

Somewhat as predicted the broken regulator/rectifier fried another battery, so this has to be addressed and in an ideal world, I am not going to do that with a stock Ducati-elettronica unit, but something out of Japan. I just have to dig out the necessary specs to find a suitable replacement.

Bandit 1200:

Unless I am mistaken, this one might want (again) a replacement of the clutch slave seal and a good cleanup of the rear brake caliper.

As the avid reader might have noticed, there's quite a few vehicles missing from this list - that's intentional, because this is the stuff that HAS to be done. Everything beyond that is probably a case of how cold (or not) it will be during the Winter and the amount of extra time available for tinkering.

 

Aprilia Moto 6.5 - spring maintenance

Lately there was some left-over work to do on one of my dad's Moto 6.5s. The most important one was to do some empirical carb jetting research.

Now as it's a mild pain to get that carb out and the bike was bogging down, it was easier to just restrict airflow and see how that affects the performance as that only meant taking the seat off.

The other source of constant joy on one of these are failing brake-light switches. Turns out you can either buy the 60 or 70 Euro stock part or go to your local electronics shop and get a microswitch for a whopping 1.89 Euros, which in my cases almost puts it on par with the fuel costs, and then just solder it on to the stock cables. 

The only other modification required was a 5mm bearing ball. Now, where do you get a single 5mm bearing ball, if you don't want to go to the shops to buy one...

They say German bikes are built without any hint of emotion, Japanese bikes are fine-mechanical marvels and Italian ones? Well, they need a slightly more laid back approach with built-in ingenuity and creativity. 😉

Aprilia Moto 6.5 - fixing the carb of #2

So my dad might have bought another Moto 6.5 late last year, because it was a series two, which had some incredibly Italian upgrades such as: A fuel pump, which means you can actually use more than 2/3s of the fuel tank. Altered jetting so it uses less fuel and a slightly different plus some other minor fixes. Oh and also because it had a little flaw, which made it come in at the right price.

There's no photographic evidence of how we moved the upgraded parts from #1 around, i.e. the Suzuki rear shock and the forks with stiffer springs, but it was quite a job, trust me. We thought we could pull this off in a full day, it turned out it was more like two and a half days...

As you may know, the engine in the Moto 6.5 is not the same as in an Aprilia Pegaso or a BMW F650, as the Moto 6.5 got the real deal 5-valve, twin-cam hot-rod Rotax single, which admittedly goes like stink.

Now the reason this bike was so cheap was because someone (presumably when taking the carb out), had sheared off the cable holder directly at the carb. This part is nla from both Aprilia and BMW, but (and here comes a bit of world knowledge) the same BST40 carb is installed in various KTM LC4 models of the very late 90ies to early 00s. You see the spare-part number below. (Just tell them it's for a 2001 KTM LC4 Adventure 640 and you're golden. Oh and the part is a whopping 5,30€ at the time when this post was written.)

Goes into the threaded hole on the bottom left. That's also where the pre-owner glued in the choke plunger with some superglue. 

With that done it was time for some hooning round the yard and yes, it goes like stink. Honestly, these things are FAST for a single. (Terrible to work on, but fast...) Unfortunately my dad has turned down the request to fit a TM40 flatslide on the other and find out just HOW FAST we can make her go ... 

With this Moto 6.5 now bearing the greasy seal of approval, it's time to get back to the secret project that's going on at GreasyGreg headquarters... because my dad got another new bike.

Aprilia Moto 6.5 - new rearshock

Now the Moto 6.5 is a bit of an acquired taste, without a doubt. It was designed by Philippe stark and even twenty years later it polarises the onlookers. There's pretty much only two opinions: love or hate and not much in between. For apparent reasons my dad falls into the first category. The styling being rather avantgarde, under the hood it was more common hardware taken from the Aprilia Pegaso, with the well known 650cc Rotax single.

Now the technical side of this Moto 6.5 was well taken care of, but still, the rear shock was as dead as one can be. Unfortunately even though a lot of the components were taken from the Pegaso, the standard rear shock wasn't. Luckily after doing a lot of research the stock rear shocks from both a Bandit 600 (Mk. II) or a SV650 should both work, the latter being slightly (15mm) longer with an overall length of 335mm.

Getting to the shock is pretty straight forward, but requires removal of a lot of parts.

As mentioned before, the SV650 shock is 15mm longer than a Bandit 600 shock. Unfortunately that's exactly those 15mm too long.

 

The other measurements were off, but in a pretty good way: The upper end was five millimetres narrower and the clevis on the lower end five millimetres more wide. Nothing a few washers couldn't sort out.

So how does it feel? Stiff, stiffer than stock even on the second lowest pre-load setting.

The last part of the suspension upgrade is going to be a new rear tyre as the current one might still be the original OEM fitment...