Everyday TR1 - Fork oil change

 ... together with a bit of theory. To kick said theory off: My TR1 doesn't run a pair of stock forks, but an old XS1100 set, because I wanted to use the bigger 298mm disks. They are almost a straight swap, you'd only need a different XS1100S front wheel or special wheel bearings for the thicker axle.

That aside, the XS1100 forks have a few other things going for them: first they are intended for a substantially heavier bike. Which means, the fork springs are perfectly adequate for a TR1 and if one were so inclined he or she could run some much lighter weight oil than is common on bikes of this era and thus improve the overall riding comfort A LOT.

Also, unlike the stock forks, these specific ones aren't bent, which resulted in a bit of a surprise after I loosened the pinch bolts and both fork-legs still attached to the front mudguard just started to slide out.

With the caps off, I tend to rinse them with diesel until no more damping can be felt and the diesel, that comes out is (mostly) clear again.

Bit of patience and turning them up-side down gets rid of whatever it was that was in there before.

And in the case of XS1100 forks, which should be filled with 212ml of 10W30 oil, I went with 230ml of 10W fully synthetic fork oil.

And no the mix of old oil with diesel didn't smell very pleasant. I think "pretty rotten" would be a rather appropriate term to be honest.

The surprising bit: This isn't the original 1978-vintage oil, but only two or three years old, yet still it smelled terribly. Regardless of which, the whole episode was totally worth it as the suspension quality is in a league of its own compared to before. Might try a slightly lighter weight oil next year, just to see if it improves the overall finesse of the forks (I doubt it), but they are very responsive even on light bumps and don't bottom out on hard braking anymore. I guess I have to call this a massive success.

The Everyday TR1 - KTM Duke 790 rear shock

If you go through the various Yamaha XV-related forums, FBook-groups, etc. you will see the same five or six models of rear shocks being recommended. Very few people actually dare to try out something completely different or even worse: something new. 

Well, I happened to more or less fall over a 2018 KTM Duke 790 shock, which had done less than 10,000kms from new. In KTM circles this shock is not quite regarded to be quite the cream of the cake, but this also meant it would be rather cheap. Also, what are the odds for it to be worse than a shock from a mid 1980ies dirtbike?

The shock measures 390mm from eye to eye, which is 25mm longer than a TR1 stock rear shock, but exactly the same length as my previous XT600 Tenere rear shock and it's got another trick up its sleeve: both mounting bushes are of 12mm inner diameter, making it a straight fit.

Now if you were a cheeky bastard, you could ignore the fact that the swingarm has got a 45mm cutout...

... yet the shock is only 24mm wide.

And quite frankly, aside from the lower shock pin being sprayed with water and a rather theoretical chance of the shock twisting a bit and thus getting bent over the years, I'd say totally doable. 

But we're not after doing a fix in some emergency situation. So two spacers approx. 25mm OD, 12mm ID and 10mm wide where quickly made on the lathe from some leftover ally scrap. 

Et voilá: Rear shock properly located inside the swingarm.

At the same time, I had one of those: You really know you had a bike for a while, when you have to replace the horns, because they have stopped working due to bad weather motorcycling, i.e. at least partially rusted to buggery.

Verdict after the first test-ride? Well, suspension technology made some notable leaps forward in the last thirty years. It's a bit stiffer than the old XT shock and it should be brilliant when riding two-up. That being said, I may actually end up reducing the pre-load a notch or two. Shame the 890 has got an external reservoir, which makes it impossible to fit into the TR1 frame.

Unholy unions - XV750 with 1290 SuperDuke running gear

When it comes to building bikes for myself, I am a bit of a traditionalist. Also, I am cheap and old and tatty bits are a lot cheaper than new and shiny stuff. That being said, my mate Andi, well he prefers to go down a different route.  And as a result, he got himself "da good" stuff. KTM/WP 1290 suspension all the way and asked me to make it fit. 

We started off with the rear shock, which was pretty straight forward and just needed a few bushings to reduce the internal diameters and to locate the shock properly in the bike. 

Front forks are dead easy, press out the stem out of a set of XV750SE triples, turn it to size and press it back in, into the SuperDuke triples. 

So what was in it for me you ask? Well there's this little 790/890 Duke shock, which looks like it could turn out be a VERY good replacement for the current XT600 1VJ rearshock I currently run in my TR1...

The XS Triple Sidecar - an extensive Spring cleanup

One might be under the impression that in the last 4 months nothing happened to the XS Triple sidecar, but in reality quite the contrary was the case.

First on the list was some electrical problems, which originally started with a burned out alternator and shortly after the reg/rect unit gave in and only worked on first two and then a single phase, which made it weirdly difficult to troubleshoot as the voltage was going up, but it didn't really push out a lot of current.

As I wanted to fix this as quickly as possible, I picked up a very cheap r/r unit, which had a burnt plug. (I also ordered a new one from China, to have a good spare for the future.) After a quick test on the bike it proved to be working, so next was to replace the molten 6-pin connector. Unfortunately this isn't anything unusual, normally coming from a combination of dirty connectors, which are loose on their counterparts.

The thing that I somewhat worried the most about, was the fact that the r/r unit sits on the bottom of the battery tray, which not only is a lot of work to get to, I was absolutely sure nobody had touch those bolts in QUITE a few years.

To my great surprise they came out fairly easily and after a few rust-touch ups everything went together.

And then finally, the bike is charging as it should, pumping out a healthy 14V at idle into a rather empty battery. From here onwards the charging side of things hasn't given me any more headache since Spring (yet). 

Next step was to clean off the protective grease and get her ready for the annual road-worthyness inspection. And a dirty girl she was.

(This level of shinyness is most likely unhealthy, at the very least it feels rather odd to me... Still nice to see that the protective grease did its job.)

Still the bike wasn't exactly performing to the fullest. Hanging idle, not starting up very well at times, sometimes backfiring like it was going out of style.

There were two reasons, another coil had rather quietly left the scene and decided to die and the other was the fact that after an unknown mileage the bob-weights of the ignition advancer had worn itself out so far that the ignition advance was wandering around at least 3-4 degrees at idle.

If that ain't a weak spark, I don't know what is.

The solution to the second problem came on the very last models of the XS Triple and was only available in the states in 1983 or 84. A fully electronic ignition with no moving parts that can wear out. 

Unfornately the slot on the rotor was seriously mangled, so it had to be welded up and then filed back to the stock size. 

Just for comparision that's the first version of the electronic ignition with the mechanical advancer.

Nothing improves reliability like a fresh coat of paint. (And a front mudguard that doesn't rub on the front tyre...)

 

When swapping tyres for the roadworthyness-inspection, I discovered a slightly odd looking rear shock...

So a "new" set of Konis was procured, but they needed some modifications to prevent this from happening. (Who knew that the correct Konis had a bushing in the right lower shock mount as there's a smaller diameter bolt going through...)

Aside from a new set of needles and subsequent multiple attempts at re-jetting this is pretty much what happened to the old girl.  A new set of SE-clocks and upper triples, a new exhaust and some more patching up on the sidecar is still due, but other than that it seems like we're in good shape by now. (Also I may try to officially get the sidecar brake removed from the paper-work as it just an incredibly heavy anchor that is insanely overpowered considering that I mostly ride around alone.)