AggieVFR
0
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2003
- Messages
- 442
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- College Station, TX
- First Name
- Chris
- Last Name
- Conrey
I finally got around to working on the bike this weekend. I had ordered a tapered roller steering head bearing conversion kit as well as some front brake pads from Dennis Kirk about a month ago. I also took this opportunity to finally install some braided stainless front brake lines I got on close out from Arizon Motorsports a while back.
I wanted to do the conversion simply because my headshake issues were getting worse with time and I felt like it was the main cause of the bad cupping I had on my old front tire. I tore the bike down Saturday and found the upper bearing to have very little lube one it from the factory and the outer bearing race had nice shiny dimples worn into it where the ball bearings normally ride. I guess the harmonics of the bike allow the balls to rock back and forth in these dimples and induce the shake. Anyway, I pulled the old bearings off the stem and drove out the old races from the steering head followed by installing new races and new bearings. I packed the new bearings with some Honda 60% moly grease. That is some seriously slick stuff! Then I reassembled the steering stem assembly.
Next came the cleaning. Since I've been using the bike as my primary commuter, my fork tubes and brakes were particularly filthy. I took some extra time to scrub everything down good before reinstalling the fork tubes and the brakes. The calipers now look like new and with the new pads and braided brake lines, I have great lever feel and stopping power. Those 12 year old lines must have been swelling quite a bit to make that big of a difference.
Now the bike is clean, serviced and ready for another year of commuting duty... I hope I can squeeze in a few weekend rides here and there. I'll definitely feel more confident riding now that the sinister headshake is gone. I still need to squeeze in some time for a valve clearance check, but my gaskets were in Houston, so I didn't attempt that this weekend. Guess I'll have to save that one for later. Whoopee...
Hope to make it to some weekend events this fall. See y'all around.
I wanted to do the conversion simply because my headshake issues were getting worse with time and I felt like it was the main cause of the bad cupping I had on my old front tire. I tore the bike down Saturday and found the upper bearing to have very little lube one it from the factory and the outer bearing race had nice shiny dimples worn into it where the ball bearings normally ride. I guess the harmonics of the bike allow the balls to rock back and forth in these dimples and induce the shake. Anyway, I pulled the old bearings off the stem and drove out the old races from the steering head followed by installing new races and new bearings. I packed the new bearings with some Honda 60% moly grease. That is some seriously slick stuff! Then I reassembled the steering stem assembly.
Next came the cleaning. Since I've been using the bike as my primary commuter, my fork tubes and brakes were particularly filthy. I took some extra time to scrub everything down good before reinstalling the fork tubes and the brakes. The calipers now look like new and with the new pads and braided brake lines, I have great lever feel and stopping power. Those 12 year old lines must have been swelling quite a bit to make that big of a difference.
Now the bike is clean, serviced and ready for another year of commuting duty... I hope I can squeeze in a few weekend rides here and there. I'll definitely feel more confident riding now that the sinister headshake is gone. I still need to squeeze in some time for a valve clearance check, but my gaskets were in Houston, so I didn't attempt that this weekend. Guess I'll have to save that one for later. Whoopee...
Hope to make it to some weekend events this fall. See y'all around.