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What did you do in the garage today?

mitchntx

Follower of Rev. Doug
Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
4,521
Reaction score
1,513
Location
Whitney
First Name
Mitch
Last Name
Warren
It's always fun to read about folks' projects and their progress.
No project is off limits ... car, truck, bike, home, yard ....

Still working on my shop and house ...

- Used a sling around the footpegs and chainfall to lift the bike while on the bike lift. I like to spread cardboard when cleaning and lubing the chain.

- After 8 hrs of run time on the new 500 EXC (most of it riding in Big Bend) was happy to see the air filter wasn't too dirty. Rotated in a new one and washed the old and set it out to dry. Cleaned and lubed the chain.

- Unhappy with Wifi signal strength in the shop, I ran an ethernet cable from the house to the shop, configured an access point and 'bing' from 2 to 5 bars on the 50" LCD TV.

- got the last of my LED fixtures hung in the shop. With the damaged left-overs, replaced the flourescents in the carport with LEDs. I think I'm flourescent free now.
 
stained some sample pieces of wood for tests to ultimately stain the hood range cover I built.

20191027_141423.jpg
 
Started out with a plumbing repair in the upstairs bath, then cleaned the Garage (It needed it badly) took all 4 bikes and the 4 wheeler out for a quick spin around the block. The new neighbor came over to borrow some tools and wondered why anyone needs 4 motorcycles.

He may not be invited back over until he adjusts his thinking :) Fixed the bad battery cable on the 96 chevy pickup.
 
Started out with a plumbing repair in the upstairs bath, then cleaned the Garage (It needed it badly) took all 4 bikes and the 4 wheeler out for a quick spin around the block. The new neighbor came over to borrow some tools and wondered why anyone needs 4 motorcycles.

He may not be invited back over until he adjusts his thinking :) Fixed the bad battery cable on the 96 chevy pickup.
Because 4 bikes are 4 times better or more than one automobile
 
Well, Donna and I cut a new back board for an old picture frame. Best part was we did it on the motorcycle lift. Came out perfect. Then I put a battery tender lead on the KLX110L and I just noticed I dropped a washer for the left side bodywork.....easy to fix. I also reassembled it after installing a new tube the old fashioned way. The adapter to do sub 14 in wheels on the tire machine is $680.00 or so. Guess I will be doing them manually for a long long time.
I got the shims in for KTMs, maybe I will get after that before Mitch comes over and used the good ones.
I got the decals for the 2006 Strom to make it an adventure bike like the other one. I almost did that but I passed.
The other thing I did was go through all my old photos and make a big giant box for my daughter to give to the ex so she can have a lot of pics of her people.
Several little odd jobs in the shop in support of Thanksgiving Day prep have been fun.

Not much going on though.
 
Well, Donna and I cut a new back board for an old picture frame. Best part was we did it on the motorcycle lift. Came out perfect. Then I put a battery tender lead on the KLX110L and I just noticed I dropped a washer for the left side bodywork.....easy to fix. I also reassembled it after installing a new tube the old fashioned way. The adapter to do sub 14 in wheels on the tire machine is $680.00 or so. Guess I will be doing them manually for a long long time.
I got the shims in for KTMs, maybe I will get after that before Mitch comes over and used the good ones.
I got the decals for the 2006 Strom to make it an adventure bike like the other one. I almost did that but I passed.
The other thing I did was go through all my old photos and make a big giant box for my daughter to give to the ex so she can have a lot of pics of her people.
Several little odd jobs in the shop in support of Thanksgiving Day prep have been fun.

Not much going on though.
Aka, the Fine Art of piddling đź‘Ť
 
Did a little tweek'n on the DR to get it ready for its winter migration to the desert.

IMG_3058.JPG
 
Put new tires on someone else's bike. They were a bit$% to put on the rims. While installing the front wheel, he mentioned that the front brake wasn't working. After a swapping out the master (everyone had a spare master in their garage, right?) to no avail, further troubleshooting seems to reveal a clogged line or caliper on the right side. His dad was here too, and dad decided he wasn't riding it home with no working front brake, so they left it here. After a grabbing a bit, I head back out to try to clear the problem.

My project, building an SV track bike for my son, only requires a rear caliper rebuild (new caliper piston and seals on the workbench) and it will be ready to go.
 
Oh no ... not enough.

Details ....

Haha just buying a house bud. We have been renting the place we are in now. Finally got to a point where everything aligned right and made a move. Nice place about 3 miles from our current house. Great neighborhood. Not much of anything else to tell until January. The current owner is building and their new place won’t be ready until then.
After that it’s going to be busy. Moving in, setting up the garage...lots of air piping and reloading stuff.

8b017941fb1b6f1b32c5ab938d266d7c.jpg



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Haha just buying a house bud. We have been renting the place we are in now. Finally got to a point where everything aligned right and made a move. Nice place about 3 miles from our current house. Great neighborhood. Not much of anything else to tell until January. The current owner is building and their new place won’t be ready until then.
After that it’s going to be busy. Moving in, setting up the garage...lots of air piping and reloading stuff.

Nice and congrats ....

I have a 12' utility trailer with a ramp. Yours to use if you need it.

FWIW ... I sold my big compressor and bought a much smaller one.
I've gotten to the point where I only use air for tires and the bike lift.
 
Finished my brake upgrade on the Transalp, now have much better front brake:flip:
 
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Nice and congrats ....

I have a 12' utility trailer with a ramp. Yours to use if you need it.

FWIW ... I sold my big compressor and bought a much smaller one.
I've gotten to the point where I only use air for tires and the bike lift.

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it.

I only have a 20 gallon compressor. My preference has always been air tools, they just work for me. The compressor I have runs air impacts, die grinders etc just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Put new tires on someone else's bike. They were a bit$% to put on the rims. While installing the front wheel, he mentioned that the front brake wasn't working. After a swapping out the master (everyone had a spare master in their garage, right?) to no avail, further troubleshooting seems to reveal a clogged line or caliper on the right side. His dad was here too, and dad decided he wasn't riding it home with no working front brake, so they left it here. After a grabbing a bit, I head back out to try to clear the problem.

My project, building an SV track bike for my son, only requires a rear caliper rebuild (new caliper piston and seals on the workbench) and it will be ready to go.


I have seen rubber brake lines so deteriorated internally that fluid would not flow thru them untill you litterly stomped the brake pedal , then wouldn’t release when you let up . None of my bikes have rubber brake lines . And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to have stainless on my trucks either . Those stopped up lines were on a 15 year old vw . I have also felt really bad brakes because of bad lines on hondas , the 5 year old Valkyrie was easy to replace with stainless . It was like the difference between mechanical brakes on a model T and power brakes on a new car . The 1800 gold wing was not an option to replace the lines with stainless , it had 18 separate hoses in the brake system so it had to go away .
 
I have seen rubber brake lines so deteriorated internally that fluid would not flow thru them untill you litterly stomped the brake pedal , then wouldn’t release when you let up . None of my bikes have rubber brake lines . And it wouldn’t hurt my feelings to have stainless on my trucks either . Those stopped up lines were on a 15 year old vw . I have also felt really bad brakes because of bad lines on hondas , the 5 year old Valkyrie was easy to replace with stainless . It was like the difference between mechanical brakes on a model T and power brakes on a new car . The 1800 gold wing was not an option to replace the lines with stainless , it had 18 separate hoses in the brake system so it had to go away .

The bike does SS lines, but that was my thought as the owner just bought the bike and has no idea how old they are. I did get back out there and disconnected the line from the caliper. Fluid seemed to flow just fine. I took the caliper off and took the bleeder nipple out. There is something clogging the nipple so badly I could not even blow compressed air through it. Threw it in the gallon of Berrymans to let it soak overnight. Even if it doesn't clear it, it's a cheap fix to replace.
 
At almost 94k on the KLR the clutch cable gave up the ghost. Lucky I was at home when I noticed the poor shifting and saw the frayed cable at the top housing. Thanks to you tube and a used cable i bought on ebay years ago the old bike is back on the road.
 
Closetmaid from Home Depot. Seems like this brand has a hundred accessories,. Some may have to be ordered. I hung the hanger from the top plate only.

I like this kind of system. Can make it work in and around all kinds of obstacles.
The shelving isn't too bad. But the rails, hangers supports ... daggum, it gets pricey!

And to complicate things, there are differing "styles" and are not cross compatible.
And at Lowes/Home Depot, everything stacked side by side and its easy to buy a wire shelf and a support that won't fit the shelf and a rail that doesn't fit the support.
 
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