HW's Inaugural Maintenance

That bike of yours is a gen one (2003 or so?) yes? Gen 1 requires 87. Gen 2 requires 91.

I trust you guys but here abject fear takes over. Idling around stoplight to stoplight next year in 90 degree weather I will worry to death.

I decided to start with the easiest route. After work I took probably my last ride and coldest ride ever at 47°F and it was surprisingly refreshing. Work has been real high pressure so I could have ridden to the Arctic and thoght, "This is better than work!" I rode to the station to fill the tank. I added some ethanol-free 89. Holy cows, $6/gallon. I cannot get myself to fill it with 89. So I filled the rest with the next up which happens to be 93. At least I gleefully lowered the volume of ethanol.

I will attempt to keep the tank propped for this project but if clearance becomes an issue then I will siphon, remove, and refill it.



I used this and Seafoam for a long time. Then I saw testing where this stuff all caused corrosion. Last season I put nothing in the Hayabusa. It started right up. With little air in the tank, the gas just is not going to oxidize much especially during the cold when chemical processes slow to a crawl.

My VFR requires Seafoam on periodic intervals. The starting and idling becomes noticeably different. I requested that the mechanic who has it now go through that fuel system and replace filter/screen as I am guessing that has not been touched.

Overall with my vehicles & equipment I now do everything possible to reduce or eliminate the use of cleaner/preservative.

It’s an 06. Gas around me is in the high $4-$5 range but I live near Yosemite NP so I always pay tourist prices unless I’m on tour. I had six bikes once and used StaBil on occasion and I still use SeaFoam on occasion with just two bikes even though I always use top tier fuel. The key I think, to using SeaFoam is to use it sparingly. 2-4 ounces in a full tank and head out. Amd then 9-10 tanks later, repeat. I think it helps to keep things clean. I have no need for a fuel stabilizer anymore. There’s only one gas station around here with ethanol, a Gulf station. I don’t go there. I’ve ridden in all temps from desert to over 10,000’ and in traffic. Single fan and never overheated. 81,000+ miles so far with never an issue so I think it’s broken in. :firing: :)
 
I made the mistake of thinking that I should swap to a 46 sprocket while the rear is apart. Are all good vendors back ordered on all of the good sprockets?

I found one, at Revzilla, a Vortex steel. Will this work? I saw mixed reviews here on Vortex...

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I made the mistake of thinking that I should swap to a 46 sprocket while the rear is apart. Are all good vendors back ordered on all of the good sprockets?

I found one, at Revzilla, a Vortex steel. Will this work? I saw mixed reviews here on Vortex...

View attachment 1673293

It will work fine, as will their aluminum and aluminum HardCut coated rear sprockets, both which will save you around three quarters of a pound vs the stock sprocket.
Add that with a stronger and lighter chain, and your required maintenance just gave you a free performamce bump, with a 2lb+ rotating mass weight savings.
 
It will work fine, as will their aluminum and aluminum HardCut coated rear sprockets, both which will save you around three quarters of a pound vs the stock sprocket.
Add that with a stronger and lighter chain, and your required maintenance just gave you a free performamce bump, with a 2lb+ rotating mass weight savings.

Dang bro I really do not want to add learning on the chain this round, while admittedly seem to be adding every last other thing...
 
It will work fine, as will their aluminum and aluminum HardCut coated rear sprockets, both which will save you around three quarters of a pound vs the stock sprocket.
Add that with a stronger and lighter chain, and your required maintenance just gave you a free performamce bump, with a 2lb+ rotating mass weight savings.

According to Revzilla there is Vortex in polytetrafluoroethylene coating but I cannot find a HardCut Ti coating (?). I guess I can cook pancakes on the PTFE sprocket though. According to Vortex the F5 is merely anodized lol...Wutdaheck is with the disconnects in descriptions?

It would seem a waste of materials to pull the stock chain with 3000 miles so I think I will leave that.
 
So I should begin. My first concern is that I HAVE NO ROOM ANYWHERE! The advantages of challenges like this is that it will likely make me expert on using the available room efficiently.

I do have substantial pegboard. May I hang all of the fairings? If okay I would wrap rags around pegboard hangers. Although I am unsure if their diameter is larger than the mounting holes. If so I could loop string through the mount holes.

I read in some forum that fairings will stretch and hanging them is a risk. Really?

I do have space above the garage. Any risks in just laying the parts up there? I prefer to keep things in sight and handy but that area is out of the way with no traffic.
 
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So I should begin. My first concern is that I HAVE NO ROOM ANYWHERE! The advantages of challenges like this is that it will likely make me expert on using the available room efficiently.

I do have substantial pegboard. May I hang all of the fairings? If okay I would wrap rags around pegboard hangers. Although I am unsure if their diameter is larger than the mounting holes. If so I could loop string through the mount holes.

I do have space above the garage. Any risks in just laying the parts up there? I prefer to keep things in sight and handy but that area is out of the way with no traffic.
You can hang the fairings....I have a couple large plastic covered hooks on my wall that I hang other things....II hang my fairings by the inlet ports on the side all the time to keep them off the floor and out of the way, they are pretty resilient...

The nose cone needs a place to sit though, the spot above the garage would work......and you can lay down the side fairings as well as long as you don't step on them.
 
I removed the windscreen and the right fairing. I quickly understood the pain and frustration that riders express over panel removal.

It seems to me that distinctly locating the hidden fasteners and applying some automotive panel pulling tools could make stripping the bike more methodical. In particular I am thinking of those vertical rubber fasteners that must be pulled out without seeing them.

Can I lube the joint between the side fairing and the nose to make that separate easier in the future?

I read of people lubricating the rubber fasteners with silicon. That sounds helpful.
 
I removed the windscreen and the right fairing. I quickly understood the pain and frustration that riders express over panel removal.

It seems to me that distinctly locating the hidden fasteners and applying some automotive panel pulling tools could make stripping the bike more methodical. In particular I am thinking of those vertical rubber fasteners that must be pulled out without seeing them.

Can I lube the joint between the side fairing and the nose to make that separate easier in the future?

I read of people lubricating the rubber fasteners with silicon. That sounds helpful.

This first time always takes a while, but you will be suprised how much quicker you will soon be able to.
After a couple times, I could get the stock Gen2 tail off in under 2 minutes.
The rest didnt take much longer either.
 
Moving ahead, I just stripped the left side.

I purchased fairings to restore it from the scratch damage. Now that I can see the back I can tell that the amount of interlocking and fastener and foam replacement required to assemble these borders on an Ikea migraine, minus at least having instructions written in Swedish.
 
I changed the coolant. The bike is a 2017 and has something over 3,000 miles. The coolant appears clean. Given such, and that I did not want to dilute it, I did not flush it with water but merely drained it and refilled. I understand that I left some in there.

Question: What kind of demented Batman villain puts the coolant bleeder valve THERE?

@sixpack577 you allude that this stuff is simple. Perhaps you are some kind of weird geniuses or such...

I felt like I merely rocked the valve nut open and so think it was loose. I see the torque spec is 5 or such and I can only guess that I did a reasonable job tightening it without forcing it.

Now that I am done rocking the bike I mounted it to the Skylift. I thought I was missing the stick-on clip to mount the hex wrench but as I opened the strap it fell out of it. Always awesome for an OCD person to find something lost. A major win.

I understand why Abba includes a second buckle for the strap. I began lifting the bike and the belt slipped right through the one buckle. It needs a second buckle to lock the strap.

I released a stand brake with my hand and that is a bad move. Something clipped my finger like I drove a nail through it. The good news is I got my yearly bloodletting done, getting all of the poisons out of my system, right through the thumb.

I see the oil filter and sometime soon will seek the drain plug. First drain the oil, then the stator cover, then the Brock's clutch cam set replacement.
 
I changed the coolant. The bike is a 2017 and has something over 3,000 miles. The coolant appears clean. Given such, and that I did not want to dilute it, I did not flush it with water but merely drained it and refilled. I understand that I left some in there.

Question: What kind of demented Batman villain puts the coolant bleeder valve THERE?

@sixpack577 you allude that this stuff is simple. Perhaps you are some kind of weird geniuses or such...

I felt like I merely rocked the valve nut open and so think it was loose. I see the torque spec is 5 or such and I can only guess that I did a reasonable job tightening it without forcing it.

Now that I am done rocking the bike I mounted it to the Skylift. I thought I was missing the stick-on clip to mount the hex wrench but as I opened the strap it fell out of it. Always awesome for an OCD person to find something lost. A major win.

I understand why Abba includes a second buckle for the strap. I began lifting the bike and the belt slipped right through the one buckle. It needs a second buckle to lock the strap.

I released a stand brake with my hand and that is a bad move. Something clipped my finger like I drove a nail through it. The good news is I got my yearly bloodletting done, getting all of the poisons out of my system, right through the thumb.

I see the oil filter and sometime soon will seek the drain plug. First drain the oil, then the stator cover, then the Brock's clutch cam set replacement.

lol
Working on bikes in general, and then specific models, over many years, is no different than doing most anything else, it comes with experience...aka, lots of mistakes over the years, lol
but, parts, basic assemblys, and problems and solutions all become pretty familiar over time.
The second and third time you do things, you will find them much easier.
 
You already saved the day today @sixpack577. I keep going over the master list for some of the stragglers. A little voice has been yelling at me that I had better get these, and they arrived just a couple of days ago:

1702218941655.png


I began disassembling the front. The manual says zilch above how to remove the brake line retainer and pull the brake line out of the metal clip. I looked here but just found massive frustration from members on the retainer. One guy threw it across the room when he got it out.

I gently pressed these pliers in and popped the retainer out, and easily separated the metal retainer, in like a minute each.

I am stuck: I cannot loosen the wheel bolt. Well, there's a couple hundred pounds of torque where it should not have gone.

The Snap-On wheel tool is not for serious torque. It is a light beam, and it began bending laterally. On the hand impact wrench I used the new blow hammer up to a heavy sledge. No joy.

Someone close recently offered to provide their impact wrench if needed. A visit from them will be next.

I did not want to buy one for the few uses it may get. I figured that after everything is broken loose and I work on them, I should not be needing an impact again(?)
 
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You already saved the day today @sixpack577. I keep going over the master list for some of the stragglers. A little voice has been yelling at me that I had better get these, and they arrived just a couple of days ago:

View attachment 1673970

I began disassembling the front. The manual says zilch above how to remove the brake line retainer and pull the brake line out of the metal clip. I looked here but just found massive frustration from members on the retainer. One guy threw it across the room when he got it out.

I gently pressed these pliers in and popped the retainer out, and easily separated the metal retainer, in like a minute each.

I am stuck: I cannot loosen the wheel bolt. Well, there's a couple hundred pounds of torque where it should not have gone.

The Snap-On wheel tool is not for serious torque. It is a light beam, and it began bending laterally. On the hand impact wrench I used the new blow hammer up to a heavy sledge. No joy.

Someone close recently offered to provide their impact wrench if needed. A visit from them will be next.

I did not want to buy one for the few uses it may get. I figured that after everything is broken loose and I work on them, I should not be needing an impact again(?)

Wheel bolt?
Do you mean the axle nut?
They both get 70-72' lbs, so they 'should' have come loose easily...but I have run across a few that were so tight the front wheel wouldn't free spin a full rotation...so the special people still work on bikes...unfortunately.
As for the impact;
I had a pneumatic 1/2" drive Mac...junk that didn't last.
I then started borrowing battery powered impacts from whichever friend was convinient at the time.
Early this year, one of my friends loaned me his impact, and also bought a new one.
He told me to keep it since he has another one now.
But, the funny thing is that I was going to bring it back a half a dozen times...then another suprise Need for an impact would show up...really, so I still have it, lol
A powerful half inch drive impact Will save your day, and on Alot of projects.
It may sit for 3 months...and then you'll use it 5 times in a week.
They are well worth having.
 
Wheel bolt?
Do you mean the axle nut?
They both get 70-72' lbs, so they 'should' have come loose easily...but I have run across a few that were so tight the front wheel wouldn't free spin a full rotation...so the special people still work on bikes...unfortunately.
As for the impact;
I had a pneumatic 1/2" drive Mac...junk that didn't last.
I then started borrowing battery powered impacts from whichever friend was convinient at the time.
Early this year, one of my friends loaned me his impact, and also bought a new one.
He told me to keep it since he has another one now.
But, the funny thing is that I was going to bring it back a half a dozen times...then another suprise Need for an impact would show up...really, so I still have it, lol
A powerful half inch drive impact Will save your day, and on Alot of projects.
It may sit for 3 months...and then you'll use it 5 times in a week.
They are well worth having.
I have a plug in impact and it is great....as long as you have an extension cord you can take stuff off all day...

Mine has a torque setting but II don't use it....I like to torque by hand and feel...
 
I have a plug in impact and it is great....as long as you have an extension cord you can take stuff off all day...

Mine has a torque setting but II don't use it....I like to torque by hand and feel...

WAIT A MINUTE!!!
HA!!!
I have an electric impact too...and I had completely forgotten that until you just mentioned it!!!
It was just another 'empty' case in the stack.
I remember having to borrow a battery impact now, as this corded one wouldn't fit into the space I needed(crankshaft pulley bolt on a Toyota), and so my brain apparently filed it in the dust bin.
This losing your mind stuff is Fun!
I Wonder what elsle I have?!


lmao

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