I assembled the lift today, was a bit of a hassle. Only a few things to fasten, but one is a size 12 or 13 allan bolt and I don’t have that size allan key laying around. My local diy store didn’t have any and as it was already on the late side on a Saturday, my better options were closed already. Lucky for me I could grip it enough with some pliers and I screwed on the bolt from the other side. Will be testing it tomorrow with the bike to do the air filter swap.
So I lifted the bike today, I had never done this before so it was a little scary. At least for me. I don’t think I had the lift positioned optimally, I found it quite hard to find a good position. At the front it looked quite obvious, but at the back the engine seems to come out from under the frame, near the oil filter. Anyone got a placement tip? I replaced the oem air filter with a dna high performance filter. I had my Haynes manual with me as this bike is my first venture into playing a diy mechanic. But of course an air filter swap is pretty easy and straightforward. And I made it clear to anyone what filter is inside when they work on the bike. I mounted my Christmas present as well today. I think it looks lovely! I was quite surprised about the dirt on the oem air filter. Considering I only rode the bike for about 3 months.
So why on earth does Triumph use so many loctite on the gearshifter peg. Short story, I snapped the bolt. Had to drill it out and tap it to fit the Motone gearshifter peg. It was the first time I ever put a drill to my bike, man that was scary. Also first time I used a tap . Learning a lot from this project! Although a proper mechanic probably would have done a better job I’m quite pleased. If after a few rides I still don’t feel confident in my handiwork, I’ll just order a new gearshifter And for the result
With al the “damn I broke the bolt” yesterday I forgot to post that I also installed another part. Before: During: After:
So it's been a whil since I gave another update. I have also been away from the forum for a while (live got crazy and time was short). Last week a lovely box arrived. Great things do come in boxes like these . So last Saturday I took some time to mount the part. The box really was larger this time . I knew I wanted the Motone sump guard the moment I first saw it in a video. Mounting of course wasn't all that hard & pretty straightforward. The bolts on the subframe that had to be undone (left hand side, near the side stand) did give me some trouble. Well they were super tight and, previous experiences with tights bolts in mind, I was a little scared to put to much force on them. So I borrowed workshop tool HD02 from the misses and put it to work, unfortunately that didn't appear to do an awful lot. So I decided to just give it one more go and behold they started to come loose. There didn't appear to have been any Loctite on so, I suppose they just needed some force. Anyway, I do like the look of it. Just one more customization and I'm done with the original plan for this payday project.
My replacement gearshifter arrived and I fitted it this weekend. After my mishap with the snapping bolt I was glad to have it replaced. Never truly felt comfortable about my handy work with retapping it . It was fine for the first rides of the year, but good to have it replaced. No more worrying it will break when on the road somewhere. It also looks way better now, with the peg properly centered!
In a way, having a weak peg wouldn't be terrible and some people have weakened the bolt in the peg for that reason. There are stories about the gearbox shaft getting bent after a minor drop because the peg and lever are too strong. I went for the washer approach where you fill some of the space between the lever and the gearbox with a washer or two on the selector shaft. The hope is that it would stop the shaft from bending enough to be permanent in the case of a drop, whilst allowing some space to allow normal movement.
