Rode it to the shops after fitting new gremlin bell. Found my Triumph one has been munched on a speed hump
First ride out on the Scrambler today (essential shopping) since late December thanks to a combination of exceptionally shite weather, and poxy DIY. Certainly feels good to be back in the saddle! Like losing your virginity all over again, well almost.
New usb port fitted and switched power to sat nav restored. Now it's waiting for the new reg/rec to arrive to replace the suspect OEM one.
At the garage for the new tyres to be fitted on the Tiger. Wet ride to get here, so I guess a big cleaning job later on once I get home lol.
Went for a ride on my 98" sprint executive, was going to do some instructing , my friend has his limited 250 cc licence , his uncle gave him a BMW 7-750 cc a while ago. His 45 year old beemer decided that the battery was beyond it... So failed to proceed (as Rolls Royce would put it) so we looked the bike over for other possible problems. Found front wheel had a really bad wobble ... bearings ?? So we started to pull it off , got to loosening the front axle... The nut was just about as loose as you can get it without it falling off. So we put it all back together again. Took a half turn of the axle nut to cut all the wheel wobble out !! Never seen that little tension/load on an axle do so much !! Lucky we didn't get out on the road !?!? Although we had low speed turn and balance work planned , it could still have ended with a fall...? So he's buying a new battery and we'll plan another lesson as soon as we can assure the bike will start and run properly.
Drained the oil from the Speedy three weeks ago. Came to replace the filter and my wrench would not go into the dump recess so ordered one from Fowlers that day. Never arrived so had to wait two weeks before it was officially lost then they didn't have on in stock . Measured the filter, wrongly got one off eBay which obviously didn't fit. Turns out my son had one that fit all along so finished the job today. Actually rode it for the first time in what feels like decades! All of about 200 yards up and down the village Oh how I live the overrun pops!
The Yamaha filter wrench I bought for a FZR1000 in '91 is a perfect fit for the Street Scrambler filter. It was also a perfect fit for the filter on the neighbours Toyota Celica at the time. Apart from the branding the filters looked almost identical which isn't surprising as it turned out the engine was made by Yamaha and had the name cast into the head!
Ohhh that must have been the vvtli 190 then? I had one of those, tuned buy yamaha and yamaha stamped on the block. After 6k rpm you felt a very noticable step in the acceleration as the cam changed. Impressive power from a 1.8 naturally aspirated 4pot they put the same engine in the lotus Elise too.
Collecting a bin full of supplies to do some maintenance. I’ve got oil and filter, EBC HH brake pads, brake fluid for a flush, and coolant to replace. I already checked wheel bearings and so on when I replaced tires late last summer. The only hiccup I have hit is that I do not have ready access to the Triumph branded coolant, nor the Silkolene or Fuchs brands I’d like to use. I would really like to find a suitable off the shelf equivalent but there’s so much information out there it’s confusing. More research is needed I guess.
I can't really see the Triumph branded coolant being anything special TBH. There's basically two water based types, Ethylene Glycol and OAT (Organic Acid Technology). There's also Evans coolant which contains no water and lasts indefinately but is much more expensive and requires a system flush to remove any residual water based coolant. I have the Halfords OAT stuff in the car and the other two bikes. Not sure what's in the Scrambler from new but the OAT will be going in the when it's due a change.
After doing some searching I’ve found Motul Motocool coolant to be a good match. It seems to be the right type (hoat) and silicate free. The lack of silicates seems to be important due to the wear they apparently cause on the pump faces and seals. I could probably cheap out and get a gallon off the parts store shelf but it’s pennies compared to the bike, so why not?
Having the drive and front of house done (cutting paving blocks etc) and just went into the garage. My black Nightstorm is now white so the annual bike clean will have to be brought forward
Refitted the ecu which had been sent to Geoff at Hilltop also fitted a low slung exhaust from SP Engineering. Went for their round carbon outlet Diabolus XLS Carbon Fibre one. Mainly because it is road legal. Cant believe how light is. Great service from them. I ordered the wrong one and sent an email asking to change the order. Dave from the company phoned me at 8pm that night to say it would all be sorted the next day and the correct exhaust arrived 3 days latter, which is good for Argyll. Seems good quality and very easily fitted.