ALMOST THERE
The big picture is looking good – lots has been done, but there’s still a way to go
Over the last month I have been busy tinkering with the DR, and much has changed since the last update, but one major thing has remained the same – it’s still not on the road yet. But it’s not all my fault. Let me explain… This time I was planning on overhauling the braking system and putting new wheel bearings in to keep the big wheels turning.
This part of the job was more or less forced upon me by the MOT check that listed the rear brake hose and wheel bearings at both ends as advisories. My thinking was that since I had no idea when any of these items had last been serviced or replaced, I would go through the whole lot: I wanted new brake hoses and pads, and to give the brake calipers a good seeing to. While I was on a roll I would put new brake discs in, too.
The wheel bearings and seals would all need to be replaced.
SHOPPING
So, after my last bumbling attempts to get the parts I needed, I was going to be wiser this time. Or rather, I decided to ask someone who knows. I was soon pointed towards World's End Motorcycles, better known as Wemoto (www.wemoto.com). And that was nothing short of a revelation… Going through their website, I soon realised this was pretty much a one-stop shop for anything I needed, so I filled my boots. I ordered brake pads, brake caliper servicing kits, brake discs, brake fluid, and all the bearings I needed for the wheels. The only bits I went elsewhere for were the brake hoses because I had heard good things about Venhill hoses (www. venhill.co.uk), and they did them in orange, which I thought would look great on the bike.
WORKING
I started with the wheel bearings. Given the MOT advisory I expected them to come out in bits, but the old bearings didn’t look like they had completely given up the fight yet. Still, it was time for new ones, so in they went. As I had no specific tool for taking the bearings out or putting them back in, it was a case of carefully driving them out, but I managed without any drama.
Next I cleaned the wheel spindles and put a bit of grease on to help everything move. Then it was just a case of sticking the new bearings in. First job done.
The brakes took a bit more work. The first issue was with removing the old brake discs. The bolt ends had been mauled by many careless hands in the past and there was no way of getting two of them out, so my mate Dave agreed to weld a hex key into them to give us enough purchase to get them out. It worked like a charm, and off the discs came.
Replacing the hoses was more straightforward. I drained the system, removed the old ones, and put the new shiny orange ones in place. Just one issue here – because my bike has been built from a number of donor bikes, the rear brake’s banjo bolt had a different thread to the new bolt in the Venhill pack. Not a problem though, as a new one could be ordered and delivered in a couple of days.
The last job was the brake calipers. Taking them apart revealed that the piston seals were on their last legs, so I took everything out, cleaned the pistons and the calipers, then put the new seals on, applied the rubber grease that came with the service kit, and reassembled the brakes. New brake fluid in, and that was job done.
NEXT TIME
The next update will hopefully be the last one. All that’s left to do is replace the chain and sprockets, fix the kill switch that I mentioned last time, and stick an inline fuel filter on because of the rust in the tank.
It doesn’t sound like much, but when did anything ever go as easily as you first thought…