The Joys of Riding an Older Bike

[ceemes]

Well, Connie and I are well on the way into our third season together, and truth be told she, like me is beginning to show her age.

Little faults are beginning to creep up, such as a minor oil leak which lands on the hot headers every now and then, electrics that sometime do strange things, rattles and clangs that weren't there before. But like me, she still gets up and goes without complaint.

But she is in need of work, that or retirement. Yesterday when I went to start her I accidentally hit the emergency flasher button and it stuck on, couldn't turn the silly thing off. Had to ride to work with them flashing, it did seem to make the cagers move out of my way tho.....

But I figured I had better get it seen to, and rode to my local Kawasaki shop (they pull the turn signal switch housing apart and had to pull out the offending switch...no charge, nice eh?) and oh my, what is wrong with my handling. Pulled into the next gas station and yup, my rear tyre is damn near flat, only 15 PSI of air in it...not good....inflated it, inspected the tyre, couldn't see or hear anything amiss, was one of my colleagues playing a foolish practical joke on me? hmmmmm.

This morning, oh bugger, she is really low again, nurse her to the gas station, inflate and ride very gingerly to work, damn brother is in town and has my car. This afternoon and time to go home, yup she is low again, bugger....luckily there is a gas station next door, so back on the centre stand, inflate, and inspect..ah ha, there's the little bugger, a small nail has enbedded itself right dead centre of the meatly part of the tread....bugger, that tyre is less then a year old and still has a good 80% of it tread left.....so back to Burnaby Kawasaki.

Get here and was given three options, one: buy a replacement tyre...ouch, two: pull the tyre off the rim and do an internal patch, still around C$100, or maybe do an external patch. Mechanic comes out to look at it, and says not to worry, its a tiny nail and an external patch/plug will do the trick nicely....C$15.

So while he is performing his dark magical arts, I order a new front tyre, the one I have is now two years old and getting a bit tread bare and book an appointment for a week Friday (payday) to get it mounted. While there, discuss other work I should get done, could use a new rear shock and springs up front, that's gonna eat up a good C$1000 in parts and labour. Plus one the front fairing mounting brackets has a nasty crack in it, should get that welded. Could use the carbs rebuilt and sync'ed. And of course the valve could use adjusting. Then there is that annoying oil leak.

Ah the joys of owning and riding an old bike, I guess it would make more economical sense just to buy a new bike, but Connie and I just right for each other, both old, both a bit past their prime, but still ready to raise hell when ever we get the chance, I just cannot see selling, scrapping or replacing her.

So, anyone else got an old bike story to tell?

[jstark47]

Well, you can't really blame a flat tire on the age of the bike!!

I had to get the back part of the '03 Trophy's frame welded up last year, though that was less age and more due to bolts falling out of a supporting piece, placing undue stress on the rest of the frame. And I don't know if my '05 Bonneville counts as an "old bike", but its oil leaks are really start to bother me. This time it appears to be both the head gasket (right side) and valve cover gasket (left side). If I replace the valve cover gasket, it will be the third time for reason of leaks since this bike was new.

[BobK]

The worst thing about buying a used bike is finding out how the previous owner(s) "fixed" it.

[sapaul]

I don't have an old bike story to tell, but really enjoyed reading yours.

[Grey Thumper]

Ah the joys of owning and riding an old bike, I guess it would make more economical sense just to buy a new bike, but Connie and I just right for each other, both old, both a bit past their prime, but still ready to raise hell when ever we get the chance, I just cannot see selling, scrapping or replacing her.

Amen to that.

I dunno about new bikes making more economical sense either. Aside from all the depreciation you lose off a brand new bike, even a newish bike (especially one with a lot of electronic doohickeys) feels somewhat disposable compared to older bikes. I've got more than a few friends who wouldn't keep a bike longer than 5 years or so, simply because if the traction control, electronic suspension, or even just digital gauges start messing up, replacing those parts becomes less economically viable.

[ceemes]

Today, I spent another C$301 plus change on the old girl. New front tyre and wheel bearings, the young lad (I swear, he didn't look old enough to be riding a bike let alone wrenching on them for a living, I must be getting old) who did the work at Burnaby Kawasaki also tarted her up a bit. Riding home from the shop I could really feel the different in the handling, even tho I wasn't pushing it too hard, got to wear in the new skin before I push it the way I normally do.

But lost my speedometre on the way to work today. Figured I snapped another speed-o-cable, but no. When they took the front wheel off they checked the cable and it was fine however the gearing where it connects to the front wheel is buggered and not meshing. Weird thing is, in BC, it is illegal not to have a speedometre, however it is perfectly legal to have one that is not working, go figure. Doesn't really matter to me, I mainly use my tach more then my speedometre.

Next bit of work to do on her is a complete overhaul of the suspension. I will order new springs for the front in a couple of weeks and prepay for them. Then hopefully we will be getting our quarterly bonus a month later and I will then get a new rear shock and get them all installed.

After that its some engine work, namely a tune up, valve adjustment, fixing those two oil leaks and hopefully tracking down the fault in the cooling fan.

[Johnj]

What is the cooling fan doing?

[ceemes]

What is the cooling fan doing?

Absolutely bugger all. Motor seems fine, fuses okay, but it will not turn on. As long as I am at speed, not a problem, at traffic lights I can just shut off the engine. Problem arises it I am in slow moving traffic and its hot out, then I really have to keep an eye on my temp gauge and be ready to pull over and let it cool down. I am looking into by passing the automatic switch and installing a manual one on the bars. Thing is, even when it was working properly, it was pretty ineffective, just didn't draw enough cooling air thru the rad to keep the temp from rising into the red zone when crawling thru stop and go traffic.

[BRUMBEAR]

There has gotta be a sensor that turns it on ? I would start there if you are gonna try to fix it yourself.
Dave

[Johnj]

Look about halfway up the left side of the radiator and you will see the temperature control switch (round shaped with two wires) which runs around $60.00. Or you can replace it with one out of a Honda car (like a 93 Prelude or Accord) for around $30.00. Or you can splice the wires to a switch you mount somewhere convenient. The trick is to get the fan to switch on at a cooler temperature.