What did you do today...

[ceemes]

Almost got nailed on the way home today, and yup in that same area where I saw a biker down last week, the bend before tunnel southbound on highway 99 when Steveston feeds in. Some gray haired middle aged wad dealing with his mid life crisis by driving a sporty BMW Z4 convertable with his top down. Braked hard and dived down into the what little of a break down lane there was as he sailed into my lane without so much as a glance in this mirrors or using his indicators. Poor buggers ears must of been ringing what with me behind him hurling all manner of abuse and questions about his manhood while we were stuck in traffic. Guess he figured the little wave he gave me when I blasted my horn at him should of made everything all right....not a chance sunshine.

[agraebner]

After a phone conversation with someone from Barnett they told me that soaking them overnight was not needed just soaking them for a couple hours was enough with their friction materials formulation. I have now installed almost a dozen of their clutch kits with no problems on any of them. I wouldn't install any other type of clutch without doing soaking it overnight. The cork or even paper style frictions wouldn't last past first take off without it. On another note I have found that a lot of top name clutches are saying not to use full synthetic oil in the engine that it will cause clutch slippage. To anyone seeking a replacement make sure you read every bit of fine print available for the clutch you are getting.

[zee]

Cleaned and lubed the chain for the first time. What a messy job!

Yup, BTDT. Four out of four motorcycles in this household are chain-drive! GoJo soap with pumice is very good for getting the mess off your hands. Comes in a nice orange-scented liquid form too.

A properly done lube job requires no mess.

Clean and lube. Yeah, just spraying on chain lube is hands off. Cleaning the chain will get your fingers dirty unless you're wearing gloves.

Yep, you got it right... emphasis on the cleaning part of that task. Luckily I had gloves on.

Today, I visited my doc and found out my cough is bronchitis. Great!!

[jaskc78]

Always nice to have a chance to really unload on some f***in dips**t, isn't it, Ceemes? I had the luxury of being stuck in traffic next to the Honda Civic that tried taking my lane with me in it once, I thought the poor girl was going to wet herself when I started hollering through her closed passenger window.

Agraebner - I've heard the same thing about synthetic oils, but was also told that during normal street riding you'd never notice the difference to speak of. And since I pretty much ride like a grandma most of the time I just don't worry about it. I do like to stick with either Castrol or whatever my friends at the dealership will sell me at cost.

Zee - sorry to hear that, hope you're feeling better soon.

Today I drove about 100 miles in the Jetta. Just trips into town and back, running errands, etc. So glad we bought that so I'm not pumping diesel into my 2500HD 4x4. Kinda nice getting 35-40mpg with just as much city driving as highway. The 5 y.o. had some all day thing at school so got to take her in bright and early, then drop the S.O. off at her appointment and wait around for her to get done (it'll be really quick, there's almost nobody waiting). Got home in time for lunch and wishing I had time for a nap, then back into town to pick up the 5 y.o. I'll be so glad when the school year is over.

Also started assembling this big damn outdoor playset thing we got for the kids. Managed to get the rock climbing wall put together (only 5 ft high), and part of the slide. Tomorrow we should finish the slide and probably start working on the deck for the clubhouse area.

[Wrider]

After a phone conversation with someone from Barnett they told me that soaking them overnight was not needed just soaking them for a couple hours was enough with their friction materials formulation. I have now installed almost a dozen of their clutch kits with no problems on any of them. I wouldn't install any other type of clutch without doing soaking it overnight. The cork or even paper style frictions wouldn't last past first take off without it. On another note I have found that a lot of top name clutches are saying not to use full synthetic oil in the engine that it will cause clutch slippage. To anyone seeking a replacement make sure you read every bit of fine print available for the clutch you are getting.

Yeah the supposed minimum is supposed to be 4-8 hours. A full 24 is preferable, while flipping sides at 12 hours.

And that's not quite right on the synthetic oils. They say you can use whatever as long as it doesn't have the friction modifier package that's added to car oils. That can and will cause slip for some, while others have no problem with it.

Definitely do read the fine print!

[ofblong]

Cleaned and lubed the chain for the first time. What a messy job!

Yup, BTDT. Four out of four motorcycles in this household are chain-drive! GoJo soap with pumice is very good for getting the mess off your hands. Comes in a nice orange-scented liquid form too.

A properly done lube job requires no mess.

Clean and lube. Yeah, just spraying on chain lube is hands off. Cleaning the chain will get your fingers dirty unless you're wearing gloves.

Thus a properly done lube job equals no mess . I do Preventative maintenance on Drive chains almost daily at work. Course most (not all) of our chains are not 0-ring so most require spray on chain and Cable fluid which is slightly messier than applying grease to a chain. Either way you dont need to GOB on the grease for your chain

[agraebner]

EBC says no synthetic oils according to the packaging on three different sets I looked into. I see the same notation anywhere I see EBC clutches including the online look up for part numbers.

[Wrider]

Really? That's very odd...

[HYPERR]

I would say, both of you guys are correct.

A lot of companies make very general statements like this to cover their . For example, in case someone uses a synthetic oil made for a car or a synthetic oil with moly which may or may not make the clutch plates slip. As long as the syntheitc oil is JASO MA2 certified withOUT Moly, it should be no problem whatsoever.

[agraebner]

I woke up early and made it to the insurance office 5 minutes before they opened. I beat the rain like I planned. The new clutch felt great and the bike ran great with my carb work its a lot more rideable now ( I took out the stage three jets and put in a stage 2 jets.) I spent 3 hrs working on my nephews new to him car. We have it almost ready for inspection now. (only one door hinge to rebuild) I think I am going to be selling him my shadow He wants a bike. I have too many bikes. I haven't been riding the shadow so much since I got the nighthawk. He got a ride on the night hawk and decided quickly it was more than he wants power wise. What do you guys and gals think should I let it go? He really likes the shadow. What do you think the life expectancy is of the nighthawk it has 44k miles on it now. It burns no oil that I can see with dipstick in 750 miles I have put on it. It doesn't smoke at all and has no leaks at all. IT runs really strong and has no noises. A boss I had a few years back had a cb750 and a cb900 and both of them were bad oil users and both leaked too. They scared me of air cooled bikes.