Slimey Crud Run - Madison WI area - Sunday, May 5, 2013

[MaximPhil]

I think a brake line and battery, clean up the front calipers with new fluid and clear out the vacuum mess (should only have #2 manifold and # 3 manifold hooked to petcocks and #2 CARB hooked to timing advance w all others plugged.)

You can diddle low speed on those tires. Forget welding aluminum, those brackets are a dime a dozen. 81 STD shares bracket with the specials (except for black line detail)

Bag guards still work bent. Though center connector is upside down (u should point down to assist getting tire out)

John

Hi John,
I think the centre connector is correct the way it is to allow the fender to hinge up Having said that I always remove it and the right side bag to remove the wheel so am only speaking in theory
Phil

[jwhughes3]

You are probably right, however I found it virtually impossible with bike on center stand to remove rear wheel on my 80 SG without the extra clearance (no hinged fender). Greg and I (mostly Greg) took that wheel off at XSEast last year in the rain when my cords were showing and I had to get a new tire to ride home.

In fact I think we still had to put a chunk of wood under part of the centerstand but cant remember if its for clearance or for uneven ground.

John

[CRXSi90]

Well, thanks. That paints a picture that is a lot less bleak. I need that encouragement.

The tires were losing air, not sure why. I suppose there could be other causes (bead, valve stem, etc) which would be worth checking out. Am I right that these are probably tubeless?

On the fuse box, some of them have been replaced with alligator clips, so they're no longer fused. I now know this is not the best solution, but I got some individual glass fuse holders and made a steel bracket for them and painted it. I think it still has to be installed. Of course if I were to do it again, I'd probably do the blade fuses, but this should work for now.

I will check into the stainless lines some more. I remember eying up some lines from eBayer "coastguard1975". A full set for $114 or so is reasonable, for a safety item. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I'll be changing bars in the future, and that might necessitate getting a line that's a different length, which would be a bummer. Oh well, only one line out of four.

The brakes will probably need a bit of going through. From the reading here, it might be the little return hole that is plugged. I don't know if it's customary to get new seals when pulling that stuff apart.

On the peg bracket, yeah, I'll look for a used one. Seems like they come up on eBay for ~$25-$35 once in a while.

Yep, fluids & grease. Brake fluid, engine oil, middle drive, final drive. Also, I understand putting high moly grease on the splines is important, as well as greasing the nearly unobtainable rear wheel bearing. Oh, there's fork oil, but I guess that could wait for a rainy day.

[haywardguy929]

Great advice, I wouldn't mess with the bars at this time and maybe never. You can keep it stock and get collector plates and pay a one time fee here in Wisc.. Plus if you need to change cables or hardware could be a unneeded pain. There was a link for some lines I didn't see the 81 H but I saw the special and not sure if they are compatible or not.

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=40222.html

You can get an idea on some prices if nothing else. I also think they are tubeless and my guess is the bead, a little soapy water around the rim will tell you. I don't know if people here recommend that Fix-0-Flat stuff but I'd consider trying a little bit if it doesn't screw anything up,maybe easier/wiser to just have the contact areas cleaned,not really sure. I know some people hate the stuff. All in all it sounds like a bunch of little things and just takes time, money and know how. I think everyone would suggest the blade fuse block too, I have to do mine one of these days myself but it's in the "if it's not broke, don't fix it" category right now. Any way good feed back and gives ya a good starting point. I'm no expert by any means and just saying what kinda jumps out at me, I'd go by what the guys here say with no hesitation. (my disclaimer )..lol

[jetmechmarty]

XS1100H brakes

XS1100 Brake Lines Now Available!

Someplace in this forum there's a bunch of chatter about this.

[CRXSi90]

Thanks for the leads on brake lines. I'll check it out. I will keep the bars for now since there are bigger fish to fry to get this on the road. Bars are a personal thing. My wrists end up bent forward with my hands on the grips. I can see how the bars would work good on a special where the seat is a bit lower and the grips can be tipped down a bit and still have clearance with the tank. But to me, they seem a bit awkward on a standard. Are these the stock H bars?



In addition to Fix-A-Flat, there's Slime. Not sure how they compare. I can probably pry the bead back and see if there's any glaring problem there. I don't claim to be a tire mounting master, but I'm 1 for 2 on mounting tires on the KE. I punctured the tube with a tire iron, which shouldn't be an issue here. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Oh yeah, I'll be going for collector plates when I get it registered again. I currently have regular plates on the KE, but I'm going to switch that over to collectors also.

[scoot]

I endured a slow leak in my front tire until I replaced the tire due to wear. The tire changer guy at the shop I went to at the time suspected the aluminum rim was corroded behind the bead, and he was correct. He used a green nylon scrubby to remove the corrosion prior to mounting the new tire, and that fixed the leak. Now when I change my own tires, I'm cleaning the rim as s. o. p.

scoot

[CRXSi90]

Thanks, the good news is a slow leak like that isn't catastrophic, as long as the air pressure is checked and inflated. I should probably start handing off some of this kind of work to experienced people, but I have the tire irons. I'll probably give it a try because I wonder if the XS tires are easier or harder to put on/off the rim compared to the KE wheels I've done. They were kind of a pain, but maybe tubes and spoke rims were making things more difficult for me.