Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted so I thought it must be time for an update. I've had the XB for 6 months now and done nearly 900 miles. I know there'll be plenty of you who done far more than that, but I've got two other bikes, to share the miles out on, work's been frantic, and the weather has been terrible for most of the last six months...
Excuses over.
The wheels were probably the worst bit of the bike cosmetically. From some angles they were fine.
From other angles it was obvious that work was required.
Using a couple of ratchet straps the bike was suspended from a sky-hook in the garage.
Stripping the front wheel I found that three of the six top-hat specers on the front disk had been crushed on one side by their washers. I managed to clean them up but this might explain why the front disk wasn't as free to float as I'd expected, and some of the strange ticks and bangs from the front end when the disk was hot. The front calliper was also stripped and cleaned while it was off, no problems there.
New bearings were fitted to the wheels. I had to use oxy-acetylene to get the old bearings out of the rear wheel, they were absolutely stuck fast.
The translucent lacquer on the wheels has been changed for a pearlescent powder coat. I couldn’t get a perfect colour match, it’s a bit more gold and a bit less copper than it was but I think it’s come out OK.
Overall it seems to work well enough with the bike.
It’s been anglicised a bit, so all the USA reflectors are gone. The Honda Nissin radial front master cylinder works really well, only slight down side is that I’d like to drop the brake lever a touch but cant because it will foul the top of the clocks. I'll strip the fairing, frame and clocks off over winter and see if I can gain a bit of space somewhere.
I was relieved that it never missed a beat while I was away at the TT. I had given it a few reasonable runs before I went but nothing like the sort of use it got over there. Of course it rained heavily for the ride over to Heysham, but the weather was glorious for the week I was on the Island. There was a certain amount of piss-taking by my so-called friends about the way the several parts of the Buell seem to wobble about by themselves when it’s ticking over in traffic. And the way the cooling fan started up every time it was switched off, but nothing I couldn’t cope with. Calling the new Triumph Tiger a “Brit Dripper”, and suggesting that the BMW HP2 was the same as the one the Germans used in the war seemed to keep the balance.
There are strong feelings out there about Top Boxes… After many years of doing the TT I’m afraid the advantage of being able to get all your gear on the bike with one click, at 04:50 in the morning, hung over, in the rain, outweigh the style cost. I made a frame that locks in to the pillion seat lock, and carries a Givi plate to fasten the top box to.
It could do to sit a little further back, but so long as I don't gain any (more) weight it worked fine, and when I got there it just unclips and the pillion seat goes back on.
Changing the primary oil and adjusting the clutch release mechanism before I went made quite a difference to the clutch action, but it's still heavy. As a winter project I might have a look at making a hydraulic set up. I've got a Honda clutch master cylinder that matches the brake, and have some ideas for a slave that replaces the existing clutch inspection cover, rather than fits inside it.
The other possible change would be the handlebar switch gear. It's rather clunky, the modern Jap stuff is nicer to use, and better to look at. Probably another job for the winter though.
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,you can put it arround the seat mounting bolts that are on the inside of the subframe.
