Last summer having clocked up a total of around 38k I noticed the City X primary drive was making sounds like the chain was out of adjustment. A call to Maz concluded that it was probably the clutch basket bearing.
I had been expecting this problem at some stage and took my XB to The Eporium for a bit of TLC thinking that would be that. during the service Maz checked the crank drive side bearing for play.....and there was definitely some up and down movement.
I was hoping to see 50 or 60k before this. It's not as bad as some I've seen Maz consoled, but he did warn us about these bikes. I rode home via a more scenic route than the M5 to shake down the new clutch bearing. Sure enough I cold still feel something was amiss in the drive side, but it was subtle and after about 30 miles the motor went smooth again as if there was nothing wrong. The play on the drive side bearing seemed to have been taken up by expansion. In fact the XB seemed to be going better than ever on the last run to Jack's Café and was uncannily smooth at speed.
The consensus was to just ride it while I considered my options or until winter for an engine strip down. This was doubly unfortunate as I had been made redundant earlier in the year and my plans for a souped up mill or any special bits inside the engine would have to take a back seat. Fortunately I had put aside money for a basic motor rebuild.
I last rode it in early November 2014 for a shorter 70 miler, but decided to stop using the motor as it was not smoothing out as before on warm up. It had peaked at 41,067 miles in just under 8 years of use.
Earlier this year I took the motor to Maz and asked him to strip it down and check the damage before proceeding. To our surprise the condition inside was better than expected. Apart from the bearing race we knew about, every journal Maz measured was as good as new! The pinion side of the crank was 'perfect' as Maz put it, which was a big relief and potentially a major cost saving.
I threw in some new valve springs, seals and cam box reed valve I had aquired previously so all that was needed was a new outer bearing race and piston rings, plus all the usual gaskets seals, spacers, etc for a thorough reassembly. Maz also gave the heads a thorough decoke and cleaned the valves to a shine!
I was contemplating switching to some exotic engine oil, but Maz suggested that I was obviously doing something right for the motor to be that good inside and to stay with what I was using.
I have yet to run the rebuilt motor as there is still quite a bit of other stuff to do while the bike is getting sorted. Will update on a return to the road.
