GS(X)-250E Motarding.

[pete]

Apology accepted Mike! Hahaha

Good stuff, glad to see you're getting some time back on the GSX again, looking forward to hearing how it feels on the road with the new suspenders...

[mike-s]

Got a call before midday, the part is ready to be picked up. I'm heading sort of near there tomorrow around lunchtime, might see if i can swing by and pick it up.

[pete]

Awesome! Gettin' close Mike... can you feel it?

[mike-s]

Going tomorrow morning, genius that I am i forgot to bring some ID with me so that I could get some paperwork nearby done, without that I wasn't going to waste my time with the trek down there. Got day off tomorrow and will do it then.

[pete]

Nice one Mike, that's the sort of think I expect to do to myself...

You just really wanna keep us in suspense don't you? Is this punishment for the pipes taking 3 weeks? hahaha

[mike-s]

Well you're going to love next week as i'm going to be away for a week or so.
Though i am planning on doing a bit of work over the weekend before we scarper away.
This morning i put the new speedo cable on, and it is slightly long, which will be perfect if/when i put the forks further down in the tree.



I'll be taking a photo of it out away from the clutter after the suspension has been tweaked some in the next few days.
Then it's time for the side-stand to be tweaked. Now that is something I'm looking forward to doing.

Once that is done then i'll take the motor out and have at the frame with a wire wheel and some paint. I've also been
eyeing off this.

[pete]

Cool Mike, you're on your way now! Not talking about Unzud either... haha

Looking forward to the pic's away from the clutter for sure.

There're a lot of bolts in that pack too, should come in very handy

[mike-s]

Rolled her out and took this photo this afternoon.

Have been digging about trying to find the caliper mounting bolts and fortunately found them a little while ago. Have since put in the proper bolts and mounted the caliper and half mounted the front mudguard.

I've since discovered that the way i mounted the brake line was back to front and i need to take it off and mount it with the "kink" in the line at the top, not the bottom as the brake line pushes out to far towards the engine like you can see in the above photo, which although technically isn't a bad thing, it means i can't smoothly line it up with the retaining clip that holds it to the mudguard. Tomorrow i need to flip the mounting around so the brake line travels straight "up" the fork leg instead of out like it currently does.

I checked the static sag on the shocks and i think i need to back it off to the lowest setting as i'm still only getting about 1cm of sag when i sit on the bike, i should be getting about 2 to 2.5 from memory. It may well turn out these shocks are too stiff for the bike weight, which would be annoying, but I can easily get hold of another pair of 2nd hand ones if needed at a later date. I also suspect i need to reduce the preload on the front forks by reducing the spacer from an extra 2cm down to just 1cm of extra spacer. This should reduce the front end firmness quite a fair bit.

It's getting there, slowly. I'm looking forward to finishing off the suspension so i can spend a bit of time sorting out the bash-plate. Though major work on that will have to be put on the back burner due to the NZ trip next week.

[pete]

Mate you've definitely got the raised suspension right! Looking good... can't wait to see that bash plate done though...

[mike-s]

Thanks Pete.

Side note: she seems to be working quite well and fired up on the first go, having not run her for about 4 days, and prior to that about 3 weeks. That earlier start took a little coaxing to have her running, but not much fortunately.

Second side note: I've got a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S 2), and the camera in that is much better than the old one (both in clarity and in megapixels), these last two photos were taken with the new phone, the old phone would have had photos much more dark & less sharp compared to this new one.

[pete]

Good stuff Mike, and yes I can definitely see a difference in the pic's.

I'm using a crappy old digital camera for mine and the housemate bought a new one recently but I'm not game to use it and get it covered in grease etc.

My 450 hasn't been started for a couple of months now... two weeks and it should be running again I hope!

[mike-s]

Brakelines rerouted and attached to minimise rubbing against the triple tree. The suspension has also been put full back together and approx 150cc put in each fork. It turns out that once i got the calipers all firmly attached, there seemed to be a lot less stiffness on the front, so the level of preload i've given it seems to be ok, so far...

The rear shock has been put down to the softest setting and the level of give is much more "normal" now. I guess time will tell if it's stiff enough or if it indeed does need to be stiffened up a touch.

Unfortunately i didn't have enough time to get a test ride happening, but just having everything buttoned up and feeling right was enough for me to be satisfied with what i did today. The last thing i need to do (which i just plain forgot about) is re-attaching the chain guard.

obligatory photos.



Now to start packing, we've a 9am flight to get tomorrow!

[Woodsy]

Looks good Mike, needs some bumpy tyres to set it off

[pete]

Looks great Mike! And yes, +1 on bumpy tyres, definitely need some dual sports to make it look right with all that new ground clearance you have!

Have a safe flight and a great holiday!

[mike-s]

Still no big updates unfortunately, next step is to sort the suspension out, the right fork was leaking fluid and dumped its load on the floor. Having realised i forgot to pinch the valve retaining bolt up tight, i did so and am not yet sure if it fixed this issue .

However in the time between realising this and "getting around to refilling the tube to see if it leaks" i have acquired a 140litre fish tank and stand, dirt cheaply. With the latter being in a pretty poor state, and needing work to make sure it's strong enough for me being happy with using it. Unfortunately the only storage space available for the tank during this "rejuvenation" of the stand is the space situated between the two bikes in my single-car garage.

Hopefully i can get it sorted out sooner rather than later, but the more i think about it, the more comfortable i am with tearing a whole bunch of wood out and redoing the lot. Which although great for making a stable aquarium, makes some serious delays in getting the bike thing sorted out that little bit more.