Experiences

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Volker_P
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Experiences

Postby Volker_P » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:04 am

Last week I went to the every 2-year technical inspection with my CB. The guy there obviously did not like the CB and criticized some stuff which was partly justified but also partly complete nonsense. After all, thanks to Robert's exhaust documents :wink: , I got my sticker on the plate anyway.

After that I rode to the city to get new brake pads for the front. After a few miles, the throttle wire suddenly broke and I managed to recognize what happened and stop the bike just before I would have entered a tunnel. I was quite frustrated, however I was happy that it did not happen during the technical inspection some minutes ago. :roll:
I pushed back my bike and as I usually wear a sports short beneath my motorcycle dress I took off the leather stuff in the shade and started to disassemble my throttle. But there was no way to get it back into service with the things I had so I put everything together and had to try another way. After hooking off the main spring of the carb cam I found it possible to turn the throttle directly at the carbs at the idle adjustment lever. This way, I got my bike back running and using the kill switch and the rear brake, also switching gears was possible in a reasonable way.
Anyway, you do not like to ride like that in a city but I was only one kilometer away from the parts shop so I decided to make it to them. Of course they did not have the brake pads :? , and I wanted to try another shop not so far away. It was quite hard to get there with that throttle only to find that they do not exist any more there! :? I went home then, and a stupid and blind pedestrian ignoring a redlight almost managed to jump in the front of my CB while I was a bit occupied keeping my engine alive. :shock: After the city border, riding went more convenient as I now was able to use the idle adjustment screw to adjust a constant speed. Very convenient from then on. I was glad to be at home and never want to do that again, but it was better than walking home.

At home I fixed the throttle wire (I had to solder on a brass nipple) and disassembled the front brake cylinders as the brakes tended to stick together a bit after 26 years and it was time to change the brake fluid anyway. There was some dirt and alumina oxide, but after cleaning, all surfaces looked still acceptable. However there was some tendency that the bottom corners showed the most corrosion, so maybe changing the brake fluid more frequently would have been a good idea. I was surprised that the seals and rubber parts were not brittle at all and I just reassembled everything to see if it will already help. It took me some time bleeding the main hand cylinder, in fact it did not work before I opened the connection to the hose directly behind it. After that, bleeding went fast, it's useable now but a small amount of air still seems present which I will care for as soon as I have new brake pads. At least the front wheel now runs much better just after release of the brakes. Another point is that there was much more wear to the piston side brake pads than to the outer ones as the brakes did not move that freely any more on their bolts. I did open and lubricate them some times before, so they were not really stuck, however the interval seemed to be too long. If you like to do something useful to your CB from time to time, lubricate that bolts. :idea:

After some time, I remembered there was another new parts shop close to the technical inspection site (which maybe caused the other one to close) and I phoned them for the brake pads. Next day I went there by bicycle and as I am a quite mistrustful guy, I took the original brake pads with me. Unfortunately my mistrust was justified as they in fact had brake pads that would fit into the brakes holders, however the size of the active pad area was about 2-3mm smaller in disk radial direction compared to the original ones. :? No problem for the moment, but it will cause a step in the brake disk with time and with original size pads again, that may be no good combination. So be careful what they want to sell you! Presently, I try to check out whether there are acceptable aftermarket pads or if I better try to get original ones. During this, I found out that the local Honda dealer switched to BMW :?, so also getting original ones is not that simple any more.

Maybe all this sounds a bit negative, but:
it is still running fine, weather report is all right and tomorrow I am not working. :D
Hehe! :D :D :D

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Ibsen
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Postby Ibsen » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:32 am

Your experience shows that keeping an old classic bike on the road sometimes require some work. :)

And I agree, always bring with you the old parts to the parts dealers and compare them with the ones you are offered.

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Chris
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Postby Chris » Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:49 am

Thanks for the tip on the caliper bolts. I'm glad you made it home safe. Sounds like you had a hell of a day.
1980 CB650c

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Volker_P
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Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 1:53 am
Location: southern Germany

Re:

Postby Volker_P » Thu Jun 22, 2006 9:22 am

Chris wrote:Thanks for the tip on the caliper bolts. I'm glad you made it home safe. Sounds like you had a hell of a day.

Yes, I really was quite exhausted when I finally arrived at home. Nevertheless I had my inspection sticker and moreover the CB and me back home both in one piece which I really appreciate on days like that.


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