Friday, June 22, 2012

A Bit More Maintenance

I have been riding around with just about all of my gear with the exception of the dry bag. The bike handles a bit differently but you only notice the additional weight at really low speeds. Yesterday afternoon while riding through town, I noticed that my turn signals were intermittently working and the stock voltmeter was bouncing around. The fuse for the turn signal also provides power to the brake lights, horn and the stock voltmeter. The fuse must have been jealous of the attention paid to the other one in the headlight shell earlier in the week. Yesterday evening, I pulled apart the headlight again and cleaned off the years of corrosion from the other fuse. Everything is now working again. 

Yesterday was the longest day of the year and I was really tempted to go out riding as sunset was at 12:55AM (sunrise at 2:50AM). This isn't when it got dark but when the sun actually dropped below the northern horizon. Most of the local events celebrating the midnight sun are this weekend.

This evening, I pulled both wheels off of the bike to check out the wheel bearings, final drive spline lube and brakes. Not that I suspected anything wrong but just to check. The splines connecting the rear wheel to the final drive need periodic lubrication with a high moly grease. All of it looked and felt great. Plenty of brake pad material and I also greased the clutch cable at its weakest point, where it connects to the lever. The spare clutch cable was threaded through and tied into place so it would be trivial to switch if needed. This weekend I'll do a bit more maintenance such as recheck valve clearances as I hear a noisy valve at low speeds. Last winter, I contributed to a Kickstarter project for a motorcycle horn called the "Screaming Banshee" and that is still sitting waiting to be installed. It may be useful before venturing outside.

After seeing George Ferreira's countdown timer, I added it to the blog. In case you can't tell, I'm anxious to get on the road. Still have one more trip north next week but I think I'm just about ready to go. I picked up the Milepost app for the iPad so I guess that's what I'll bring as far as technology. I have been posting lately using the Blogsy app without any issues.

7 comments:

  1. Really looks like you are ready to go. I will have to trust my dealer that everything ist set up for the journey, and the only spare part I will carry is an extra key.

    You are really getting excited now, are you?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! I can't wait to get on the road. The only mechanic I trust is myself. I guess I've been doing this stuff for too long...

      Delete
    2. I will be glad to have you around then, in case something goes awry with my bike...

      Delete
  2. Richard:

    I was also thinking of a spare clutch cable, but I had everything checked out and I was told I don't need one. How do you cram two cables into that tube ? I was also thinking of a spare headlight bulb, but then there are Suzuki dealers everywhere

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast
    My Flickr // My YouTube

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't. I just run the second cable in its housing parallel to the existing cable. Then just zip tie them together with a little grease at the ends of the housing to minimize rust.

      Delete
  3. When you say longest day of the year, you really mean longest day. That would be so neat to have the sun setting after midnight.

    Great idea pre-threading that clutch cable in. If it is needed it will save a lot of time and frustration on the road.

    I like the countdown timer too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since Fairbanks is south of the Arctic Circle (200 miles by road), the sun actually sets. In Barrow, the sun doesn't even come close to the horizon at this time of year. Unless you are driven by the clock, i.e. have a job, time sort of loses its meaning this time of year. No reason why you can't go for a walk at midnight as even though the sun may be below the horizon, it still isn't dark.

      By pre-running the clutch cable, I don't need to wonder where I packed the it nor need to disassemble anything to route the new cable while on the side of the road.

      Delete