05-07-20, 10:21 PM
Well, after about 7 hours, I've managed to fit *one* of the new Hyperpro fork springs on my bike!
I was hoping for two, but it was a lot of hassle, firstly because it's something I've never done before, so I spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what needed to be done and checking and re-checking to make sure I didn't get anything wrong.
I needed to get inventive at some points, for instance I had to remove the handlebars to get to the fork caps, so they're now hanging from the rafters of the shed by a whole load of cable ties that have been linked together! There's a similar set up with the brake calipers dangling from the mirror stems.
Then there was the problem of dealing with bolts that hadn't been removed since the bike was new :-(
I found that, to remove one of them, I had to daisy chain together a breaker bar, *two* adapters to go from a 1/2" drive to 3/8" drive to a 1/4" drive, then an adapter to let me use an allen key driver and THEN I discovered that this ridiculously long collection of tools was too big to get behind the front fairing, so I had to stop and take that off :-(
Also, about five o'clock I started to get dehydrated and my brain started to get fuzzy to the extent that I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and nearly managed to bugger everything up until, fortunately, I had enough sense to realise what was happening, stop and get a drink, after which my brain started working again...!
So I finally got the first one sorted out, then had to figure out how to get sufficient oil into the fork such that the level was 140mm below the top of a metal tube.
I eventually ended up using a steel ruler like a dipstick. I put a line at 140mm, then lowered it into the tube to see if there was any oil on the bottom.
If there wasn't, I topped it up a bit more and tried again until finally I got it right.
So, anyway, that's one done, at least the other one should be easier now I have a better idea of what needs to be done.
I also have ordered myself a new battery, because the I installed the current one back in 2014, so it's no wonder it's a bit dodgy and the ECU is throwing error codes...!
I was hoping for two, but it was a lot of hassle, firstly because it's something I've never done before, so I spent a lot of time figuring out exactly what needed to be done and checking and re-checking to make sure I didn't get anything wrong.
I needed to get inventive at some points, for instance I had to remove the handlebars to get to the fork caps, so they're now hanging from the rafters of the shed by a whole load of cable ties that have been linked together! There's a similar set up with the brake calipers dangling from the mirror stems.
Then there was the problem of dealing with bolts that hadn't been removed since the bike was new :-(
I found that, to remove one of them, I had to daisy chain together a breaker bar, *two* adapters to go from a 1/2" drive to 3/8" drive to a 1/4" drive, then an adapter to let me use an allen key driver and THEN I discovered that this ridiculously long collection of tools was too big to get behind the front fairing, so I had to stop and take that off :-(
Also, about five o'clock I started to get dehydrated and my brain started to get fuzzy to the extent that I couldn't concentrate on what I was doing and nearly managed to bugger everything up until, fortunately, I had enough sense to realise what was happening, stop and get a drink, after which my brain started working again...!
So I finally got the first one sorted out, then had to figure out how to get sufficient oil into the fork such that the level was 140mm below the top of a metal tube.
I eventually ended up using a steel ruler like a dipstick. I put a line at 140mm, then lowered it into the tube to see if there was any oil on the bottom.
If there wasn't, I topped it up a bit more and tried again until finally I got it right.
So, anyway, that's one done, at least the other one should be easier now I have a better idea of what needs to be done.
I also have ordered myself a new battery, because the I installed the current one back in 2014, so it's no wonder it's a bit dodgy and the ECU is throwing error codes...!