Weekend Maintenance

This weekend, I finally got a chance to do a little fluid maintenance on the bike. I did some radiator work and changed the oil and oil filter.

I started working on the radiator first. I had to disassemble the right side fairing and disconnect the signal indicator. I used a webpage I found on svrider.com, and everything was going pretty smoothly. Halfway through the radiator flush, I decided that working with my bike tilted on its side via kickstand wasn't good enough for me. I need the bike to be upright on stands!

I had a set of car jack stands. I had seen on the web that some guy stuck a skewer through his swingarm axle and got his bike suspended on some sort of stand. That was good enough for me! Quickly, I got the jack out of the Toyota and found a suitable solid spot underneath the bike to jack up the bike. I stuck a tire iron in one side and (since the drive side has a smaller hole) I put a 8mm allen wrench in the other side. As I steadied the bike, I asked my wife, Emily to do the jacking. When the bike reached the proper height, she slipped the jack stands under the rests and presto! mission accomplished! Now, I could concentrate on the work...

I quickly finished flushing the radiator, then I put in my seven capfuls of Water Wetter and filled the rest with tap water. After a few minutes of warming up the motorcycle, the water mixed and there- that was done.

Next was the oil stuff. Now that the bike was stationed upright, the oil could drain out more evenly. Having the bike warmed from the radiator job, I pulled the oil plug and opened the filler hole. I exchanged the retired filter with a new K&N filter, a bit more costly, but I'm sure it will be well worth it. I replaced the plug bolt and filled her up with the Castrol GPS oil. The color is transluscent deep red- very beautiful. I warmed up the engine and took her for a test ride.

The first thing I noticed was that the gears were easier to shift. The bike didn't lurch or clunk upon shifting from neutral to first- just an easy "nick-nick". Same as when shifting with riding. I also noticed a little more power in the mid-range of the powerband; the bike just wanted to rev up faster. Interesting. Was it work $6.99 per quart? Hell, yeah!

Enough of that. I'm shopping around for front suspension parts and more brake lines. That will be my next major upgrade.