Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
That's the front end done, then
The Ninja 250 received a $250 front-end lift today. As I believe I wrote in the past, both front suspension bits I wanted to install had arrived, and today I finally had time to do it. So I did.
The springs are easy, just unscrew a few bits, pull out the old springs, and drop in the new ones. The Gold Valve Emulators (henceforth GVEs) are a trifle more complex. First, completely disassemble the front end, to get each individual fork leg off. Half-disassemble each fork leg, and drill six impressively large holes in one of the bits removed from each leg (called a damper rod, for those keeping track in the techie booth). Once that's all done, reassemble with this little GVE widget tucked under the spring. There's also some weirdly non-intuitive math involved for figuring out a spring preload spacer (so the springs start out slightly compressed).
Of course, my drill press (almost the perfect tool for the job) is over at Jesse's house, since he needed it a while back, and I haven't terribly missed it. So, I had to grab the damper rods and head over there to do the drilling. On the way, I decided to stop into the dealership and see if they had a crush washer I would ideally have to make the job perfect, but they didn't. Oh well, no great loss.
I got my drilling done, and came back home, by which time it was after 5, and I was increasingly aware that I hadn't really eaten any food yet today. Food it is, then.
Finally, I was able to get back to work, and finished up at 8:30. Because of the huge gap in the middle, I'm not sure how long the work actually took, but it felt like around 3 hours.
And now, with that done, I think I'm going to go for a little ride to see what the new front end feels like.
Posted at 21:13 permanent link category: /motorcycle
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater