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General Bike Maintenance

Bike servicing, rebuilding, restoring, manuals, etc..

  1. Fitting LEDs and Zumo 660 (26/05/2012)

    After what can only be described as the ultimate procrastination I finally got around to installing the replacement LED strips on my BMW.

    GiJoe and I had tried to fit them last year and ended up with blown/broken LEDs all round. We presumed somehow the controller failed so I had to order new strips. They arrived earlier in the year but I had been doing other things so they sat waiting.

    Of course such an install requires some extra spannering hands, so off to GiJoe again ...
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  2. Finally succeeded in fixing something! (05/01/2011)

    Yeup… you read that right. I had an electrical issue with my bike, and basically fixed it myself. This might not sound like a very dramatic thing to believe… so perhaps I should entertain readers with a bit of history.

    Back in 2007 I owned a 2004 ZX10R, and decided I wanted to mount a radar detector. Having seen others say it was easy, wire it to the battery and then flatten the bike, I knew I was going to be smarter than that. Running the power cable back towards the battery, I realise ...
  3. When installs go easily

    Imagine that… an electrical install that went according to plan and was easy.

    GiJoe insisted on helping me install the wiring for my heated vest… for some reason he doesn’t trust me. I wanted it installed for my weekend riding, he was busy Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, so we met up Saturday morning. I even impressed him by being up early (aka, before midday).

    He comes around, xtank and seat come off and some quick discussion about how to put wiring in. Quite ...
  4. Turning mates into pit bitches

    Saturday morning, I’m up and about… hang on, no, got to bed in the early hours, so rose around midday Kicked my arse into gear, and got to Botany Honda before they closed. Annoyed the guys as usual, and showed them the LED strips, as they had been interested in how they would look. Of course, I get the piss taken out of me, but I bet they all secretly desire some themselves.

    GiJoe is nowhere to be seen, despite a txt, so he must be otherwise occupied. I head off to Motomail to ...
  5. More lights for Katie

    Well, following on from the adventures of the previous weekend (previously blogged) an old idea was resurrected. My boss has a blackbird has had spotlights fitted for a couple of years, specifically for night riding in the country.

    They sit between his fairing and mirrors on custom brackets, angled up and out. They rectify a common problem motorcyclists have. As you lean into a corner, your headlight points at the ground right in front of the bike. Lean more, the problem gets worse. ...