Oh fuck this, it's driving me nuts...

[Mikkel]

Having just put most of my motard back together again - of course ending up with a little bit of loose change - I just got to thinking.

When it comes to doing your own maintenance, do you have one particular job that sours the experience for you every time you have to do it? One particular procedure that just ruins an otherwise quite enjoyable evening in the garage mucking around with the toys? One seemingly insignificant design flaw that insists on driving you insane?

For me, as I just got reaffirmed, it's doing up those tensioner springs that keeps the exhaust headers firmly joined to the middle part of the pipe. There is hardly any room to get in there so just getting one end hooked up takes a bit of fiddling, you need to excert a decent amount of force while still keeping the alignment right and then manouver the hook into the loop in the end. Of course, if you loose grip of the spring it'll fly off setting you back to square one - very fucking frustrating indeed. Took me a while, but I got there eventually. Hopefully she'll be working fine now...

Number two would probably have to be putting forkarms back together after changing the forkoil.

[Gremlin]

The springs on the exhaust system can definitely be a pain in the arse.

Beyond that, talk to my shop... they might be able to tell you whats annoying (aka, it goes in needing stuff done, and comes out perfect )

[LBD]

Two pet hates...

One.... fitting factory after market accessories that don,t fit without fiddling/modifying.

Two....tensioning the chain on my sssa duc while trying not to get gease all over myself

Okay three....washing/ cleaning the front hub between the twin discs...

[laRIKin]

Mikkel, just a thought.
You were using a spring tool.
As I found it hard to do, until I bought the right tool.
Mine is different to this one, but is the only photo I could find.

[Gubb]

Leftover nuts and bolts are a reward for a job well done.

[James Deuce]

Mikkel, just a thought.
You were using a spring tool.
As I found it hard to do, until I bought the right tool.
Mine is different to this one, but is the only photo I could find.

I've got about three. I'll send him one as an early Christmas present.

Trying to attach a spring without a spring puller. For goodness sake!

[Bren]

job i hate...replacing fork seals...especially getting the small circlip off the top of the fork

[laRIKin]

I've got about three. I'll send him one as an early Christmas present.

Trying to attach a spring without a spring puller. For goodness sake!

I use to grip the spring with Vise grips.
I could do it, with out to much problems (sometimes), now I have a proper tool it is easy peasy.
I have a wire one one and the hardest part now, can be getting the tool out from under the spring.

[James Deuce]

I use to grip the spring with Vise grips.
I could do it, with out to much problems (sometimes), now I have a proper tool it is easy peasy.
I have a wire one one and the hardest part now, can be getting the tool out from under the spring.

I set up the kid's trampoline and got really good at gently releasing the spring without the tool getting caught. Put an aftermarket muffler on the Zed and it was a peice of cake despite awkward spring location.

So Mikkel needs to get the training sorted first. Go buy a trampoline.

[Mikkel]

Mikkel, just a thought.
You were using a spring tool.
As I found it hard to do, until I bought the right tool.
Mine is different to this one, but is the only photo I could find.

I wasn't aware that there was such a tool. The tools I used with very limited success were:




Alas my chain of cable ties snapped (only small ones...) before doing the job.
There isn't a lot of room to work in so the pump pliers were difficult, but I know that last time I got one of them on using that - probably just luck though.

The tool that looked a bit like these here:



Except mine was blue and had a knot to turn it into a loop. For one of the springs I had to use one of these for leverage:



Worked a treat.

So Mikkel needs to get the training sorted first. Go buy a trampoline.

That's a good idea really, for several reasons - one of which you haven't met yet

[vifferman]

Mikkel, for your job, seeing I don't have a spring puller, I'd use my needle-nosed vice grips. I'm really glad I bought them years ago - they've come in very handy!
One job I frequently use them for (because I have no other suitable tool) is to remove the restrictor from the Satantune. Just fold a piece of old cardboard over the tip, wind the knurled adjuster in till the jaws touch, then clamp them onto the end of the restrictor and pull. Works every time.

The one maintenance step that usually ends up wasting time is removing and inserting the plastic fairing clips into the underside of the fairing where the left and right side fairing panels meet undet the front headers. Because I'm a CheapBastid, instead of replacing them every time with new (expensive) Honda ones, I use whatever cheap car ones I can get, and re-use them until they're buggered. Always a source of frustration. Everything else seems reasonably well designed, but access is not a patch on the FahrtSturm. To get the whole fairing off took about two minutes, and required undoing a couple or four screws and a few cable plugs.
In contrast, the VFR requires removing the mirrors (two bolts each) and windscreen (6 screws?), the side fairing panels (two big screws and 8 smaller ones each, plus three or four clips), four electrical plugs, and probably a few other things I've forgotten.

[phoenixgtr]

Taking the fuel tank off. It's not hard. It doesn't take long, but it's just tedious and getting the fuel line off the fuel tap can be a bit tricky.

As for the forks, I love pulling them apart and putting them back together. Suspension fascinates me.

[pzkpfw]

Trying to attach a spring without a spring puller. For goodness sake!

That's what your legs are for!

Seriously.

I've found myself lying on the ground. Two hands working on the object being sprung.

Left leg pulling the spring, via a length of string, looped around my foot at one end and the spring at the other.

e.g. replacing brake shoes on back of a car.

Wouldn't work in all cases.

Special tools are for you rich fellows... I'm a special tool all by my self.

[Mikkel]

Mikkel, for your job, seeing I don't have a sprig puller, I'd use my needle-nosed vice grips. I'm really glad I bought them years ago - they've come in very handy!

I doubt there would have been enough room to get a set of vice grips in there.

As for fairings Naked bikes are good for several reasons, one of them is maintenance in general. Too bad faired sportsbikes look so sexy.

As for the forks, I love pulling them apart and putting them back together. Suspension fascinates me.

You, my friend, need serious help! Suspension is indeed fascinating, but putting it back together is a pain, especially if you are doing it by yourself (impossible?).

I'm a special tool all by my self.

I'm pretty sure I'm just a tool. At least I have always been told stuff along the lines of "You aren't special you know, the rules apply to you as well young man." all of my years.

[xwhatsit]

What are the springs on the zorst for?

With me it'd either be adjusting the balancer shaft chain tension, which requires taking the side cover off the engine (about 12 8mm bolts, new gasket, have to remove kickstarter and brake pedal, remaining oil running out onto my jeans, and I haven't even started on adjusting the chain inside! Gah!); or (and this is my own doing) pulling the front forks off. I have slightly too-tight clip-ons under the top yoke and one of those cheap-and-nasty headlight brackets with the rubber shims. Need not only a lot of force and grunting to get the clip-ons on and off, but the fiddly sort of stuff trying to juggle the headlight to stop it from pulling on the wiring while I hold everything in place to get a screwdriver onto the screws