BergDonk's DR650

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by Kernel

I had some exploring to do this week. About 120 kms from home in the bush, BANG. WTF, could have been a something on the bash plate, but was a different sound. Rolled to a stop, engine, good, brakes work, etc, hmmmm.

Another broken spoke! A stick or something had flicked up by the look of the remains. And as is my thing, I gave the cush drive and wheel a tweak, and the rhs wheel bearing had developed some play in the last couple of 100 kms!

Limped home and fitted a new spoke, some new wheel bearings and scrapped the T63 I'd put on for the TK trip. 3800 kms, quite a bit less than the last one at 5200 kms. Thai vs Czecho, maybe? I have another Thai one in the shed, so I'll learn more. I have a couple of Motoz Deserts coming to try too, so looking forward to testing them.

Broken and bent spoke in there:


Also of note was that my delrin shim had moved from the cush hub to the wheel. It had to come out from there to get the bearings changed, and its back again now too. More riding needed to see what happens with it next.

So back out again yesterday and about 25 kms further along than I'd got the day before and somethings feels funny in the steering. The handlebar mount to the top triple has come loose. Did it once last year too on the Strez, about 20,000 kms ago.

No worries, off with the gear sack and access the tools and..................

Broken rack:


Found a couple of sticks to jam up the tubes and zip tied it together, and tightened up the bars, and carried on.

Into the shed and replaced the sticks with some 1/2" dia bolts/bar and welded back together.


Good to go again now, I've got a couple of days riding to do this weekend, so need it now. Silver paint on the welds will do for the time being. Might go back for plating one day, but in the meantime, it works again.


The rack has now done over 40,000 kms and always had some load on it so not too bad I suppose. Stronger now, so we'll see what breaks next.

I put the Sava MC23 on again to wear it a bit more instead of the T63, and once again I'm amazed at how it finds grip on gravel surfaces. Did some of the same roads and tracks on consecutive days, and even though the T63 was worn down, the Sava still impresses by comparison. Still a bugger to fit too. Based on wear to date it should go 4,000 kms or so, maybe more.

[BergDonk]

I suppose I should add that the wheel bearings did 14,585 kms. Both were NBR from my local bearing place and didn't last as long as the NSKs before at 18,408. The cush side was still OK, but the slop was in the disc side.

I fitted another NBR to the disc side and an All Balls KML to the cush side after packing. See how they go, but will likely swap them out at about 12,000 kms or so depending.

I figure I might report on the tail bag in use now too. Its a Ventura Mistral http://www.kenma.com.au/motorcycle_bags.html


Its a bit stiff, so holds its shape OK. Its been on board for about 10,000 kms now and all the zips still work like new, and they are water proof type ones too, so even in the huge dump I got caught in a while back, it was all dry inside, even though its all in plastic shopping bags anyway. The pockets are all easy to use too, so makes it easy to spread stuff around and keep it organised. All I did was put a bit of 2 mm nylon sheet up the front instead of the normal frame loop and its good.

Its mounted the same as the previous bags, in that I use a nylon cutting board in the base with a strap through each side fixing it to the rack. Goes on and off easily and quickly, and its still got give if I have an off.

[Kernel]

Your garage!!! Holy shit!!!

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by Kernel

Your garage!!! Holy shit!!!

Man must have shed

Its a simple fact of lfe.

[Kernel]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Man must have shed

Its a simple fact of lfe.

Yeah but must he really have so many cans and cartons of stuff and a separate little room to store tyres and other stuff and, and, and...

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by Kernel

Yeah but must he really have so many cans and cartons of stuff and a separate little room to store tyres and other stuff and, and, and...

and why not?

I like a bargain, so shop on line sometimes, and locally too, and buy stuff for stock when its on special. 12 cans of brake cleaner for example, $36. Makes it worthwhile. And as I live a little bit remotely, I can't just simply duck around to the local Supercheap or Repco in 2 mins, because its at least an hours round trip to town, and then they don't always have it, and aren't open 24/7. The missus believes me at least

[Kernel]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

and why not?

I like a bargain, so shop on line sometimes, and locally too, and buy stuff for stock when its on special. 12 cans of brake cleaner for example, $36. Makes it worthwhile. And as I live a little bit remotely, I can't just simply duck around to the local Supercheap or Repco in 2 mins, because its at least an hours round trip to town, and then they don't always have it, and aren't open 24/7. The missus believes me at least

Well that's good reasoning, as long as you're using the stuff and not just hoarding! 12 cans of brake cleaner for $36? Man!

[Bronco638]

Thanks for the brake disc links Steve. Much appreciated.

[ER70S-2]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Man must have shed

Its a simple fact of lfe.

Originally Posted by Bronco638

Thanks for the brake disc links Steve. Much appreciated.

Me to, two (well maybe), too.

[BergDonk]

Originally Posted by ER70S-2

Me to, two (well maybe), too.

Pleased to help

So what was wrong with the original disc? Worn out, or just not pretty enough?

Did you get the original bolts off OK. I ended up drilled mine out and had to get new ones when I fitted mine.

And just out of curiosity, what the tyre? A Shinko something presumably.

[PPCLI-Jim]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Pleased to help

So what was wrong with the original disc? Worn out, or just not pretty enough?

Did you get the original bolts off OK. I ended up drilled mine out and had to get new ones when I fitted mine.

And just out of curiosity, what the tyre? A Shinko something presumably.

Looks like a Kenda K270 I have the same tire except mine is flat at the bottom(got a flat today ). Ahh well get to drag out the tools and wrench !!

[ER70S-2]

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Pleased to help

So what was wrong with the original disc? Worn out, or just not pretty enough?

I don't normally get into the bling thing, but the original was wearing out at 32,461 and a good friend rides KTM; bling is King.



And I already had this on the front. Does it work....................oh hell yeah, it works.


But it comes with this:

Originally Posted by BergDonk

Did you get the original bolts off OK.

Originally Posted by BergDonk

I ended up drilled mine out and had to get new ones when I fitted mine.

I intended to replace the bolts with new ones, but after a successful removal of the front rotor, I was hoping for equal luck with the rear. Not to be.

Impact wrench didn't work, much to my surprise; it's never failed before (and worked peachy on the front). I thought I'd break the hub I was hitting the impact so hard. The breaker just rounded out the heads.



First I tried heat, but I didn't want to cook the seals in the bearing. So I fired up the TIG and did 6 puddles around the head, hoping to release the thread-lock or corrosion. Didn't work.



Ok, no big deal, I'll just weld a 13mm nut on and spin her right off. Problem is: the weld bead ran too far up the nut and didn't leave anything for the wrench to bite.



This worked.

Originally Posted by BergDonk

And just out of curiosity, what the tyre? A Shinko something presumably.

Jim nailed it, a Kenda 270. But after a few posts about the Shinko having stouter side blocks, there's a Shinko 244 on there now. And the side blocks are indeed more robust. I didn't have any problems with the rear Kenda, but when the front got bald (also a Kenda 270), it was pretty bad in the corners. I won't know if the Shinko will do the same until next spring.

Kenda top, Shinko bottom.

Originally Posted by PPCLI-Jim

Looks like a Kenda K270 I have the same tire except mine is flat at the bottom(got a flat today ). Ahh well get to drag out the tools and wrench !!

Yep that was a Kenda K270, these are Shinko 244s. Note the 'low profile' front tyre and displaced aux tank (supposed to be level). Could have been worse than a jammed thumb, I'd just ridden 35 miles of paved twisties, this waited until I was pulling into the local market <25 mph.





My bucket has a hole in it.



Good grief, it's 1:35 am.

You can have your thread back now.

[Bronco638]

In my case, Steve, I bought a spare set of wheels with worn rotors. So, I was looking to buy something to replace them. I found the same vendor on the US eBay site. I was able to get a rotor (front & rear) set for less than $100 (US) with free shipping. They're coming from China and are already on their way (due to arrive late next week).

I've replaced brake rotors, in the past, on my (ex-)DR350. The only way I've successfully removed the rotor bolts was to grind the heads off. Then, remove the rotor and use a Vise-Grip to remove the stud. Sometimes you can cut a slot in the head (cut-off wheel on a 4" grinder) and then use a punch/drift to get the bolt to turn. In my experience, if you can get it to start turning, you're 90% of the way there.

Now, I have to go back and re-read the cush drive bearing issue.

[BergDonk]

Yeah, those mounting bolts sure are a PITA

One of my DR circle, the 'invalid' mentioned above re the css retainer test fitting, has the EBC 320 front disc fitted. Definitley works, although the race use only disclaimer and the possibiltiy of button failure is of concern. He has made up some of his own beefed up buttons to address the issue. I wouldn't mind a 320 disc myself, maybe one day.

Bummer about the front end lose!

One of my biggest ever offs was a couple of years ago when the Tubliss insert I was running in the front of Big Berg let go. Mid corner when cranked over a bit. Was on a fresh 'spray and chip' sealed corner after 2 days of being in the bush. Let go mid corner and I went down head first. A number of deep cuts needing a dozen or so stitches, possible compartment syndrome in my whacked arm, concussion etc.

I recall identifying 14 fractures in the helmet shell:


Because the wire bead let go:


You can see the tools pointing to the ends of the wire that should be joined, and once were. Note how the high pressure tube was shredded when it failed. Suddenly no pressure, and the tyre peeled off the rim real quick.

Note how deep and aggressive the sample gravel rash on the bike is. Me and my gear was similarly cut up.


When my wife collected me from hospital to take me home she asked if I wanted to go via a bike shop so I could get a new helmet. All I wanted to do was get home, and I must admit I was wondering if I wanted to keep riding at all I declined and got one a week or two later.

I also swore off Tublisses because of the catastrophic nature of the failure mode, and the associated pain. I have since acquired another though. Its in the back of my Scorpa. They are supposed to be a tubless setup but I couldn't get it to seal because of rim damage and the tube kept being pulled around at 4.5 psi even with rim locks, so I reneged and put a Tubeliss in there. Its doing the job now, and shouldn't hurt as much if it does the same, I hope

[Kernel]