Saturday, February 02, 2008

The Long Cold Winter

Winter drags on, but December and January are behind us now and Spring is around the corner.

In the meantime, I can work on the bike without worrying about losing riding time. The fork oil change is done and the fork sliders and clockholders repolished. I like to do my fork oil changes the hard way, by removing the legs, taking the springs out, and allowing the oil to drain for a few days from the upside-down legs. Then I pour in a little solvent to flush out the sludge, let that drain, and they're ready to be refilled. It's more work this way, but I've found that just removing the drain screws and pumping the forks doesn't do a very good job of getting all the oil and sludge out.

The next task will be to fix the rear brake light switch and wiring. Both have gone non-functional. The cheap Lucas-imitation switch has expired, so I bought another cheap Lucas-imitation switch to replace it. I also have to trace out the problem with the wiring.

After that, drain the sump and that will be it for now. The rest of the maintenance - oil changes, new rear tire, new AGM battery, and timing chain adjustment - can wait until spring.