I've had the above bike a couple of years now, used for some commuting, a tour of the highlands and a trip to Yorkshire.
For most of it's life it had one owner from new who put ~130,000 miles on it, much of it touring two up in Europe until time caught up with them.
I have found some things that don't seem correct on the bike and although there has been a lot of documented evidence of maintenance I'm not sure that the mechanics involved always did it correctly.
Issues:-
1)
Oil was leaking from the shaft into the FD and the FD output spline was all but gone so I stripped the FD off the bike and sent it to Mikeyboy to be refurbed.
2)
Whilst I had that stripped the shocker bushes loooked sad so I took off both shocks and found that the mounting bolts were fully threaded instead of set bolts. To my limited engineering knowledge that doesn't sound right so I ordered up new top bolts from Mark Hugget in Switzerland, forgot the bottom left so that still needs to be replaced as that too is fully threaded. Am I right on this?
3)
I pressed in new bushes top and bottom on the shocks, breaking my cheap Chinese vice in the process. With minimum preload the springs are loose on the damper unit. Have they sagged over the miles or is this normal?
4)
One up without luggage the bike feels like it is falling into corners on minimum preload, is this normal or a function of the springs having sagged? The dampers themselves actually feel fairly good with decent control. I am 94Kgs plus riding gear so maybe need a bit of preload anyway.
5)
The front forks feel soft and underdamped but jiggle over small bumps which I believe is due to the design of the prehistoric internals. Is there a recommended upgrade for the internals to bring them into the 21st century? The twin front disks have the bike diving for Oz.
6)
The saddle is like an ice rink, it looks like a genuine cover but using the few ponies that an airhead thousand makes, in first or second gear I have no choice but to pull on the handlebars to avoid being spat off the back of the bike. Is this a standard safety feature and what have others done to improve the situation whilst maintaining the original appearance?
7)
The bike is fitted with what looks like standard panniers, they slot into the rails and there is a lockable latch at the rear. How in hell do you get the rear wheel out at the side of the road to fix a puncture unless you remove the pannier rail first? To work on the back end I put it on the centre stand, that in itself is no easy feat,lashed the front wheel to the stand, leant the bike towards me and put a length of 4x2 under the right side stand foot, pulled the bike upright and then klicked the end of the 4x2 under the left foot giving me enough height to remove the rear wheel. Do I need to build a special 4x2 carrier for puncture repairs on the road? How do others manage?
I guess that for garage based maintenance I need to bite the bullet and get a proper bike lift.
I really like this bike and want to keep it long term. I want it to look like a standard classis but work better. Any other suggestions for improvements will be welcome.
P.S.
I'm just waiting for your post Arsey Martin
Having posted elsewhere that I've never failed to receive positive responses to a serious post he set about rectifying that unblemished record of support from the Tosser cabal. Bring it on, preferably with some useful hints and tips.
For most of it's life it had one owner from new who put ~130,000 miles on it, much of it touring two up in Europe until time caught up with them.
I have found some things that don't seem correct on the bike and although there has been a lot of documented evidence of maintenance I'm not sure that the mechanics involved always did it correctly.
Issues:-
1)
Oil was leaking from the shaft into the FD and the FD output spline was all but gone so I stripped the FD off the bike and sent it to Mikeyboy to be refurbed.
2)
Whilst I had that stripped the shocker bushes loooked sad so I took off both shocks and found that the mounting bolts were fully threaded instead of set bolts. To my limited engineering knowledge that doesn't sound right so I ordered up new top bolts from Mark Hugget in Switzerland, forgot the bottom left so that still needs to be replaced as that too is fully threaded. Am I right on this?
3)
I pressed in new bushes top and bottom on the shocks, breaking my cheap Chinese vice in the process. With minimum preload the springs are loose on the damper unit. Have they sagged over the miles or is this normal?
4)
One up without luggage the bike feels like it is falling into corners on minimum preload, is this normal or a function of the springs having sagged? The dampers themselves actually feel fairly good with decent control. I am 94Kgs plus riding gear so maybe need a bit of preload anyway.
5)
The front forks feel soft and underdamped but jiggle over small bumps which I believe is due to the design of the prehistoric internals. Is there a recommended upgrade for the internals to bring them into the 21st century? The twin front disks have the bike diving for Oz.
6)
The saddle is like an ice rink, it looks like a genuine cover but using the few ponies that an airhead thousand makes, in first or second gear I have no choice but to pull on the handlebars to avoid being spat off the back of the bike. Is this a standard safety feature and what have others done to improve the situation whilst maintaining the original appearance?
7)
The bike is fitted with what looks like standard panniers, they slot into the rails and there is a lockable latch at the rear. How in hell do you get the rear wheel out at the side of the road to fix a puncture unless you remove the pannier rail first? To work on the back end I put it on the centre stand, that in itself is no easy feat,lashed the front wheel to the stand, leant the bike towards me and put a length of 4x2 under the right side stand foot, pulled the bike upright and then klicked the end of the 4x2 under the left foot giving me enough height to remove the rear wheel. Do I need to build a special 4x2 carrier for puncture repairs on the road? How do others manage?
I guess that for garage based maintenance I need to bite the bullet and get a proper bike lift.
I really like this bike and want to keep it long term. I want it to look like a standard classis but work better. Any other suggestions for improvements will be welcome.
P.S.
I'm just waiting for your post Arsey Martin
Having posted elsewhere that I've never failed to receive positive responses to a serious post he set about rectifying that unblemished record of support from the Tosser cabal. Bring it on, preferably with some useful hints and tips. 
