I am rapidly approaching the point where I need to do some servicing having just whistled past the 1000 mile mark since MOT. I’m currently doing 250 miles a week in all weathers and its not been without incident.
I had a fork seal burst and start leaking quite badly. To be honest I am not really sure why it happened but went for a completely OTT solution which was to replace most of the fork components with new. The only bit I kept from origional was the outer casings – everything else was new. I plan to get the old fork tubes re-chromed at some stage and bring them back to life but I have solved the problem for the moment.
I really splashed out and purchased the complete air filter assembly which goes in the airbox plus a new air filter. All genuine Honda and cost a small fortune but I am now all complete in that area. I do need to revisit and check the carburetor tune at some stage but for the moment I have just put that job on the list.
The little light which illuminates the speedo at night wasn’t working and although I havn’t done much night riding yet it was one of those things I just had to fix. It ended up being an earthing fault but took me ages to trace. You wouldn’t think it could be so tricky to find the problem on something with such simple wiring.
I had to adjust the new chain a couple of times over the 1000 miles I have done as its stretched quite a bit initially but seems to have settled down now. Had my usual fun checking wheel allignment and everything after doing that.
I also had a problem with the little tool box cover. It was really annoying me that it would pop open as I was going along. I bought a replacement catch for it and this seems to have done the trick. I tried to remove the old one gently with the idea I may be able to keep as a spare but eventually took to the hacksaw and threw the bits in the scrap bin – I have limited patience sometimes.
This brings me to the clutch. Its not smooth and at times its downright difficult to handle. I havn’t yet taken it to bits but my current guess is that I have some plates that are out of shape. I’ve purchased some new friction plates and springs and, from Honda this time, some new steel plates. I have a weeks leave coming up and I’m hoping things won’t get any worse before then. I plan to do a full service on the bike at that point and change the clutch.
The last problem I am having is handlebar vibration. At times its quite uncomfortable and I lose feeling in my fingures. My scientific mind equates vibration to a length and a mass so I am initially experimenting with adding some weight to the bars to see if I can move the resonant frequency.