After the restoration: 12000-mile service [page 3]
<=== Prev
Next ===>
Thursday, Oct 13, 2005
Jeff came over this afternoon. After lunch at a local burrito place
we tackled the rear tire. The hope is that with two of us it'll take
less than the 4 hours that it took me to do the front by myself. The
downside of two of us working is that I didn't bother to stop and take
many pictures. So it goes.
I removed the rear axle and pulled the wheel easier than I should have
been able to do; more about this cryptic remark, below. The tire came
off quickly with 4 hands doing the work. Jeff said he'd find a use for
the tire given that it is only a few months old with less than 1000 miles
of use.
I cleaned up the rim, noticing that this one is almost 10 years newer
than the front rim. It's also more beat up with the marks of 45
years of tire irons wielded by those who didn't care about marring
the pretty alloy. I checked the spokes. None were found to need
any tweaking and the wheel looks good when spun. Time to mount the
new tire.
Again, the job is much easier with extra hands. I paid attention to the
dot this time, aligning it with the stem. It took one oz of weights
to get it to balance. Enough with tires, time to look at the bike.
The rear brake looks about what you'd expect it to look if you'd just
been in there 800 miles ago. I wiped the friction material down with
brake cleaner just because and mounted the wheel. The S-11 110/90
rear just fits between swing arm and brake
shoes, providing you pull the left shock bolt out of the way. There
is no need to remove air from the tire. Comparing it with the Avon
that came off the bike I see that this 110/90 has a smaller diameter
than the Avon tire it replaced. It will be interesting to see how
the bike handles on these tires.
After mounting the tire I looked at the rear pinch-bolt. Hmmm, I forgot
about the pinch-bolt when removing the axle. How'd I do that? Seems that
somewhere in the last 800 miles the nut came off. I wonder if this had
anything to do with the extra bit of twitchiness that started about 400
miles ago. I didn't have a pretty stainless nut and washer, but did
have the original pinch-bolt from pre-restoration and so used that nut.
We took the bike off the stand and I bounced the front and rear several
times before tightening the pinch-bolts. I don't think I'll lose one
this time. After putting the stand and rolling work bench away it
was time to tackle the front brakes. Having Jeff's extra hands proved
to be helpful.
I lubed the front brake cable and then fiddled with the cables, adjusting
cam, and brake drum levers until I got it so the front lever barely moves
before making contact. The feel at the handlebar is very different
than it was. The grip gets hard, fast. The wheel spins freely. I'm
looking forward to a test ride.
No test ride today, though. I'll let the bike sit over night and verify
that the new tires are holding air. Perhaps tomorrow I'll ride it to
the store to get a prettier nut for that rear pinch-bolt.
<=== Prev
Next ===>
$snafu: page3.html,v 1.8 2007/06/07 20:45:26 marc Exp $
