Griz901's Gallery

big jer wrote:

now that's a good pic it looks like the is patientley looking and waiting for the snow to melt so it can get to the woods

Big time... I'm going to need another rear tire before I ever get above 3,500 feet. Asphalt is eating the MT21

Trying to stay off/away from the highway. Hoping to get some time this next week or so to work on the windscreen.

Hey Griz, i like your spoke replacement tutorial. What was wrong with the original wheels?

ucandoit wrote:

Hey Griz, i like your spoke replacement tutorial. What was wrong with the original wheels?

When I brought the motorcycle home I was so excited I just rode it the first summer. I planned on tearing it down in winter of 2007 to do all the "must do" BRP stuff. My bike has a notorious reputation of coming from the factory with little or no grease in key areas and what has best been described as "whale snot" in the forks for oil. I also wanted to get to know it better by taking it down to the frame. That way I know exactly how its put back together. Buy a used bike, tear it down...

What does this have to do with the wheels? Nothing

But I'm tired so I thought I'd add some drama. Anyway, when I took the motocross tires off a lot of the nipples were corroded so of course I had to take them apart to inspect the spoke threads. The front had stock spokes and nipples in the old school excel rim. The old "thwang" tightness test wasn't giving me the warm fuzzies. Who knows how many times those spokes had been tightened incorrectly. Many of them didn't look that great to me so I dug into the rear for inspection too.

But when I got to the back I noticed whoever had laced up what appeared to be heavy duty spokes on the rear had actually done a horrible job with the offset. The rim and tire were so far to the right, the tire was almost rubbing the swingarm but still had a big old gap on the left. Sure enough when I checked centerline it was over a 1/2 inch offset to the right.

When I took the rear apart I found the spokes had been installed in reverse. That is to say on my bike, one side uses shorter spokes than the other. Put them on in reverse and it pulls the rim to the right way too far.

So I had ridden it like that and just didn't notice because I was kind of "testing it out" before I decided to turn it into a money pit.

End of story is I got two sets of Excel heavy duty spokes and decided to teach myself how to lace them up. Did a bunch of reading, found a great old dirt bike mag article on how to properly lace up a wheel and did it. The new spokes came with aluminum nipples that were a bigger outer diameter. Rather than continue to deal with some very unsavory local shop vultures, I drilled the rims a couple thousandths over with a new drill bit and a hand drill, and I didn't pay $60 an hour or have to listen to "we don't know how long it'll take, sometimes they are easy sometimes they are hard and it takes longer."

Just like I was a teenager again! Throw caution to the wind and get it done. It was one of those one thing leads to another deals. Needed to replace the motocross tires, led to new tubes, led to the bad spokes, led to new spokes, led to unsure of previous owner, led to drilling and lacing, led to many late winter nights wondering if I'd ever get it right.

But I think I got it right. So that's why I dug into the originals - our bikes can go way too fast and I NEED to trust my wheels are not going to collapse when I'm doing 70mph across high speed G-outs or that really cool S-turn up on the north end of Whitefish Stage Road. After all, I'm a little bigger than the 180 lb. rider the bike was designed for.

And its fun to say "I did it."

I feel like its February and 40 below zero. Been locked in here for almost a week now.

Hang in there Griz!

You're gettin' it done.....

Backwoods Boogie wrote:

Hang in there Griz!

You're gettin' it done.....

Thanks man! So easy to get distracted with all this technology but starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 45 yr olds and college, oh man... I miss my 9 to 5...

45 years old and college!!!!???? holy shit how many years were ya in high skoole??? not to fear griz. you'll get it done, just put your mind in the studies an it will all come together. [ this fine advice coming from someone that bearly graduated high school ]

Backwoods Boogie wrote:

Hang in there Griz!

You're gettin' it done.....

BB, it must work. "Ting! Ting!" (notice anything different?)

big jer wrote:

45 years old and college!!!!???? holy shit how many years were ya in high skoole??? not to fear griz. you'll get it done, just put your mind in the studies an it will all come together. [ this fine advice coming from someone that bearly graduated high school ]

Thank you Sir - I needed that more than you could ever know!

Engine with two wheels

griz901 wrote:

Engine with two wheels

Brrrr......

Hodakaguy

nice pics.

Has it really been 2 years?

I thought there was a motorcycle still out here somewhere....

is shining, time to give the some love

It's been a while... Here's hoping all you guys are enjoying this life!
Cheers
Griz

Grizz, nice to see you again. Not many of the OGs seem to be around. This use to be my go to forum... Now I check in when I remember...

Shane wrote:

Grizz, nice to see you again. Not many of the OGs seem to be around. This use to be my go to forum... Now I check in when I remember...

Me too!  Bwaaaa hhahahahaha ha ha ha

Man. We must be on the same schedule !