Flying's Rebuild

[Flying]

I've gotten the majority of my parts now, let's get to work in restoring my beat-up bike.

Day 1 & 2: Let's start with removing/cleaning/replacing the steering head and its bearings.

[bruce71198]

My guess is you missed the first day of shop class?

[Flying]

Originally Posted by bruce71198

My guess is you missed the first day of shop class?

Jokes on you. I'm a part of a generation who never had shop class because of educational budget cuts across the nation!

[Suki2003]

Originally Posted by Flying

Jokes on you. I'm a part of a generation who never had shop class because of educational budget cuts across the nation!

My HS recently cut shop and replaced it with a 3D printing class. Cool and all, but not the same skills as a hands on class would teach...

I learned that a carpenter's hammer isn't safe for hitting solid metal (just nails)... it can shatter, use a ball peen which is made with a different steel.

[Flying]

Originally Posted by Suki2003

My HS recently cut shop and replaced it with a 3D printing class. Cool and all, but not the same skills as a hands on class would teach...

I learned that a carpenter's hammer isn't safe for hitting solid metal (just nails)... it can shatter, use a ball peen which is made with a different steel.

Ah, good to know. I'll keep that in mind from now on, though I mostly reserve hammer use to light taps.

[bruce71198]

Originally Posted by Flying

Jokes on you. I'm a part of a generation who never had shop class because of educational budget cuts across the nation!

All joking aside screw drivers aren't pry bars, 1/2" drive extensions aren't punches/drift's and claw hammers are for woodworkers. And sorry you didn't get shop class I think you would have enjoyed it.

[Flying]

Today's agenda was to clean up the frame and prepare the bike for new drivetrain parts:



Cleaning up a year or so of accumulated chain grime and the chain guide makes a trip to the parts washer:


The chain has been significantly out of adjustment at some point, will have to make extra sure to dial in the adjustment of the new chain:

[Flying]

Almost forgot this picture. A piece of paper glued to the rear fender, ready to serve as a base for the repair to be made.

[JohnnyBravo]

Good work... If they are your tools do wtf you want to with them!!!

[Flying]

Things have been somewhat busy lately. Today I found the time to break the beads on the tires and that's it.

[Suki2003]

Originally Posted by Flying

Ah, good to know. I'll keep that in mind from now on, though I mostly reserve hammer use to light taps.

To put some substance behind my claim: A claw hammer is hardened, and I believe a ball pein is less so. A claw hammer is intended to drive nails into wood. Nails have little mass, and the wood gives in with the wood and nail absorbing most of the energy.
Though, I found little information on the web backing this up. So, take it as you want.

[Flying]

Exciting times with 3D printing! Some of you may recognize this part. With that said, greatness is being emulated.



A few bits of hardware shipping in and a slight revision to the design and we should be set.

[Flying]

If you're going to manually demount tires in the fall/winter:
- Get some proper tire lube such as RuGlyde, seriously.
- Do it indoors
- Use a heat-gun if your house isn't at 70F.

[Triple Jim]

Did I count correctly? It looks like you're going from the stock 14t front sprocket to a 15t. I think that's a good change. I'm thinking of going a little farther than that, and getting a smaller rear sprocket, but I'm not in a hurry.

[Flying]

Originally Posted by Triple Jim

Did I count correctly? It looks like you're going from the stock 14t front sprocket to a 15t. I think that's a good change. I'm thinking of going a little farther than that, and getting a smaller rear sprocket, but I'm not in a hurry.

I'm going from stock to a 15/43 setup. Less buzziness on the commute is the goal.

[Triple Jim]

Sounds good. I have a 15 now, and first is still so low that I'm thinking that I could drop 3 or 4 teeth on the rear and still be fine, after all, three teeth on the rear is about the same as one tooth on the front. Shifting to 5th once in a while is not a hardship to me, and the higher gearing would seem like a 7th gear.

Your 15/43 puts your new 5th almost exactly where stock 6th used to be, but maybe you knew that already. Your new 1st will be only about 1/3 of the way from stock 1st to stock 2nd. There are only two drawbacks I know of... drag race type starts will not be quite as good, and someone learning to ride won't have quite the super-easy takeoffs. Neither would be a problem for me.

[Flying]

Happy Holidays Folks. Today we knocked out the wheel bearings.

PSA: Use a torch or a heat gun for this job. How much easier it is to tap out the bearings after heating cannot be overstated.

Now, the wheel bearings posed a particular challenge. The usual method of taking them out is to move the aluminum spacer over to the side within the wheel hub and tap out the bearing on the other side. The spacers in the Ninjette's wheels have very little space to move within their holes, requiring very arduous work or special tools.

I've read that RacerX managed to do the job with a well-used punch that had mushroomed out a bit, which was enough to grip onto whatever little bit of bearing was exposed by moving the spacer. So that might be an option for some.

Now, these may look like sleeved concrete anchor bolts that you can get at any hardware store, but these are actually special tools used for taking out interference-fit bearings in blind holes. Oooh, fancy.




Notice in the second picture, I have some metal bits sticking out. Those are cuts from a old windshield wiper. It turns out that a 1/2" anchor sleeve is not quite large enough for the front wheel bearings and requires shims. A 5/8" anchor sleeve will be able to handle the rear wheel bearings by itself, although shimming that might not hurt either.

The bearing for the sprocket carrier can be knocked out normally. I used a 22mm Harbor Freight impact socket.



After the bearings were out, I dumped all related spacers, fasteners, and various metal bits in acid in order to clean off the corrosion that has built up over the years.

Next step is to clean the wheels thoroughly and start installing the new shiny bits.

[Flying]

This is my inspiration:

Link to original page on YouTube.

Link to original page on YouTube.

I used 1/2" and 5/8" anchor sleeve bolts. Cost less than $5. Although I spent more for a couple of spares, the sleeves do bend a bit.

[tubarney]

nice job mate. removing bearings is never easy without the correct puller.

Don't let the tool nazi's get you down. use whatever tools you have.

[JohnnyBravo]

Heck yea... Keep at it

[Flying]

I spent quite a bit of time going over the wheels with brake cleaner and rags. They are now spotless. It was exciting to be so near putting the front suspension on the bike, so I tapped in the new front and rear bearings...

ＢＯＬＬＯＣＫＳ

I forgot the spacers! How n00b can one get?!

Bearings are cheap and I don't want to use bearings that I have taken out. So progress will have to wait again.
I can at least find where the heaviest spot on the wheels are....

[Flying]

Late night electrical shenanigans while we wait on a bearing to ship.


Many metal bits on this bike are destined to be dipped in acid and cleaned thoroughly.

[spent_too_much]

Great tip on removing the bearings - heat and "special" tools.

[Flying]

Another day where life gets in the way of doing the bulk of the work. I'll settle for cleaning loctite off the brake and handlebar fasteners.

[Flying]

Those with time to spare on stuff like this are the richest of this world.

The forks are on, and they have some sick nylon sleeves covering them!


And here are a couple of pictures showing off the hardware I've inherited from @subxero. I'm currently cleaning up the braking system.

[Flying]

Slowly, but surely, we perform work on the wiring loom.

[Flying]

Did all my planning, bought lots of material:

Here's an idea of what I'm doing to my entire harness, in a picture of the mini-harness that connects to the cluster gauges.



Lots of heat shrink, replacement of any sketchy wire splices, plastic adhesive in the joints of the wiring loom. It's amateur work at best, but maybe it can survive at least a few runs at Bonneville, or a good few years of commuting on the East coast. With that said, F you salt!

For the curious:
3M 4693H
3M Super 33+
Kapton Tape from McMaster-Carr
Regular polyolefin heat shrink from McMaster-Carr
100 pack of 1" length high shrink ratio adhesive heat shrink from McMaster (for relieving strain at wire splices)

[Flying]

Another round of pictures. The wiring loom restoration is FINALLY done and half of the controls on the bike are mounted. Since the last post I've been staying up late and working on the wiring till 3-6 in the morning. I would rather make one from scratch than do that again!

Nearly every pin has been dipped in acid to remove corrosion and washed. The majority of connectors are sealed with either heat shrink or Super 33+. Once this gets on the bike, the connections will be covered with more tape to prevent moisture from getting in between the plastic.

[Z1R rider]

Originally Posted by Flying

The wiring loom restoration is FINALLY done and half of the controls on the bike are mounted. Since the last post I've been staying up late and working on the wiring till 3-6 in the morning. I would rather make one from scratch than do that again!

Nearly every pin has been dipped in acid to remove corrosion and washed. The majority of connectors are sealed with either heat shrink or Super 33+. Once this gets on the bike, the connections will be covered with more tape to prevent moisture from getting in between the plastic.

Wow, that's a lot of work, I'll bet your glad it's done! Instead of taping the connections I'd use dielectric connector grease, much easier to work with and easy to take apart again if the need arises. You should be able to find some at an auto parts store.

[Flying]

3-4 hours of troubleshooting later, look at what I found:


This makes me a sad panda. This burnt out wiring was not caused by any of our recent work, but it was what stopped the bike from running two years ago and prompted this rebuild.

I thought it was a bad sidestand switch, but instead, it was severe corrosion leading to this ignition switch wire being unable to supply power to the rest of the starter circuit.
Case closed.

[Flying]

We all know that moment.

[Flying]

Currently adjusting idle and doing pre-ride checks.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...h/IMG_0347.MOV

I need some scooby snacks.