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And the worst I did find. Bone-dry bearings in the linkage had deeply scored the hardened steel bush/spacer/shaft that runs through them. And being from Cagiva, this part is nowadays ‘unobtainium’ - you can’t buy it anywhere. Spin one up on a lathe, then? Well, once the part is made the steel needs to be hardened - not something that’s really feasible in a home workshop, at least not if you want the part to last.

Thankfully I found out that some Ducatis have a similar shaft, albeit longer. Trent, the Garage Night elder, confirmed this by checking on his Monster.

So, how to cut it down to fit my bike? You can’t turn hardened steel on a lathe, you can’t cut it with a hacksaw. You need to grind down hardened steel using an abrasive disc, and hitting it with an angle grinder would not allow the required precision.

After much searching I found this diagram of a simple bracket to attach a Dremel grinder to the toolpost of a lathe. Trent agreed to set this up on his own lathe - he really is a great friend to have.

This video shows the successful results. My swingarm’s just been powdercoated, the bearings have been ordered and we’re planning our next video of the process.

- Waz

Nick and Pete from Team Garage Night on Exercise Autumn Wander

Here at Garage Night we’re between episodes at the moment. We nearly filmed one on bleeding Etienne’s DRZ brakes, but we started the night by helping BMW Noel with fitting a rear shock. He’s off riding Africa from top to bottom so the job had to be done.

The shockie job ran late, so we put the camera aside in the interests of getting both bikes finished and out the garage door.

We will get round to a brake bleeding episode. In the meantime, we’ve competed in Exercise Autumn Wander 2009 run by army blokes in the Salisbury Plain area. Here’s a video giving a decent overview by one of the other teams.

It was an excellent offroad orienteering event, in the vein of Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness but on a smaller scale. After bunking overnight at the Tidworth army base we were handed our maps and checkpoint list, briefed by course mastermind Major Steve Cannon and his team, then unleashed on the course.

Big Nick prepares to flip the Super Enduro on to his shoulder and carry it home ...

Pete took the lead and did a great job navigating us round the wilds of Wiltshire. Many of the tracks were heavily and deeply rutted, but mercifully bone-dry. In fact one big challenge was that the grass had grown up so high you couldn’t see the ruts beneath you at all or in what direction they were taking you. A bit unnerving having the bike pulled around like you’re on rails, but without being able to see which way the rails are going.

We were all pleased with how our bikes went over the two days. I got a character-building puncture and Garage Night associate Big Nick blew a fork seal on his KTM 950 Super Enduro. Nick’s is the same as Trent’s bike but Nick is undoubtedly one of the few people in the world to have RAISED his Super Enduro’s suspension because it was too short for him.

Who needs a centre stand? Waz

This ride also sounded the death knell for my much-abused chain and sprockets, as well as the swingarm guide, so the Elefant is up on blocks again.

Following the lead of my Elefant buddy Antarctic Andy, I’m planning to make a new, long-wearing guide out of ultra-high molecular weight polyurethane (UHMWPE, as if that’s any easier to say - in the plastics industry they probably call it ‘umpwee’). Might end up doing that one on Garage Night, if I can ever track down some of this exotic plastic.

Sadly, Trent and Rich couldn’t make it along to Autumn Wander due to what I’ll refer to as digital problems: Trent broke a finger riding mini-bikes and Rich was under the thumb at home. Next time guys.

For me these events are what adventure biking is all about: proving what these dual-purpose machines can do. I first got into big adventure bikes by way of a Honda XLV 750. I loved the idea of a large capacity, multi-cylinder bike that could take me to great places regardless of the roads being paved or dirt. I have never looked back, and even though the Elefant is 15 years old in round figures its capabilities still surprise me. I have never been one for just bouncing around bush trails willy-nilly on a dedicated dirt squirter with no real purpose. There needs to be some sort of goal: a great camping spot, a secret scenic place hidden up a rough dirt track, or a rendezvous with other bikers at the top of epic twisty mountain roads. These are the places a big-bore adventure bike can get you.

Living and working in a big city combined with family life don’t leave me huge amounts of time for actually getting out and doing long rides. So these dedicated events like the Autumn Wander and the HUMM are becoming increasingly important to me for satisfying the inner biker.

- Waz

We did it! Mountain Madness 2009 is done and dusted, with Garage Night “satellite squad” the Mushman Candidates placing FIRST in the under-650cc class and 2nd outright on points.

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Trent and Pete again teamed up with KTM rider and navigator extraordinaire James to produce an outstanding result - though scoring second overall for the second year running left them even more determined for outright victory next year.

Our not-so-hotly-competitive “official” entry Team Garage Night - myself (Waz), Richard and Etienne - placed 8th out of 14 in the over-650cc class.

Richard and I hadn’t ridden on dirt for years, and for the three of us it was our first outing as a team. Not making excuses - but it took us a while to find our offroad legs.

Team Garage Night had an exhausting first day scoring not many points, then a mad dash home to check in, only avoiding a penalty by three minutes.

On the second day we were much more confident riders, but found ourselves prematurely knackered from two full days of manhandling our bikes around mountain tracks. We never thought we’d win, or even score a podium finish, so 8th is fine with us and there’s plenty of room for improvement if we want to take a more competitive approach next time.

The Mushmans, on the other hand, ran a very disciplined operation with many hours dedicated to map preparation and course plotting. Their seriousness became a bit of a running joke in the Garage Night camp but you have to seriously admire their riding and route-finding skill.

As for the bikes, we had no major problems. On Team Garage Night, the KTM forks on Richard’s BMW worked flawlessly; Etienne’s DRZ-400 performed in the usual bulletproof fashion of these bikes; and I felt that the others’ doubts about my Elefant’s offroading abilities and reliability were finally put to rest, along with some doubts of my own.

And no punctures, except before the rally had even started when I pinched a tube fitting my offroad tyres.

So now it’s back to the garage. Richard’s bike needs some repair work after a minor low-speed crash during the event, and I’m turning my mind to fitting the Elefant with some Husqvarna-Showa offroad forks I scored on eBay for cheap. I think my carbs need a mixture adjustment and balance too, so we’ll be filming that.

See you back at the workbench.

- Waz

Missed part 1 of our KTM fork conversion? Click here

This is it. After two years of theorising, trial and error, parts fabrication and emptied beercans, we’re ready to bolt the new forks on to Richard’s Beemer.

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Last episode we discussed exactly what components we were using and the modifications being made to fit them up. This time round we’re actually installing the yokes, steering lock and stops, forks, wheel and brakes – everything that’s needed to get Richard’s “number one” bike back on its wheels.

Pete and Rich show off some custom bits that we made - a neat adapter plate set-up for the steering lock and a tidy steering stop that bolts up nicely.

As we post this episode, Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness (the HUMM) is less than a week away, so Richard’s suspension will be getting a full workout as “Team Garage Night” (Waz, Richard and Garage Night apprentice Etienne) go up against about 150 other competitors, including last year’s second placegetters the Mushman Candidates - Pete, Trent and James.

While we are the “official” bannered outfit, Team GN will be there mostly for fun and comic relief. Most of the serious offroad know-how (and hardware) is in the Mushman “satellite” squad. Trent still shakes his head in disbelief at me taking my Cagiva Elefant on the Humm. Well, I might be able to show him a thing or two (but most likely not).

In the meantime, Richard’s bike is now in one piece and being ridden daily. It is very tall, courtesy of the KTM’s longer legs and the bigger WP rear shock that Rich had fitted when he rode to Singapore. He and Pete have been busy sorting out a longer sidestand.

But Rich is pretty happy so far. What we might need to address down the track are things like the balance between the front and rear spring rates, and the fitting of Richard’s long-range Touratech tanks.

For now, though, it’s time to turn our heads to the Humm and the prospect of enjoying our bikes as a group for the first time in quite a while.

- Waz

We’re back with our much-anticipated special project: fitting a set of KTM inverted or USD forks to Richard’s BMW F650 Dakar.

Now that we’ve got Richard’s “number two bike” back on the road, it’s time to get cracking on “number one” - the F650 Dakar that he rode to Singapore in 2003.

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While no.2 (also an F650 Dakar) is Richard’s daily hack, no.1 is the sentimental favourite because of its history. A while back Richard decided to turn it into something special and has been progressively getting things overhauled, powdercoated, polished and blinged up with stainless steel bolts.

But the big-ticket item is a set of KTM inverted or upside-down (USD) forks - the factory-fitted variety made by WP Suspension. Whenever we’ve mentioned this on ADVRider or other forums there’s been a big response - so this episode, where we explain the conversion, should prove popular.

Richard started out with a set of 43mm forks he bought off eBay, and things were looking promising as it appeared a little machining on the steering stem would be the only major job to make it all mate up. Sadly, these particular forks proved unsuitable for our specific purposes because they were from a 640 Supermoto.

We give the full story in the video, but these forks could most certainly be used on an F650 depending on whether you were building a street motard or a dirt-oriented machine. Getting the steering post and bottom yoke machined to take BMW bearings is relatively straightforward.

In the end, Richard bit the bullet and got some 48mm forks from a KTM 950 Adventure like Pete’s. We have carefully planned how we will make these fit, and issues like the steering stem, ignition lock, brakes and various small modifications are well in hand.

Watch the video and you’ll get the picture. Then fire away with your comments and questions.

- Waz

Garage Night TV has turned 10! Well, it’s our 10th episode, anyway. In this instalment, Pete replaces the rear wheel bearings on his Honda Africa Twin 750 - and gets a nasty shock when he finds what some previous mechanic has done in this department.

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Sealed bearings. Great! They come from the factory with lots of lovely grease inside, and their own integral seals to make sure the grease stays in, and the muck stays out.

Right? WRONG! For me, the biggest revelation of this episode came when Trent popped open one of Pete’s new bearings and showed that inside was little more than a token smear of factory lubricant. So if you really care about those bearings lasting, it’s a good idea to check them - how to go about this is one of the numerous tips you’ll get by watching the video.

If there’s a lack of grease, you might consider adding some yourself. It’s not recommended to pack them solid, though, due to the possibility of overheating or hydraulic lock. There’s a bit of debate on this, but about 1/3 full of grease is one recommended figure.

A bike like Pete’s carries three bearings - two in the hub and one in the mysterious cush drive unit, which is bolted to the sprocket and meshes with the wheel hub. Depending on your bike, these might all be different sizes, or all the same. So make sure you’ve got the right part numbers when ordering.

Pete’s bike has been to India and back, so it’s picked up a few quirks along the way. At a roadside garage somewhere on the subcontinent is where Pete reckons it picked up a dodgy wheel bearing fitment. “It was definitely not me.” A likely story Pete!

All these bearings are a press or interference fit - they have to be forced into place, so pay attention when Pete explains how to do it without ruining the bearings and thereby defeating the purpose of replacing them.

- Waz

Watch Waz and Trent dismantle the wheel in Ep 3: Sand, heat and nipples and Episode 4: Wires, shocks and smoke.

A spoke wheel is a thing of beauty. Here at Garage Night, you can’t tell us otherwise. Cast wheels might be acceptable if you ride a road toad, but if you’ve got spokes, you’ve got class.

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Just think, each thin metal spine is fragile on its own, but strong enough when laced together with a bunch of buddies to bear several times the weight of your bike when you’re full on the brakes, or keep your wheel from crumpling when you smash through a wash-out. And no matter how you try, for elegance of both form and function a cast or billet wheel can’t come close.

An old, neglected spoke wheel is NOT a thing of beauty, though - as I found when I bought a complete secondhand USD fork front end for my bike and discovered the seller had been less than honest about its condition. The Garage Night guys were never going to let me put it together in that state. So the wheel had to come apart.

At first the plan was to whip out the spokes, paint the hub, tidy up the rim and put it all back together - even retaining the original spokes, but with new nipples. It all went pear-shaped when we discovered how horribly seized the spokes and nipples were. You can see us locked in battle with the wheel in the episodes linked above.

Anyway. When I had it all ready to go back together - with new spokes and nipples from Hagon - Trent was the man to see. As a mechanic he spent some years respoking rims on everything from farm bikes to dirt squirters and classic cars.

It all looks horribly complicated - you’ve got the spokes lying like a pile of uncooked spaghetti on the bench, a packet of stubby little nipples and no assembled wheel (or photograph) to go by.

But Trent breaks down the job in typically methodical fashion, showing how to figure out the spoke pattern, then screw in the new nipples and “true up” the wheel to eliminate both lateral and radial run-out (in plain speak, that’s making sure the rim doesn’t wobble up and down or side to side).

Before you go ripping apart your wheel, there are some things you need to check. The hub and rim may be offset. This is best measured by placing a long straight edge along either the disc mounting surface or bearing face, and measuring at 90 degrees down from the straight edge where it crosses the edge of the rim. You’ll see what we mean in this episode.

You need to reproduce this offset when you tighten the new spokes and “true up” the wheel. Most bikes have the hub centred laterally but some have an offset, and there may be different lengths or bends in the spokes to achieve this.

As always, watch the episode and you’ll get the full picture. For me, the next step is to collect all the nuts, bolts and bits needed to get my twin-disc USD front end on my Cagiva Elefant. It’s a race between me and Richard - his BMW F650 is getting a USD front from a KTM 950 Adventure. Ooh-aah, you say. Well, stay tuned.

- Waz

Missed part 1 of Chain and Sprockets? Click here

With the old chain taken off and consigned to the trash, Trent and Pete remove and examine the old sprockets, install the new ones and rivet the fresh chain in place on Pete’s KTM 950 Adventure.

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Along the way, Trent discusses correct chain tension, the different ways a front sprocket may be attached to the countershaft, and why you should NEVER use a worn sprocket with a new chain - at least not if you want the chain to last.

Pete talks about how changing the sprocket ratio - in his case, the number of teeth on the front sprocket - has improved his bike’s driveability. There’s an interesting aside, too, on the possible negative consequences of going for a smaller front sprocket.

Smaller bikes usually have a chain that is joined by master link. This link can be removed at any time by simply flicking off a clip. But larger bikes have the link riveted in place to make sure it can’t fall out. Many of us probably leave this to the bike shop - but as you’ll find out in this episode, it can be done fairly easily in your own garage.

In the last episode, Trent talked about the shark’s-fin wear that results on sprocket teeth as a chain and sprockets wear out. You can see it for yourself this time around.

Adjusting chain tension varies from bike to bike, both in the amount of tension and the mechanism involved, but Trent has some general tips.

- Waz

Trent and Pete are back from Mountain Madness 2008, and Pete’s KTM 950 Adventure is in need of a new chain and sprockets. It has actually spat out a couple of rollers - not something I have seen before, but an obvious sign of serious wear and tear.

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The sprockets will respond by putting further stress on the chain, since the teeth and the links no longer mesh properly, and you are into a vicious cycle that ends with you shelling out cash much sooner than you should have - or, worse, stranded by the side of the track. Carrying a spare set, are we?

We have split chain and sprockets into two episodes - it’s a substantial job and there’s a lot of room for discussion of myths and facts. Trent is as knowledgeable as ever, and we didn’t want to cut short on the info just to fit everything into a single show.

In this one, Trent shows how to tell whether a chain is worn, and identify wear patterns on a sprocket. He removes the old chain and discusses O-rings, X-rings, lubrication and cleaning.

Dousing the old chain with kerosene is one common method of cleaning, and obviously preferable to petrol because it is less likely to degrade the O-rings and infiltrate the rollers, where it would wash away the precious factory-packed grease from around the pins. But kerosene is still a pretty aggressive solvent, so Trent has some words on his preferred method of cleaning and lubing.

For more discussion on chain cleaning and lubrication, check out this extensive thread over at ADV Rider. From my perspective, the best thing to wash off dirty, spent lubricating oil is … wait for it … more oil! Which is why I think constant lubrication systems like the Scotoiler are a good bet - though opinion is divided on these sorts of gadgets.

Watch out for the next episode, where we install the new chain and sprockets on Pete’s bike.

- Waz

A special edition of Garage Night as Pete and Trent tackle Mountain Madness 2008 in the Spanish Pyrenees …

You can be certain that whenever Austin Vince (of Terra Circa and Mondo Enduro fame) is involved in organising an event, an element of madness will be involved – and more than just in name.

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In only its second year, the Humm attracted more than 40 teams totalling about 100 riders. Each team gets a book containing 68 different markers, each of which are worth between 50 and 125 points. And a map. And that’s it. Whoever gets the most points wins. Let the riding commence …

I’d seen the event advertised on Horizons Unlimited (HU) over a year ago, and for various reasons hadn’t been able to get the week off to head down for it. But at the last minute I thought “F*ck it.” I told my boss I was going, and got in touch with HU about a late entry. Luckily they had another guy in the same position and this is how the team formed: James (KTM 640 Adventure), myself (KTM 950 Adventure) and at the very last minute Trent (on a KTM 950 Super Enduro - only the very tall and annoyingly skilled need apply!) All we needed was a name: and so “The Mushman Candidates” were born (chocolate fish to whoever works that one out).

Team duties were divided thus: James on navigation (never doubt the military man), Trent and I - well … back-up, and trying not to crash I guess! The ride down was quick and without event – 1,300km of boring autoroute, then 100km of sensational Pyrenean tarmac. The weather was so good that only the two-metre high roadside poles indicated what goes on here in winter: snow, and lots of it.

We were based in the tiny ski resort of Livorsi for the event, which was being held on a Tuesday and Wednesday. As soon as I got there I set about changing tyres. I’d carried a TKC80 front and D908 rear down on the luggage rack of the 950, as their road hum annoys the crap out of me. As it turned out, the tyre changing was good practice for later …

The briefing on the Monday night was in the form of a disclaimer: “We don’t know you, you don’t know us, if the cops stop you you’re here of your own accord!” Fair enough - as it is purely a fun, non-competitive event held on public forestry trails and roads, a man must take responsibility for his own actions (often forgotten in a time of health and safety craziness and legal nuttiness).

With that proviso, a couple of amendments to the road book, then a few beers, then a few more, and a night’s sleep, we were ready to go … except I woke up in the tent at 2am with a stinking headache and got no more sleep until it was time to get up. Brill, that’ll learn ya!

Day 1 start was no earlier than 8am. With some nerves and a hearty breakfast on board the three of us set off for the first marker. James had decided to take us south on tarmac for 40k’s or so to get some high-point bearings. He’d devised a great system of A4 sheets for each marker, with a route to the next marker on each sheet.

It worked great … until something went wrong and we rode up the same road four times looking for a marker that just wasn’t there. We eventually found our error and got back on track, James’s system coming into its own and taking us on some lovely forestry trails, several of which were really rocky and obviously not much used.

James: “Umm, it should be right here…”

It took me a while to get the hang of riding the big KTM on gravel again, though the tyres, particularly the rear Dunlop, were awesome. Trent was loving the Super Enduro, and by the end of the two days was riding it like a 250 dirt bike. While James and I struggled with U-turns on the narrow trails, Trent would just gas it and do a broadside skid turn like I can only do on a BMX! Impressive and humbling – I must get some more practice!

James was going great guns on his well-prepped 640. Trying to find one marker, we arrived at a field of cut hay. About 200 metres to the right was a track seemingly going straight up into the clouds. Just as I was thinking “There’s no freaking way I’m going up there” James took off up the track and made it look easy. Remembering rule #1 (if in doubt, GAS IT), I followed, and made it up as well, which filled me with confidence. Then Trent came up on the back wheel … well, he has been riding dirt bikes since he was five!

“KTM 950 SE es much moto”

Many of the trails took us up on to ridges that afforded great views of the surrounding valleys. Austin and Lois (Price, aka: Lois on the Loose) had picked some spectacular spots for the markers. We stopped for a few photos and gas, but the desire to get on and get to the markers was too great to stop for long. Close to the end of the first day we spent two hours looking for one marker.

That night we heard similar stories from other people; some markers that others had spent hours looking for we’d found easily, and most certainly vice versa. Suffice to say it was bloody frustrating, and in the end we had to leave it and get back to Livorsi before the 8pm cutoff (arrive after and you’re penalised).

We had just less than 1,000 points (the highest of the day was over 1,500) which, while not bad, was a bit frustrating after all the work James had put into sorting the navigating. Straight away James and Trent starting nutting out how to get it done on the second day.

Waking on Wednesday we all felt good and were really up for it. Back on the road south, we aimed for markers worth over 100 points and straight away were up on a fantastic ridge road that was obviously only to allow access to some radio masts. It was bloody rocky and quite steep in some places, and we knew one false move could end the fun.

“This way chaps!”

James was doing a great job up front. We made loads of “directional adjustments” (U-turns), but better that than go the wrong way off track too far – and besides, the riding was great. One particular switchback forestry trail taking us way, way up sticks in the memory. Awesome fun sliding the rear out of about 30 corners in a row!

Then I had that awful sinking feeling – my rear tyre had felt a bit flat earlier in the day, and now there was no avoiding it, it was completely flat. I carried on riding hoping it would pump itself back up. Didn’t happen. So stop, out with the tools, tube and pump, no f*cking shade anywhere, shit! Thirty minutes later we were back on the road, paranoia levels a bit higher. That was the only spare rear tube we had, and the torque of the 950 (and lack of rim locks) combined with too-low pressure had ripped the valve out of the old one (okay, okay, maybe too many wheelies too). Didn’t need that to happen again.

But in the end, what an awesome day’s riding. It went by too quick. Close to the end our favoured route would take us through a river. If we could get across we could pick up the next three marks quickly and then get one more on the way home. Great. Unfortunately the river proved a bit too high and strong. Maybe we could have got through, but it would have taken a long time and there’s always the possibility of damaging one of the bikes. As it was already 5pm, the team decision was made to turn back and go the long way around (not the Long Way Round - that would have taken three months and several back-up trucks). With the heat of the day toasting my feet, it was great to wade in the water for 10 minutes or so. Very refreshing.

Great view
As with yesterday, what turned out to be our last marker of the day was proving hard to find. We only had an hour to get back and we’d already spent 20 minutes looking for it. James’s perseverance paid off - he found the marker and we high tailed it back to camp, but with not enough time to pick up a final 54-point marker we’d hoped to get on the run back up to Livorsi. We got in with three minutes to spare. Luck was on our side as the many many cops en route had been nice enough not to stop us!

James tallied up the points for the day: over 2,000, woohoo! Great riding and a good score certainly made up for yesterday. Okay, it wasn’t a competitive event, but you still want to do your best. And for sure we’d done that.

At the dinner that night the top five scores were read out. We’d been given our book back and it had “3,079” written on it, so we knew our total. It was a great surprise to have fifth place announced as 2,748 points. “Wow” I thought, we’d done better than fifth - awesome. Then fourth was read out: 2,795. Then third: 2,978. Then us in second: “Woo hoo!” First place was 3,118 points, only 39 more than us. It was a great effort from everyone, but we couldn’t help thinking “What if we’d just got that final marker on the way back up, or the marker we struggled with at the end of Tuesday?”

C’est la vie, it was a great event and the riding was awesome. Massive thanks to Austin and Lois, Susan and Grant Johnson of Horizons Unlimited for organising it all.

It was great riding with James and Trent, and without James’s fantastic navigation we would not have seen half those great views. Thanks very much guys, bring on next year.

- Pete

It’s a key area of wear and tear on a bike, and especially a big trailie - so replacing the steering head bearings is one of the essential jobs you’ll have to come to grips with on a long trip, or just as a long-term owner. Pete’s KTM 950 came back from South America with knackered steering head bearings, and in this episode we show how to remove the worn-out ones, pack the new ones with grease and install them.

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Think about it - you’re doing big miles, mostly in a straight line, over rough roads. Shock is transferred from the wheel, through the fork legs, via the triple clamps/yokes to the steering head bearings.

If the bearing is loose, each bearing roller begins to wear its own groove. This makes the bearing even looser, and it flogs around even more, accelerating the wear.

Eventually the steering becomes notchy - the handlebars don’t move smoothly from side to side - and as it gets worse you’ll feel a clunk when you hit a solid bump. You’ll get vagueness and imprecise steering, because the loose bearings are flapping around rather than seating solidly. A relatively small amount of free play in the bearings at the steering head can have an alarming effect on handling. In the worst cases of misadjustment and neglect the bearing can begin to break apart.

Each bearing, top and bottom, comes in two parts, the bearing and the cup. The bearings are installed on the steering post, which is part of the bottom clamp. The cups are pressed into the steering head.

The two most difficult parts of the job are removing the bottom bearing and taking out the cups - so watch the video for our tips. Don’t be tempted to leave the cups in and just change the bearings - you will be wasting your time and money.

A cursory dab of grease on the new bearings just isn’t enough. They need to be solidly packed, and Trent’s the man with the knowledge and technique.

Finally, make sure to listen to what Pete says about readjusting the bearings soon after you’ve replaced them. He is speaking from recent experience …

- Waz

Update: We’re embedding our videos at advrider.com and visordown.com - here are the links so you can read what people are saying and join the discussions.

Discuss this video at Visordown.com

Discuss this video at Advrider.com

This time around we get an overview of a bike’s wiring harness, or wiring loom. This spaghetti-like confusion of wires and plugs is the backbone of the electrical system - and after a ride across a partly flooded South American salt lake, the KTM’s needed replacing. Pete gives a brief rundown on rear suspension compression, rebound and preload settings, and how even though the shock and spring are a single unit, they do different jobs.

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Electrics and suspension tend to be voodoo areas of bike mechanicals. Just looking at a wiring diagram is frightening enough, without delving into the loom itself, which of course looks nothing like the diagram! But troubleshooting bike wiring is less about an in-depth knowledge of electrical systems - and more about the ability to work through a problem, starting with the simplest and most likely cause, such as a ‘bad earth’.

Headlights that have become dimmer over time might make you think you need a new or bigger battery, or even new bulbs, but more than likely you’re looking at a deteriorated connection somewhere.

Bike electrics are very exposed to the elements, and right from the start there are ways you can protect against failure, such as by cleaning out any dirty or corroded connectors, and sealing non-weatherproof ones with silicon, as discussed in this episode.

A contact cleaner spray sold at an amateur electronics store or auto-electrical outlet is one way to get grease and dirt out of connectors. But sometimes you can’t avoid the need to pull connectors apart and give them a proper mechanical cleaning. You might even have to replace the metal terminals themselves - this is something we want to show in a future instalment.

You don’t need a full understanding of suspension variables - rake, trail, preload, compression damping, rebound damping, spring rates to name a few - to take advantage of the settings available on modern bikes to improve the ride quality. The range and position of adjusters varies widely on bike shocks absorbers - some bikes have little or no adjustment. Watch this episode for Pete’s brief introduction to rear suspension adjustments.

If you’ve heard of dry-sump lubrication and are wondering what it is, Trent and Waz have a rundown for you on how it works, and the benefits it brings to adventure bikes and dirt squirters. Apart from the advantages we discuss in the video, a tank-based system like on Pete’s KTM or Rich’s BMW also lets the manufacturer improve the weight distribution of the bike by moving the oil storage unit to the most desirable position.

It’s good to see Richard’s number two bike on the road - apart from the smoke. Now we can get working on number one, which will be having a set of sexy KTM White Power inverted forks installed.

- Waz

In this episode, we dismantle a front wheel, removing the brake discs, spokes and nipples - and Trent brings out the blowtorch to free up some sticky bolts. Pete builds a sandblasting cabinet, mostly out of junk, and continues work on his KTM 950, while Rich is getting close to his BMW being back on the road.

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The first stage is to remove the brake discs. You do this with the wheel still fully assembled - because you probably couldn’t get the spokes out with the discs still on, and even if you could, it’s easier to remove the discs while you’ve still got the rim to hang on to.

Trent advised that the bolts would probably be locked into the hub from corrosion. A big problem on bikes is that you often have different metals coming together - in this case, steel bolts screwed into an aluminium hub. Due to the different properties of unlike metals, it is a recipe for an electro-chemical reaction, which means corrosion. Trent explains in the episode how this causes bolts to seize.

His solution is to heat the hub. You could use a blowtorch, or an electric heat gun of the kind used to strip paint. Or at the side of the road, a cigarette lighter that can throw a decent flame might just get you out of trouble - don’t apply it near anything flammable, of course, such as your petrol tank and its contents. And heed Trent’s warnings about how aluminium behaves when it approaches melting point!

In my case the disc bolts are not generic, they are specially machined. In other words I can’t just go to any nut and bolt shop to buy replacements. I’ll be reusing them, so it was important not to destroy the heads in the process of undoing them.

Once the discs are off it’s time to address the spokes, which radiate out from the hub, and the nipples, which attach the spokes to the rim. A good start is to spray the nipples with a seize-busting solution such as WD-40. Leave them for a while, then attack with appropriate spoke spanners and large flat-blade screwdrivers. For the inevitable stubborn spoke here and there, you might need a set of vice grips to stop it turning while you rotate the nipple.

Even if you never rebuild one, it’s useful to know the anatomy of a wheel. On any big trip where rough roads are involved you should carry spare spokes and nipples in case of breakages, so you’ll need to know how to install them (after removing the tyre and tube, of course). Trent gives lots of know-how in this episode about the different kind of spoke/nipple/hub arrangements you might encounter.

Pete is saving us all a lot of grief by building a sandblasting cabinet. It’s hooked up to Trent’s air compressor and we’ll use it to strip paint, rust etc from parts that we’re going to repaint. There have been a few teething problems, but Pete’s getting close to turning this into a workable and very handy addition to our workshop.

Richard isn’t far off getting the BMW back on the road, and begins making some final pre-flight checks. Once this bike is mobile, we’ll start attacking his other project - an F650 fitted with long-range tanks and a set of KTM inverted forks. Sweet.

- Waz

One of the very few things to ever go wrong on my AT was the regulator/rectifier. It’s one of those electrical components you look at and think “I wonder what that does.” You don’t really find out until it fails.

First you replace the battery (thinking that’s why it wouldn’t start in the middle of nowhere; hopefully you were stopped on a hill and could crash-start it and get to the nearest town). Then you wonder what the awful smell is (yes, you’ve just cooked that new battery). Then the tacho (rev counter) stops working and the bike won’t go at all. All of these things happened to me in the Himalaya – not a place you’ll find a Honda dealer with a spare AT rectifier in stock.

This story did have a happy ending, except for the broken tacho. Eventually I removed it from the bike and worked out that one of the resistors on the circuit board had failed - there was heat damage where it was soldered into the board. You can see it here - the big blue one.

I did try once to buy a replacement resistor but couldn’t find the right one, and that was about four years ago. Ever since then, sitting on the bike and seeing an empty space where the tacho had been was a reminder of my laziness.

So with the 950 back on the road following a major rebuild, my attention turned to the forlorn AT. While searching through the most excellent Honda trail bike forums I happened across a post from someone who had solved the exact same issue by replacing the resistor. I posted saying I had the same problem but couldn’t find the right resistor. Within a day I had a message from the original poster saying he had a spare and would send it to me.

That’s bloody nice, I thought. But he was in NZ, me in London. No problem! was his answer, and sure enough seven days later it arrived. Wow! Is there a bunch of people friendlier and more helpful than motorcyclists? Thanks very much Larry_Biskit, you’re a gent.With no excuses now and a Garage Night organised for that very evening, it was business time. Here’s the new resistor (beige) in place - cheers Trent for doing the soldering, it’s a black art as far as I’m concerned.

And here’s the result - a working tacho.

Woo hoo! I was quite excited riding it home that night and woke up the next morning thinking “My tacho works, my tacho works” (if that makes me sad I don’t care!). I had to resist the temptation to shout it out to all the other bikers I saw that morning on the way to work, but to them there had never been a faulty rectifier, a new mate in NZ that was good enough to send me the part to fix it, or four years of thinking “I must fix that bloody thing one day!”

So here’s to all those bikers I’ve met around the world who have gone out of their way to help me out (what goes around comes around, people) and to the satisfaction of getting something fixed after so bloody long.

Go on, get out to your bike and fix whatever’s been bugging you for ages. Do it today - it will reward you tomorrow.

Cheers, Pete.

The previous decade, I mean …

Got together with Pete, Trent and Richard last night, and Pete had the latest issue of Motorcycle News featuring Ducati’s reinvention of the Monster, the 696 (you’ve got to check out this Ducati promo, it’s a giggle).

Riding to work the same morning, I had been thinking of how, for me, the Monster would have to be the bike of the 1990s.

I remember when my mate Dave bought his. It was the year 1997, I think. I had a Cagiva Elefant 900 back then, and riding a bike with the 750 Ducati engine was a revelation.

The pig-headed, snatchy, lumpy low-end, dry-clutched 900 engine is fun in its way, once you get used to it. Dave’s Monster was fun right from the word go - a willing engine that pulled right off the line and a really flickable frame. My arms were splayed out to grip the bars, and my grin was almost as wide. The all-round nicer engine is the reason I have the 750 version of the Elefant these days.

Dave bought his Monster at a bargain clearance price, with free helmet thrown in. Apparently the 750 was a bit of an orphan in the Ducati model range - and Dave felt disappointed afterwards that it only had a single front disc. The back brake made a weird moaning sound, too. But with some nice custom touches including a Shelby Cobra-style blue with white racing stripes paint scheme he managed to turn it into a prize-winner as best Monster at the Ducati concourse in Queensland.

Apart from being a sweet unit itself, the Monster launched the naked-bike revolution, becoming as much of a style icon as the 916 and doing much, much more than the top-line superbike to save Ducati as a bike maker. I have never really liked the inevitable four-valve variant, the S4R, which just has too much underslung bulk and stuff hanging off it generally, ruining the simple roadster look.

The new Monster loses the full-trellis frame in favour of a hybrid arrangement of trellis main and aluminium subframe. It seems a shame, as the exposed full-trellis was to me the most eye-catching thing about the Monster. The new one looks a bit like Ducati’s designer got halfway along the bike and then forgot who he was working for. Or like a Japanese copy of the original Monster. But progress is progress, I suppose.

There are other things I don’t like - the headlight being the most obvious. All round the bike just seems to borrow a bit too much from the Brutale - made by MV Agusta, which used to be Cagiva, which used to own Ducati and took with it, when they split, the design guru Massimo Tamburini, responsible for bikes like the Paso, superbikes from the 851 through to the 916, and then the MV Agusta F4.

Lamentably from my perspective, the Monster no longer traces its tail-light back to the Cagiva Elefant. That means another Elefant part that we can currently source from Ducati goes on the endangered list.

So can the new Monster conquer the Noughties? Not with that headlight, I reckon.

- Waz

In this episode: Pete dismantles the rear end of his KTM 950, which he rode through a salt lake in South America; while Trent sets to work cleaning and greasing an all-too-neglected part of any bike: the swingarm bearings. Trent ‘breaks the bead’ on Waz’s front tyre and removes the tyre and tube, giving advice along the way on how to find and fix a puncture at the roadside.

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Swingarm bearings come in two main varieties: plain or needle roller. A plain bearing is essentially a tube of metal, sometimes bronze, that is pressed into the suspension parts involved. Running inside these bearings are the various shafts or bushes that are the pivot points of the suspension.

Needle roller bearings are far superior - they consist of a tubular metal casing that houses thin cylindrical rollers. In this episode Trent gives a great demonstration of how to pack them with fresh, clean grease, and the best kind of grease to use.

These bearings are often ‘caged’ to keep the needle rollers in place. That’s how Pete’s KTM and Richard’s BMW are set up, but unfortunately in my Cagiva Elefant the rollers are loose, and held in place only by the shafts and bushes running through them. When dismantling the suspension, the little buggers are prone to falling out everywhere. When removing, lubricating and reinstalling they must be meticulously counted out and counted back in.

One big problem with the loose kind is that once you’ve lubed them and stuck them all back into place with grease, you’ve got to reinstall whatever shaft or bush runs inside them. When you insert this into the bearing, it dislodges the needles and pushes them out the other side! You end up picking those precious needle rollers out of a gob of grease lying on the ground beneath your bike.

My trick is to find a socket of suitable length that is small enough in diameter to push into the bearing without dislodging the needles, but large enough that it holds them in place. Then you slowly insert the suspension shaft/bush from one side and it pushes the socket out the other.

There are usually seals sitting outside the bearings, and these can often be sourced as a generic item from a bearing supply shop, rather than paying for genuine parts from your bike dealer. Same goes for the bearings themselves, but check and compare prices, because sometimes the bike dealer will be cheaper. Both the seals and bearings will hopefully be marked with a universal part number and perhaps the name of a bearing manufacturer, such as SKF. Any good bearing shop can look this stuff up.

That said, the seals usually don’t do much good anyway. Any heavily used bike will probably have dry bearings, and whatever grease is left inside will be filthy. Clean them out with a solvent, check that both the rollers and the bearing casing itself are OK (not flattened, misshapen, or heavily scored, notched or corroded, and if caged, that the cage is not broken or distorted) and pack with waterproof grease. Watch the video - Trent shows you how.

Bearings need replacing? Then you will have to get them out first. Consult the workshop manual for your bike, but you can sometimes put the swingarm or suspension linkage in a vice (holding it in place with aluminium or wooden ’soft jaws’), place a socket against the bearing and hammer the socket to drive out the bearing. Once again, the socket should be big enough in diameter for the job but small enough that it doesn’t get stuck where the bearing was.

If you are flash enough to have access to such things, you could use a suitably sized brass drift or piece of PVC rod. Or you can use your vice as a press with two sockets - the ‘pushing’ socket on one side of the suspension part, and a much larger ‘receiving’ one in the same position on the other side to act as a spacer, allowing the bearing to slide out. This ‘receiving’ socket should have a big enough internal diameter that the bearing can slide into it.

If you can’t puzzle out a way of doing this, or the bearing just won’t budge, have a bike shop, engineering works or mechanic friend press it out it for you.

Also in this episode, Trent shows how to ‘break the bead’ on a motorcycle tyre and gives tips on finding and repairing a puncture. Watch, listen and learn!

One more thing: Richard and Pete’s London-to-India/Singapore travelogue. We have decided to break this out into separate videos for the moment, and they will probably be posted at our Beer Fridge side-blog. There will still be plenty of travel tales thrown into the main episodes, like Pete’s account of his Salar de Uyuni trip, but we want to keep the main show a manageable length. So coming soon will be part 2 of Richard and Pete’s “Singdia” travelogue (see what I did there? Singapore+India=Singdia).

- Waz

Pete is well ahead so far on getting his nifty red overalls filthy. To look at them you’d think he had been rolling around on the garage floor in all the muck. He’s been putting in long hours cleaning up and repairing his KTM950 after his recent trip through South America. He had an amazing time, but we’re glad to have him back in town.

My beast - a Cagiva Elefant 750 - is back on the road for the moment, though I’m really hating the front suspension and CAN NOT WAIT to get my inverted fork upgrade in place. It was going to be a straightforward, quick bolt-on, but as you will see in future episodes, we have since decided to completely dismantle and refurbish the front wheel …

Richard’s no. 2 BMW is taking shape, while the no.1 bike - the one he rode to Singapore - sits in the corner awaiting some customisation.

Trent - the backbone of the show, since in a previous life he was a bona fide motorbike mechanic, and spent two years riding with his wife Jacqui from London to New Zealand - is really busy with other stuff, but is still finding time to supervise our weekly sessions of tool abuse. Trent’s patient, clear explanations are making for very good footage, so you can look forward to hearing (and seeing) plenty from someone who actually knows what he’s talking about.

Our silent partner, Phil, is dealing with the reams of MiniDV footage we have produced so far. We hope to cut down on the workload by honing our camera skills … we promise, Phil!

Right then, time to get back to work on the site.

Keep watching and reading,

Waz

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A new show featuring four motorcycle adventurers who get their hands dirty fixing their bikes. If you liked Long Way Down, you’ll learn something on Garage Night - watch these Britain-based world tourers work on every aspect of their machines and let their stories inspire your own two-wheeled travels.