J.J.

SO i go out to ride yesterday, get on, and go to back out of my garage. bike wont roll. wtf?? turn on acc, yup its in neutral, but wont roll.. ? i get off - ahhh there it is - back tire completely flat. greaaaat. theres a big staple imbedded in it, so i pull the tire off and take it to the shop for a plug. oops - better take those collars out before they take it and lose 'em.. tire gets plugged, i put the collars back in and take it home. put it back on, but - what the - theres a space between the sprocket and the swingarm, and the bolts are hitting the swingarm as it rotates. so i pull it off again.. and guess who somehow LOST the stupid left side collar somewhere. looked everywhere it could have fallen out, which would only have been between my trunk and my garage, nowhere... i'm gonna lose it......

marmaladedad

Just take it easy man...you'll find it soon enough. If it's in the garage, it could have been kicked around by your foot or the car/truck tires.

Hawkrider

Yeah, I've had parts roll to the other side of the garage under a shelf or whatever. It's like they're running away and don't want to go back on the bike/car. They're stealthy too, hitting the ground either just right or at the right time as to not make enough sound to notice. Lil' bastids!

J.J.

Found it... just had to walk away from it for awhile i guess...

Well, that sucks anyways. Stupid winter. Its like i got screwed outa two of the last nice riding days of the season - that i was off work for- for no reason. and now im sittin around waiting for my neigbor (or gf i guess) to come home to help me put it back on. anybody got any tips for putting a wheel back on by yourself?? Its sucks, gettin the axle all the way thru the swingarm, the wheel, and the caliper mount, all while holding the tire up AND trying to get the disk back into the caliper...

Come to think of it, its a pain even with two people!

marmaladedad

I use my foot to lift and support the rear wheel while lining up the axle and wheel. The hardest part, IMO, is the rear brake caliper. Push the pads with a flat piece of something (I use the included flat wrench in the toolbag) to make that gap wider so the rear rotor slides right in.

With enough practice, wheel changes take less than 5 minutes for both front and rear.

J.J.

Thanks. using your foot. why didnt i think of that? ERrrr

marmaladedad

Yep. A raggedy shoe helps, so you don't get your feet dirty.

At that point, though, my butt is usually on the ground. So it helps to spread newspaper, or have a creeper, to keep the buns clean.

shawkpilot

I thought this was going to be a PIRATE post. Arrrrrrrrrr!

Hawkrider

I use 2 2x4s stacked on each other. I can vary the height by sliding them in and out with one end on the floor and the other on the stand. Guess you'd have to be there to see it. Kinda hard to put this picture into words.

nuhawk

I've been around shops of all kinds all my life and I've never seen one that didn't have a stack of blocks for just this thing. Old 2x4's, 4x4's, 6x6's, and lumber of any dimension will greatly aid in the alignment process. I have a small stack of blocks that I'm using all the time with the various machines that I work on here at the nursery. Having the right jack for the job can also be valuable. I've got quite a collection of those too! We're about to do a fork job on a CBR 600. I'll take some pictures of the lifting process we go through. It's maybe weird by some standards but we've never dropped a bike!

J.J.

Get your FEET dirty?? Man, i was fricken' filthy from head to toe...

Of course, it doesnt help that I have to drive over dirt to get in my "garage", or that i used my arm and shoulder to hold the tire up and line it up on the other side...

Luckily I do have a shop seat, though. I love that thing..

marmaladedad

On a side note, be sure to grease the axle. Axle grease smells like poop and feels weird, but everytime you do a wheel change after that, the stuff slides in and out like KY and .... ummm.... yeah....

shayne

I never seem to have problems with wheels. Dunno why, I just hold the wheel with one hand while standing up and bung the axle in with the other.

On you lost spacer story, I had a similar drama a while ago. I removed the sight glass from the clutch cover when I was painting it, and thought i would buy a new one instead of putting the old one back in. So I trundled down to the Honda dealer with the sight glass and a couple of other bits I needed. Found out that you cannot buy the sight glass without the whole clutch cover!!!!! Nasty!!!!

So after doing some other things I went home. Went in the shed to put a few bits and pices in there and found I didn't have the old sight glass any more. I had lost it. So I retraced my steps where I had been that morning. Honda, local bearing service, shed, driveway, in the car, I looked everywhere with no luck.

Fortunately the Honda guys know me well and had my phone number. A customer had found it in the car park and took it in the shop and asked "Whats this thing on the ground?" As I had been in there searching the shop for it they rang me straight away.

My lucky day..........