fastbob

The £30 stubby cans that are sold as " Akra " with the logo blurred out are so Obviously fake that I doubt that Akrapovic are even bothered about them . Some AliExpress suppliers don't even bother blurring the logo . 

2 hours ago, S-Westerly said:

Still haven't worked out how either of those bikes fell down, especially the second one?

The steepness of the climbing hairpin is not very apparent in the film ,  check the car struggling for traction .  I think they simply ran out of momentum and toppled over . 

I think the time has come to bring out this old favourite . Can anyone spot " That hole " ? https://youtu.be/pUB2darr5mU

2 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

The police just knocked on our daughter's front door, looking sheepish. They've gone and crashed into her car which was parked outside the house. 

The phrase " Untold misery and distress " is worth bearing in mind when filling in the compensation form . I'm sure I got at least an extra grand's worth of PPI compensation by putting this in the extra notes section . 

On 04/11/2021 at 16:42, Steve_M said:

Good evening. 
Last night, around 10pm, the Northern Lights were visible from near our location. The photo was taken by someone in the nearby town. I’d been outside looking at the night sky earlier but missed the spectacle. It’s something I’ve wanted to see since I visited Norway as a youth. 
 

Tonight I shall be staying up, standing at the top of the paddock looking north, camera in hand, hoping to see it. 
 

Wish me luck.

A friend of mine took this shot on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula west of Fort William last week . 

2 hours ago, keith1200rs said:

I always hang back from cars in front to ensure I don't have to stop on the bend if they stop. With my bike weighing 280kg plus the wife on the back I doubt I would be able to hold it up if I stopped on the camber of a bend.

An excellent point . Easier to do when there's no vegetation in the way . 

Nearly ready for paint . I've always loved the Beaufighter . What a brutal looking aircraft . Imagine a flight of those coming at you with rockets and cannons . 

5 minutes ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said:

The CBF500 forks are pretty bog standard so that advice works for them. 

 

When I looked at the original pictures I wondered if the wheel rim was bent. That's actually a bigger issue in my opinion. Alloy doesn't deform easily so if it's had a sufficient impact to leave a deformation I'd look for a replacement wheel. Steel is malleable enough that you can get away with small dents, alloys are different.

As anyone who has ever tried to straighten a bent lever will testify . 

Right then . I've been up this one on a GSXR 1100 in a severe gale and a whiteout and up it on a Harley which was a doddle ,  but the most fun was going all the way from the top down to sea level with my engine switched off on my dear old ER5 . 

You might want to buy or borrow an impact wrench and a suitable attachment for using an Allen Bit socket . If the cartridges do spin , the curvature of the forks may well prevent the use of the correct tool . The use of a vise and suitable bits of wood might prove to be advantageous as well .   Please be aware that this advice is based on fork building in general and is not specific to the CBF 500 . 

The scariest hairpins I've ever negotiated were on Porlock Hill in pitch darkness . I'd never been there before and I just couldn't find the campsite ( Pre smartphone ) I went through the village and up the hill with no idea that there were any hairpins until I found myself at 30% with my headlight pointing up into the trees and absolutely nothing to get my bearings . I managed to get into first and get my feet down in time to carefully walk the bike around the curve but it was touch and go . The same thing happened on the next bend as well , bloody terrifying. The next day a coach load of OAP's had managed to  ground itself at both ends with all the wheels off the ground on the same bend . 

1 hour ago, husoi said:

Looks the same as the ones you find on the way to Applecross.

I ride them as U-turns.

Works all the time  

They were a f**k sight easier on the Harley than they were on the GSXR !

2 hours ago, Piping said:

Do you think further damage is likely? What other components could be damaged? In particular do you think the rest of my fork legs could be damaged meaning I shouldn't just swap in the replacement stanchions? Is the head stock the same as the head bearings?

This is the Head Stock . You don't have much of a frame on your particular bike because the engine is used as a stressed member . Check for cracks at the frame attachment points on the engine . 

Hello and welcome to the Forum . That won't straighten . I think that you should be looking at your front wheel very very carefully . If I recall , your bike has very fragile looking wheels . If it's taken enough impact to do that to the forks I'd be cleaning the wheel before going over it with a magnifying glass . Then I'd be doing the same with all the welds around the head stock . By the way , what has your insurance company got to say about all this ? I assume you aren't fully comp because this is a definite write off . 

Making progress . 

If anyone has a good Polish deli nearby , I heartily recommend these more exotic variations on the Jaffa Cake . 

14 hours ago, Swede said:

Hello, I'm new here. I noticed someone getting a little agitated because in a chat about petrol, and paint /perspex being affected, people had sidetracked slightly and talked about ethanol effects in the engine. Is this usual? If I'm replying to a thread, should I aim to always follow the originator's track? 

What's your favourite biscuit ? 

I can't get enough of this at the moment . It's just so intriguing to listen to Charlie Watts doing what he loves rather than the "Work" that he did with the Rolling Stones . 

I think this topic ends here .

2 hours ago, Oskardlu said:

They cut the connector off I’m not sure what it’s called, I don’t know what to type in on eBay? 

It doesn't matter really . Just replace both halves . https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4pc-kit-2-pin-way-car-waterproof-electrical-connectors-plug-with-wire-/112233499255?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

The fact that I've never heard of it might be a clue . I'll do a little research . 

It's very very far gone . It would cost far more to restore than anyone would ever get back for it . I like the challenge of restoring bikes that have seen better days but there is very little of use left there . Stick it on a Hipster / Cafe Racer FB page and ask a grand for it .

I thought I'd try something a little more advanced next . A Tamiya 1/48 Beaufighter . 

3 hours ago, Mickly said:

Maybe, but I wouldn’t want to put any extra stress on the cam chain.

The spring will be fine . It's not there to exert a lot of force . If the spring ceases to be effective then the cam chain should have been replaced ages ago . Having said that , I did fit a manual tensioner to my last ER5 just for a laugh . 

6 hours ago, Mickly said:

T.14 mark on the Ignition rotor aligned with the centre of the pick up coil.

 

Cam shafts placed with cam chain over them & arrows on the sprockets pointing inwards

 

Cam shims and journals oiled, Cam caps oiled, fixings oiled & hand tightened to just nipped up then torqued up to 10 N/M in a cross cross pattern - this is not a lot & I could have easily over tightened by hand.

I believe @fastbob has previously stated that this is a critical time to use a torque wrench.

Chain tensioner to be fitted … @onesea said the spring should be replaced as it’s a weak point - Spec says it should be 73.5mm long.

I resisted the urge to stretch it

So new spring to be ordered - thus ends play until it arrives.

That's the one ! It's amazing how inadequate the small amount of torque feels but that's the way it is .