Had the bike for a while now. To be honest it's not really been used by me as it was quite tatty and I didn't feel comfortable riding it until it was better. Also the rear tyre was squared off which isn't nice. Not to mention the rest of it.
Anyway it seemed to be running a bit funny. Paul (vtrphoenix) was happy to give me a hand with it which has been absolutely appreciated. The man knows his stuff.
Was a bit wary of the chance of rain when he came down so bought a gazebo!
It ended up not raining but a handy thing to have when bike returns to my house.
When it came to doing the ccts it seemed as though the bike was running on one cylinder.
Compression test was done and registered a big fat zero.
The first issue was those ridiculous exhaust studs. One came off fine but the other was solid.
Spent quite some time with a nut splitter and a dremel and eventually it came off like this
She was opened up and the front head was taken out. It became clear immediately the front has gone in the past as there was basically a brand new (auto) cct in there with the gasket.
On further examination these were found.
Two bent valves!!! They weren't as bad as I have seen from others but bent nonetheless.
Unfortunately they're 50 quid a go for exhaust ones. No one ever sells a front head for obvious reasons but had a look for a rear head and managed to get one nearby.
We headed to Surrey and picked up the head before removing the two nice valves from it.
They were placed into my front head and it was all put back together with new manual ccts.
Compression test now shows 152 on front and rear with engine stone cold. At the minute the bike is running a little rough (hunting) but hopefully a Carb balance should sort that.
I have to really give a huge thanks to Paul. He gave up a lot of his own time for no reason other than to help someone out. Fantastic fella who also managed to teach me a fair bit. Never thought I'd be removing valves from a head and I think if I had a front cylinder issue now I could make a go at fixing it.
Since then I've polished up the cans. I am deciding if I should actually just keep them. I really like how they sound. I just want that bit of damage fixed.
I also put the new six spoke wheels on as well as the renthal sprockets and DID chain. New cush drive rubbers. New bearings. I didn't have a chain breaker so resorted to this....
Trusty hacksaw!! It worked and that's what matters.
Avert your eyes for these ones.....
Rotten eh?!?!
Used a chain tool Paul gave me which did the trick...
Got them on.
Quite happy with the chain and the wheels. Getting entire bike resprayed so they should contrast better.
Having it resprayed is why I wasn't too unhappy when this happened...
He got in around my feet when I was moving it and in no effort to avoid standing on him it went over. Only light damage and nothing broken.
Yesterday I put the bike into a warmer temporary home. Other bike is a project fireblade.
Today I took off the rest of her clothes and front fairing stay. Leaving into spray shop tomorrow for a colour change. Got myself another set of front fairings so I can have better condition ones at the front. My left one has been repaired but was damaged in the past.
Courtesy of Paul and his excellent use of a drill we manage to swap the top yoke over to a black one with no annoying holes in it. Also put in new all balls bearings at the same time.
I also put one half of some danmoto rearsets on.
Front calipers have new seals all round. Also have new stainless bolts in there.
And that's it for now. There are a few things I've forgotten but will add in when I get a chance.
I've bought quite a few items and will update shortly.
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