What did you do to your motorcyle today?

[jetta90]

and this one...

And yes, it SMOKED BIG today.

[Bucko]

Some Seafoam^TM will fix that right up.

[jetta90]

So looking to fix that stripped oil drain plug on the Katana.  Drained the old oil just before putting the bike away for the winter a couple of weeks ago.
The threads were starting to go anyways so I finished stripping the oil pan threads.  Figure this would be a good time to fix as we are entering hibernation time ....at least in the interior.

The bolt is 14 mm x 1.25 pitch thread.  Did you know they don't make a 14 mm X 1.25 thread pitch oversize drain plugs?  I would welcome to be proven wrong.
It's looking like a helicoil (or something similar) in that size and pitch at this point - same as a spark plug.

[hardrockminer]

For something that size I would suggest Timesert.

Lately I've been winterizing Glenn's KLR that I bought from him in August.  Decided to check valve clearance.  On a Z1 it's quite easy...just pull the cam cover and rotate the cams until they stick straight up and then measure.  On the KLR it's similar but....I didn't know I had to remove the rad before I could remove the cam cover...  The sparkplug looks like it was an original or close to it, so I ordered a couple of plugs from Amazon...they arrived almost before I hit the PAY button.  How do they do that?

[Runningdog]

Amazon is highly organized with supply and delivery......I see Amazon delivery vans in our neighbourhood on Sundays, even.

Any modern bike with body pieces will require some excavation to access some maintenance areas......the V-Strom needs fairing, tank and rad off to change front sparking plug, so one may as well check valves, as well......

[Twisted_Twin]

I can do a major service on my Stelvio without removing any body pieces....

[hardrockminer]

I can console myself knowing they only need to be checked every 24,000 km so I don't need to do them again for about 3 or 4 years.  But with an entire winter to work with I'll probably do them every winter.

[kilowop]

Every time I do maintenance on my old GS-1000G I realize how bloody easy everything is compared to ANY of the more modern machines I've owned. The older I get, the less patience I have for doing required maintenance.  I've owned the GS since 1993, when it had 60k.  It now has 207,000 km.  I check the valve clearances about every 10k and I don't think I've had to replace more than 2 or 3 shims in that entire time. 

[hardrockminer]

Today I cleaned the air filter and intake plenum.  Lots of sand and crap built up inside the plenum.  It makes me wonder whether pods are a good idea.

The second photo shows the left side of the engine with the coolant rad.  In order to remove the valve cover it must be lifted up as high as it can go...up to the frame brace, and pushed forward towards the rad.  The rad must be unbolted and moved out of the way to make things work correctly.

[EPL]

After you get the valve cover off and the clearances checked, you might want or need to change a shim or two. That's when the job gets easy because you only need to loosen the cams by removing the nuts and then you can get at the shims. You do not need to remove the cams. Also the shims are the same size as some older BMW K bikes so here in Victoria the Bimmer dealer swaps shims for free.
I owned a 2009 KLR650 for 40,000 km (bought it new for a couple of trips to Mexico/Central America) and replaced 2 shims at 2 different times.
The nuts on the cams are just past finger tight so make sure you have a torque wrench that measures inch pounds.

[Galactica]

Hmm.  EPL?  New member.  Welcome to the madness.

[hardrockminer]

After you get the valve cover off and the clearances checked, you might want or need to change a shim or two. That's when the job gets easy because you only need to loosen the cams by removing the nuts and then you can get at the shims. You do not need to remove the cams. Also the shims are the same size as some older BMW K bikes so here in Victoria the Bimmer dealer swaps shims for free.
I owned a 2009 KLR650 for 40,000 km (bought it new for a couple of trips to Mexico/Central America) and replaced 2 shims at 2 different times.
The nuts on the cams are just past finger tight so make sure you have a torque wrench that measures inch pounds.

Thanks for that.  The shims look to be the same size as Z1 shims and are "shim over bucket" as opposed to "shim under bucket" on some models like my wife's KZ550.  To change a shim on that bike the cam must come off....which means you need to set the timing every time you change a shim.  The KLR manual says to pull the cam off but I like your method better! 

Welcome to the site by the way!

[hardrockminer]

I worked on something different today.  Some time ago I started restoring the rear inner fender from one of my Z1's.  It was pretty scratched up after 44 years, so I decided to try and bring it back to its original condition.  In the first photo I've put an original beside my restoration for comparison.  The center part of the resto has been sanded progressively from 600 grit to 7,000 grit.  The outer area is 600.  The center is still not shiny though, as you can see in the second photo.  The third one shows a product I bought to polish after sanding with 7000 grit.  I started today but have not seen much progress.  More photos later to show results.

[Wheels]

I can do a major service on my Stelvio without removing any body pieces....

Yes and it has self oil changing Shawn you never have to drain it just keep putting a quart in every week.
Always clean oil and little servicing.

[Galactica]

I can do a major service on my Stelvio without removing any body pieces....

Yes and it has self oil changing Shawn you never have to drain it just keep putting a quart in every week.
Always clean oil and little servicing.

And the rear tire is self oiling.