7 lakes

My approach is to clean everything, replace everything. If they're really, really, clean and all the internals are new, then you have a new set of carbs because that's all there is to them to begin with. Of course, you can't always replace everything for one reason or another, but as close as you can get is the best approach. Rubber shrinks as it ages, and parts that look just fine can still be not working correctly.

Opinions on oil are like ... well, opinions on oil. Everyone has one. I have my own opinions on engine oil, but bike forks are (in my opinion) pretty easy duty for modern oils. I use whatever is available at a reasonable price and haven't yet seen / felt any difference in brands. I've used Bel-Ray, Motul, Honda, Yamaha, I don't know any I would avoid. Yeah, pretty smart branding on Progressive's part, kind of like being able to name your company "Airshocks".

Nice! That's my kind of engineering! And good on Scorpion for taking care of you, reminds me of a couple of years ago when I contacted Badger to see if parts were still available for a 40 year old airbrush, they had me send it to them and they rebuilt it with all new components in the old body and overnighted it back to me, no charge. Smart business.

Small "p" progressive simply means the springs are wound progressively, with the result being a spring which requires more pressure to compress per a certain distance the more you compress it; the last inch of compression takes much more force than the first inch. They're also called "rising rate" springs. This is a common spring type for many uses, but has found special fame when used in bike forks. This rising rate gives more or less a factory soft ride when cruising, but effectively much stiffer springs when braking hard, once you use up the "soft zone" the spring stiffens up in a hurry, preventing front end dive and helping you keep control of the bike. Capital "P" Progressive is a (brilliant) brand name for progressively wound fork springs. I personally don't ride hard enough anymore to really need the "performance " aspect of progressives all the time, but think of it like ABS, it can make the difference in retaining control in a tight situation. I recommend Progressives for any bike that they're available for, in my opinion it's a safety upgrade that's more than worth the cost, even if you don't notice any difference when just cruising. I don't get real sweaty about fork oil, it's not a demanding application at all for oil so the main consideration is the weight (viscosity) of the oil. Higher weights will provide more damping action, lower weights less. 5 weight, 10, 15, mix 10 and 15 for 12.5, etc., etc. Another area for lots of opinions and voodoo. If you're installing Progressives and mostly doing one up unloaded cruising, I'd start with 5 weight, if you're going to be doing two up touring, towing etc. I'd start with 10. Others on the board have much more experience with loaded touring on these bikes than I have, if you lay out just what you plan on doing with the bike someone will surely have a better founded opinion than mine.

Actually, I know from experience that that Motor guide is telling him to do exactly the opposite of that, at least if he's making a living at it!

Oh yeah, nobody does that! I'm admittedly ridiculously picky and I don't rebuild calipers unless they need them. I do service the fluid every other season or so, though. Been laughed at for it, but I don't have brake problems. I bite my tongue all the time reading in forums about bleeding methods and about how "air gets in there" when trying to make a system that hasn't been opened in two decades act like new. Sometimes ya gotta get in there and the older these things get the more effort it takes. Have ya got all your parts sorted out yet? Found everything you need?

I know, they just aren't organized in a way that seems to make sense. A good rule of thumb is if you see a "caliper kit" for 25 bucks, one for 37, one for 45, one for 42, etc., the 25 buck kit ain't likely to have as much as in it as the others. Unfortunately when looking for parts for old bikes online, sometimes that's the only way to determine how complete a kit you're getting. And it's always a good bet that if something has a factory part number it is not likely to be a "complete kit". Another reason I like Brakecrafters is that you can trust you're getting truly new, fresh parts. With hydraulic parts I usually don't buy factory rubber parts unless they're currently shown as available through the dealer, meaning that they are reasonably fresh. I avoid the NOS (new old stock) rubber in the yellowed 20 year old factory plastic bag. These parts have a life span, the factory manual for our bikes states that the caliper seals are to be replaced every 2 years as scheduled maintenance. So buying old rubber = not good.

The factory isn't telling you that you can't do all the work you want. Their parts groupings usually aren't intended for a complete caliper (or other component) overhaul, especially for the home mechanic. Part groupings and the composition of "kits" has more to do with making sure that any sourcing changes, part updates and revisions track among a group of parts that need to match each other. Manufacturers organize parts and inventory for dealers and factory trained wrenches, not us. As a former wrench myself, I can tell ya for sure that the guys who did the work on your mom's (awesome!) car didn't order a kit for all the brake parts, belts or hoses, they spent probably 30 minutes making a list of parts and they had current complete parts books in front of them, without any NLA items and everything stocked in a warehouse a few hours away. Looking for parts some 20 years after anyone expected us to be can be a pain, it takes some research sometimes. The advantage of ordering from someone like Brakecrafters (not affiliated, just a happy customer) is that they do the legwork for you and assemble complete kits. It can be less frustrating for sure.

Back in my day ... you waited for cross-traffic to stop, then for the light to turn green. Now your light turns green and you wait for the traffic to stop ...

I have a good one I'd like to sell just haven't listed it yet, PM me. Tim

Wow Puc, that brings back memories. My Dad had one of those, after one of my stinkin older brothers blew up my newly finished lunar lander model with firecrackers, I snuck the pistol out of my Dads office and put a pellet in his left buttockular region from about 12 inches. Ya know, it's true what they, memories are precious.

Glad I could help. You're right about all the parts sites using the same factory diagrams, sometimes they can get confusing because they themselves are abridged versions of larger indexes used by the manufacturer, thus the reason for the double index numbers. And not every manufacturer uses the same system. It can be confusing. I used to know what each group of numbers meant in the part numbers, like breaking down a VIN but forgot that a long time ago. We would all be happy geniuses if we could only choose what we forgot ...

I think what you're seeing is not "5.38", but "5 bullet point 38", or "part index numbers 5 and 38", which is how the parts diagrams handle left and right parts that are the same part number. If you look at the fork diagram you'll see that the index numbers that are paired like this correspond to the same part number. For instance, the spring in the fork diagram is labeled as 11 dot 47, if you look up the index numbers 11 and 47, you'll see the same part number. The double numbers just tell you that there's one of that part number on each side.

Not to mention dessicant filters everywhere. It gets spendy.

I almost always replace valve stems with new, and have found that although the diameter of the valve core is standardized, the diameter of the air passage into the wheel below the valve can vary and can be smaller than the valve diameter. I make sure I buy stems with the larger diameter air passage, so if I don't throw the beads in while mounting the tire for some reason, then they go through the stem pretty easy. Also, I make sure that there isn't any moisture in the valve from recently blowing a bunch of air through it, condensation can build up in the valve pretty quickly and it doesn't take much to make the beads bunch up and plug the hole. While I've had good luck with the Counteract beads, I spent a few years in the tire business and have seen new, quality tires that required anything from almost nothing up to so much weight that we dismounted the tire and sent it back to the manufacturer. Tires are not nearly the precise feat of engineering that the manufacturers want us to think they are, there are plenty of marginal ones shipped and mounted. I'm sure it happens all the time that beads won't do the job and the assembly can only be balanced with weights. In my opinion the beads are capable of moderate balancing but beyond a certain point you've got to get mechanical with it. I'm personally a little suspicious of any tire or wheel combo that requires a lot of weight to balance. A good friend of mine hit the pavement at around 100 mph when the front wheel on his bike came apart. It was a brand new bike and the factory was very responsible and paid all his bills, lost wages, refunded the price of the bike and gave him a new replacement, etc etc. He survived with a partially disabled arm and was back riding before the cast came off. Total lunatic. Anyway, my point was the factory said the dealer shouldn't have mounted the wheel / tire combo after the amount of weight it took to balance it. That's always stuck with me, and the less it takes to balance a bike tire the happier I am.

Sorry you'll have to speak up, I didn't hear that ...

I agree.

I'm imagining the tech built into clothes, miniature jets at the shoulders and hips to keep old folks from toppling over when they stumble.

A year after it comes out someone will be selling an aftermarket kit and a chip for "Sport" mode ...

There's a bunch of videos on YouTube that show you how to do it, you can even buy a tool if you want or follow instructions on how to cut one from a milk jug or something similar. The idea is to gently work it between the seal and the tube, confirming it to the tube by holding it to it tightly, then after making a circuit or two around the tube scraping the seal clean, draw the tool up and out bringing any crud with it. Find the video made by the folks who sell the tool, they do a great job of demonstrating it, then go make one from a piece of plastic and go for it. Piece of cake.

Whatever it was it sure ain't legal now. I'm surprised I can still get Berryman's Chem-dip.

OK that's the funniest thing I've read all week! Durn near spit coffee on my keyboard.

HaHa! No, not "allergic", but allergic. Like the last time I tried a beer about ... lessee ... 35 years ago, I ended up in the emergency room. And yes I confess to boiling carbs, like many obsessed gearheads I have my own mystical carb cleaning ritual that includes two different boiling cycles.

Ha! No, I just spend a lot of time in the shop and often watch the shows I can't stay up late for anymore while I'm polishing, buffing, wet sanding, tearing an engine down, etc. And it's so much easier to work through a wiring harness check with the color diagram up on a big screen. I've pulled up parts diagrams to refer to while I inventory a pile of parts from a basket case, to see what's missing, or I can blow up a page from a pdf manual and read it clearly from across the room with both hands busy on the bike. It's become a pretty handy tool. And no, no beer (I'm allergic to it) but there is a mini fridge. I use it to freeze parts before assembly and store iced tea. There's also a toaster oven and a full sized range for baking powdercoat, boiling carbs, etc. And just one swivel barstool I use for a rotating paint stand in the spray booth. And yes, the floors are clean.

I always like to have the book too, but have found that a laptop and a 40" TV over the workbench are real handy for wiring diagrams and parts schematics. It's easier for me to see them that way, no bifocals required. But you can't beat the paper manual for morning reading with coffee!