I'm sorry, I just had a bad day yesterday, not the end of the world. So I put my Progressive springs in yesterday, and successfully changed my Touring bars to classic bars. (big improvement on hand angle) So we were off to a bad start, my bud brought no tools home whatsoever, he knows I don't own much in the way of mechanic tools, I'm a carpenter, I butcher wood, not metal. Not the end of the world, so I go to home Depot and buy a torque wrench, a large metric socket set, and various allen and torx drive sets.
The first thing is loosen the pinch bolts on the front axle, one is coming out hard. ( my dealer charges me $80/hr and puts 10/hr 18 years old kids to work on my bike), so I'd like to support him, but too many problems, things left loose or unconnected, so he lost my service work, mostly. My dealer did my last tire change, so the only reason a bolt would be coming out hard is that it was cross threaded, or more likely over torqued. The bolt is coming, though, about a quarter inch or so, so far, and as I walk to that side of the bike I see Don pushing on the wrench handle without holding the ratchet head stabilized in line with the bolt. I'm no mechanic, by any means, but even I know, with and allen driver and attachment driver on, and the bolt partially out, and most especially with a problem bolt, if you are not using the ratchet 2 handed, you are applying tremendous side pressure to the bolt, rather than rotational force. It's simple physics, not mechanical knowledge. As my mind is saying "he shouldn't be doing that", yup, snap, it broke. Maybe it would have broke anyway, but...
So we try to easy- out it, but a stainless bolt in aluminum, I knew it wouldn't work, and it didn't. And even tapping the easy out with a hammer attempting to get it to bite, he's hitting against a tube sticking out 30" from it's support, it's like wait a minute, Don, let me get something behind it to buck it up, common sense, same as if I was driving a nail into and extended board, you need something behind it to "buck it up".
Well, he says, we'll drill it and tap it. Really? Stainless threads imbedded in aluminum, you think so? Sure piece of cake. Well, of course that didn't work either. So now it's off to the store again (2 previous trips, for easy out and new bolt [found, sold only at Fastenall in pack of 50], then m8 tap). Only took 5 stores to find M8 tap and proper drill size, Napa didn't even have one. And he said we didn't need the special drill, we could just use the closest size in my drill index, but I was smart enough not to believe him, and inquired and bought specific drill. Did I mention I live in an isolated rural area? Oh, and the first trip to buy tools.
Thank God that worked, so after only 5 or 6 hours, we have springs in and back together. And I am no wiser, what I wanted to be a learning experience for me was a day spent burning a tank of gas roaming 2 counties searching for parts.
On to my brake upgrade. Bought Galfer Wave rotors, stainless brake lines, and Pretech 6 pot calipers. I exchanged multiple emails with the Galfer vendor, the upshot was that he wasn't sure if they would fit my Touring, as it was listed to fit up to 2008. I checked the parts fiche, 2008 and 2010 Tourings share the same part numbers, so we were good to go. Except the center hole in the rotor was completely different, 3/4" or more smaller, as was the bolt pattern. And the brake line was 4" short to the splitter, and the 2 lines to the calipers were another 4" short. I got on the laptop and din researching, Galfer lists no application for either lines or rotor for the Touring, only Classic and Roadster, so I'm waiting to hear back from the vendor, but I think I'm out of luck on the rotors, hopefully they can be returned, the vendor is Pashnit, I've bought a lot from them and their customer service has always been great. BTW, Rotor was marked Speed triple, but I know (standard) Rockets and Speed Triples share a common caliper, so maybe the rotors are the same, too. And lines were marked 06-08 Rocket, the Touring wasn't even made back then. Anyway the Pretech calipers were right, except I couldn't even leave them mounted, as the standard brake lines have a 90 degree bend at the caliper banjo, the Pretechs have a side connection and will require a straight banjo.
Interestingly, the Pretechs included some stainless washers for spacers, the right one centered the caliper with one spacer, the left, we didn't have enough, it looked like it was going to take 3, with 2 spacers the pad was hitting the rotors still. I asked my buddy if this was normal, he said no. I told him about the bike always having a slight drift to the right, asking if this might have something to do with it, he said no. ????? wait a minute, it sure doesn't seem like the answer to both questions could be no. I will investigate this in the future, but I seem to recall posts somewhere about someone's bike having misplaced spacers side to side, from the factory, but I seem to think it was older model Classic or something. Like everything else, I missed seeing much reassembly due to running for stuff.
Anyway, we put the stock brakes back together, the short test ride I took, Springs seem great, no front braking dive, and I went through a stone parking lot with some big potholes, seems much improved. And Classic bars feel way nicer than stock bars, more spread, less acute hand angle. Luckily I have long arms, going to move the backrest forward a notch or 2.
It looks like my only option is to learn to work on my bikes myself, I don't trust my dealer, nor now my buddy the Motorcycle Guru. He's a nice guy, but apparently not God's gift to motorcycles like he claims to be.
I'm not dumb, I just don't have any prior mechanical experience, but maybe an old dog can learn new tricks, and I do have a copy of the manual. This was the most expensive set of springs installed ever, the dealer would have been a bargain, LOL.
I hope you understand why I didn't type this all out last night (if anyone is still reading this far in, LOL). After I dropped Don off last night (did I mention he has no license, and I have to cart him back and forth?), I hit the bottle, the wife's vodka, no less, and I have never drank vodka, ever, it was that bad, and I was in no condition to type.
