Motors Motorcycle Mayhem

Anyone know what’s going on this metal? All the white spots?

 

Assuming that's aluminium then it looks like corrosion to me

 

I second that, it looks like mild corrosion.

 

alu oxide?

 

Some mad lad actually did it!

 

thats awesome. there was a group of peeps building one in the early 2000s, they had it pretty much done then the site just went dead

 

He's in Japan. The paperwork to get that thing road-legal must've been higher than Mount Fuji!

 

I posted about this problem with the brakes binding on my KTM a while ago. Since then, as someone suggested, I loosened the mounting bolts, held the brake on and tightened the bolts again which didn't make a difference and I struggled to turn the wheel.

I've now replaced the retaining pin that goes through and holds the pads in place and applied a tiny amount of copper grease to it. The old pin had corroded. The wheel now turns but to me it's still binding although a motorcycle mechanic has claimed this is normal. He might have been biased as he's from the dealer I bought it from.

I've done a very short video. Can anyone say that what you see is normal?

 

I'd expect some drag as normal, but that does look excessive.

 

mine had a similar issue but my bike had a adjuster bolt on the rear brake ballast? i think its called just needed a quarter turn,

 

Although it has ABS I don't think it has any adjustment for brake bias or balance unless it's controlled by the electronics only.

The rear brake works fine even though I can't see any pad movement at all when it's actuated.

I'm ordering new pads, piston seal kit and a piston removal tool and will try refreshing the caliper. The problem being I can't use my right elbow properly at the moment due to having had a 'needling' procedure for both golfers and tennis elbow and I can't put any load on it and have restricted movement. Also my era was drum brakes and I'm clueless on disc brakes.

 

I wouldn't trust what the seller says as far as I could throw it written on a cinder block. I got my brakes serviced for the first time since buying my bike and the fuel economy leapt up, as did the performance. Turns out it had been dragging since new due to an unrecognised problem with the front brake master cylinder. My car recently had the same thing - has always done about 32mpg, replaced front caliper assemblies, now it's doing 45mpg. I wonder how many vehicles are dragging mildly binding brakes and mechanics just don't bother about it.

 

I'm surprised there wasn't noticeable heat coming off them?

 

New oil, filter, chain maintenance, all ready for the nice weather! and the stand worked absolutely great! didn't budge despite being up in the air for 6-8 hours!

 

I've now got the parts/fluid/tools to replaced the piston seals and pads, WeMoto are very quick on delivery.

Before I attempt that, particularly the seals which I'm not confident in doing I tried spraying brake cleaner into the caliper which again has made a slight difference although I'm not sure it's one you can easily detect

 

Looks a little better but really not great - if you've done the usual caliper alignment (loosen calipers -> hold lever -> tighten calipers) to reset the pad alignment then it would suggest the pistons aren't retracting back into the calipers properly which is usually dirt ingress behind the dust seals.

If you want to fetch them off and send them to me I'm happy to rebuild them with fresh seals for you.

 

Thanks for the offer Krikkit but I've got the tools and seals and I'll have to find out how to do it some time and there's videos to show me how. It's just a confidence thing.

Forgot to add that next door neighbour says he'll help with the spannering although he's more clueless than me.

 

Good luck! Take plenty of pictures, keep everything as clean as you can and you'll be fine!

 

Not sure how “good” it is but I’ve covered the bike in ACF-50 hopefully to avoid any further corrosion. Anyone else use this stuff?

 

used it alot on my varadero before i sold it. its great it kinda steams/burns off header pipes and exhaust. just use a normal hose pipe to rinse the bike after a ride