Motors Motorcycle Mayhem

I used ACF-50 to cover my bike while it was laid up 18 months ago and it seems to be effective. I redid it again in January just to be sure. I've also used it on my tools as well and it definitely protects them.

 

It's good prevention, but once rust is established, it only slows it, doesn't halt it. For that you need a chemical neutraliser like Kurust, together with some copper (not copper-coated steel!) wire brushes to get off the worst of it before you start. The best you can do with active rust, I've found, is copper brush it back as much as possible, kurust it, then metal polish or ACF-50 over the top regularly.

I've taken far too many years of biking to finally grasp that 90% of rust prevention is having a nice, expensive bike with good quality metals on it. You see 15-year-old touring bikes from big Japanese brands that haven't got a mark on them, then you see South Korean things like my Hyosung, or Brazilian cheapo things like my old CG125, or Chinese things like Lexmoto and Sinnis, that are rusty 18 months from new. Poor quality metal will rust as soon as you spit a single bit of mud or rainwater on it; really nice metal, with a nice finish, will last for years without showing rust, if you wash it occasionally.

I wish I'd known this before I bought a Hyosung. They're fine if you religiously garage them and clean and polish them constantly, but they just melt when they go outdoors in Britain.

 

I've found the problem with my front caliper, 3 of the 4 pistons are seized solid and unfortunately so are the bolts that hold the caliper together so I can't try out my piston removal tool to get them out just yet.

Despite the promised help I'm having to do this myself so at the moment I'm putting tiny amounts of penetrating oil on the bolts holding the caliper together and need to create some sort of jig to hold the caliper solid while I try so get the bolts out..

There's no way that should have passed an MOT.

 

MOTs are the most ****ed thing going, I've had vehicles pass them with fractured springs, rusted running gear, all sorts. Guys doing them keep an eye out for their overall pattern of submissions (too many clean/easy ones and they get scrutinized) but day to day, if they can tell you're not a VOSA narc and are just some boring Joe who just wants to keep using their car, they'll overlook a lot to get you out the door quickly. In my limited experience. They just won't take chances with things that are mission critical, usually - which is why yours is an oddity. Front brakes on a motorbike is THE thing that I'd say they'd never deliberately overlook, which raises the scarier prospect that they simply missed it...

My Hyosung may live again yet; I found a blown 30A fuse, which makes sense (put the battery terminals on backwards) and gives me hope that the bike itself may be otherwise okay. Will find out tomorrow. Not that I'm very emotionally invested at this point, it's a bag of shite, but I'd rather it were a working bag of shite.

 

Maybe. maybe not.
A 2000's bike with a 4 pot caliper may be able to apply sufficient force with only 1 pot to pass the brake test, after all it's the same test that a 1970's - 1980's bike has to pass with a 1 or 2 pot caliper

 

If you have an air compressor and some g-clamps you might not need to split the halves - clamp pistons you don't want to move (or use a pair of brake pads), then apply a bit of air pressure into the port where the brake line connects.

I'll reiterate my offer for you if you fancy, also

 

Thanks again for the offer. A local garage kindly loosened the bolts for me, no charge as I 'was doing mechanics'. He did say that if it were him he'd replace the caliper rather than refurb due to the amount of corrosion and a damaged piston (although it wasn't leaking). He didn't think the caliper had been touched since new. New caliper is around £110 so I might do that.