Greetings, everybody!
I purchased a 1989 Honda CB-1 from a buddy of mine back before Christmas, and finally went and got my motorcycle endorsement a few weeks ago. I'm located northwest of Denver, Colorado.
The obligatory photos, in a Facebook photo gallery:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236169&id=19222689&l=20b0fc826fAlthough I have no basis for comparison, since this is my first bike, I have to say I absolutely love this thing. It's responsive, well balanced, and perfect for my size (I'm 5 foot 10, 220 lbs). It's going to be my daily commuter for the rest of the summer, despite the fact that it actually gets a little bit worse gas mileage than my car. It sure is more fun!
Here's the saga: Last weekend, I was riding back up from Highlands Ranch, which is about 45 miles south of home, and the front tire started to wobble like crazy. I pulled into a parking lot to take a look, but couldn't really tell anything. I decided to come home the whole way on city streets and stay off the freeway. Below 30 mph it wasn't as bad, but by the time I got back within a few miles of Boulder, it was extremely bad.
I'm not exactly a skilled mechanic, but I know enough to guess that it was a wheel bearing. Luckily, my friend gave me a service manual with the bike, so it didn't take long to get the front wheel torn apart. The right front bearing had completely shredded itself, to the point that one of the balls actually had a strip of metal shaving wrapped around it, and there were balls rattling around inside the spokes of the wheel.
We have blue laws in Colorado that keep dealerships closed on Sundays, so I went to the closest Honda motorcycle/ATV place I knew of on Monday at lunch to order bearings, dust covers, and, while I was at it, brake pads and a new front tire. I will never, ever order parts from this place again due to the degree of incompetence I experienced with them (it took three people over half an hour to figure out which bearing to order from Honda, all the while with me sticking my finger on the page in their parts book). The service department was great, however, and hooked me up with a Metzeler Roadtec Z6, which had awesome online reviews. Mount and balance was free, to boot.
Friday finally rolls around, and I'm able to go pick up the parts, and today I get to work on it. I ended up having to use a 3 foot pry bar with an angled tip, along with some Liquid Wrench, in order to pry out the remaining piece of the outer race on the right side, but once I had made the trip to the hardware store to get the pry bar, I had it out within two minutes of gentle prying.
Pounded in the left bearing with a block of wood, then finished seating it with some gentle taps from the tip of a center punch around the edges of the outer race. Greased the dust cover, installed, then banged in the other side and put the whole thing back together. Torqued all the bolts, then took it for a test spin.
The new bearings fixed a very slight but notable clunking that I used to feel in the front wheel, which I assumed was from the brakes, but was actually the forewarning that I should have heeded regarding the bearing. Rolls along a lot smoother, and that Z6 tire...WOW! There was a good Michelin on it before, but this Z6 is incredible - it grips the pavement two or three times better than the Michelin, it feels like. It's a harder compound tire, and is marketed as a W-rated performance sport-touring tire, but as a straight up street sport tire, it'll be more tire than I ever need for my conservative riding style.
Here's the crappy part: I get back to the garage and start cleaning up tools and whatnot, and discover a spare part laying around. Turns out to be the distance collar that braces the inner races of the left and right bearings inside the wheel. So, after all that work to get the bearings out and then back in, I have to do the right one again, which means I'm going to order a new one, since I'm fairly certain I'm going to end up destroying the bearing in the process of removing it again.
Lesson learned: Follow the manual!
Looking forward to riding this bike a lot, and learning how to work on it. Rear wheel is next!
Take care,
-Jassen
