{"id":5034,"date":"2014-05-12T12:07:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T18:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/?p=5034"},"modified":"2014-05-11T17:08:29","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T23:08:29","slug":"motorcycle-repair-making-easy-jobs-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/motorcycle-repair-making-easy-jobs-harder\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorcycle Repair: Making Easy Jobs Harder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Right after the fall, the busted end, the hand guard, and the end weight: conspicuously, no spacer.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

OK, this should have been easy but you know what they say, “When all else fails, read the instructions.” In my case I guess I should have done some research before picking up the tools.<\/p>\n

I mentioned earlier that my V-Strom fell over<\/a> and busted off the end weight that dampens handlebar vibration. What I guess I should have done was to go to the Stromtrooper forum<\/a> first before fooling around with things.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t get the broken bolt out so I removed it from the other side so I could take it over to Fay Myers<\/a> and see about replacement parts. I had checked online parts places and could tell they didn’t have what I needed. The stock bolt is shorter than the one you need if you have the hand protectors, which I do. Plus, when I pulled the other one off I found that there was a spacer that apparently got lost in the confusion, so I needed that as well.<\/p>\n

I worked with Barry at Fay Myers and he was terrifically helpful but ultimately unsuccessful in tracking down what I needed. He even emailed Suzuki asking about the parts and they said they aren’t sold separately. What should have been a five dollar repair was starting to look like a sixty dollar replace-the-whole-thing-because-you-need-one-small-part affair. Don’t you hate that kind of thing?<\/p>\n

So I turned to Stromtroopers. Quickly and easily I found someone asking the exact same question and the answer was simple: My V-Strom is a DL650; if you buy the bolt for the DL1000 V-Strom, that’s the size you need, 6mm by 140mm. Plus, as I was looking at the schematic I saw that the DL1000 also uses the spacer I needed. Problem solved. I order one space but two bolts because I suspect this could happen again, though next time I’ll know to pick up the spacer. That thing doesn’t break.<\/p>\n

Only the problem is not solved. I tried to put the good side back together and can’t get it to work. I unscrewed the bolt and the whole assembly pulled out, but now when I reinsert it there doesn’t seem to be anything for it to attach to. Examining it closely I found that the end piece is an open nut that I postulated must screw into something inside the handlebar and then you screw the 140mm bolt into the other side. I was going to shine a flashlight in there but checking on Stromtroopers I find that that’s exactly the case. And of course, they warn you about just this problem. Which only does you some good if you read the warning before you operate.<\/p>\n

So I haven’t gotten back to it to see if I can get it to happen. And I still haven’t figured out how to get the broken bolt out. What protrudes is too short to get a grip on with vise-grips so I’m going to have to try something else. But at least I’ve got the parts on order.<\/p>\n

Biker Quote for Today<\/h3>\n

“I’m always amazed at how smoothly a bike can idle while lying on it’s side.” Feo y Gordo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, this should have been easy but you know what they say, “When all else fails, read the instructions.” In my case I guess I should have done some research before picking up the tools. I mentioned earlier that my V-Strom fell over and busted off the end weight that dampens handlebar vibration. What I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[518],"tags":[384],"class_list":["post-5034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-v-strom","tag-motorcycle-repair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5034"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5040,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5034\/revisions\/5040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/motorcyclecolorado.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}