Dual-sporting a 2010 TE 450, with cheap tricks

That's so flippin sweet!

The current plan, now that I have spent $350 to get it e-starting good again, is to take it to 20,000 miles, I hope to make 2 trips to New Mexico this year to do my favorite ride and finish out 2014 with a plan to move to another bike.

Here it is with less than 100 miles on it. all stock, with blinkers, paper tag, and lousy Karoos, December 2010


Here it is with 17,000 miles, 17 rear tires shredded, and a whole lotta stuff done to it, January 2014.

No ride pics from this weekend, we were movin' and groovin', 1.5 gals to go 37 miles (25 MPG), most all that was dirt. Starter was workin' fantastic, but I blew out some fork oil, left side, again, so since I had gotten the parts for a fork service from Bryon last month, I thought I'd try this job, never done it before, might screw it up...no special tools, gonna improvise, and use Cheap Tricks...here's the live blog KYB fork service!

10 minutes to get here, don't worry, I took the forks outside and gave 'em a good washing. All I really want to do is replace the bushings (I have play in the forks) and the fork seals, hope I don't find anything damaged inside.

Looks like I need a special tool, I made a 14mm allen head, but I also, have some damage from an encounter with a rock some months ago, all the damn videos I watched on rebuilding KYB forks, none of them looked like the bottom of these forks!

Well, screw this live blog, I give up, taking the forks to my local independent, if he can't do it, there's a suspension guy another 30 minutes down the road..

you ride with maniacs?

Yeah, guys like this...

Well, I quit the live blog but I am sure that I could get this job done if I could only get the cartridge to hold still, I hate special tools, and it looks like I need this one:



Here's my prototype, I found a perfect size paper towel roller, 1.09" ID, now I just need to find something this size, and a little more durable. I've got my eye on a piece of my wife's vacuum cleaner, not sure how that would go over with her ....

My wife makes jewellery, she didn't like me converting some of her tools into motorcycle specialty tools, I.e. I made a spring puller, circlip remover, wire strippers etc. She wasn't as happy as me when I told her thanks and how good they work (ed).
EDIT + eyebrow plucking tweezers into dirty oily shim collectors, $300 hair dryer as heat gun. Etc. No wonder she keeps buying me new tools.

I think I'm gonna do this tomorrow and get this job finished up while it's cold.

http://motoman393.thumpertalk.com/tech/cartridge.html

PVC sucks. 1 1/4" metal plumbing pipe, perfect. I should have the bushings and seals replaced tomorrow and the forks back on the bike. I am so cheap, the simplest things just turn into a nightmare.



This is the American 310-450-510 number for 2010 TEs

OIL QUANTITY IN EACH FORK LEG
- TC-TXC: 352 cm3 (21.5 cu. in.)
- TE: 643 cm3 (39.2 cu. in.) 21 ounces

Sweet jiminy cricket, I will never do another USD fork rebuild again! Hold me to it, I won't remember how crappy I am at this type of job, sheesh, I never do, I always can construct in my mind, a smooth, successful job, but it never happens like that in real life.

Got this one apart and all the new parts back on and reassembled. The bushings were very worn and in need of replacement.



I took a few minutes to fine tune the cartridge holding tool, cleaned it up a bit since I want to disassembled the next fork, so I can refill with oil just like this one.



One down, one to go.

That's why I've been afraid to open mine up. I can fix damn near anything, except I won't tear into an automatic transmission and I've been afraid to even touch my forks. These two items don't build my confidence enough to even attempt.

I wouldn't recommend it, if you've never done it before, and if you don't have the special tools, and especially if you don't like oil dripped all over the place. Damn, I spent alot of time just cleaning up the mess. but forks are back on the bike and it feels good, I doubt that I could feel any difference, I just wanted the oil to stop leaking out, I've had 3 separate times with oil all over the axle clamps, and twice, with no front brake!

Lotta work to replace this stuff, the left side floating bushing was more worn than the right side. I guess doing the first fork service at 17,000 miles / 3 years is not a bad deal.





Bike runs great, handles great, I'll have to see if the 5wt oil in the forks is gonna suit me, I've been running 2.5w for a long time now.

I've only got 2000 miles, so I guess I still have 15,000 more to go


Nicely done

The TE 450 is a rockin' bike, even at its advanced age. Forks feel great, bike works well, did some urban dual sporting today, 70F, around the Austin area, got a little muddy, only 1 flat, tons of fun.

Thanks ohr, really enjoyed reading all your thread, great pics too.

Thanks man, it's been fun, this TE 450, and keepin' it going on the cheap....

I had torn another hole in my ragged out seat cover, so I decided to put the brand new Seat Concepts cover back on, from 3 years ago, it was too sticky a surface, I needed to slide around more, I'll try to get used to it, it sure looks nice....anyway, when I took the old seat cover off, I found some twigs and a leaf in between the cover and the foam! I had 50 staples holding that cover on, so how in the hell did some vegetation get in there?!?!? Amazing!



Another thing, I felt like my turn signal switch was not acting real good for keeping my fan on, the switch is kinda ragged out, it kinda flops around from left turn to right turn signal, so I decided to put a dedicated switch on for the fan, I had a switch from another project on the bike, and I wanted to mount it to the front of the handlebar clamp. Some months ago, I had cut down an aluminum step ladder for my granddaughter to have a way to help Grandma cook, and I had this piece left over, so I drilled a bunch of holes, tapped some threads into the handlebar clamp, and then I made a 5 inch long wing-nut bolt to secure my headlight, now I can take my headlight off with no tool, and I wired the fan into the city light, so I can run it with the key on, but the engine off.