1 December 2000

• Removing the sissy bar
• Polishing the airbox cover

The very first thing we did (well, Chad had removed the fairing for me already) was to remove the sissy bar. I have no intention of taking anyone for a ride for a long, long time to come, and I don't figure it's going to be a regular thing for me anyway. And the sissy bar got in my way -- every time I swung a leg over the bike, I kicked it, which was particularly bad trying to get off the bike. So it had to go.

• Wait, wait, you're losing me already. What the heck is a sissy bar?

A "sissy bar" is another term for a passenger backrest.

Removing it was not entirely trivial, because it was all but impossible to figure out how to get at the four bolts holding it on. They were up under the rear bumper and you couldn't see them. The seat had to come off first, and then we got the bolts for the sissy bar off, and replaced the seat.

The more time-consuming task was polishing the bike's airbox cover. Experimenting with a Dremel-type tool, various polishing compounds, and the Black & Decker Mouse, the best results were achieved with a very fine steel wool pad on the Mouse, a little Mother's Mag polish, and hours of polishing.

The airbox cover is now very shiny. Not chrome shiny, but a heckuva lot better than it was before if you ask me. The main reason it got the special treatment is because it was an easy part to remove and take inside to play with. I wouldn't mind polishing the hell out of the forks to get the same effect, but wouldn't be able to get to it all without taking the forks off, and that's not something I'm about to do any time soon.

• Er, so what's an airbox cover?

The airbox is located on the right side of the VLX, and the stock one is basically a triangle with rounded points. Inside it is the air filter, which makes sure that small particles of dust or debris are cleaned from the air which goes into the engine.

2 December 2000

• Chain Maintenance

The VLX is a chain drive bike. Like a regular bicycle, what makes it go is a chain on sprockets. A motorcycle chain is a much tougher piece of hardware than a bicycle chain, but it is subject to wear. The main way it wears with normal use is to stretch.

Chain drive motorcycles are prepared to deal with a certain amount of stretching. The rear sprocket is in the center of the rear wheel, and there is a slot in the frame to which it is attached. When a chain is new and has not stretched with wear, the center bolt (and therefore also the sprocket and wheel) are closest to the front of this slot. As the chain stretches, you must move the bolt further towards the back. My VLX has marks on the slot, ranging from "New" to "Replace." By the time you've moved it back to "Replace," well, you need to replace the chain.

The graduations marked off are fairly minute -- a centimeter apart at most, perhaps less (I'm not sitting by the bike so I don't know offhand). The total range of potential adjustment is somewhere between 1-2 inches.

To check the chain, which should be done regularly, you should measure the amount of play it has. If you can move it more than half an inch up or down, it's too loose, according to my manual. You have to check the top of the loop, and the bottom. And, if the amount of play on the top differs from the amount of play on the bottom, there's more than looseness wrong with the chain. It could have a kink in it, for instance, and that would be bad, because it needs to be smooth and even.

The amount of play in the chain wasn't bad, but the bolt for chain tightening was moved almost all the way back to replace. Thus, we concluded it was time to replace the chain.

Another important thing to check is sprocket wear. My manual contained good information about things to look for: the teeth of the sprocket should all be even with each other all the way around, and there shouldn't be wear on either side of the teeth. Thankfully, the sprocket was fine. But if the chain were too loose or too tight, or aligned wrong laterally, you could get uneven wear and that, too, would be bad and potentially dangerous. The chain needs to fit right over the teeth of the sprocket, and move smoothly.

I've learned also that the number of teeth on a sprocket makes a difference in how the bike behaves. It's basically changing the size of the gear that turns the rear wheel. Fewer teeth, apparently, can make a positive difference in the performance of the bike. The stock sprocket on my VLX is 44 teeth, and a popular upgrade is to install a 41-tooth sprocket. I have not learned yet if this sprocket has the same diameter, and simply fewer teeth, or if it's a slightly different size.

After my riding lesson, and burgers for all, we went to go see if the nearby motorcycle stuff store had a replacement chain for my bike. Now, I didn't know what size chain, or specs on the chain, or anything like that, but I figured I'd just go in and ask someone if they had a chain for a 1989 Honda Shadow VLX, aka, a VT600C. That worked out fine, because as Chad taught me a few years ago, damn near nobody actually knows all the specs and part numbers or anything off the top of her head. Instead, there's a book at the parts store that lists all that kind of stuff -- just look up make, model and year, and there you go.

The guy at the store came back with two chains. "525" was the magic number. I'm not sure what the number reflects yet. Not the number of links. I guess the chain could be about 525cm, a little over half a meter, or just under 2 feet, but that seems small. Anyway, the guy had two chains that would fit, and he showed me both.

Links about chain maintenance Chain Maintenance Excellent page, with great pictures, describing chain and sprocket types, chain wear, and getting into some controversies about chain maintenance. All About Chains From Motorcycle Online. Bike Maintenance From Woman Motorist. General maintenance, and a good section on chain stuff.

"Neither one's an o-ring chain," he said, "just a standard chain, but here's what I've got: this one's $19.95, and this one's the DID brand chain, which is heavier-duty and is $49.95." I told him I didn't know what the difference was between an o-ring chain and a standard chain, and he told me that basically, you're supposed to not need to lubricate an o-ring chain as often. Okay, I figured, and filed that to my list of things to research and understand fully.

Given a $30 difference in price for the primary drive component of my bike, I opted for the more expensive one. Chad picked up a tool called a chain breaker, we cruelly denied Edward a motorcycle video, picked me up a tinted faceplate for my helmet, and a shock absorber adjusting wrench Chad hoped would fit his Aero.

As it ended up working out, I developed a headache that evening, and so while I was laying low and waiting for the aspirin to kick in, Chad ended up doing the actual chain replacement. So there's unfortunately not much more I can say on this subject personally.

I did get to check the new chain once it was on, to see if it had the right amount of slack. According to my manual, it's supposed to be able to move about a half-inch in the vertical. And lo, so it did.

• Replacing Air Filter
• Putting on a Tank Bib

• What's an air filter?

The air filter is an apparatus commonly found on pretty much all modern internal combustion engines. If there are any that don't use this, I dunno, maybe they're lawnmowers or something. Anyway, its purpose is to filter the air which goes into the engine for use in combustion, and make sure that dunk and debris do not get into the part of the engine where combustion occurs. Or so I understand it.

Cars have air filters, motorcycles have air filters, probably anything that is combusting stuff is going to be safest and most reliable if the air that's taken in has been filtered clear of debris or dust. While I have done relatively little reading on the subject of "why filter air," here's what I think I know.

If dust or debris made it into the engine's internals, it could cause several situations which could be problematic. First, it could clog or block something, such as an opening which is supposed to allow in air or fuel. This would at best cause sub-optimal performance, because the mixture of air and fuel has a big impact on how things behave. Second, gunk or debris could get wedged somewhere and cause improper mechanical behaviour -- prevent something that needs to open and close from opening or closing fully. And third, depending on the type of debris, it could cause damage to carefully-shaped internals! Damage could, one surmises, also ensue from the first two conditions as well.

Links about internal combustion engines How an internal combustion engine works From howstuffworks.com. This uses a car engine, and has animated pictures and moving banner ads, so avoid if you don't like that kind of thing. Colorado State University Engine Web Pages In particular, check out the fluid mechanics section. I guess gases must be fluids insofar as fluid mechanics is concerned. I'm not that smart, but there is a lot of good info here about core engine functions. A brief early history of the V-Twin engine Pre-WWII, and up to WWII. Rick's Hobby Page This guy just has some neat stuff.

So, now I'm demonstrating for the class that I have understood the need for air filtration in an internal combustion engine. Or so I believe. And, making sure that the filter is clean and not clogged, and in good condition, is a routine maintenance task commonly associated with the phrase "tune-up," among others. Routine maintenance for an internal combustion engine involves regularly changing fluids and filters, and being aware of their states on an ongoing basis.

In my vast wealth of wrenching experience, I have now replaced air filters on three different vehicles: my old RX-7, my new Trans Am, and now my VLX. The meat of the procedure has been the same for all three vehicles, even though all those engines are fairly different from each other, the RX-7 being a rotary engine, the Trans Am being an aluminum V8, and the VLX being a V-twin.

Something else I learned from Chad a few years ago: mechanics do NOT actually know what part fits what vehicle, and so forth, off the top of their head. Or at least, not for all vehicles, or even for all that many of them. Instead, they've got reference products for use in determining that, or in the most complex cases, determine that kind of thing using the Stare and Compare method with which computer professionals (such as myself) are already familiar.

Anyway, Chad had ordered me a new air filter and a tank bib, and they came in. So I put them on. This meant: unscrew the air filter cover, figure out what screws had to come out of the mounting bracket for the cover in order for me to remove the filter itself, and then remove those too. With the cover and its mounting bracket off, removing the old air filter gave me a moment's pause because the gasket by which it was ringed was solidly stuck to the plastic airbox (the airbox houses the air filter, in short). I had to compare the new filter with the old one in order to be sure what was part of the airbox and what was a disposable item.

Actually, thinking back over it, one other item slowed me down: the screws were in tighter than I was able to get loose at first. Chad positioned the screwdriver in the screw head, then whacked the back end with a hammer, driving it into the screw a little, and was able to get sufficient purchase to loosen them a hair. "That's actually a good thing," he said. "Screws on a V-twin have to be really really tight, as tight as you can get them, because otherwise they could vibrate loose."

With the old air filter removed, I put the new one in, screwed it in place, refitted the cover mounting bracket, and replaced the cover, all the while making sure that I got the screws as tight as I possibly could, as per Chad's instruction.

Total time spent: something like 10 minutes.

• What's a tank bib?

The thing with the pocket is the tank bib, and the silver-colored triangle with rounded edges on the side of the bike is the airbox cover.

A tank bib is something that covers a portion of the gas tank on your motorcycle, protecting it from things like scratches from your zipper if you lean forward. I'm told that in regions where it gets genuinely cold, some people find they protect one's crotch from being in quite such close contact with a potentially cold gas tank. Mine also features a small pocket, so in addition to being decorative, it's theoretically functional, like I could put my sunglasses there, or the stuff I usually carry in my pockets.

To put on the tank bib, we had to take off the seat, and a bolt up at the front of the gas tank, behind the handlebars. What's more, the holes weren't exactly where we needed them to be to get the tank bib to fit snugly, and so I cut a new hole at bottom, and Chad had to enlarge the one at the top.

The fit is still not perfect. Chad's Mustang tank bib on his Aero fits much better. Of course, his gas tank is markedly different from mine and so the tank bib attaches differently.

Total time spent: 30 minutes

• Installing Cobra Light Bar
• Installing Cobra Footpegs