Warburton Pillion Ride Saturday 29^th May 2010

Misho Zrakic & Pina Garasi	Honda CBR1000	Ben Warden	Honda CBR954RR
John Rousseaux & Kate Stewart	Car	Ron & Julie Johnston	Car

The forecast was miserable but that wasn’t going to stop me going for a ride, especially as I had taken half of Friday off to catch up on a few maintenance issues. At 199,000 km the bike was due for a freshen up.

Last October I swapped out the motor at 172,000 km. At that time it had the shims set, new plugs, oil, oil filter and coolant.

Last week I had pulled out the rear Ohlins shock absorber and got C&C Engineering to rebuild it after 41,000 km. (Gosh, that year went quickly.) New oil and nitrogen gas. The oil is really foul smelling after so long making the shock not a pleasant proposition to pull apart. This shock is closing in on 400,000 km, the only failure being the bottom eye bearing about 50,000 km ago. Brilliant.

Job number one was to reinstall the shock, a fairly time consuming business – seat, tank, rear wheel, rear brake master cylinder, chain guard, hugger and rhs foot peg hanger have to be removed just to gain access to the fiddly top frame mount bolt and the three bottom linkage bolts. Just do it.

I had been riding around on the standard shock for a week while the Ohlins was away being serviced. I greased all the bottom linkages (roller bearings) when I swapped it over. So that part was done. And I had cleaned the linkage plates with steel wool, removing the grunge that was baked on.

It had been 12,000 km since the last fork oil change and that work is relatively easy – about 90 minutes from start to finish, 460 ml 10W fork oil per leg, forget about the air gap. I forgot to replace the top O-ring seals when it was apart and sure enough it started to mist out the top rebound damping adjuster as soon as I started riding. The purpose of today’s “easy ride” was in part a shake down for the longer Sunday’s ride. The seals will keep until next time.

But the real reason to change the fork oil was to get access to the steering head bearings while I had the forks out, the bearings an absolute weakness on this bike, sometimes lasting only 10,000 km. On principle I refuse to replace them at anything less than 40,000 km, usually around 50,000 km. (The 929 with 194,000 km on the odometer before I sold it, with essentially the same frame, behaved the same way.) This time I thought I would go back to genuine bearings hoping for a higher grade (harder) material.

Honda has recognised the steering head bearings as a weakness, but for different reasons. Original fitment was ball bearings, but with no damper and more midrange than the 929, (the model it superseded) the bike had a tendency to tank slap. Rather than sorting the suspension (stiffer springs, more ride height, revalving) and admitting a problem, the ball bearings were replaced with roller bearings providing more drag and effectively a slight damping effect. I have been running after market roller bearings forever. So, it was somewhat of a surprise when the new bearings turned out to be ball bearings. Yes, Honda has returned to ball bearings, Craig (one of the C’s in C&C Engineering) noted the additional drag of the roller bearings causes a high speed wobble! Luckily I never go over 6,000 rpm and hence never encounter such problems. Or upgraded suspension fixes it.

With the steering head out I nicked up to see Clyde (the other C in C&C) to get him to smash off the bottom bearing and, more importantly, press on the new one – at no charge, despite my protestations. Better still, he suggested I borrow his $950 genuine Honda Tool Set for pulling the new bearing shells back into the frame. The Tool Set also has a puller to remove the original shells which can be very difficult to remove if no access is provided via a slot in the frame to allow a sacrificial screwdriver to bash them out. My first ZXR didn’t have this slot, the Honda has, so a couple of swift hits sees the bearing shells spinning across the floor. But the threaded rod and correct size bushes that allow both top and bottom shells to be pulled into place in seconds is an engineering marvel. Sometimes I would spend half an hour chasing the shells around and around, reusing the old shells which then tend to get stuck. And you are working upside down at funny angles with hammers and rods and not enough hands.

I had already determined not to over tighten the bearings at all. It turns out that the official torque is 4 NM which seems ridiculously low. Hand tighten only! Which I did, expecting some loosening up after today’s short ride. Checked Sunday night. No movement. Perfect. And the steering is incredibly light. There are even less balls, the race made of some sort of hard black plastic. At $99 including bottom seal, they would want to look the part! Time will tell.

With the fairing off it was a good time to change the oil – cheapest car oil – after 7,000 km. Had an oil filter but confused it with the car one and didn’t change it. Next time.

And so to the Saturday Pillion ride. Heading for Whittlesea in the freezing, drizzly rain, two pairs of waterproof pants over the leather pants over the Bermuda shorts, I felt comfortably isolated from the elements. The outer pants are for warmth, the inner pants are for water proofing, the leathers for protection, and the Bermuda shorts for comfort! Waterproof jacket over the top of my leather jacket completes the ensemble. I even brought a spare pair of gloves!

I was early, really early. Julie had headed off early to Philosophy and then Brunetti’s to get a chocolate mud cake for her son’s 21^st birthday.

Misho and Pina arrived. We waited till about 10 past 10, talking but not really expecting any other participants, and then we were off. Kinglake West, Kinglake, Toolangi, Chum Creek Road down to Healesville and across the Black Spur to Narbethong and Marysville for the first break.

Misho only knows one speed and seems to have scant regard for preserving his licence. The two most dangerous places, from a detection point of view, are leading and rear riding. As there were only two bikes, I was one of those positions all day. Luckily, the overcast and threatening-to-rain-at- any-moment weather was some comfort as radar is far less effective in the wet. There was nary a car on the road. Not a policeman anywhere. The Black Spur was a pleasure.

Riding in the wet highlighted another maintenance issue. The rear tyre would have to be changed before tomorrow’s ride, a surprising amount of damage sustained leading last week’s Reefton Spur ride. Though 2 mm in the middle, the sides were now sadly lacking. A few slips and slides were keeping me focused.

Mark Copeland on his orange ZX10 pulled in while we were snacking at the top cafe. He was heading off to Myrtleford for an overnighter with a bunch of mates including Mitch on his KTM 690. He certainly gets around.

Despite the poor weather we headed for the Reefton Spur. I haven’t been in this direction for a while and with a worn rear tyre and the front tyre already 8,000 km old, steering was better with the new bearings, but still heavy on the change of direction. It was a long way down the Reefton with all the heavy braking in the wet. But we made good time to Warburton.

Misho and Pina have formed a relationship with the biker friendly cafe manager/owner below the bakery and were soon in deep conversation. Soon after hopping off the bikes John Rousseaux and Kate Stewart appeared with Ron and Julie Johnston in tow. They had been waiting for us. That explained the myriad of text and voice mail messages on my new iphone. Together we had lunch, sitting outside on the wooden box stools. A gourmet toasted sandwich on sour dough, as recommended by Pina, was excellent.

With the watery light becoming weaker, it was time to leave. Tyres needed to be changed, a new Michelin Pilot 2CT already fitted to the spare wheel waiting patiently for my return.

Misho leading, it was back to Healesville and Yarra Glen, the nominal end of the ride after 200 km, but we continued riding together through Christmas Hills to Kangaroo Ground, Diamond Creek and the Western Ring Road, heading different ways after the Sydney Road exit.

It was a good ride at a consistent fast pace (for the conditions). Misho has come a long way in a three and a half years. He is super smooth, a pillion seemingly making no difference to lines or progress. And that CBR is a fine machine.

Till tomorrow.

Ben Warden