Brake Pads - Replacing the organic pads with sintered ones

I've just replaced the rear brake pads again - after around 2,500 miles. This leads us to a valuable GP800 ownership lesson - on a bike with a 6,000 mile service interval.

I was cutting it fine (although not as badly as last time !). The pads would have been replaced at the recent 18,000 mile service but that would have pushed the job into a second day - and I wanted the bike back so I sourced and replaced them myself.

Although the more visible front calipers are the excellent Brembo "Serie Oro" jobs, the rear has to make do with the same Heng Tong caliper fitted to many of Piaggio's mopeds and small scooters.

This does have the advantage of ready availability (SFA353 if you're interested) but it also means that the common availability is limited to the lower grade organic pads which are fine for smaller bikes. These are what I fitted last time and to be fair, their ability to assist in bringing the 260kg behemoth down from very high speeds is not in question. If you read up on them, you'll also find plenty of recommendations based on the "feel" of the brakes. That's probably a fair point as I have locked up the rear of the GP800 far less frequently since fitting these pads. They also wear the disc itself far less.

Given the reputation of the Heng Tong caliper for seizing the retaining pins, a more frequent need to change pads (and re-apply copious quantities of Copaslip) could be seen as a positive benefit - but on December 5th, in our current weather conditions, that's not a positive feature in my book.

In fact, changing the pads is a remarkably straightforward job. I'm never entirely happy changing pads with the caliper hanging off the hydraulic line - especially if any force has to be applied (changing pads on the Brembo calipers fitted to the K75 is a much simpler proposition altogether) but once the retaining pins are unscrewed, the new pads just drop in - and at least small pistons are much easier to push back in to refit the caliper over the disc.

The new pads are EBC HH sintered pads. Lets hope that they last significantly longer - but not at a cost in increased "grabiness". The other thing that might encourage me to stick to the softer pads will be if I see any signs of increasing disc wear.

Gadgets and the GP800 - the "Fat Gecko" Camera Mount

One of the things I've always loved is the old "London to Brighton in 4 minutes" film made for the BBC many years ago - you can find it on You Tube if you just search "London Brighton" - there are a number of versions.

I loved the idea of doing a similar thing with my bike journey home from Battersea to Stanmore. I already had the camera, the excellent Kodak Zi-8 and it's probably worth a few lines about why I like this camera so much.

Although there are plenty of Hi-Def cameras around, like many people, I can't really exploit the technology. I have an HD TV but my computer cannot cope with editing the files, and for all practical purposes, the best output medium for finished movies is the DVD (at least until Blu Ray burners drop to a more reasonable price). The Zi-8 gives me the future proofing of full 1920x1080 HD with the more user friendly option of a WVG (widescreen 848x480) which has the added benefit of taking up much less storage space on a memory card. It's natively better than DVD resolution and more than enough for any online application such as You Tube. There are plenty of inexpensive cameras that record in VGA, but very few of them offer a true widescreen format. The ZI8 (and others of it's ilk) has two further advantages which might be seen as negative points but are actually significant benefits.

Firstly, it has a fixed focal length lens (although digital zoom is available). This means that there is not an expensive and fragile mechanism to move the lens - it makes the camera compact, and most of all much tougher than the cheaper cameras with optical zoom. You only have to look at the number of "broken - for spares or repair" digicams and camcorders for sale on eBay to see

how fragile these things are.

Secondly, it has a fixed focus lens. On a still camera this is obviously a very bad thing, the small aperture needed to keep a substantial depth of field translates into poor light gathering ability. On an inxpensive camcorder, it's an absolute boon. Again, There's no fragile focussing mechanism to break and secondly, apart from a close up switch, the device is "panfocus" so you don't get the constant focus hunting that plagues other cheap camcorders.

So much for "a few lines" !

So, we have the right camera for the job, all we need now is a way to attach it to the bike. I had toyed with the idea of using the very fine RAM mounts but they are not readily available except by mail order and you need to construct a mount from a selection of brackets, bike specific fittings and camera plates so I'd put the whole problem into the too hard/expensive box and left it at that. However, as we approached our Summer holiday, I wanted a solution for the car to enable me to add backgound to my holiday DVD by adding clips of entering a Channel Tunnel Shuttle train, driving through Paris, crossing the Millau viaduct etc. A quick search found the "Fat Gecko Mini" from Delkin and a number of reviews praise it for being a sturdy well made bit of kit.

Delkin Fat Gecko Mini

Although it can be found for under £25 online if you search around, the going rate seems to be £28-£30. Whats more, Jacobs Photo in the Kings Road has one in stock so I didn't mind paying the top end of that range to avoid postage costs and to have it in my hot sticky mits straight away.

It certainly is a high quality bit of kit - and comes with a short 3" extension making it flexible enough for most uses and it certainly grips like a limpet (Gecko) on smooth surfaces, even the slight curve on GP800's Givi screen. The best fit was achieved by putting it over the rev counter on the GP800 but it was difficult to remove as you couldn't reach the little "tag" that releases the suction as the instruments are quite recessed. I rode with it fitted without a camera attached and it certainly hangs on quite happily despite the poor state of London's roads.

As you can see from the pictures, when I fitted the Zi-8, I attached its lanyard to the mirror as well as a second lanyard between the Fat Gecko and the mirror. When riding, especially on poor surfaces there is a bit of "bounce" from the screen (even in its lowest position) and of course when you come to a stop, the front forks dive a bit but it doesn't really notice in the final video. When you first ride you tend to look at it but it soon becomes easy to ignore as you concentrate on the road and traffic conditions !

Does it work - yes it does - click below to see the result

GP800 - Battersea to Stanmore in under 5 minutes

(it's a pity that the video has to be compressed for You Tube - the original quality is first rate)

It's pretty good in the car as well. The Mazda 5 has a fairly steeply raked windscreen but using the 3" extension allows the camera to be mounted on the small quarter light window just in front the door mirror. The camera then sits neatly in the corner where it doesn't obstruct the drivers eye-line (we don't even have the Say Nav mounted on the windscreen - we use a Brodit mount which brings it down by the radio - which has the added benefit of reducing glare on the screen). On holiday I'll mount it on the passenger side and my wife will start and stop the recording.

Electric Windows - on a bike ?

There a a few features of the GP800 that I thought were a bit "gimmicky" when I bought the bike. The obvious one is the handbrake - completely pointless as far as I'm concerned as I always use the centre-stand (in fact, I consider the lack of a centre-stand on many modern bikes an absolute dealbreaker for me but that's another story). To be fair, owners who don't habitually use the centre-stand may find it useful when parking the bike on a hill. Without the ability to leave it in gear, 262kg of expensive Italian metal and plastic could very easily take a tumble.

The other apparently unnecessary feature is the electric screen - but in the last few weeks I've had cause to be very glad it's there. The benefit is certainly marginal with the completely useless standard screen but with the Givi it's an absolute boon.

I generally ride with the Givi screen in it's highest position for maximum protection from the wind- that's why I fitted it after all. It works well and has the added benefit of improving the looks of the already beautiful GP800. In the last few weeks, it's been pretty hot and muggy in London and even wearing an "air" suit, progress in the London rush hour has been stifling. A quick flick on the switch and the difference is immediately noticeable - in fact with the Givi the difference between "up" and "down" is far more marked than with the standard screen.

It even works at higher speeds - drop the screen while filtering up to the toll booths on the M25 at the Dartford Crossing and even if you forget to raise it immediately, the mechanism copes with raising the screen at 70 (ish) mph.

A genuinely useful feature after all :-)

Chain oilers again – what goes around……..

If you look at the “Tutoro” tag, you’ll find the old post where I fitted the chain oiler in the first place. As an inveterate “fiddler” I wanted to improve it somehow – and I have always been drawn to the other inexpensive chainoiler, the Loobman. As it is sub £20 I bought a Loobman anyway. As many reviews will confirm, the delivery method to the chain is a little “Heath Robinson” but the way the bottle delivers a measured amount of oil is quite neat. The Tutoro reservoir was fitted quite high on the bike so I fitted the Loobman bottle low down behind the passenger footpeg giving me a much shorter “run” of tubing. What’s more, as the Tutoro delivery system was working fine I left it in place and ended up with a hybrid system of Loobman reservoir and Tutoro pipework.

This was my working system for a month or so and it was fine – at least until the bottle fell off to be lost forever somewhere between Dunstable and Newbury. Rather than returning to the Tutoro reservoir, I decided to give up on chain oilers and simply reverted to spraying chain lube at intervals. I had plenty of the white chain wax from before I'd fitted the Tutoro so that was sprayed liberally over the chain

One of the things that has always plagued me with my GP800 has been “noises off”. However sweet the engine is, I have always suffered from driveline noises of one kind or another. There was the dreaded “Strangled Sealion” noise ( I credit the X9 Owners Club for the phrase – I note a post on Modern Vespa forum that failed to do so !) which in my case was caused by a loose clutch nut and there is also chain noises which have been the bane of my life.

Soon after the events above, I noticed more driveline noises. It was a graunchy rotating noise and quite frankly sounded expensive and definitely mechanical – like a bearing about to give up. I posted on a thread on the GP800 sub forum at X9 Owners Club and found that the final drive pinion oil level may not have been topped up properly at service (thanks JimC). A quick removal of the passenger footrest and a squirt of gear oil from a childs medicine syringe cured that one (the level was a little low) but the graunchy grind was still present.

In a fit of desperation, I slackened the chain (way more than recommended) to see if reducing the strain on the driveline made any difference to the noise – surprisingly it did, but not by a lot. By now I was resigned to taking it somewhere with a blank cheque but as a final thought, I completely cleaned the chain removing all the white chain wax and manually lubricated the chain with Scottoiler oil that I used in the Loobman. This time I re-adjusted the chain correctly to spec.

Result – silence J

Well almost – it still clanks a bit when being pushed backwards but the horrible mechanical grating has gone. Even now, a few days later, I struggle to comprehend how something as basically simple as a stiff chain could make such a terminal sounding noise. I’m guessing that over time, the chain has stretched slightly unevenly and this will be cured by the (scarily expensive) chain replacement at the next service (18,000 miles).

Either way, I should have listened to myself by re-reading my earlier post (18^th Feb 2009) when I recommended against wax type chain lube – So here it is again – for me as much as any other GP800 owners out there

DON’T USE WAX TYPE CHAIN LUBE ON A GP800

Of course, YMMV, FWIW, IMHO, IANAL, ROFL, ETC and I may not have helped matters by either using too much of the white chain wax, or layering it up over time by not cleaning off the old wax before re-applying- but the advice above stands.

So, it's back to the Tutoro reservoir. fitted lower down where the Loobman bottle lived - which gives a much shorter tube run an d reduces the headache of priming. Even if you allow the oil to run out, the total amount of oil in the system is much less and just refilling the reservoir self-primes quite happily.

Listening to a GP800 provides the best way of knowing when it’s “right and tight”. If you close the throttle from about 35-40mph, as the speed falls away, between 30mph and 20mph the engine becomes almost inaudible and the only noise you can hear sounds like a coasting London Underground (tube) train. Of course if you’re not a Londoner that will be meaningless to you – but the noise is quite distinct, a comforting “whirring” sound.

As an aside, the noises from the rear were so severe that they masked another new noise that I’m ashamed to say I missed. I had always been surprised by the fact that my rear pads had never been replaced as I tend to favour the rear brake (despite it being the naturally clutch side for me). I had even unequally adjusted the lever reach to try to force me to split my braking in favour of the front brakes.

The pads have been replaced now !

Although I was concerned at the possibility that the allen keyed pins might have seized necessitating calliper replacement (eek – thanks again JimC) the task was remarkably straightforward – especially since I was suffering from “Housemaids Knee” at the time. I guess that’s testament to the original Thomsons quality of PDI which involved a great deal of dismantling and Copaslip before I took delivery. Not quite “BMW Brembo” simples but no real grief. The only problem was that the hole in the inner pad for the pin to slide through was slightly too small (probably by the thickness of its paint) requiring a simple ream out by hand with a drill bit.

Whew, that’s a long entry. I really must get round to updating this blog more often.

Testing - mobile blogging

If this works, I'm now blogging from my mobile. Dontcha just love Android. All I need now is a handset with a hardware qwerty keyboard to replace my otherwise excellent HTC Tattoo

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.5

GP800 - Seat Lowering

Although I am a shade under 6 feet tall, I am somewhat short in the leg and long in the body. Combine this with the width of the GP800's seat, and I have often been left with one leg dangling when "paddling" in heavy traffic.

I have previously had a custom seat made for my R1100RS by Melvin Hunter and he was my first (and only) port of call for the GP800.

http://www.zen113982.zen.co.uk/mysite/mods.html#seat

The R1100RS seat foam was simply "dished" slightly and a "gelastic" pad inserted - and a new custom cover was made. This time I was looking for as much lowering AND narrowing as possible - and the narrowing was more critical than the height.

One of the problems of having a seat conversion is the small matter of despatch. Not only do you have to pack a large seat (suitably protected), you have to get it to a post office and pay Postman Pat an inordinate amount of money to take it to Coventry. Then of course, you have to pay Melvin a similar amount of money to send back to you.

Something of a "result" presented itself to me when I realised how close to the NEC that Melvin was based - Once I knew I was attending this year's Motorcycle Expo (trade show) I arranged to drop the seat off on my way up - and Melvin agreed to provide a same day service and I collected the seat the same afternoon.

This timescale prevented the fabrication of a completely custom seat and cover like the R1100RS - but it did allow for a comprehensive re-shaping and "pulling" down of the existing cover together with the fitment of a "Gelastic" pad to provide additional comfort given the amount of padding which was removed.

These days, Melvin has handed over the fabrication to his son Ross and I am please to say that he has obviously handed down his skills efficiently as the job was clearly a top quality piece of craftsmanship. When I collected the seat, I did have an initial reaction of disappointment as it didn't seem as if anything had changed - but feeling the seat contours made me realise that the sides had been gently "scalloped" and the seat lowered very neatly and subtly.

Riding the bike with the new seat is excellent - although it doesn't seem much narrower, the combination of scalloped sides and reduced height means that I can have both feet flat on the floor - I am certain that once I'm back on the daily commute this will be a godsend in really heavy traffic.

It was only when taking the "after" picture and montaging it together with the "before" that I realised just what a comprehensive piece of work had been carried out. You can click on the image to see a larger version but the points to note are the significant reductions in "meat" above the solid plastic nose section as well as above the seam that follows the line of the riders leg. The narrowing is evidenced by the lack of a "ridge" along the lower edge of the seat base (much more obvious in the "before" picture by the shadow below).

Without having to pay for shipping, the cost was £95 including the gelastic pad. Worth it ? - I think so. Highly Recommended

You can find Ross and Melvin at http://www.motorbike-seats.co.uk and their website has an image gallery of some of their work.