john wick said it best: consequences. you may remember we recently did a little work (we cannot speak about precisely what incredibly complicated engineering and expensive tooling this involved for fear of enticing otherwise innocent but absolutely not internet-savvy teenage boys of trying something similar) to unleash the beast that is the tt-r 250. we now know why yamaha simply had to pull it off the shelves in 2012, the survival of dirt bike-riding teenage nephews was at stake, if not the survival of humans on the planet (before climate change induced by intercontinental christmas holidayers does us in).
consequences. as we were blasting up along the fence line, daring to use the unbridled power all of those air-cooled 249 ccs were pumping out, we noticed that the front end didn’t want to play nice. the fork surrendered under the onslaught of the additional grunt careful australian lawmakers had sought to keep from us, presumably to keep us safe, and resigned to wallowing around in mid-stroke. that’s not really confidence-inspiring when the landscape pushes by at warp speed, so we had to find a solution.
luckily the great australian dirt bike rebel (multi isde gold medal winner and aroc champ) geoff ballard suggested a heavier spring, heavier damping oil and a slightly increase oil level. some more tuning then, and some more value-added servicing, done in utter secrecy to ensure no nosy nephew can work out the intricacies of such clever machinations.
as we pulled off the front wheel in preparation for the fork removal the pieces of one of the brake pads fell out. looking at the state of what is left we can only surmise the incredible speeds the bike now reaches has melted and shattered this tough material, like a meteor exploding as it screams through the atmosphere (disregard the fact that simple visual clues could also point to the fact that time & lack of maintenance would have achieved the same outcomes). we stared at it in disbelieve, mostly because a day before christmas in st helens we had simply no chance of finding a replacement part – such is life, as the other notable australian rebel used to say.
or as john wick continues to remind us: consequences.
update: yes, this is what the suspension fluid is expected to look like. not like the grimy yellow-brownish stuff that came out of the fork legs.
while she was in there (always the same story) nat cleaned and re-lubed the speedo driver. nothing like a bit of engine grease, right? especially since it has this magical quality of ending up everywhere, especially where nobody ever applied it to.
and finally, a bit more work to make the bike go faster (less friction): nat cleaned the old plastic parts off with steel wool and then used the heat gun to make the surface shiny & smooth again. i can feel the air molecules slipping off the plastics already.